Your social media work should not be solely focused on followers, likes, engagement rate, and reach. Learn how to connect your social media efforts to outcomes like admissions inquiries, alumni engagement, better media pitches, and effective marketing campaigns.
Presented at the 2019 Oklahoma College Public Relations Association conference.
9. “Metrics should drive what you do...so
important...but misunderstood. In digital you can
get concrete numbers. But leaders don’t want
“meaty metrics.” WE should have a greater
understanding of metrics and what they mean.
We need to teach others [including leaders].
Often what we report to HIPPOs isn’t right.”
-Executive Director of University Communications and Marketing
10. “We need to get more academic about what we
do. We’re not just the new shiny. Metrics that
matter aren’t always as easy to report quickly or
understand as something like page views. You
need to dig in, so you can make decisions related
to program marketing, course development,
faculty hiring, and
resource allocation.”
-Executive Director of University Communications and Marketing
15. social media goalssocial media goals
How you use social media to contribute to
department or institutional goals
• Increase inquiries, applications, or enrolled students
• Increase retention or graduation rates
• Improve awareness of your campus
• Increase earned media placements
• Increase event attendance
• Increase number of alumni donors, number of gifts, or
total donations
16. Connecting Social Media Efforts to Offline
Outcomes
1. Know what you’re trying to achieve
2. Put your social media strategies and tactics in context with
departmental and institutional objectives
Determine your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
17. Admissions
Goal Strategy/Tacti
cs
KPI
Increase enrollment
confirmations
Accepted student
campaign + hashtag
Social visits to
campus.edu/confirm
Increase campus visit
registrations
Paid social media
campaign
Visit registrations referred
from social media
Increase new student
applications
Student ambassador
Instagram campaign
App starts and finishes
referred by Instagram
18. Marketing
Goal Strategy/Tacti
cs
KPI
Increase brand
awareness
Highlight news and
human interest web
stories on social
media
Visits to
campus.edu/news from
social media
Increase ticket sales for
guest lecture series
Paid social media
campaign
Tickets purchased online
from social media ads
19. Alumni
Goal Strategy/Tacti
cs
KPI
Increase participation in
the Annual Giving Day
Paid social, alumni
social ambassadors,
social challenges
New donors referred by
social media
Increase signups for the
alumni association
credit card
Card benefit
promotions on
Facebook
App completions referred
from Facebook
Increase alumni
volunteer signups
Instagram alumni
ambassadors
Signups referred by
Instagram
22. 6 Categories of Marketing Metrics
Activities What you published
Viewership Who saw your content
Efficiency How far you stretched your dollars or resources
Financial The cost of activities or return on investment
Attention Who interacted with your content
Outcomes What people did because of your content
28. Connecting Social Media Efforts to Offline
Outcomes
1. Know what you’re trying to achieve
2. Put your social media strategies and tactics in context with
departmental and institutional objectives
Determine your KPIs
3. Connect the dots between online activity and offline outcomes
31. UTM Parameters
Paramete
r
Purpose Example
utm_source The site that referred the traffic utm_source=facebook
utm_medium The type of link utm_medium=social
utm_medium=display
utm_campaign The promotion or campaign utm_campaign=GivingDa
y
utm_campaign=2019Yiel
d
32. UTM Parameters
Say What?
• How many people applied, signed up, donated, etc.
from social media
• What posts/messages are most effective at provoking
the desired offline action
• The results of paid promotion on social media
• The aggregate outcome of a series of related social
media content (campaign)
33. Put UTM
Parameters
In Action• Create URLs with parameters using Google’s URL
builder
• Automatically populate in some CRMS (e.g., HubSpot,
Salesforce) and some social media management
software
• Manage manually (if necessary) using a spreadsheet
with common parameters
• Analyze results in Google Analytics or similarRead more: What Are UTM Codes and How Can Higher Ed Leverage Them?
34. Data Drives Decisions
Kayla Lewis, Seneca College (Toronto)
• Tracks social referrals to Apply page
• After launching Instagram with a focus on
16-18 year-olds, saw an increase in
application referrals from Insta.
• Increased Instagram advertising spend,
seeing increased results
35. “Don't just go for vanity metrics.
What's most important is bums
in seats. Show your bosses how
you put people in the
classroom.”
Rema Tavares
Seneca College (Toronto)
38. • It’s time to nerd out
• Feed someone’s spreadsheet addiction
• Uncover trends and insights to inform strategy
• Identify patterns and outliers in order to improve,
innovate, and iterate
• NEVER to build an executive report
Start With The Metrics Rather Than Goals When…
39. Reporting You Results
• Who: Match your metrics to the appropriate audience
• What: Get to the metrics that matter—your KPI
• When: How often can/should the information be used to
make decisions?
• So What: Ask this repeatedly to get to the data that
matters. Support strategic decision making.
40. Reporting You Results, continued
• Simplify and explain; avoid jargon
• Connect to your goals
• Consider visuals
– Canva or Google Slides are great if you don’t have design
skills
41. You do so much more
than attract followers and
collect likes and retweets
42. Don’t Stop
Learning
CampusSonar.com has:
• Newsletter all about social media & social listening in
higher education
• I think you’ll like Measuring Social Media Content Buckets and
Types
• Blogs from Sonarians and other higher ed industry
experts
• Free eBook – The Higher Ed Social Listening
43. Don’t Stop
Learning
Also:
• TeamHESM on slack: https://launchpass.com/teamhesm
• #HESM and #CASESMC on Twitter
• ConnectEDU.network – higher ed podcasts (lots about
social)
• Higher Ed Experts (blog, classes, online conferences)
44. Don’t Be A Stranger
@LizGross144 (Twitter + Instagram)
Linkedin.com/in/lizgross
Notas del editor
This is a conference about the changing social media landscape. I think the biggest change is that social media has woven itself into the daily fabric of most Americans—and most organizations. It’s no longer enough to “just be there.” Because the internet—and social media—is real life, social media managers (and their bosses, and their grand bosses) should be able to articulate how their work contributes to key institutional priorities. If you haven’t been asked about this already, you will be. And mumbling something about your followers, retweets, and story views will not be enough. I know you can do it, and today I want to make sure you’re equipped to do so.
Because the internet—and social media—is real life, social media managers (and their bosses, and their grand bosses) should be able to articulate how their work contributes to key institutional priorities. If you haven’t been asked about this already, you will be. And mumbling something about your followers, retweets, and story views will not be enough. I know you can do it, and today I want to make sure you’re equipped to do so.
I used to teach an online professional development course called Social Media Measurement in Higher Education. Between 3 and 10 students would work through 4 weeks of reading, discussion, and assignments so they felt confident and competent measuring and reporting on their social media efforts. I taught almost 100 students in this course, so I’ve glimpsed behind the curtain of social media strategy at both the campus and department level at all types of institutions. The first question in the first discussion was, “What goals are you using social media to achieve?” For some students, this was the hardest question in the course. And not just because I’m a tough instructor who refused to accept “Increase followers” as a goal. Some of them had literally never been told what objectives they were supposed to work towards.
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I’ve experienced this too. When I was hired as a social media strategist, I asked my interviewer how my success would be evaluated. I give him points for honesty, because he said, “We’re hoping you can tell us that.” That might seem like a chance for me to coast, but when I was called in front of the board three years later to explain the purpose and outcome of our social media program in 15 minutes, I was glad I chose goals that corresponded with business goals and designed my strategy and measurement accordingly.
As you think about what it is you’re trying to achieve, I’d like to encourage you to strike the phrase “Social media goals” from your vocabulary. Instead, consider how you use social media to contribute to departmental or institutional goals. Depending on the role you play on campus, those goals may include one or more of the following. [list]
Is this resonating? Are there department or institutional goals you support that aren’t included here?
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These are goals that resonate in executive offices and the board room. In most cases, “social media goals” like followers, shares, views, comments, and reach are easy and maybe fun to report, but they do not demonstrate impact.
They’re not always on social media platforms
Fill in with notes about each one.
Activities = what you published
Published a magazine every quarter
Placed 3 major news articles each month
25 press clippings each month
Posted to Facebook 7 times per week
We sent a monthly newsletter as required to keep our grant
Viewership = who saw your content
This is what you often see for TV, display, and now social media advertising.
Our campaign reached 50,000 people!
Our display ads reached 13,000 parents of prospective college students
Efficiency = how far you stretched your dollars or human resources
Well, Facebook is better for advertising than LinkedIn because our it’s only 15 cents per click compared to $5.
Financial = the cost of activities, or the return on investment
Let’s talk about ROI….
Outcomes = what people did because of your content.
This might just be the ISTJ in me, but this is the type of metric I want to be able to report along with my marketing and communications efforts.
Did people donate, apply, attend, subscribe, or purchase?
A lot of offline outcomes, like applications, donations, or awareness, include online conversations like inquiries/application submissions, gifts, and website views. The key to tying these conversation to social media likely lies in your web analytics software.
A lot of offline outcomes, like applications, donations, or awareness, include online conversations like inquiries/application submissions, gifts, and website views. The key to tying these conversation to social media likely lies in your web analytics software….not in any kind of social media metrics.
Otherwise known as the gobbledygook shown after the question mark in a URL. Who knows what they are?
Don’t stop at social! This same structure could/should be built into all of your digital marketing – including emails, display and mobile ads, and search engine marketing or other CPC ads.
Don’t ask me how many followers my company, Campus Sonar, has on social media. I don’t know. And we don’t have a goal for that. What I do know is how many leads came from social media, our blog, and our newsletter. And soon I’ll be able to tell you what type of content converts to leads at the highest rate. You can do this to! I’m going to walk through this conceptually, and at the end of my talk I’ll share some supporting resources in case you want to go back to the office and study up, or preach to your colleagues the gospel of outcomes-based measurement.
Social media is an important part of campus life. What happens there can contribute to real-world outcomes like enrollment, retention, press coverage, brand awareness, alumni engagement, and fund-raising. The people managing social media—likely many of you in this room—do so much more than attract followers and collect likes and retweets. My hope is that you’re able to adequately capture the impact you have on campus outcomes, so your work is taken as seriously as it deserves to be.