Mining Social Media Data July 16, 2015
Tim Ponisciak
• Director of Graduate Alumni Relations • Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame • 11 years in marketing, annual giving and alumni relations • MBA from Notre Dame
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Agenda • Current Social Media Landscape • Finding, Listening and Gathering Alumni Information • Creating Your Own Social Media Buzz • Identifying Trends • Q&A
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CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE Page 3
Current Social Media Landscape Facebook: 1.4 billion users, 5 billion pieces of content shared daily (2%) Twitter: 288 million users (26%) LinkedIn: 340 million users (54%) Pinterest:70 million users (111%) Instagram: 300 million users (64%) Google Plus: 300 million users (16%) Snapchat: 200 million users (55%) Percentage indicates growth from 2013 to 2014 *http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/25/tumblr-overtakes-instagram-as-fastest-growing-social-platform-snapchat-is-the-fastestgrowing-app/
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Current Social Media Landscape - Corporations Social media being used to: • Determine customer preferences • Create unique content
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Key Questions for Higher Ed • How can social media be used to enhance what we know about our alumni? • What types of information do our alumni most want to hear about from their alma mater? • How can social media be leveraged to not only keep alumni connected, but to amplify alumni interest in one’s school and to increase giving?
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FINDING, LISTENING AND GATHERING INFORMATION Page 7
Finding Alumni on Social Media – Donor Information – New Board Members – Matching Gift Volunteers
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Enriching Your Donor’s Profile LinkedIn Profile Data • • • • •
Company Industry Title Location Email
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Finding Potential Board Members Utilize LinkedIn Advanced Search
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Finding Potential Board Members Results:
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Searching for Matching Gifts Volunteers
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Searching for Matching Gifts Volunteers Results:
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Listening to Alumni #EKUStrong • Feedback from alumni • Creation of alumni contact information update campaign • Leverage alumni passion on social media • Ask “Why is this question being asked?”
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Poll #1: Did your school have a giving day last year? •Yes •No •No, but we are planning one for the upcoming fiscal year
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Gathering Alumni Information Giving Day Challenges • ONU: Various hourly challenges that encouraged alumni interaction on Twitter
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Giving Day Challenges
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Giving Day Challenges • Allows university to increase number of followers • Provides insights into where alumni interests lie
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Informing Future Annual Giving Strategy Ask questions about your school that can help you with future fundraising campaigns • Beloved places on campus • Favorite professors • Best campus traditions
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Poll #2: Do you have a formal social media ambassador program? • Yes, we have a student ambassador team • Yes, we have an alumni ambassador team • No, we do not
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BUILDING MOMENTUM ON SOCIAL MEDIA Page 21
Social Media Ambassadors • RIT – Volunteer program for alumni to spread school messages, including fundraising • American – Alumni ambassadors volunteer to disseminate and generate content for alumni association social media platforms • Babson – Students paid to be the “online tour guides” of Babson. Audience includes prospective students, parents, friends and alumni
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Allegheny College Alumni Ambassadors
• Regularly share content from College social media accounts that interest them and which they believe would resonate with alumni in their social networks. • Promote time sensitive initiatives and programs. These may include major campus events, fundraising campaigns, and admissions related information.
http://sites.allegheny.edu/web/social-media-ambassadors/ Page 23
Allegheny College Alumni Ambassadors
• Time commitment • Upfront goals • List of official hashtags
http://sites.allegheny.edu/web/social-media-ambassadors/ Page 24
Allegheny College Alumni Ambassadors
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Facebook Ads • Affordable • Customizable • Not a replacement for email or direct mail • Direct users to your Facebook page or giving page
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Targeting Your Facebook Ad • Visitors of your general school page or online donation form page • Upload custom email list: nondonors, lybunts, recognition society members • Those who have liked your Facebook page
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Boosting Your Posts
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IDENTIFYING TRENDS
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Our Social Media Focus – College of Business related information – Notre Dame related content – Business related articles of interest
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Poll #3: How far ahead do you plan your social media posts? • No planning, we post what is topical each day • 1 week, and adapt when necessary • 2 weeks or more, with flexibility to adapt when necessary
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How We Talk • Odd fact – unique news story • Invitation • Well wishes • Excitement
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The Approach • Break down our Facebook posts by topic • Break down our posts by tone • See if we can determine any particular types of posts that are most appealing to our alumni, so we can create an informed social media plan for the future • Inform other areas of our work based off of our findings
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Our Typical Social Media Topics • College of Business • Notre Dame • Football • Alumni Info • Fundraising • General business
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Breakdown of Facebook Post Topics
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Our Typical Social Media Tones • Congratulatory/ Well Wishes • Fun • Informative • Nostalgic/ Student Life • Questioning • Reminder
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Breakdown of Facebook Post Tones
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Sorting Everything Out
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Sorting Everything Out
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Top Bit.ly Clicks Rank
Link Type
Topic
Tone
1
Field & Field – Alumna startup
Alumni
Informative
2
Chicago Alumni Reception
Alumni
Reminder
3
Want a Happy Office? Article featuring Professor
College of Business
Informative
4
Student startup wins awards at competition
College of Business
Informative
5
Mendoza Dialogues video – CIO Scott Malpass
College of Business
Informative
6
ND launches first open online courses
Notre Dame
Informative
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Informing Decisions
• Highlighting video featuring Chief Investment Officer in most recent recognition societies newsletter • Next video to be created will focus on entrepreneurship • Focusing on online courses currently available
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How does this help formulate social media strategy? • Ensure we have photos and videos of events • Focus more on messages about the College of Business, and less on general business articles • Plan each week to have: 2-3 College of Business posts, one post that is either football or ND related, and then fill in with events and reminders as appropriate • Find more news to make people feel proud to be a part of our College
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PRE-WEBINAR SURVEY
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Survey Summary • Types of pages • 26 alumni • 12 institution • 4 giving • Alumni pages • Fans per Alumni – 5%
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Topics for Top Posts
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Topics for Recent Posts
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Tones for Top Posts
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Tones for Recent Posts
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Westminster Schools
Topic: Faculty Tone: Congratulatory/Well Wishing Page 49
NC State Recent Grads
Topic: Athletics Tone: Informative Page 50
Del Mar College Alumni Association
Topic: Local Tone: Fun
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UIS (University of Illinois Springfield) Giving
Topic: Fundraising Tone: Persuasive
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James Madison University
Topic: Holiday Tone: Congratulatory/Well Wishing Page 53
Top Words
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Key Takeaways • Don’t restrict yourself to data in your database • Listen to your alumni on social media, and be nimble in your response • Don’t just answer alumni questions, figure out why they are asking in the first place • Utilize Facebook/Twitter to ask for feedback from alumni to inform future campaigns • Analyze past social media posts to determine what topics and tones appeal to alumni and will get your alumni interacting with you and with each other Page 55
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