Getting the Message Out: Getting the Message Out – Social Media for Student Organizations LEAD Development Workshop Heidi Trotta and Mary Zedeck Wednesday, October 17, 2012 5:30 pm Using Social Media – Part 1

It’s all about marketing! Last week we talked about how printed material was still important in advertising your student organization and it’s activities. We covered both design principles and practical considerations. However, remember that a dynamic marketing plan in today’s world takes advantage of both print AND web.

Marketing Plan for Your Organization Print Social Media Posters Online Presence This week we are going to be covering how to leverage the web, specifically social media, to market your organization and create community. We will look at some of the choices out there for social media and ways to get the word out regarding your organization and it’s events, representing your organization in a positive light and encourage a “following” . Marketing Plan for Your Organization

So, just so we know what we are talking about here, what is social media? We tend to think in relationship to tools, such as facebook or twitter however the power is not in the tool, it is in how they relate to each other. How would you define it?

Wikipedia defines social media as: .. The use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. When used together effectively, these tools form a spider web of information flow. the use of … web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue

The Players Mary Mary

Lafayette College Equestrian Team and SUNY New Paltz American Marketing Association A blog is an online journal. Posts can provide commentary and news. Blogs are about conversations and idea sharing – a blog is a two way conversation. If done well, a blog can be the hub for all your social media efforts. When you start a blog, you will need to define the scope and the target audiences. Then, you will need to tailor the information on your blog to the target audiences. Some best practices and suggestions -- Simplicity – less is more Create compelling titles for your posts – they are like the headlines in the newspaper Bloggers – personal and conversational Consider Creating a comment policy – we will talk more specifically about this in a few minutes Creating a schedule – calendar Including pictures and videos Make sure people can subscribe – either through RSS, email, twitter, facebook, etc.

Bowling Green State Mens Rugby Club Facebook can house a variety of resources for your club. It can be a place of conversation and discussion. It can be where people go to find out information about your next event or how to join your club. You can create a Group or a Page. This example is a Facebook Page.

Page Example: Lafayette College Equestrian Page Group Example: Seton Hall University Jobs & Internships Pages vs Groups Pages public facebook presence can act like a mini website Like button – person is not friends with YOU on Facebook but once they “Like” a page, it comes up in their profiles as an organization that they Like. There is no limit on Likes and no approval required One person creates the page and serves as the Admin (though you can add additional admins) and once you have 25 “Likes”, you can customize the URL of your page: facebook.com/yourorganization Has Insights – gives you analytics on who and when is accessing your page – not available on groups Downside – cannot message entire group, just send Update (post) Groups Can be set up as invite only or allow people to freely Join – public or private Able to send Messages to members in the Group rather than Updates (pages) Some organizations set up a page to start and then set up a group to target a specific audience within the organization. No insights, no custom URL

Bowling Green State Baseball Twitter is a free online service that allows you broadcast short messages to your friends and/or followers. Twitter is a combination of various forms of communication like email, IM, blogs, and RSS feeds. Posts, or tweets, are restricted to 140 characters or less. You can share links to interesting content on the web, have conversations around hot topics or events, share photos, videos, music and text. @Reply/@Mention RT Direct Message #

SHU’s WSOU radio station

Lafayette Equestrian Channel YouTube can be used by a club or organization to host video resources from club events that are created by members of the club or by audience members at an event. Videos do not have to be professional quality. Users can comment on videos if you allow that. You can embed the videos in blogs and facebook as well as sending out links to the videos in Twitter.

Emerson Theater You can host all of your club or organization’s photos in flickr and link out to different flickr sets through other social media such as Twitter or Facebook. Flickr is organized in sets, collections and tags. Pictures can be public or private. You can embed in blogs and Facebook and send out links to Flickr photos through Twitter.

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Mary Zedeck mary.zedeck@shu.edu Heidi Trotta heidi.trotta@shu.edu Mary Zedeck mary.zedeck@shu.edu Need help? Resources can be found at SwitedhOnSHU blog ….blogs.shu.edu/switchedon or contact us. ~ Become Switched On through Technology Follow Us on Twitter @SwitchedOnSHU http://tltc.shu.edu/switchedon