developing an education social media strategy, nwais seattle, 6/17/2014

II. Developing a Social Media Plan

NWAIS Institutional Advancement Conference SeattleJune 17, 2014

seattlecenter.org

Make a plan.

Your Social Media Plan

Create great, sharable content and measure the engagement.

Tie your social strategy to your school’s larger goals.

Develop your social strategy.

Case Study: Windward School

1 Develop your social strategy.

a. Your Social Strategy Know Your Audiences, What They Need, Which Channels to Use

Prospective Parents & Students

Current Parents/Grandparents

Alumni

Prospective Donors

Current Students/Faculty

Media/External Communities

b. Your Social Strategy Set Specific Goals

Facebook

General: Continue to work with development on increasing alumni involvement. Reach 500 alumni likes; get 20% reply rate on FB reunion posts.

Twitter

General: Continue to widen the scope of tweets. organizations by end of school year.

c. Your Social Strategy Get Buy-in from Administrators

.

Contain the risk.

Build coalitions.

Two Views of Social Media

you: tools of opportunity

admins: tools of danger

Solution:

Sell the Benefits

Antonio Viva Head of School

Walnut Hill School of the Arts Natick, MA

advance the school’s mission

increase enrollment

improve student education

increase fundraising

:

Contain the Risk

Tom Gilder Head of School

Windward School Los Angeles, CA

inaccurate and defamatory postings and to make recommendations regarding posting responses or requesting retractions.”

Build Coalitions

Peter Saliba Head of School

Tilton School Plymouth, NH

“My Communication Director, Admission Director, and Development Director are joined at the hip.”

Three Things to Do Right Now

1.

2. Contain the risk.

begin your SM Guidelines, monitor all online sites, use Google Alerts

3. Build coalitions.

list potential partners, meet with your HOS about SM

Tie your social media strategy to your school’s larger goals.2

Mission

Communication Goals

Print Web Social

Strategic Plan Goals

Mission

Communication Goals

Print Web Social

Strategic Plan Goals

Mission

Strategic Plan Goals

Mission/Strategic Goal

Communications/Advancement Goal

Social Media Goal

3 Create great, sharable content and measure the engagement.

a. Founder’s Day Mash-up Unites Campus

a. Founder’s Day Mash-up Unites Campus

What: Founders Day, a carnival-like celebration on campus with games, art, and performances, is captured by a social media team of staff, faculty, parents, and selected students. Platforms/Ecosystem: multi-platform: FB, alum FB, Twitter, YouTube, social mash page on web site; later a slideshow emailed to community.

Goals met: increased community engagement with grandparents (adv.), alumni (strategic plan), prospective families (adm.) in a later email, current families.

Some Common Analysis Tools for Schools

Google Analytics

Facebook Insights

YouTube Analytics

How Did We Measure Success?

Google Analytics showed how many people visited the Social mash page or were pushed to the page.

Analyzed Facebook Insights to see which photos were shared the most

Email read open rate

Anecdotal success

b. Robotics Tweet Gets Major Re-tweetage

b. Robotics Tweet Gets Major Re-tweetage

b. Robotics Tweet Gets Major Re-tweetage

What: Tweet of a visit by a NASA scientist; two months later a tweet of Robotics success.

Platforms/Ecosystem: Twitter (also Facebook, web site)

Goals Met: From Head of School/advancement: raise internal and external visibility for robotics and science.

How Did We Measure Success?

Google Analytics showed the number of users who visited the web site based on the tweets

Examined the number of retweets

Bitly showed how many people clicked on the link

Facebook, web site analytics

c. Magic Johnson Video Creates Excitement

c. Magic Johnson Video Creates Excitement

What: A Windward parent shoots a short phone video of former LA Laker Magic Johnson, who gives a shout-out to the girls varsity basketball team before their state championship game.

Platforms/Ecosystem: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LA Times, which put it on their blog (and retweeted our tweet). ESPN, Yahoo Sports. Email to internal.

Goals Met: Raise the visibility of Windward athletics to external community, drive people to the athletics web site. Increase school spirit. Till the soil for advancement when it’s time to ask for major gifts for athletics projects.

How Did We Measure Success?

Looked at Facebook Insights (the most shared and viral post of the entire school year)

Examined Twitter analytics (number of retweets on LA Times feed), etc.

Looked at email open rate after we sent it to entire internal community

3 Simple Things To Do Right Now

1.Tie your social media strategy to your school’s larger goals. Review your strategic and advancement plans, then set your communication and social goals. Get buy-in from admins.

2.Create great content your community wants to share. Review your current content (and audiences), then make it great!

3.Measure the effectiveness of the sharing. Get on Google Analytics, contact edSocialMedia for training.

Exercise

1. What is the mission of your school?

2. What are your overall advancement/communication goals and how do they sync with your mission?

3. What are your social media goals and how do they sync with your overall advancement/communication goals?

What are your goals?

ESM: info@edsocialmedia.com

Stephen Johnson: burma3x3@gmail.com

www.edsocialmedia.com