Social Media Toolkit

This is a social media toolkit, created for a presentation that Heather Weaver and I gave at NACA-MAT 2011.  This toolkit should be viewed within our framework of the 2 fundamental values of social media (Interact with your audience, and Share awesome content), and our Hub & Spokes approach to implementing a social media strategy.

*Updated 1/4/12

Facebook:

1. Add a ‘Like’ button to your (non-Facebook) website
2. Add a ‘Send’ button to your (non-Facebook) website – Allows users to send a private message with your URL to their friends
3. Add a Comment field to your (non-Facebook..you get the hint..) website
4. Put your Facebook Activity Feed on your website – so everybody can see what you’re up to
5. Add a Like Box to your website – similar to the ‘Like’ button but with much more information
6. Create Tag yourself handbills for live events directing people to tag themselves in pictures you will post on your page
7. Building your Facebook Presence Guide
8. Facebook Page Best Practices
9. Use Facebook Analytics to assess the success of your Page, get started easily with this guide
10. Promote your page and events with a Facebook Ad
    1. Getting Started Guide
    2. Facebook Ads Information
    3. Facebook Ads in Practice (awesome example of how, and how Well, Facebook ads work)
11. Great Facebook Apps to install on your page:
    1. Red Rover
    2. IntelliResponse
    1. Google Calendar integration
12. Use a List of Questions to engage students in a private Facebook group (i.e. for your Executive Board, Staff, etc.)
13. Create a LiveStream – this creates SUPER engagement for live events, and is pretty high-end in the power user spectrum

Twitter:

1. TWEET Acronym – Conceptualize how you should engage on Twitter
2. Getting Started Guide – “Mom, this is how Twitter works. Not just for moms.”
3. Setting up a Twitter Stream widget for your website
4. How Saved Searches work
5. Guide to using Twitter in Student Affairs – by Ed Cabellon
6. Hashtags
   1. Everything you need to know about hashtags
   2. How to create one
7. Example to build Twitter engagement: Northeastern University posts an image a week and requests captions (here’s one of my favorites)

Making Twitter & Facebook et al. Play Nice Together:

1. Hootsuite – What it is, how to use it, and when it is appropriate

URL Shortening Service:

1. Bit.ly – Quick, easy, and free URL shortening with incredibly powerful analytics built in

Email Newsletter Info: (email is NOT dead..yet..)

1. Email Marketing field guide – Gets kind of intense with coding and HTML language, but still has lots of great tips
2. Common Rookie Mistakes

FourSquare:

1. Specifically for Universities
2. Example of Challenges and Badges, set up for Tufts University

Blogging:

1. First steps for WordPress – Pretty much applicable to any blogging service
2. Getting Started with your WordPress Blog

Text Messaging Service:

1. How to set up a push-notification service with Twitter Fast Follow – send out messages to subscribers
2. Receiving texts is more advanced – use Google Voice (no link because I need to write an entire post on that one subject..coming soon..)

Online Contests:

1. These should spark some awesome brainstorms: Ticket Giveaways (free stuff), Trivia, Retweet/Like Entry contests
2. The team over at Butler University in Indianapolis have really mastered this (VP Levester Johnson, and his social media specialist Brandon VanHook) with giveaways and competitions! They’re always cooking up something new so follow all of their channels (here’s a glimpse)
3. Overarching strategy
4. Facebook Regulations
5. One example of a service that specializes in doing this for you

QR Codes:

1. Free, no-strings-attached creation service
2. Advanced examples and services

Broad Scope:

1. Social Media Policies from all over the place, I recommend starting at the government agencies site which links to a few different university policies, though we definitely aren’t the most cutting edge field in this area so definitely see what others are up to
2. How SwiftKick (an online engagement MASTERMINDS) manages their Social Media campaigns
3. Top 10 Dragonfly Tips, from The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith (2010)
4. List of ALL social media platforms
5. Awesome ideas and resources from #satechBOS
6. Promoting your Social Media presence with catchy physical handbills