2. Overview
• What this is, and what it isn’t
• Why social media?
• Planning
• Best practices by platform
• Deciding where to focus
• Handling negative reactions
• Tools and resources
3. Why Use Social Media?
It expands your story. Who is listening?
Student athletes | Fans | Prospective athletes | Media | Coaches |
Parents | Alumni | Boosters | NESCAC | NCAA
It allows you to connect with humans
Nurture your community | Put a human face on your brand |
Foster human connections
Meets the information needs of your audience
Be where you audience is | Provide timely information
4. Why Use Social Media?
This is where people are spending their time:
Active users per channel*:
• Facebook: 2 billion
• YouTube: 1.5 billion
• Instagram: 700 million
• Twitter: 328 million
• Snapchat: 200 million
*As of Aug. 2017. Source: http://bit.ly/1TTAQxk
5. What’s Your Plan?
• Define your goals
• Inform, showcase, connect, drive attendance?
• Know your audience
• Rules and culture vary on platforms
• Plan your content
• Try themes, plan for events
• Measure
• Use your analytics, figure out what’s working
• Adjust
• Fix what’s not working
Always add
value!
6. Facebook
• Lead with strong images
• Post regularly (2+ times/week)
• Facebook video is a strong platform
• Insights are valuable (figure out what’s working/what’s not)
• Make sure your page looks good and is accurate—it’s like a
website
• Try scheduling posts
• Create Facebook Events for games and events
8. Instagram
• It’s all about the photos
• Looping video and Boomerangs
• Multiple photos tell a story
• Don’t forget the hashtag(s)
• Add a location
• Keep up with posting, even in
the summer
9. Twitter
• Real-time feed
• Great for news
• Take advantage of relevant content (retweet)
• Good for listening
• Be part of a conversation (global or local)
• Include images when possible
• Use Twitter analytics to measure results
11. Where to Focus/New Channels
• Manage your channels well
• Be consistent among your channels
• Don’t feel like you have to be everywhere
• Evaluate new channels
• Can I take this on?
• Is my audience there?
• Can I do this well?
12. Handling the Negative Stuff
• Think before you post. You represent the College and your
athletes.
• Sometimes you won’t be happy with comments
• It’s OK to delete comments on FB/Instagram that are:
• Obscene
• Personal attacks
• Spam/commercial
• Racist/sexist/homophobic
• See Trinity social media comment policy for
help: http://bit.ly/TrinCommentPolicy
13. Tools
• Social media manager products
• HootSuite, SproutSocial, etc.
• Editorial calendar
• Plan out your posts
• IFTTT
• Build recipes, post Instagrams as native images in Twitter
• Peer schools
• Be inspired by others
• Mobile device
• You can manage effectively on the go
• Know your NCAA regs!
• Stay informed
• HootSuite blog
• Social Media Today (@SocialMedia2Day)
• Higher Ed Experts