What Should Be in Your Social Media Toolbelt?

What should be in your social media toolbelt?

Photo credit: donnaidh_sidhehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaidh_sidhe/1032985990/

I credit David Meerman Scott’s, “New Rules of PR & Marketing” with shifting the way I think about communicating online.

The way we reach our constituents is changing from outbound communications to an inbound tract. With that comes a new level of honesty about our brands and our message. All of our online footprints are being created by the people around us - our job is to believe in our products and encourage the conversation.

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Outbound marketing

“Outbound marketing is the traditional form of marketing where a company

initiates the conversation and sends its message out to an audience. ”

“Outbound marketing is the traditional form of marketing where a company initiates the conversation

and sends its message out to an audience. ”

Credit: Wordstreamhttp://www.wordstream.com/outbound-marketing

So what does he mean by outbound marketing?

“Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers. This sense is related to relationship marketing and Seth Godin's idea of permission marketing. David Meerman Scott recommends[3] that marketers "earn their way

in" (via publishing helpful information on a blog etc.)...”

Credit: Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbound_marketing

“...create content that people actually want to see.”

For me it boils down to this- schools have to re-think the way they craft content. They are now the media organization. They are the journalists and the reporters.

“So how does this relate to social media?”

Hold onto this question. We’ll get to it soon, but lets step back for a second.

What is social media? The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and

mobile technologies to turn communication into an

interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define

social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on

the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that

allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

So let’s take a step back and define social media.

A real conversation...

These tools allow for a real conversation between publisher & fans/friends–-marketers "earn their way in" (via publishing helpful information on a blog etc.)...” and fans/friends drive the stories that should be shared.

...facilitated by multiple platforms

How big has the conversation become?

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*million! Source: Facebook http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline

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Source: eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007271Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-stats-2010-4#twitter-now-has-106-million-users-1

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January 2011 June 2011 September 2011 June 2012

Tweets per day (in millions).

Twitter has been on a roll in recent months. The company surpassed 200 million tweets per day in June 2011 but has since jumped to nearly 250 million daily tweets. The growth has been tremendous: Twitter had around 100 million tweets per day in January 2011. Source: http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/twitter-costolo-stats/

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Don’t Blog Blog

55% more website visitors forcompanies that blog

From CC Chapman & Ann Handley’s Book Content Rules: 1,531 HubSpot customers (mostly small- and medium-sized businesses). 795 of the businesses in my sample blogged, 736 didn't. The data was crystal clear: Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs has: 55% more visitors Why are website visitors important? Because more visitors means more people to convert to leads and sales.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5014/Study-Shows-Business-Blogging-Leads-to-55-More-Website-Visitors.aspx#ixzz1fFTYsNzV

Organizations that blog 16 to 20 times per month get

more than 2x more

traffic than those thatblog fewer than 4x per month

Consistency is key, not only for your loyal audience, but for the people you’re hoping to draw in.

“What has this meant to schools?”

Racing to 2000 fans!Tweeting to1000 followers!

Social media participation is growing. Schools are actively pushing to build their networks. There’s been this idea that just being in the space is enough, but is it really? How can you stand out about the crowd?

Connect with

us!

All good steps in an effort to boost our networks and connect with a broad range of people who matter to our schools. How many of us feature “follow us; become a fan, connect; etc” twitter & facebook buttons on our sites or in our email signatures?

Connect with our school!

We’ve created our channels and have begun to promote them - perhaps via email; on our sites. If you haven’t, consider doing this ASAP. How will people know it’s out there unless your start to share it.

What do you do when you get there?

Big question is how do you engage your network as it grows? How often do you publish and what message do yup convey?

Does it make sense to build the numbers before you figure out what to say? It’s easy to fall prey to building the networks before offering information that has substance and value.

But, really, the dirty little secret with social media success and keeping people plugged in and engaged is content. And that’s what today is all about... HOW to craft the content.

Create, curate & share compelling content.

You do this by creating & sharing compelling content that speaks to these fundamental needs. Your school enjoys a fan base that, for lack of a better word, “consumes” your narrative stream or long story. The object is to begin bringing families into this stream. This requires that you give fans and families substance- not necessarily formality, but substance- events, stories, narratives, happenings and achievement on campus. Show the ways students are growing and learning- real and substantive. Engage your fans by sharing the school experience.

Photo credit: shanebeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shanesworld/21584252/

How do we do this? I advocate that schools commit to a content library. One that isn’t as concerned about polish, but a library that catalogs a form of content that offers a birds eye view of what it’s like to “experience” your community.

Show rather than tell.

I like to live by these simple words whenever we create content - show rather than tell.

Photo credit: Northfield Mount Hermon Schoolhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/nmhphotos/4008777735/in/set-72157622454626351/

Show rather than tell.

If you’re talking about your great art program. Show students drawing by the creek. Highlight their work on a regular basis.

Show rather than tell.

Photo credit: Vermont Academyhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/31278469@N04/3919640397

If you’re excited about your school’s fall mountain day. Show students climbing to top. Interview them about the challenges of the climb and how the event impacts the school community. Let them connect the dots and their share it with your online communities.

Show rather than tell.

We all talk about school spirit. Let your students capture it via short videos.

Photo credit: shanebeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shanesworld/21584252/

It all comes back to building a library. Check out the content when you need it. Add to it throughout the year; keep it current. Use it to show what’s happening on your campus.

Photo credit: shanebeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shanesworld/21584252/

Photo credit: tray http://www.flickr.com/photos/tapps/3989627494

You don’t have to be a tech guru to produce content. I suspect that most everyone sitting in the room use social media in some form or fashion to journal daily life and stay connected with family, friends & organizations.

Photo credit: shanebeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shanesworld/21584252/

It could come in the form of twitter...

Photo credit: shanebeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shanesworld/21584252/

...or photo sharing sites like flickr...

Photo credit: shanebeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shanesworld/21584252/

or the most obvious of all... facebook...

So that brings us to why we’re all here today... Finding the tools to create successful social media content. It’s an ideal vehicle for driving your school’s narrative and the beauty of it is that it can come in a variety of forms. Here’s the second dirty little secret... for it to work & succeed it needs to fit. Fit your talents, culture, workflow... which is why a blog offers an excellent content opportunity for schools. It can take many shapes- it can serve as a forum for educational theory; it can become an ongoing photo essay; it could be a place for students to explore daily life. There’s no 1 right way of doing it.

Organizations that blog 16 to 20 times per month get

more than 2x more

traffic than those thatblog fewer than 4x per month

Source: HubSpot Whitepaper “An Intro to Business Blogging”

Gould Academy

Started in 2007: Your daily dose of daily life at Gould through the eyes of students and teachersDaily life at our small, New England Boarding school in Bethel, Maine

Now creating content every day….

Glog NotesAuthentic student voiceTrust: post without review content posted 7 days a weekCompensation: digital cameras70,000 views in 4 years1,700 visits in the past two weeks (as of 12/6/11)

Image credit: Gould Academy

Avoid the obvious. give enough freedom to hang themselves

Now creating content every day….

Now creating content every day….

For those of you who don’t know this is Chuck Will’s blog at Proctor. He’s a leading voice and the institutional memory to a certain extent. He knows current student & parents, alums, you name it -they know him and he knows what the school stands for. His job is to capture that in words and pictures 2-3 times a week. Fundraising: Blogging as Stewardship

Blog ingredients✓Great content that engages readers✓Leadership commitment

✓Promote the blog

✓Commit to consistency

✓Recruit contributors

✓Demonstrate expertise

Regardless of the style of blog, there are certain key ingredients that successful blogs exhibit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEcCjpbm5w&

Do something unexpected. Create something for people to want to share.

“Brian Rosenberg aka the President of Macalester College”

I don’t know if it started out this way, but this is one of the most effective outreach pieces I’ve seen. It was done by the President of Macalester College. Self-deprecating humor, showcased his campus, told you a lot about the school and what the feeling about the campus is like.

“With this project, I have begun to learn about the nature and power of the social media that are reshaping the way we communicate with one another and should be reshaping the way organizations of all kinds communicate.”

The Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://chronicle.com/article/What-I-Learned-From-YouTube/65141/

45,000+ views on YouTubeMore than 17 pages of comments from alumniMore than 30 new freshman in this year's enrolling class, all with higher accumulative test scoresRecord open house turnout

Stats & Takeaways!

Used Seek & Find Homework sheet to engage elementary school studentsPremise of the video is to have a tool to show the school's story during visits to Louisville’s 32 Catholic Schools Completed within two, 1.5-hour sessionsSegment captains (the kids) choreograph and plan their sectionStudents posted to their social networks to show off their "music video"—without being asked to do so; proud of what they did as a group

Stats & Takeaways!

Have you reserved your channel?http://www.youtube.com/user/MySchool

48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day

Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day

800M unique users visit YouTube each month

Prime opportunity for schools to be seen!(the competition’s pretty light...)

Pro Tip: Take 5

minutes to optimize

your video’s

https://ads.youtube.com/keyword_tool

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to link back to your site!

Pro Tip: Linking from

your site helps as

well!

Pro Tip: Annotations

rock!

Schools on YoutubeThe Webb School (TN) Ridley College The Webb Schools (CA)

Edgerank

Edgerank

3 AffinityWeightTime Decay

Edgerank

“Affinity is the value Facebook assigns to an object’s creator relative to other Facebook users. In plain English, the more a person comments, likes, or interacts with your posts, the higher their affinity to you, and the greater the likelihood that your posts will show up in their news feed.”

Affinity

http://www.6smarketing.com/facebook-edgerank-algorithm/

Edgerank

Affinity

http://www.6smarketing.com/facebook-edgerank-algorithm/

Edgerank

Affinity

http://www.6smarketing.com/facebook-edgerank-algorithm/

Edgerank

Affinity

http://www.6smarketing.com/facebook-edgerank-algorithm/

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““Weight” combines what the item is and how it’s being interacted with. As for the “what,” videos, photos, and links are generally considered to have the highest weight. In other words, if a fan views a video on your page, this will score far more points in Facebook EdgeRank than if they simply visit your page.”

Weight

http://blog.involver.com/2011/10/25/facebook-edgerank-and-graphrank-explained/

Edgerank

Weight

http://blog.involver.com/2011/10/25/facebook-edgerank-and-graphrank-explained/

Edgerank

Weight

http://blog.involver.com/2011/10/25/facebook-edgerank-and-graphrank-explained/

Edgerank

“Like Google, Facebook is concerned with the freshness of content. Newer content and interactions hold more importance and have a higher likelihood of being published in your news feed. The older the interactions are with an object, the lower their time decay score and less of ability they have to push content to the top of people’s news feeds.”

Time Decay

http://blog.involver.com/2011/10/25/facebook-edgerank-and-graphrank-explained/

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Reconsider how you post

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“The days of “schedule-and-go” social media are over.”

http://www.convergeconsulting.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/How-Facebooks-Changes-Affect-You-higher-education-marketing.pdf

Edgerank

PREMIUM!

Call to Action!

Tips to boost edgerank

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Tips to boost edgerank

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Tips to boost edgerank

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Schools to research

The Hun Schoolwww.facebook.com/hunschool

Northfield Mount Hermon Schoolwww.facebook.com/nmhschool

Proctor Academywww.facebook.com/proctoracademy

The Webb Schoolswww.facebook.com/TheWebbSchools

Mine your database for (alums, parents, etc.) for followers

Engage your followers

Use #hashtags to brand your tweets and join conversations

Consider streaming your tweets through your site

An active twitter account sends search signals to google & bing

Avoid auto tweet your Facebook updates & vice versa

Take the time to author unique status updates on each platform

Who wears the toolbelt?

Newspaper

Alumni

English Dept

Students

Math Dept

Admissions

Director

Find folks to feed you stories about what’s happening on campus, but more importantly, the sub-stories that are happening within the walls. People want to see in between the lines, behind the curtains. Give them a slice of what life is like as a member of your community.

Have follow up questions?E-mail: peterbaron@whipplehill.com

Phone: 603-669-5979 x3280

Twitter: @peterdbaron