Hot on the heels of Google’s Google+ announcement, Twitter has announced their own brand pages, complete with a comprehensive redesign. The social media giant is hoping this will strengthen ties with advertisers and partners. It will also help schools leverage this increasingly important social network.

Twitter’s brand pages will include the following helpful features:

• Customization on Multiple Levels
  This will give schools the ability to differentiate their page as they see fit, customizing it to follow specific design and admissions campaign standards.
• Large Header Images
  Schools will be able to display their logo and tagline more prominently, ensuring that no design elements are covered by tweets.
• Featured tweets
  Have an ongoing contest? Is there something interesting happening with your school? This new feature will ensure that marketers and recruiters can highlight certain tweets for as long as they like, extending the shelf life of a Tweet.
• Photo or Video Embedding in Featured Tweets
  Featured tweets can be auto-expanded to reveal embedded photos or videos from sites like Flickr and YouTube, ensuring that visitors do not have to leave the page.
• Separate replying and mentioning (which ensures clear marketing messaging)
  Twitter can be a “noisy” place, and this feature can make it easier for your school to clarify its message and speak directly with your audience.

“A tweet’s only 140 characters,” said Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain. “Brand pages are like an invitation to learn more. When consumers want to learn more, spend more time or get deeper in terms of engagement, we think they’ll end up on the brand page.”

The initial list of pages consists of 21 major brands that are highly active on Twitter. These include:

• American Express
• Best Buy
• Bing
• Chevrolet
• Coca-Cola
• Dell
• Disney
• General Electric
• Hewlett-Packard
• Intel
• JetBlue
• Kia
• McDonald’s
• Nike
• PepsiCo
• Staples
• Verizon Communications Wireless
• NYSE
• Euronext
• Heineken
• Subway
• Paramount Pictures

Take a look at this short video to get an idea of how these Twitter brand pages will look:

“The question for each one of these marketers is what is the interesting, compelling, provocative content that they can be putting out to a larger audience to keep that engagement high,” said Bain, hinting at the implication of these new pages. Twitter, essentially, is becoming a lot more like other social networks, and users may have to rethink the content strategy they once employed.

Do you think Twitter’s brand pages can be useful for your school, career college or university? Does this position the company to compete with Facebook and Google+? Let us know what you think.

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Social Media, Twitter

A big part of advertising is credibility. The more credible the advertising “source,” the more persuasive the message. That’s why the most powerful advertising possible is from your own friends. If a friend tells you they used a product or service and loved it, you’re more likely to follow suit if you’re in the market for that same product or service. The reality however, is that most people are not interested in being paid to advertise to their friends. Now, there’s another option out there which is very interesting: hiring a celebrity to tweet about your company. For may schools, the endorsement of an influential celebrity could generate a lot of buzz. Several companies have incorporated paid celebrity tweeting into their social media strategies. Notable big-name examples include Microsoft and Best Buy. Another company that has used the strategy is “CampusLIVE”, a website that allows college students the chance to earn rewards from sponsors.

The concept behind paid celebrity tweets is simple: you choose your promotional 140-character snippet, find a celebrity that fits in with the target market for your product or service, and then hire that celebrity to tweet your message. There is one more element to consider, however: cost. While hiring Mike Tyson to tweet about your school may seem like a great idea, get ready to spend upwards of $3,000 for a single tweet. Want to hire Khloé Kardashian to praise your school’s new mobile platform? You’re looking at more than $8,000.

Of course, for most Canadian schools, Khloé Kardashian and Mike Tyson may not be the best people to hire anyway. Perhaps someone more targeted – for example, a local celebrity who is active in your school’s city – may be more economical, and more powerful. One thing’s for sure: the tools available to social media marketers is increasing every day, and celebrity tweets could soon become another key element in a marketer’s arsenal.

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Social Media, Twitter

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Facebook, Online Lead Generation, Social Media, Twitter, Youtube

Twitter developers this week announced the development of Twitter Analytics. This new feature, which is an offshoot of Twitter buying BackType, will attempt to help accurately measure the amount of Twitter traffic to your website.

As we have mentioned in the past, Twitter is one of the most powerful social media sites, and schools can use it to communicate easily and directly with its target audiences. Ideally, Twitter Analytics will make it easier for you to decide what sort of content you can be sharing on Twitter, which will ultimately help increase your share of social media voice.

According to the developers, Twitter Analytics will allow you to:

• Understand how much your content is being shared on Twitter

This will include the number of Tweets about you and the number of click-throughs to your website through Twitter. In the past you could see how much Twitter traffic was coming your way with Google Analytics, but you could not see the path visitors were taking. Knowing who is sharing your content and how they are doing it can provide more marketing possibilities and options, including affiliate programs.

• See traffic Twitter sends to your site
• Measure the effectiveness of your Tweet Button integration

Both of these features are things you can do with Google Analytics and most website plug-ins, however you would have to assume that Twitter Analytics will provide a bit more insight and detail for those metrics. We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, take a look at a screenshot provided by the Twitter Developers:

For the moment, Twitter Analytics is free and in beta. Twitter is planning to roll it out to a website owners in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Social Media, Twitter

With over 200 million users, Twitter has become one of the most powerful social media sites, and its platform (short 140 character tweets) has given schools the chance to communicate easily and directly with its target audiences. This represents a tremendous opportunity for schools to manage and maintain their online presence and share of social media voice. How do you leverage this powerful tool?

Here are some tips on how to maintain your school’s Twitter account:

First things first, let people know about your Twitter account. Include the details on your website, newsletter, blog and more. It would also be a good idea to create a specific social media call to action that is inline with your goals. An example would be: “Follow us on Twitter for the latest news, admissions and open houses.”

The next step involves deciding what content to share with your target audiences. The schools that best take advantage of social media platforms will share a combination of the following content:

College News and Announcements
There is always a lot happening at your school or community college, so why not let your audience know about it? News tweets can help attract prospective students and retain alumni and staff by keeping them in the loop and reestablishing a bond. Have you made changes to your programs? New faculty members? Is there a great seminar or open house coming up? Let your followers know with special announcements.

Faculty and Staff Well Wishes
Highlighting staff, faculty and alumni milestones, achievements, awards or birthdays is an effective way to personalize your social network and create a more intimate relationship with your audience.

Admissions Information
Keep prospective students in the loop about admission deadlines and the application process. This will hopefully encourage prospects to apply. Your Twitter account can also act as something of a bridge between applicants and the admissions department, connecting leads with department heads, counselors and more.

Contests
Twitter can be a great outlet to promote contests or campaigns on and off campus. Doing so encourages students and parents to get involved in the life of the school and can provide a nice increase in online leads. What the contest is and what prize is on offer is up to you, but initiating a response in this way can be a positive approach to recruitment.

Student Congratulations
Highlighting exceptional performances, award winners or graduating classes is an excellent way to strengthen the bond with your audience and highlight the achievements of your school’s members.

Campus Pics
It’s great to talk about your campus, classrooms or labs, but why not post a picture? After all, one is worth a thousand words. Use Twitter’s Twitpic to show off any new features or changes to your facilities.

Campus Visitation Tips
A good way to promote open house events and campus tours (without being too pushy about it) is to offer a series of tips for prospective students visiting your campus. This can be anything from highlighting the biggest classroom and newest computer room to where a student can get a great slice of pizza in the area. Retweets and news stories about why people love the school’s city can also help prospective students learn about the campus and surrounding area.

Retweets of Positive Messages, Pictures and Videos
Students, staff, alumni and proud parents will often share pictures and videos from classes, events, graduations and more. Retweeting these special moments shows that your school cares about its members and helps keep the online conversation positive.

Career Services
A great way to boost online leads and attractiveness in the eyes of prospective students is to emphasize your school’s career services and job placement. Tweets can offer news about your institution’s career services, tips on job interviews and new stories about industries tied to your programs.

As you can see, a lot can be accomplished with just 140 characters. With clearly defined online and marketing goals, you can decide the content and Twitter approach that will best improve your share of social media voice.

For more information on social media monitoring contact Higher Education Marketing today.

CATEGORIES: Blog

Tags: Education Marketing Tips, Social Media, Twitter