Web Strategy and Development Blog

Highlights from Social Media Boot Camp

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The office of Web and new media presented Social Media Boot Camp for Missouri State University faculty, staff and student employees on August 14.

The training included sessions on marketing strategy and goal setting, social media best practices, Facebook, Twitter and emerging platforms. Attendees practiced tips and tricks for making the most of social media.

Lucie Amberg at Social Media BootcampMarketing, strategy and goal setting

Lucie Amberg presented on this topic.

Key takeaways

  • Think strategically about social media and consider what goals you’re trying to accomplish with it. Ask yourself these questions:
    • Why is the audience following this account?
    • What information is the audience seeking?
    • What do I want the audience to get from this platform?
    • What can I realistically accomplish in this medium?
  • Leverage Missouri State’s marketing initiatives to get the benefit of a larger audience.
    • Consider how your content illustrates our key points of quality academic programs, a warm community experience and affordable education.
    • When possible, tie to the messages of Follow Your Passion and Find Your Place

Access the presentation: Marketing and Goal Setting

Social media best practices

Courtney Wendel-Stevenson presented on this topic.

Key takeaways

  • Use social media as a way to interact with and listen to your audience, not simply as a way to share information.
  • One of the most important things about your social media is the content you share.
  • Strive to think like a journalist and write short text that includes the most important information first.
  • When applicable, tag relevant accounts and include properly sized photos and hash tags in your posts.

Access the presentation: Social Media Best Practices

Courtney Wendel-Stevenson at Social Media Boot CampFacebook

Courtney Wendel-Stevenson presented on this topic.

Key takeaway

  • Capitalize on the unique functionality of Facebook events.
    • Tag the event location’s Facebook page in the location section if possible. If not, include the location’s complete address so Facebook can auto-generate a map.
    • Add other Facebook pages as event co-sponsors when possible.
    • Provide a direct link to ticketing or an event website.
  • Understand that your followers’ Facebook news feeds are dynamic. Boost your page’s EdgeRank by getting followers to comment, like or click on your posts.
  • Regularly track major insights including your number of followers, post reach and post engagement.

Access the presentation: Facebook

Twitter

Jessica Clements presented on this topic.

Key takeaways

  • Incorporate multimedia and links into your tweets to make them more shareable.
  • Tweets move off of people’s home feeds quickly. If a tweet works once, share it again!
  • Spot trends and see if you can tailor your content to fit that context
  • New Twitter features:
    • Twitter cards: Rich content attached to your tweets as a result of embedding html into your webpage.
    • Embedded tweets: Tweets embedded below your post as a result of including a direct link to the tweet in your post.
    • Multiple photos in one tweet: Photo collages made by attaching multiple photos to one tweet.

Access the presentation: Tweetable

Emerging platforms

Jessica Clements and Courtney Wendel-Stevenson presented on this topic.

Key takeaways

LinkedIn

  • Emphasizes career development
  • Allows you to leverage your professional network
  • Has high usage rates among statistically more elusive user groups

Pinterest

  • Showcases visual content in a unique, appealing way
  • Sources and repurposes content over long periods of time
  • Offers opportunities for the Missouri State Pinterest account to host collaborative boards for other University units. For more information, email Courtney Wendel-Stevenson.

Instagram

  • Great medium for visually telling a story
  • Can function as a feeder to other social networks
  • Popular with a younger demographic

Social media aggregators

  • Aggregators like Storify and Tagboard combine posts across platforms around a common theme – typically a hashtag.
  • Why use an aggregator?
    • Provides a way to archive conversation
    • Connects to people beyond a singular platform
    • Tells a story about your event
    • Becomes a single destination for event coverage

Access the presentations: LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and Social Media Aggregators

Resources

View copies of our handout and resources page.

Social Media 101: Exploring your options in social media

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Why should your department or organization join social media? The office of web and new media discussed the strategy behind joining social media and best practices for managing your accounts during Social Media 101.

Going where the people are

From marketing to public relations, social media:

  • Empowers you to be your own journalist and get your story out.
  • Allows you to connect with people where they are.
  • Allows you to build relationships with people who are interested in your organization and activities.
  • Can empower people to be ambassadors for your brand.

Each social media platform has a unique user base, meaning that different platforms may allow you to reach different key audiences for your brand. Demographics for popular platforms are below:

Key practices for all platforms

  • Integrate social media into your communications plan. Set goals for your accounts.
  • Adopt a long-term philosophy. If you decide to commit to a page, stick with it. Post frequently and consistently.
  • Content is king. Write like a journalist: Master the headline and lead
  • Be authentic and infuse personality into your posts.
  • Regularly use photos on Facebook and LinkedIn, occasionally on Twitter
  • Use hashtags on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
  • Tag relevant people, places and locations when possible
  • Whenever possible, provide a link for more information
  • Connect with your followers offline by promoting your accounts at events, hosting contests, etc.

Review our basic tips for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram by downloading the presentation slides.

Register for more social media trainings

Want to learn more about social media? Consider registering for these upcoming trainings:

LinkedIn debuts recommendations for university pages

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LinkedIn logoLast fall, LinkedIn introduced a new type of page to their platform – university pages. These pages were released in conjunction with lowering the minimum age for membership on the platform from 18 to 14. LinkedIn’s goal with lowering the minimum age and introducing university pages was to create an opportunity for high school students to research colleges and universities on the platform.

Since that time, Missouri State University has managed its university page and used it to share information with prospective and current students.

LinkedIn recommendations

Recently, LinkedIn university pages received a new function – recommendations. With this new feature, students and alumni of Missouri State may write recommendations for the University that will automatically display on the page’s home feed and the recommendations tab. The recommendations tab is nested in the menu bar located at the top of the page.

LinkedIn identifies students and alumni of the University by the education section in their personal profiles. Any individual who indicates that they attended Missouri State University automatically follows Missouri State’s university page and is eligible to post a recommendation.

Recommendations of Missouri State

Once the feature was released, the University began receiving recommendations. To date, the recommendations have all been from alumni and have been overwhelmingly positive. Examples:

LinkedIn recommendation by Perry

LinkedIn recommendation by Penny

LinkedIn recommendation by Luis

To view recommendations of Missouri State University on LinkedIn, please visit our University page.

Tips and resources from social media boot camp

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The offices of Web and new media and University communications presented a social media boot camp on Tuesday, April 22. During sessions on blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, attendees practiced tips and tricks for making the most of social media platforms.

Blogging 102

Nicki Donnelson and Lucie Amberg gave an intermediate level workshop on blogging.

Their biggest takeaways

  • Use photos and videos to reinforce your content or communicate a different piece of the story. (You can find these resources at the Missouri State Flickr stream, the marketing toolkit and the Missouri State YouTube channel.)
  • Take advantage of heading options in the WordPress interface. Find a style you like and stick with it; consistent formatting gives your blog a professional appearance and lets your readers know what to expect.
  • Feel free to write blog entries from your own voice. Use first and second person as appropriate. Short paragraphs are fine, too; in the digital world, even one sentence can be sufficient for a paragraph.

Access the presentation: Blogging 102

Twitter  Twitter workshop

Jessica Clements led a session on Twitter.

Her biggest takeaways

  • Incorporate multimedia and links into your tweets to make them more shareable.
  • Tweets move off of people’s home feeds quickly. If a tweet works once, share it again!
  • Evaluate what content your followers engage with the most and adjust your content strategy to reflect that.

Access the presentation: Tweetable

Facebook

Brad Mitchell presented on Facebook.

His biggest takeaway

  • In some departments and organizations, social media is the responsibility of student workers. An issue arises if a student graduates without transferring administrative access to someone else in the department. In order to preserve consistent access to your organization’s Facebook page, be sure that at least one full-time employee has administrative rights to the page.

Access the presentation: Social Media Boot Camp – Facebook

LinkedIn

Courtney Wendel-Stevenson led a discussion on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn workshop

Her biggest takeaways

  • LinkedIn is a great platform for a very specific audience that wants to consume a certain type of content. To be effective on this platform, tie your content to professional development or career opportunities.
  • Since 65% of LinkedIn’s users are 30-64 and 58% are college graduates, capitalize and cater to those audiences.

Access the presentation: LinkedIn

 

Free social media workshop series April 22

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Twitter graphicDoes your University unit have a social media account? Learn tips, tricks and best practices for building and growing a community on social media during Social Media Boot Camp April 22 in Cheek 100.

The day will include sessions on:

  • Blogging 102 at 8:30 a.m.
  • Twitter at 9:45 a.m.
  • Facebook at 11 a.m.
  • LinkedIn at 1:30 p.m.

You are welcome to attend all sessions or just those that pertain to your area the most! Registration is requested via My Learning Connection.

Please bring appropriate log-in information with you as these sessions will focus on optimizing your existing social media activities.