Universities & Social Media

John Rice, Emily Vontom & Pamela Young Setla

Why?

• Eastern Michigan University needs to step up it up in the game of social media

• We want to create a social media plan for EMU that brings the social media program under the direction of a social media team

• We also need to increase awareness of EMU’s social media presence on campus

Who We Followed• Baylor University• College of St. Rose• University of Michigan• University of Wisconsin• University of Oregon• Howard University• Bowling Green State University• San Diego State University• University of Mississippi• University of Nebraska• University of Kansas• University of Florida• Marquette University

In order to get a better understanding of how social media can work in a university environment, we followed 13 different universities and their social media efforts. These universities came from all over the country from very different regions. We also studied EMU’s social media in order to see how we compared.

What We Followed

• All of these universities had at least a Twitter, Facebook and YouTube account

• A little over half had a university blog (some used Tumblr or WordPress as their blogging platform!)

• Most of the universities used other social media platforms, including: Flickr, Pinterest, iTunes U, LinkedIn, G+, FourSquare and Tumblr

Tweet, tweet!• @umich: University of Michigan Social Media presentation slides

available now! slidesha.re/L1Weyi via @slideshare #UMSocial

• @CollegeofStRose: Political Science alum reflects on the Saint Rose Difference: wp.me/p1USHw-5N via @SaintRoseGrad

• @marquetteu: Almost forgot about #TuesdayTrivia! Let’s do this in 10 minutes. Follow @FatherMarquette for your question of the day.

• @uwmadison: @SconnieP14 @uwnewstudent is using #uwsoar to promote SOAR! Thanks for your help.

• @OleMissRebels: Sunny Day on campus instagr.am/p/Lf1sm5q2ao/

YouTube• Bowling Green State University:

Student Money Management Services

• Marquette University: Alumni share words of wisdom for Class of 2012

• San Diego State University: From Students to CEOs

• University of Kansas: KU Traditions – The Cheer

• University of Florida: A Better Tasting Tomato – Research Spotlight

Blogs

• St. Rose

• San Diego State University

• Marquette University

• Eastern Michigan University

• The overall goal is to emphasize is recruitment

• “I see tweets and specific questions. It’s a more personalized experience. Students have more trust in social media when they connect with current students.”

• “I personally don’t include the website in the category of social media. Social media is two-way communication.”

• “The major difference now is getting everyone to understand social media and making sure all are working together. while social media is largely free, you need someone to run it.”

Interview with Kayla at St. Rose

• “With Facebook, you need someone to monitor it so people can post. I did a lot of research about social media policy and that was approved. It is a two-three page document. It has to be appropriate on the channel or we’ll take stuff down.

• At the moment, we have enough resources to do what we are doing. We have work study students; online ambassadors are blogging for the college – three are paid students. This is sustainable. Editing the video, getting footage – we use students.”

Kayla at St. Rose, cont.

• If someone wants to start a social media program at a University:– Pick a few things to focus on

– Before I started, I laid out a 30-day plan because it is easy to get lost!

– At least on a simple basis, track what is happening.

– Before starting or revamping, review what is successful and what isn’t successful.

– Meet with different officers: admissions, alumni, etc.

– Alumni are tricky! Older alumni push back, but you must remember it is important to connect with people.

– Social media can be used with traditional media, too.

Kayla at St. Rose, cont.

What We Learned

• We aren’t the only University with social media “issues.”

• There is a lot more we can do with our social media channels.

• We know how to make Eastern’s social media presence one of the best in the country.

Social Media Plan

Eastern Michigan University

John Rice, Emily Vontom & Pamela Young Setla

Situation Statement

• Enhance Eastern Michigan University’s social media presence in order to reach potential and current students, alumni, faculty and staff more effectively and build a stronger dialogue.

• Build a strong unified social media presence that will enable us to be a leader amongst universities in a competitive social media environment.

Challenges & Opportunities• Challenges

– Our audience is not being engaged with in a way that will make them want to come back.

– Lack of cohesiveness in social media throughout the University.– Social media channels are not updated often enough or at all.– We don’t have a social media strategy or team in place to ensure the

University’s social media is correctly utilized.– Great content gets buried by filler posts.

• Opportunities– Social media channels are already in place and ready to be used.– We have large following waiting to be engaged and interacted with. – We have the resources (a great videographer, photographer, and

knowledge) that can produce solid content.– There is expertise on campus that can be utilized.

Objectives

• Create a more socially engaged and online campus community.

• Make our social media platforms more attractive and thus more engaging and effective.

• Enhance Eastern’s reputation through social media to get people excited to come here, be here and be apart of the community.

• Bring together social and academic experiences.

Tactics• Use already established social media platforms to reach

out and engage campus community, alumni, prospective students and outside community – and use these resources correctly.

• Make quick fixes – quickly!

• Create a social media dashboard on emich.edu website.

• Create and hand-out social media cards.

• Use of all the social media listed on the following slides…

Facebook• Facebook

– Facebook should be updated at least once daily in addition to engaging with followers who post comments and questions as often as possible.

• Short Term Objectives– Create a more engaged following on Facebook to better represent the

University.– Create engaging and useful content for followers.– Update cover photo.– Add social media policy.

• Ex: University of Michigan

• Key Metrics– Followers– Likes, shares and comments– Interactions– Use Facebook metrics

• Overview, likes, reach, talking about this, check-ins.

Twitter• Tweets

– Tweeting should happen daily, at least once an hour with original content and as often as possible when engaging with followers.

• Short Term Objectives– Our Twitter handle shouldn’t be @EMU_Swoop – it should be

something like: @emich, @easternmichiganu, @emu, etc.– Promotion of other Eastern social media outlets through Twitter.– Follow all Eastern related Twitter accounts – departments, schools,

athletic teams, coaches, etc.– Engage with current followers on a consistent basis with original

content– Update profile, background picture, colors, etc.

• Key Metrics– Number of followers– Daily comments, mentions and RTs

• Blogging:– Blogs should be posted at least three times weekly or once daily.– Blogs should be mostly written by students, but alumni, faculty and

staff “guest blogs” would be good to incorporate every now and then.

• Short Term Objectives:– Create an editorial calendar & blog publication schedule.– Add an RSS button.– Use real pictures in blog posts not clip art. And give credit for

pictures.– Add a blog roll with EMU related blogs and other blogs that relate.– Update links on blog and update blog layout.

• Key Metrics:– Subscribers– Audience growth– Number of posts and comments– Directory listings

Blogging

YouTube

• Video Posting• Update with a new video at least once weekly with material from the

Eastern videographer and other University channels (athletics, campus life, etc.).

• Short Term Objectives• Maintain consistent posting schedule.• Link to other Eastern YouTube channels.• Encourage students to contribute.• Link to YouTube on Eastern video page and/or possibly embed videos

instead of hosting them.• Always post YouTube video links to Facebook.

• Key Metrics• Subscribers• Video comments• Video views

Flickr

• Picture Posting– New pictures should be posted at least once weekly.– Currently, our Flickr account has not been updated since 2010! If we

see that Flickr still isn’t getting hits after a “makeover,” then we should consider getting rid of it.

– We have a great photographer who takes amazing photographs.

• Short Term Objectives– Update Flickr account on a regular basis.– Encourage student contributions to the Flickr page.– Always post pictures to Facebook as well – either links to Flickr

albums, or “teaser” albums.

• Key Metrics– Comments– Views– Contacts

Pinterest

• Pinning– Pinning should be done at least two to three times weekly.– Ex: Michigan and Ole Miss

• Short Term Objectives– Create pin boards that engage the University community.

• Ex: athletics, academics, history, alumni, clothing, game day, Ypsilanti, etc.

– Encourage students to contribute.

• Key Metrics– Followers– Repins– Comments

Recommendations

• Create a social media position in the Division of Communications.– Establishing the position would allow Eastern to really see how

important social media is and how much more important it is for social media to done.

• Create a social media team with a director and staff.– Creating a social media team gives full direction and responsibility of

social media to the University instead of an outside team that isn’t fully connected to the campus community.

• Create social media policy for the University.– Ex: University of Michigan, University of Florida, College of Saint

Rose

Recommendations

• Create a social media card!– Ex: College of Saint Rose

• Social media dashboard or landing page.– Ex: Marquette, San Diego State University, University of Michigan

• Get rid of MySpace!• While MySpace users do exist, it is rare that they are on it these days for anything but music

and friends.

Timeline & Budget

• Timeline– Implement plan with current staff, but have an eye towards what we

really need.– After a 30-day evaluation and implementation period, a 90-day

evaluation period should be completed to monitor changes to social media and social media policy.

– Once the 90-day evaluation is done, a recommendation can be made for creating a new position and hiring a social media manager or director.

• Budget– We estimate that we spend on social media agencies what we could

spend on one (maybe two) staff member(s) (to work directly with social media) plus social media tools.

– It only costs $10/month to purchase the pro version of HootSuite.

Evaluation

• Increases, increases, increases!– Monitor everything!– Monitor Facebook likes, comments, shares, etc.– Monitor YouTube views.– Monitor Twitter followers, tweets, retweets, etc

• We already have the resources, they just need to be used more effectively!

• Moving forward, we need to evaluate the results of the impact of a more focused social media effort on existing resources, looking toward the possibility of adding a dedicated manager or director of social media.

Conclusion• Eastern Michigan’s social media platforms are in rough

shape (but, they aren’t the only university that needs a bit of help!).

• Some improvements could be done quickly that would yield quick and obvious results.

• Social media is here to stay. The big ones (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs) must be given immediate focus.

• Must keep an eye on social media trends.

• We must take steps forward and utilize our social media correctly and effectively! We can’t just let it sit and hope for results.