you’ve got a social media site… now what?

MASFAA 2013October 6th – 9th, 2013Indianapolis, Indiana

You’ve Got A Social Media Site…Now What?

Jayme Jarrett, Ohio Northern UniversityLiz Gross, Great Lakes Educational Loan Services

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What We’ll Cover Today

Content Types How to find it How to write itFinding Fans & FollowersAccount Management TipsSocial Media AssessmentGroup Discussion

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Content

WHAT DOI POST?

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Finding and Writing Effective Content

Remember, you don’t have to write everything from scratch!Repurpose what you can from other sourcesThink about how the audience receives your social media content Short Conversational voice

Finding Content

Potential third party sources Federal Student Aid (FSA) Scholarship announcements News outlets Other aid offices and servicers on social

media Check out this Twitter list:

Twitter.com/MyGreatLakesFAP/lists/financial-aid-offices

Finding Content

Curation is key! Google Alerts RSS Readers

• Feedly• Digg• Microsoft Outlook

Content FormsBlog

Content FormsFacebook Posts - Status

Content FormsFacebook Posts – Introduce a

Link

Content FormsFacebook Posts – Photo

Captions

Content FormsVideos

Content FormsTweets

ResearchWhat is your audience looking for?

When do they want to know about it?

HeadlinesMake them want to click on it!

Effective IntroductionsBe exciting!

(Yes, even when the topic is financial aid.)

Tone

Be A Resource

Effective Content – Short and to the Point

Make your point quickly

Use lists, bullets, numbers, and visuals

Remove URLs or unrelated link descriptions

Break up content over multiple posts

Avoid Jargon

These words should probably not appear in social media:

Return of Title IV FundsSatisfactory Academic Progress

Aggregate LimitsLoan Proration

Pell Lifetime Eligibility Used

But that doesn’t mean you can’t talk about them…

Writing For Social Media

Let’s practice!

Writing For Social MediaYou want to say:

The Office of Student Financial Services is required by federal statute to recalculate federal financial aid eligibility for students who withdraw, drop out, are dismissed, or take a leave of absence prior to completing 60 percent of the term. Recalculation is based on the percentage of earned aid using the Federal Return of Title IV funds formula.

Writing For Social Media

You could say:

Writing For Social Media

You could say:

Writing For Social Media

You could say:

Writing For Social MediaYou want to say:

Federal regulations require that all students who receive federal financial aid make Financial Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress (referred to as SAP) toward achieving a degree. For financial aid purposes, progress is measured by the student’s cumulative grade point average, percentage of credit hours earned in relation to those attempted, and the length of the academic program. If a student does not meet SAP standards, all federal and state aid could be lost.

Writing For Social Media

You want to say:

Federal regulations require that when a student is enrolled in a program that is one academic year or more in length, but is in a remaining period of study that is shorter than a full academic year, the loan amount must be prorated.

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Finding Fans and Followers

Find More FansBuild the momentumCreate word-of-mouth

Use student employees to spread the word on Facebook

Link to your page whenever you can• Use the Facebook short link on printed materialFB.com/YourPageName

Connect all your online properties

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Account Management Tips

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Managing Multiple Accounts

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Managing Multiple Accounts

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Managing Multiple Accounts

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Create an Editorial Calendar

Valuable if you need to submit content for approval

Keep track of hot topics & seasonal items

Schedule Facebook & Twitter content in advance

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Scheduling Posts - Facebook

Click the clock in the bottom left to access scheduling options.

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Scheduling Posts - Facebook

Viewing scheduled (and prior) posts

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Scheduling Posts - Facebook

Tip: Treat scheduling like proof reading

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Scheduling Posts - Facebook

Editing scheduled status updates or links

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Scheduling Posts - Facebook

Editing scheduled images

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Scheduling Posts - Twitter

Must use a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck

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Scheduling Posts - Twitter

Editing scheduled tweets

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Social Media Measurement

Why Social Media Assessment?

Assessment allows you to:Tie your social media efforts to your goalsImprove your social media tacticsEvaluate your social media strategyTell a story about your office’s efforts and students’ response

How? By measuring what matters!

Start With Your Goals

Examples of social media-specific goalsReach 50% of the undergraduate class

with financial aid informationEngage students in conversation about

financial literacyIncrease attendance at exit

counseling programsIncrease readership of articles on

the financial aid website

Poll

What are your social media-specific goals?

Measure What Matters

Reach The number of people who see your posts

Why? If you’re posting and no one is seeing it, why

bother?

How to measure Facebook Insights

Measurement Techniques

Reach – Facebook Insights (page level)Page level

Measurement Techniques

Reach – Facebook Insights (post level)

Measurement TechniquesReach – Facebook Insights (best post types)

Measurement TechniquesReach – Facebook Insights (best post time)

How I Use It: Reach

Refining Content StrategySchedule posting based on when fans

were online the previous weekTailor content types to those with the

most reach

TrendGoal is to increase reach over time

Measure What MattersEngagementNumber of people who interacted with a postFacebook: like, comment, share, clickTwitter: reply, retweet, favorite

Why? If your goal is to engage in conversation,

this metric is important

How?Facebook InsightsTwitter Analytics

Measurement Techniques

Engagement

Simple Engagement True Engagement

Measurement Techniques

Simple engagement - Facebook

Measurement Techniques

Simple engagement – TwitterReplies + Retweets + Faves =

Interactions

Measurement Techniques

True Engagement – Facebook

How I Use It: True Engagement

Refine Content StrategyIdentify highly engaging content

• Examine topic, type, posting date/time

Attempt to replicate

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Group Discussion