The Potential of Social Media for Business
Development in Higher Education
Sue Beckingham | @suebecks
Areas to explore
• Who are your key audiences?• Identify the most appropriate platforms (e.g.
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) to engage with your target audiences
• Explore how social media can increase efficiency and effectiveness without increasing workload
• Agree an overall approach to harness the excellent work that is already undertaken by individuals across the Faculty
Develop a strategy and set goals
Getting started:The Trinity of Social Media
Safko 2012
Blog
Microblog
Social Network
But first… Questions to consider• What audiences will you aim to engage? • What type of content will you deliver? • How often will you post content, and where
will it come from? • Who will be responsible for posting content
and engaging the community?
Who is your Audience?
Students: prospective and current
Parents of Students
Alumni
Partners
Companies
Looking from the outside in:
What does your audience LOOK for?
What does your audience SEE?
http://www.shu.ac.uk/
http://www.shu.ac.uk/faculties/hwb/
What messages do you want to
share?
To be efficient and effective use social media to:
• Improve upon (but not replace) existing communication
• Provide real time information• Promote events to new audiences• Encourage sharing: the ripple effect• Advocate transparency and openness
Message Frequency
Daily• Share information via Twitter,
Facebook or LinkedIn on upcoming open days, sporting events or exhibitions
• Include news items you read elsewhere that are relevant to your core content and that will be of interest
• Respond to blog comments, tweets and Facebook posts. The idea of social media is to engage in a dialogue, so be sure to facilitate the conversations.
Weekly• Post a new blog post
• Include a short video capturing for example highlights of an event such as graduation or guest speakers
• Ask students to write a how-to or instructional article
• Participate in related forums or LinkedIn groups
AND to continue this dialogue face to face
CREATORS
CURATORS
CRITICS
CONVERSATIONALISTS
COLLABORATORS
COMMUNICATORS
Social Media EMPOWERS individuals to become digital:
is an information goldmine
5.7 billion professionally oriented
searches were carried out in 2012 on LinkedIn
11 thousand within 60 seconds
http://socialm
edialondon.co.uk/how-people-using-linkedin-2013/
A strategic approach to using this channel has yet to be developed
http://socialm
edialondon.co.uk/how-people-using-linkedin-2013/
Build trusted and valued relationshipsPost status updatesShare news, evaluations, reviews, industry articles, thought leadership pieces or ask followers to interact on hot topics. Posts will appear on your Company Page and in the news feed on the homepage of each of your followers. When followers like, comment and share your message spreads to their networks and builds viral distribution.
Share rich, relevant contentShare images, infographics, or any compelling content that you’ve developed which can help to build a relationship with your target audience.
Encourage virality through sharing buttonsAsk followers to like, share, and comment on your updates. This helps spread your message to their entire network.
LinkedIn (2013)
Develop your Follower Community
By adding the LinkedIn Company Page button link to
all of your marketing communications e.g. your
emails, newsletters, website and blogs.
200 million active users creating over 400 million tweets each day
Second quarter results June 2013
1.15 billion
819 million mobile MAUs
Monthly active users
(MAUs)
51% increase year-over-year
Share presentations on Slideshare
Slideshare
Receive email updates providing analytics
Give Students a Digital Tour Around Campus
Indiana University: 23549 Followers
Create various Pinterest boards
Learning in Action BoardClassrooms, Lecture Theatres, SeminarsStudent Union, Society Activities
City Scene BoardCityscapes, Landscapes, LandmarksPopular restaurants (including pictures of food)Entertainment Venues, Sports GroundsMuseums, Galleries
Engage Students and Alumni
This Pinterest board is a collection of photos of Duke University's campus taken by the Duke community at large. Want to see your photos here? Submit your photos using the
hashtag #pictureduke on Instagram or Twitter.
See what’s resonating with followers
• Keep an eye on update metrics so you can fine-tune your messages and increase engagement.
• Use follower analytics to gain a deeper understanding of your follower base, community growth, and engagement levels.
• Leverage page analytics to learn about page traffic & activity.• Knowing how you compare to your competitors’ pages is a
great way to determine whether you should change your strategy.
Engagement = interactions + clicks + followers acquired
Time for your own
Social Profile Spring Clean?
The Test
distinct
dabbling
disastrous
dissed
disguised
Are you digitally…
(The Undercover Recruiter 2013)
What are people actually seeing about you when they search for you online?
Digitally Disguised - Nothing shows up when someone searches for you online. You essentially don’t exist! Sad, but true.Digitally Dissed - You exist on the web but not on page one. Even if you show up on page 2 or 3 of search results, you might as well be invisible as most people do not go past page 1 to find information about you.Digitally Disastrous - A lot of information does show up for your name, but it is either negative or worse yet about someone with a bad reputation or criminal record who happens to have the same name as you!Digitally Dabbling - There are some on-brand results for you and it accurately reflects who you are, but more information is needed to truly compel others to engage and do business with you.Digitally Distinct - This is where you want to be. There is a lot of relevant information about you on page one of search results and beyond. You are sending out the right message and even others are talking about you online building your visibility and credibility.
http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/own-solid-online-reputation/
How do you show up on Google?
The Potential of Social Media for Business Development in Higher Education
Sue Beckingham | @suebecksSheffield Hallam University
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