Nailing Pinterest: It's Not All Wedding Dresses and Desserts (MCS1)
For many institutions, Pinterest is considered a “secondary” social media platform; one that’s handed off to the student intern, or something that you don’t even want to touch. Although Pinterest has a stereotypically niche audience (hint: it includes muffin-top-busting workouts and DIY projects), it’s not something to count out of your social media strategy. Jackie Vetrano of Skidmore College explains how she took Pinterest from a tertiary platform to the front of the college’s social media strategy, and the lessons learned.
Events in Stereo: How to Help Your Campus Events and Campaigns Succeed (MCS3)
Every year, universities have dozens of major events ranging from graduation to giving days. William & Mary’s Tiffany Broadbent Beker (University Communications) and Sarah Juliano (University Advancement) will explain how they approach these varied events - what’s worked, and what hasn’t. They’ll address the ever-tricky balance between engagement and fundraising on university social media channels and suggest innovative ways to have the entire campus community help distribute your message and promote your event. During this session, they’ll discuss how to set social media expectations, ways to collaborate with your peers across campus, suggestions for creating and executing a hashtag, and how to create a social media guide to make each event one to remember.
We Live in the Future: 360 Video & Higher Ed (UAD5)
Virtual reality is coming, and it's coming fast. In December 2015, the New York Times distributed over 1 million Google Cardboard viewers to its print subscribers. YouTube and Facebook both support 360 degree videos, and WebVR is bringing virtual reality content out of the realm of high-end gaming and specialized devices. Some experts predict VR will be bigger than the film industry within 10 years. What does this mean for higher education? With a new and cheaper gadgets released seemingly every day, the technology is becoming more and more accessible. Come hear how Colorado College is leveraging this new medium, what we’ve learned, and how you can get started--even with limited time and budget.
"No, YOU'RE Crying": How Two Schools Turned a Cinderella Experience into Social Media Gold (MCS7)
Getting into "The Big Dance" is one thing. But what do you do once you're there, and how can you make sure you get the most out of it? University of Arkansas at Little Rock & Stony Brook University were two Cinderella stories in the NCAA basketball tournament this spring, and Meaghan Milliorn Fikes and Chris D'Orso helped tell their schools' stories through social media. They will discuss how best to collaborate across departments and mobilize campus resources quickly and efficiently, and will provide examples of how they capitalized on the excitement of being suddenly thrust into the national spotlight.
#FridayReads: Library and Campus Engagement through Social Media (TIE8)
This session will focus on how academic libraries can reach faculty, staff, and students through social media and website integration. The library offers an abundance of resources that often remain hidden within the library building, but by using social media including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Periscope, the entire campus can not only be made aware of the library services, but also engage with the library staff. For a successful social media marketing plan a number of concerns must be addressed including scheduling of posts and intentional graphic design. This session will provide examples of successful and not so successful posts and there effect on campus outreach. Outcomes: Attendees will learn ways to implement a social media plan that includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Periscope to market library programs and resources. Attendees will learn strategies for integrating web site content with social media planning.
“Mike’s an Idiot” And Other Ways a Responsive Shop Changed Recruitment in 2016 (MCS8)
What happens when you send prospective students an email with the subject line “Mike’s an Idiot," linked to an "un-marketing" video? How do you build an audience of 4,000 in nine months on Snapchat, on a campus with only 1,200 students? Why do millennials love dashcam videos and what happens when you put your baseball team in a van? Can movie trailers double as recruitment videos? Get answers to these questions and more at our session. Last year we said, "go bold, or go home’." This year? We went even bolder and saw huge returns on the risk. Hear from both the marketing and the enrollment sides of the team about why partnering together and taking bigger risks is working well for Beloit. We’ll even share details on why we plan to send blank postcards in 2017. Just kidding. Maybe.
Getting it Right: What REALLY Matters to Students in Social Communities (TIE9)
The use of social media in higher education recruitment is a common practice, often used to supplement more traditional print and email-based outreach methods. Are institutions doing all they can to strategically reach students during the yield period? Are we using the right media and messaging? In 2015, Dr. Corie Martin completed a nationwide research study on admissions and marketing recruitment outreach activities and observed thousands of student interactions within university social media communities. The results of the study showed what was really important to students and suggested how Higher Ed leadership might prepare for the next generation of prospective students.
Self-Updating Social Media-Driven Digital Signage (AIM9)
Digital billboards are practically ubiquitous among college campuses now. They're a helpful tool to get information to students but they also require regular upkeep to keep their content fresh. With limited staff and time, we found that ours were often becoming stagnant. Learn how the Web/Marketing department at Jamestown Community College created a self-updating web-based solution, based on Ruby on Rails, React, CSS animations, and Raspberry Pi, to automatically pull information from a configurable list of social media services and display it with a simple, eye-catching design.
Snapchat, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Snap (MCS10)
"Anything invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things.” -- Douglas Adams Let's say you are in charge of your institution's social media presence and strategy, but you've tried and failed several times to come to grips with the fastest growing platform among people under the age of 25. Your students and prospective students, in other words. If this sounds like you, then hello. I'm old, too. It's nice to meet you. In this presentation, we will walk together hand-in-hand through the sometimes mystifying Snapchat interface, we will discuss the features of the app that differentiate it from other social platforms, and will look at some examples of how universities and colleges are using Snapchat to connect with their students and prospective students. And if you are under 35 and this all makes total sense to you, you'll at least get a laugh.
You Get What You Pay For: Make Facebook Advertising Work for You (AIM11)
We've all spent countless hours and months -- for many of us, years -- growing our Facebook page likes and optimizing our content and calendars. Yet each year our organic reach shrinks, and our carefully crafted posts reach a smaller percentage of our fans. The reason for this is obvious: Facebook wants us to pay. The good news is, with even a small budget, you can make use of Facebook's robust, detailed, and, at times, creepy knowledge of their consumers, and spend your money and your energy reaching your target audiences. This session will focus on the backend of Facebook's native advertising tools, covering Facebook Power Editor, advanced keyword and geo-targeting, email match, remarketing, conversion tracking, Google Analytics integration, and more. We'll also touch on Instagram advertising, as it relates to Facebook, and touch on Twitter and LinkedIn as a bonus if time allows. Bring your laptops, your questions, and any of your own experiences with Facebook advertising to share–together we'll cut through the noise and get our content back in front of the people who care about it!
Is This Hashtag Really Necessary? – Taking the Plunge into Twitter Chats (MCS12)
The Twitter Chat, or any internet “ask me anything” event, can be a dangerous proposition. What starts out well intentioned can go south in a huge hurry. Just ask Citibank, the CEO of REI, or any GOP presidential candidate. Then why would any higher ed institution want to expose their leadership to such a potential pratfall? Because it’s the right thing to do. It’s a direct connection to your audiences, and gets better attendance and broader reach than any forum held in a campus auditorium. When properly executed, a Twitter chat can generate excellent results for institutions of all sizes. This presentation will discuss lessons learned from The College at Brockport’s first ever presidential Twitter chat in November of 2015, using the hashtag #bportprezchat. It will explore what went right, what went wrong, and what could be improved. It will also provide tips for helping you prep for your own Twitter chat, so you can communicate more directly with your audiences.