This session aims to shed a light on the different social media platforms available to HE institutions, how to use them and how to integrate them as part of an organisation’s social media strategy to maximise effectiveness and ROI.

1. Do you Tweet, Vine, Instagram or Snapchat?
Choosing the right platform to include in your social media strategy

2. Session agenda
1. Meet the social student
– A few stats and an overview of the social landscape in
2014
2. The social landscape in 2014
Building a social media/digital strategy recap
– A detailed review of the various social networks reviews
including their and how to use them
– A brief work on hashtags
3. Bonus slides
– 4Ps of content
– The content strategy matrix
– The animals of SEO

3. 1. Meet the social student

4. To get started, let’s watch a video
Socialnomics: http://vimeo.com/92150923

5. Which platforms do students use?
Source: Students’ online usage global market trend report, QSTopUniversities.com2013 :

6. Students demographics
Source: Students’ online usage global market trend report, QSTopUniversities.com2013 :

7. Social Media usage stats 2014: all age
groups

8. How students use social media in the
context of their studies
Sample 20 MSc students sampled at random
• Ask questions to peers (45%)
• Connect with other student with similar
academic interests (33%)
• Share research/information with peers (26%)
• Collaborate in a workspace (14%)
• Use research recommended by peers (10%)

9. 2. The social landscape
2014

10. What is the theme of your content?
Who will create it?
When and where will it be shared?
In-house content creation vs. third party content?
Which platforms?
Strategic considerations

11. Strategic considerations: objectives
and measurement
Brand awareness
Traffic
Word of mouth
Likes, Retweets
(= engagement)
Mentions in social media
(blogs, forum, Twitter)
Click through rate,
conversions
Objectives Measurement

12. An overview of social networks in 2014
• Mobile
social
networks
• Sharing
networks
• Blogging
platforms
• Mainstream
social
networks

13. • Mainstream
social
networks

14. Facebook
• Role: engagement and
awareness platform
• Content: e.g. visual content
(photos, infographics),
Facebook advertising to
reach users at key dates

15. E.g. HE institutions on Facebook

16. What students interact with on
Facebook
• 30% interact with content about events: Students use Facebook as a way to stay in
touch with friends and make plans, so it makes sense that they’d want to read
posts about events happening on campus.
• 27% interact with photos: Whether part of an event post, news item, or
standalone content, photos instantly catch people’s attention and can often
prompt an emotional reaction faster than text on a screen. Students enjoy clicking
through photos related to campus events. You could even try an image-centered
campaign to raise awareness about a particular cause or campus service.
• 15% interact with campus news: Students use social media sites to get the latest
updates on what’s going on right now. Posts centered on campus news will bring
students back to your school’s Facebook page again and again when they realise
it’s a source of dynamic content and breaking news.
• 10% interact with academic-related content: Although Facebook was only open to
college students at its inception, it's more about fun than academics. If you choose
to post academic-related content, be sure to jazz up the content with photos,
related events, and anything that might be considered newsworthy. Leave the
academic details on department websites.
Source: EDUniverse

17. Twitter
• Role: Engagement and
awareness platform; great
for traffic
• Content: e.g. Twitter chats
(hashtags), links to
blog/whitepapers, Twitter
advertising

18. E.g. HE institutions on Twitter: Harvard

19. E.g. HE institutions on Twitter: Yale

20. What students interact with on Twitter
• 28% interact with content about events: Event status updates, promotional hooks,
and event details are the makings of perfect tweets.
• 22% interact with campus news: Twitter is a social media platform designed to
feature dynamic content. It’s all about up-to-the-minute news. Students go to
Twitter for quick 140 character updates or bits of information they can consume
quickly, whereas Facebook is better suited for more robust content.
• 21% interact with photos: Facebook has a better interface for viewing photos, but
Twitter still offers a way to share interesting images. Since Twitter is a more text-
based platform, keep the main focus on those 140 characters, and supplement
with a photo. Interestingly, photos were the number one type of content for
prospective students visiting a college’s twitter feed. Could be that soon-to-be
college students are looking for visual content since they can’t see what’s
happening on campus in person.
• well with students.
Source: EDUniverse

21. LinkedIn
• Role: Professional
network
• Content: alumni groups,
thought leadership
pieces, information
about open days etc.

22. E.g. LinkedIn University pages
Further reading: LinkedIn blog – introducing LinkedIn University pages

23. Google+
• Role: Great for SEO,
hangouts/Google+ profile
displayed on search page results
• Content: displays posts on the
first page of Google; Google
hummingbird/panda algorithms
take into account social content
and social sharing

24. E.g. Harvard University on Google+
Join Google+ for universities

25. E.g. Oxford University

27. • Blogging
platforms

28. Tumblr
• Role: Light-blogging
platform
• Content: Highly visual
content, can be used in a
variety of ways, different
departments can have their
own Tumblr, ‘reblogs’

29. Blogging platform:
Tumblr
• A number of universities use Tumblr as part of their
social media strategy (here’s a list)
• ESCP Europe (http://escpeurope.tumblr.com/) use the
platform to share photos of Europe thus reinforcing the
University’s positioning but also ‘reblog’ articles about
education
• California State University have a Tumblr for the
recruitment of students:
http://csulaadmissions.tumblr.com/
• Universities such as Harvard and Marquette have
multiple Tumblr blogs for different departments
• Harvard School of Engineering and applied science:
http://harvardseas.tumblr.com/
• Harvard Office of Career services:
http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/
• Houghton Rare Books and Manuscripts library:
http://houghtonlib.tumblr.com/

30. • Mobile
social
networks

31. Instagram
SnapChat
Vine
• Role: Return on attention
content
• Content: Bite-sized, highly
visual content which can be
amplified through other
platforms (e.g. Twitter,
Facebook)

32. E.g. Harvard on Instagram
• Instagram is a mobile photo-sharing social network which allows users to share
photos with various filters (e.g. black and white, Lomo, etc)

33. Instagram ads
• Instagram ads are just 6 months old and
currently limited to a select group of 15
brands
• So far companies such as Michael Kors and
Ben & Jerry are averaging 60% higher
engagement rates for their organic posts in
the three days following their paid promotions
• Article URL: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/instagram-ads-are-
getting-instant-recall-157595

34. E.g. Universities on SnapChat
• SnapChat is a photo-messaging application; users can
take photos/videos and share them with a controlled
list of recipients setting a time-limit for how long
recipients can view their snaps (1-10 secs)
• The University of Houston adopted SnapChat in
January 2014 and is among the first universities to
officially use this tool to communicate with faculty,
staff and students
• So far the University of Houston (using the handle
Uhouston) has amassed 700+ followers who are
eagerly sharing their college experiences though
photos and illustrations

35. E.g. Universities on Vine
More University Vines on Edtech magazine
URL: https://vine.co/v/bTpvHOqe72Ur-
education
URL: https://vine.co/v/bQp97ueggQH
• Vines is a mobile app owned by Twitter
which enables its users to create and
post short looping video clips.
• Video clips created with Vine have a
maximum clip length of 6 seconds and
can be shared to Vine’s social network or
to other services such as Twitter or
Facebook

36. E.g. Creative Vines
URL: https://vine.co/v/bXJAmFLBaat
URL: https://vine.co/v/bHVuvrKAmg1
• Vines launched private messaging
functionality in April 2014 which could
be used to:
• Provide consumers with how-to
videos
• Competition
• Q&As

37. • Sharing
networks

38. YouTube
SoundCloud
SlideShare
Academia.edu
• Role: Showcasing thought-
leadership
• Content Great for audio-
visual content, thought-
leadership, case studies
• YouTube 2nd largest search
engine in the world

39. E.g. Cambridge University on YouTube

40. E.g. Drake University on Pinterest

41. E.g. Universities on SlideShare .

42. E.g. Imperial College on SoundCloud

43. Academia.edu

44. A brief note on hashtags
• Two different types of hashtags: user-generated vs. ‘owned’
hashtags
User-generated hashtags
- User-generated hashtags are created by Twitter users
- Use these hashtags to join an existing conversation, a relevant topic
etc.
Owned hashtags
- These hashtags are owned by the institution
- They must to be simple to read, spell and understand
- They should be amplified/promoted via other channels
(e.g. offline, website, newsletter, Blackboard offline to gain
traction
Always keep an eye on Twitter conversations (Twitter Search)
about your industry and institution

45. E.g. Educational hashtags
User-generated hashtags/existing
conversartions:
#PhDchat
#EdChat
#Edtech
More: http://careers.insidehighered.com/
Owned hashtags
#birkbeckcomments
#bbkstradford
#bbkstaff
#bbkresearch
#MIT
#GoStanford

46. SEO

47. Planning your content
• Occasional
content/campaign-
led content
• Update as and
when content
becomes available
• Update regularly• These networks
require a constant
stream of content

48. Questions?
Email: hello@laurenceborel.com
Twitter: @laurenceborel
Web: www.laurenceborel.com

49. 3. Bonus slides: Building
your Social Media Strategy

50. The 4Ps of content strategy
Plan Produce Publish Promote

51. The content marketing matrix
EMOTIONAL
RATIONAL
• Events
• Webinars (e.g. Google
Hangouts)
• Newsletters
(current/prospect students)
• Testimonials
• Articles/blog posts
• Guides / whitepapers
• Infographics
• Press releases
• Events
• Webinars (e.g. Google
Hangouts)
• Newsletters
(current/prospect students)
• Testimonials
• Videos/virals
• Infographics
• Photos /visual content

52. SEO 101: the animals of Google
‘Conversational search’
Hummingbird
• e.g. What’s the closest
university to buy an iPhone?
• A traditional search engine
might focus on finding
pages containing ‘buy’ and
‘iphone’
•
http://searchengineland.com/googl
e-hummingbird-172816