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Social Media Marketing Plan
Contact Us:info@keosmarketing.com 1.877.536-7552 (877.KEOS.LLC)
Part 1: Introduction
Purpose and Goals
Materials and Resources
Methodology
Stats about the Internet
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Purpose of the Social Media Marketing Plan
Starting with comparison research of peer schools, the social media marketing plan will provide insight into the trends of competitor schools. Following this research, the plan will provide action items for executing a myriad of social media marketing approaches. The plan will also provide tips for best practices in social media marketing and provide design guidelines for good brand integration.
Goals for the Social Media Marketing Plan
Every social media marketing tactic we implement must focus on engaging the audience.
The more the user engages and interacts with Metro, the more the Metro brand spreads and becomes viral. The plan will focus on admissions recruitment; marketing and building awareness for the Metro brand; and building positive public relations for the Metro brand.
Purpose and Goals
Research and materials compiled in July 2009
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Materials to Guide The Execution of the Plan
Social Media Marketing Plan PowerPoint
Social Media Marketing Peer Competitor Comparison Matrix
Social Media Marketing US News Best Schools Comparison Matrix
Sample Media Calendar with Implementation Time
Ten Important Design Guidelines and Integration Recommendations
Ten Important Best Practices in Social Media Marketing
Suggested Keywords for Search Engine Optimization of Micro Blogs
Materials from Keos Marketing Group
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Methodology of the Social Media Marketing Plan
Keos Marketing Group began with a comparison matrix of the social media marketing practices of twenty-five peer competitor schools of Metropolitan State College of Denver.
In addition, Keos Marketing Group reviewed the practices of four of the best colleges in the United States (Harvard, Stanford, Emory, and Notre Dame).
This matrix shows that many schools are making a good effort to implement social media marketing tactics with few being successful at every tactic and even fewer being successful at complete integration and engagement.
Methodology: Research
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Methodology of the Social Media Marketing Plan
Keos Marketing Group continued with creating a plan for each social media marketing tactic. The plan includes tactics for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and
Video/Photos on YouTube or Flickr.
Along with the plan Keos Marketing Group compiled social media marketing best
practice recommendations and design guideline suggestions to assist in execution and management of the plan.
Methodology: The Plan
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Top 20 Websites
Community driven websites remain at the forefront of the top twenty websites visited.
Stats about the Internet
Source: HitWise.com; week ending 7/25/09.
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Top 20 Search Terms
Top search terms show that community driven websites have the most search clicks. Thus, people are looking for social media websites such as
Facebook, MySpace, CraigsList, and YouTube.
Stats about the Internet
Source: HitWise.com; week ending 7/25/09.
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Top 20 Social Media Websites
Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Twitter consistently stay in the top five ranking for total visits.
Stats about the Internet
Source: HitWise.com; week ending 7/25/09.
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Top Online Member Communities
Online community usage continues to grow. Visits have increased exponentially year-to- year. In addition, total minutes spent on social media websites has increased 83 percent each year.
Stats about the Internet
Source: Nielsen NetRatings and News Releases, 2009.
http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/june/time_on_facebook http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/product_families/nielsen_netratings/netratings_newsletters
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Social Media Marketing Plan
Contact Us:info@keosmarketing.com 1.877.536-7552 (877.KEOS.LLC)
Part 2: Research
The Matrix Components
Highlights from Metro Peer Competitors Research
Highlights from the Best Schools Research
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The Comparison Matrix Components
For each peer competitor of Metro, Keos Marketing Group researched social media tactics from the use of Facebook to YouTube. We reviewed each school and took note of their level of engagement through updates.
The matrix includes these components for comparison:
Links on Website Twitter Other1
Facebook Friend Twitter Updates Other2
Facebook Fan MySpace Other3
Facebook Group YouTube Notes
Alumni Facebook Flickr
Facebook Updates LinkedIn
Peer Competitors Research
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Highlights of Peer Competitors’ Social Media Practices
Refer to Handouts
Peer Competitors Research
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Highlights of US News Best Schools Social Media Practices
Refer to Handouts
Peer Competitors Research
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Social Media Marketing Plan
Contact Us:info@keosmarketing.com 1.877.536-7552 (877.KEOS.LLC)
Part 3: The Plan
The Plan for Facebook
The Plan for Twitter
The Plan for MySpace
The Plan for LinkedIn
The Plan for Photos and Videos
The Plan for Other Websites
The Plan Take Aways
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Metropolitan State College and Facebook
Fan Page for Alumni and Current Students (potential alumni)
Connections application for alumni and pre-professionals
Group Discussion Page
Group discussion page for current students and prospective students to interact
Integration & Branding
Utilize the term “official” and “alumni association” with branded school logo
Connect with the current pages and groups for integration
Include university endorsed pages as links on the “official” fan page
The Plan for Facebook
Connections Application: California State University-Fresno, and James Madison University
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Metropolitan State College and Twitter
Metro State College of Denver News on Twitter
Connect with News Media
Post news on the faculty, the staff, and the campus.
Post Metro Magazine headlines and Class notes headlines
Metro State College of Denver “Personality” on Twitter (Mascot or Student)
Connect with current students
Post news on campus events and the campus social scene
Integration & Branding
Link headlines to full articles and press releases. Post on Digg and Delicious
Utilize the term “official” and “alumni association” with branded school logo
The Plan for Twitter
Twitter with Daily Updates: Morehead State University
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Metropolitan State College and MySpace
Create a “Personality” on MySpace (the same personality as Twitter)
Connect with current students
Post news on campus events and the social scene
Post information on athletics*
Create a Metro State play list and encourage music sharing (i.e. campus bands)
Integration & Branding
Utilize the term “official” and “alumni association” with branded logo
Link back to Facebook pages and post full articles from Twitter posts on the blog
*Another option is to create a separate page for athletics. The athletics department can manage it in conjunction with the athletics department Facebook page.
The Plan for MySpace
MySpace Pages: Appalachian State University, University of Alabama-Birmingham
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Metropolitan State College and LinkedIn
Metropolitan State College General Group
Connect with staff, students, and alumni
Post campus news, events, and press releases
Metropolitan State College Alumni Group
Connect with alumni
Post information and engage alumni with College and Faculty updates
Metropolitan State College Professional Network Group
Connect with professionals and pre-professionals
Create sub-groups from this group targeting specific industries
Encourage alumni to engage with the pre-professional students
Post Career forums and updates
The Plan for LinkedIn
Good Integration with the current Metro LinkedIn Groups!
How can we best connect with the unofficial groups?
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Metropolitan State College and LinkedIn
Integration & Branding
In updates, post headlines and include links to articles, news, and press releases
Utilize the term “official” and “alumni association” with branded logo
Encourage community engagement on other websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter
Post group topics once a month to encourage engagement
Host online career forums, meetings, and open houses to encourage engagement
The Plan for LinkedIn cont
Good Integration with the current Metro LinkedIn Groups!
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Metropolitan State College and Flickr Photos & YouTube Videos
Through the Metro Flickr user account post current photos of:
Departments, Programs, Classrooms (show students and faculty)
Campus events
Campus shows
Special campus events from the past
Remember that Facebook and MySpace can also be used for photo sharing
Through the Metro YouTube channel post a recruitment video
Post a fun, creative, and interesting recruitment video
Create an interview campaign contest with students posting interviews
“My Metro State” photo and video contest
The Plan for Photos & Video
Video Campaign: Appalachian State University “Millions of Students, Thousands of interviews, Hundreds of Schools, One of a Kind.”
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The Good, The Bad, The Many Among Recruitment Videos
The Good…
http://www.youtube.com/user/MetroStateCollege#play/uploads/ComeJoinMetroState The Bad…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOPA9fED5NU
The Many…
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=college+recruitment+video&search_type=&
aq=0&oq=college+recruitment+
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=university+recruitment+video&search_type
=&aq=f
A successful post is fun, modern, informative, engaging, and elicits comments.
YouTube Recruitment Video Examples
The Good…Metro URL should be the leader. The above is fictitious, for now.
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Other Social Media Websites to Consider
Digg
Delicious
iTunes University
Blogger
YOUniversityTV
StudentReviews
AroundTheCampus
Tagged
The Plan for Other Websites
Social Media Interaction Image from http://www.Emory.edu
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Remember!
1. If Metro is not represented on a website, change this. You want to guide your brand representation on each website.
2. Remember updates are “real time” so make sure you post with care and caution, remembering to use spell and grammar check.
3. Quality of interactions is better than quantity. Engaged audiences who are sharing your information (evangelizing for your brand) are the most important.
4. Instruct your users how to engage with you and the rest of your community.
5. Post interesting content, ask questions, be engaging, seek to be viral.
6. Connect and link all of your accounts together as much as possible. For example, If you post a video on YouTube post the link on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
NO Interaction = NO Interest
The Plan Take Aways
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Social Media Marketing Plan
Contact Us:info@keosmarketing.com 1.877.536-7552 (877.KEOS.LLC)
Part 4: Implementation
Design and Integration Guidelines
Media Calendar
Implementing the Media Calendar
Being Viral with Keywords
Best Practices in Social Media
Engaging with the Media
Kick Off Campaign
Measuring Success Discussion
Materials to Guide the Execution of the Plan
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Ten Important Design & Integration Guidelines
Refer to Handouts
Design and Integration Guidelines
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Media Calendar Contents
The media calendar should include the text, image, or video updates for all social media websites and include the timing for the updates. Each post should inform and encourage interaction and engagement. The table shows an ideal engagement timetable.
Marketing Plan Media Calendar
TBD User Account
User Channel Page on
website Page on
website Page on
website Page on
website URL
Metro names Mr. Bob as the new Director of…
Photos of the student film festival opening!
New students tell us how they like their first week!
High honors given to Professor…
Welcome to the new Fall Semester- Find…
High honors given to Professor…
Welcome to the new Fall Semester- Find…
Post Text (keywords for search)
TBD Monthly,
Quarterly Monthly,
Quarterly Weekly
Updates, Monthly Activity Daily Updates,
Weekly Posts (blog, profile) Alumni: Weekly
Students: Daily Daily Updates,
Weekly Posts Date
Other Flickr
YouTube LinkedIn
MySpace Twitter
Facebook Social Media
Use this timetable as a guide. Some websites can be more or less frequent. If you have information to share then commence at any time. Remember the goal is to ENGAGE.
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Staff and/or Student Time Needed to Implement the Media Calendar
Implementing the media calendar will take internal/external time and costs. The information below shows ideally how much time it will take to maintain the updates outlined in the
media calendar. The time table below implies high activity and engagement.
Implementing the Media Calendar
1 hour/day (adding blog posts, news, and press releases) 45 minutes/post
15 minutes/post (1 video) 1 hour/day
(implies copy editing) 1 hour/day
(implies copy editing and blog posts)
30 minutes/day 1 hour/day
(implies copy editing) Staff and/or
Student Time to Update
30 minutes/day 30 minutes/day
Post photos of events 30 minutes/day
1 hour/day 1 hour/day
Post photos of events 30 minutes/day
1 hour/day Post photos of events Staff Time to
Respond and Interact
TBD Monthly,
Quarterly Monthly,
Quarterly Weekly
Updates, Monthly Activity Daily Updates,
Weekly Posts (blog, profile) Alumni: Weekly
Students: Daily Daily Updates,
Weekly Posts Date
Other Flickr
YouTube LinkedIn
MySpace Twitter
Facebook Social Media
The time implies that the media calendar is complete and the updates are basic copy input and copy edit.
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Keyword Usage in Social Media for Micro Blogging
Keywords are the gateway to any search engine indexing. Every text post should include relevant and searched keywords, and every image or video should include relevant and searched keywords in a text description.
15 (broad) suggested keywords to use for Metropolitan State College:
College application Auraria campus
Downtown Denver (i.e. College in Downtown Denver) University in Colorado (and/or CO)
Denver college Colleges in Denver
Urban university Finding a college
Colleges in Colorado (and/or CO) Hispanic colleges
Colorado campus Urban colleges
College in Colorado (and/or CO) Latino colleges
College diversity (diverse colleges)
Being Viral with Keywords
Always use keywords/phrases that include your college name. Here is a list of similar keywords with a high search volume and high competition: Metro State College, Metropolitan State College, Denver Metropolitan College, Metro Denver, Metropolitan Denver
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Ten Important Best Practices in Social Media Marketing
Refer to Handouts
Best Practices in Social Media
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Engaging with the Media through Social Media Marketing
1. Choose media constituents as friends, followers, and fans.
2. Post ANY Metro media news in Twitter feeds.
3. Post ANY Metro media news as discussion topics on Facebook.
4. Be intriguing enough to lead your audience to longer articles.
5. Create online events that engage your alumni and media contacts.
6. Include images and photography in micro blogs when possible.
7. Connect informally and formally – be personal and deliver valuable information.
8. When targeting an article for the media, send a direct message to the media contact (i.e. @media).
9. Communicate with the media frequently to be noticed.
Engaging with the Media
Newspapers and Social Media Marketing:http://mashable.com/2009/03/11/newspaper-industry/
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Getting Started with a Kick Off Campaign
1. Let’s start with a Kick Off Campaign for “official sites” and offer an incentive.
Welcome to the official page for Metropolitan State College of Denver (Metro)! We are trying to reach 1,000 people in 4 weeks (Colorado, Denver, or anywhere) and we need your help! Tell all of your friends and networks about your experience with our page. And, if we show up in your tweets, on your wall, or new friends come to us from you we will enter you in a drawing for $X.
2. Let’s start with a video contest that showcases the campus and gets students engaged. “My Metro State” photo and video contest with incentive.
Kick Off Campaign
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Measuring Success Discussion: How will we measure success?
Number of website visits
Number of friends/fans/users on social media profiles
Participation in open houses and recruitment events
Increased engagement and interaction on social media profiles
Telephone inquiries directly from social media tactics
Unsolicited awareness from social media tactics
Increased enrollment numbers
Quality is better than quantity!
Measuring Success
WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) Metrics Best Practice Guidebook
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Materials to Guide The Execution of the Plan
Social Media Marketing Peer Competitor Comparison Matrix
Social Media Marketing US News Best Schools Comparison Matrix
Ten Important Design Guidelines and Integration Recommendations
Ten Important Best Practices in Social Media Marketing
Suggested Keywords for Search Engine Optimization of Micro Blogs
Next Steps for Implementing the Plan
Materials from Keos Marketing Group
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