How To Be Brilliant on The Big Three ISBI 2018OLIVIA MALAURE | MARKETING MANAGER, UK

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

PART 1#IndySchools on Social Media

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Today, let’s talk about:

1. Quick wins for improvement across all networks2. Simple best practices you can implement to improve your

social media game AND school-to-home communications3. How to engage with your followers (and why it matters)4. Examples from schools who are doing all the right things

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There’s a whole slew of ‘bad practices’ happening out there, like...• Creating a different social media account on every network

for every faculty at your school• Using social media more than your website• Posting the same content across every network at the same

time• Ignoring questions/comments/feedback• Blurry photos• Poorly branded pages• Completely abandoned accounts

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I get it...you’re...• Too busy• Confused by social media• Having trouble keeping up• Against social media in general because of

security/bullying/etc.• Focused on other initiatives• A self confessed ‘dinosaur’

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Build a foundation for your social media brand

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Write a Social Media Policy• Distribute school-wide• Make sure it gets signed• Use this as your

opportunity to opt your child out of social media photos

Free Social Media Policy Template - Download

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Have a distinct, enjoyable personality• Be someone you’d enjoy

hanging out with!• Have a voice that attracts

your target audience and engages your current one

• Memes and GIFs are fun!

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PART 2Social Content Strategy 101

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The Evolution of Each Network•Twitter: The Newsroom

• Links to news stories• Tagging other individuals• Quick up-to-the-minute updates• The original #hashtag

• Instagram: The Storefront• Stunning photos + videos, branded

•Facebook: The Tea Station• Find a mix of personality and professionalism• Platform for continued engagement/conversation

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How much is too much?Twitter: 5-10 times per day

• Engagement can drop off after the third tweet

Facebook: 1-2 times per day• Engagement drops off dramatically after 2x per day

LinkedIn: 1 time per day• 20 posts per month (1x per weekday) organically reaches 60% of your followers

Instagram: 1-2 times per day• 20 posts per month (1x per weekday) organically reaches 60% of your followers

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When do we post?Twitter: Throughout the day

Facebook: Use your analytics!

LinkedIn: Early mornings or evenings

Instagram: Early mornings and evenings

* General rule of thumb: early mornings, lunchtime, and evenings

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What about hashtags?Twitter: 1-3

Facebook: 0-2

LinkedIn: 1-2

Instagram: 13+ (the more, the merrier!)

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This isn’t just a numbers game, it’s about consistency.

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8 Mistakes Harming the Equation1. Your posts don’t have images or videos2. Your post frequency is inconsistent3. You don’t follow the 4-1-1 rule 4-1-1 = for every 4 pieces of entertaining/interesting content you can do

1 soft sell - testimonial and 1 hard sell = give to the annual fund

4. You’re not promoting your social accounts in other places5. Algorithms6. You’re not investing in social media ads7. You ask for likes, comments and shares8. You don’t post good, consistent content, and

therefore, no one sees your contentblog on this: http://www.finalsite.co.uk/blog/p/~post/8-reasons-no-one-is-liking-your-schools-facebook-posts-2282017

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PART 3FACEBOOK

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Branding Your Facebook

Recognisable logo that matches the logo used on their website

Eye - catching, branded cover photo

upcoming events, reviews, information, etc.

fresh content

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Using Facebook’s Header CTA• You can now have a

header video instead of an image

• Use the Facebook CTA to drive traffic to particular pages

• Ask your community to write reviews

• Be online!

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

Facebook changed, again.

• New Facebook algorithms now favour family, friend and group posts over Page posts

• Proof that Facebook wants to get back to its “social” roots, but also wants to be pay-to-play

• Groups on the rise (Join the Finalsite School Marketing Group!)

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Outsmarting Algorithms 101• Consistency

• Post on Facebook 3-10 times a week• Tweet at least five times a day (“yeah right” I hear you say!)• Instagram around 1.5 times a day

• Relevancy Score/Historic Data• If you have a few posts in a row that get high engagement, it will show your posts to

more people• Time spent on post also a factor

• Video• Engagement on native video• Facebook Live – the longer the broadcast, the better!

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

How to earn engagement

Essentially, you need likes, comments and shares, in order to get likes, comments and shares (easy, right?!)

• Pictures of students, featured faculty, prestigious alumni

• Something your community is proud of• Videos and photos• News stories/features

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

Additional Strategies• Create Facebook Groups for current,

prospective and former students. Groups are great because members receive notifications!

• Focus on earning likes/comments/shares

• Quality > Quantity (although consistency still matters)

• Use Facebook Events

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PART 4TWITTER

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Branding Your Twitter

Recognisable logo that matches the logo used on their website

Nice, high resolution image from campus

A recognisable handle

Selection of a Twitter color scheme that is a brand accent color

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Twitter is still Great for School-to-Home Communications• Easy to use platform that

teachers,sports faculties, communications can use

• If you’re going to use this platform for up-to-the-minute communications, inform your community!

• Work great in a mash-up on your website especially if you have multiple accounts

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Tweet• Use headline-style copy• Post a link back to your website• Use a photo• 1-3 hashtags• Mention

students/associations/other Twitter handles featured in the story

• Mention news outlets when sharing coverage of the school

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

What builds engagement?• Posting great content — photos,

videos, news, blogs, etc — frequently!

• Reposting user-generated content• Engaging with followers on social

media• Branded hashtags

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Create a hashtag people want to use

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School-to-home communication

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Be a resource for your families

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PART 5INSTAGRAM

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Branding Your Instagram

Recognisable logo that matches the logo used on their website

HQ Photography

An easy-to-tag handle

Website URL

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Make Your Instagram a Business Page

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Instagram Best Practices

• Only post high quality images. Don’t post anything blurry, dark, etc.

• If you are taking a photo on your phone, be sure to clean off the lens first!

• You can use older photos!• Get a photo crowdsourcing app

like Vidigami• Consider brand colors and

personality

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Start a Campaign Unique to You

blog on this: http://www.finalsite.co.uk/blog/p/~post/feature-friday-american-school-of-paris-fuels-social-media-with-user-generated-content-07092017

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Instagram Stories• Post real-time updates for

an event• Make an announcement• Tease an upcoming event• Do a live Q&A• Share some tips• Have fun, add emojis and

text• Save all the videos and

upload them to your Instagram

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PART 6THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

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Types of Engagement

• “Reacting” to a comment• Replying to a comment• Tagging someone• Responding to a message• Reposting something

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Create branded images to use across all networks

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Have a Plan

• When will you reply?• How will you reply?• What happens if

someone asks a difficult question?

• How do you get approval to re-post?

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Partner with other businesses to build your brand and credibility

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Have good reviews!Managing reviews on social media has an increasing importance — 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation!

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

Promote social media on your website (and in your emails, staff signatures, etc…)

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

Finalsite Feeds + Brand Awareness

● Automatically and manually moderate the social media content that appears on your website

● Have refreshed social content on your website every 5 minutes (instead of every 4 hours)

● Track analytics to improve your social media marketing

● Use up to five social media sources to aggregate authentic, up-to-date content site-wide

● Use the Feeds Element to create custom mash-ups on any page of your website

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What’s engaging RIGHT NOW!?• Facebook Live• Facebook multi-photo posts• Instagram Videos• Instagram Stories• LinkedIn Video - NEW!

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

Getting Started With Live Video• Live video is favoured by Facebook’s algorithms, requires little

production skill, and gets a ton of views• On Instagram, followers get a push notification when someone goes

live• Start simple: Q&A’s, behind-the-scenes, how-to/tips for

students/parents• Consider a weekly/bi-weekly broadcast or create a consistent

schedule, making it something that people look forward to. Get students involved!

• Cross promote with other channels• ⅔ of live video views will be viewed after the live broadcast has

ended

#SchoolsGetSocial | @FinalsiteUK

Using Social Media Influencer Marketing• Your students, parents and faculty

are your voice, too• There’s a really (really) good

chance your students get more engagement than your school’s page

• Enlist a set of “social influencers” to speak about school life on their own accounts

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Anatomy of a clickable...

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Facebook Post• Has a photo or video• Shares 1-2 sentences as to why

someone should click• Includes a CTA when you want

people to take a next step• Uses 1-2 branded hashtags

relevant to a particular campaign

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Ads Best Practices• Send user directly to page you want them to

go to• If possible, create custom landing page that

looks great on mobile• If contact/lead form, make it as short as possible

• The shorter, the better• Studies show 90 characters or less perform best

for ads and posts!

• Use images that have people and their faces - A/B test two images in the same ad set• Track ad campaigns by tagging URLs to see which perform best• “Learn More” CTA typically shows best results, A/B test to see if others resonate

w/your audience

Q&AThank you for joining me!

#Finalsite @FinalsiteUK

www.finalsite.co.uk