Showing posts with label University Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University Marketing. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2015

55 Higher Education and Social Media Ideas! #55HigherEd from the SxSWEdu Conference!




In March, I was very fortunate to attend the SxSWEdu conference in Austin, TX. I attended sessions hosted by the TAMU system, the Gates Foundation, and several university colleagues from other institutions. This year marks my second year of attendance and I have to tout that this is the best year so far!


This year, we presented a session titled, "#55HigherEd Ideas and Resources" and we had participants from high schools, community colleges, universities, foundations, and associations. The ideas presented in the session were recorded via Twitter and via a Google Document!


Here's our tagboard from the session (the tweets): http://tgb.io/55HigherEd/219916


Here are my notes from the audience members attending the session!


1 - Reaching Current Undergraduate Students via Social Media

- Create a hashtag for recruiting students and engaging other departments to communicate with them.
- Place your twitter handle on your email signature line.
- Create professional groups for like-minded students on Facebook.


2 - Recruiting and Retaining Faculty and Staff on Social Media

- Create secondary social media posts of positions to recruit faculty and staff (without publishing on higher education.)
- Focus on faculty and staff members's secondary interests (what they like to do outside of the typical workday).
- Post a video about the staff environment and the benefits/ How they match 401Ks. Two weeks off during Christmas break.
- Utilize Flickr accounts, seeing the attire of the workplace.
- Focus on Faculty Student Success Stories - Faculty will have a different focus.


3 - Student Engagement and Social Media


- Post Lists Focused on Your Community (i.e. - Things to do in Alpine - Going out to the Sul Ross Campaign (students and their parents)).
- Form a Twitter Debate - Two teams. Limited numbers of tweets.Number of favorites within a certain time frame.


4 - University Recruitment and Social Media


- Create Buzzfeed-like videos focused on your university. For example, the top 10 reasons why you should join the teacher education program.
- Connect with Community Colleges via the University Account


5 - The University Classroom and Social Media


- Insert a Twitter Widget on Blackboard
- Creating Instagram account for your department.
- Remember to be more proactive with social media listening.
- Have a social media policy on your syllabus.
- Create expectations of social media posts. Twitter and instagram. Tagboard. Giving students a visual for students and other.
- Post student group projects to LinkedIn. Becoming references to one another.
- Have Pop-Up Sessions from One Class Session to the Next - Group work and generating ideas. Great for problem based learning. Ideas would come through and everyone would have everyone's idea. Other classes could add to that.


6 - University Marketing on Social Media

- Push for a social page on the website to list all of the university's social media accounts.
- Engage the internal departments.
- Ask students how they discovered your university.
- Practice social media listening. Create a search focused on your college or university's name.
- Find student social media ambassadors for your university. They will be the ambassadors to start the #besomebody


Next Year!


When the call for sessions is available, I will definitely submit another session (Vote for the @TSMRI Session)! This was one of the best conferences this year and I hope that I will continue to connect with my colleagues from other institutions and foundations throughout the year.


In June, we will start our #55HigherEd chat on Wednesdays in June at 8pm on Twitter! Join us! 

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

Thursday, August 7, 2014

An Innovative University Marketing Strategy Via Video - Texas A&M is Happy! :)

I am always on the lookout for an innovative college or university marketing video. Whether the video is internal or external, it definitely strikes a chord with the viewers. These viewers might come from the university itself to universities (and others) located across the world. 

Videos enable others to experience your campus without actually setting foot on the campus. Boundless possibilities!


Videos are great, but one items that people commonly forget about videos is the captioning. If videos are captioned, it makes this more accessible. One more step, but definitely well worth it!

I need to learn more about the captioning features on YouTube. Does anyone have any great resources?

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU