Harding University Organic Social Media Marketing by HardingU

Social Media Workshop

Megan Stroud

Lane Gammel

Digital Media Coordinator University Communications and Marketing

Director of Communications and Media Relations University Communications and Marketing

ucmrequest@harding.edu

Back to the Basics Why is social media important?

Sprout Social Index

7 reasons brands need to invest in organic social media: 1. Organic social media is cost-eﬀective. 2. Social media provides authenticity (relationship-building, not selling). 3. Organic social media complements advertising. 4. Social media fosters your creative voice. 5. Social media provides a forum for customer care. 6. Social media builds engaged communities more eﬀectively. 7. Social media helps search engine optimization.

Erika Montgomery

Top 5 reasons why consumers like or follow brand pages on social media

Sprout Social Index

Millennials want to buy from culturally relevant brands that:

Embrace humor

Sprout Social Index

Choosing the right platform Part of formulating your strategy will be choosing the right social media platform. What platform is your audience and community already using?

Importance of Social Media Marketing

Sprout Social Index

Facebook Demographics: People Reached

Facebook Demographics: People Engaged

Twitter Demographics

Instagram Demographics

Finding Your Strategy The strategy is diﬀerent for every account based on the answers to a few key questions.

Social Media Strategy Step 1 — Goal setting ● What do you want to accomplish through social media? ● Who is your audience? Even on campus, this is diﬀerent for every account! ● What results do you hope to achieve? ● How does social media ﬁt into your overall communication strategy?

Step 1 — Goal Setting Still having trouble setting SMART goals? Use Sprout Social’s guidelines to get started.

Importance of Social Media Marketing

Social Media Strategy Step 2 — Determine messaging ● What are your main messaging points? ● What do you want your audience to remember about you?

Social Media Strategy Step 3 — Evaluating social channels ● How will this social media platform allow you to best connect with your audience? ● How much time are you spending per week? ○

Set a realistic frequency goal you can consistently maintain without resorting to content that is forced, inauthentic or uninspired. Users will quickly spot content that is not passionate and tune you out.

Social Media Strategy Step 4 — Brainstorm content ● What kind of content do you want to share? ● What kind of content does your audience want to see? What engages them? Don’t guess. Ask. ● What information is of interest to your audience?

Our Social Media Strategy What is our approach and reasoning for strategy on the oﬃcial, campus-wide Harding University channels?

Our Social Media Strategy Step 1 — Goal setting ● ● ● ●

Communicate, inform and build relationships with a broad array of audiences and communities Audiences: Current students, faculty, staﬀ, alumni, parents and families, prospective students Social media serves as a tool to secondarily communicate news, announcements and events as well as our primary tool for storytelling and relationship-building across all audiences Overall goal: Capture the story of our campus as a whole from the main University channel and voice

Our Social Media Strategy Step 1 — Goal setting ●

Speciﬁc SMART Goals ○ ○ ○ ○

Engagement Monthly reporting and campaign-speciﬁc reporting Encourage positive sentiment on incoming messages Post frequency ■ Daily account activity across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter ● Responding to messages, engaging students and campus accounts ■ Daily verse post on Facebook and Twitter ■ Daily Instagram stories (Monday-Friday) ■ 3-5 Instagram feed posts per week ■ 1-2 tweets minimum daily (Monday-Friday); when big events are going on, Twitter is where the most content can be found ■ 1-2 feed posts minimum daily on Facebook, Monday through Friday

Our Social Media Strategy Step 2 — Determine messaging

Our Social Media Strategy Step 3 — Evaluating social channels ● Our worldwide audience can always ﬁnd us on social media ● Reach vast audiences through multiple channels, tones and relationship personas ○

Diﬀerent platforms allow us to speak to multiple audiences/demographics

● A source of information and insight for prospective students and families ● Establishing and maintaining a solid brand presence in the digital world

Our Social Media Strategy Step 3 — Evaluating social channels (based on demographics) ●

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YouTube (@HardingU): campus-wide ● ○ Archive for all videos (embed in web and post on social media) LinkedIn (Harding University): campus-wide ○ Leadership updates and ● major news & events ○ Formal, business professional, collegiate, informative Pinterest (Harding University) Snapchat Note: Harding University ● Admissions has the only TikTok account for the University. Their tone and persona best ﬁt the platform demographic.

Facebook (@HardingU) ○ Audience → parents & alumni (HULocal) ○ Formal, informative, transparent ○ Speaks to people oﬀ campus Instagram (@HardingUniversity) ○ Audience → current students (secondarily prospective students imagining life here) ○ Still somewhat formal comparatively, but fun and energetic ○ Speak to current students on campus Twitter (@HardingU) ○ Audience → students & young alumni ○ Speak to people as if they are “in the know” on campus ○ Quick pieces of information, news, events, etc.

Content Quantity

Audience

College of Pharmacy Kyle Raney, Recruiter and Social Media Manager @HUCOP

@HUPharmacy

Breakout Exercise in Social Media Strategy ● ● ● ●

What do you want to accomplish through social media? Who is your audience? How much time are you able to spend per week? What do you want your audience to remember about you?

Creating Captivating Content Don’t let the planning stiﬂe your creativity! Let people who are passionate and knowledgeable about social media take the reins.

Student Panel Knowing your audience and the psychology behind how to talk to them is not something you can guess, so we are going to talk to them! Ellie Shelton, senior Hannah Diles, sophomore Ethan Brazel, senior Caroline Birdwell, senior Theo Westbrook, freshman

Creating Captivating Content to Fulfill Your Strategy Think about 3-5 categories or themes you want to share about. What five things define your account’s brand? ● Those 5 things become your content categories. ● This will help you build an engaged audience that knows what content to consistently expect from you. ● Be an expert. Provide information. Be responsive as a brand to customer service opportunities.

Creating Captivating Content to Fulﬁll your Strategy Example: Themes for Harding University Social Media ●

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Campus Life and Events ○ Event promotion (Spring Sing, Homecoming, ASI, home games, etc.) ○ Glimpse into everyday life on campus (#HUToday) ○ News Students ○ Students (#HUCloseUp), faculty, magazine stories, etc. Exceptional Academics ○ Department videos ○ Shared content from niche campus accounts Christian Environment and Education ○ Chapel

Planning a Content Calendar Month At-a-Glance Big Picture Example: #BacktoHarding Campaign

Countdown Kickoﬀ (video) Countdown Countdown 15 days (men 14 days (women social clubs) clubs)

Countdown 12 days (dining)

Countdown Countdown 7 days 6 days (intramurals) (abroad) Countdown 1 day (chapel) & Stampede

Convocation & First day of school album

Stream Chapel

Countdown 5 days (home FB games)

#HUTBT Series Cathcart

Countdown 17 days (sport teams)

#HUTBT Series Rhodes

Countdown 10 days (colleges)

Countdown 4 days & #HUTBT Armstrong COVID Vaccine Clinic

Countdown 16 days (weeks)

Countdown Countdown 2 days 3 days (stampede) (fountains) & Bison Bound First Jersey Friday

Creating Captivating Content ● ●

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Create content to ﬁll your strategy (purposeful, cohesive, branded) Plan in advance ○ This is where people get stuck in time management ○ Don’t let this bog you down. Use it to your advantage Collaborate and brainstorm often Delegate content creation ○ Student workers ■ Fresh perspectives ■ Insight into your audience ■ Let someone who is passionate and wants to do it run the account, or it will not perform as well. Guaranteed. (Example: Social Club Instagram accounts) Schedule Content in advance when possible Be consistent ○ Inactivity (going weeks or months without posting anything) will not help.

Weekly content planning template: Open this Google Sheet and make a copy to use it for your own team!

Collaborate, Brainstorm and Create Content What should my content look like? What are some best practices for content creation?

“People want to be entertained, informed, inspired or related to.” —Hannah Carpenter 120K followers @hannahcarpenter

What makes up a piece of content? ● Visual Assets and images ○ Videos ○ Images ○ Graphics ● Copy/Caption ○ This is not an afterthought ○ Consistent voice & tone ● Formatting

Tips for Visual Assets ●

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Images vs. Graphics: Knowing when to use them ○ Graphics can be received as ads by algorithms and users ○ Instagram feed graphics should be square (1x1) and match the aesthetic of your feed. Create a style guide for all graphics, fonts, colors that you can consistently use on your account. Videos ○ There is a time for produced videos, and there is a time for raw, organic videos. Sometimes all you need is an iPhone. ○ It does not always have to be polished for stories and real-time content.

Always up-to-date social media image sizes

Importance of Instagram Stories ● Stories put you front and center in the user’s feed ● Stories can be raw, organic and personifying for a brand ● Endless engagement opportunities ● Share feed posts from your own account as well as other campus accounts ● Students today are looking at stories more frequently than feed posts, but you have to catch them or they are going to tap past your content ● 9x16 ratio

How to post an Instagram story

Sprout Social Index

Jeﬀ Montgomery Director of Photographic Services jmontgomery@harding.edu

@jmontgomery Harding Stock Images

Every photo you post should… ● ● ● ●

Be in focus Be well exposed Have a strong subject Tell a story

No photo should ever... ● Embarrass anyone. ● Disparage the University.

Good Ideas

Get Closer

Decisive Moments

Use Your Environment

Self-Branding Images

Road Maps

Next Right Answers

“Our mission as photographers was to tell the story of the school year and reﬂect the values of the institution.” —David Burks

How can we put these pieces together to create content that is engaging?

What consumers think makes a brand best in class on social media

What marketers think makes a brand best in class on social media

Sprout Social Index

Creating content that is engaging your audience should be your top priority. ● If you expect people to engage with you, you have to engage them. It’s a two-way street. Follow the people who ﬁt your ideal audience and community demographic and persona and engage with their content (like, story reactions, meaningful comments, direct messages, etc.). ● Just because someone follows you does not mean the social media platforms will show your content to them. The algorithm decides what order content is displayed and prioritized to a user’s feed. ● When your content is engaging, the algorithms see your content as more valuable, prioritizing it and showing it to more people. ● You don’t always have to take yourself so seriously.

Creating content that is engaging your audience should be your top priority. ● ●

Find the types of content that engage your audience. Invite engagement through calls to action. ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

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Like or double tap (Instagram) Save posts (Instagram) Share, Comment, etc. Visit Proﬁle Link in bio Polls, hashtags, links, and other buttons in Instagram stories

Balance content you know is engaging with the content you need to communicate your message/information. People will pay more attention to the informative content when you are engaging them on a regular basis.

Creating Captivating Content ● What is engaging on one platform, might not be engaging on another platform. ● Reuse content pieces on multiple platforms to save time and energy, but relate each post to the speciﬁc audience and platform strategy. ○

Posting to Facebook directly from your Instagram is possible, but maybe not always the best practice. Make the people following you on Facebook feel like a priority by giving them content tailored to them rather than letting it be an afterthought auto-ﬁlled from your Instagram feed.

August 2021 Facebook Top Posts

August 2021 Instagram Top Posts

August 2021 Twitter Top Posts

July 2021 Facebook Top Posts

July 2021 Instagram Top Posts

July 2021 Twitter Top Posts

Shaping Content for Multi-platform Use Because the event was closed to campus and not being streamed, we did not share on Facebook.

Shaping Content for Multi-platform Use

Who is “you” for diﬀerent platforms?

Shaping Content for Multi-platform Use

Brainstorming Content Ideas ● ● ● ● ●

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Student Features Faculty/Staﬀ features ○ Make the people behind the account real and personable. Alumni Features — what are people doing after their time at Harding? Class/Major features Glimpse into campus life with quotes, in-the-moment photos and videos ○ College students do not always want a polished presentation. Be organic, genuine and real. They can tell the diﬀerence. Don’t forget to share the everyday happenings, views and conversations. National calendars, holidays, months, etc.

What ideas do you have?

External Resources & Tools ●

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Resources (Sprout Social and Hootsuite blogs) — Keep learning! Social media is changing every day! ○ 12 Best Practices for Instagram in 2021 (Hootsuite) ○ Instagram Stories: Best practices and inspiration to engage your followers (Sprout Social) ○ 14 Top Time-saving Instagram Hacks for Social Media Managers (Hootsuite) ○ University branding: How to build your school’s brand on social media (Sprout Social) ○ Follow your counterparts at other universities for ideas and inspiration Tools ○ Lightroom Mobile (free app for image editing) ○ Unfold (app for designing Instagram stories) ○ Canva (designing graphics, stories, etc.) ○ InShot (video editing app) ○ A ring light and iPhone tripod can make a huge diﬀerent in photos, videos and livestreams ○ Hootsuite for content scheduling

Internal Resources ● ● ● ● ●

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News Site (news.harding.edu) Magazine Site (magazine.harding.edu) Campus Calendar (harding.edu/calendar) Social Media Directory (harding.edu/socialmedia) Watch our Harding University accounts for content relevant to your audience that you can share and engage with: ○ #HUCloseUp videos, news stories, magazine stories, events Following and watching other campus accounts for relevant content Use short links for your bios and posts! Find all the short links at harding.edu/ist/its/redirects. If you need one created, let us know! ○ ○

harding.edu/pa harding.edu/academics/colleges-departments/allied-health/physician-assistant-program

Social Media Branding In many instances, social media is the ﬁrst place people access and learn more about Harding. As we tell Harding’s story to multiple audiences and demographics across numerous accounts, we want to elevate our presence by maintaining consistency and credibility in branding while still providing for individual creative freedom in content creation.

Branding Guidelines Candice Moore, Assistant Vice President of University Communications and Marketing Find the branding guidelines at harding.edu/ucm.

Social Media Branding Determined by Branding Guidelines: ● ● ● ●

Handle Proﬁle Image Page Name Bio

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Website URL

Creative freedom within reasonable bounds: ● ● ●

Content Creation Cover Image (Twitter and Facebook) Story Highlights (Instagram) Note: As a reminder, you must contact UCM to create new social media accounts on any platform that will represent Harding University. ucmrequest@harding.edu

Proﬁle Images: University Examples Primary Account Proﬁle Image

Secondary Account Proﬁle Image

Baylor

University of Arizona

Loyola Marymount University

Current Proﬁle Images

Branded Proﬁle Image, Page Name and Handle

Harding University Volleyball @harding_vb

Harding University Women’s Soccer @harding_wsoc

Harding Sports @hardingsports @hardingbisons

Harding University Tennis @harding_tennis

Harding University Men’s Basketball @harding_mbb

New Branded Proﬁle Images

Download images here.

New University-Branded Handle/Page Name Format ●

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“Harding University” must be in the page name. ○

Harding University Department of Communication

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Harding University Admissions

“HardingU” or “Harding” must be in the account handle (not “HU”). An underscore may be used to diversify if handles are unavailable.

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@HardingSports

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@Harding_Dining

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@HardingUEnglish

If possible, make all handles the same across multiple platforms

Maximum Character Limitations ● Facebook ○ Handle: 50 characters ○ Page description/bio: 255 Characters ● Instagram ○ Handle: 30 characters ○ Bio: 150 characters ● Twitter ○ Handle: 15 characters ○ Bio: 160 characters ○ Page name: 50 characters

Character Limits (Sprout Social)

Bio & Website URL Your bio must include: 1. 2.

the short description of your academic area of oﬃce main University account handle a. Instagram: @hardinguniversity b. Twitter: @HardingU

Bio & Website URL The URL in your bio can be either of the following options: 1.

The short link to your department or university webpage at harding.edu (see more about short links under internal resources) A linktree or other link in bio service

Cover Photo ● On Facebook and Twitter this is a great place to showcase more individuality while coordinating with the branded elements. ○ Consider using a photo of students in your department or the academic building. ○ For a graphic, follow the branding guidelines. ○ Make sure the image quality is good to prevent pixelation. ○ Check the mobile and desktop versions. Make sure no graphic elements or text are cut oﬀ. Depending on platform, parts of the image may be covered by your proﬁle picture.

Creative Freedom ● As you create content, you need creative freedom with colors and styles. Use the branding guidelines as a reference, but you do not have to follow the color recommendations as closely for individual social media content pieces. If there is ever any question or doubt, ask ucmrequest@harding.edu. ○ Color Palette Generator ● If you select colors and styles to use outside of the branding guidelines, determine what that looks like from your account. Create your own style guide to follow for consistency and continuity.

Is it working? Social media analytics will help you quickly know whether or not you are being eﬀective.

Sprout Social Index Sprout Social

Social Media Analytics Analytics can be helpful, but they can also be overwhelming and misleading if you treat them as the be-all and end-all. Analytics are objective, and you, as the content creator, know the subjective elements that aﬀect the data.

Vanity Metrics

Actionable Metrics

Makes you feel good, but lacks clear guidance for next steps

Can be used to inform decisions

With so many data points, what should you really look at? 1.

Demographics: age, gender and other demographic information about your audience

Impressions vs. Reach ●

Impressions: number of times that content was displayed to users (users counted multiple times)

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Reach: number of users to whom content was displayed (unique users/devices)

With so many data points, what should you really look at? 3.

Engagement Rate (per Impression): number of times users engaged with the post as a percentage of impressions. Engagement: number of times that users engaged with the post ● ● ●

Twitter: liked, replied, retweeted or clicked on the post (not quote tweets) Facebook: reacted, commented, shared or clicked on the post Instagram: liked, commented and saved feed posts or replied to stories (not actions on stories, even though this is good engagement)

Audience Growth: growth in number of followers over time period

Example: Harding University August 2021 Data

Social Media Analytics ● Facebook Insights ● New Business Center ○ Includes Instagram (business proﬁle required for insights and analytics)

Social Media Analytics ● Business/Professional Account ○ Switch from personal to business under “Edit Proﬁle”

Social Media Analytics

Setting Measurable, Time-based Goals ● ● ● ●

Begin with a broad objective Identify goal metrics Set SMART goals Track and monitor metrics over time

Setting analytic-driven goals

Setting Measurable, Time-based Goals: Example ● ●

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Broad goal: Increase brand awareness on Facebook Metrics: ○ Followers ○ Impressions ○ Link clicks to website SMART Goals ○ Speciﬁc: Increase brand awareness on your Facebook account. ○ Measurable: Increase followers by 20%. Increase link clicks on posts by 15%. Have an average of 1,000 impressions per post. ○ Achievable: Yes ○ Realistic: Boost post(s) with $15 per post to concentrated desired audience. Create engaging content that inspires people to tag friends. Create consistent content that keeps new followers engaged. Host a contest or giveaway. ○ Time-based: Achieving goals in 3 months.

Setting analytic-driven goals

Setting Measurable, Time-based Goals: Example ● ●

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Broad goal: Build an engaged community of followers on Instagram Metrics: ○ Followers ○ Engagement Rate ○ Number of posts SMART Goals ○ Speciﬁc: Build an engaged community of followers on Instagram. ○ Measurable: Increase followers by 5%. Maintain an average engagement rate of 5% on feed posts. Maintain an average of 800 impressions on stories. ○ Achievable: Yes ○ Realistic: Keep stories active on your proﬁle every day. Weekly post 3 feed posts, 1 reel and 1 IGTV video. Create a consistent quantity of quality content that keeps new followers engaged. Be a source for information or entertainment they cannot get elsewhere. ○ Time-based: Achieving goal every month for 6 months.

Setting analytic-driven goals

Megan Stroud

Lane Gammel

Digital Media Coordinator University Communications and Marketing

Director of Communications and Media Relations University Communications and Marketing

ucmrequest@harding.edu

Questions?

Time Management, Posting Frequency and Posting Consistency The vast majority of submitted questions revolved around these topics, so let’s hit these again quickly. ● Use student workers! There are so many students who love social media and would do it for the experience (comm dept, business dept, etc.)! Students understand your audience and what good content looks like. They will be able to help turn ideas into fun content. Let them help with the engagement and success of your account, ● Set a frequency goal you can realistically maintain with content that is quality. Don’t just ﬁll the blackhole of social media with meaningless and uninspired content. ● At minimum, keep the account active, but the more content you create, the more chance for growth and engagement.

What can you post when there’s nothing exciting to post? There is always something to post about! Get creative. Think outside the box. ● Share a post from another campus account. ● What timely trends could you take part in? ● Don’t be afraid of humor. ● Again, utilize a team to brainstorm. ● Use students who have creativity and passion for social media. ● Everyday events and scenes are still go content when you are talking about recruitment and engagement. ● Show as many faces as possible. Students love to see themselves on branded accounts, and parents and families love to see their kids on the accounts as well.

We are not having nearly as much response as we used to. What can we do? Maybe it’s time to take a step back and adjust your strategy. Are you using the right platforms? Creating the right kind of content? Talking to the right audience in your content? Again, students have insight and they are all over campus! Use them to your advantage.

How should we respond to negative comments or feedback on social media? We hope you don’t have to deal with this, but if you do, please reach out to us and let us help you. Don’t reply immediately. Not every comment needs a response.