Sept. 18, 2012 presentation at NCAN conference in LV: Leveraging Digital Media to drive FAFSA completion

1. Digital Engagement:
Leveraging Social Media
and the Web to Drive
FAFSA Completion
Susan Thares| 9.18.2012

2. Federal Student Aid Objectives
• Provide superior service and information to
students and borrowers
• Know what our customers want and ensure we
meet their expectations
• Be the most trusted source of federal student
aid, information, and services in the nation

3. We Asked Ourselves….
• How are we currently serving students and
borrowers?

4. The Customer Experience

5. We Asked Ourselves….
• How can we improve that experience?
• What do our customers need from us?
• What new delivery mechanisms do we
need to add?

6. Integrated Student Experience (ISE)
 Federal Student Aid (FSA) launched the ISE initiative to
establish an integrated, customer-focused web experience for
students, parents, and borrowers to facilitate decision-making
about funding a postsecondary education
 Simplifiesand streamlines FSA’s web presence by
consolidating content from 14 websites and existing
publications, and retired 5 websites in first phase
 Launches properties on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter;
Accessible on mobile devices and tablets. Showcases FSA’s
new look-and-feel.

7. Consolidating Websites
FSA Gateway College.gov Student Aid on the Web
Ombudsman.ed.gov Students.gov

8. Included in the Initial Release
• Comprehensive information on federal student aid – from
awareness, to application, to repayment
• Serves audiences from middle school and parents to
adults, applicants, and borrowers
• Available in English and Spanish
• FSA’s first mobile-optimized site to display on all devices
• Links to FSA’s other key sites

9. StudentAid.gov Homepage

10. Spanish Homepage

11. Prepare For College

12. Types of Aid

13. Who Gets Aid

14. FAFSA: Apply For Aid

15. Repay Your Loans

16. Calculators
Budget Calculator
Loan Repayment Calculator

17. Infographics/Videos

18. Mobile-Optimized

19. Announcments & Links to Social Media

20. Online Listening
How We Listen And What We Listen To Effects
How We Strategize And Respond To Our
Social Mention Customers
Identifying Key
Customer Issues
Radian 6
Listening To Our
Customers
HootSuite Creating Content
Towards Customer
Engagement
Sprout Social

21. Online Listening

22. Turning Listening into Content
FAQs

24. Customer Engagement
• Listen for trending topics/questions and
create generic posts to address those issues
• Respond to Direct Messages when possible
• Limited responses to posts/questions on
Facebook and Twitter
• Monthly @FAFSA Twitter
Office Hours

25. Customer Engagement

26. @FAFSA Office Hours

27. Storify

28. Facebook

30. YouTube

32. Visual.ly (site for infographics)

33. July 2012 Social Media Report
Retweets- How far is our tweet being spread across the internet?
Mentions - We’re talking, but is anyone listening? Are they talking back?
Links- What types of information is our audience engaging with?

34. Most Popular Tweets for July

35. New Media (as of 8/23)
Facebook.com/FederalStudentAid Visual.ly/users/federalstudentaid
Two Infographics: 14,000+ views
YouTube.com/federalstudentaid
The 2 new videos (Overview of the
Financial Aid Process and FAFSA
Overview) have had 20,375 views
Twitter.com/fafsa
Storify.com/fafsa
3,950 views of our stories

36. Building External Online Partnerships & Networks
• Creating Toolkits for partner use
Tweets & Facebook Posts
Visual Engagement Articles & Blog Links
Content (videos &
infographs)
Print
Materials Awareness
& Outreach Info
(Presentations)

37. Connect With Us!
PHOTO PHOTO
PHOTO
FACEBOOK TWITTER YOUTUBE
Federal Student Aid @FAFSA Federal Student Aid
www.twitter.com/FAFSA
www.facebook.com/FederalStudentAid www.youtube.com/FederalStudentAid

38. Questions?