Social media in college
marketing and communication
MACRAO Annual Conference | October 24, 2011
Andrew Careaga – Missouri University of Science and Technology Dawn Hatterman – Metropolitan Community College-Maple Wood
Marketing isn’t going to go
away. Nor should it. But it
needs to evolve rapidly and
thoroughly, for markets have
become networked and
now know more than
business, learn faster than
business, are more honest
than business, and are a hell
of a lot more fun than
business.
Humanize your institution
Communicating in a human voice adds a
sense of personal and sociable human
contact to the interaction with the public.
… [P]erceived conversational human voice
may promote trust, satisfaction, and
commitment in relationships between an
organization and the public, which in turn
results in favorable behavioral intentions
toward an organization.
Hyojung Park
Missouri School of Journalism
Source: MU News Bureau, “Use of Human Voice in Social Media Can Help Organizations Build Relationships,” May 18, 2011.
Extend your reach
Jack Dorsey has more followers on Twitter (1,691,086) than The New
York Times has subscribers (877,000)
@jack followers on Twitter as of June 18, 2011; New York Times subscribers as of Sept. 30, 2010
877,000
1,691,086
Jack Dorsey followers
New York Times subscribers
Put yourself in control
5 keys to social media success
1. Listen
2. Add value
3. Respond
4. Do good things
5. Keep it real
Adapted from Aliza Sherman, “Revisiting 10 Golden Rules of Social Media,” Web Worker Daily, Jan. 5, 2010,
www.webworkerdaily.com/2010/01/05/ revisiting-10-golden-rules-of-social-media/
Google Alerts
google.com/alerts
Listening tools: Hootsuite
Source: Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, “Social Strategy: Getting Your Company Ready,” April 14, 2010 (www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-strategy-gettingcompanyreadyapr14final)
Planning: 4 steps
1. Develop a plan
Integrate it
Know what’s
already working
2. Beware the
bandwagon
3. Understand your
audience(s)
4. Feed your social
media beast
Integration: what’s already working?
•
Campus visits/summer camps
–
More than 70% apply
–
About 61% enroll
–
@ 25% of freshmen attend
at least one summer
program
•
Tele-counseling
–
Increases attendance at
high school visits,
receptions, etc.
•
Consistent, frequent
communication
Source: Hobsons Domestic Research Report 2009-2010, cited by Karlyn Morissette, www.doteduguru.com, Oct. 22, 2009
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Campus website
Campus visit
Viewbook
High school counselors
Social networking sites
H.S. sophomores H.S. juniors
H.S. seniors
Very low relative trust ranking
Social media planning
Objectives
Measures (metrics)
Management
Resources
Content (type and
source)
Objectives
Measures
Extend university reach
and influence online by
connecting and building
relationships with key
audiences (prospective
students, current students,
alumni, influentials)
•
number and types of
followers
•
social media referrals to
web content
(campaign-based and not)
•
feedback from friends,
followers, etc.
Provide additional
channels for audiences to
communicate and
interact with the university
•
volume and quality of
feedback
•
Comments
•
“likes”
Objectives
Measures
Provide additional
channels for audiences to
receive official university
information
•
number and types of
followers
Monitor online reputation
of the university in the
social media sphere
•
number of interactions
•
qualitative analysis of
Management and resources
1. Who is the social
media “owner” in your
operation?
2. How do you allocate
time and staffing?
Social media content
1. Type
Official?
User-generated?
Tone?
Frequency?
Interactive!
Responsive!
2. Source
Feeds?
Personal?
Combination?
•
Empower
employees to use
social media to
further your student
recruitment goals
•
Make it easy for
them to use social
media for that
purpose
•
Reinforce or expand
on existing policies
to make sure your
institution is
protected
Guiding
Helpful hints: Facebook & Twitter
•
Sharing video more effective on
Facebook than Twitter
•
Click-through rates are higher on
weekends
•
Numbers matter
•
Bigger and louder works – to a
point
Helpful hints: Facebook & Twitter
•
Avoid “link fatigue”
•
Stay positive
•
It isn’t all about you (your business)
•
Use combined relevance
•
Help your audience look cool
MCC- Maple Woods
Dawn Hatterman
Associate Dean
Enrollment Services
What We’ve Learned
So Far and What
1. There isn’t a limit to the number of fans you can have. This makes fan pages especially valuable for Facebook users who reach, or are approaching, the 5,000 friend limit.
2. It’s free.
3. It gives you a way to talk to and get feedback from your target audience, because like a user profile, you can update your fans with statuses that will appear in the news feed.
4. You can promote events.
5. It’s an SEO boost. Facebook is currently the second most popular site on the Web according to Alexa.
6. You can customize the design using FBML, Facebook’s version of HTML. Check out the Static FBML app for more.
7. You can create brand advocates.
8. You can easily promote it with tools provided by Facebook.
9. The Facebook Pages Insights analytics tool gives you useful information about your fans and their interactions.
10. You can build a community for your clients and prospects. 11. It’s another funnel to your website.
12. You can add unlimited photos and videos.
12 Reasons You Need a Facebook Fan Page
Face‐to‐Face
Recruitment Communication
Facebook Marketing &
Advice for those who are ready to add Social Media:
•Identify and bring together your key players: Marketing, Registrar, Network Services, Admissions Director, Student Activities
•Determine your goal for adding Social Media
•Determine what is considered inappropriate behavior or content on your profile and fan pages and what action will be taken
•Create a procedure/policy manual
•Create an engagement policy that is posted on your page
•Create a calendar of messages, events, polls, etc. to keep Social Media active
•Make sure all your messages match (times/dates are same in all formats)
•Determine how you will use data to drive future content/activity
•Schedule quarterly evaluations of your data, procedures and policies
•Have more than one person knowledgeable and responsible to manage your Social Media and update procedures as Social Media changes
•Add Social Media responsibilities/experience to job descriptions
