Use this time to log in, view resources, and test your connectivity. The conference will begin promptly at 10:15 a.m. (ET) / 15:15 (BST).
10:15 - 10:45 (ET) Welcome and Introductions
15:15 - 15:45 (BST)
Join conference leadership to meet the faculty, review conference highlights and learn how to get the most out of your time online.
Emma Leech, Director of Marketing and Communications, Nottingham Trent University
Ashley Budd, Director of Marketing Operations, Cornell University
Tony Dobies, Senior Director, Marketing, West Virginia University
AJ Lopez III, Assistant Director, Digital Marketing and Social Media, Marketing & Public Information, Midwestern State University – Texas
10:45 - 11:45 (ET) Build your Next Campaign Roadmap
15:45 - 16:45 (BST)
If you work in social media, you’re almost always in a campaign. You might be building communities, raising awareness, or convincing your community to take action. Mapping a campaign plan will lay the foundation for your tactical social strategy. Learn Ashley’s framework for designing effective campaign plans. She’ll cover tactics to build and organize your audience, make connections through creative content–storytelling, and increase conversion and retention rates.
Delegates should come ready to tackle their next big campaign and create a roadmap to:
Gain more followers
Make meaningful connections
Drive conversions
See more people retained year over year
Ashley Budd, Director of Marketing Operations, Cornell University
11:45 - 12:15 (ET) Stretch Break
16:45 - 17:15 (BST)
Use this time to move around a bit, check out resources in the library, or connect with fellow attendees though the live chat.
12:15 - 1:00 (ET) Elective Sessions
17:15 - 18:00 (BST)
Testing TikTok: How UBC used the Emerging Channel for Content Marketing
Even in the constantly changing world of digital marketing and social media, TikTok seemed to represent the most significant new platform opportunity since Instagram. But how do you get started? In this case study, you'll learn how UBC Brand and Marketing piloted a TikTok campaign to augment their content marketing initiatives. You'll learn about the content development process, gain insights into how the channel compared with other social platforms, and see how lessons learned on TikTok have changed how UBC approaches social content more broadly.
Houston White, Digital Marketing Specialist, University of British Columbia
The Global Glow Up: How a Smith Alumna’s Suggestion Became a Worldwide Sensation
Celebrate seniors. Engage alumnae. Honor long-held traditions. And do it all in the midst of a pandemic. These were the challenges the Smith College staff faced when planning Illumination Night 2020, a beloved—and traditionally in-person—celebration featuring paper lanterns. What happened instead was a massive social media effort that engaged 3,000 contributors from as far away as Sweden and Saudi Arabia. This session will explore how Smith capitalized on an alumna’s idea to create a small, upbeat campaign and expanded it into a celebration of connection at the very moment when so many of us felt isolated from friends and loved ones. As one alumna noted, “I have never been so proud to be a Smithie.” We couldn’t have asked for a better endorsement.
Rachael A. Hagerstrom, Social Media Manager, Smith College
1:00 - 1:15 (ET) Stretch Break
18:00 - 18:15 (BST)
1:15 - 2:00 (ET) Elective Sessions
18:15 - 19:00 (BST)
How to Humanize Your Brand on Social Media
In this session, we will put the word social back in social media. People connect to, relate to, and trust other people. So why are so many marketing messages automated, inauthentic, and uninspiring in nature? Building your brand’s voice and personality through authentic storytelling is the key to humanizing your brand on social media. Learn how to develop a more personalized social media strategy that not only gets the attention of your target audience, but builds trust, improves engagement, and drives revenue for your business.
Dexter R. Patterson, Social Media Manager, Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association
Working With Student Content Creators During A Pandemic
Student generated content is an invaluable resource in university marketing and communications activities, and this became even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this session I will explain how we worked with our team of student content creators throughout the pandemic to foster a sense of community at the University of Nottingham, to create engaging and creative content whilst working from home, and to encourage prospective students to apply to the university amidst an uncertain and ever-changing landscape.
Tom Travis, Digital Content Officer, The University of Nottingham
2:15 - 2:30 (ET) Day One Debrief and Next Steps for Day Two
19:15 - 19:30 (BST)
Emma Leech, Director of Marketing and Communications, Nottingham Trent University
Ashley Budd, Director of Marketing Operations, Cornell University
Tony Dobies, Senior Director, Marketing, West Virginia University
AJ Lopez III, Assistant Director, Digital Marketing and Social Media, Marketing & Public Information, Midwestern State University – Texas
2:30 - 3:15 (ET) Networking Reception
19:30 - 20:15 (BST)
10:00 - 10:45 (ET) Roundtable Discussions and Networking
15:00 - 15:45 (BST)
Bring your breakfast, lunch, or coffee and connect with peers to share best practices, ideas, and support. Each group will receive discussion prompts and will be encouraged to participate in these interactive conversations on timely topics.
10:45 - 11:00 (ET) Transition Break
15:45 - 16:00 (BST)
Wrap-up your conversations and prepare to login to the lightning talks.
11:00 - 12:00 (ET) Lightning Talks
16:00 - 17:00 (BST)
Stronger Together: Unifying Institutional Brand and Standards Across Social
How can colleges and universities leverage internal partners for a more effective social media strategy? In this lighting round session, social media leaders from Teachers College, Columbia University will discuss a school-wide social media project that implemented brand standards across dozens of accounts; facilitated more centralized collaboration and long-term account access; and built a library of resources for stakeholders across the institution to help support future engagement and growth. A case study, this lightning round offers a road-map for how to more efficiently assist the often ever-growing group of affiliated social media accounts within organizations—and how to align these accounts to better serve the institution.
Morgan Gilbard, Digital Communications Specialist, Teachers College, Columbia University
Matthew Vincent, Director of Digital Communications, Teachers College, Columbia University
Attracting User-Generated Content
This session will look at knowing your audience and utilising your audience to create future content that resonates with stakeholders, and all on a small budget.
Katie Wilson, Senior Engagement Officer, Loughborough University
Taking It To The Digital Streets - Successful Grassroots Social Media Fundraising
The global population of social media users now exceeds 3.6 billion individuals, and the average Internet user has 8.5 social media accounts. These numbers are too powerful to avoid. Despite the impact of the pandemic, Calvert Hall took their fundraising message to the digital streets helping to raise more than $300,000 in just 24 hours. Learn how to tailor their strategies to meet your institutional goals.
Danielle Hladky, Director of Communications and Marketing, Calvert Hall College High School
Joseph Baker, Chief Administrative Officer and Director of Advancement, Calvert Hall College High School
Community Listening: How To Build Public Engagement Into Social Strategies
How are you enhancing the public good with your social strategy? Learn how to successfully integrate public engagement into social plans to build communities, add value, and develop sustainable dialogues. Using this approach, the University of Michigan successfully increased engagement 145% in 2020 by leveraging the knowledge of our experts to help community members address the most challenging issues facing society. Establishing a community that trusts and relies on your brand, and aligning your strategy with the needs of your audience, will not only lead to achieving goals and demonstrating impact, but it will also enhance the public good. So, let's engage!
Erica Colaianne, Public Engagement Communications Manager, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
12:00 - 12:15 (ET) Stretch Break
17:00 - 17:15 (BST)
12:15 - 1:00 (ET) Elective Sessions
17:15 - 18:00 (BST)
How to Fundraise on Social Media:Lessons learnt from 2020
These are challenging times. The world needs fundraisers right now. Fundraising for life-changing research, for education, for learning, has never been more important. Yet, we’ve lost a lot of the fundraising tools at our disposal, whether through social distancing, budget cuts, or both. But one resource which hasn’t gone away, one which has grown in use, is social media. With everyone spending more time in digital space, social media is one of our strongest opportunities to reach our audiences. This talk is going to showcase several successful social media fundraising campaigns from 2020. We will then explore the lessons that can be learnt from each campaign, and how these insights can be applied to further our own efforts in the education sector.
Simon Fairbanks, Senior Content Strategist, Pickle Jar Communications
Michael O'Neill, Associate Director of Digital Engagement, Cornell University
7 Tips for Highly Effective Social Media Marketers
After attending social media focused sessions, we are often introduced to strategies that we would love to implement. However, once we get back to the office, we are reminded how little time and energy we actually have to apply the new knowledge we have just acquired. This session focuses on teaching time-saving techniques and real world skills that will help you work efficiently and creatively to become better social media marketers for your schools. Attendees will leave this session with a clear list of practical and accessible skills to apply to their busy lives as soon as they leave the conference.
Antonio Reyes, Digital Media Manager, Brentwood School
1:00 - 1:30 (ET) Stretch Break
18:00 - 18:30 (BST)
1:30 - 2:15 (ET) Elective Sessions
18:30 - 19:15 (BST)
Going Live for Giving Day Success
The University of South Dakota launched its third annual online giving day nearly a year after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold on daily life. Knowing a giving day is inherently “online,” the USD team used this opportunity to focus on the virtual elements of the giving day and rerouted resources toward two main areas – highly managed online ambassadors or “teams” of fundraisers and a sophisticated livestream that would inject energic, of-the-moment video content throughout the giving day. The COVID-forced pivots led to the most successful giving day in USD history and could serve as a blueprint for future giving days. Learn how to make livestream video and team-based ambassador fundraising work for your institution in this workshop led by the planners behind #UniteforUSD.
Whitney Alexander, Executive Director of Constituent Engagement, University of South Dakota Foundation
Anshu Chandra, Associate Director of Digital Engagement, University of South Dakota Foundation
Reigniting Social Engagement: Strategies to Enhance your Organic and Paid Initiatives
Ready to throw in the towel on your social media strategy? Then don't miss this session that's guaranteed to breathe new life into your paid and organic social media campaigns! Led by Finalsite's Kristen Doverspike and Rob DiMartino and Clemson University's social media strategists Hillary Smith and Chas Williams, this session will walk you through the latest algorithm shifts and what you can do to stand out.
Kristen Doverspike, Inbound Marketing Manager, Finalsite
Rob DiMartino, Rob DiMartino, Chief Evangelist Officer, FinalSite
Hillary Smith, Social Media Strategist, Clemson University
Chas Williams, Social Media Brand Strategist, Clemson University
2:30 - 3:30 (ET) Embrace the Social Media Culture Shakeup
19:30 - 20:30 (BST)
In 2020, COVID-19 wasn't the only major life-changing event that you experienced. In June, nationwide protests prompted critical and necessary conversations among university leaders as they responded to their students who were demanding change and using social media to amplify their voices. How we responded and used social media changed last summer.
Looking toward the future, while we are hopeful in regard to the COVID-19 vaccine restoring normal operations among college campuses, there is still much work to be done within our BIPOC student communities. Let's talk about social media best practices in creating content with these student communities in mind -- content that implements everyday strategies rather than focusing on weeklong or month-long celebrations. From photography to inclusive language to social accessibility, we can do much to make our student communities feel welcomed and heard.
AJ Lopez III, Assistant Director, Digital Marketing and Social Media, Marketing & Public Information, Midwestern State University – Texas
3:30 - 4:00 (ET) Closing Faculty Panel and Final Thoughts
20:30 - 21:00 (BST)
Emma Leech, Director of Marketing and Communications, Nottingham Trent University
Ashley Budd, Director of Marketing Operations, Cornell University
Tony Dobies, Senior Director, Marketing, West Virginia University
AJ Lopez III, Assistant Director, Digital Marketing and Social Media, Marketing & Public Information, Midwestern State University – Texas
