Higher Ed Summit

We've heard about the enrollment cliff and its impact on higher education. For her dissertation, Dr. Carrie Phillips researched marketing strategies universities might consider to help mitigate this cliff. After visiting with chief marketing officers, this session has insights about what they're doing to prepare. 

We'll start with a high-level overview of the enrollment cliff, followed by a deep dive into how social media managers can play a day-to-day role in helping position your university for success. As you look to navigate change at your institution, this session is a great place to start. 

Takeaways: 

• Familiarity with the enrollment cliff and how it will impact higher education
• Understanding some of the current big-picture challenges facing our profession
• Insights on how social media managers can help serve as a change agent
• Practical tips on how social media can help institutions better leverage their university identity 

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Alright, folks, get ready to learn how to make those Gen Z-ers double-tap and swipe up like there's no tomorrow. Glacier’s presentation explores the latest trends and insights on advertising to Gen Z, a highly influential and digitally-savvy group. We'll delve into the unique characteristics of this demographic, including their values, behaviors, and preferences regarding digital platforms. Through case studies and best practices, we'll examine successful campaigns that have effectively targeted Gen Z audiences on popular social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.

Attendees will walk away with an understanding of how to engage and connect with this key demographic, including tips on creating authentic, relatable, and visually compelling content that resonates with Gen Z. And who knows, maybe you'll even start using words like 'yeet' and 'lit' without feeling ‘cheugy’.

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User-generated content (UGC) can be an incredible addition to your content strategy. It provides an authentic view of your campus that marketers may not always be able to capture independently and is a great opportunity to represent students, alumni, and faculty perspectives.

This panel will discuss:

• How to find the highest-quality UGC to feature on your channels (through running contests and other initiatives)
• Examples of UGC that have driven notable engagement from various audiences (students, alumni, faculty)
• How to get creative teams and administration to buy into UGC over polished, full-production videos/content pieces
• Your checklist for using UGC properly: asking for permission, vetting someone’s account/affiliation with your school, giving credit, etc.
• How UGC contributes to brand storytelling and building campus community
• Tracking the success of your UGC

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It’s taken for granted that social media is a way to broadcast your content. That’s not its most powerful use, though. Social media is about turning your followers into ambassadors who want to share your content with others. That’s one of the best ways you’re going to reach people who don’t already know about you and your school, and it’s one of the most powerful ways to keep your followers engaged.

In this talk, Nick Moran will share some of the strategies his award-winning team has used at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He’ll explain why it’s important to build “Easter eggs” into your content, and how small details can increase the reach of a post by factors of ten.

Takeaways from this talk:

• A rubric for determining which platforms you should prioritize
• An example workflow you can adapt for working with faculty at your institution
• An understanding of the small and large decisions that go into making shareable content

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University marketing and communications teams continuously face the dilemma of having too many social media accounts across campus. When there’s a social media account for every unit, team, faculty, and degree, it’s difficult to know who is sharing what, it’s challenging to manage strategy and branding, and it’s particularly difficult for students to know where to get the information they need to thrive on campus. 

When reflecting on the state of our social media channels within the students' portfolio at UBCO, it was clear that there were too many accounts without any oversight or strategy. We saw an opportunity to create a coordinated portfolio-wide strategy to ensure all student communications moving forward are shared in a timely, strategic, and professional way that provides student value. In the last year, we have consolidated our Instagram accounts to eight total profiles and developed a strategically aligned social media strategy implemented across the portfolio. 

Takeaways from this session: 

• A blueprint for streamlining university social media communications in a current and valuable way for students. 
• A case study to support future proposals to consolidate accounts and align social media strategies at your institution 
• A list of best practices to get started on enhancing social media processes on your team 
•  Lessons learned about building relationships and trust on campus to advance social media strategies 

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This panel will discuss successful strategies for managing social media on behalf of university leadership. 

Discussion topics include:

• How to introduce new leadership to a university community and plan a presidential transition
• Finding the best opportunities for your leadership to interact with your online community 
• Optimizing your leadership’s digital abilities and setting leadership up for success early in their tenure
• Tapping into your leaders’ authenticity
• Dealing with difficult subjects and when/how to engage
• Taking calculated risks and having fun

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Whether you love or hate it, data might be the most essential tool in a social media manager's toolbelt. But what should you be tracking, and how should you report it? 

During this session, attendees will learn that there is no one-size-fits-all regarding social media reporting. They'll leave with best practices on what metrics to pull, how to cross-analyze them, and how to break those numbers down in a digestible way for all those to understand.

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When it comes to social media advertising, where do you begin? Selecting the correct creative, placements, and budget can be overwhelming. And once the ads are live, where do you go from here? What does success look like during and afterward? This session will teach you how to set up and prepare for a social media campaign properly. We'll cover KPIs to monitor during the campaign to ensure optimization and reporting structures for your team and leadership.

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This panel will discuss:

• How to prepare your team for a crisis through tabletop and other exercises
• How and when to use social media listening and monitoring
• The importance of communicating context
• Why documentation should always be a part of your strategy
• Health/safety crises versus reputation crises and examples of how your team can approach each
• Tools that are available to help your team handle a crisis

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This panel will discuss:

• An overview of which platforms our panelists are most active on and why
• The research and strategy that can help you decide when a new platform makes sense for your brand, including examples of recent new profile launches from our panelists
• When, why, and how to say no to new platform suggestions, including examples
• How to decide when it may be time to sunset a profile
• How analytics and audience insights can help you determine where you should be active
• When to (or not to) duplicate content across platforms by identifying the purpose of your post
• Leveraging different platforms for different kinds of content and communications

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Have you ever tried to create content from scratch? It's hard! With every idea feeling like it's been done before, how do you create unique and engaging pieces repeatedly? 

A really smart and strategic content brainstorm.

In this session, 2.718 Marketing will take you down the path they use to create big, exciting ideas that deliver results for their Higher Education clients.

You'll learn to:

• Understand your target audience, including their needs, interests, and preferences via persona development
• Analyze your competitors' content to track trends, identify gaps in the market, and develop unique content while discovering what works and what doesn't
• Create clear content goals and expectations to help you stay focused and in alignment with your school's overarching marketing goals
• Generate a wide range of ideas and bring fresh perspectives to the creative process
• Deliver informed recommendations that keep your audiences coming back for more

Following these steps, you'll develop effective marketing content that drives engagement with prospective, transfer, and graduate students and parental decision-makers.

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This workshop will include short lectures, activities with small break-out groups, results-sharing, and Q&A.

Section 1: Content Strategy & Planning, led by Laurie Roberts, Johnson & Wales University

Setting the strategy is the first step to developing a successful social media presence, including the basics: goals, audiences, platforms, and content pillars. Knowing what to post is important, but knowing when to post can be tricky. This section will also cover creating and maintaining a content calendar that puts your content strategy to work. 

What you’ll learn:

• How to draft a social media strategy that outlines goals, audiences, platforms, and content pillars (plus a worksheet)
• How to re-imagine key marketing messages as content pillars
• How to map out post ideas on a content calendar (plus suggested free tools)
• How to maintain a content calendar that’s both flexible and strategic
• Tips for a multi-departmental approach to sourcing strategic content 

Section 2: Channel-Specific Content & Working with Students, led by Lawerence Synett, University of Colorado Denver

Once your content pillars and content calendar is in place, it’s essential to break down content per platform and understand where your content will perform its best. This section will review platform best practices, and provide easy-to-implement ideas for tackling the “creative desert.” 

What you’ll learn:

• The best types of content per platform, including Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter
• The best ways to leverage student ambassadors, workers, and organizations
• How to address a lack of content ideas
• Traps to avoid regarding link clinks, hashtags, graphics, specific days, and celebrations

Section 3: Data-Informed Content Strategies, led by Moriah Walker, UNC Charlotte

Once you’ve created your social content strategy and identified the best channels for your institution, there are important steps to take to stay on track to achieve your goals. This section will cover how to make data-informed decisions to keep your audience engaged and your institutional priorities top of mind.

What you’ll learn: 

• The role of data in determining what to share and how to share it effectively
• When to find a new approach for your lowest performing content and when to move it off of social
• How to make “dry” topics more engaging for a social media audience
• Ways to repurpose content to get the most ROI

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Everyone says that video is gold in 2023, but how can your organization jump in without costing too much time or resources? With the right framework in place, your brand can capture the potential of viral social platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels:

• Understanding the landscape of video content: Why it works and the common mistakes that brands make when creating videos for their marketing mix
• Bringing it to life on social: The ideal tech stack for video creation and how to build for each social platform while still utilizing trending audios and formats
• Producing content regularly and efficiently: How to maximize your content so it works harder for you and setting foundational trust with leadership so you can get content filmed, approved, and out the door while the trends are still hot

Agenda and Activities

Chapter 1: Why video has become important

• Static social vs engaging video
• Current media landscape involving TikTok brain, watch times, ad fatigue
• What types of videos resonate with which audiences
• Mistakes often made and how to prevent them

20 minutes - Education
10 minutes - Breakout session
15 minutes - Q&A with larger group
15 minutes - Break

Chapter 2: How videos come to life on social

• Different formats for each platform
• Optimizations for each platform (post copy, on screens, trending audios)
• How to source audio
• The ideal (free) tech stack for short-form video creation

20 minutes - Education
10 minutes - Breakout session
15 minutes - Q&A with larger group
15 minutes - Break

Chapter 3: How to produce effectively

• Creating efficient approval processes with leadership and your team
• Doing more with less budget and resources
• How to scale creativity without increasing budget needs
• How to measure success

20 minutes - Education
10 minutes - Breakout session
30 minutes - Q&A with larger group
5 minutes - Closing Remarks

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An average Tiktok user spends 95 minutes on the app per day. On YouTube, 2500 videos are uploaded every minute. Every second, 6,000 tweets are posted. And if you want an even more mind-boggling stat: over the last two years, 90 percent of the data in the world was generated. TL;DR: it’s never been more important to create content that breaks through the noise. But how?

In this session, you will learn some of the consistent themes that lead to creating content that captivates audiences on social media platforms and drives engagement.

You’ll learn:

• 4 consistent themes which drive social media engagement
• Examples from brands who do it well
• Tips for how to take these themes and apply them to your own brands channels

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Social media governance. It’s everyone’s favorite topic, and when you have two companies coming together in a historic acquisition and a new team asking people to shut down their social channels and rally around a new vision, what could possibly go wrong? Rachel McGrew, Social Media Strategy Lead at Bayer, gives insights on how her team worked together to create an effective and efficient social media landscape during a critical time and built strategies to engage their target audiences. She’ll also share tips on how to navigate tough conversations surrounding social media governance internally to help you make and keep allies along the way. 

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Walgreens is committed to creating a better world through health & wellness for all. In Summer 2022, Walgreens set out to reintroduce their portfolio of owned brand health & wellness products to shift consumer perception around buying Walgreens owned brand. To help drive awareness of the value and convenience of these products, the Walgreens team tapped into tried and true paid social platform strategies to contribute to marketing goals for the program. Lexi will discuss how the team planned a paid social campaign from start to finish using historical learnings and new strategies to help deliver on results. She will also share her experience and learnings about working on a custom quiz experience with Pinterest and Jebbit.

You’ll learn:

• Best practices for paid social campaign planning
• How to approach measuring results with available information
• Tips for creating a custom Pinterest Quiz Unit

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This panel of marketers is here to answer any and all of your questions. This session will be AMA-style, so come prepared with anything you want them to answer related to the topic of operating at maximum output with a small team!

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Too many brands have settled for “industry standard” when it comes to paid social. Mediocre costs per lead are the norm, but they don’t have to be. In this session, you’ll learn the 5 step process that Tyson Foodservice used to decrease their CPL by over 75%. These tactics and strategies are applicable regardless of industry and will help increase your paid social effectiveness and efficiency.

This session will cover:

• Audience intelligence
• Ad intelligence
• Value-added advertising
• Organic/Paid synergy
• Creative execution

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The rise of the creator economy has challenged the traditional model of influencer marketing and opened new opportunities for brands to collaborate with content creators. But what is the difference between a creator and an influencer? And how can legacy brands leverage their unique strengths and audiences to grow their business and reach new customers?

In this session, you will learn:

• The key characteristics and motivations of creators and influencers, and how they differ from each other
• The best practices and strategies for working with creators and influencers, and how to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes 
• The future trends and challenges of the creator economy, and how legacy brands can adapt and innovate to stay relevant and competitive

Join Kelley Myers, Head of Consumer Social for Microsoft for this engaging and informative session, where you will gain valuable insights and tips on how to leverage the power of creators and influencers for your legacy brand.

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In the age of digital media, social media platforms have become an abundant source of valuable data. During this session, we will explore effective strategies and tools for extracting, analyzing, and communicating insights that can shape marketing strategies and drive business success. This session will highlight the use of advanced analytics tools to uncover patterns, trends, and consumer behavior, enabling businesses to make informed decisions and tailor their marketing efforts to resonate with their target audience. Moreover, participants will learn how to effectively communicate these insights to stakeholders, such as senior management, marketing teams, and clients, through compelling visualizations and storytelling techniques.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the importance of social media data and its impact on business decision-making processes.
• Familiarity with cutting-edge tools and techniques for data extraction, analysis, and visualization.
• Insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and trends derived from social media data to inform marketing strategies.
• Techniques for effectively communicating data-driven insights to various stakeholders, ensuring better engagement and decision-making.

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How do you successfully navigate shiny object syndrome when social media is always changing? By staying true to what you know works for your brand, while committing to learning about new platforms or tactics. 

This session will provide foundational methods on how to effectively and efficiently test new ideas in social media – while also scaling top performers. Filament’s “nail it and scale it” approach has helped clients diversify their social ecosystems while maintaining a strong base that drives reliable business results. You’ll also hear from Purina Animal Nutrition on how this approach has helped their social strategy evolve to include staples like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and creators, while continuously exploring new frontiers like Reddit, chatbots and Pinterest.

You’ll learn:

• Tips for establishing an 80% proven, 20% testing methodology
• How to determine which shiny objects are the right ones to chase
• Driving holistic social ecosystem growth by applying learnings across platforms

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Who doesn't want to jump on a social media trend? They're fun and relatable, increase engagement, and boost your profile. However, it's a slippery slope regarding which trends a university should and shouldn't participate in. In this presentation, we will take an in-depth look at social trends that are great for a school or university and those that may not work.

You'll learn:

• How to know what makes something a social media trend
• Ways to identify if you should or should not participate
• Thinking through content creation based on a trend
• Best practices for what to do when you decide you'd like to join one

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The stories you write and publish on your college’s website to highlight student life, academic pursuits, and more can be approached from several angles to allow for greater storytelling opportunities, reach, and engagement on social media. Shannon O’Brien, director of editorial and social media at Wellesley College, will discuss how she and her colleagues consider story pitches, determining which stories work best as written pieces, which are best highlighted on social media (and how), and which should have a variety of components, from companion videos to Spotify playlists.  

Join this session and discover:

• A framework for thinking holistically about storytelling
• A discussion about platforms and how to reach your key audiences
• Tips for recognizing opportunities to diversify your approach

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Are you looking to generate new and qualified leads, convert leads into applicants, or diversify your application pool? 

Attend this session for a crash course on developing an effective digital marketing strategy for student recruitment. This is a session you’ll find valuable for any budget or staffing level! While most examples will center on graduate student recruitment, many tips will be relevant and transferable to undergraduate recruitment.  

You’ll learn how to:

• Determine your marketing budget and staffing abilities
• Identify your desired audience and most effective platforms
• Develop a strong lead form page with website tracking enabled
• Reiterate and refine your copy and creative for effective results

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Do you need help finding the right content that resonates with your audience? During this session, learn how to optimize social media content for various platforms. Explore why platform-specific content is crucial for effective communication and how it can help increase engagement and reach. The session will also emphasize the importance of consistency across platforms and the benefits of a data-driven approach to content strategy. Attendees will leave the session with practical tips and best practices for tailoring their graphics and copy to achieve maximum impact on each social media platform.

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Your university spends four years building a relationship with each and every student. Don’t let that love fizzle out after they get their diploma!

Social media platforms have become ideal tools for networking and building communities, making them an obvious choice for staying connected with your alumni base. Drawing from personal examples and case studies, we will explore successful social media initiatives that have strengthened alumni engagement, participation, and sentiment.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to find where social media fits into your communications mix
• How to craft compelling social media content specifically tailored to alumni audiences without burning your team (or yourself) out
• How a paid strategy can help you grow your following and reach more alumni
• How to track your success and continuously optimize your strategies and tactics
• How to avoid frustrating pitfalls and navigate the ever-changing landscape of social media with your sanity intact

This session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to cultivate a vibrant, engaged alumni community, drive positive sentiment and support your organizational goals via social media.

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This 30-minute presentation will teach you best practices for creating an engaging social media video. We’ll discuss how to pre-plan and produce, which platforms prefer certain dimensions (ex: Instagram prefers 9:16 dimension over 16:9), different shots to consider, editing styles (captions), the best ways to post so your content looks top-tier, and more!

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We all want our social media presence to be more than a glorified billboard; community management is key to building a social media presence that is engaging, authentic, and rewarding for everyone involved. We will walk through the importance of community management for any social media professional, the levels of engagement you can strive toward with your followers, and when it's okay to enter into a conversation. By drawing on lessons from the past and using current successful examples, you'll learn how Duke Alumni's social media brand transitioned from a marketing bucket blackhole to a community builder and conversation starter, which has positioned the brand, Forever Duke, as a leader in follower engagement among our peer institutions. You will also learn strategies for fitting community management into your social media management workflow, along with workflow tips for communicators who are (like most higher ed comms professionals) already doing it all and can't imagine how they could fit another task like community management into their day. We will break community management down into bite-size, medium, and heavier-lift tasks that will allow anyone to find time to manage their community. 

You'll learn: 

• The benefits of community management on social media, including how it can help you build a robust UGC stream
• How to break down community management into tasks that can easily fit into your workflow
• How to use content not just as a billboard but as a way to generate conversation and engagement

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Video, did you say video? How much will it cost, how much time will it take?

In this session, we will debunk the myths of video and show how your institution can maximize its potential on all budgets. We will combine video best practices with research to unveil what makes an EDU video pop for LinkedIn.

You’ll learn:

• How advertisers can source video from other platforms, current b-roll, and animation to create a best-in-class video with a budget.
• How are main ideas and scroll-stopping videos captured in 2 seconds?
• What nuances does LinkedIn bring to the table regarding video marketing?
• MOST IMPORTANTLY: How LinkedIn video can reduce lead costs, surge frequency, and lead to an enhanced enrollment pipeline.

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