UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

S O C I A L M E D I A S T R A T E G Y

F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 2 0 1 6

L E S L I E S M I T H

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary, February 2016

Social Media Audit

Social Media Assessment, February 2016

Customer Demographics Assessment

Competitor Assessment

Social Media Objectives

Online Brand Persona and Voice

Strategies and Tools

Timing and Key Dates

Social Media Roles and Responsibilities

Social Media Policy

Critical Response Plan

Measurement and Reporting Results, January 2016 – February 2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In 2016 our major priorities for social media will be to maintain and grow our online

following and community.

Our primary focus will be to support higher education through student enrollment.

Two major social strategies will help support this objective:

1. A plan to increase promotion of UF Online degrees.

2. A plan to decrease the media image of UF as the #1 party school.

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

Social Network URL Follower Count Average Weekly Activity

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/uflorida 631,956 11 posts per week

Twitter https://twitter.com/uf 113k 98 posts per week

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/UniversityofFlorida 4,563 2 posts per week

Google+ https://plus.google.com/+uflorida 148,625 1 post per month

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=18120 212,615 1 post per month

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/uflorida/ 81.2k 5 per week

Vyclone http://vyclone.com/profile/514b954343605d0b13001506 41 none

Social Media Assessment, February 2016

Assessment Summary: At the present time the highest number of

interactions are occurring on Twitter and Instagram. There is very little

interaction or followers on Vyclone and it is recommended that this account

be closed and efforts be focused on other channels.

SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

Competitor Name Social Media Profile Strengths Weaknesses

Florida State University https://twitter.com/floridastate

Frequent visual and branded posts.

Retweets of users posts. Not much interaction on tweets.

University of Central Florida https://twitter.com/UCF Frequent visual and branded posts.

Not much interaction on tweets or

retweets.

Competitor Assessment, February 2016

Competitor Assessment Summary: The analysis focused on two major

competitors with similar strong social media presence. Both competitors

utilize visual content to increase interest and promote the use of unique

hashtags to increase mentions on Twitter. Both competitors could improve

their engagement with their followers.

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES

In 2016, the primary focus of our social media strategy will be to support and

increase interest and enrollment in UF Online by increasing traffic to our website

through social media accounts. In order to accomplish this we will place priorities

in growing our online community with increased followers. To increase followers

we will share more content that will create stronger relationships with our

customers. Increased focus should be made on Twitter.

SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES

KPIs

1. Number of unique visitors from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

2. Number of Twitter followers

3. Number of posts, photo and video, to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

4. Number of posts to LinkedIn

Key Messages

• UF Online is a great opportunity to join the UF family and be a part of the Gator Nation

• “By transforming the state’s flagship university into a truly global university, we’re showing the world that the Gator Good is the greater good.”

http://www.ufl.edu/

ONLINE BRAND PERSONA AND VOICE

Adjectives that describe our brand When interacting with customers we are:

Educational Encouraging

Caring Friendly

Fun Goal Oriented

Professional Dedicated

STRATEGIES AND TOOLS

Paid: Increase UF Online Facebook advertisements.

Owned: Increase the use of #BEAGATOR and encourage users to adopt the use of the

tag. Select at least one piece of user generated content each week to retweet or

like. Promote the hashtag on all social media channels.

Earned: Monitor Twitter for new freshman student tweets. Encourage excitement with

the use of #UF20 and #GatorNation

TOOLS

Approved Tools

• Hootsuite

• Tweetdeck

TIMING AND KEY DATES

Holidays

Spring Break – February 27-March 5

UF Online Application Deadlines

Summer 2016 – March 28, 2016

Fall 2016 – June 12, 2016

Spring 2017 – October 5, 2016

Campus Application Deadlines

November 1, 2016

SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Social Media Director – Recruit and manage the social media marketing team,

implement the social media strategy.

Social Media Manager – Monitor and engage with customers. Keep calendar full of

posts.

Subject Matter Expert – Provides responses to comments or complaints

Social Media Marketing Strategist – Determines overall goals and creates tactics to

accomplish them. Tracks progress through the use of analytics.

Customer Support Manager – Ensures that customer service cases are handled.

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

“Social networks provide fun and exciting ways to connect with others who share common interests. These guidelines are meant to permit appropriate use of social media, while prohibiting conduct through social media that is illegal or against University of Florida policy or professional standards. These guidelines also provide suggestions for situations involving social media that could be damaging to either participants or the university.”

“The guidelines apply to all forms of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Flickr, text messages, and other, less-popular platforms, as well as those not in existence at the time of the adoption of these guidelines.”

• Be responsible for what you write

• Be considerate

• Exercise good judgment

• Protect confidential information

• Bring value

“Depictions of behavior that do not comply with professional and/or ethical standards may result in disciplinary action by professional organizations or if relevant to a University of Florida role, by the university. Please review the regulations published by the university”

http://hr.ufl.edu/manager-resources/policies-2/social/

CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN

http://socialmedia.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/social-media-response-guide-v1.0.pdf

MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING RESULTS

#BEAGATOR Hashtag Performance

• Between November 2015 and February 2016 the hashtag was only mentioned 3

times on Twitter.

• Between November 2015 and February 2016 the hashtag was only mentioned 2

times on Instagram.

Proposed Action Items

• Increase #BEAGATOR campaign

• Prepare a plan to begin use of LinkedIn publishing platform.