Ama 2012 paper presentation
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Edward Osborn of Eastern Connecticut State University and Gwendolynne Larson of Emporia State University, shared how they "Handed Over The Reins: Giving Students Control Without Giving Up Control of Social Media," at AMA Higher Ed, NOLA. Learn how to replace low-value spending with measurable, higher-ROI by leveraging your greatest marketing asset – your students!
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- 1. HANDING OVER THE REINS: GIVING STUDENTS CONTROL WITHOUT GIVING UP CONTROL OF SOCIAL MEDIA #AMAHigherEd
- 2. Edward H. Osborn Gwendolynne Larson Director University Relations Assistant Director osborne@easternct.edu Marketing & Media Relations glarson1@emporia.edu @GwenLarson1964 #AMAHigherEd
- 3. Yes! AMA New Orleans! Image: Michael Jurick Image: Sean Gardner, Reuters
- 4. Ideas • Common challenges • Latest trends • Best practices Opportunity • Identify gaps • Explore solutions Action • Actionable strategies • Implement – NOW! #AMAHigherEd Image: AMA Higher Ed 2011
- 5. Presidential concerns “What has marketing done for Eastern lately?” Recruitment Retention Student Outcomes #AMAHigherEd
- 6. Paid Owned Earned #AMAHigherEd
- 7. 22% 30% 9 % #AMAHigherEd
- 8. Adults Using Social Media #AMAHigherEd
- 9. Forces of impact: most significant on branding & marketing world #AMAHigherEd Source: BrandingForward Project
- 10. #AMAHigherEd
- 11. #AMAHigherEd
- 12. Image: Inside Higher Ed Photo: Inside Higher Ed Source: Inside Higher Ed http://bit.ly/LynnAMA12 #AMAHigherEd
- 13. #AMAHigherEd
- 14. What we’re doing • Supply students with personalized content infused with brand messages • Students share college’s messages in Facebook via their own news feeds • Members of a student’s social graph more likely to see and engage with this content #AMAHigherEd
- 15. Eastern Connecticut State University
- 16. Challenges Media Landscape • News hole • More channels Strategy • We’re on Facebook, right? • Target audiences • Broad audiences Effectiveness • Measure everything! • Demonstrate outcomes #AMAHigherEd
- 17. The big plan Focus on experiential learning • Content strategy • Social media strategy Personalized content • Acknowledge every student • Personal stories get placed Promote in/out of state • Use a multi-channel approach • Geo-targeting: ID counties & bordering states #AMAHigherEd
- 18. Measure everything! Find a way to measure it all – for free?! • Google Analytics • Clipping service • Facebook Insights • News distribution service • Human resources Two free, three fee #AMAHigherEd
- 19. Did it work? Yes • Lots of content for personalized stories • Increase social media participation • More tracking No • Bandwidth limitations • Social media not engaging • High cost, low ROI #AMAHigherEd
- 21. Awarding Branded Badges #AMAHigherEd
- 22. Achievement Strategy: Phase I January February March April Fall Dean’s List MLK Awards Grasso Awards Scholarships Theatre Spring Break Projects Research Conf. Achievement Calendar Winter trips Pathways Leadership Excellence Expo AA Fed Trip Latin Am. Service Award May June July August Commencement Dean’s List Spring Boom Box Parade Enrollment Student Teachers Season’s Athletes SOCs Study Abroad Honor Societies Off-Broadway SOCs Alumni Reunions High 5 September October November December RA’s Club Participation Performing Arts Students Research CCE Activities Day of Giving Penguim Plunge Colitis Walk Shackathon English Awards Donor Luncheon E-Club Hall of Fame E-Club Hall of Fame #AMAHigherEd
- 23. Achievement Strategy: Phase II Dear Students, Eastern Connecticut State University wants to make sure that you're recognized for your achievements. The university has started using a platform called readabout.me to publicize your accomplishments, like making the dean's list, completing a study abroad program, or winning a scholarship. This platform allows us to send news items about your achievements back to your hometown newspapers, and also publishes them on the web. Your online reputation is important - 75% of employers Google an applicant's name at some point in the hiring process. By using readabout.me… #AMAHigherEd
- 24. Achievement Strategy: Phase III #AMAHigherEd
- 25. Achievement Strategy: Phase IV #AMAHigherEd
- 26. #AMAHigherEd
- 28. Demonstrable ROI #AMAHigherEd
- 29. Geo-targeting #AMAHigherEd
- 30. What we learned #AMAHigherEd
- 31. Eastern in One Year • Stories published: from 105 created 7,521 • Emails to parents & students: 13,679 • Posts to social media sites: 1,174 • Facebook audience reach: 1,223,600 • Online readership: 21,579 • Reached 413 zips & 628 media outlets • More than 7,000 media placements #AMAHigherEd
- 33. Challenges Demographics • Rural population declining • Need to extend our reach Outreach • Target digital natives • Build relationships • Multi-channel approach Communications • Replace outdated methods • Reevaluate traditional media Budget • Budget freeze • No additional resources or funding #AMAHigherEd
- 34. #AMAHigherEd
- 35. Demographics • Rural population declining • Need to extend our reach • Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka Outreach • Target digital natives • Build relationships Challenges • Multi-channel approach Communications • Replace outdated methods • Reevaluate traditional media • Build our brand Budget • Budget freeze • No added resources or funding Image: Getty Images
- 36. Same Solution: Achievement Strategy #AMAHigherEd
- 37. Solution: Demographics #AMAHigherEd
- 38. Solution: Outreach #AMAHigherEd
- 39. #AMAHigherEd
- 40. Outreach: Solution #AMAHigherEd
- 41. Whoops #AMAHigherEd Image: http://friendsdatingplaces.com/
- 42. Promote readabout.me #AMAHigherEd
- 43. Communications: Solution #AMAHigherEd
- 44. Budget: Solution #AMAHigherEd
- 45. Top it off Image: Masterfile #AMAHigherEd
- 46. Emporia in One Year • Stories published: from 40 created 6,460 • Emails to parents & students: 5,410 • Posts to social media sites: 616 • Facebook audience reach: 665,000 • Online readership: 12,426 • Reached 631 zips & 864 media outlets #AMAHigherEd
- 47. Attention Matrix Audience Engagement #AMAHigherEd
- 48. Attention Matrix Audience Billboard Social Content Facebook Fan Page Niche Journal/Blog Engagement #AMAHigherEd
- 49. Takeaways • Develop a content & social media strategy • Create an Achievement Calendar • Generate content accomplishments • Personalize & distribute accomplishments • Hand over the reins • Track and measure effectiveness • Review, revise, report your strategy #AMAHigherEd
- 50. QUESTIONS?? Edward H. Osborn Gwendolynne Larson Director University Relations Assistant Director Eastern Connecticut State University Marketing & Media Relations Willimantic, CT 06226 Emporia, Kansas 66801 osborne@easternct.edu glarson1@emporia.edu #AMAHigherEd
Notas del editor
- Hello, I’m Ed the Director of University Relations at Eastern Connecticut State University.Gwen and I are very excited about sharing our marketing experiences with you folks at AMA 2012.You know, there are so many great reasons for coming to AMA Higher Ed this year…[CLICK]
- It’s not just because the Big Easy is hosting us… [CLICK] There’s, of course, the fine dining and [CLICK] the sophisticated culture and night life, right?In addition to the rich culture, I think many of us are here for the same reason – professional networking. [CLICK]
- It’s the networking that presents a path for turning IDEAS into action. [CLICK]Taking what we learn about common challenges, latest trends, and best practice from others so that we can EVALUATE our own practices. By learning about how our peers handle challenges, we can find OPPORTUNITY [CLICK]An opportunity to identify gaps in our own marketing strategy, explore new solutions, and most importantly, turn those ideas and opportunities into ACTION [CLICK]……Gwen and I plan to present some realistic and actionable strategies that you can take back to your own colleges and universities and easily start implementing – tomorrow!We’re going to share a social media strategy we’ve implemented at Eastern and ESU that gave students and parents control of social media through a structured “Achievement Strategy,” turning engaged stakeholders into enthusiastic brand ambassadors and measurable marketing assets. So let’s start with identifying some common challenges – we as campus communicators – are facing.[CLICK]
- You've no doubt noticed a LOT of chatter about ROI lately, especially when it comes to marketing and communications.[CLICK] Highered itself is under intense public scrutiny. There are demands to prove the value of a college education itself. And, Institutions need to show outcomes – what are students learning? What programs and experiences are worthwhile? Will students get jobs when they’re finished with their degree?Colleges presidents and administrators must prove ROI.[CLICK]Which means the people in the president’s cabinet--including marketing and communications—must do the same.[CLICK] Have you felt any pressure from a marketing standpoint to address any of these areas: either recruitment, retention, or outcomes?[CLICK]
- And let’s step back for a moment and talk about content. Marketing and communications departments have three channels to work with. You know what these are:[CLICK] “Paid media” like buying ads, whether they’re in print, online, on billboards or in the yellow pages.[CLICK] “Owned media” or institutional assets, like your university web page, printed materials like viewbooks and magazines, and even a Facebook fan page. [CLICK] “Earned media” like press and positive mentions in the media that good PR or good luck deliver to your university. At my own university, I manage our brand and all three channels, with daily communications with the president, vice presidents, my staff and others. On a small campus, collaboration is the only way we can get things done.No matter who is responsible for each communication channel, we can agree that we’re all facing a similar set of problems: How can I tell what tactics are advancing my university’s goals? How can I confirm that I’m reaching my audience and getting the engagement I want?And most important in a time of tight budgets: what spending gives me the most bang for my buck?[CLICK]
- Getting that bang for your buck is much harder if you’re using those channels in the same way as you did in the past. That’s because two things have happened to the audiences you are trying to reach. First, audiences are disappearing from traditional media channels—paid and earned media. Take a look at this table of media consumption over just four years.[CLICK]Even though total media consumption was up by 9%, time spent with newspapers and magazines fell by 30%. That’s a staggering decline that jeopardizes advertising or PR strategies geared at print media. **Any earned or paid media spending that allocates the same dollars as four years ago…is reaching a smaller audience and having a much smaller impact.So where are these audiences going? They’re spending more time online and using mobile devices. Specifically…[CLICK]
- …we see audiences moving toward using social media. And it’s not just young people on social networks– daily usage by adults grows every year.[CLICK]Thought leaders in higher ed marketing, many of which are here at AMA, like Tommy Bruce, Walter Kimbrough, and Elizabeth Scarborough, have noticed their audiences are going online and away from traditional media. But let’s take a look at the other audience dynamic that is challenging university marketing departments.[CLICK]
- Audiences are not just moving away from traditional media. [CLICK]They are getting more fragmented, moving into smaller groups based on demographics and taste. Audience fragmentation is accelerated by a consumer culture of personalization and customization. [CLICK] The demand for personalized experiences is expected and it has effected everything from… [CLICK]
- …the coffee we drink…[CLICK] …like custom lattes at Starbucks. [CLICK]
- …to Levis custom cut jeans for every body type. And creating personalized experiences isn’t a marketing strategy limited to corporate America…[CLICK]
- Here’s an example…Administrators at Lynn, got together and brainstormed new ways to generate a better return on recruiting dollars. They implemented a personalized, high-touch, communications strategy with prospective students. Lynn went to town, creating everything from personalized parking spots to putting a large screen in the admissions office that welcomes students to campus by name.Target audiences are growing accustomed to brand experiences that are personal, relevant, and tailored to their interests. Smart marketers see the demand for a personalized experience as a real threat. But if we change our perspective, we as campus communicators can turn these threats into opportunities![CLICK]
- This research from Nielsen looks at consumer trust in paid and earned media. 92% of audiences say that word-of-mouth advertising or testimonials from people they know—is the most trustworthy. And 70% trust the recommendations of other consumers. But I believe this is something that we intrinsically know from our own experience.When a parent tells another parent how much their kid loves Eastern or how they’ve seen their child excel at Emporia, or how responsive the faculty is – that endorsement carries a lot of weight. And social media sites are the natural venue for this type of advocacy and experience of a university brand. The same logic applies when a student posts on Facebook that they’re having an amazing time on their study abroad trip or that they’ve just landed an awesome internship with NASA. That is an authentic, word-of-mouth recommendation. At Eastern and Emporia, we’re taking advantage of the very things that threaten traditional marketing practices—the audience shift to online and social media, and the desire of that audience to have personalized content— and we’re turning word-of-mouth into a measurable, predictable and highly effective marketing strategy. [CLICK]
- We’ve learned that the best way to reach our target audience on social media sites is through their friends. Through people’s “social graph.” TakeFacebook for example…they prioritizes content from friends, NOT brands.We’ve started to equip students with stories and content that theywant to share – stories that are PERSONALIZED, but also contain brand messaging about the institution.Because these stories are personalized, they generate moreengagement and comments than content we publish on our own institute Facebook pages. That means we’re showing up in more newsfeeds and getting the institution’s brand and message in front of key audiences. Key audiences like friends looking to transfer or younger friends of current students who are thinking about where to apply to college. 80% of high school students find out about colleges from someone they know -- a friend or family member.We’ve launched a strategy that unites content marketing and social media. We take the achievements and experiences that take place on campus everyday, we customize it, personalize it – and hand it over to our students – who share it in their own personal networks. [CLICK]
- I’ve shared a ton of data and ideas, so let’s specifically talk about what we did, how we did it, and the results?I’d like to start by talking about what Eastern was up against.[CLICK]
- Following the dramatic changes in the media landscape.[CLICK] Eastern was facing a dwindling “news hole” in traditional media outlets and began exploring new ways to distribute content about student and faculty achievements. [CLICK] We were on Facebook, but social media wasn’t a channel we were focused on. We were tasked with reaching new pools of prospective students in specific in-state counties likeFairfield County and out-of-state neighbors, particularly New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. And traditional marketing and communications such as billboards and print advertising was declining in reach and effectiveness. [CLICK] New marketing activities would not be considered without quantitative tracking and reporting. We knew we had to work harder to replace traditional low-value spending with measurable, higher-ROI strategies, so that we could demonstrate outcomes to senior leadership.Oh...and, in addition to all of this – there’s a spending and hiring freeze – so if you could, “just do more with less, that would be great.” As I’m sure many of you can relate!At this point I’m thinking to myself, If I have a limited budget, I would rather spend money on getting our message out there, and cut back on our media monitoring budget.[CLICK]
- We decided to develop …[CLICK]a content strategy, wrap social media into it, and focus on one of Eastern’s strengths – experiential learning. Our community service and intern programs are some of the strongest in the country. [CLICK]We planned to acknowledge every student and faculty member, knowing those stories get placed more often, and we knew this set of strategies mapped back to Eastern’s institutional goals including: build brand affinity and promoting Eastern’s quality and value.[CLICK]In addition to implementing a new content and social media strategy, we needed to evaluate the efficacy of our traditional marketing and public relations efforts and devise an integrated marketing plan that targets neighboring counties and states.[CLICK]
- Of course we had to try and implement our plan and more importantly, find a way to measure it – without increasing our resources.We used: Google Analytics, clipping services, Facebook insights, News distribution services, and human capital.[CLICK]Unfortunately only two out of five were free.[CLICK]
- We implemented a new marketing plan and applied a new set of tactics, but did it work?[CLICK] Yes and no.[CLICK]It wasn’t hard to find great stories about our students’ experiences and big wins.[CLICK] But that method sucks up a lot of human resources. [CLICK]Having a content strategy that ties to social media activity did help us increase engagement. [CLICK] But the audience was limited to those that chose to visit our site, we’re not necessarily reaching new audiences.[CLICK]Finally, we were tracking our activities, including news distribution, print and online marketing. [CLICK] But the cost of traditional media marketing and clipping services was high and lacked the meaty ROI that demonstrates the positive impact our marketing is having on supporting institutional goals.So, we decided to regroup and revise our strategy.[CLICK]
- Our office then implemented a new technology developed by readMedia, an “Achievement Strategy” giving us the capability to validate student achievements and activities on campus and through mass-personalization, create unique custom stories for each of our students. [CLICK] These stories are emailed to students, aggregated online, and become the content that students share in their social networks. [CLICK] This strategy not only promotes Eastern’s students and programs, but alsomeasures stakeholder engagement.[CILCK]
- The act of recognizing and awarding achievements is not new.In fact, the current generation of college students has come to expect recognition for their accomplishments. What is new is how immediate, personal, and digitally portable the achievements and badges are.[CLICK]Awarding “badges” to students for each unique achievement creates high-affiliation brand artifacts, that students and their families share in personal online networks like Facebook and Twitter. [CLICK]
- Phase 1: [CLICK] We developed a content strategy by creating an Achievement Calendar.[CLICK] The calendar of events and achievements would showcase student milestones like making the Dean’s List and graduating to participation in activities like joining the soccer team. We even started to grant achievements to our incoming Freshmen just for enrolling. As part of the strategy, we populated the calendar with achievements that promote Eastern’s unique programs and opportunities.By repurposing generic, low-performing stories that had already been created within the institution – we were able to transform student stories into powerful brandcommunications. [CLICK]
- Phase II:We weren’t fooled by the build it and they will come concept. We knew we had to define the channels and messaging to promote readabout.me to key stakeholders, students, and parents.Reaching parents was a critical part of the Achievement Strategy for the same reasons we talked about earlier, specifically because parents:Question the value of their investment in a college degree andTheir use of of social media to communicate with their children and their friends has increased significantly in recent years.Wedecided to reach out to parents and students during summer orientation sessions to get their emails and and also convey the value and benefits of what we’re doing.Communications didn’t stop there. We also sent a letter to each student explaining the importance of having a positive online profile and why Eastern was helping them create this positive online identity.[CLICK]
- Phase III: Send our first achievement. The platform we were using allowed us to create a story template with placeholders, upload a spreadsheet, and merge the two. It was that easy.We were able to send anywhere between one or thousands of personalized emails, like the one you see here, “Genevieve Nowosad of Lebanon Granduates from Eastern Connecticut State University.”When students receive these personalize achievements they can [CLICK] share them using email or quickly post them on social networks likes Facebook and Twitter.[CLICK]
- Phase IV monitoring results:Here’s a mother that shared her daughter’s achievement on Facebook. 11 people liked it and 9 people really engaged by leaving thoughtful and supportive comments.By using measurable web and social media statistics that are built into the platform, we are able to measure campaign effectiveness as well as monitor engagement online and in social media to determine what achievements garner the most attention so that we can write more stories about those achievements.[CLICK]
- Here is a grandfather sharing his grandson’s achievement on Facebook. These achievements are positive, engaging, and easy to share.[CLICK]
- The “Achievement Strategy” is designed to present a compelling narrative about Eastern’s distinctive charactersupports the demand for a measurable content strategy. Using Web Stats, we can track just how many stories are emailed to students, parents, and media outlets,helping us to monitor, measure, and improve our reach.MAYBE describe the data here maybe how you capture those email addresses < Summer orientation example >[CLICK]
- Every Achievement we send generates a delivery report. We can see where traffic to our stories is coming from. In this particular report we can see that 65 students posted their achievement on Facebook, which drove a mix of 775 family members and friends back to the full story.Now we can easy map activities to our institutional goals, we’re using social media to build brand affinity, market unique programs, engage key audiences, and measure our performance.[CLICK]
- We also use this technology to look at our Deliver Report Map. This gives us a comprehensive view of the media outlets and markets we’re reaching. We use this data to confirm we’re reaching target audiences. If we’re not hittingdesiredmarkets, welook for students in areas we want to target and create additional achievements for students in those target markets to share.[CLICK]
- In reviewing our web stats and delivery reports, we noticed trends in student sharing. This data inspired a revised content strategy. Studentshave no preference for sharing major achievements such as making the Dean’s list or being awarded a scholarship over “everyday” achievements, like participating in a club or event. Both achievement styles were equally embraced and shared by students and parents. Moreover, Connecticut is small, and is characterized by lots of little villages and small weeklies. The fact that parents receive an email with their son or daughter’s story and then see their child’s name in their hometown weeklies, reinforces the message and validates the Achievement Strategy approach. The ongoing success of the Achievement Strategy has stimulated admissions marketing and enrollment with high-value word-of-mouth marketing. Career services loves the achievement initiative because it creates a professionaland institutionally verified profile online. Alumni Affairs believes recognizing students’ accomplishments with personalized strengthens their connection to Eastern – long after graduation. And athletics is keen on mass marketing student athletes’ accomplishments on and off the field. Everyone is onboard with a strategy that works.[CLICK]
- But the numbers really speak for success of the strategy. Over the last year we’ve been able to:Published105 stories which created more that 7,500 personalized achievements and sent these achievements to more than 13,600 students and family members.We’ve had 1,174 students and family members post these stories to social media sites and we’ve reached a Facebook audience of over 1.2 million, driving more than 21,500 students, parents, and friends to read our branded content online.The best part of our social media strategy is the built in news distribution. Every achievement we send to a students auto-generates a version of the same story that is distributed to the hometown newspapers that match each students zip code. With our Achievements Strategy, we’ve been able to reach413 zips & 628 media outlets. And, we’ve gotten more than 7,000 media placements using this strategy. It’s been a tremendous success.INTRODUCE GWEN TIMEI'd like to pass the baton to my colleague Gwen Larson who has a similar experience at Emporia State College.[CLICK]
- Gwen: Thank you Ed. When Ed and I first got together to talk about this paper and presentation, I noticed there were more similarities than differences between our institutions. We both represent State Universities; we have about the same FTE; we we both use a mix of traditional PR, marketing, and online communications; and we face very similar challenges.I’m the Assistant Director of Marketing and Media Relations at Emporia State University. If you’re not sure where that is, our location and pretty much all of the marketing and communication challenges we’re facing can be summarized…[CLICK]
- …by the definition of Emporia State University in the urban dictionary. “Emporia State University is a university placed precisely in the middle of Topeka, Wichita, and Kansas City, and arguably placed in the most depressing middle of nowhere concocted by man.” Now you know where we’re located.“The town of Emporia is home to Emporia State University, which is very presentable yet totally devoid of any intellectual activity, much like a Norman Rockwell painting. The academic atmosphere at ESU is comparable to a lecture on semantics given by the Little Rascals; the educators' hearts are in the right place, but the ineptitude of the majority of the instructors is only eclipsed by the worthlessness of the degrees they churn out.”So it’s obvious we need to build our brand, ourreputation, promote our programs, and communicate the value of and Emporia State degree.Much as we’d like to — we know we can’t control this type of very visible, very public communication…but we can learn from it.[CLICK]
- We can also see our students are definitely using social media. Here we have one student who obviously not paying attention in class because she’s using instagram to capture her friend texting and not paying attention in class.[CLICK] And how about this: I was shocked when I discovered that there are still prospective students out there that have never heard of Emporia?[CLICK] But the most important thing to learn from social media is – how can we reach this student? Read the postThis is exactly who we’re looking to target, but how do we reach her Facebook account and plug our theatre arts program, our athletics, and our “creative financing” without totally creeping her out or violating any federal laws?We needed to figure out a way to reach these students using their preferred methods of communication.[CLICK]
- Taking a closer look at our challenges, our office was tasked with deploying a strategic plan of action that would tackle four competitive pain points.[CLICK]Demographics:Emporia State caters to first-generation college students, most from rural Kansas. But these rural Kansas populations have been steadilydeclining and are projected to dip even further over the next few decades as Kansans move to big cities tofind jobs. So, our traditional prospective student pool is decreasing. Add to that, the total number of Kansas high school graduates is showing stagnant growth.The bottom line — we have to reach beyond our rural communities and appeal to out-of-state students and metropolitan markets specifically: Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka.We asked ourselves the obvious question — who are these students and how do we reach them?[CLICK]We knew that undergraduates ages 24 and under make up82% of the student body. We also know, based on the Facebook posts and tweets we just saw, that we were not effectively capturing the attention of digital natives and their parents.We needed to prioritize reaching and building relationships with a larger target audience and we needed to do it with a new set of tools that integrated marketing using both new and traditional media.[CLICK]We were using online searches and — I’m embarrassed to even admit this — referencing the phone book to formulate, manage and maintain media lists. These methods were expensive and outdated; the processes were exhaustive and time consuming. In fact, I spent my first two weeks on the job doing nothing but updating our Kansas media email lists.And, similar to Ed’s experience at Eastern…[CLICK]…we needed to stimulate enrollment, manage more methods of communication, and engage new and current audiences – with no added resources or supplemental budget.With the odds against us, our office set out looking for a miracle, but really we set out to find the right mix of technology and in-house resources to support a new strategic plan of action. [CLICK]
- That’s when we found readMedia and the “Achievement Strategy.”By thinking of students as natural brand ambassadors who could reach geographic and social media audiences organically, and we could really attack our pain-points.[CLICK]Like Eastern, we took advantage of a platform that allows us to mass personalize content that showcases students’ academic accomplishment and extracurricular activities. [CLICK] We also started by creating an Achievement Calendar. This was an invaluable step in developing our Achievement Strategy. Without the calendar it would have been too easy to limit ourselves to graduation and honor roll releases. But an evolving Achievement Calendar allows us to think about and identify so many more stories about our students – like studying abroad, theatre productions, marching band, and student government. Stories that didn’t surface with previous marketing initiatives.[CLICK]
- Looping back to our pain-points:With the capability to distribute student achievements and share Emporia’s collective story through our students’ social networks, we were able to reach a broader audience in key markets like[CLICK]… Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka, as well as surrounding states from which we want to pull enrollment.Leveraging student achievements really gave us the power to systematically build Emporia’s reputation and brand in competing markets.[CLICK]
- With the Achievement Strategy, we were able to engage current and prospective students as well as parents with content that is relevant, authentic, and tailored to their social graph.When students and parents share their pride in their achievements online, they increase awareness and draw more attention to the quality of ESU’s academic programs and activities. Take this achievements for example. There are several marketing tactics at work here:We have an unmistakable branded content.The content is personalized to the extent that Katelyn’s name is in the headline.The story conveys scholarship opportunities, letting people know that we help students afford their education.And Katelyn even took the time to upload her picture to her online profile, better yet, it’s her official mugshot as a volleyball player.The story is easy to share, just by clicking the icons below.Having students and parents bring branded stories like this into their social networks endorses ESUand authenticates the rich student experience ESU wants to promote to constituencies.[CLICK]
- When students and family members share these achievements on Facebook, we can monitor the engagement — are their friends and family simply liking the story?Nick shared his participation in the theatre production of Guys and Dolls and we can see it received 7 likes.[CLICK] We can also see if audiences are really getting engaged with our branded content by posting encouraging comments.Andrew posted his personalized story about Guys and Dolls of Facebook, he received 4 likes and one comment.[CLICK] And we can monitor whether or not they’re sharing their achievements on other social networking sites? Like Twitter.[CLICK]These are all measures of outreach and engagement.[CLICK]
- Building relationships with parents is part of our overall outreach strategy. Giving students positive content about their participation and achievements supports this strategy. Here’s a perfect example:We granted Jasmine Greene an achievement for her community service, Jasmine emailed her achievement to her grandparents, and her grandparents contacted me with a personal note of thanks. They say, “Thank you for passing this on to Grandma and Grandpa! We appreciate our …” FINISH READING EMAILThis not only showcases the value of our programs and the personal attention we give each of our students, it increases engagement with our academic community. Our “Achievement Strategy” allows us to enter the conversation and makes people like Kris and Gary Troyer want to give back, by talking about Emporia or even making a donation to support their granddaughters alma mater.[CLICK]
- We did make one mistake when we implemented the Achievement Strategy. After we created all of this new, totally relevant and personalized content, we handed it over to students, and we sat there waiting to see the Facebook shares, the tweets, the page views, but they were weak. We were looking for 100% open rate, 100% sharing, what we learned was – the first group of students we sent achievements to had no idea what it was, they almost thought it was a hoax. They had never really had an academic institution write a personalized press release about an activity they participated in or an academic accomplishment. It seemed like a scam to students.It was then that we decided the only way we are going to engage students and get them posting our content in their personal online networks is to educate them. We realized we needed to promote readabout.me and the Achievements Strategy on campus. So we did. We sent emails to students telling them about the program and how they could benefit from it.[CLICK]
- Part of my job in media relations also included taking over parent outreach, so I included a column about the program in a parent newsletter. After all — we parents want our children’s achievements published so we can receive the compliments back home. Once we got the educating students part down, it took about one semester, and the Achievement Strategy started to gain momentum.[CLICK]
- Implementing a new, measurable, social media strategy dovetailed nicely with the Office’s need to streamline news distribution and media management. In 2010 we were only reaching 48 hometown news outlets, in just the past year we’ve hit 864.Analyticslike this demonstrates we’re getting strong enrollment from states like Idaho, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Ohio.[CLICK] We can also see if we’re hitting those in-state target audiences in Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City.The Achievement Strategy has significantly decreased thetime I spend maintaining media lists, it’s increased media channels, and significantly cut spending – without having to add staff.[CLICK]
- And for the first time ever, we have a social media strategy with tangible ROI. We now have benchmarking data and metrics to support our office’s activities. And we have been able to achieve our marketing and media relations goals without increasing staff or man hours. We’ve gotten oursocial media program off the ground and we continue to demonstrate our value by aligning our investment with the needs of the institution, its students, and its parents.As with Eastern, our Delivery Reports and Web Stats help us identify stories that gained traction with key audiences. [CLICK]
- The timing of our new strategy dovetailed nicely with the university’s launch of an integrated marketing plan.Our office had recently transitioned from Public Affairs and Marketing to Marketing and Media Relations and we were working with colleges and departments across campus encouraging them to bring their marketing and media relations tasks to us so we could ensure a unified message.Promoting the Achievement Strategy to stakeholders was necessary; but I had not expected such a welcoming response. After getting students on campus involved with spreading the word, we developed messaging to educate department chairs, deans, and professors. After seeing students’ stories published online and in print, individual faculty members started contacting me asking, “how can I get coverage for our honor society or can I get a badge for the conference I attended?”It was shocking to see an inbox filled with relevant headlines from faculty members and activity coordinators. I was being relieved from the burden of being an investigative reporter,seeking out “newsworthy” stories on campus.Knowing that Emporia State was validating and promoting personal achievements made them not only more credible, but even more desirable.And if a student or staff member wanted to issue an achievement for a story that I knew wouldn’t get published in their hometown media, I simply grant sets of students an online only achievement. That way they can still get their personalized story and I don’t have to worry about inundating the media.[CLICK]
- In one year, ESU has distributed 40achievements, generating 6,460 individual stories that were published online and distributed to more than 5,400 students and parents. An impressive 77% of students and parents opened these personalized achievements in e-mail and shared these institutionally branded accomplishments on Facebook, reaching an audience of approximately 665,000. The Facebook shares and social media activity alone drove more than 12,400 friends and family members to the original student stories and profiles on readabout.me. We’ve also been able to reach 631 zip codes and we’ve extended our hometown news reach from 40 in 2010 to 864 in 2012.Facebook interactions are driving online readership, media hits, and editorial coverage, giving Emporia State an edge over institutions in neighboring urban markets. Quantitative metrics allow us to focus on achievements that matter most to our stakeholders and bring greater attention to the university. Stories and achievements that would have gone unrecognized such as performance arts announcements, alternative spring breaks and community service, are getting published and generating hundreds of comments, shares, and hits in social and online networks. Our office has built a stronger, more engaged, Hornet community – at a fraction of the time and cost.[CLICK]
- As we near the end here, Ed and I want to summarize all of the quantitative and qualitative data you’ve seen here today in a framework we call an Attention Matrix.Basically, The Attention Matrix is made up of two components: audience and engagement.Nearly every type of marketing content can be placed along this matrix. There's not necessarily a right or wrong place to be; you want to have a mix. Let's look at our results on the Attention Matrix.[CLICK]
- We’ll start with an institution’s Facebook fan page. [CLICK]Facebook is a powerful medium, but even if you have thousands of fans, the reality is that on average, only 16% of your fans ever see the posts.This is because Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm determines if posts appear in the news feeds of users. So you could have a post of a campus photo that gets a few dozen likes and comments, but the audience for it is relatively small. It won’t reach all your fans, and it won’t reach beyond fans to others on Facebook. Fan page content may not do much for brand awareness, as usually the people who have liked your fan page already have some connection to your college. So this type of content might fall into the lower left quadrant.[CLICK] Some content you want to get out to a broad audience, but it might not be very engaging. Like the Billboards we put up on the highway. A lot of people will likely see it, but few will stop, jot down the website or 1-800 number, or tell others about the billboard or the program. Large audience, low engagement. [CLICK] The inverse is a marketing tactic that reaches a small audience, but one that engages with the content. For example, a highly targeted media pitch to a niche journal or technical blog about some research your faculty is doing. If that story is picked up, it probably won’t reach a very large audience, but it is likely to resonate with the audience and engage them – they will pass it around and share it within their academic community, likely through email or Twitter.[CLICK] In the upper right of the matrix is a real sweet spot. This is where you want to be. You want content that reaches a large audience that's also really engaged. We have been able to reach and engage larger audiences because the stories we create are personalized, we hand them over to students, and these brand ambassadors generate a lot of likes, comments and activity online from friends and family. All of this draws attention to our Universities and is measureable. Most institutions aren’t getting to the upper right quadrant using current strategies.So the attention matrix helps you go beyond thinking about just number of marketing outputs, which is a measure of activity alone, and helps you put those outputs into a context that can show results: how many people are you reaching and are they engaged with or interested in your content -- are you getting their attention for your institution with your marketing messaging?[CLICK]
- Wrapping up, Ed and I would like to leave you with a few key points about giving students control without giving up control of social media:Develop a content and social media strategy that aligns with and promotes your institution’s core values and goals.Combine these efforts to form an Achievement Strategy.Generate content around student accomplishments and activities; content should reflect what you want your students to be known for and support your institution's unique value proposition.Distribute personalized stories about these accomplishments to each student, their parents, and hometown newspapers.Hand over the reins and let your students and their parents take your brand and message into their personal social networks. It’s more effective than posting content on your Facebook Fan page and hoping they interact with it.And finally, be sure totrack and measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategies, i.e., audience and engagement, using web analytics, social platform “apps” and other online measurement tools to present this data to your senior leadership, andrevise your strategy to increase performance.[CLICK]
- Now it’s your turn — Do you have any questions or comments?