This document discusses using social media for admissions purposes. It covers why schools should use social media by reviewing usage trends of platforms like Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, and Instagram. It discusses what content schools should share, focusing on visual stories and sources from faculty, students, and alumni. It explores the different audiences of prospective students, current families, and alumni. Finally, it provides tips on how to get started on each major platform and integrate social media into a school's website.

1. Socially Acceptable
Making Social Media Work for
Admissions
Marisa Peacock
Silverpoint
May 15, 2012

2. What we’re going to cover
 Why: Trends & Statistics, Social Media Usage
 What: Using Content to Tell Stories
 Who: Your Audience
 How: Getting it Done
 Staffing
 Your website
 Pinterest
 Google+
 Tumblr
 Instagram

3. 3 Why: Social Media Usage

4. Why: Social Media Expands Beyond
Facebook, Twitter
 In the last year, we’ve seen new social networks
emerge: Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr among
others
 Pinterest now has over 10.4 million registered
users, 97.7% are female
 Google+ has 100 million users
 Instagram has 50 million users
 Tumblr has 42.6 million blogs

5. 5
Why: Social Media Usage
Source: ComScore

6. 6
Why: Social Media Usage - Pinterest
Source: SiteAnlalytics.compete.com

7. 7
Why: Social Media Usage-Google+
Source: Flowtown

8. Why: Social Media Usage- Tumblr
Source: Mashable

9. 9
Why: Social Media Usage- Instagram
Source: Online Colleges

10. 10 What: Using Content to Tell Stories

11. What: Visual Content
 New social media platforms favor visual
content
 Let your digital assets find their voice
 Tap into emotion
 Be interesting and/or humorous
 Ask questions and solicit responses
 Learn to let pictures promote your brand
 Social media can be an extension of your view
book

12. What: It’s (Always) About Content
 Social Media content is…
 Updated reasonably regularly
 Timely
 What happened/is happening this week
 Not what happened last month
 Expected to ask questions & ask others to
share their experiences

13. What: The Good News About Content
 Good news!
 You have things happening every day that are
actually interesting
 You are (hopefully) already creating great content
 And it’s easy to put this content onto social media
 It’s actually pretty easy
 Seriously, it’s not all that hard
 Also, feel free to repurpose digital assets into
informal social media ready “snippets”

14. What: Sources of Content
 You have the sources
 Administrators – News/blogs, events
 Faculty & Students – Class projects, trips, artwork
 Coaches – Scores, game recaps
 Alumni – Their lives and memories, archives
 Let them contribute!
 Your fans will get involved and conversations will
happen

15. 15
What: Your School’s Stories
 Schools on Tumblr
 http://choatemusic.tumblr.com/
 http://hotchkisslookbook.tumblr.com/
 Schools on Pinterest
 http://pinterest.com/sewickley1838/
 http://pinterest.com/mastersny/

16. 16
What: Your School’s Stories
 Schools on Google+
 Choate Rosemary Hall
 The Hun School
 Schools on Instagram
 Hathaway Brown
 Ithaca College
 Oberlin

17. 17 Who: Your Audience

18. 18
Who: Your Audience is Changing
 The way people are responding on social
media tools is changing. The applications or
social media tools have altered and audiences
have shifted or grown.
 Long winded wordy posts are being replaced with
more and more visual, impactful content like
photos and video.

19. Who: Your Audience & Your Content
 Note that there is a tremendous overlap in the
content that is of interest to these groups
Priorities one two three
Prospective
Families
About News Events
Current Families Events News
Alumni News Events

20. 20
Who: Find Your Audience
See what content they
are already pinning
from your website:
http://www.pinterest.c
om/source/yourwebsit
e

21. 21 How: Getting it Done

22. Before We Proceed…
 Q: Does this mean I don’t need a Facebook
page or Twitter presence?
 A: No. Many, if not all of these additional
platforms can be integrated within your
Facebook page and Twitter profile.
 Visual content allows you to connect with your
users as the expand networks.

23. Getting it Done: Social Media
Policies
 How does copyright affect your digital assets?
use watermarks, and cite sources as
appropriate, especially when using user-
generated or professional content.
 Get permission to use photos of alumnae,
students, guest speakers, as necessary.

24. Getting it Done: The Big Picture
 Don’t over-think your strategy, keep it simple
 Don’t be afraid to post a single piece of content
“everywhere” (website, Pinterest, Tumblr)
 There is a big overlap in the content that is of
interest to current and prospective families
 Experiment with content -- see what gets
noticed.

25. Getting it Done:
Staffing for Social Media
 Set a Reasonable Goal
 At least a few posts per week
 Create a calendar/topics
 Schedule contributions and give people tips and
templates
 Put someone in charge
 Give them the ability to gather and post content
 Don’t forget the weekend!

26. Getting it Done: Your Website
 Providing links
 Only link to where you are active!
 Homepage and/or where they are accessible on every
page (header or footer)
 You can also provide links on specific pages, but there
should be some reason
 Don’t feel like you have to send them “away”
 You can use embed tools to place feeds on
your pages
 Tumblr Feed
 Instagram feeds
 Pin boards

27. 27
Getting it Done: Your Website

28. Getting it Done: Your Website

29. 29 How: Pinterest

30. How: Pinterest
 Showcase Your School
 Show off buildings, popular classes, campus
 Reflect Your School’s Lifestyle
 Promote traditions, history, mission
 Crowdsource
 Ask users to pin an image of themselves wearing
School uniform, emblem, gear
 Provide Behind-the-Scenes Access
 provide backstage access or yet-to-be-seen images of
school teams and guest speakers
 Promote Buzz
 used a collaborative board to pin favorite photos,
trends and clips from past week's events.

31. 31
Getting it Done: Pinterest
 Measure Your Reach
 www.pinreach.com
 www.pinpuff.com
 www.pinerly.com
 Pin a Quote/Share As Image
 www.shareasimage.com

32. 32 How: Instagram

33. How: Instagram
 Keep content fresh, interactive, and aligned
with the brand attributes you want your fans to
notice
 Post pictures that have meaning to your users
and induce shares
 Encourage users to get involved in your
content creation.
 Give followers a better understanding of how
what happens at your school.

34. 34
Getting it Done: Instagram
 Embed photos
 www.embedagram.com
 Measure engagement
 statigr.am
 Create a vanity url
 followgram.me
 Send a postcard
 postagramapp.com

35. 35 How: Tumblr

36. How: Tumblr
 Share small chunks of media
 Share others content
 Provide relevant, thematic content
 Tag your posts: use words that are specific
 Curate your best content: share from other
social media sites, blogs
 Use a Watermark:
 drives people back to your site no matter how
many times it gets reblogged and expanded
across the Tumblr.

37. Getting it Done: Tumblr
 Be productive:
 HelloTxt.com: updates all of your social networks
from the web, email or third party applications all at
once, including your tubmlr.
 Tumblr Post: post photos, videos, mp3s, quotes
and links to your Tumblr page by dragging and
dropping content onto the extension's status bar
icon (addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/tumblr-post/)

38. 38 How: Google+

39. How: Google+
 Segment and create content for followers,
leads and other people you do business with
 Engage user who find you via Google searches
 Use hangouts to have Live Q&As, discussion
forums
 Create unique content -- avoid cross posting.

40. 40
Getting it Done: Google+

41. 41
Getting it Done: Google+
 Promote your Google+ Page, Feed
 Google+ Widgets: (gplusapi.appspot.com)
 Compare Stats
 SocialStatistics.com
 Find People
 FindPeopleOnPlus.com
 Share across networks
 Extended Share for Google+ (Chrome only)
 G++ (Firefox & Chrome)

42. Final Thoughts
 Define your goals and have a plan – start small,
but start well!
 Gather & Investigate
 Look at what others are doing (not just schools)
 Be realistic about what you can do
 Think strategy, tie-ins with existing content and
brand, leveraging what you already have in place
 It’s inevitable - you might as well have fun with
it