Lessons: #SocialMedia in #HigherEd

Transcription

1 Lessons: #SocialMedia in #HigherEd Michael Stoner president, Web: mstoner.com Linkedin.com/in/mstoner Slideshare.net/mstonervt

2 Michael Stoner President, mstoner.com

3 trends in #socialmedia & #highered

4 Trends Raising money Leading by tweeting Content strategy Letting go The end of Facebook (?)

5 1. raising money

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7 In Columbia raised $6.8 million and had 5,380 gifts from 4,940 donors and, of them, 40% were new or reactivated while 50% made their first online gift Trustees pledged $2.5 million in seed money 33% of traffic to giving form came through Facebook

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10 Current outcome measures Number of active friends, "likes," members, participants, people who post, or number of comments Volume of participation (unique person counts) Number of click-throughs to your website Event participation Anecdotal success (or horror) stories Penetration measure of use among target audience Volume or proportion of complaints and negative comments Donations NOT AT NOT SOMEWHAT QUITE A EXTENSIVELY ALL MUCH BIT 5% 4% 19% 40% 32% 10% 7% 29% 36% 19% 10% 10% 31% 34% 15% 13% 14% 33% 29% 9% 19% 17% 39% 21% 4% 31% 20% 29% 15% 5% 28% 27% 34% 9% 2% 35% 26% 24% 10% 4% Research from CASE/mStoner/Slover Linett Survey of Social Media in Advancement More: mstnr.me/xjiuee. You see that donations are pretty low on the list of ways that CASE members typically gauge their success in social media. We are looking at mean ratings on a scale from 1 to 5 where 5 means it is used extensively. Top metrics are: Number of active friends, likes, Volume of participation Number of click-throughs to your website, but the field is pretty wide. Perhaps it needs to be even wider, or more precise, because the sense of difficult in ROI is, if anything, growing over time.

11 2. leading by tweeting

12 Weber Shandwick; source:

13 Sixty-two percent [of higher ed leaders] indicated that leveraging social media to better communicate with current and prospective students was on their technology agenda, though far more private leaders, 69 percent, compared to 51 percent of public leaders, were focused on social media. KPMG Higher Education Outlook Survey From KPMG, second annual Higher Education Outlook Survey, 2013: [The KPMG survey was completed in May and June of 2013 and reflects the responses of 103 senior officers in higher education. Fifty-two percent described their role as CFO, 28 percent as CEO or chief academic officer and 20 percent as controller or budget officer.]

14 If you think about the way presidents get to communicate, there are a fairly limited number of tools. I can only do a little bit of walking around. I can send out formal communications but they don t allow me to talk about aspects of my life that are more personal. These channels [social media] Paul LeBlanc President, Southern New Hampshire University allow me to reach a lot of people and give them a more personal view of my thoughts and my life. I really love that. Comment from interview with Michael Stoner, Presidents & Social Media*: Paul LeBlanc, Southern New Hampshire University, posted on 10 September 2012:

15 People want to interact with me and social media helps to make it work. Overall, my approach is effective it s working. I can document that with higher fundraising Kirk H. Schulz President, Kansas State University numbers and data on alumni engagement. Comment from interview with Michael Stoner conducted on 27 September See Meet K-State s Kirk and Noel Schulz: #Highered s First Couple of Social Media : mstnr.me/1fwnrma

16 See Meet K-State s Kirk and Noel Schulz: #Highered s First Couple of Social Media : mstnr.me/1fwnrma

17 3. content strategy

18 content strategy The strategic plan for delivering your essential messages to the people you want to influence across your primary channels.

19 1. audiences content strategy 2. messages 3. channels 4. tools 5. success Talk about elements of content strategy

20 4. letting go

21 More details:

22 See

23 5. the end (?) of Facebook

24 Forrester s Nate Elliott says Facebook focuses too little on driving genuine engagement between brands and their customers on average, Facebook only shows each brand s posts to 16% of its fans.... Facebook Must Do More for Brands, Forrester Says : mstnr.me/1bttdrq

25 Forbes.com, Here s Where Teens Are Going Instead of Facebook : mstnr.me/1fhuefb; Still on Facebook but Finding Less to Like : mstnr.me/huwfew

26 10 lessons

27 1. Social media is not technology.

28 2. Everything is connected to everything else. mstnr.me/mflob

29 Everything is connected to everything else is Barry Commoner s first law of ecology and mstoner s first law of branding. It s essential to keep in mind when structuring communications and marketing activities. Because of the way the world works today, it s easy for organizational anomalies to be observed and amplified. Consistency counts. Not only in appearance (do your communications look like they come from the same organization?) but voice. Furthermore, your online presence doesn t occur in a vacuum but is also connected to everything else you do: Compelling brand: aspirational but grounded in institutional reality. Powerful stories: reinforce brand, multiple media, well-told, shareable, demonstrating value. Compelling creative: a strong visual vocabulary for your brand & stories Strong channel strategy: well-managed, connected, curated Your campus & your staff

30 Your channels must tell a consistent story and mutually reinforce each other. mstnr.me/mflob

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35 Digital connects and interconnects to everything

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37 3. It s a brand new.edu world.

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39 mstoner s definition of brand *: A brand is what you stand for in the minds of the people you re trying to reach, influence, and move to action. [ *yep, we re influenced by Groundswell ] 27 more definitions of brand in this blog post, 30 Branding Definitions, by Heidi Cohen: mstnr.me/hz97c9 mstoner definition of brand strategy :... is the art & science of discovering, understanding, articulating, and evolving your brand.

40 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth.

41 is dead. John Dvorak, 16 March is dead. Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg various occasions in 2010

42 More consumers are reached through Facebook, but results in greater response: 51% of new visitors referred by , 22% by Facebook. SocialTwist: The Connected Consumer in 2013: Brand Advocacy Trends from 100+ Social Campaigns. Their comment: Consumers still prefer to use to refer others and we see this trend across industries. Social marketing programs must integrate . Download: mstnr.me/18c8irk

43 91% of your audience uses and 76% uses Facebook and Twitter at least once a day. And 70% use Instagram! Source: emarketer, Social Usage Involves More Platforms, More Often : mstnr.me/19ph5rg

44 77.8% of smartphone users and 73.6% of tablet owners read on their devices. Source: Comscore, "Mobile Future in Focus 2013 : mstnr.me/19agczu

45 80% of teens use at least once a week. Nearly half of them check daily on their mobiles. Source: The Impact of Mobile Browsing on the College Search Process (2013 E- Expectations Report), Noel-Levitz. Download: mstnr.me/14v4cnt. Nearly half (47%) of high school students check daily on their mobiles.

46 FSU s Great Give campaign relied heavily on social channels but 31% of donors heard about it first through . Case 20: "The Great Give Online Giving Campaign Goes Viral: Florida State University," Social Works, pp Case available for download at mstnr.me/ Xjzr6M. During this campaign, the FSU annual giving team conducted a survey alongside the online giving process. After the gift was secured, they asked the donor, How did you hear about the Great Give? The largest response was word of mouth, with 57 percent of all donors saying that was how they learned about the Great Give. Second was , with a 31 percent response. Considerably further down the list was Facebook and FSU websites, at just 2 percent each. That s roughly equal to the response rate of direct mail. But Warren doesn t see social media as ineffective; his hunch is that those numbers reflect a change in the definition of word of mouth. You re communicating and promoting it, but is it through a chat or through a text message or through an ? Warren thinks a large number of those who reported word of mouth were actually thinking about conversations they had via text message or a post they saw on a friend s or family member s Facebook wall. Again, online ambassadors were a big factor in the success of the Great Give, and they weren t sharing their updates by going door-to-door to everyone they knew. They were sharing news of the campaign through social network status updates provided by the FSU annual giving team.

47 5. There s more to social media than Facebook.

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49 Channel use & growth Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Blogs Flickr Web.edu Vendor community Home-built community Geosocial Pinterest Instagram Google+ Tumblr % Use % Growth Research from CASE/mStoner/Slover Linett Survey of Social Media in Advancement More: mstnr.me/xjiuee. This chart shows the percentage who say they use each social media channel (at all), and the lighter green shows how this has changed since last year. The lower section shows the social media channels we asked about this year for the first time. While Flickr shrinks, Instagram grows; Pinterest and Tumblr may be taking some of the share that Blogs held in the past

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52 6. Focus on the channels you own.

53 @mstonerblog modifications of a widely shared infographic about social media

54 @mstonerblog modifications of a widely shared infographic about social media

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59 7. Success begins with planning.

60 In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is essential. Dwight D. Eisenhower

61 Key elements of a plan Challenge statement Goals/objectives Audiences & channels Marketing & promotion Timeline & budget Measurement, metrics, and reporting

62 Part of the plan for William & Mary s Mascot Search campaign, one of the early successful examples of a campaign built around social channels. More: Case 5: "An Integrated Social Campaign Powers the Mascot Search at the College of William & Mary," Social Works, pp

63 8. Lead your audience to action.

64 Inquire, visit, apply, enroll Reconnect, attend events Action! Mentor a student Hire an alum Give Endow a scholarship Be a brand ambassador

65 Elizabethtown College: Share your moment #etown2017

66 Elizabethtown College: Share your moment #etown2017

67 Elizabethtown College: Share your moment #etown2017

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69 9. You must define success.

70 Case 25: "Promoting Faculty Experts: The University of Nottingham and the Election of 2010," Social Works, pp The communications and marketing team at the University of Nottingham created a campaign focused on positioning Nottingham as the definitive source of expert commentary on the 2010 UK elections. This involved both staff members in the communications and marketing team as well as faculty with expertise in politics. By live blogging 24/7 during the election season, they wanted to draw the attention of reporters and major media, scholars at other institutions, the general public, potential students, and public opinion influencers. Before the effort began, they developed a series of goals to which they attached specific numbers. For example: to generate 20 pieces of national and international [media] coverage ; to help increase applications by at least 5%. In preparation, the team researched reporters, bloggers, and experts, developing extensive lists of media contacts. One staff member worked closely with the faculty experts and bloggers to time tweets and posts in response to developing election themes. Traffic was largely driven by Twitter (123 tweets with 7,779 click-throughs), online PR, and linked placement of faculty experts supported by their blog posts and traditional PR work. By the campaign s end, 104 blog posts had delivered more than 90,000 page views. The campaign exceeded all the targets set by the office. And: Every item of national media coverage on Election Day featured a University of Nottingham spokesperson, for a total of 466 national media hits. Applications to the School of Politics & International Relations rose 15%. Relevant URLs: electionblog2010.blogspot.com nottspolitics.org

71 goal Involve 4 faculty in media Position faculty as experts 20 pieces of international coverage Build media networks, w/ at least 5 new outlets Student recruitment: 5% app increase Try new approach to online PR Gain experience with online & social media result 8 academics became involved Continued momentum in media requests 466 items achieved, over 75% of them national or international. Every item of national media featured a university spokesperson. 6 attained: Bloomberg, Reuters, the Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, BBC 15% increase Approach informed many subsequent initiatives The campaign built skills and capacity and has improved confidence and creativity. Goals and results from Case 25: "Promoting Faculty Experts: The University of Nottingham and the Election of 2010," Social Works, pp

72 Thanks to Election 2010, the School of Politics and International Relations at Nottingham has just launched a new, permanent blog Ballots & Bullets averaging a new post every day. It has been successfully received by other members of the academic community and has also helped to improve the profile of the Communications Team. It prompted colleagues to speak to the Communications Team first and has, so far, made savings against the planned use of external consultants totaling approximately 50k as internal colleagues see what can be delivered internally by a newly invigorated team. Comments from University of Nottingham staff regarding Case 25: "Promoting Faculty Experts: The University of Nottingham and the Election of 2010," Social Works, pp

73 Lessons

74 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology.

75 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else.

76 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world.

77 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world. 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth.

78 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world. 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth. 5. There s more to social media than Facebook.

79 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world. 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth. 5. There s more to social media than Facebook. 6. Focus on the channels you own.

80 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world. 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth. 5. There s more to social media than Facebook. 6. Focus on the channels you own. 7. Success begins with planning.

81 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world. 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth. 5. There s more to social media than Facebook. 6. Focus on the channels you own. 7. Success begins with planning. 8. Lead your audience to action.

82 Lessons 1. Social media is not technology. 2. Everything is connected to everything else. 3. It s a brand new.edu world. 4. Don t mistake speculation for truth. 5. There s more to social media than Facebook. 6. Focus on the channels you own. 7. Success begins with planning. 8. Lead your audience to action. 9. You must define success.

83 10. Don t be everywhere until you can be awesome everywhere you are.