Higher Ed Experts

Course fee:$2400 $1000 (reflecting a 58% discount for a limited time)
February 6 – April 1st, 2012: sold out
June 19 – August 12, 2012
REGISTER NOW!
Only 10 seats left!

• All the course materials (written lectures, readings, videos, quizzes, 8 graded discussions, 8 graded assignments)
• Unlimited questions related to the course to the instructor via the “Ask the Prof” discussion board during the 8-week session
• Hard-copy OR Kindle version of the textbook: Clout by Colleen Jones
• Access to the class discussion board and course materials for 1 year
• Higher Ed Experts Digital Certificate upon completion of the course with a minimum final grade of 80%

Week 1 – Social Media Marketing Strategy: Back to Basics

Social media marketing goes far beyond the traditional campaign approach. While campaigns can ignite interest, raise awareness and start conversations, the true power of social media resides in the relationships – between an institution and its target audiences – created and nurtured by sustained social media programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the building components of a social media marketing strategy
• Discuss the differences between traditional and social media practices

Week 2 – Rules of engagement in Social Media

Social media is an exciting playground for higher ed marketers. While creativity and innovation are the main characteristics of this brand new marketing territory, social media shouldn’t be approached as a free-for-all. Terms of services, copyrights laws, privacy considerations and community etiquette all compose the unwritten – yet crucial to success – rules of engagement.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the most relevant TOS components of the main social media platforms for higher ed marketers
• Define guidelines to assure compliance with TOS and copyright laws in social media campaigns
• Consider issues related to privacy considerations in social media
• Identify the dos and don’ts of social media interactions in a given online community through monitoring and listening

Week 3 – Breaking through the noise

With its low-barrier to entry for higher ed marketers and ease of use for end users, social media has made the Web a more and more crowded place. As a result, social media initiatives are facing the new (yet somehow) traditional challenge of breaking through the noise. By assessing the state of your institution’s social media landscape, identifying its influencers and finding its important themes and topics, it’s possible to build a solid foundation for a successful social media campaign.

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate the competitive state of the social media landscape for your institution
• Identify influencers and advocates along with winning tactics to pique their interest
• Research and list the top themes and topics on social media for a given segment of your social media landscape.
• Create the strategic part of a social media campaign plan

Week 4 – What does social media campaign success look like?

When social media campaigns are the tactical outcomes of a sound strategy, success doesn’t look like a popularity contest. Campaigns can only be deemed successful if their specific key performance indicators are tied to measurable institutional or departmental outcomes. Defining the success metrics before designing the campaign itself and adopting a systematic-tracking approach will lead to effective performance measurement and planning.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the social media objectives of your institution, college, department or office and select key performance indicators to determine success or failure
• Discuss best practices in measuring micro and macro conversions on the Web.

Week 5 – Being strategic at the tactical level

Social media by nature can be overwhelming as it unleashed crowds craving for individualized interactions and constant attention. The key to long-lasting, meaningful and profitable relationships lies in a strategic approach to content, the real currency in the social media world. Before writing any tweet, publishing any blog post or shooting a video, it’s crucial to plan the complete content life cycle that will fuel your campaigns while making them scalable and sustainable.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop the campaign plan and schedule
• Create an editorial and conversation calendar

Week 6 – Writing for the Web and Social Media

With the explosion of social media and new technologies, most writing and reading now happen online. That’s the reasons why writing for the Web – and by extension for different social media platforms has become such an important skill. Putting aside the principles and rules of academic or even traditional business writing, it’s important to conquer the new white (digital) page.

Learning Objectives:

• Write marketing messages for different social media platforms following format requirements and best practices
• Select and define appropriate angles, voice, tone and format of messages and interactions
• Create writing and style guidelines for social media campaigns

Week 7 – Social media advertising

Advertising on social media platform has become a direct rival of advertising on search engine. While the jury is still out in terms of ROI, social media advertising can help jump start or sustain campaigns. We will explore the different offering and discuss strategies to determine the value of social media advertising.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the pros and cons of social media advertising as part of the social media mix
• Evaluate the different social advertising platforms
• Create an advertising plan for a specific goal and budget.

Week 8 – Social media as part of an Integrated Marketing Strategy

Social media doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Even if most target audiences spend more and more of their time on social media platforms, nobody has been totally digitalized yet. That’s why successful campaigns should not be limited to social media – even online. Email, mobile, print and traditional media-buy or PR will often help build momentum and success.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify best practices for integrated marketing campaigns
• Discuss the pros and cons of email marketing when used with social media initiatives