Handout for Laptop Institute PowerPoint "Marketing Your School with Social Media" presented on July 21, 2009.

1. 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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2. 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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3. 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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