Almost everyone agrees: Social media is important. But in today’s climate of budget constraints and overworked staffs, it can be overwhelming to add yet another task to overfull plates. UNCG, a mid-sized regional public university with 17,000 students, has built a thriving social media community of more than 25,000 followers with existing staff and virtually no budget. Our presentation will show how to create successful social media platforms by your bootstraps, using existing resources and personnel and powered by grassroots enthusiasm. Focusing on some of the most popular social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook and YouTube — we’ll relate our experiences of getting buy-in from key administrators and launching branded sites. We’ll share free resources we’ve used that will help other communicators create, manage, maintain and promote their social offerings. Our presentation will offer strategies for divvying the workload among team members based on their strengths. And we’ll divulge our missteps along the way — like the need to reclaim our desired usernames from well-intended alumni and students before we could even begin. Many conference social media presentations focus on big name, big budget success stories. Many conference attendees don’t have that. We’ll show that with little money and limited staff time, these vital communication avenues can be launched and grown. Whether your office is responsible for university-wide communications or sharing the story of a single department, our listeners will take away step-by-step tools, tips and best practices to help strategize, launch and cultivate social media. Presented at 2014 annual HighEdWeb Conference by L. Danielle Baldwin (@LDBaldwin) Presented at 2014 CASE III Conference by L. Danielle Baldwin (@LDBaldwin), Lanita Withers Goins, Debbie Schallock

1. Successful Social
Media On A
Shoestring
The University of North Carolina Greensboro
University Relations
L. Danielle Baldwin, Web Manager
Lanita Withers Goins, Staff Writer
Debbie Schallock, Director of Marketing

2. Follow Along With Us!
View our presentation online: http://ure.uncg.
edu/presentations/SMOS
Tweet about our session:
Twitter ID: @UNCG
Hashtags: #SMOS (for this presentation)
#UNCG (make sure your tweet is seen)
Presenters: @LanitaWGoins @LDBaldwin @CoolDeb
Post on our Facebook page:
http://Facebook.com/UNCG1891
#SMOS (YES! You can use hashtags on Facebook too!)

3. What to Expect Today
● Introduction & Explanation
● Social Media Concepts & Definitions
● Social Media In Higher Education Is Different
● Social Media & Administrative Buy-In
● Platforms & How To Get Started
● Free/Inexpensive Tools To Help You Get Started
● Social Media Is a Group Effort: Responsibilities & Tasks
● Take-aways, Resources & Links
● Conclusion & Questions

4. Social Media Concepts
and Definitions
What is Social Media?
The term "social media" refers to the means of interactions among people
in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual
communities and networks
Social Networking vs. Social Media Platforms
● Social networking is the act of using various social media related
platforms
● Social Media platforms are the tools, online applications and mobile
applications that are used in the act of social networking

5. Social Media In Higher
Education Is Different
Higher Education has:
● A built-in audience: Students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents,
prospectives, community, friends
● Ideally, a 'known' brand
● You have an organic audience.

6. Administrative Buy-in
Numbers don't lie. Show administrators the market reach
of social media.
Compare:
● # of followers vs. local newspaper circulation
● # of followers vs. peer/sister/other local institutions
In addition:
● 50% of social media users say they check social media
platforms first thing in the morning
● 2012 Pew study found social networking sites
competing with news for attention of people >25

7. Administrative Buy-in
Social Media by the numbers:
● Students spent an average of 47 minutes a day on Facebook.
● More than 50% of college students go on a social networking site
several times a day
● 94% of first-year college students use social media sites
● 91% of college professors engage in social media as a part of their
jobs
● 73% of college students are active on social media and have a
social media profile

8. Administrative Buy-in
Social Media by the numbers:
● 57% of social network users are 18-29 years old
● 45% of college students use a social media site/platform to
communicate at least once a day
● 82% of college students reported logging into Facebook several
times a day
● 66% of students think that using social networking websites help
them communicate with people face-to-face better

9. Administrative Buy-in
Analytics and reporting can tell you:
● The geographic location of your followers
● How they're accessing your content (what type of
mobile device, web browsers, cell phones, tablets, etc.)
● How long they stay on your pages and what pages
they look at the most
● How popular a specific link is on any given day
● How users/viewers search for your information, (search
terms used, how often, etc.)

10. Administrative Buy-in
Why are these kinds of analytics important? If you know
visitors access your social media sites on mobile devices,
you know to:
● Keep messages short
● Send them to sites that are mobile friendly
● Not link to photos that will take forever to download
● Use a URL shortener to help with character usage and
for tracking visits
● Use the reporting tools to prove ROI for your social
media efforts

11. Social Media and
Administrative Buy-in
Social media is powerful because it offers your institution a
tangible way to reach your constituents where they are.
All that for the low, low price of --
FREE

12. Getting started
Social media continues to grow, develop and innovate. There are
dozens of platforms from which you can choose.
As you're getting started, consider:
● Where is your audience i.e. which platform?
● What are your campus' strategic goals?
● Who, if anyone, should review and approve your social media
platforms, (i.e. run it up the flagpole)?
● Do you have to take into consideration federal laws such regarding
FERPA, Accessibility, etc.?
● Decide how much time and manpower you have to put behind your
social media efforts and stick to it over the long haul.

13. Getting started
Additional items to consider:
● Brush up on your "netiquette," (internet + etiquette) before writing
your first tweet, facebook post or creating your first pinboard
● Feed it. Monitor it. Nurture it. If you can't commit the time and
resources to it, step back and reconsider alternatives/options
● Recruit, Reuse, Remember
● Think about and prepare (as much as you can) for a social media
crisis...IT WILL HAPPEN (sooner or later).

14. The Value of Strong Content
● Seasonal
● Calendar of events
● Tonality of voice
● Learn what works
● Value of live tweeting
● Have a soundboard to bounce ideas

15. Social Media Platforms
At UNCG -- and today -- we'll feature the Big 4:

16. Facebook ABC, 123
Know the difference between:
A) Admin profile vs a business page
B) Cover photo vs avatar
C) Posts, shares, comments
Always keep in mind:
1) Engagement
2) Content
3) Measure

17. YouTube ABC, 123
Know the difference between:
A) Playlists vs channels
B) Bio, avatar, background image
C) Naming, tags, description, category
Always keep in mind:
1) The value of SEO
2) Length of video
3) Analytics
4) Share other channels

18. Twitter ABC, 123
Know the difference between:
A) Hashtags (#) and Twitter IDs (@)
B) Reply, ReTweet, Direct Message
Always keep in mind:
1) Appropriate abbreviations
2) Key times to Tweet
3) URL shorteners
4) Create lists to organize followers
5) Search power - to find people to follow and trending topics

19. Pinterest ABC, 123
Know the difference between:
A) Not as hands on as Twitter or
Facebook but important too
B) A board, a pin, a like and a repin
Always keep in mind:
1) What images you can and cannot
post on your boards (rights to images)
2) Think outside the box. Don't only post images of your
campus/faculty/students.
3) Location, location,location: Pinterest is a great way to introduce
people to your geographic location. People love pictures.

20. Connect:
UNCG's Social Media Hub
What is a social media hub?
A) The central location for all of your
official university social media efforts.
B) Should have a directory of social
media accounts for all official groups,
orgs, student groups, sports, etc.
C) Should have feeds/streams from main
university's social media accounts
Reminders:
1) Not a "catch all" for any and everything related to social media
2) Keep it organized and clean, user friendly so that its useful for all

21. Connect
UNCG's Social Media Hub
What is the value of having a social media hub?
● Value added for end user
● Strength in numbers
● Builds social community on campus; fosters desire to "belong"
● Growth of Connect - #dsba

22. Free/Inexpensive Tools
To Get You Started
Hootsuite WebApp
http://hootsuite.com
Tweetdeck
http://tweetdeck.com

23. Free/Inexpensive Tools
To Get You Started
Google Analytics: Reporting, Tracking and Analytics
● Take the time to set up the social media portion of Google
Analytics at the same time you sign up and set up your sites in GA
● A lot of social media platforms have somewhat useful reporting and
internal analytics
● Compare internal platform analytics to Google Analytics for best
overall big picture

24. Free/Inexpensive Tools
To Get You Started
Reporting, Tracking, Analytics
● Collect data, create automated reports to generate at set intervals
throughout the month/year for the best and most consistent reporting
and data analysis
● Don't be afraid to tweak analytics parameters until you feel your
results are matching the day to day on your SM platforms accurately
(but don't fudge numbers or generate them artificially - its too easy to
prove you wrong to be worth it)

25. Social Media Is Shared
● Share the load, even if it's only two of you
● Let things develop organically; conversate
● Have a dialogue with your campus community and meet regularly to
share the good, the bad and the ugly
● Don't forget about using campus resources to help with prizes,
giveaways and promos
● Report numbers to administrators and your boss on a regular basis;
routinely provide updates and highlights
● Managing+sharing+updates=all equally valuable and important to
enhance successful outcomes

26. That's it!
and
Thank You
Comments? Questions?