How Higher Ed Uses Social Media to Raise Money, Build Awareness, Recruit Students, and Get Results

What I learned about
social media
Michael Stoner
#campaigns
#socialmedia
#multi-channel
#highered
#marketing
#alumni
EdSocialMedia
#studentrecruitment
We’re not in a post-social era, we’re in the post-hype era.
Time to make social work for us.
Social media = web-based tools used for social interaction. The most
important brand names are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr,
though blogs are an important component of any social strategy.
Social networking is what people do with social media: rank, comment, share,
post, rant, etc.

Michael.Stoner@mStoner.com
@mstonerblog
Slideshare.net/mStonervt
mStoner.com
EDUniverse.org
Intelligence: mstnr.me/IntelSignup
Me

Social Works
mstnr.me/TkXwLu
Sample Chapter
[FSU “Great Give”]
mstnr.me/X53Tzz
Campaign:
a focused effort to achieve goals using a variety of
channels appropriate to the results sought
Social Works: How #HigherEd Uses #SocialMedia to Raise Money, Build
Awareness, Recruit Students, and Get Results is unique. The 25 case studies in
Social Works demonstrate that social media has the maturity and reach to be an
integral component of campaigns focused on building awareness, recruiting
students, engaging alumni and other key audiences, raising money, and
accomplishing important goals that matter to a college or university.

The case studies in Social Works will inspire college and university
communicators, marketers, web team members, and other staff, offering models
and details for highly successful initiatives. And, they will convince presidents and
other senior leaders that social media is not just valuable, but essential, to
achieving institutional goals. In short, Social Works belongs on the shelves (or on
the e-readers) of college and university staff who want to learn how to get results
with social media. Published 25 February 2013 by EDUniverse Media.

bit.ly/9li6EU
bit.ly/czaavP
bit.ly/dmRg3O
Goals from William & Mary’s Mascot Search campaign
Case 5: “An Integrated Social Campaign Powers the Mascot Search at the College of William & Mary,” Social
Works, pp. 63-68.
Using a blog, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other tools, friends and fans of the College of William and Mary
offered 839 suggestions for a new mascot; the site where their Griffin was revealed got 16,913 unique visitors;
and they earned coverage on The Daily Show, the Chronicle, ESPN, and other major outlets.
Other results: 839 mascot suggestions/90 days; 11,183 survey completions/4 wks; 3,345 view of mascot search
YouTube vid; 16,913 unique visits of finalist unveiling; earned media= Daily Show, WaPo,ESPN, USA Today,
CHE, etc.
URLs for assets associated with this campaign:
case study: mstnr.me/HUDpht
blog: wmmascot.blogs.wm.edu
Facebook: bit.ly/8YnyHl
Twitter: @WMMascot
YouTube: www.youtube.com/wmmascot
Flickr: bit.ly/cYVYk3
Featured in Jon Stewart video: bit.ly/czaavP

Case 25: “Promoting Faculty Experts: The University of Nottingham and the Election of 2010,” Social Works, pp. 215-222.
The communications and marketing team at the University of Nottingham created a campaign focused on positioning Nottingham as the
definitive source of expert commentary on the 2010 UK elections. This involved both staff members in the communications and marketing team
as well as faculty with expertise in politics. By live blogging 24/7 during the election season, they wanted to draw the attention of reporters and
major media , scholars at other institutions, the general public, potential students, and public opinion influencers. Before the effort began, they
developed a series of goals to which they attached specific numbers. For example: “to generate 20 pieces of national and international [media]
coverage…”; “… to help increase applications by at least 5%.” In preparation, the team researched reporters, bloggers, and experts, developing
extensive lists of media contacts. One staff member worked closely with the faculty experts and bloggers to time tweets and posts in response to
developing election themes. Traffic was largely driven by Twitter (123 tweets with 7,779 click-throughs), online PR, and linked placement of
faculty experts supported by their blog posts and traditional PR work. By the campaign’s end, 104 blog posts had delivered more than 90,000 page
views. The campaign exceeded all the targets set by the office. And: “Every item of national media coverage on Election Day featured a University
of Nottingham spokesperson,” for a total of 466 national media hits. Applications to the School of Politics & International Relations rose 15%.
Relevant URLs
electionblog2010.blogspot.com
www.youtube.com/user/60secondpolitics
nottspolitics.org

source: bit.ly/aSJZQZ+
More: [poweredbyorange.com; case study: mstnr.me/
Case 1: “Powered By Orange: A Comprehensive Social Media Campaign at Oregon State University,” Social Works, pp. 25-34.
Though it originally targeted Portland, the campaign expanded quickly. PBO evolved into a broader awareness-building campaign for
OSU. To make this shift, PBO initiated the Orange Spotlight in 2010. The feature invites nominations for businesses that are
“Powered by Orange” — “owned by an Oregon State alum, have lots of OSU alums working there, or are just friends of OSU. They also
drive innovation, support economic growth, and serve in the community.” Each month, a winning business is selected for the “Orange
Spotlight,” which includes a feature story on OSU’s website, promotion on its social networks, and inclusion in a campaign to push
OSU fans to featured businesses via Powered by Orange. People who nominate businesses are entered in a drawing for OSU Football
season tickets.
The result? Baker said, “We’re getting hundreds of nominations for businesses with some kind of OSU connection.” The benefits can
be real for businesses profiled. “We just spotlighted a vineyard in Napa Valley, Lamborn Family Vineyards. Its owners are graduates of
the OSU horticulture program and using sustainable growing techniques. Lamborn got great publicity when WineBusiness.com
picked up the story. This gave us a great story to reuse as we talk about OSU’s new wine institute. It was a win-win for all concerned.”
The “Orange Spotlight” nominations have enabled OSU to gain detailed information on hundreds of businesses. Baker noted, “That’s a
pretty significant result for us.”

1.
Social media ≠
technology.

2.
It’s time to focus
and to see.

“Most radiologists, however, did not see him. When asked “Did you see a gorilla on the final trial?” 20 of the 24 radiologists tested said they did not. It
wasn’t for lack of looking. As the researchers write, in a forthcoming paper in Psychological Science, “eye-tracking revealed that, of the 20 radiologists
who did not report the gorilla, 12 looked directly at the gorilla’s location when it was visible.”
How much does this matter for radiologists? They’re never, after all, going to encounter a gorilla on a real scan from a patient. It does, however,
suggest that specialists could easily miss other red flags when they’re on the search for one specific indicator.
“Why do radiologists sometimes fail to detect such large anomalies? Of course, as is critical in all IB [inattentional blindness] demonstrations, the
radiologists were not looking for this unexpected stimulus,” they write. Even experts “operating in their domain of expertise, are vulnerable to
inattentional blindness.”
There are times when it’s important to see the forest.
But you have to remember that it’s made up of individual trees.
And sometimes you have to see a tree or two and ignore the forest.
So it’s essential to focus on important things--like GSD--instead of BSOs. See my comments about this here: http://www.mstoner.com/blog/
admissions-and-recruiting/focus-on-gs-instead-of-bsos/
CT image scan & details: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/19/study-most-radiologists-dont-notice-a-gorilla-in-a-ct-
scan/
Invisible Gorilla video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Invisible Gorilla book: http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/

There were many, many predictions about how Second Life was going to
revolutionize learning, teaching, and student recruitment:
Ohio University went further to build its virtual community in Second Life
through the exploration of teaching/learning. The university has a well
constructed campus in Second Life with various buildings such as a student
center, learning center, and arts and music center. Students may explore the
virtual campus and join real student organizations at the student center.
Student groups can meet and collaborate on the virtual campus just as they
might on the real one. There is also a virtual art and music center where
students may meet artists and listen to live music in the cyberspace (Briggs,
2007). (From http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/emerging-technologies/
second-life.html)

3.
Everything
is connected
to everything else.
[bit.ly/9uemQS]
This is Barry Commoner’s first law of ecology and mStoner’s first law of
branding. It’s essential to keep in mind when structuring communications
and marketing activities. Because of the way the world works today, it’s easy
for organizational anomalies to be observed and amplified. Consistency
counts. Not only in appearance (do your communications look like they come
from the same organization?) but voice.
Furthermore, your online presence doesn’t occur in a vacuum but is also
connected to everything else you do:
People’s experiences with your staff when they visit your office.
A customer’s experience with your accounting department.
The condition of your buildings.

Your ecosystem ...
• Compelling brand: aspirational but grounded
in institutional reality.
• Powerful stories: reinforce brand, multiple
media, well-told, shareable, demonstrating
value.
• Compelling creative: a strong visual
vocabulary for your brand & stories
• Strong channel strategy: well-managed,
connected, curated

4.
Social is important
in a campaign.
But there’s a lot more to
a successful campaign.

bit.ly/9li6EU
bit.ly/czaavP
bit.ly/dmRg3O
Case 5: “An Integrated Social Campaign Powers the Mascot Search at the College of William & Mary,”
Social Works, pp. 63-68.
Using a blog, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other tools, friends and fans of the College of William
and Mary offered 839 suggestions for a new mascot; the site where their Griffin was revealed got
16,913 unique visitors; and they earned coverage on The Daily Show, the Chronicle, ESPN, and other
major outlets.
Other results: 839 mascot suggestions/90 days; 11,183 survey completions/4 wks; 3,345 view of
mascot search YouTube vid; 16,913 unique visits of finalist unveiling; earned media= Daily Show,
WaPo,ESPN, USA Today, CHE, etc.
URLs for assets associated with this campaign:
case study: mstnr.me/HUDpht
blog: wmmascot.blogs.wm.edu
Facebook: bit.ly/8YnyHl
Twitter: @WMMascot
YouTube: www.youtube.com/wmmascot
Flickr: bit.ly/cYVYk3
Featured in Jon Stewart video: bit.ly/czaavP

Channels: W&M mascot
email e-newletters, digests, email from prez
periodicals
alumni magazine, newsletters, student
newspaper
web WM.edu, Alumni Assn, Tribe Athletics
Facebook former mascot
YouTube W&M channel
blogs mascot choice/old mascot

5.
There’s a lot more
to social media
than Facebook.
Facebook: still the dominant channel for social media in .edus according to CASE/mStoner/Slover Linett Survey of Social Media in Advancement 2012. But there are challenges to relying on Facebook.
ROI: There are simple metrics we can get — reach, comments, shares, likes, etc — but because of Facebook’s one-page-fits-all model, it remains a challenge to tie them to concrete business goals.
Plus, posts have a short tail; compare that to your website or blog (on mStoner’s blog, several of our posts from 2009 are among the most accessed today): Facebook posts get half their reach within 30 minutes of publication [www.marketingcharts.com/wp/direct/
facebook-posts-get-half-their-reach-within-30-minutes-of-being-published-24453/]
Engagement fatigue: Michael Stoner, mstnr.me/Ux1CLI; Facebook Usage Declining: mstnr.me/PXzkya
Niche social networks: Weekly visits to Pinterest's website from North American users hit nearly 29 million in July, up from 1.27 million a year earlier, according to Experian Marketing Services. That's an increase of 2,183% for the social network, which has
been especially popular among women. See: Rodriguez, Salvador. "Pinterest, Instagram Continue Meteoric Growth." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/29/business/la-fi-tn-pinterest-instagram-
growth-20120829>.
Pushback from small companies, nonprofits: Facebook is screwing brands, driving reach down so brands will pay for more posts: “Facebook: I want my friends back!” [dangerousminds.net/comments/facebook_i_want_my_friends_back];
“Facebook's EdgeRank Changes: A U.K. Company Claims They're Killing Small Businesses” [readwrite.com/2012/11/05/facebooks-edgerank-changes-a-uk-company-claims-theyre-killing-small-businesses]. Josh Constine, “Killing Rumors With Facts: No,
Facebook Didn’t Decrease Page Feed Reach To Sell More Promoted Posts,” TechCrunch[http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/07/killing-rumors-with-facts-no-facebook-didnt-decrease-page-news-feed-reach-to-sell-more-promoted-posts/] says that the actions by
Facebook’ that sparked the blog post at Dangerous Minds are beneficial in that they reduce spam in newsfeeds and therefore are good for brands. What’s striking to us is the lack of trust in Facebook, which makes Dangerous Mind’s claims entirely plausible. Todd
Sanders (@tsand) offers another view in “Facebook decreases reach… grab your torch and pitchforks” (http://blog.uwgb.edu/social-web/facebook-decreases-reach-grab-your-torch-and-pitchforks/), arguing that if you’re awesome, people will respond, no matter
what the aggregate data says or how Facebook changes their algorithms.
Underfunding in .edu for social media: Chief Marketing Officers of 249 U.S. companies in August 2012 said they would increase current spending on social media from 7.6 percent of their overall marketing budget to 10.7 percent over the next 12 months. They
expected to see that number rise to 18.8 percent in the next five years, according to a survey from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Is your institution keeping pace? [Moorman, Christine, and T. Austin Finch. The CMO Survey. Duke University, Aug. 2012. Web.
<http://cmosurvey.org/files/2012/08/The_CMO_Survey_Highlights_and_Insights_August-2012-Final.pdf>]

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/tkawaja/social-lumascape-8223008

@mstonerblog modiﬁcations of a widely shared infographic about social
media

6.
Don’t neglect the
channels you own.
Facebook: still the dominant channel for social media in .edus according to CASE/mStoner/Slover Linett Survey of Social Media in Advancement 2012. But there are challenges to relying on Facebook.
ROI: There are simple metrics we can get — reach, comments, shares, likes, etc — but because of Facebook’s one-page-fits-all model, it remains a challenge to tie them to concrete business goals.
Plus, posts have a short tail; compare that to your website or blog (on mStoner’s blog, several of our posts from 2009 are among the most accessed today): Facebook posts get half their reach within 30 minutes of publication [www.marketingcharts.com/wp/direct/
facebook-posts-get-half-their-reach-within-30-minutes-of-being-published-24453/]
Engagement fatigue: Michael Stoner, mstnr.me/Ux1CLI; Facebook Usage Declining: mstnr.me/PXzkya
Niche social networks: Weekly visits to Pinterest's website from North American users hit nearly 29 million in July, up from 1.27 million a year earlier, according to Experian Marketing Services. That's an increase of 2,183% for the social network, which has
been especially popular among women. See: Rodriguez, Salvador. "Pinterest, Instagram Continue Meteoric Growth." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/29/business/la-fi-tn-pinterest-instagram-
growth-20120829>.
Pushback from small companies, nonprofits: Facebook is screwing brands, driving reach down so brands will pay for more posts: “Facebook: I want my friends back!” [dangerousminds.net/comments/facebook_i_want_my_friends_back];
“Facebook's EdgeRank Changes: A U.K. Company Claims They're Killing Small Businesses” [readwrite.com/2012/11/05/facebooks-edgerank-changes-a-uk-company-claims-theyre-killing-small-businesses]. Josh Constine, “Killing Rumors With Facts: No,
Facebook Didn’t Decrease Page Feed Reach To Sell More Promoted Posts,” TechCrunch[http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/07/killing-rumors-with-facts-no-facebook-didnt-decrease-page-news-feed-reach-to-sell-more-promoted-posts/] says that the actions by
Facebook’ that sparked the blog post at Dangerous Minds are beneficial in that they reduce spam in newsfeeds and therefore are good for brands. What’s striking to us is the lack of trust in Facebook, which makes Dangerous Mind’s claims entirely plausible. Todd
Sanders (@tsand) offers another view in “Facebook decreases reach… grab your torch and pitchforks” (http://blog.uwgb.edu/social-web/facebook-decreases-reach-grab-your-torch-and-pitchforks/), arguing that if you’re awesome, people will respond, no matter
what the aggregate data says or how Facebook changes their algorithms.
Underfunding in .edu for social media: Chief Marketing Officers of 249 U.S. companies in August 2012 said they would increase current spending on social media from 7.6 percent of their overall marketing budget to 10.7 percent over the next 12 months. They
expected to see that number rise to 18.8 percent in the next five years, according to a survey from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Is your institution keeping pace? [Moorman, Christine, and T. Austin Finch. The CMO Survey. Duke University, Aug. 2012. Web.
<http://cmosurvey.org/files/2012/08/The_CMO_Survey_Highlights_and_Insights_August-2012-Final.pdf>]

print: box of cards with word
pairings
Admissions: mstnr.me/wmadmit
web: ampersandbox.wm.edu
Case 8: "A Distinctive Print and Web Approach to College Marketing: Ampersandbox at the
College of William & Mary," Social Works, pp. 84-90.
In the ﬁrst six months:
•33,500 page views
•9,500+ unique visitors
•1:55 average time on site
•Visits from 64 countries
•21% of traﬃc is Williamsburg
Anecdotal:
“My daughter Holly (high school junior) and my wife went on a campus visit Monday and
brought back the new view book. It’s innovative and well done—very impressive compared
to the materials we are seeing from other schools.”
Press:
Chronicle of Higher Ed coverage: http://bit.ly/A79rVn
“Naked & Friendly” (mStonerblog post): www.mstonerblog.com/index.php/blog/comments/
naked_friendly/

“In preparing for
battle I have always
found that plans are
useless, but planning is
indispensable.”
General Dwight D. Eisenhower

A good plan includes
1. Goals and objectives.
2. Audiences.
3. Channels, tools, and assets.
4. Marketing & promotion.
5. Timeline and budget.
6. Benchmarking & measurement.
7. Reporting.

William & Mary Mascot Communication Plan
February 2009 - September 2009
Status Deadline Comments
PLANNING
Brainstorming
Create an concept/identity for the mascot project complete 2/1/09 Joel Pattison designed - Mascot Search
Build a website complete 1/31/09
Create a blog complete 1/31/09
Send graphic and concept to campus stakeholders complete 2/26/09 for their use in print and on the web
KICK OFF
Message/announcement from President complete 2/27/09
Release from University Relations complete 2/27/09
Spot in Alumni Magazine (March issue) complete 3/28/09
REINFORCE KICK OFF
Announcement in WMDigest complete 3/4/09 post asking for feedback on guidelines
Announcement in Student Happenings complete 3/4/09 post asking for feedback on guidelines thru 3/16
Announcement on myWM complete 3/4/09 post asking for feedback on guidelines thru 3/16
Announcement in eConnections complete 3/12/09
eConnections goes out 2nd Fri of each month; deadline
is 1st Thurs of month
Announcement in Momentum complete 3/20/09
goes out to 46,000 monthly; includes
faculty/staff/currentparents
Unveil Colonel Ebirt Blog complete 3/2/09 in FAQ and on Ebirt's facebook
Send Release to all three student newspapers complete 2/27/09
Announcement on Tribe Athletics website complete posted week of 2/27 and week of 3/9
Announcement in Tribe Pride Newsletter complete March
Announcement on W&M Alumni site complete 2/27/09
Mascot Search Widget for www.wm.edu complete 6/5/09
placed in Campus Life section and "M"; 4/9 added to
Communities page; added to Alumni and Current
gateways on June 5 - June 30
Added Mascot Search link to Athletics bridge page menu complete 4/15/09
Sent blurb and graphics to Business School complete 3/25/09 Included in Mason Experiences March 2009
Sent blurb and graphics to Law School complete 3/31/09 will appear in Law eNews for late March
Portion of plan for William & Mary Mascot Search developed by Susan T.
Evans, who ran the campaign at William & Mary.

9.
Without goals,
you won’t know if
your campaign is
effective.

Goals/results: Election 2010
Involve 4 fac in media relations 8 academics became involved
position fac as experts continued momentum in media requests
20 pieces of intl. coverage
Every item of national media featured a
University spokesperson. 466 items achieved,
over 75% of them national or international.
build media networks: 5 new
outlets
Bloomberg, Reuters, the Guardian, New York
Times, International Herald Tribune, BBC.
recruitment: 5% app increase 15% increase
try out new online PR approach
approach was basis for many subsequent
projects
gain experience with online &
social media
“The campaign built skills and capacity and
has improved confidence and creativity.”
1. To involve at least four new Politics academics in media activity by the end
of the campaign and to develop their media expertise.
2. To position Nottingham academics as key political commentators.
3. To generate 20 pieces of national and international coverage, attaining an
estimated advertising value/ROI on budget of Elm (an ROI of 66,567%).
4. To build media networks for the School and wider University, establishing
links with five major new media outlets.
5. To support recruitment activity and help increase applications by at least
5%.
6. To trial successfully a new approach to online PR that could be used as a
model in support of profile and impact to feed in to the Research Assessment
Framework (REF).
7. To gain experience of using blogging, Twitter, online tracking and other
digital tools to build capacity within the Communications Team.
Case 25: “Promoting Faculty Experts: The University of Nottingham and the
Election of 2010,” Social Works, pp. 215-222.

“The campaign's value for money can also be measured in relation to the
"legacy value" of the media connections built which continue to feed in to
Nottingham's growing PR profile, a profile which has seen coverage
double overall during the course of the [2011] year. Thanks to Election
2010, the School of Politics and International Relations at Nottingham
has just launched a new, permanent blog - Ballots & Bullets - averaging a
new post every day.
“It has been successfully received by other members of the academic
community and has also helped to improve the profile of the
Communications Team. It prompted colleagues to speak to the
Communications Team first and has, so far, made savings against the
planned use of external consultants totalling approximately £50k as
internal colleagues see what can be delivered internally by a newly
invigorated team.”
Goals/results: Election 2010
Case 25: “Promoting Faculty Experts: The University of Nottingham and the
Election of 2010,” Social Works, pp. 215-222.

10.
Don’t be everywhere
until you can be awesome
everywhere you are.
(@mstonerblog + @tsand)

Cheryl Slover-Linett and Michael Stoner
#SOCIALMEDIA
AND ADVANCEMENT:
INSIGHTS FROM
THREE YEARS OF DATA
#SocialMedia & Advancement
mstnr.me/TpQPTv
Social Works
mstnr.me/TkXwLu

How Higher Ed Uses Social Media to Raise Money, Build Awareness, Recruit Students, and Get Results

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