Taking your institution’s
social media strategy to
the next level
Presenters:
 Sara Villegas, Regis University CPS
 Doug Stewart, Colorado Mountain College
Marketing
Social Media
Responsive
 Intuitive
 Conversations
 Always on
 Relationships
 Interactive
I AM!

A billboard
 A push medium
 100 percent, hard-core branded
 Authoritarian
 The only answer
 The Field of Dreams

I AM NOT!
No, seriously. I
wanna be
friends.
*Harvard Business Review
*Harvard Business Review
Let others help carry
the load.

Choose a team that
will help you, and
your institution, grow.
› Success will foster organic
growth.
› Don’t push it off on the
interns.
› Create a face-to-face
training program.
Sometimes you’ve just
gotta lay down some
money to make things
happen.


We chose to spend money on
technology and fabulous prizes.
Turns out, it was worth it.
Contest participation.
› Student-produced video.
›
You can’t put a price
tag on those results.
Touches

Social media can give you customer
touches that traditional medial buys
cannot guarantee.
You can’t ask
a print ad a
question.


Tools


Facebook Insights
Bit.ly links
Google analytics
Calculators and/or old-fashioned math
and good sense
Use your impressive
numbers to
convince
administration.
•Captured
the “Daily Stream” stats from Facebook.
•Plotted
this against total views on our website and
other web properties.
•Compared
total number of “touches” we had on
Facebook with those engaged with CMC online…
Using bit.ly we also
monitored clicks on
blogger and other
links shared through
Facebook.
Bit.ly convert links to
a personal url. For
CMC, is it
colomtn.me.
(unfortunately, bit.ly
only provides data
for the previous
month.)
Use this to
determine
what
interests your
audience.

Too often, we decide to “do social
media” without a clear idea of what we
hope to accomplish.
› It helps to start out with solid, and in some
cases measurable, goals that tie in to
institution-wide marketing strategies.
You wouldn’t
spend your
marketing budget
without a plan.
Your time is
valuable too.

An example from Folsom Lake College in
Folsom, CA:
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Increase visibility, awareness of Folsom Lake College (FLC)
Create positive perceptions of FLC
Want social media to reflect FLC mission/vision
Promote FLC’s programs and services
Drive traffic to regular college website
Inform people about FLC
Promote FLC “brand” as friendly, modern, and comfortable with open
dialogue
Get people to interact and engage with FLC; generate feedback
Listen to our key audiences

An example from CMC:
› Goal: The core strategy of social media marketing is to
create rich content that is relevant and engaging to
prospective students and potential referral agents. This
approach will let us tell the Colorado Mountain College
story from many more perspectives than would come from
the professional marketing staff at the College.”
› Strategies: Twitter, Facebook, our eNews site, Flickr,
YouTube and our student blogging program
› Tactics: specific goals and initiatives within these different
platforms

Overall: Humanize the brand
› Social media is the place where your
students can find a community – it should be
your goal to foster the community and voice
of your institution. Give it a human – and
non-corporate – face.
Be a good friend:
dependable,
relatable, and
not overbearing.
Every institution has a story. This is your
chance to tell it in a unique and
interactive way.
 Think of your audience when developing
your voice and personality. What will
they relate to? What will resonate with
them ?

If your school was
a person, what
would he look
like?
Skittles
 Starbucks
 RedBull
 Uncle Billy’s BBQ

Event!
Twitter
eNews
Various
Facebook
Pages
Older
audience,
community
impact, news
outlets
Web visitors,
more detail,
PR-focused
Younger
audience,
interaction,
call to action
YouTube
Flickr
Blogs
Highly visual,
show and tell,
varied
audience
Supplemental
visuals,
repurpose on
other
platforms
Authentic
voice,
prospective
students
Remember to
cross-post new
content!
YouTube
Flickr
eNews
Facebook
Website
Applications
for this
program are
up!

Don’t be afraid to use the stories of your
students – in their voices.
›
•
•
•
•
•
One of CMC’s most successful social media ventures hinged on our
student blogs (one of our bloggers won a national contest and blogged
from the Vancouver Olympic Games ). The exposure was invaluable at
an event that was so closely tied to CMC’s story.
Microsoft flew Dylan to Dallas for an interview
on the NBC station’s evening news
Feature in the Plano, TX Star
Multiple mentions in local media
Features in Microsoft’s News Center
Mention in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Sometimes, it is scary to hand over control of your story to a
student. But! They can also tell the most compelling side of
things.
›
If you engage them, they will engage you.
›
They will go beyond their job description if you remove their borders.
›
Recruit your bloggers.
ALI
BEN
JENIFER
DAN

Everyone wants to be this guy:

But it is better to be these guys:

Build a campfire with your content.
› Little by little, get to know your audience
and post about what they care about.
› Build on their participation by listening and
asking/answering questions.
› Become a destination – a community where
people want to hang out.
So you went viral.
Now what?

Social media is not a “push” medium – it
is an engagement medium.
People love: Answering questions, giving their opinions, getting freebies,
asking questions (and getting answers), behind-the-scenes info &
promotions, and commenting on photos…and the weather.
› Capture and funnel the passion of people in your community—good
ideas come from everywhere—let them participate in decisions and
development.
› Be a resource
› Use it as a tool to get to know your audience – informal polls, online
“suggestion box”
›
Never forget:
people love
to talk about
themselves.

Ensure your posts are read.
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Engagement is king
Top of feed
Newsfeed vs. Most Recent posts
= top of
More interactions = higher scores
mind.
Delete posts if they go 24 hours with no responses
350 characters or less
Organize page around conversations
Amplify your key messages
Embed links
Facebook video is trackable, consider FB and YouTube versions of videos

Not all posts make the newsfeed
› Only .5 to 5% of all posts make the newsfeed
› About 14% of users check most recent
Without the
feed,
you’re
invisible

Make the feed with interesting stuff!
› The News Feed algorithm bases this on a few factors: how many
friends are commenting on a certain piece of content, who
posted the content, and what type of content it is (e.g. photo,
video, or status update).
— Facebook
Comment
& like

Make the feed with the right content!
› Links, Photos and Videos. Links proved more potent than
status updates in making it past Facebook's filter, so did
photos and videos. Here, too, it is likely a matter of
engagement. Think about times you've spotted a
thumbnail-size photo from a friend in your feed and
clicked to see it full-size. Facebook likes clicks, and photos
deliver them.
— The Daily Beast (one month experiment by Tom Weber)
FB Loves
Links,
Photos &
Videos
It’s all fun and
games until
someone loses
an eye. Or their
dignity.

Control the beast
›
Make it clear who administers social media accounts.
›
Address every aspect of your platform in your style guide.
›
Vet your potential new administrators.
The KCTCS is a great example of SM
standardization!
Landing Page
Consider setting a
custom tab as a landing
page for new visitors.
You can set your
custom page as the
landing page in the
“edit page” area.
Include “call to action”
Community College of Aurora
John Tyler Community College
Lord Fairfax Community College
Glendale Community College
Landing Page
Consider setting a
custom tab as a landing
page for new visitors.
You can set your
custom page as the
landing page in the
“edit page” area.
Include “call to action”
Tabs
Create additional
custom tabs that
highlight your other
social media outlets.
Community College of Aurora
John Tyler Community College
Lord Fairfax Community College
Glendale Community College
Landing Page
Consider setting a
custom tab as a landing
page for new visitors.
You can set your
custom page as the
landing page in the
“edit page” area.
Include “call to action”
Tabs
Create additional
custom tabs that
highlight your other
social media outlets.
FBML
Learn to use FBML,
Facebook’s custom
HTML coding system. If
you don’t have a web
developer or aren’t
familiar with coding,
many organizations can
create this custom
content for a
reasonable price.
Community College of Aurora
John Tyler Community College
Lord Fairfax Community College
Glendale Community College
http://facebook.com/coloradomtncollege
http://youtube.com/cmceagle
http://coloradomtn.edu/blogs