Developing a Social
Media Strategy
For Your Organization
Ashley Schaffer
Ebe Randeree
What is Social Media?
Social media is the means of
interactions among people in which
they create, share and exchange
information and ideas in virtual
communities and networks.
Why Use Social Media
for Marketing?
Social media can help you:
 Promote your organization
 Recruit students
 Advertise events
 Reach key stakeholders
 Realize your goals
Some Interesting Facts
about Social Media

27% of U.S. internet time is spent on social networking sites (Source:
Experian)

15% of totally U.S. mobile internet time is spent on social networking
sites (Source: Experian)

Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average
lead conversion rate (Source: HubSpot)

21% of marketers say that social media has become more important
to their company over the past six months

(Source: HubSpot)
Companies that generate more than 1,000 Facebook Likes also
receive nearly 1,400 website visits a day (Source: HubSpot)
Where do we start?
Ask Your SLC…
 Do we have a social media strategy?
 How can SLC students stay connected through
social media?
 At your school
 Nationally
 How can SLC students use social media to get
the word out about:
 Activities
 Events
 Successes
Ask Your SLC…
 What are the best tools that can be used to get
effective broadcast, reach, getting to the public or
press
 How do we get the word out beyond university walls?
 How do you measure ROI?
 What do you measure other than LIKES?
 How do you stay ahead of the news and ahead
of the tools?
Determine Your Goals
and Objectives
Setting goals and determining your
strategy are essential to a successful
social media marketing plan.
Determine Your Goals
and Objectives
Determine Your Goals
and Objectives
Determine Your Goals
and Objectives
According to the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network
Benchmark Report, nonprofits said their top three
social media goals were:
1. Growing their base
2. Engaging members
3. Growing fundraising
Research
Determine:
Social influencers
Relevant contacts
Engaging content
Existing channels
Social Influencers
What are social influencers?
Social Influencer: People who
create and share interesting or
valuable content with the niche
audiences that follow them
Social Influencers
Advantages of Social Influencers:
 Trusted more than brands
 Produce earned media
 Reach more targeted audiences
 Students*
 Share more content across the web
Relevant Contacts
Who are we trying to reach?
As an SLC, we want to reach:
 Current students
 Prospective students
Engaging Content
What makes content engaging?
Adding more photos of activists to the organization’s
online communications with its supporters “has resulted in
more activists forwarding them to their friends, which
increases the likelihood that those friends will become
interested and join our network.”
Leslie Samuelrich, Chief of Staff at
Corporate Accountability International
Choosing a Channel
The social media platform you choose to
use will depend on who your target
audience is.
As an SLC, we want to reach students who
may be interested in joining our
organization.
What channel do we choose?
Primary Platforms
Facebook
Promote events
Estimate attendance
Reach a college audience
Facebook by the Numbers
 665 million daily active users
 1.1 billion monthly active users
 751 billion mobile users
 189 million mobile-only active users
Twitter
Broadcast news stories from
industry and research
Engage with similar organizations
Promote events
Twitter by the Numbers
 Fastest growing social network in the world
by active users
 44% growth from June 2012 to March 2013
 21% of the world’s internet population uses
Twitter every month
 More than 500 million registered accounts
YouTube
Document events
Recruit new students (reaching K-12)
YouTube by the Numbers
 1 billion unique monthly users
 6 billion hours of videos are watched every
month
 Compared to:
 4 billion hours in August 2012
 3 billion hours in May 2012
 Reaches more adults ages 18-34 than any
cable network
LinkedIn
Brand individual STARS members
Reach alumni and industry leaders
Enhance search engine results
LinkedIn by the Numbers
200 million users
2 new users join every second
Link Your SM Platforms
Measure Your Results
ROI – How do we measure?
For SLC:
New members
Event attendance
Test New Platforms
Instagram
 An Instagram photo is worth a thousand
words
 Show people what your organization is about
 Promote events
 Build awareness of your organization/cause
by using hashtags
 Most popular: #nonprofit, #activism, #socialgood
 Easy to link with other social media accounts
Vine
Tell a story
Show a process
Call to action
Make people think
Show results
Be Transparent
Social media is about building
relationships.
Transparency is important in building
relationships with your prospective
organizations.
Transparency builds trust and a strong
relationship.
Be Transparent
Outcomes:
Loyalty
Good word-of-mouth
Possibility of future purchases*
For an SLC, future members
Case Studies
 One Million Bones
 Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
 Yale University
 Higher Education Using Social Media to Recruit New
Students
 STARS and Social Media
 What Are They Doing Now?
 How Can They Improve?
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy through Social Media
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
What is Thunderclap?
 The first-ever crowd speaking platform that
helps people be heard by saying something
together.
 It allows a single message to be mass-shared,
flash-mob style so it rises above the noise of
your social networks.
 Tangible way to measure awareness.
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
One Million Bones
Spreading Advocacy Through Social Media
Our organization
started the
#OneMillionBones
hashtag
Yale and Social Media
 Yale was rated one of the top colleges using
social media for higher education
 Instead of posting about basic school
information and updates, Yale posts about a
variety of topics on their social media pages
 Lesson: Adding variety and interesting
content helps you stand out in a student’s (or
consumer’s) mind
Yale and Social Media
Yale and Social Media
Yale and Social Media
Yale and Social Media
STARS and Social Media
STARS and Social Media
STARS and Social Media
STARS and Social Media
STARS and Social Media
How could we improve STARS’
social media presence?
STARS and Social Media
Facebook
 Create a page

Share photos, related articles and upcoming events
Instagram
 Use similar to Flickr
 Use hashtags to expand reach/impressions
Twitter
 Be more active

Share news about technology-related topics to keep audience
engaged
Questions?