Joshua Dodson, Web & SEO Analyst at EKU, is one of the 12 higher ed professionals who presented at the 1st Higher Ed Social Media Conference in December 2013.
While Joshua focuses on Analytics and SEO at his institution, he also implement some social media strategies in this context.
In this 3-question interview from November 2013, Joshua tells us about one of her great social media moments, his favorite social tool and shares some advice.
1) Can you share one of your great social media moments with us?
From a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, one of my greatest social media moments was tweeting an infographic I just posted and seeing it indexed in Google within 20 minutes. There is an interesting relationship between search engines and social media. While much of that relationship may not be “official,” it is still clearly there. In addition to that, I always find it exciting when a post (on Facebook, for instance), gets a lot more engagement than I expected. This helps guide our next steps.
2) What is your favorite social media tool of all time?
Personally, I am a big fan of LinkedIn for networking. However, we have had more success engaging with our students and prospective students on Facebook.
3) What advice would you give to somebody who is just starting in social media?
I would encourage people to measure results, but don’t just treat it like other marketing channels. Ensure that you do have your Goals set up in Google Analytics (inquiries, applications, donations, etc.), then look at social media’s impact. Examine the multi-channel funnels report and see where social media influences Goal Conversions. Then, recognize converting students directly through social media is not necessarily the primary purpose.
Hopefully that might come in time, but a lack of direct conversions may not be horrible. It is important to look at the bigger picture and social media’s overall impact on your objectives.
