This document discusses best practices for integrating social media into marketing and communications strategies. It recommends coordinating social media efforts across departments, producing engaging content for multiple channels, and running focused social media campaigns to achieve organizational goals. Examples are provided of universities that have effectively used editorial calendars, directory pages, and "smashups" to curate content from different sources and connect their online and social media presences. The overall message is that multi-channel communication and content integration are important for connecting with audiences.

1. Connect Your
Own Dots:
Social Media Integration as a Best Practice for
Marketing and Communications Professionals
mStoner

2. Susan T. Evans
Senior Strategist
@susantevans

3. It’s not about us, it’s about the
audience we want to reach.
#truethat #connectSMdots

4. Inbound marketing is more
effective for earning the
attention of audiences.
#connectSMdots

5. Our Agenda
I. It’s a web presence, people.
II. Run a campaign!
III. Make a smashup for them?
IV. Coordination not desperation.

6. Everything is
connected to
everything else.
Michael Stoner (2010)
http://mstnr.me/9uemQS

7. .edu

8. Multi-channel communication.
Please, connect the dots for your audience.
Integrate. Again, I say, integrate!
page

9. “We already have a social media coordinator
who takes care of all that for us.”

10. Play nice...

11. It’s a web
presence
people!
1

12. #authenticity
Footprint = Collection of content across
multiple channels that represents you.

13. Instead, the big fat footer...
strip
strip
Vanderbilt University - news.vanderbilt.edu/

14. A social footer...
Elizabethtown College - etown.edu

15. A social strip just above the footer...
Webster University - webster.edu
...or in the middle of the homepage

16. Lead them home!

17. Publish (and promote) regular features.
George School - Our Week in Pictures

18. Connect print and web and social.
William & Mary - ampersandbox.wm.edu

19. Connect print and web and social.
William & Mary - ampersandbox.wm.edu

20. Connect print and web and social.
William & Mary - ampersandbox.wm.edu

21. Connect print and web and social.
William & Mary - ampersandbox.wm.edu

22. Connect print and web and social.
William & Mary - ampersandbox.wm.edu

23. Wherever you go, there you are! Seriously.
“Mobile is
social media-ish.”
mStoner Blog: Mobile + Social = Social + Mobile
Is mobile web a social media tool?

24. Amplify your
message...

25. Run a
campaign!
2

26. #getresults
Social Media Campaign = Focused effort to
achieve goals using a variety of channels
appropriate to the results sought.

27. Oregon State University
Powered by Orange Campaign

28. http://poweredbyorange.com
“It’s you — the network of alumni, students, faculty, staff, friends and fans
connected to Oregon State University. It’s the positive impact you make
every day in Portland and beyond – on the economy, the environment and
the community. Use this Web site to tell your story and connect with the
other practical idealists who are Powered by Orange.”

30. Map yourself.

31. Everywhere...

32. Nazareth College
Flight of the Flyers Campaign

33. http://www.flightoftheflyers.com/
“To be honest, I was surprised at how well it did take off, both years.
I thought it was kind of a harebrained idea. We wanted to have
some fun—I had no idea how much people would like it.”
— Kerry Gotham, Director of Alumni Relations at Nazareth College

34. Find your flyer.

35. Get a Golden Flyer!

36. William & Mary
Mascot Search Campaign

37. College of William & Mary
http://www.wm.edu/mascot

39. Meet the William & Mary Griffin
http://www.wm.edu/mascot

40. Tee up your
messages...

41. Make a
smashup for
them?
3

42. #contenthub
Smashup = Content, curated from multiple
sources, to create a new destination or service.

43. utexas.edu/know/

44. utexas.edu/know/

45. now.tufts.edu/

46. tufts.edu/

47. tufts.edu/

48. bu.edu/buniverse/

49. bu.edu/buniverse/

50. bu.edu/buniverse/

51. #socialdirectory
Directory = The what and where of
your social channels.

52. Carnegie Mellon

53. nd.edu/social/

54. Stay on
message...

55. Call for campus
coordination!
4

56. #nosilos
Share information = Coordinate with
everyone who has the word
“communications” in their title.

57. Focus on content.
What’s that you say?

58. Use an editorial calendar.
Brought to you by UT Austin...

59. April 2012 Editorial Calendar
Web Features
April 9-13 Carousel Stories
A Tree of Life Grows in Texas and Tandy Warnow (Signature Story)
TACC Changers (through Wed only)
Game
Elections 2012 Video – Henson w/Vicky deFranceso Soto
(Government) Essay – Regina Lawrence (Communication)
Elections 2012
Energy Poll (McCombs)
Honors Day (Cockrell) Pending
Smoking Cessation (University Operations) Pending
April 16 – 20 Carousel Stories
Texas Book Photo Slideshow (Signature Story)
Committee on Business Productivity (Administration)
Research Week (UGS & Senate of College Councils)
Architecture in the Americas (Architecture)

60. April 16 – 20 Carousel Stories Continued
Elections 2012 Video w/ Henson & Robert Prentice
Oil and Governance (LBJ School)
Ben Ruben/Cronkite Installation (Communication)
April 23 – 27 Carousel Stories
“Switch” Energy Project (Jackson School)
Community College Engagement (Education)
Child Development Center (Human Ecology)
Ben Ruben/Cronkite Installation (Communication) continued
Twenty Years of Diabetes Research in South Texas (Nursing)
April 30 - May 4 Carousel Stories
Early Earners Economics (Signature) COLA
University Extension – Peace Corps Student Video (CIE)
Tower Lighting (April 3) Staff Recognition Awards
Tower Darkening (April 4) UT Remembers

61. April 2012 Editorial Calendar
Social Media
April 2012 UT Austin Social Media Pushes
Voices Against Violence (April 4)
Blanton Student Fest (April 5)
White House Youth Town Hall (April 10)
Game Changers (April 11)
¡A Viva Voz! (April 12)
Margaret Berry SAC Atrium Dedication (April 13)
Honors Day (April 14)
Forty Acres Fest (April 14)
Austin’s Cultural Campus Concert Crawl (April 14)
Waller Creek Cleanup (April 14)
Longhorn Run (April 14)

62. April 2012 UT Austin Social Media Pushes Continued
Research Week (April 16-20)
Longhorn Research Bazaar (April 18)
Ben Rubin Art Projection Installation (April 19)
“Contour” Fashion Show (April 19)
International Symposium on Online Journalism (April 20-21)
Butler Opera Center presents “Die Fledermaus” (April 25)

63. Host a social media collaborative...

64. If you build it...

65. Recommended
• Create partnerships with other campus units
• Focus on your web presence (website, social)
• Produce great, flexible content (it always
makes things easier)
• Determine the purpose, relevance and
importance of each platform
• Integrate social content within your website
and print collateral
• Think of social as only one element of your
marketing and communications strategy

66. Bonus! Testing, testing...1, 2, 3

67. The bottom line?

68. It’s a big scary communication world out there
but it is possible to achieve your goals.

69. Visit the CASE blog.
http://case.typepad.com/case_social_media/
CASE Social Media Conference - April 2013 - Cambridge, MA

70. Join the network for
intergalactic .edu knowledge.
http://eduniverse.org

71. Tune into Higher Ed Live.
http://higheredlive.com

72. Sneak peek!
Announcing Social Works

73. THANKS!
#backchannel
Susan T. Evans
Senior Strategist
susan.evans@mstoner.com
@susantevans
mStoner