Social Media Task Force 5/19/2010

1. University of Colorado – Boulder Alumni Association:Social Media Strategy Recommendation Overview Social Media Task Force 5/19/2010

2. Task Force Background • Committee Members • Volunteers: • Tom Mirande – Chair (Hist ‘91), Senior Director, Channel Sales - WebVisible • Matt Duncan (IT/Fin’92), Social Business Strategy Consultant – Duncan Integrated Info • Chris Hemphill (IS/Fin‘04), Sales Engineer - Salesforce.com • Douglas Dinsmoor (Bio‘77) , eMarketing Consultant • John Worrell (Econ‘95), Director of Solutions Engineering – NewsGator Technologies • Staff: • Kim Egan, Director of Online Communication • Jackie Garcia (SPPR ‘08), Event Coordinator • Intranet • https://www.cualum.org/alumnivolunteers/groups/smtf/

3. Mission Statement: The Social Media Task Force of the CU-Boulder Alumni Association will research and identify social media opportunities and platforms and will develop and propose a social networking recommendation for the organization that works to facilitate lifelong CU relationships among CU-Boulder alumni and students.

4. Task Force Background (cont’d) • Goal • Develop and deliver a comprehensive social media strategy recommendation for the CU Boulder Alumni Association • Objectives • ID strengths and weaknesses with the Association’s current social media presences • ID opportunities to elevate the Association as a stronger hub for social media engagement • Evaluate the role of internal platforms as part of the overall presence • ID role of chapters and how they can better integrate with the Association • ID how Flagship 2030 plan impacts Association use of social media • Recommendation • Formal document • Presentation • Volunteer standpoint

5. Overview • Research • Statistics and Demonstrations • Current Situation • Recommendation • Question and Answer

6. Demo

7. Value of Social Media Best-selling author, entrepreneur and innovator, Seth Godin says the “value of social networking, especially for businesses, is in the opportunity to form real, genuine relationships with people and organizations who are relevant to your business, and who may be far less approachable in real life than they are on the Web.”

8. Social Media in Business 4 Ways Social Media is Changing Business • From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections” • From “Large Campaigns” to “Small Acts” • From “Controlling Our Image” to “Being Ourselves” • From “Hard to Reach” to “Available Everywhere” http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-business/ We are now in the age of open communication, engaged dialogue, and transparency, and business success may now have less to do with the size of ad budgets, but on the quality of interactions with customers. • What % of social networking is done via mobile devices? • 75% • 15% • 60% • 35% • (According to Ground Truth April 2010) “This is the movement we call the groundswell. And while you can’t stop it, you can understand it. You can not only live with it; you can thrive in it.” Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

9. Brand Monitoring Is our campaign working? Where are customers going for answers? What’s our perception vs. competitors? What’s being said about our brand? Customers have grown accustomed to the inherent transparency of a social media-rich world. They expect and demand that you listen and engage with them in AUTHENTIC conversations online. Those that do are rewarded. Those that don’t are punished.

10. Brand Monitoring Where are customers going for answers? What’s our perception vs. competitors? Is our campaign working? What’s being said about our brand? Customers have grown accustomed to the inherent transparency of a social media-rich world. They expect and demand that you listen and engage with them in AUTHENTIC conversations online. Those that do are rewarded. Those that don’t are punished.

11. Brand Monitoring Where are customers going for answers? What’s our perception vs. competitors? Is our campaign working? What’s being said about our brand? Customers have grown accustomed to the inherent transparency of a social media-rich world. They expect and demand that you listen and engage with them in AUTHENTIC conversations online. Those that do are rewarded. Those that don’t are punished. First proactive mention by United on Twitter: 4 days after video (after 1.2M video views, 10,000+ negative tweets specific to the incident)

12. Social media triage Brand Monitoring Take reasonable action to fix issue and let customer know action taken Where are customers going for answers? Positive Negative Yes Yes No Assess the message Do you want to respond? Evaluate the purpose Does customer need/deserve more info? What’s our perception vs. competitors? Is our campaign working? What’s being said about our brand? No Response Yes Unhappy Customer? Yes Are the facts correct? Gently correct the facts No No Customers have grown accustomed to the inherent transparency of a social media-rich world. They expect and demand that you listen and engage with them in AUTHENTIC conversations online. Those that do are rewarded. Those that don’t are punished. No Can you add value? DedicatedComplainer? Yes Are the facts correct? Yes No No Yes Respond in kind & share Thank the person Comedian Want-to-Be? Is the problem being fixed? Explain what is being done to correct the issue. Yes No Yes Let post stand and monitor.

13. Engagement and Dialogue The leveraging of social media to interact with customers Caterpillar IBM BMW Starbucks MTV Tiffany Apple Disney CocaCola 57 28 64 1 Out of this list which company is the first AND which is the last in Social Media Engagement? (According to www.engagementdb.com ranking of top 100 companies) 17 69 33 19 51

14. Engagement and Dialogue • People are engaged by relatedtopics. • They get “news” via the school’s website and monthly e-newsletter. “It’s interesting to see parents at social functions talking about the comments that were made on our Facebook Fan Page. The conversations that are happening there are translating into interpersonal relationships that otherwise wouldn’t have ever transpired.”School director, CU-Boulder alum Kerry Merkel (Psych’01)

15. Viral Marketing Like Share Follow Connect Suggest Friend Bookmark Digg Buzz Up Stumble Subscribe Retweet 512,795 People Like This

16. Viral Marketing

17. Viral Marketing 10%

18. Ease of Use It’s easier to drive on concrete than in mud, and likewise, it’s easier to spread a message when tools are there to help disseminate it. With the rise of social tools, spreading a meme* has never been easier.” * A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover and adaptation.

19. Ease of Use "The brigade command team is happy to see that they also still have a good sense of humor and that morale is high," said Maj. Michelle Baldanza, a spokeswoman in Afghanistan for the division's 4th Brigade Combat Team via e-mail from Kandahar Air Field.

20. Trends, Stats & Demographics“CU” scope • Task Force audited Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn • Facebook: • >94 groups • >10,400 members • at least 8 logo versions • Twitter: • 80 groups • Dozens of CU-related accounts • Hundreds (thousands?) of CU alum-related conversations • LinkedIn: • >80 groups • >20,000 members • at least 8 logo versions

21. Trends, Stats & DemographicsCU-Boulder Alumni • Under Forever Buffs, the Association services • 252,000 living alumni • 33,000 students • 7,200 non-alumni incl. Herd and donors • Alumni by age range • Ages 20-30 34,826 • Ages 31-40 42,946 • Ages 41-50 41,659 • Ages 50+ 145,922 • Alumni by gender • Unkown • Ages 31-40 1,937 • Ages 41-50 98,131 • Ages 50+ 116,778

22. Trends, Stats & DemographicsSocial Media Social will be like air! 40% of information sharing on the web is via Facebook and Twitter, beating out email at 12%

23. Pop Quiz! How many views per day are there on YouTube? 2,000,000,000

24. Current Situation • Making strides in the right direction • Strengths • Forever Buffs initiative • New graphic mark • Presence on social media • Great database/robust CRM program • Website is current and relevant

25. Recommendation • Make an investment • Hire a Community Manager • Purchase Enterprise Solution • Strategic plan • Monitor and measure • Increase engagement • Chapter integration and support • Campus coordination • Make it easy • Continuation of committee

26. Recommendation:Make an investment *Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage – by Bill Ives @ www.fastforwardblog.com/2010/03/05 **XYZ Survey Data

27. Recommendation:Strategic Plan Companies Jump Into Social Yet Most Companies Fail to Plan Properly Many companies like the idea, but don’t fully execute Presence is a good start but stopping there misses opportunities

28. Recommendation:Strategic Plan Strategic plans are important because they will outlive the latest and hottest platform – whatever that might be in a changing social media environment. A social media strategy will outline how current communications and programs are supported by social media and how they work to create a rich experience for the audience.

29. Recommendation:Strategic Plan • The plan should include: • Research (already provided through task force • Establish Protocol, Policies, and Crisis Response Plans • Identify Action Strategies to increase awareness about the Association’s Social Channels • Develop Strategic Messaging that echo the system’s rebranding efforts, the University’s Flagship 2030 tenants and the Association’s Forever Buffs initiative

30. Recommendation:Strategic Plan Under Flagship 2030, the university aims to become a leading model of the "new flagship university" of the 21st century—by redefining learning and discovery in a global context. It’s slogan is “Serving Colorado. Engaged in the world.” Key goals include expanding outreach programming aimed at Colorado communities and enhancing opportunities for lifelong and distance learning.

31. RecommendationStrategic Plan Forever Buffs, the Alumni Association’s initiative, works to engage our 240,000 alumni and 30,000 students in every step of their lives. It’s three tenets are engage, contribute and celebrate.

32. Recommendation:Strategic Plan • The CU rebranding effort lists the below value statements of consistent brand messaging. • To be more efficient and effective with limited resources • To enhance our ability to tell our story so others don’t tell it for us • To solidify our reputation and build more positive relationships • To better compete for students, faculty, staff, and funding • These same value statements can be achieved with a social media strategy.

33. Recommendation:Strategic Plan • Continuation of Social Media Task Force • Use Social Media to complement existing channels • Monitor and Analyze • Increase Engagement • Support and integrate chapters • Increase coordination with campus groups • Make it easy • Action Strategies

34. Recommendation: Continuation of committee • Social media is a new fast moving space that will require that we adapt to new technologies and platforms • We will need to define suggested toolsets to enable alumni groups to monitor and engage in the social space • New strategies will develop to drive engagement in Social Media and continuous education is important to sucess

35. Recommendation:Complement existing channels Social media efforts complement existing marketing channels. They do not replace them. Social Media extends the reach and lifecycle of communications and programs such as the Coloradan, Buffalum Notes, www.cualum.org and Forever Buffs Network. Bring real-time awareness to an online and interactive audience Increases effectiveness with feedback and open two-way conversations.

36. Pop-Quiz! Which Group of consumers is most important? (none, they all are important in the integrated marketing mix)

37. Recommendation: Monitor and measure • Social media monitoring and analyzing provides the Association with a new and valuable opportunity to gain insights and influence perceptions.

38. Recommendation: Monitor and measure Measure Analyze Adapt Learn

39. Recommendation: Make it easy • OpenID User Experience Summit, Feb 2010 - 89% of LadyGaga.com visitors chose to sign in with Facebook, Twitter or other 3rd party platforms. • Facebook Connect has proven that user registration rises 30%-200% by enabling Facebook Connect.

40. Recommendation: Increase engagement • Start the conversation – Content strategy is different than Traditional or Tradigital Marketing push messaging – more conversational and interactive.

41. Recommendation: Chapter integration and support • Extend wordpress platform to involve social tools and make this easy for chapter leaders of all backgrounds • Provide email templates that are consistent in branding and help drive alumni to the correct local communities

42. Recommendation: Campus coordination • Establish communication channels for events and happenings across groups – Alumni Association, CSO, Schools, Local Clubs • Leverage local chapters and their communities to engage alumni, ensure messaging can be shared easily to gain participation, two examples where social media could have expanded reach in NorCal region • Leeds Business School Alumni Event in SF • Engineering School Speaking Event in SF

43. Pop-Quiz! What does SSO stand for? (Single Sign On)

44. Recommendation: Make it easy - CSO CSO is an online job database under University Career Services Opportunity Squandered • “Clunky” and antiquated system to establish an account • Website is confusing • Alumni needs not addressed • Confusion between CSO & Forever Buffs sites • Re-activate job database in Forever Buffs Network • Continue to offer links to CSO • Add links to LinkedIn Alums are savvy and will choose what service fits their needs best.

45. Tactics Additional tactics are outlined in the appendix

46. Tactics • Facebook - Strategic posts, use events, ask questions designed to engage alumni • Twitter – Similar engagement tactics to Facebook, use a monitoring tool, create lists, use hashtags, ReTweet! • Flickr – Promote with other channels, create contests for alum to post pictures and drive engagement • YouTube – Similar strategy to Flickr, Create professional videos and share via other channels – encourages ReTweets by alum • LinkedIn – Work with LinkedIn, drive awareness of FBN, work with CSO • Website Integration – Share, ReTweet buttons, links to social communities • Email Communications – Include links to social communities as part of template

47. Demonstration

48. Guest Speakers

49. Summary • Social media and networking will only become more prevalent and preferred means of communication by alums • The Forever Buffs initiative and rebranding can capitalize on end user adoption • Let Flagship 2030’s tenants help guide implementation and adaptation • A good plan now is better than a perfect plan later • Value to volunteers

50. Questions?