A Social Media Initiative: Building a Brand & Opening Up Student Engagement
1. A Social Media
Initiative
Building a Brand & Opening up
Student Engagement
Saoirse de Paor, Teaching & Learning Librarian, Maynooth University
CONUL Annual Seminar, 07 November 2019
2. LIST
• 2016 - “A Maynooth Education”
• Evolution of LIST to meet student’s skill
needs
• Online presence
• Face-to-face tutorials on a range of skills-
based topics
• 30 minutes long sessions
• Drop in system
Library Information Skills Tutorials
3. Connecting and communicating with
students, specifically non-traditional students
on a digital platform that can be viewed and
accessed by many
MU's Social Media Following
Promote our skills-based tutorials as well as
all the supports and online resources
available to students from the library
Create Awareness
We wanted a "student voice" to help
connect, engage and encourage students to
attend our classes and to utilise our supports
and resources
Engage with Student Ambassadors
Aims of the
Initiative
4. LIST had become an established brand in
previous years with its own logo, posters,
online presence and section in our
welcome booklet.
LIST
Creative content was created using Canva
containing information on our classes,
class locations, times and key messages.
Content
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook
provided tools that shared and circulated
information widely and effectively
Social Media Tools
In previous years LIST ran on a "drop in"
basis, however this year we tried using
both a "drop in" and "bookable' option
accessed through the library calendar
Bookings
Building the Brand
5. Content was posted
on our Instagram
and Facebooks
pages as well as on
"Stories"
Stories promoted
and circulated
updates and new
information
instantaneously
Posts
Live and prerecorded
videos allowed us to
share information in an
engaging, interactive
and meaningful way!
This is where our
ambassadors got
involved!
Live Videos
Instagram tools
allowed us to collect
feedback from
students through a
number of various
social media
features.
These tools included
questions, polls and
direct messaging
Tools
Tagging other pages
and using hashtags
worked as another
way of circulating
and sharing
information.
We tagged other MU
University pages and
Student Reps to
further help promote
LIST
Tagging
Posting Types
8. Recruitment and Logistics
We circulated a survey to Student
Ambassadors who had previous
experience working on university
campaigns
RECRUITMENT
We created an excel spreadsheet which
listed each pair’s posting per week,
posting times, post types, class
information and our primary key
messages
POSTING TIMETABLE
We recruited 7 student ambassadors and
allocated each pair to one of the four
weeks of LIST
WORKING IN PAIRS
Key messages were established for the
first and second half of LIST that allowed
the ambassadors to be consistent,
coherent and concise when sharing
information on our sessions
KEY MESSAGES
9. The Role of Student
Ambassadors
• Establishing a "student voice" that resonates
with MU students
• Increasing our student following (1K!)
• Informing students about the benefits of
attending LIST sessions in an engaging and
interactive way
• Providing live updates on classes and
answering queries and questions
instantaneously
• Collecting feedback through Q&A's and
circulating live polls
10. What have
we learnt?
(so far!)
It's Working!
Achieved many aims with one initiative
Planning is pivotal!
Planning such initiatives means being clear
and consistent. Everything from content, key
messages and timing should be
predetermined and scheduled
We have seen an increase in the numbers
attending LIST and our following on Instagram
has hit over 1000 followers!
1. Opened up services through innovative
communication and promotion
2. Engaged with student ambassadors to learn
more about student needs
3. Continuing to grow our social media presence
Today I’m going to be talking to you about our new social media initiative that we implemented in October. It is focused entirely on LIST which is our Library Information Skills Tutorials which some of you may already be aware of.
Due to a curriculum change and the implementation of our Critical Skills Programme LIST evolved to help meet the skills-needs of MU Students
LIST is a combination of online resources as well as face-to-face tutorials which previously ran for 2 – 3 weeks during each semester.
The tutorials include a range of topics that help and support student with their assignments and projects as well as their wellbeing and IT-related queries.
Sessions are located in the library and last 30 minutes. They were originally ran on a drop-in basis which allowed students to attend when it suited them.
1. Our first aim was to further promote of our LIST tutorials while increasing an awareness around our online resources and face-to-face support available from the library.
2. Our second aim was to establish a student presence or “student voice” to help connect, engage and encourage students to attend our LIST tutorials and for them to fully understand the benefits of attending these sessions in helping to improve their academic skills.
3. Lastly, we wanted to increase our following on social media platforms, specifically Instagram and Facebook to ensure that we are reaching as many students as possible. Social media platforms are just another mode of circulating information instantaneously so having a large following ensures that we are connected with our student community in a different way.
LIST: Read box
Social Media Tools: Examples of tools included using hashtags #LIST2019 #MULIST… Tagging other University Pages etc..
Content: Content was curated on Canva specifically for the initiative. This meant that we decided on the design, layout and the information included in the content that could be used throughout the four weeks of LIST. This content was given to the ambassadors who then circulated and shared it on our platforms.
We also had hard copies of content as well as online versions – advertised in the toilets etc!
Bookings: While the drop-in option that we used in previous years was effective we wanted to support the needs of those coming to college through the Access programme and other non-traditional students that benefited from a clear schedule.
Recruitment: We identified a group of student who had previous experience working on campaigns and other University initiatives. After this I used Office 365 Forms to create and circulate a survey which included questions on their availability, student type, experience running social media accounts etc…
Working in Pairs: Our ambassadors worked in pairs which allowed them to divide the workload, collaborate and also allowed them to be more flexible when it came to their lecture schedules
Posting timetable: I created an excel spreadsheet which I shared with our student ambassadors. This included positing times, post types (general post, stories, video recording, polls etc). It also included the key messages that we wanted highlighted in each post, as well as any additional information on classes that they might need,
Key messages: The first and second half of LIST had two different approaches – different and non-repeditive. Key messages were established for each of the two approach to ensure that the student ambassadors were consistent, coherent and concise when sharing information on our sessions
