Tiffany Broadbent Beker, Web Developer and Social Media Coordinator at William & Mary, is one of the 12 presenters of the 4th Higher Ed Social Media Conference.
In this 3-question interview, Tiffany tells us a success story, shares the most difficult parts of the job and discusses the required skills to thrive as a higher ed social media pro.
1) What’s your best social media success story?
Over the summer (an often quiet time for us on social media) our content specialist created and posted a graphic with “My favorite class at W&M was ____” to Facebook and it got over 300 comments, becoming one of our most commented-on posts ever.
Folks tagged their classmates and professors, often writing full paragraphs about their favorite class and why. Although not a groundbreaking idea, asking pointed questions has been a great method for spurring engagement and we’re now working to figure out how we can repurpose and re-share this great content.
2) What are the 2 most difficult parts of your social media job and how do you deal with them?
I currently focus on social media strategy and analytics and stepping out of the everyday to look at the big picture is always an interesting challenge.
You can easily get wrapped up in what’s going on this month, or this semester, but taking the time to step back and really look at all our channels, how they fit together with all their different audiences, their strengths and weaknesses, is a daunting task but also an intriguing challenge. Setting aside time explicitly to devote to this kind of “big thinking” has been really useful for me, whether it be hunkered down in a study carrel in our library or scheduling a brainstorming meeting with our social media team.
Similarly, not getting bogged down in all of the data available from the various social media channels is always a trick. Making sure I’m getting past “I got X likes on this post” to “What does getting X likes on this post really mean?” is something I’m always trying to keep in the forefront of my analysis.
3) What are the 2 most important skills to thrive as a social media pro in higher ed?
Being flexible and managing your time.
Despite the most well-laid plans or content calendars there will always be something that pops up that may preempt your planned content (in a good or bad way). Being able to roll with those changes quickly and gracefully is a key to succeeding in this realm. I know for many shops (including mine) social media is just one responsibility among many others, so I explicitly block off time on my calendar to work on social media tasks. This reserved time is flexible as to what it gets used for (ranging from planning the next social media user’s group meeting, to analyzing the last month’s data, to managing our student-run Instagram account) but it allows me to keep a block of time free and devoted to work on social that won’t get preempted by another meeting. It also helps me keep various social media projects and ideas at the front of my mind (by adding them as to-do’s for that block of time) so things do not get pushed off the back burner.
Follow Tiffany Broadbent Beker for a day at work on Instagram!
You’re going to love Higher Ed Experts’ #HESM Instagram Takeovers where your higher ed social media colleagues share a day in their life.
Check out Tiffany’s 1-day takeover of Higher Ed Experts’ brand new Instagram account.
A conference for Higher Ed Social Media pros & teams?
The HESM conference has become a must-attend event for social media teams in higher education looking for new ideas and best practices.
Read below what a few of your higher ed colleagues who attended the past editions of the Higher Ed Social Media Conference say about the event.