Compelling ContentYorkU Digital Team: May 15, 2014
“Americans hate social media promotions.”
“If your company doesn’t have a social media editorial program that emphasizes spontaneous, personal, human, light-hearted, interesting, funny, timely, and photo-driven content, you are swimming against a powerful tide of customer desire.”
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/new-research-americans-hate-social-media-promotions/
An inconvenient truth
● “The more you sell, the less you sell.” - Jay Baer● The inconvenient truth is that promotional
content generally doesn’t work well on social media.
● That can apply to all kinds of promotions on social:o Eventso Contestso Surveyso Offerso Materials
You name it.
More evidence
“There is no point having a social media account if all you’re doing is... pumping out special offers and promotions.”
http://www.mavsocial.com/the-social-break-up-why-people-will-unlike-your-facebook-page/
And it’s not a benign phenomenon● Content that doesn’t interest your audience
actively turns your them off.
So what does work?
● Fascinating content● Newsworthy content● Engaging content
Content rules
This isn’t a criticism
● It’s an opportunity.● This doesn’t mean your goals aren’t important.● This doesn’t mean you don’t need to promote
what you’re doing.● It means that posting it as-is, just promoting the
thing itself on social media, is probably not going to get you where you want to go.
But don’t take my word for it
● We crunched the numbers, and this is what we came up with...
Most engagement: Facebook
#1
Most engagement: Facebook
#2
Most engagement: Facebook
#3
Most engagement: Twitter
#1Look who dropped by his alma mater at #YorkU: Music guru @dankanter, featured in the #yorkumytime campaign! http://t.co/zPtqugnXYI
Most engagement: Twitter
#2Hey #YorkU, say hi if you bump into alumnus and musical master @dankanter, who will be swinging by the Keele street campus today!
Most engagement: Twitter
#3:#YorkU has declared a weather emergency and will suspend operations at Keele + Glendon effective 2:30pm: http://t.co/vBDPHuZlEs
Lowest engagement: FB
#3: Survey asks#2: Event invites#1: Event promotions
Lowest engagement: Twitter
#3: Award announcements#2: Miscellaneous promotions#1: Event promotions
The common element
● Social media aren’t promotional channels.● They’re content marketing channels.● They’re a way to engage your audience, not to
overtly market to them nor to overtly promote to them.
● People spend time on social to interact:o Primarily with a circle of family & friendso Secondarily with a wider group of acquaintanceso Finally, with brands, companies & organizations.
● They’re not there to hear us talk about us.● And - as we’ve seen - they vote with their clicks.
Inside baseball
● The hazards of inside baseball:the things that we do are likely to be more interesting to us than to our audience.
● Organizations chronically overestimate their audience’s interest in them.
● Doesn’t mean what you do isn’t worthwhile or important.
● It means we need to focus on what will really resonate with our audiences.
● It means traditional promotional approaches don’t work well on channels such as social media.
But wait!
● I still need to promote things!
● Nobody’s denying that.● But what what we humbly
suggest is that you need to promote without being promotional.
● How do you do that?
What works
● Positive, engaging, significant news & stories about the institution.
● Stories that highlight major, cutting-edge innovations & research, especially when the story comes from a mainstream
media outlet or an online influencer: third party validation.
● Important, high-profile awards the university wins.
(e.g. international awards, awards with "name brand" recognition that the general public has heard of)
● Major student & faculty achievements or awards: the higher-profile, the better.
● Attractive or humorous campus photography.
● Anything that evokes nostalgia for the institution, or which highlights the history of the campus.
● "News you can use" which has a significant impact on everyday student life, and which people can action.
● Significant student success stories.
● Well wishes for holidays, convocation, festivals such as Pride, etc.
● Anything to do with celebrities: celebrity alumni, celebrities appearing on campus, etc.
What typically doesn’t work as well
● Anything strictly academic in tone.
● Faculty-focused content doesn't work very well unless there's a strong human interest story, such as highly-impactful,
public-focused research, or an emotional hook.
● Anything institutionally-focused or inward-looking, such as institutional announcements, press releases, and so on.
● Stories about current students and their activities, unless they're achieving or doing something really significant.
● Stories about a given faculty, researcher, student or staff member, unless it's tied to a major innovation or
success story.
● Lectures, whether by faculties or guests, unless it's by a highly-recognizable celebrity.
● Strictly promotional content.
The litmus test
● Would this be of interest to someone with no specific connection to York or to your department?
● Would the Globe or Star be interested?
Another option for promotions
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