We recently presented Making Your Statement in a Digital World, a comprehensive training session for Missouri State website, blog and social media managers.

The session was presented in two parts.

• Part 1 focused on writing for blogs.
• Part 2 dove deep into the social media universe and discussed strategies for storytelling and audience engagement across a variety of platforms.

Key takeaways

Blogs

• A blog is a great place to build a relationship with your audience.
• Use headers, images and quotes to flesh out your blog and make it easier for your audience to read.
• Use classic storytelling tools, like perspective, conflict and tension, to create blog posts that resonate with your audience.
• A blog makes a great content repository. Consider using blog posts for the most in-depth version of your news and events and distributing shorter variations of the post across your social media channels.

Social media

• Good social media is interactive and unpretentious and should look effortless — even though good social media management requires a lot of effort.
• Don’t dive into every social media channel at once. Pick ones that help meet your strategic communication goals.
• When deciding whether to take on a new social media channel, analyze whether it’s a good fit for your goals, target audience and current resources.
• Identify the ideal audience member for your social media. Get specific with the details; even consider giving that person a name. This will make it easier to create conversational, personal social posts.

Access the presentation

• Blog: The perfect place to tell a story

Facebook

• Use Facebook Pages to share your organization’s story and connect with your fans.
• Facebook Pages help you become
  • Discoverable
  • Connected
  • Timely
  • Insightful
• That it’s social media’s biggest platform is a benefit for reach, but a challenge for organizations to acquire attention.
• Promote transparency. Allow anyone to publish to your page or tag you in photos.
• Post videos directly to Facebook to boost your posts’ reach.

Twitter

• Act like your own biggest fan.
• Always respond to questions and concerns from your audience.
• Focus on linking to mobile-friendly content.
• Think about your voice. An institution does not have to sound institutional.
• Use precise university-branded hashtags.
  • #MSUBears (athletics)
  • #GoMaroon (student engagement, traditions, etc.)
  • #BearGrads (commencement)
  • #CitizenBear (public affairs)
  • #BearsHomecoming (homecoming)

Visual Platforms

• Visual content captures our attention more quickly than text.
• Use Instagram if your organization lends itself to visual storytelling, but note the platform focuses on consumption, not interactivity.
• YouTube reaches more 18-49-year-olds than any cable network in the United States.
• However, there’s no formula for making a video go viral.
• Use aggregators to combine cross-platform posts around a theme or hashtag.

Access the presentation

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Visual Platforms