Angi Roberts, Information Services Manager at the University of Guelph, is one of the 12 presenters of the 5th Higher Ed Social Media Conference.
In this 4-question interview, Angi tells us about managing social media demands, a learning outcome, the role of video in social media strategy and chimes in on Snapchat.
1) How do you manage the demands on your time and focus inherent to social?
Developing an overall digital strategy and shaping the role for social media is essential. Developing a content strategy as a foundation for social media communications is key. By having these as a solid framework, my team is able to keep coming back to it to ensure we’re on the right track. A content strategy acts as a guide. We also have to remain flexible; sometimes our content has to shift based on what’s happening on campus or in the world. But having a plan and using Hootsuite Professional helps keep us on the right track and not overwhelmed.
2) What is the most useful thing for your social media work you’ve learned over the past 12 months?
The most useful thing I’ve learned is to not get comfy and believe I am an expert. Platforms and apps change so quickly, expectations of users change, and new tools pop up. It’s important to be prepared for continual learning.
3) What role does video play in the social media strategy of your school?
Video plays a huge role for us, especially on Facebook. We find our largest engagement occurs then. However, we don’t have anything to share because we lost it last year when Facebook shut down our account (the topic of my presentation at the conference!)
Here’s an archive (on Youtube) of one of our most successful social media videos we shared on Facebook.
4) Snapchat is still somehow controversial in higher ed. Do you think schools should invest time and resources on this platform?
100%.
This is one of our most successful communications tools with prospects. The level of engagement we can achieve through Snapchat is beyond the reach of any of our other social media platforms. If that is where your audience is, you need to be there.
If you want to communicate to a group you go to where they are. We host online chats through a chat room forum, and historically, we’d get 80-100 ‘visitors’ to the chat room.
Last year we ran Snapchat chats where students would snapchat their question and we’d answer it in Snapchat Story format (making the story out of all of the answers from the questions we received). Engagement was close to 2,000 people.
A day in the life of a higher ed social media pro: Angi Roberts
Are you a fan of social media takeovers by students or alums?
Angi Roberts took over Higher Ed Experts’ Instagram account for a day on November 2nd, 2017 as part of the Higher Ed Social Media Conference Speakers Takeovers where your higher ed social media colleagues share a day in their life.
A conference focusing on higher ed social media?
The Higher Ed Social Media Conference is a must-attend event for higher ed social media professionals and teams 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 experience.
Tags: HESM17, Higher Ed News