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Social Media

Overview

 

Profile Image

Use of the official Rockhurst logo is reserved for the official Rockhurst University social media accounts.

 

Role of Social

The role of social media at Rockhurst is to cultivate a community with prospective and current students and alumni through meaningful stories and two-way conversations that evoke the community feeling you have when you’re on the Rockhurst campus.

 

Role of Social as an Extension of the Rockhurst Brand

Considering the direct reach of social media to all three audience segments, it is a priority to connect with each one deliberately and professionally. Each department’s window into their portion of the Rockhurst experience is a form of marketing and can be the difference in a potential student considering/choosing RU, a current student returning to the University, or an alumnus considering returning for an event and/or making a gift. In that regard, each account’s voice and day-to-day operations are a direct extension of the Rockhurst brand. Following brand standards and best social media practices will have the most positive effects on the audiences.

 

Social media channels have also been shown to directly contribute an organization’s financial health, so it’s imperative we maintain our focus on developing and growing our social community.

 

Social Voice

 

Crafting our Voice

A social best practice is clearly defining a voice.

• It keeps content consistent, even with multiple people writing copy
• It humanizes Rockhurst University

 

Our voice should be just like a friend’s voice on the phone.

• Friendly
• Immediately recognizable
• The personification of Rockhurst: welcoming, warm, fun

 

This is social. We’re here to make and be friends.

• Have something to contribute. Be clever, sometimes even funny. Not mean or snarky, but self-aware and timely.
• The channel is more social than media. It’s a two-way conversation. Speak conversationally. Write like someone to whom you’d want to listen.
• Avoid industry terms and marketing speak.
• Be fast, fun and friendly.
• Write. Then edit. Keep it simple.

 

Our Tone

IS: Smart, witty, forward-thinking, authentic, inclusive, humble, in-the-know, genuine, motivated, conversational.

 

IS NOT: Flippant, dismissive, judgmental, improper, misleading, negative, uninviting, overbearing.

 

Content Pillars

• • User-Generated Content
  • Community Outreach
  • Student Stories
  • Fun
  • Campus/Campus Activities

Platforms

Twitter

• Engage in real-time conversation
• Provide always-on content
• Lead with video and photo content and use copy only in community management
• Use paid efforts to target competition’s followers
• Diffuse negative conversation with personal engagement
• If negativity continues move conversation offline
• Always use determined voice in communications. With an audience that is slightly more male than female, the voice can be more matter-of-fact or “newsy” if required.

 

Twitter Audience

Primarily: Recent to semi-recent alumni, interested family members, community, some students.

 

 

Twitter Top Posts Examples:

Campus, Fun, Events (Includes coverage during or after event)

 

Facebook

• Targeting and paid ads can be used on Facebook to more effectively hit our target audience
• Use mix of video, photo and graphics to deliver diverse messages under the Rockhurst brand umbrella.
• Text-only should be reserved for conversations and messaging.

 

Facebook Audience

Primarily: Alumni of all ages, interested family members, community members, moderate amount of students.

 

 

Facebook Top Posts Examples:

Fun, Current Student Stories, Marketing-Generated Content

 

Instagram

• RU has the opportunity to elevate the new brand story in a stunningly visual, yet personal way. Sharing and starting conversations through photos (primarily via mobile) is one of the most common things done today.
• Act like a peer to our followers, and provide the same kind of spontaneous, delightful scenes, situations and visual treats that we expect from personal Instagram friends.
• Utilize Instagram stories to tell the Rockhurst University story through first-hand experiences from students.
• Instagram Reels is another way to reach a broader audience through more diversified video content. Traditional video posts on the feed should be avoided as reach and engagement is low.

 

Instagram Audience

Primarily: Students, potential students, recent alumni.

 

 

Instagram Top Posts Examples:

User-Generated Content, Community Outreach (Service), Fun

 

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn gives Rockhurst University the ability to communicate more directly with the alumni and professional social media population.
• Organic engagement arises from postings about campus news/updates and happenings within the alumni community.

 

LinkedIn Audience

Primarily: Alumni, graduating students.

 

 

LinkedIn Top Posts Examples:

Fun, Community Outreach, Staff

 

TikTok

• TikTok is an app that allows users to create entertaining short-form videos. TikTok content can include dance videos, skits and pretty much anything in between.
• 41% of TikTok’s current users are between the ages of 16-24. We project a large portion of the audience that we hit would fall into this category as well. This gives us an opportunity to get our brand out to prospects and really meet them where they are.
• Audience: Current and potential students.
• Our TikTok Profile

Community Management and Engagement

Engagement and its Goals

Our mission is to increase relevant conversation and engagement across the University’s social channels through:

• DRIVING RELEVANT VOLUME: Increasing 1:1 interactions with the right target and the right content.
• QUALITY ENGAGEMENT: The effectiveness of our ability to relate to consumers and create relationships leading into loyal and passionate brand/University enthusiasts.

 

Engagement reflects our target audience

• Quality > quantity
• Engagement is a conversation. Each message is personalized to the context of what the fan is saying, who it is coming from and when.
• Engagement should ALWAYS be in the University’s voice, never straying.
• Stick up for the University but know when to take a backseat.
• Remember, at the end of the day, we’re still a school/brand.

 

Audience

Every online personality is a possible prospect for the University and its offerings. By engaging with each of these people on social media, we’re able to identify and create brand/University fans and eventually University advocates, leading to greater awareness of and positive perception of the University.

 

While there may be a specific target audience, it is crucial to not ignore any users that reach out to the University through direct mentions. Any ignored conversations can lead to frustrated people that feel disrespected by the University.

Engaging with Fans

General responding

Never engage with:

Direct mentions or posts to the page

Responding/Replying

Favoriting/Liking

• All channels should be reviewed daily.
• Any engagement should happen after 8 a.m. and before 10 p.m.
• Responses should always be phrased in the University’s voice and identify with a chosen content pillar.
• Engage with those who are talking positively about the University.
• Engage with users with huge followings to develop relationships with influencers.
• Fans under 13 (should not have internet profiles).
• Flagged content from PR (negative news reports/articles, etc.).
• Handles that appear to be robots, spam, or only put out content (no engagement with others from the handle in question).
• Content that involves illegal activity or thoughts.
• Content trashing another brand, person or school.
• Avoid searching out and engaging with “non-human” profiles (organizations, government bodies, other companies) to focus on a human connection and conversation.
• If a fan is posting content to the page’s wall, posts or tweeting directly to us, they want to be heard. These posts should be the highest priority to respond to.
• Respond to the fan in a timely manner, using their name (if shown) to further develop a personal relationship.
• Replying is the heart of engagement.
• Personal conversation to answer a question, share sentiment or just talk to the fans.
• Fans see a reply as a brand/the school actually taking the time out to acknowledge their existence.
• Brands can get retweets, replies, favorites or follows from replying to fans—even their friends might engage, causing the audience to grow.
• The return on a reply is PRICELESS, not matter how small.
• Picture it as a pat on the back or “I agree”.
• Favorite a post when a reply is not relevant, or the fan’s tweet is not overly engaging—it’s the smallest/minimal step for engaging.
• Only the person whose comment you’re favoriting will receive an alert and there is no direct “return” from a favorite for a brand (i.e. you can’t retweet/repost a favorite).
• Favoriting is becoming more popular on Twitter and is more valuable than a Facebook like, though not more valuable than a reply.
• Liking on Instagram is very common and very valued by fans. With thousands of images posted related to most brands, a simple like can help our brand own the space.
• Warning: Some think favoriting is a spam practice to gain followers. Don’t over-favorite, especially when not mentioned in the content.

Sharing Others' Content

• Regardless of where others’ content is being shared, make sure to receive consent from the original poster to utilize their content on official Rockhurst accounts.
• User-generated content is valued as an important piece of social media at Rockhurst as it helps show campus and community life most authentically, and gives an opportunity to use genuine, organic content from campus constituents.

Moderating the Channels

All planned marketing content will go through internal and advisor review, but if fans are offended by a post, removing it can fuel the fire. It is best to let the commentary die down and continue posting content as if nothing was wrong. If fans react negatively, you can hide the post from the Facebook timeline and remove any paid support on Facebook and Twitter. There are no ways to “hide” a post on any channel other than Facebook.

 

If a post on the University’s page made by a fan is considered in poor taste, we have several options depending on the social channel. If a fan is harassing the page on Twitter, we can block them and prevent them from tagging the brand. You cannot delete tweets from others. On Facebook, fan posts can be removed or hidden. If a fan post is hidden, only the fan and their friends can see it. We recommend only hiding posts as to avoid fans accusing the brand of regulating all content. On Instagram, you can delete comments, but cannot hide them. On YouTube, you can remove comments.

 

Hiding & deleting comments

 

Blocking fans

• Hiding is a safe option compared to deleting, but only available on Facebook. Hiding comments means the user who posted the comment and their friends can still see the hidden comments while the general Facebook user cannot. The comment will still appear to whoever posted it.
• Deleting comments prevents the entire community from seeing the comment. It cannot be undone. If a user revisits the page, they may notice that their comment has been removed.
• When to hide/delete:
  • Comment uses inappropriate language/subject/image.
  • Fan has repeated posted same message/post multiple times on channel (spam).
  • Fan violates the house rules.
  • Comment promotes a third-party event, company or site.
  • Comment is completely unrelated to post.

   

  • Blocking/banning a user restricts their access to the page.
  • Facebook: banning users prevent them from commenting on posts, though they can still engage (view/share/hide/like).
  • Twitter: blocked users cannot follow or direct mention.
  • Instagram: blocked users cannot post on a page.
  • When to block/ban:
    • Fans who repeatedly spam the page, violate the house rules or harass/bully other fans.

Tags, Mentions, and Hashtags

Hashtags are frequently used across social channels to make content more searchable. Tags are used to mention friends of the university and encourage sharing.

 

When to hashtag:

• If a campaign, event or partner has a specific hashtag related to the content, use the hashtag in the post.
• When an event has multiple hashtags, choose the tag most closely related to the copy or the most popular.

 

When to mention/tag:

• Always @mention or tag the person that is being engaging with.
• @Mention or tag any brand partners when referencing them in a post if expecting a RT or share from the partner.
• When starting off a tweet with @mention, remember to put a period in front of the @mention so that the tweet will appear in all users’ feeds.
• Tagging does not work on many Facebook promoted posts.

 

Best practices

• On Twitter, limit hashtags/mentions to 3 or fewer per post. The more hashtags/mentions, the less likely users will retweet.
• On Instagram, tag a user in the image or comment so the picture is posted to the user’s profile. Instagram is hashtag-friendly, but we recommend limiting usage to 3 or less to keep your post clean and professional.
• Use hashtags sparingly on Facebook.

Tips for Opening a University-Associated Social Media Account

Personal Social Media Use vs. Brand Social Media Use

• Personal
  • Post what you want, when you want.
  • Posts take on a more casual tone.
  • Posts are less audience-oriented.
  • Posts Tell the story of your own personal brand.
  • Brand
  • Posting is strategic.
  • Posts reflect what the audience wants to see.
  • There’s a cohesive voice through all posts.
  • Social accounts for brands and businesses post often to keep the audience engaged.
  • Posts tell the story of the overall brand.

 

Instagram

• Photos perform best on Instagram.
• Videos do not perform well, however, if you plan to post a video on your Instagram feed, keep it below one minute. The shorter, the better!
• You’ll reach most of your young millennials and gen z’ers here (18-24).

 

Twitter

• Great for sharing quick University or organization updates and linking to longer stories.
• 280 characters keeps your messaging short and to the point.
• Video performs better on Twitter than Instagram, but you’ll still be able to reach a broader audience on Facebook.
• You’ll hit people in their 30s on Twitter.

 

Facebook

• You’ll reach an older audience on Facebook.
• RU’s Facebook main audience includes families of current students and Rockhurst alumni.
• This changes the way you post messages to this audience.

 

Posting Practices

• Cover day-to-day happenings, but also try to plan as much as possible so you can stay consistent, and your audience knows you’re still active.
• Consistently posting good content is important to follower growth on any platform.
• Aim for 2-3x per week per platform or find a posting schedule that is most sustainable for you and your team.
• Find ways to make sure the account does not go dormant.

 

Engage with Your Audience(s)!

• Let your audience know that you are invested in them! Social media users want that two-way connection with people and brands!
• Like and comment on posts that you’re tagged in.
• Monitor and reply to questions and comments on posts.
• Reply to negative comments too (ask how you can help, or send the user a direct message asking how you can help).
• Delete offensive or hateful comments.
• Respond to messages, story replies, etc.