A presentation for Skidmore's Volunteer Summit. Ideas, tips, and suggestions for ways volunteers can become brand ambassadors on social media networks.

1. Using Social Media to Enhance
Volunteer Effectiveness
Daniella Nordin, Online Community Manager

2. Why social media?
Now
Before

3. Why social media in higher ed?
 Student recruitment
 Student engagement
 Professional development
 School pride
 Alumni engagement
 General outreach
 In the classroom

4. Where in the world is Skidmore?
 Facebook
 Twitter
 YouTube
 LinkedIn
 Pinterest
 Foursquare
 Formspring
 Google+
 Flickr

5. Why are we there?
Facebook Fans
6,515
Aug-12 6,268
6,078
Jun-12 5,923
5,803
Apr-12 5,739
5,666
Feb-12 5,545
5,481
Dec-11 5,318
5,291 Facebook Fans
Oct-11 5,191
4,986
Aug-11 4,858
4,771
Jun-11 4,699
4,634
Apr-11 4,562
4,493
Feb-11 4,400
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000

6. Why are we (really) there?

7. Does it work?
 #501Challenge
 Goal: increase young alumni engagement
 Challenge: get 501 donors on 5/01 for $50,000
 Strategy: no direct mail; all online and social media, started
marketing one week prior to 5/01
 Results
 Reached 501 donors by 2:00 p.m. on 5/01
 Reached 750 donors by 8:00 p.m. secured additional $25,000
 Reached 1,000 donors by 11:00 p.m. for another $25,000
 Total: 1,038 donors for $100,000 for Skidmore

8. Does it work?
 Skidmore Student-to-Student (#SS2S)
 Goal: increase applications to Skidmore
 Strategy: utilize current students
 Implemented Skidmore Student-to-Student (SS2S) Initiative
 Since launching in Oct. 2011, the page is consistently among the top
15 most-visited on the Admissions site
 Students and staff have answered 440 questions from prospective
students and their families
 Each blog averages 500+ views per month
 The top-visited blog has 1,651 visitors
 Three bloggers participated in one of four live chats this year, where
they helped answer nearly 500 questions!

9. Why does it work?
 People!
 Spreading the news
 Sharing experiences
 Talking about things they care about

10. What can you say?
 News and updates
 Point people to posts of interest
 BUT don’t just talk;
 Listen

11. On Facebook
 Like Skidmore College
 Share what’s in your news feed:
 Photos
 Events
 Updates
 Respond to questions
 Like posts and leave comments
 Tag us!

12. How?
 Share
 Like
 Social buttons

13. But that’s just Facebook . . .

14. What about Twitter?
RT = retweet
@____ = say
hi, reply to, direct
your followers to
# = group tweets into
a category or thread

15. Twitter Followers
Oct-12 2,471
2,380
Why Twitter?
Aug-12
Jun-12
2,307
2,203
2,150
2,073
 Real time
Apr-12 2,020
1,929
 News
Feb-12 1,831
1,718
Dec-11 1,674
 News aggregator 1,597 Twitter Followers
Oct-11 1,570
 SEO
Aug-11 1,324
1,519
1,284
Jun-11 1,186
1,099
Apr-11 1,030
949
Feb-11 829
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000

16. And . . .
 YouTube
 LinkedIn
 Pinterest
 Foursquare
 Formspring
 Google+
 Flickr

17. Wherever you are . . .
 We are too.

18. Trust your instincts.

19. Contact me!
 Daniella Nordin
 dnordin@skidmore.edu
 @DaniellaNordin
 518-580-5616