1. Social Media and Your Higher Ed Campaign PRESENTED BY SHANNON RIFFE
2. Objectives
•PLAN your social media strategy to launch a fundraising campaign.
•Examples of how to EXECUTE that strategy
•University of Michigan campaign kickoff
•The challenges of executing a centralized online strategy within a large, decentralized organization.
•TRACK your results to measure success.
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4. About Me
•Birmingham, AL > … > Ann Arbor, MI
•University of Michigan Office of University Development
•Online Marketing Strategist
•Assistant Director of Marketing, Online Engagement
•Associate Director of Marketing, Online Engagement
•Before joining U-M in 2011
•Ann Arbor District Library
•Fluency Media
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7. About U-M
•Michigan is a very large, de-centralized institution
•60,000 students & 44,000 faculty and staff across three campuses.
•Ann Arbor
•Dearborn
•Flint
•The U-M Office of University Development (OUD) serves
•19 Schools/Colleges
•29 Non-degree Granting Units
•3 Campuses
•20,000 unique funds, 5,000 of which are online
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9. Fundraising Campaigns at U-M
•Since 1946, U-M has had 5 fundraising campaigns.
•The last campaign was the Michigan Difference
•Ended in 2008
•Raised $3.2B
•Victors for Michigan
•Kickoff: November 8, 2013 ; Goal: $4 Billion
•Priorities:
•Student Support
•Engaged Learning
•Bold Ideas
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14. Collaboration is key to a successful social media strategy at a decentralized institution! #bbcon
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Tweet this now
15. Goals
•Raise awareness about the campaign
•Raise awareness about the campaign kickoff events
•Create content that would be memorable, impactful, sharable
•Demonstrate the impact and importance of philanthropy at U-M
= 30 Day Countdown
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16. Why a Countdown?
•Build momentum
•Consistent, fresh content
•30 days
•Ambitious but doable
•Enough time to feature a wide variety of stories
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17. Demonstrate Impact
•Highlight the stories of individuals who have been impacted
•Take the focus off of the institution and shine a light onto the
•Students
•Undergrad
•Graduate
•Student-Athlete
•International
•Faculty
•Staff
•Patients
•Alums
•Donors
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21. Creating a Graphic Template
•Look to outside sources for inspiration.
•Consider what has been successful for you previously, as well as best practices for social media (e.g. images of people’s faces).
•Work with a graphic designer to create initial template.
•Once the template is done, you/student can modify and update it yourself.
•Used Photoshop via “Virtual Sites.” If Photoshop if not available, check out www.Canva.com.
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23. Gathering Stories
•First impact story in countdown planned for 10/8.
•Began first emails in July to seek stories.
•Do not underestimate the importance of and the time it takes to get approvals.
•Approval by the subject
•Approval by the development/communications contact at the unit
•Approvals of quotes, of images, of the final combined image, of the Facebook and Twitter posts to accompany it.
•The featured subject may be affiliated with more than one unit, in which case, make sure that development/communications person can review also
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24. Tracking Progress
•Day # - For a 30 day countdown, start with day 30 and number in descending order
•Date
•Day of the Week – So your biggest stories don’t get posted on a weekend.
•Event – Are there other things happening you can take advantage of? A sporting event? A holiday?
•Who? – Name of the person to be featured
•Unit – Make sure a variety of units across the institution are represented
•Category – Undergrad; Grad Student; Faculty/Staff; Alum; Administrator; Athlete; etc.
•Contact – Keep a record of who you have worked with to get images, text, and approvals.
•Notes – This is where I kept status regarding approvals (e.g. Image approved 9/15, awaiting text from Jenny)
•Other Social Media – Any other university page that should be tagged in the post.
•Twitter Post – Text of the post, including any links and accounting for space to post an image and staying within character count. Get approval ahead of time.
•Facebook Post - Text of the post, including any links. Get approval ahead of time.
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30. •Created a Facebook Event
•Publicized this link on multiple social media updates, ad in U-M paper, email to faculty/staff, on umich.edu
•RESULTS
•Going: 1,081
•Maybe: 257
•Invited: 3,951
*data via Facebook
Facebook Event
31. •On 10/30 an email signed by our VP of Development went out to all U-M faculty/staff.
•The call to action was to join and share the Facebook Event for campaign kickoff.
•RESULTS
•44,754 sent
•16% opened (7,277)
•1.7% clicked FB link (777)
Email
32. •Student Volunteer Committee planned and executed
•Promoted on Twitter and Facebook
•About half of questions were planted by committee, half were organic
•Offered an opportunity to have unfiltered, direct access to top level staff directly involved in the campaign.
•RESULTS
•Received 55 total comments
Student Philanthropy
33. •Member of the Student Volunteer Committee tweeted from @umichstudents for the week leading up to kickoff
Student Philanthropy
34. •Posted Thursday November 7th.
•Text of post: 4 Billion as a goal, umich launches its most ambitious fundraising campaign. Tomorrow's public kick off campaign will be at Ingalls Mall at 5pm. Come to join us, Free food.
•RESULTS
•40 Retweets
•26,000 Impressions
*data via Weibo
Weibo
35. •Pre-show scroll of Tweets on arch above Hill Auditorium
•Tweets were pre-prepped and vetted ahead of time
•53 Tweets, all using #victorsformichigan
Twitter at the Event
41. Re-use Existing Content
•Post one image a day in hallway of office.
•Could have been collected into a book for President/committees
•Used as centerpieces for press conference announcing campaign goal
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