engaging prospective students using social media

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UAS Conference Series 2013/14 1 October 2013 @oxfordgradstudy Engaging with prospective students using social media Tess Ablitt and Nicola Mastroddi Graduate Admissions and Funding 14 September 2010 Page 1

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Page 1: Engaging prospective students using social media

UAS Conference Series 2013/14

1 October 2013

@oxfordgradstudy

Engaging with prospective students using social media

Tess Ablitt and Nicola Mastroddi Graduate Admissions and Funding

14 September 2010

Page 1

Page 2: Engaging prospective students using social media

@oxfordgradstudy

Why should we use social media?

• Show a human side to Oxford – engage informally

• Flexible, low-cost channel which students occupy

• Quick distribution of news, events and updates

• Allow prospective and current students to interact

with each other

• Act as a central hub for all graduate-specific news

1 October 2013

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Page 3: Engaging prospective students using social media

@oxfordgradstudy

How do we use social media?

1 October 2013

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1,860 followers (using for 2 years)

2,500 followers (using for 6 months as a PAGE)

206 followers (using for 8 months)

Using for 1 month; stats to come!

Other channels to consider: LinkedIn, Vimeo, Flickr, Google+,

Vine, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon and the list goes on!

Feed into the University’s Facebook and Weibo

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@oxfordgradstudy

How should we use social media?

1 October 2013

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Quick updates re. news and events

Promote news & events using photos, videos

Boards of photos to represent your brand

Collections of graduate-related videos

• Regularly engage students with interesting and relevant content • Call to actions are important and always measure effectiveness

WEBSITE

PRIMARY CHANNELS

SUBSIDIARY CHANNELS

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@oxfordgradstudy

CONTENT QUIZ: FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

1 October 2013

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• Five past Facebook posts and five past Tweets from our

accounts on your handouts

• In pairs, we want you to rank the posts by popularity and

discuss the reasons why you’ve ranked them this way

• Results and discussion

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@oxfordgradstudy

HOW TO BRAND

1 October 2013

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Important to retain your brand in your social media so people

instantly recognise you and to give your account credibility, e.g.

consistent logo, colour palette, account names

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@oxfordgradstudy

HOW TO PROMOTE

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• Hard copy promotional materials

• Website

• Promote through each social media channel

• Email signatures

• Any communications to your target audience

• Ask the main university page/GAF to share your content

• Facebook advertising and boosting posts

• Follow some influential accounts and hope they follow you!

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@oxfordgradstudy

THINGS TO CONSIDER

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• Senior management buy-in: develop a Strategy/Policy

Tools:

•Research externally – benchmark with competitors

•Research internally – current use within the university

•Establish target audience, objectives, targets and

methods

•Establish use and resources needed

•How to measure success and future considerations

Page 9: Engaging prospective students using social media

@oxfordgradstudy

HOW TO POST/TWEET

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• Regular posting to engage/inform followers

• Simple language – informal and friendly tone

• Include link for further info and call to action (FB can

track; use bit.ly for Twitter)

• Include photos or videos to represent post

• Time of day and during week

• Schedule into Hootsuite if not in the office

• Twitter – 140 characters; Facebook – no restrictions

Page 10: Engaging prospective students using social media

@oxfordgradstudy

POST-BUILDING EXERCISE

1 October 2013

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Using the previous principles explained, we want you to

create a post for either Facebook and Twitter in groups.

Topic: new graduate course launched – see handout

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@oxfordgradstudy

HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS

1 October 2013

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It is important to measure your impact on social media

and provide regular reports to inform your team of

progress

Tools to use:

• Google Analytics – campaign tracking links

• Bit.ly – track shortened links

• Facebook Insights

• Crowdbooster

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@oxfordgradstudy 1 October 2013

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<screen shot of Google

Analytics – campaign

tracking>

Page 13: Engaging prospective students using social media

@oxfordgradstudy

QUESTIONS?

1 October 2013

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