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Marketing Your School with Social Media Lausanne Laptop Institute – July 21, 2009

Lorrie Jackson Marketing Director

Lausanne Collegiate School (Memphis, TN)

i. Why are we here?

a. Start with some examples… i. Midwestern boarding school – South Korean student called Director of Admission

for a campus tour and requested “Bobby” as the student tour guide. Bobby was not an official guide but someone met on Facebook. Student later enrolled.

ii. Northeastern school – Alumni office having trouble attracting younger crowd to annual cocktail party in Boston. Added event to Facebook page and wrote “Free Cocktails” across a pic of Boston Skyline. Dramatic increase in attendance by young alumni.

iii. Southeastern high school – Admission office ran annual picnic for area eighth graders. Office asked current high school students to create a Facebook group and invite all eighth grade friends at feeder schools. 50% increase in attendance compared to previous years with no other change in marketing efforts.

b. Building or revising our school’s Web sites so that we can better serve the needs of our current and prospective families, alumni, donors and others.

c. Lausanne Collegiate School – http://www.lausanneschool.com i. Launched with finalsite in August 2008 ii. All modules, eNotify enews every week, robust use of media gallery iii. Great feedback, great ROI

d. Challenge – a school’s Web site is not the only online resource our constituents are using to make decisions about us.

e. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn give space for conversation about our schools and we need to be there:

i. Listening ii. Participating iii. Sharing our story iv. Generating buzz v. Building community vi. Directing traffic back to our school site

ii. Why Social Media? a. Social media include those Web sites where users can:

i. share their favorite content (del.icio.us, Digg) ii. publish original content (YouTube, Flickr) iii. connect with others (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)

b. Election in Iran and Hudson plane crash are just two examples of how messages by the people can instantly be shared without official sanction and how those messages are accepted at face value.

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c. Consumers/citizens are making decisions today based upon these online conversations and not just upon what is being officially delivered to them.

d. However, we educators have traditionally marketed with viewbooks, DVDs and, static web sites, pushing content but not opening up to the conversation.

e. Turn your funnel into a megaphone – Seth Godin’s flipping the funnel http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/01/flipping_the_fu.html

iii. How to Market with Social Media? a. Subgroups

i. Alumni 1. Facebook 2. LinkedIn

ii. Admission 1. Facebook

a. Inquiry stage b. Accepted not yet enrolled c. Enrolled not yet attending classes

iii. General School Affinity 1. Facebook 2. Twitter 3. You Tube

iv. How to be Successful? a. Define Your Digital Vision

i. See Larry Weber’s book Marketing to the Social Web b. Take it step by step – Beth Kanter, expert in social media in nonprofits,

http://www.bethkanter.org/ i. Listen ii. Participate iii. Share your story iv. Generate buzz v. Build your community

c. Drive Them Back to your school’s Web site i. Three marketing goals

1. Raise money 2. Recruit students 3. Retain students

ii. Hard to do all three well using just social media iii. Need our school’s Web site to help us:

1. Online application 2. Online donation 3. Collection of alumni data 4. Delivery of policies, forms 5. Secure collaboration among teachers/students 6. Much more

v. How to Sync Up? a. Sports – Love ‘em? Hate ‘em?

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i. Gets parents, students, alumni excited about your school ii. May be the only way to get them involved at first iii. Once excited, you can tell them more, invite them to more, get their

participation in arts and other activities b. Sports Community vs. School Community – a symbiotic relationship

i. Sports… 1. Builds excitement 2. Introduces school to new audience 3. Creates buzz

ii. Which then makes constituents want to learn more or find out what to do next so they go to the school community

iii. The School… 1. Deepens commitment 2. Informs and engages its constituents 3. Provides substance beyond the style

iv. Constituents then go to sporting events to share what they’ve learned or encourage others to do something.

c. Same for social media vs. school’s site – a symbiotic relationship i. Social media…

1. Builds excitement 2. Introduces school to new audience 3. Creates buzz

ii. Which then makes constituents go to the school’s site to learn more or find out what to do next

iii. The school’s site 1. Deepens commitment 2. Informs and engages its constituents 3. Provides substance beyond the style

iv. Constituents then go to social media to share what they’ve learned or encourage others to do something.

d. So how can we help the process? i. From social media to your Web site

1. Post just a few photos on Facebook and say, “For more, go to our Web site at….”

ii. From your site to social media 1. Share this button 2. Find us on Facebook page 3. Add to your news scroll, eNotify newsletters

Lausanne Collegiate School Lorrie Jackson

http://www.lausanneschool.com http://lorriejackson.com Twitter - lausanneschool Twitter - lorriej

http://www.youtube.com/lausanneschool ljackson@lausanneschool.com http://www.facebook.com/lausannecollegiateschool

LinkedIn – Lausanne Alumni Association

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