In today’s competitive landscape, schools need to understand their potential and current students better than ever before. Knowing how to engage them, where to reach them and how to keep their interest are vital components to the enrollment and retention process, With social media being an increasingly important communications platform, schools need to know not only how to use social media, but how students use it. Jeff Berg, CUnet’s Social Media Strategist, will take you through social media tips and insights, allowing you to “Blaze New Trails” in the world of new media.

1. Discovering Uncharted Territories in
Social Media to Engage your Students

2. The Presentor
Jeff Berg
Social Media Strategist
jeff.berg@cunet.com

3. Agenda
• The World of Social
Media
• What is Social Media
(And Why Should You
Care?)
• Five Simple Truths
About Social Media for
Schools
• Q&A

4. The World of Social Media

5. The World of Social Media
• Social media has changed how
human beings communicate,
organize, and spend time online:
– 75% of all adult internet users.
– More than 20% of all time
spent online.
• Comparisons of most well-known
social media:
– If Twitter were a book it would
be equivalent to 1,500
complete works of
Shakespeare each day.
– If YouTube were a movie it
would take over 400 years to
watch.
5

6. 1,966,514,816
2,000,000,000
1,500,000,000
Oceania
750,000,000 Latin America
1,000,000,000
North America
Middle East
500,000,000 Europe
Asia
- Africa
Total Internet Users Facebook Users
6

7. What is Social Media?
• Social media has changed how human
beings communicate, organize, and spend
• Wikipedia • Social bookmarking
time online:
– 75% of all adult internet users. reviews
• Consumer opinions and • Online niche communities
– MoreInternet mash-ups spent
• than 20% of all time • Social biographies
online.
• Blogs • Social news
• Message boards • Livecasting
• Comparisons of most well-known social
media: Online gaming
• • Audio sharing
– If•Facebook sharing websites
Photo were a country it would be • Virtual worlds
the 3rd largest in fiction with
• Interactive the world • Information aggregators
750MM residents.
– If•Twitter were a book it would be
Instant messaging • Collaboration tools
equivalent to 1,500 complete works of • Event organization tools
Shakespeare each day.
– If YouTube were a movie it would take
over 400 years to watch.

8. Why Should Anyone Care About
the Twits?

9. Why Is This Important?

10. The Answer

11. It Hits The Spot
• Pepsi chose investing in social media instead of Super
Bowl advertisements
• Proctor and Gamble, the worlds largest advertiser,
announced it was pulling its money from daytime
television and put it into social media

12. Student Usage
• Prospective students today…
• Grew up with Internet technology
• Nearly three-quarters use social
media
• 18 percent use Twitter
• 67 percent own an MP3 player
• 81 percent access the Internet
wirelessly
• 70 percent believe colleges should
have a presence on social
networks
• 51 percent want to be contacted
directly through a social network
“Scrolling Toward Enrollment,” Noel-Levitz, 2009
Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2010

13. Social Media for Recruitment
• At the most basic level, provides a
feel for school life through an online
community
• 3 to 5 times more successful than
standard marketing targeting
• Peers are more influential in college
choice than advertising
13

14. Social Media For Retention
Heiberger, “Have You Facebooked Astin Lately?”, “New Directions for Student Services” no. 124
14

15. Why Aren’t More Schools Doing It?
• Overwhelmed by all the choices
• Measuring success seems difficult
• It requires dedicated staff
• Confusion of ownership

16. Don’t Feel Like This
16

17. Before Jeff Forgets…

18. The Research
• Schools Examined
– Virginia College
– Carrington
– UTI
– National Holistic Institute
– The Art Institutes
– American Sentinel
– Allen School
• Results
– Approximately 10,000 posts over 60 days
– 46.8% of posts were negative

19. #1 – Social Media is Human
Interaction

20. Have Human Conversations

21. Student Engagement – DeVry University
21

22. Student Engagement – Jack Welch Management Institute
22

23. Student Engagement - NHI

24. 2 – Social Media is Showing, Not
Telling

25. Show, Don’t Tell
Social media isn’t just a megaphone

26. Show, don’t tell

27. University of Chicago - TweetChicago
• Launched October 2008
• On Dec. 10, 2009, totally replaced “A Day in the Life” blog
• Launched October 2008
• Now 15 authors featuring both students and faculty
• On Dec. 10, 2009, totally replaced “A Day in the Life” blog
• Content ranges from the mundane to relevant to the legal community

28. 4 – Social Media is most effective
when it’s personal

29. Spotlight Your Success
The best advocates for any school are your existing students and faculty.

30. Spotlight Student and Staff Success
30

31. 4 – Social Media is
Experimentation

32. Retention-Focused Communities
• Private communities designed to engage current and future
students and create community before they begin classes
• Allow admitted students to talk to enrolled students
• Encourage admitted students to form their own social
connections with each other
• Don’t neglect the personal aspects
• Provide resources that enable students to hit the ground
running
32

33. Private Communities - PhoenixConnect
• Released by the University of Phoenix School
of Business in Sept. 2010
• Features
– Focus on existing students
• Support to students from peers
and faculty outside of the
classroom through message
boards
• Specific interest-specific
communities
– Focus on students nearing completion
• Profiles indicate academic
information, employment
aspirations and status
• Alumni directory with over 120,000
connections
• Outcome
– 99% adoption rate after one month
– Intended to be rolled out to all students
by Sept. 2011
33

34. Retention-Focused Communities
Columbia College Chicago
• 94% of admits used the Schools on Facebook Application
UT Tyler
• Schools on Facebook users were five times more likely to enroll than students
who did not use it
• Users also had the highest exam pass rates of any students in the UT system
ASU
• 25% of the student body used Schools on Facebook
• 8% higher retention rate when compared with non-users

35. Product & Marketing Refinement
Over 100 posts in the last 30 days talked about advertising

36. 5 – Measure Everything

37. Keep Things In Perspective
How do we measure human
conversations in a gift
economy?

38. Look at the Evolution

39. Social Media Tracking and Metrics
Go beyond basic measurements like fans, followers, and comments
• Independent tracking
– Text analytics
– Sentiment analysis
– Link tracking and behavioral
information
– Activity, engagement, and reach

40. In Conclusion

41. • Inspire human interactions
• Show, don’t tell
• Spotlight student and staff success
• Experiment (and don’t be afraid to fail)
• Measure it all
41

42. Questions & Answers

43. Q&A
After this, who wouldn’t have
questions?

44. Contact:
Jeff Berg
Social Media Strategist
E-Mail: jeff.berg@cunet.com
Phone: 201.477.7687
CUnet’s Blog: http://blog.cunet.com
For more information: http://www.cunet.com