Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, oh my! So many options, so little time and it appears like everyone else is jumping on the social media train, what is my office to do? We don’t want to be left at the station! On one hand social media can be a powerful tool for building your brand and much can be gained, but on the other hand, if done poorly or without realistic expectations, it can be a great deal of effort with little reward.
In this two-part blog post we will share our lessons learned as well as snippets gathered from a recent social media event we attended featuring thought leaders in the social media/marketing fields.
Part 1
Our office jumped into the social media fray in 2010 when we recognized the increasing importance of communicating with our colleagues, customers, and community via online channels. Since that time, the number of users within our industry has grown exponentially; in fact, our friends at Fuentek™ recently conducted a survey of TTOs and found two-thirds of respondents used social media in some capacity.* While much has been written about metrics and strategies for effectively using social media to build your brand, we thought we might share some more “practical” lessons learned by our team while implementing and refining our social media strategy.
Lesson’s Learned:
-
Set realistic, attainable goals for using social media and build from there. For example, we launched on a single platform, Facebook, with a goal of posting once a week, every Friday (consistency is key ). From there we built out, added a second weekly posting, added Twitter, Pinterest, a blog, etc. Starting small enables one to really determine how much effort can realistically be put forward.
-
Try dividing and conquering. We have found it particularly useful to share the load and split the responsibilities among a small group within the office. Simultaneously use other members of the office as resources for content. We love it when our staff members feed interesting articles, press releases, etc. to us to share through our social media channels.
-
Build a community with others in the field. We only get together as an industry once or twice a year and have found social media to be a great way to interact with other offices, share ideas, make connections, and stay engaged with what is going on within our industry.
-
Utilize the tools, particularly free ones, available to help you manage your social media presence. For example url shorteners (bitly, ow.ly), schedulers (Twuffer, CoTweet), or account managers (TweetDeck, HootSuite).
-
Check with your University’s communications & marketing group for additional insights and support. Learn how to leverage their resources and what, if any, restrictions or policies your office needs to abide by.
Coming next week, social media takeaways from a recent social media event, sponsored by Entrepreneur Magazine™, we had the good fortune to attend.
* For more resources on using social media and social media use in technology transfer check out these great references:
Getting the Most Out of Social Media for Tech Transfer & TTOs Weigh in on Social Media: Proponents and Detractors Offer Important Insights – Fuentek™