NOT JUST THE PINCH HITTER

NOT JUST THE PINCH HITTERWHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS CRITICAL TO EVERY COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

1

Key players

BOTH2

Obviously there are a lot of networksFrom Facebook to Flickr to Snapchat, all of them are unique in their own right, so how do you incorporate them all into your current communications plan? Hopefully today, well be able to answer that question for you. For this presentation we will be focusing on main/major university accounts, however, most of this also applies if youre maintaining a college or program level account as well. 3

BATTING 500 THE STATS65% of US adults use social media90% of US young adults (18-29) use social mediaDaily usage (US): 76% of Facebook users & 51% of Instagram usersInstagram & Snapchat compete for fastest growing platform

JENNY

Before we jump into the planning, I wanted to give you all some statistics about social media usage. So, heres the big one, 65% of adults use some form of social media, with the most predominant usage being on Facebook. However, when it comes to young adults aged 18-29, fully 90% of them are using some form of social media. Thats huge, and thats a demographic that a lot of colleges and universities are interested in reaching both from an admissions perspective and from a young alumni donor perspective.

As you can see in this chart, 76% of Facebook users are using the site at least once per day, and 51% of Instagram users can say the same. Instagram is huge these days, and it is constantly competing with Snapchat to hold the honor of the fastest growing social media platform.

This can all be overwhelming, as there are so many options for each type of social. Hopefully we can break it down for you, and Im going to start by4

Todays Batting order:THE FOUR TYPES OF SOCIAL CAMPAIGNSWHERE TO STARTWHO TO INVOLVEHOW TO MEASURE

JENNY

Running through the batting order I told you there were going to be baseball puns, guys.

Weve identified four different types of social campaigns that were going to run through for you. Theres a bit of overlap, and some of the lines are a little blurry, but we think weve identified four unique boxes. Then well get into the nuts and bolts how to start if you havent already, who needs to be involved, and what you need to start thinking about in order to measure success. 5

Four types of social media integration

6

Social-led campaigns

Contests

ANNA

Social led campaigns are what they sounds like - campaigns that are led primarily by social media, that usually focus on user generated content. There are a few types of social led campaigns but one example of a social led campaign is a campaign that centers around a contest. Let me give you an example of this: Vanderbilt ran a campaign called #VUSwift in: which we asked students to use Taylor Swift lyrics to answer the question, how has Vanderbilt made your Wildest Dreams come true? We received more than 360 tweets, instagrams, and tumblr posts with the hashtag #vuswift. From the 360 we narrowed it down to 20 finalists. Seven winners were then chosen at random and were invited to bring a guest to join the Chancellor for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch the Taylor Swift concert from box seats at the Bridgestone Area. The finalists who werent chosen as winners were invited to hang with the Chancellor in his box seats for theVanderbilt vs. Kentuckyfootball game on November 14, a few weeks after the Taylor Swift concert. Pretty cool, right?So you ask, what are the benefits of doing something like this? Not only did we get 300+ responses, we gained followers, helped increase brand awareness, and got great user generated content to use elsewhere. We also got students talking about why they loved Vanderbilt, which from an admissions perspective is a great thing. In addition, this our Chancellor get out into the public eye with our students, which aligns with the priorities of Vanderbilts current communications plan.

Running a contest is a great way to get fresh new content and increase engagement, but nothing can ruin a celebration like somebody getting sued. Before running your user-generated content contest, make sure you are familiar with the laws that may impact your campaign. While these will, of course, vary from region to region, each social network provides specific legal guidelines for the running of promotions on their sites. For example, in Tennessee it is illegal to require someone to use social media for entry, so we had to create a work around and allow people to enter via a form. While social media was the preferred form of entry for this contest, there was a way to enter if you didnt have any social accounts. We buried the form on the website as to discourage form use, and encourage people to use social however, but the form was there to be legal.

7

Social-led campaignsInformation gathering in real-time

Targeting students and young alumni

JENNY

Another example of a social-led campaign was the effort we did this past year with Vanderbilts first-ever Giving Day campaign. This effort included print pieces, but the bulk of the promotion came through social media. We accomplished this a couple of different ways.

The first was allowing students, especially young alumni, to speak for themselves. We used a platform called Social Toaster, which allowed us to push messaging out to a group of volunteers that they could share on their own social media with just one click. The people who were the most active were eligible for prizes, and overall we saw some great results.

On the day of, we had all hands on deck, with major ad buys running on Facebook as well as periodic emails and reminders going out throughout the event. We posted videos and photos for milestones, and we kept up the momentum on social media for twenty-four hours straight. Without giving away all the numbers, I can say that we saw an almost four hundred percent return on investment from the amount we put into our Facebook ads to the amount received in gifts from people who clicked on those ads.

In addition, Giving Day allowed us to build up volunteer lists of young alumni, and weve been able to continue engaging them throughout the year. Something thats social led might not work for a more traditional fundraising effort, but if youre really going after young alumni donors, using and leveraging social media and social media advertising can be powerful.

8

Social-led campaignsCampusInitiatives

University of New Hampshires Say Something Nice campaign

ANNA

Another type of social campaign is one that focuses on campus initiatives. A great example of this type of campaign is the Month of Believing campaign by University of New Hampshire. The Month of Believing was an engagement campaign that was led on social media, which took place during the holiday season to highlight all the wonderful things happening at UNH and get students talking about it.

Social media played a major and critical role in this initiative. Videos were produced and shared on social media. A centralized mash-up page was created to provide one-stop-shopping for all things Month of Believing.One of the videos that was produced was Say something Nice in which University of New Hampshire students and staff shared nice comments with their peers as part of the Month of Believing Campaign, and asked to share on social with #IBelieveInUNH. This video got over 31,000 views.

The day after the say something nice video was shot and posted, they promoted another initiative, Random Acts of Kindness. day. Balloons and cards were passed around as an incentive to do something nice for someone and pass it on and share it on social media. There was also video shot and produced and shared on social.One fundraising component was incorporated into this project a wellGiving Tuesday, a one-day-only giving initiative with a goal of 122 gifts. With thoughtful social media posts ranging from humorous to poignant, and an email solicitation to alumni, faculty & staff, the goal was exceeded and 150 gifts were made.

Next, Jenny is going to talk to you about Mixed Media campaigns.

9

Mixed media campaignsMost fundraisingDesign with a thought to the web

JENNY

So Im going to walk through the second part of social media integration, which is through mixed media campaigns. These are campaigns that tend to lead with a print piece, or an email component, and where social is secondary to that main piece of branding. This is where youre going to see most of your traditional fundraising efforts, at least in larger campaigns or events. This is shifting a bit with campaigns geared towards younger alumni, but for the most part were still in a print world when it comes to this stuff.

Ive picked Wellesley to use as an example. They had a campaign that they called the Wellesley Effect. They did print pieces, a supplemental website which you can see here, and finally a social component where they encouraged donors to share the effect that Wellesley had had on them and connect their Facebook accounts to share. They had major events, but they made sure to share everything on their Facebook page, as you can see her, and they also had a hashtag that they promoted on all their Wellesley Effect social media.

When youre designing print pieces, then, you need to think a little bit about whats going to work on the web. There are certain colors, fonts and styles that arent going to translate well if youre trying to turn your logo into a social media icon, for example. If you have a web design team, involve them early to make sure that the type treatments and other things youre thinking about are going to work for web and social.

10

Mixed media campaignsAlumni Magazine Stories

JENNY

Another example of a mixed media campaign is one thats sort of a symbiotic relationship. Vanderbilt is our example here weve had a hashtag that weve been promoting on social media for years called Vandygram. We encourage students, friends, alumni, staffwhomever, to share photos of anything on campus or Vanderbilt related. Weve gotten a lot of traction over the years, and we get everything from move-in day photos from first-year students to alumni making the VU hand sign in front of monuments all over the world.

In order to integrate print and social together, our alumni magazine has started featuring Vandygram photos in the print edition, while also having a supplemental online component. This relationship works well because were providing them additional content, and theyre spreading the message about Vandygram and our social media presence further than we could get it otherwise.

Plenty of schools have a hashtag that they use for one campaign or event, but having a dedicated, all-encompassing hashtag like Vandygram can be a great way to build connections across your entire community11

Mixed media campaignsFeatured News Stories

JENNY

Finally, we wanted to talk about using social media to promote stories that go beyond the day to day research findings of an organization to things that are topical and are in the national conversation. We all want to promote our experts on certain topics, and social media can be a great way to do that. If your school is featured in a publication albeit a reputable, sourced publication social can help you to spread that message and raise awareness of an issue thats important to your school and your community.

For example, the University of Michigan had a story about researchers who created an app that helped residents in Flint, Michigan find out the risk of lead in their water. This story had a lot of talking points, and was obviously of interest both to their state and to the national conversation about the situation in Flint. The social team at U of M leveraged the story by focusing on their researchers, and making sure that their contribution to the project was noted.

If your social team isnt in conversation with your news team, thats a problem they cant be siloed. If you have editorial meetings or anything where youre making a plan or discussing issues, make sure that at least one representative from your social media team is there. Additionally, this helps you control the messaging, because youre able to help draft the story and think about when and where it should be shared.

http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/24394-google-funded-flint-water-app-helps-residents-find-lead-risk-resources12

Day to Day communicationsMaintaining Communications

ANNA

Another type of social integration is centered around day-to-day communications. One example of this is simply replying and responding to comments, questions, and shares on social media accounts. This is important obviously, because social media, is wellsocial. The most effective and successful social media accounts are ones that are actively engaging their viewers. These accounts ask questions, and respond to comments in a timely manner. New York university does a good job of this on their Facebook account. As you can see they posted regarding a recent snow storm, and that classes would be held regardless. Someone commented and asked for a blizzard please and they responded with certainly, please review our Blizzard request procedure. They could have just liked it, or ignored it, but they decided to engage with the commenter in a fun way. Seems pretty simple, but this is the type of engagement people love! They want to feel important, but they also want to know your accounts are managed by a real live breathing human being. I cant tell you how many times weve liked or commented on photos through our main accounts at Vanderbilt and people are astounded. People have even told us it was the best day of their life because Vanderbilt liked or re-gramed their photo on Instagram.

Along with this however, also comes negative comments. Its important to respond to negative comments professionally and by trying to provide any additional information that may help resolve the issue. One way to help with this is to post a disclaimer on your site stating you reserve the right to remove inappropriate comments. Remove those comments containing vulgar language, those that attack any one group or individual and those that are obviously spam. At Vanderbilt, if you comment and use hate speech or vulgar language, your comment will be removed. We allow negative comments, as long as they are not hateful, do not attack another fan/user, or vulgar. If someone continually trolls with hate speech or vulgarities, we block them. The goal isnt to squash conversation, but rather to protect our fans. We want people to feel like they can comment without being verbally attacked.

13

Day to Day communicationsSharing institutional news and cross promotion

ANNA

Another component in day-to-day communications is sharing institutional news, and news from other institutional social accounts. We are lucky to work in Higher Education, where our places of employment are generators of amazing content. With social media, it opens up a whole other outlet for sharing the amazing stories that are happing on at your University, and journalists and news sources have become accustomed to looking for this type of content through social media. Sharing institutional news and having a structure to do so on social media is important in every communications plan.

Cross promotion between colleges, faculty, staff, and students is also important in your day-to-day communications. An example could be retweeting a professor that has just shared news that theyd been featured in a research publication. Retweeting/reposting (specifically twitter and instagram) is a great way to keep the account active, and builds relationships and brand recognition with followers. At Vanderbilt, we regram photos from our community on Instagram weekly, and feature photos that use our #vandygram hashtag on our homepage.

14

Day to Day communicationsEncouraging interactivity

JENNY

So Im going to pick up day-to-day communications talking about a post that William and Mary did targeting their alumni. They asked a simple question, created a great graphic, and let their audience give them great insight.

This works on a lot of different levels, even if it just looks like a simple daily post. They now have a list of professors and classes that meant a lot to students that could perhaps set the tone for their programming at reunion, or for which professors they might send out to alumni chapters across the country to meet with students. In addition, they have names of alumni who have fond memories of the university, and they may be able to leverage that in soliciting donations or forming a relationship with students who might not already be connected to the alumni network.

Finally, these types of conversations can be great for bringing back to professors, department chairs, whoever, to show them that they are appreciated by their students. Building a strong connection between your professors and your alumni association can only help going forward.

Having the conversation, replying to comments, etc.

https://www.facebook.com/williamandmary/photos/a.10150183453240006.408501.56827075005/10157120981655006/?type=3&theater15

Day to Day communicationsInformation GatheringPlanning Reunion eventsPlanning chapter activitiesNames of alumni who associate the University with fond memoriesBuilding relationships with professors

JENNY

So Im going to pick up day-to-day communications talking about a post that William and Mary did targeting their alumni. They asked a simple question, created a great graphic, and let their audience give them great insight.

This works on a lot of different levels, even if it just looks like a simple daily post. They now have a list of professors and classes that meant a lot to students that could perhaps set the tone for their programming at reunion, or for which professors they might send out to alumni chapters across the country to meet with students. In addition, they have names of alumni who have fond memories of the university, and they may be able to leverage that in soliciting donations or forming a relationship with students who might not already be connected to the alumni network.

Finally, these types of conversations can be great for bringing back to professors, department chairs, whoever, to show them that they are appreciated by their students. Building a strong connection between your professors and your alumni association can only help going forward.

Having the conversation, replying to comments, etc.

https://www.facebook.com/williamandmary/photos/a.10150183453240006.408501.56827075005/10157120981655006/?type=3&theater16

Day to Day communicationsFun stuff!

JENNY

Finally, theres just the fun stuff. This is the stuff that everyone thinks of when they imagine having a job in social media, and its one of the reasons I love getting to go to work every day. Sometimes we have meetings where we just think about what holidays and events are upcoming and how we can do something fun, or silly for our students. Last year on April Fools day, for example, we posted that a giant squirrel skeleton had been found during an archaeological dig on one of our lawns. We photoshopped the image, got fake quotes from professors, posted a fake news story, shared it on social, the works. It was really fun to do, and most people had a lot of fun with the joke. (Just as an aside, when you do stuff like this, there are always people who wont get the joke.)

Another example is from this Thanksgiving, when we worked in conjunction with our video team to talk to students and faculty about what they were thankful for, what they wanted to eat, what their favorite float was in the Macys paradethe idea was to do a Buzzfeed style video, and we got a lot of positive feedback from it.

17

Day to Day communications

Lehigh University Professors Read from Rate My Professor

JENNY

Finally on day to day, I want to show you guys a video from Lehigh University that I wish we had thought of, because I love it. They had their professors come in and do the equivalent of Jimmy Kimmels Celebrities Read Mean Tweets which, if you havent seen it, Jimmy Kimmel has very famous people come in and read Tweets about themselves that range from hilarious to just plain mean. Lehigh took that and instead grabbed reviews from RateMyProfessor.com, then had their professors come in and read them. The results are pretty great, and are a lot of fun to watch. 18

Crisiscommunications

Social media will be where people go firstTiming is importantClarity of message Keeping it the same across platformsHaving a place to drive people for more information

ANNA

Im not going to spend a ton of time on this, as this will look different depending on what your role is at your University, but its important to note that in the event of a crisis, social media is where people will go first, so make sure you have a plan in place for when/if a crisis arises. Timing and clarity of message will be important so Its crucial that your Crisis Communications plan includes a section on social media if your university has accounts, and that all of your social media managers know what that plan entails, whether it be to retweet/share what the University is sharing or share a link to a specific website.

At Vanderbilt we have a chat channel that includes all of the social media managers across campus. We are able to readily share private information here, in the event that an issue arises. We also have an system called AlertVU, and a website for it. Our social media posts will drive people to this website for additional information in the event of an emergency. Having a central place for people to go is extremely important, as that central source can be updated in real time.

19

Where do we start?

Staffing social mediaHow big is your institution? How are roles divided? Where does social media fit logically?

JENNY

So lets talk about staffing social media. Were, again, talking about top level school accounts, less so the departmental/school level sites. At this point social has moved beyond being someones third job when they have time. Most institutions are going to need at least one dedicated social media person, while most areas and departments will need someone who is at least half-time social media. The bigger the school, of course, the bigger the team. Vanderbilts social team has between four and six people on it, depending on the project.

You also need to think about who is doing what is the YouTube person also the Twitter person, or is the LinkedIn Person the YouTube person? The important thing is that the person in charge of an area needs to feel ownership and responsibility over that platform, and there needs to be backup and cross-training in case someone is sick or on vacation. If the platform is something like Facebook that has multiple contributors, you may need something like a social editorial calendar and regular meetings to discuss upcoming events and important dates.

Finally, where does social media fit within your organization? At Vanderbilt, were a part of the News & Communications office. Other schools might have their social media under a PR office or a marketing office. It kind of depends on your schools set up and hierarchy, but generally you are going to need to have the main accounts owned by one area. 21

introduce team membersEducation on social media and perception Timing is everything, there is no nuance,only perception

Its important that the people that you work with understand how social media can be perceived. Many times, the person posting on social media isnt the person writing the content or news article. Its crucial that everyone be on the same page. Part of that is being cognizant of what is happening in the world at the time. For example, if there is some sort of tragic event on campus such as a student death, and youre posting on social media asking for gifts for your most recent giving campaign, thats probably not a good strategy and will likely come off as insensitive. Same goes with social ads. Being in communication with the members on your team is important, as well as making sure they understand how social media affects the perception of the University. Building a good relationship of trust with your social media managers is important as well, If they suggest that now is not a good time to post something, its often times best to take their advice and hear them out because they are the ones actually managing the day-to-day communications and know your social community better than anyone.22

Should you involve students?Yes, but

What worked

ANNA

Weve done quite a bit of this in the last year or so, so Im going to talk to you about what worked.

At Vanderbilt we knew we needed to be on Snapchat because thats where our students are, but we just werent sure how to go about it. Because we are a bunch of 30-40 something adults, we really didnt know where to begin so, weve turned it over to our students. Our admissions department started a series of takeovers.

On most Tuesdays a different undergraduate student takes control of the Vanderbilt SC account to bring a unique story about their Vanderbilt experience. From research to residential life, clubs toThe Commons, and academics to athletics, the Snapchat takeovers give the viewer a window into what it is like to be a Commodore. Viewers can even snap their own questions in to the students during the takeover.

Snapchat takeovers are also a great way to get a behind-the-scenes look at campus. Recent takeovers have taken viewers into our Student Rec Center, Rand Dining Hall, Memorial Gym, the Kissam Center, and more.

JENNY

24

What worked

25

What worked

Weve also experimented with Instagram takeovers on the College level. At Vanderbilt, both Owen School of Business and Peabody College have done student takeovers on Instagram and have had great success.

Im going to talk to you all specifically about Vanderbilt Peabody College as I was the point person for organizing them. So the first big question is, how do you pick your worthy students? For us what worked well was having program directors and faculty recommend students they thought would be qualified. They know their students better than anyone, so we trusted their opinion. So far, everyone that they recommended to us has been great. After getting a list of names from the program directors, I created a Doddle poll of available dates (one for each week of the semester because we did these weekly) for them to choose from. In some cases its better to be consist on your takeover day, such as Takeover Tuesday and only do takeovers on Tuesdays, for example. I had originally wanted to do this, but after talking to students I realized that limiting the takeovers to Tuesdays would limit the types of posts wed get. Also, as grad students, not all students have class on Tuesdays and we really wanted each of them to take at least one photo that focused on academics, or working on school related projects. So, we decided to pick a variety of weekdays for the takeovers to get more of a variation.

After each student picked their day, we contacted them with a list of guidelines and best practices, reminding them to be professional, and instructing them to use the hashtag #PbdyStudentTakeover and #vandygram (our main university hashtag). We specifically had four categories we wanted each one of them to hit on on their takeover day (Student life, Academics, Favorite Spot on Campus, and Nashville life) and so we included examples of each. We also gave them hours of the day to stay between (because I needed to make sure I was available to check each post). I didnt want anyone posting at midnight, because I wouldnt be awake to monitor it. Aside from that, they pretty much had free rein. So far, everyone has done a great job and weve gotten some fresh content from a new perspective, and learned a bit about our students in the process. Since Peabody started doing takeovers, engagement has increased on their Instagram accout by 30%, and the number of comments specifically has increased by 65% since January 2016. Weve also gotten feedback various perspective students telling us that they saw the takeovers on Instagram and really enjoyed them an said it helped them get an idea of who theyd be going to class with and what life on campus would be like. Lastly, its a great way to promote diversity. We tried to make sure we had a good mix of students from various ethnic backgrounds, different majors, and involvement in different student groups such as student government and LGBTQ.26

What worked

Other things that have worked for us have been Tumblr. Our office has a student intern and one of their jobs every semester is to put together posts for our Tumblr. This works well because we rely on that student voice to keep things realistic and funny. The fact of the matter is that were not going to know the inside jokes, the places they go for a late night coffee run, or the weird parts of being a student that make no sense to us, so having that student voice is invaluable.

However, thats not to say that having a student voice isnt without its problems

27

What Didnt

Vet your studentsDont be afraid to cut them offEstablish security practices (passwords)Share valuable electronics at your own peril.

JENNY

So. Using students. Great but problematic. Here are a few things that weve learned so you dont have to!

Number one, vet your students, or use students that have already been vetted. Tour guides, the kids in the drama department, kids who are good in front of a camerayou need to train them, make sure they understand the expectations, and set those expectations high.

Number two: you are the holder of the keys. If they are not doing well at it, lock them out of the account and shut them down. Immediately. You can give constructive feedback later.

Number three: protect your passwords. The way weve done it is to have a separate student phone that they use for most of the Snapchatting, Livestreaming, etc. That phone is kept in an administrative office when not in use, and there is no way for the students to install apps or do anything other than open up the three or four apps weve allowed access to.

Number four: get an Otterbox case for the phone youre using. Because someone will drop it, and you will be sad.28

How to measure

Set GoalsSpecific (simple, sensible)Measurable (meaningful, motivating).Achievable (agreed, attainable).Relevant (reasonable, realistic).Timely (time-based).

SMART

One of the most important things in marketing or any campaign is making sure you are targeting and setting goals! Without a goal, there is no way to measure or target. How many of you have heard of SMART goals? Specific (simple, sensible, significant).Measurable (meaningful, motivating).Achievable (agreed, attainable).Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).Time bound (time-based, time limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

30

Set GoalsSPECIFICWhatdo I want to accomplish?Whyis this goal important?Whois involved?Whereis it located?Whichresources are involved?

SMART

1. SpecificYour goal should be clear and specific, otherwise you won't be able to focus your efforts or feel truly motivated to achieve it. When drafting your goal, try to answer the five "W" questions:Whatdo I want to accomplish?Whyis this goal important?Whois involved?Whereis it located?Whichresources or limits are involved?

EXAMPLE: Rather than set a goal to increase giving, a SMART goal would be to increase total gift contribution by $500,000.

31

Set GoalsMEASUREABLEHow much?How many?How will I know when it is accomplished?

SMART

2. MeasurableIt's important to have measurable goals, so that you can track your progress and stay motivated. Assessing progress helps you to stay focused, meet your deadlines, and feel the excitement of getting closer to achieving your goal.A measurable goal should address questions such as:How much?How many?How will I know when it is accomplished?

ExampleIf your goal is to increase gift contributions by $500,000, so this can be easily measured. You either get the gifts, or you do not.32

Set GoalsACHIEVABLEHow can I accomplish this goal?How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?

SMART

3. AchievableYour goal also needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. In other words, it should stretch your abilities but still remain possible. When you set an achievable goal, you may be able to identify previously overlooked opportunities or resources that can bring you closer to it.An achievable goal will usually answer questions such as:How can I accomplish this goal?How realistic is the goal, based on other constraints, such as financial factors?

Going back to our giving example. If your goal is to increase gift contributions by $500,000 and you know your total contributions last year were $400,000, that may not be attainable, so youd have to adjust to make sure that your goal is reasonable.33

Set GoalsRELEVANTDoes this seem worthwhile?Is this the right time?Does this match our other efforts/needs?Am I the right person to reach this goal?Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment?

SMART

4. RelevantThis step is about ensuring that your goal matters to you, and that it also aligns with other relevant goals. We all need support and assistance in achieving our goals, but it's important to retain control over them. So, make sure that your plans drive everyone forward, but that you're still responsible for achieving your own goal.A relevant goal can answer "yes" to these questions:Does this seem worthwhile?Is this the right time?Does this match our other efforts/needs?Am I the right person to reach this goal?Is it applicable in the current socio-economic environment?

Going back to our example, if you work in development, increasing total contributions would be relevant and your department would be responsible for this goal.

34

Set GoalsTIMELYWhen?What can I do six months from now?What can I do six weeks from now?What can I do today?

SMART

5. TimeLYEvery goal needs a target date, so that you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. This part of the SMART goal criteria helps to prevent everyday tasks from taking priority over your longer-term goals.A time-bound goal will usually answer these questions:When?What can I do six months from now?What can I do six weeks from now?What can I do today?

Going back to our example again: Increasing gift contributions by $500,000 is not a SMART goal. Increasing gift contributions by $500,000 by 12/31/2017 is a SMART goal.

There are also two more letters, E abd R can also be added for Evaluate andReview to make the acronym SMARTER. But Ill get to that in a miute after Jenny talks about tracking.

35

Set up the tracking

JENNY

There are a lot of different ways to set up tracking for your social media, and theres no way I can cover all of them. I could do a whole presentation about how to track it. But there are a few things I can offer as advice 36

Set up the tracking

JENNY

Facebooks insights tools can tell you a lot of things, from how many followers you have, to how many clicks, likes and shares your posts got, to the overall demographics of your followers. You can do a deep dive there for sure. Twitter and Instagrams tracking is getting better. Other platforms are slightly behind, such as Snapchat, which is still the wild west of getting any data.

So, my best advice is to get your numbers monthly, and save them somewhere locally. You dont know when one of these platforms is going to change how they do things, nor do you want to be caught out when you lose your data because of it. Dedicate some time and energy to creating internal tracking, then pull the reports and numbers you need from each platform.

I would also recommend against just looking at the hard numbers IE, we got five hundred likes this month. Its better to look at some ratios and percentages to get a more accurate picture of your growth. Im going to show you an example, and bear with me as I do some math here.

37

Set up the tracking

JENNY

Okay, so heres month one. This month, we posted ten times. Each of those posts, received one comment because I like working with round numbers. So the total amount of comments for the month is ten.

Then, in month two, we only posted five times. Each of those posts, received two comments so our total number of comments for the month is, again, ten. So if were looking month to month, we say hey, our number of comments is exactly the same. Were not improving.

But thats not really an accurate representation of whats happening, either. So lets bring in a third element, which is the total users you reached during the month. Your ten posts, all together, were seen by 1,000 people. So when you figure out what percentage of a thousand those ten comments represent, you get 1%. So 1% of the users you reach are engaging with your content if your internal definition of engagement is comments received to total users reached.

So then we look at month two, and because we posted less frequently, we only reached 500 users for the month. However, when you look at the ratio, the percentage of those users you reached that your ten comments represent? Thats 2%. You doubled your engaged users month to month, and this shows that even though you posted LESS content in month two, your users were TWICE as engaged as they had been in month one. You should be looking at creating more content like the content from month two!

Clear as mud? Good. This is one that will take some time to figure out, and the numbers and ratios you set up to track are going to be unique to your institution and your needs. I cant tell you specifically what metrics to use, because I dont know what your goals are. However, if you have specific questions I can try to get to them after were done, or you can talk to me afterwards.

So, finally38

Evaluate and refineSMARTEREVALUATEWhat workedWhat didntREFINEMake changes to ensure mistakes arent repeated

Once you have met your goal (or not) one must evaluate and review (or I like refine even better), for the next time to ensure that mistakes arent repeated, and information that youve learned can be implemented.

39

Refine, refine, refine

JENNY

You need to periodically revisit the benchmarks, goals and metrics you set for yourself. You need to have clear measurements for when youve achieved a goal, and then be able to refine that goal into the next target you want to aim for. Social media is constantly evolving, and if you really want to make it a major player in your communications plan, you need to be ready to evolve with it. We dont know what it looks like, but were pretty sure its not going away.

So, finally, we want to see if anybody has any questions or comments, and to thank you all for your time and for listening to what we have to say.40

POST-GAME ANALYSIS

Questions?

Comments?

Baseball puns?

ANNA/JENNY

You need to periodically revisit the benchmarks, goals and metrics you set for yourself. You need to have clear measurements for when youve achieved a goal, and then be able to refine that goal into the next target you want to aim for. Social media is constantly evolving, and if you really want to make it a major player in your communications plan, you need to be ready to evolve with it. We dont know what it looks like, but were pretty sure its not going away.

So, finally, we want to see if anybody has any questions or comments, and to thank you all for your time and for listening to what we have to say.41

Set up the trackingPosts Per MonthTotal Comments for the monthTotal Users ReachedEngaged UsersMonth One101010001%Month Two5105002%

JENNY

Okay, so heres month one. This month, we posted ten times. Each of those posts, received one comment because I like working with round numbers. So the total amount of comments for the month is ten.

Then, in month two, we only posted five times. Each of those posts, received two comments so our total number of comments for the month is, again, ten. So if were looking month to month, we say hey, our number of comments is exactly the same. Were not improving.

But thats not really an accurate representation of whats happening, either. So lets bring in a third element, which is the total users you reached during the month. Your ten posts, all together, were seen by 1,000 people. So when you figure out what percentage of a thousand those ten comments represent, you get 1%. So 1% of the users you reach are engaging with your content.

So then we look at month two, and because we posted less frequently, we only reached 500 users for the month. However, when you look at the ratio, the percentage of those users you reached that your ten comments represent? Thats 2%. You doubled your engaged users month to month, and this shows that even though you posted LESS content in month two, your users were TWICE as engaged as they had been in month one.

Clear as mud? Good. This is one that will take some time to figure out, and the numbers and ratios you set up to track are going to be unique to your institution and your needs. I cant tell you specifically what metrics to use, because I dont know what your goals are. However, if you have specific questions I can try to get to them after were done, or you can talk to me afterwards.

So, finally42