Social media for university presses: why, how, who, where, and when? March 17th 2016 Alastair Horne Social Media and Communities Manager Cambridge University

Introduction Why use social media? How has our social media strategy changed? Which platforms should we be using, and how can we make the best of them? Which tools can help us?

Why use social media? Opportunities to play an active part in the lives of the communities we serve. Build deeper relationships with those communities Maybe even sell more books!

Our changing strategy Building up a following 2011: 7,881 fans on Facebook; 481 followers on Twitter 2016: 104,897 fans on Facebook; 34,798 followers on Twitter Facebook-first Don’t rely on third parties Drive your audience to platforms you own The short half-life of social content Using social to amplify what we’re doing elsewhere

Webinars Online lectures Providing value for our community, and value for us Opportunity for subtle promotion of our books Increasing exposure of our authors Building up our mailing list Finding out more about our community’s needs Amplified on all our other social channels

Blogs Give your community a reason to keep returning to your site. Your authors are a rich source of content. Improve your website’s SEO.

The importance of authors Providing engaging and well-informed content Amplifying what we do through their own networks

Social platforms

Facebook… isn’t over

Facebook still drives traffic. Originally posted Shared on Facebook (and promoted) by the British Council

Facebook isn’t a priority any more It’s primarily a paid-for, targeted advertising channel. 1% of our fans will see our posts unless we pay. If I were starting now, I wouldn’t set up an account.

Twitter Twitter is on the same path as Facebook

Twitter polls

Pinned tweets Appear at the top of your Twitter page Draw attention to something you’d like to promote

Curation Add value to your community by sharing interesting content from other sources. Try Nuzzel to find out what your audience is talking about.

Don’t be afraid to repeat tweets! Only a small proportion of your audience will see each tweet. Repeat tweets at different times to reach different audiences.

YouTube A repository for all our video content, rather than a social platform in its own right…... but we curate content through playlists

Instagram Photo and video sharing – not an obvious fit for a university press, but…

Instagram: #bookfacefriday A fun way to show off your titles

Instagram Puppies always win…

Periscope Live video streaming Extend the reach of your live events Buy a £10 tripod and check the lighting beforehand Share the recording on YouTube

Soundcloud Sharing audio

Finding out what’s working: measure and analyse

Twitter analytics Worth paying attention to…

IFTTT (If this, then that) Tools for automating tasks

Google Analytics Track popular posts…

Google Analytics Track popular posts… and where the traffic is coming from.

Thank you! March 17th 2016 Alastair Horne Social Media and Communities Manager Cambridge University Press Get in