Making Connections for Student
Success: a Social Media Roadmap
Institutional Advancement: ggabriel@nvcc.edu
Web Services & Digital Media: wsdm@nvcc.edu; csimpson@nvcc.edu
Objectives
• Share our social media roadmap
• Discuss our lessons learned
• Explore best practices to engage our
students in variety of social media
• Reflect on social media as means to
increase student engagement in their
learning
Who We Are
• Largest community college of 23 in Virginia
Community College System
• Located in the Washington, D.C. suburbs
• 6 campuses and 3 centers
• 72,000 credit students annually (unduplicated)
• 24,000 non-credit students annually
(unduplicated)
• 10,000 students in distance learning courses
• 43% of our students are 21 years or younger
Who Are You?
• How many of you are already engaged in
using social media at your institution?
• What social media is your institution
hosting?
• What are some of your questions about
social media?
What is Social Media?
Social Media
• is conversations.
• comes in many forms.
• is term for tools and platforms people use
to publish, converse and share content
online.
The Ultimate Social Media Guide
Why Engage in Social Media?
Inform
Listen
Social
Media
Engage
Interact
Why Did NOVA Engage in
Social Media?
• Inform our students about events, deadlines,
processes and emergency info
• Spread NOVA’s messages quickly to multiple
audiences
• Listen to our students’ suggestions, needs
and concerns
• Interact with our students about their
suggestions, needs and concerns
• Allow NOVA to engage in conversations
with multiple audiences
• Provide means to encourage students to
be active learners
• Develop learning communities
• Supplement other communication vehicles
• Improve NOVA’s internal and external
communications
• Support NOVA’s Strategic Vision 2015
NOVA’s Social Media Roadmap
Listen
Measure
Promote
Develop
Engage
Listen
• Identify conversations currently taking
place about NOVA
– Blog posts, comments, video-tags, phototags, podcasts, social network references,
social bookmarking
• Note tone of conversations, perceptions,
sources
• Target your audience
Develop
NOVA on iTunes U
Engage
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•
•
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Establish objectives
Post information and respond daily
Include discussions, photos and events
Offer “LIVE” help session and field
questions
• Hold contests
• Select volunteer student correspondents
from each campus
• Use images generously
Promote
• Develop brand
• Provide easy access on college
homepage and major landing pages
• Email students and faculty
• Feature articles, posters & press releases
• Cross promote by connecting social media
• Include social media info in New Student
Packets and student newspaper
• Incorporate ads in Schedule of Classes
Measure
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Site traffic metrics
Online hits
Link backs
Friends/fans
Profile visits
Views generated Per video or image
Interactions or content contributors
RSS subscriptions
Number of downloads
What Are Some Lessons Learned?
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•
•
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A plan is required for success
A portal page helps
Promotion is ongoing
Visuals are important
Staying informed is a necessity
Check out what others are doing
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Use of features constantly needs exploring
Keeping discussions going is challenging
Staff and time are required
Measurement is messy
Guidelines are a must
Vendor assistance is a viable option
Procedures and Guidelines
www.nvcc.edu/wsdm/procedures
Is It Worth It?
• Creates comfortable environment to
communicate, interact and engage with
40% of student population
• Meets students’ expectations to be
engaged in media and technology
(our students use media and technology over 9
hours a day)
• Connects students to important information
on a daily basis
• Allows for quick feedback
• Helps to create learning communities
• Assists faculty to explore social media for
teaching and learning
• Helps students through our processes in a
cost effective way
• No cost for social media tools
Time to Reflect . . .
Identify one way that social media will be
useful to your institution.
Questions?
www.nvcc.edu/wsdm
Dr. George Gabriel - ggabriel@nvcc.edu
Cathy Simpson - csimpson@nvcc.edu