Question

Topic: Social Media

Social Media Strategy For Independent Schools

Posted by Anonymous on 1/28/2011 at 3:01 PM ET 250 Points
Digital communications and Social media are the big buzz words these days, representing a new avenue for engaging with audiences at a much deeper level than typically achieved with traditional channels.
LinkedIn is big, Twitter is active but Facebook is huge. Each outlet within the medium has acquired its share of advocates. I would welcome any tips, recommendations & useful materials you may have to prepare a digital & social media strategy for independent schools.
This is also a test to demonstrate the power of networks and hubs as part of my presentation. Thank you in anticipation of your comments and I'll keep you posted of progress.
Thank you

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/29/2011 at 7:18 AM Accepted
    There are a number of recent MarketingProf online seminars that may be of interest to you:

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/342
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/337
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/285
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/332
  • Posted by mgoodman on 1/29/2011 at 11:13 AM Accepted
    The use of social media -- or any other form of marketing communication -- is largely dependent on what you're trying to accomplish.

    Who is the target audience, and what do you want them to do? Once you define that, you need to create the positioning statement that articulates "what's in it for them" to take the desired action.

    Only after you go through those fundamental steps will you (or we) be able to come up with a "digital and social media strategy for independent schools."
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 1/30/2011 at 9:25 AM Accepted
    Dear srodrigogonzalez,

    Before you get too excited about any kind of social media strategy you need to decide what you want to
    say and who you want to say it to.

    Will you be targeting parents, students, educators, school board members? Any strategy concept that has "everyone" as customer its is flawed and will fail. The greater your specificity and the more socially targeted it is (meaning, content driven, not sales message driven), the better.

    In my experience, students respond more to messages and content delivered through Facebook than they do to content delivered through Twitter.

    Additionally, messages delivered via Twitter and Facebook MUST be different messages.

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    The Direct Response Marketing Guy™
    January 30, 2011 ... 9:24 am EST

  • Posted on 1/30/2011 at 4:56 PM Author
    Thank you for your answers so far. I am taking the different audiences into account and looking at the different mediums that best apply to each. I am certainly not trying to push a sales message, but informative ones instead. I'm thinking of Linkedin for Alumni, and Facebook and maybe You Tube for Alumni as well as prospective students, with very different focus on the communications to both.
  • Posted by kbrown on 1/31/2011 at 8:26 AM Accepted
    Ask them. I'm big on surveying your potential audience to see what they would like you to do. It's amazing how much we assume that is incorrect, or slightly to one side, of where our targeted audience really wants us to be.
  • Posted on 2/2/2011 at 9:50 AM Author
    Thank you all for your responses. I am planning some research as Kbrown suggested, and have already started a debate in our school magazine, which I'm hoping will give some interesting feedback
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