Facebook is cracking down on the Boogaloo movement.
On Tuesday, the social media giant announced that it was classifying a network on its platform associated with the boogaloo movement as a “dangerous organization.” As a result, this network has been banned from the platform.
The Boogaloo boys, as members are often referred, are a far right libertarian extremist movement seeking to incite a civil war in the U.S.
In a statement, Facebook said that it removed 220 Facebook accounts, 106 Facebook Groups, 28 Facebook Pages, and 95 Instagram accounts associated with the Boogaloo movement. The social network also removed 400 additional groups and 100 more pages that it said hosted content similar to that of the banned Boogaloo accounts. Read more...
The start of the new decade brought on a whole new set of challenges for social media managers. Between COVID-19 and the growing movements for racial equality worldwide, social media managers have had a lot on their plates and left many to wonder, “Does what we do matter? Does social media marketing matter?”
Does what we do matter?
Not does it build brands.
Not does it generate leads.
Not is it customer service.
Does. It. Matter?
— Jenny Wear A Mask Kosek (@JennyLovsGov) June 17, 2020
The answer is yes, for a myriad of reasons.
Social media managers’ skills and responsibilities are essential
Raise your hand if you’ve had a family member, friend or colleague underestimate your responsibilities and assume your job in social is fun and easy 24/7.
It’s true that social can be really enjoyable, but social media management is much more than that. Social media managers are creators, analysts, community moderators, digital strategists, writers, the list goes on. The many talents and skills they have are critical in supporting overall marketing goals. But you already know that.
A social media manager’s job is to provide expertise, build strategy, craft engaging content, and decide if that content fits into the current overall conversation on social media–not to just blindly post when someone says “post this.”
What you might not know is that 70% of consumers say it’s important for brands to take a stand on social, and 66% of that group say it’s because they believe brands can create real change. Behind those brands taking a stand are the social media managers crafting the messaging, fielding the feedback both good and bad, and answering hard questions. They play a key role in helping brands use their platforms to stand up for their values and share important messages with whoever needs to hear them.
That’s not to say that if your brand isn’t taking a stand, your job isn’t important. If you spend your days connecting with your audience, answering hard questions (whether they’re about a stance, customer service or a community issue), developing new creative approaches, you’re helping move something forward. The knowledge and experience you’ve gained from social can be used as the fuel to build a brand people love and look to during trying times.
Social media managers are “digital bodyguards” for your brand
Unlike many other marketing disciplines, social media managers listen and talk to their audience every day, which is why marketing leaders should look to you for the voice of the customer. You know firsthand what concerns are on your audience’s minds, the expectations they have of your brand and how the current state of the world is affecting them. Be transparent with leadership about what’s happening. Let them know what people are angry about and what you want to do to help.
Social Media Managers, want to be a better ally?
Have conversations with leadership about allowing your brand to be more vocal in times like this.
Bring data, let them know how outraged and hurt your audience is. Remind them that this is what comes with being more "diverse."
Unfortunately, not every social media manager has the final say about what their brand does or does not post. Many brands have joined conversations about Black Lives Matter, voicing their support or announcing contributions to the cause, some garnering praise, while others get called out for performative allyship. On the flip side, some brands have simply chosen silence. In both scenarios, social media managers become the “digital bodyguards” of brands.
Social media managers are the digital bodyguards of your company. They take all the hits for your brand, from the abuse of drive-by trolls to meaningful backlash when your company makes a bad decision.
As hard as it might be, you need to share how the public responds with your leaders. If your audience demands change and action, communicate that. You have a chance to be an advocate for your followers, shake things up and highlight the ways your company can make change from within. Use social to gather industry intel and other brand examples to build your case, then report back to the people who are making final decisions or developing messaging for your brand.
Social media managers can make an impact both inside and outside their organizations
If 2020 has confirmed one thing, it’s that social media is a major piece of the average person’s news diet and fuels the circulation and amplification of major stories as they develop. Many people will look to your brands for community news and updates. This is a chance to build trust with your audience, educate them and let the human side of your brand shine through.
It’s not just government social media managers who can do this. Spending all your time on social media means you’re most likely a news-absorbing machine. You constantly dig through trending topics and public discussion so you can do your job well. Consider how you can bring that knowledge into your strategy and turn it into education for your followers.
Ben & Jerry’s is one of the standout brands actively advocating for racial and cultural equality. While you’ll still see an occasional plug for a new ice cream flavor, they’ve continued to use their platform to educate their followers on historic injustices or cultural movements, while still serving it in a way that’s relevant to their brand and industry.
There’s something special about the folks who make our delicious cookie dough chunks: Many of them are refugees who came to the US in search of a sweeter life, and we’re proud they’re part of the Ben & Jerry’s story. Learn more: https://t.co/GrIl8AqJoO#WorldRefugeeDaypic.twitter.com/nOdH74QoYC
Not every social team has the same resources or freedom to follow in Ben & Jerry’s footsteps, but if you’re inspired, it’s worth a conversation with leadership about how you might incorporate more meaningful resources into your brand’s content.
Social media managers, you are not your brand
It’s easy to slip into an existential crisis while the world goes through crises that feel out of control. As we continue to ride the turbulent waves of 2020, remember this: you are not your brand. Your worth is not measured by the decisions your brand makes. If leadership directs you to post something that doesn’t go over well or chooses to take a path you’ve warned will get social media backlash, that’s not on you.
When you finally close your laptop or put down your phone and disconnect from work at the end of the day, it’s your personal happiness, values and fulfillment that matter most.
Social media managers: We see you, we hear you, we appreciate you.
Coffee is the start of the day for so many. Meaning coffee brands have a pretty big target audience. Being able to recreate the positive experience those people have at their regular coffee shop on social is a unique accomplishment. And that just so happens to be the mission of Philz Coffee, according to Jolie Meschi, Philz’s Marketing Communications Manager.
“One of the things I love most about my job is that I get to carry the interactions that our customers have in-store, online.”
Jolie has been with the company for six years and throughout that time has been responsible for running the coffee chain’s social platforms, influencer strategy and PR. She’s even dabbled in the brand’s events management. Across its three main social channels, Philz has a combined following of just over a hundred thousand. Those hundred thousand online coffee-lovers are reflective of close to 60 stores in over 50 communities.
“If you can’t connect with people face-to-face, the next best thing is to be on devices where they are,” Jolie said. “It allows us to bridge that gap and reach those customers anywhere.”
As Philz has grown and expanded into new markets, the importance of social media marketing has become a vital part of its business. Even more so during the pandemic. With that comes the task of demonstrating social’s value as an arm of marketing to the rest of the company. It’s a task that Jolie welcomes.
“Social media has become the go-to spot for customers to give us feedback, whether they realize it or not,” she said. “Showing people how you can create authentic relationships through engaging posts or sharing content that tells the story of the brand, then showing the impact it’s having on our customers is really important.”
Here’s a look at three key ways Jolie is social’s biggest champion within her organization.
1. Build trust across the business
Building trust is an important part of any relationship. For social media managers, it means creating contact points with different departments across your organization. According to Sprout data, 47% of all social marketers, from interns to the C-suite, say developing a strategy that supports their organization’s goals is their number one challenge. That may be due in part to a lack of trust and close working relationships within organizations.
Luckily, for Jolie that’s not the case. While companies across the world are adjusting to remote collaboration, trust-building was already a pretty natural thing for the team at Philz.
“It’s in our culture,” Jolie said. “It’s trying to create contact points throughout the week, throughout the day, with different departments, whether it’s our recruiting team to check in on what they need from us just so that they understand it’s a revolving door. I’m always here to help them with their needs.”
Because cross-collaborative relationships are such a normalized part of the culture, it’s easy for Jolie to schedule consistent, weekly meetings to share feedback and dive into what’s working (and what’s not) on every front of the business.
“I definitely feel like I get more buy-in when I have face time and one-on-one conversations and relationships with people in other departments,” Jolie said.
The strong working relationships mean team members feel comfortable being a partner to her.
“You’d be surprised how many people I get emails from saying, ‘Hey, do you want to post this on social?’ Or, ‘Hey, I’m speaking at this event in case anybody’s interested in learning about that on social!’” she said. “It makes my job a lot easier when people are engaged.”
Jolie discovered another benefit by embracing a less orthodox approach to fostering trust between team members, prior to pandemic.
“Every quarter we actually get to work on bar with our baristas,” she explains. “It really builds trust across all levels of the company, and also kind of levels the playing field.”
They also made it a habit to stay up to date on the in-store experience in order to adjust. Taking their laptops into the cafe, working from any shop they live near—that kind of connection behind the scenes is reflected in front of their customers. With a grassroots, personalized approach to marketing, Philz has become the fun environment that coffee-lovers know the brand to be. Now it’s up to Jolie to ensure that same environment remains on social, despite the limitations of a post-COVID world.
Try this:Scheduling consistent touch bases is one way to communicate. But fostering an open workflow creates the environment a company needs to go beyond consistency and build trust. If you have brick and mortar stores, spend time with the people behind your in-store experience. Even if operations are different now, there’s still valuable insight to gain in order to build the kind of community and understanding that informs strategy.
2. Share what success looks like
A natural extension of the cross-collaborative environment Jolie has built is communicating insights more broadly. Her social team of two often shares out reporting on social, email and all digital efforts. And at Philz, success is all about progress.
“It can be difficult in the retail coffee space to find a benchmark of good social metrics,” Jolie says. “Obviously, we love to see high engagement, we love to see customers commenting, saving, sharing posts. But to really prove that we’re moving the needle on our end, we usually benchmark against ourselves.”
With that focus in mind, she makes it a point to tie back every win to hard sales in the store so she can help others involved in the work visualize if and how they’ve moved the needle. This way, when her team shares results, they’re able to celebrate wins as a company.
“At the end of the campaign, we’ll do a wrap-up,” she explained. “We’ll include customer highlights, then hard data and how it all compares to a similar campaign or the last campaign we did.”
Data shows that 39% of marketers struggle to demonstrate the importance of social media marketing to the rest of their organization. The numbers show that even in a time when social is the most accessible and most engaged with channel where consumers reach brands, its value is downplayed because of the historical disconnect between social and bottom-line business metrics. Jolie conquers that challenge at Philz by sharing insights regularly and widely.
She admits it can be overwhelming to maintain a regular cadence for breaking down campaign data and sharing it out. But the environment of open communication at Philz makes it easier. Sharing social results went along with other project update schedules their team had in place in different departments.
“There’s usually a kickoff meeting, check-in meetings, then a wrap-up meeting,” she said. “So we naturally followed the cadence that way. But also tactically, it’s an easier way to digest data.”
Try this: When you wrap each campaign, take all your social metrics and compare that to historical sales. Draw correlations where you’re able in order to tie results back to hard sales in the store, for example. Then set a quarterly, cross-functional meeting to share those insights, not only informing but educating other members of your team.
3. Tap social for innovation
There’s no feedback forum more honest than social media. It’s where consumers refuse to hold back.
“They assume that somebody isn’t on the other side looking at it,” Jolie says. “So it’s really satisfying to respond to somebody like that, in a positive, courteous way. They’ll immediately change their tone and attitude because they realize there is a human there that actually cares.”
That’s all people ever really want, right? To be heard. Which makes it extra satisfying to Jolie when they’re able to gather social feedback and turn it around into action items for Philz.
“One of the biggest things that has come from a collection of social media feedback is that we have a slow-down coffee process, and the wait time can be a bit longer than a normal coffee shop,” Jolie explains. “We heard all about it on social—people running late, missing buses, missing trains. When we were trying to figure out ways to innovate and make ourselves faster and more accessible to all people, that really helped birth our mobile app.”
Listening to your community on social helps you drive innovation and enables companies to think outside of their own perspective. It not only gives you the opportunity to repair rifts in your relationships with customers, but drives social media’s impact on business. Jolie’s mobile app example illustrates how powerful social is in product development and improvement.
During the pandemic, while many companies grapple with how to leverage social to stay connected, Philz found the perfect way to meet coffee-lovers where they are. The team launched an IGTV series called “Philz At Home,” where team members show how they uniquely prepare coffee at home, continuing to inspire customers and meet them where they are.
Try this:Aligning your brand with consumer needs in a two-step process. Start by meeting with team members to understand their goals and department needs. Then pass social feedback on to those team members and say, “Hey, you’re trying to solve for X and I’ve heard a few people on social talking about this. Would you like me to share those insights with you?” Invite social into those projects and make its value intrinsic to product and marketing development.
How will you champion the influence of social?
It’s clear that the secret ingredient to championing social at Philz is trust. From team members to customers, Jolie understands that building relationships is a slow, but rewarding process (kind of like great coffee).
Her story comes down to the importance of companies embracing social media and a social-first environment. She wears many hats, taking her time to comb through data, listen to her customers and communicate with her peers, but every step of the way she and her team have found balance in work, trust and life.
The results aren’t just happy coffee lovers. The result is getting to see social, and the powerful insights it provides, take center stage.
To connect with other social marketers who are always on, join our Facebook groups, The Social Marketers’ Exchange or The Agency Exchange. And share with us if you’re planning to try any of these tips.
They actually have tons of other tools. Some you may have heard of, but I bet you don’t use them.
And today I am going to show you how you can build links using Google Alerts.
What is Google Alerts?
As the saying goes, if it isn’t on Google, it doesn’t exist.
Google is the most popular search engine in the world. Their database contains hundreds of billions of web pages and is over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size.
Because of their massive size, they are able to crawl web pages more frequently than any SEO tool including my own, Ubersuggest. This is precisely why you want to start using Google Alerts to build links.
So, what is Google Alerts?
As I mentioned above, they have a bigger database of web pages than any other link building or SEO tool. So, you’ll want to use their database to find easy link opportunities and ideally without wasting time digging through billions or even thousands of web pages.
Google Alerts allows you to create notifications on any subject, topic, or keyword.
So, when a new web page talks about anything that could be an easy link opportunity, you’ll get notified in an email.
Just like this one…
So, let’s set it all up step by step so you can get some backlinks.
You’ll see a screen that looks like this (make sure you sign in at the top right).
I want you to type in your domain name without the www or the https part.
In my case, I would type in: neilpatel.com
You may see an alert preview like the one above, but if you have a newer site you probably won’t see any results, which is fine.
Then I want you to click on the “Show Options” link next to the “Create Alert” button.
Your settings should match mine:
How often – at most once a day
Sources – Blogs, Web (select those 2 options, you don’t want news as an option as it tends to create more irrelevant results and we’ve found that it is harder to get news sites to link back to you)
Language – English (or the language you are targeting)
Region – any region (or you can select the country you are targeting although I recommend picking “any region”)
How many – all results
Deliver to – should be your email.
And then click “Create Alert.”
Up to once a day, you’ll get an email with a list of pages that mentions your website or domain.
I want you to repeat the process and create an alert for the following items:
Your domain – you should have just done this.
Brand name – in my case I would create an alert for “Neil Patel.”
Product names – if you are selling any services or products you can create an alert around that. In my case, I would create an alert for “Ubersuggest.”
Industry terms – create alerts for anything related to your industry. When people are talking about your space, it is an easy link opportunity. In my case, I would create alerts for the terms: digital marketing, online marketing, and SEO.
Your email address – create an alert anytime someone gives out your email. Again, another easy link opportunity.
Here’s what mine looks like:
You’ll also notice for all of my two-word phrases I have quotation marks around them.
For example, I would not create an alert for: Neil Patel
But, I would create an alert for: “Neil Patel”
The reason being is that alerts for two-word phrases without quotes aren’t as relevant. For example, here are some alerts from the term: online marketing.
When I use quotes, here are the results.
See the difference?
Getting links
Now that you have alerts set up, it is time to get links.
Keep in mind that when you get an alert email, someone could have already linked to you. So, not every alert will be a link building opportunity, but many will be.
Typically, more than half will be opportunities.
Depending on the alert type, some will be easier than others. So, let’s go over how to convert each opportunity into a link.
Your domain
You’ll find that a good portion of the mentions of your domain will contain a link back to your site.
For those, you don’t have to do anything as you’ve already got a link. 🙂
For the ones that aren’t linking to you, I want you to send the following email to the webmaster…
Subject: Did you make a mistake?
Hey [insert first name],
First off, I just wanted to say thanks for mentioning [insert your domain] in this article [insert a link to the URL that mentions your domain].
I know you are busy so I will just cut to the chase.
Would you mind hotlinking my domain to my website? I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but that extra traffic really helps small companies like mine.
Cheers,
[insert your name]
PS:Let me know if I can do anything for you.
Brand name
When it comes to brand names, it is a 50/50 shot. Roughly half the people will link to you when they mention your brand and the other half won’t.
For the ones that didn’t, send them this email:
Subject: You forgot to do this
Hey [insert first name],
I’m flattered.
Thank you for mentioning [insert your brand name] in your article on [insert the title of their article].
[insert the URL of their article]
You really made my day with that.
Again, thank you!
I feel bad doing this because you already mentioned us, but it would mean the world to me if you also linked our name to our site.
Would you mind doing that?
Sorry to bug you.
[insert your name]
PS:Let me know if I can do anything for you.
Product names
With product names, usually 70% to 80% of the websites will be linking back to you and the rest not. For the ones that don’t, send them an email similar to this:
Subject: Did you mean to do this?
Hey [insert their first name],
I just wanted to take a minute to tell you how much I appreciate that you mentioned [insert your brand name] here [insert the URL of the webpage that mentions your product].
Seriously, thank you!
Now, I feel bad doing this, but would you mind hotlinking [insert your product name] to this page on our website where people can find the product [insert the URL on your site that covers the product]?
Sorry to bug you.
And again, thank you for mentioning us. It really means a lot.
[insert your name]
PS:Let me know if I can do anything for you.
Your email address
Now this one is rare as most people won’t be publishing your email address.
And when they do, they usually aren’t linking to you.
If you try to get them to link the email address, you will find it hard. But what’s easier is to get them to remove your email address and link to your contact page instead.
Here’s the email template I use for this.
Subject: Privacy issue
Hey [insert their first name],
I noticed you mentioned our email address, [insert your email address], on this page [insert the page they mentioned your email on].
Would you mind mentioning and linking to our contact page instead [insert your contact page URL]?
For privacy reasons, I would rather have people get in touch with us through that page instead of our email.
Thanks for your time.
[insert your name]
You also notice that in this template I didn’t include the PS at the bottom. The PS typically helps boost your success ratio, but when it comes to this email, you want to be a bit more firm as it is related to your privacy.
You ideally want the link and fewer people sharing your email because then you’ll have to deal with a ton of spam messages.
Industry terms
In almost all cases, alerts that contain industry terms won’t be linking to you. And this group will also be the largest number of results you get with each alert email.
You’ll have to go through each alert and look at the context of the web page.
If they are talking about something that you have already covered on your website and did more in-depth than they have, there is a good chance you can convince them to link to you.
For example, if there is an article about SEO and they mention how you need to build links, but they don’t go into how to build links, I would email the site owner pointing to this article as it breaks down how to build links.
Here is the type of email I would send:
Subject: Some feedback for you
Hey [insert their first name],
Love your article on [insert the topic of their article] [insert the URL of their article].
I just have one piece of feedback for you (hope you don’t get offended), but you mention [insert the subject they mention that you go more in-depth on within your own site], but you didn’t go too in-depth on it.
I think if you adjusted that it would provide a lot more value to your readers.
Or if you don’t have the time to, I already have an article on it here [insert the URL on your site where you go in-depth on that topic] that you could just link to.
Let me know your thoughts.
[insert your name]
PS:Let me know if I can do anything for you.
How do I get in touch?
Now that you know what kind of emails to send depending on the alert you receive, you’ll have to, of course, get in touch with the site owner.
So how do you find their email address?
Well, the simplest way is to go to their contact page and see if their email is there or if they have a contact form.
You can also check out their terms of service or privacy policy.
Another option is to use tools like Hunter. Just type in a domain name into Hunter and you’ll see a list of people you can contact.
Their free plan allows 50 requests per month, which should be enough to get you started.
Conclusion
Google Alerts is an easy way to build links so I would start with that.
What’s beautiful about it is that you’ll get notified of opportunities. This will save you a lot of time.
And if you find yourself with a bit of extra time, I recommend one more strategy to build links.
Once you hit “search” you’ll see a report that looks something like this:
These are all of the websites linking to your competition. What’s interesting about this list is that it is sorted.
The results at the top have more authority, in which they typically boost SEO rankings more than the ones at the bottom of the list.
You’ll want to go through the list, click on each site, and see if it makes sense to reach out to that website and ask them to link to you.
Typically, if you have similar content to your competition that is more thorough, it’s possible to convince someone to link to you. You’ll have to send them emails like the one below…
Hey [insert their first name],
Question for you…
How do you think it makes you look to your readers when you link to another site that doesn’t really help them?
It kind of makes you look bad and maybe even lose a little bit of trust with your readers, right?
In this article [insert the URL on their site], you link out to [insert the competition’s URL].
The article you are linking to doesn’t cover [insert the areas the competition missed].
I actually have an article [insert your article URL] that covers [insert what you cover that the competition doesn’t and why it benefits readers more].
If you aren’t interested in linking to us no worries. I just know that you care about your readers and you want to do the best for them.
Cheers,
[insert your name]
PS:Let me know if I can do anything for you.
If you follow the steps above, you’ll start building links.
It isn’t that hard and you can do it. You just have to be willing to put in the time and not get discouraged if you send out a handful of emails and no one links back to you.
Just think of your email as a sales pitch and it may not be perfect the first time… so you may have to modify and adjust it.
If you have any questions on the steps or are confused about anything, just leave a comment below.
The Indian government banned TikTok, which is extremely popular in the country, for alleged privacy violations and threatening its "sovereignty."
On Monday, the government of India announced the banning of 59 apps — including TikTok — for "[engaging] in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order." TikTok, notably, is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, and over the past year has faced accusations of violating its users' privacy.
While there are privacy-related reasons to be concerned about TikTok, and many other apps for that matter, this latest ban follows on the heels of a deadly border clash between Indian and Chinese military forces earlier this month that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. Read more...
These days, you’d be hard pressed to find a university or higher education institution without a presence on social media. Regardless of which platform universities choose, social media enables universities to cultivate a sense of community for students and to engage with their alumni base.
And though some may view social as little more than an awareness play, the reality is social can support higher education institutions at all stages of their marketing funnel. With a robust social strategy, universities can strengthen their international profile, influence prospective students’ decisions and turn graduates, employees and industry partners into staunch advocates.
In this article, we’ll break down what the university marketing funnel looks like and how your social strategy supports each stage of the funnel. We’ll hear from expert social marketer, Rob Brooks, who will show us how his team puts this strategy into practice for The University of Newcastle, Australia.
Social supports all stages of the marketing funnel
When it comes to aligning your social strategy with your marketing funnel, Rob recommends identifying what you hope to achieve at each stage of the funnel and how social can support those goals.
At the awareness stage, one primary goal for The University of Newcastle centers around recruitment. Here, Rob’s team is focused on getting their university’s name in front of as many prospective students as possible and strengthening their brand on social. Consider what social platforms are most popular among high school students and what content will resonate strongest with students starting to think about university.
As students move into the consideration stage, how might marketers use social media to serve up content that encourages prospects to ask for more information? Sharing content like a glimpse at the different types of learning opportunities available to students can entice prospects to learn more about your offerings.
Once you have your audience’s attention, using social to highlight your university’s unique selling points can help lead students through to the decision stage of the funnel. Rob’s team, for example, uses social to showcase what makes the University of Newcastle different from other universities, like the values of the institution and the location of the campuses.
Moving into the adoption stage, this is where universities can leverage social to support students as they enroll and settle into university life. Universities, for example, can use social to educate students on important dates for class registration or highlight lesser known certificates across a range of disciplines.
Finally, consider the role of social media in supporting advocacy. The University of Newcastle has an alumni network of over 148,000 former students and has more than 9,000 staff. As another way of engaging their audience, Rob’s team features current students, staff and alumni to highlight the lifestyle and career opportunities which come from being part of the university community.
👷 💪 "I realised there was so much power in engineering… to really change the world." Alum @RennyChivunga saw first-hand how the deterioration of water systems in Zimbabwe impacted lives. Now she's determined to inspire change.@WES1919#INWED20https://t.co/47KRNmWZ0y
— University of Newcastle (@Uni_Newcastle) June 22, 2020
Social data is the key to success
In order for your full-funnel marketing strategy to be successful, every social team needs to lean on their data.
For Rob, social data is what enables his team to connect their work to a specific business outcome and to act as strategic advisors to stakeholders across the university. And to ensure there’s a clear tie between social performance and business outcomes, there are several social metrics Rob’s team uses to measure performance at various stages of the marketing funnel. In the awareness stage, they are looking at metrics like impressions and follower growth. For the consideration stage, metrics like link clicks matter most while conversion metrics support the university’s goals at the decision stage.
With Sprout Social’s analytics offerings, social teams are empowered to quickly aggregate social data and create reports filled with insights like historical performance data and campaign analysis. In addition to maintaining the big picture of all the university’s social platforms, Rob is also able to measure his team’s performance and gather data around things like task completion and customer care response times.
Above all, data helps social teams provide context around why something works and where adjustments need to be made to achieve goals at each stage of the marketing funnel. Marketers can help educate their executives on what social awareness means, what efforts are successful and why going viral isn’t always the answer. Social data also equips marketers with the proof they need when making the case for additional resources when crafting a social strategy.
Tag and track everything
One can never have too much social data to work with, especially when it comes to building a full-funnel social strategy. To further slice and dice social data, Rob employs Sprout Message Tagging to keep track of every post sent from their university’s account. It’s not unusual for Rob’s team to tag a piece of outgoing content with 10 different tags, from who publishes a specific piece of content to the key stakeholder to the content pillar.
Tags make it possible for the University of Newcastle’s social team to report back on that piece of content’s performance and whether or not it is effective for their goals at its intended stage of the funnel. Rob is able to see, for example, that user-generated content has an engagement rate more than double the university’s created content. With this information, the social team can then double down on giving students the content that resonates strongest with them.
"It was so quiet on campus today you could almost hear these messages ❤️ " – 📷 by Alum and @uonlib staff member Sas (@sasbowyer on Instagram) pic.twitter.com/9hnB0Zd2DR
— University of Newcastle (@Uni_Newcastle) May 6, 2020
Consider how tagging further helps empower social teams like Rob’s to align their strategies to two specific stages of the funnel:
Awareness. With tags, marketers can dive deep into their data to allow their content strategy to evolve the way it should: based on the immediate needs of their audience. High school students might be interested in webinars or photos showing campus life, while content featuring professors may be less likely to catch a prospect’s eye. With this data, social teams can pour their resources into the content that is proven to raise awareness amongst potential applicants.
Decision. Tagging also enables social teams to attribute conversion metrics like application button clicks to specific pieces of content. Using Sprout’s URL Tracking feature, Rob’s team can report on post-click actions on the university’s website and which social post drove that action. Tagging data can help marketers determine which channels are most effective in driving conversions, and allows social teams to report on more than just vanity metrics.
Do more with your university’s social strategy
With social data, marketers can do more than support their university’s awareness goals. In addition to getting their university’s name in front of prospective students, social marketers can move prospects through the marketing funnel to the decision-making stage.
But to create a full-funnel marketing strategy, social teams need to embrace their social data. At the University of Newcastle, data fuels the social team’s strategy—and they have meaningful results to show for it. With Sprout, marketers can easily measure social performance across the entire marketing funnel and simplify reporting so they can invest more time in strengthening their social campaigns.
For social marketers in higher education looking to implement a full-funnel social strategy that drives results, try Sprout Social with a free 30-day trial today.
