Millennials / Generation Z & Social Media Meeting Students Where - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Millennials / Generation Z & Social Media Meeting Students Where They Are

Presenters Ashley Houston (Chair) - GoAbroad.com Mandy Reinig - St. Mary’s College of Maryland Jeramy Johnson - Academic Programs International

Outline ● Current state of social media ● Emerging trends ● Examples & Best Practices ● Q&A

Current State of Social Media in IE ▣ Why do we use social media in IE? ▣ What are people currently using □ Professionals □ Students ▣ Based on what students are using, what channels might you need to start using or change your use of?

Why do we use social media? Recruit/Promote Engage Create/Build Community Monitor

Why do you use social media?

Potential Survey Conclusions ● Is Facebook really dying? ● Do you need to start engaging on more channels?

Question: What trends are driving social media today?

Emerging Trends: Visual Media “This massive, technology-driven shift in communication is changing the way brands and consumers interact with one another, and has heralded the rise of what people in the ad world are calling the Visual Web .” - Ari Lewine, WSJ

Emerging Trends: Visual Media ● The emerging social networks are ones that focus on the visual medium A picture is worth 1000 words! o ● Prevalence of camera-enabled mobile devices driving move to visual media sharing ● Information can be communicated easier, faster visually than through text (or audio) ● We’ve made the shift from “tell” to “show”...

Meerkat & Periscope

Stickers, Emojis, & Videos, Oh My!

Time for some stats!

Emerging Trends: Engagement ● Posts with photos receive 2x more likes than those with text on Facebook ● Video sharing on Facebook increased 50% in 2014 Sources: Hootsuite Blog; VFM Leonardo, Social Media Examiner

Emerging Trends: Engagement ● Instagram engagement up 416% in the past two years, and posts generated 58x more engagement per follower than Facebook , and 120x more than Twitter ● Roughly 1/2 (53%) of adults 18-19 use Instagram ; 1/4 of all adults do (26%) ● 49% of Instagram users visit on a daily basis; 60% of Snapchat users are active on a daily basis Sources: Adweek, Brandwatch, Emarsys, Socially Sorted, Pew Internet Research

Emerging Trends: Engagement ● Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram each gained more than 100 million users in 2014 ● 80% of pins are repins Sources: Adweek, Brandwatch, Emarsys, Socially Sorted, Pew Internet Research

Emerging Trends: Messaging Apps Private/Group messaging apps (which heavily feature photos / videos / stickers) were the biggest boom of 2014 67% increase in Snapchat user base o 30% increase in WhatsApp user base o 14% increase in WeChat user base o 700 million photos; 100 million video messages sent PER o DAY on these networks alone Source: Jacqueline Woerner, Emarsys

Emerging Trends: Visual Search

Emerging Trends: Trending Networks ● Tumblr and Pinterest platforms now growing even faster than Instagram ● Snapchat is the fastest growing mobile app. It’s also the youngest social network (60% of users are in 18-24 demographic) Sources: TechCrunch, Socially Sorted, Business Insider, iMediaConnection

Best Practices - Moving Forward ● Understand & know your audience ● How to find success with different platforms ● Examples: What are your colleagues doing that’s effective ● Actionable next steps

Millennials & Gen Z: Who are they? ● Most educated generation in history ● Most racially diverse, tolerant of LGBTQ community, open-minded ● Utilitarian, idealistic, concerned about putting the good of society in front of self, want to make a positive impact ● They value: authenticity and transparency

Millennials & Gen Z: How does this play in? ● Tech savvy group ● 80% use social several times a day ● Use it to make decisions: social shoppers ● Less trusting & more skeptical of institutions (matters in what they pay attention to) ● 99% of our target market, & an increasingly growing % of IE staff

Is it Effective or Positive?

● “We need your help” ● Infographics What catches ● Videos ● Adventurous or odd student interest? cultural photos ● Travel quotes ● Useful tools or resources ● Student reviews, interviews, testimonials ● Pictures from site locations ● Contests, discounts, travel deals ● U.S. News updates ● Buzzfeed posts ● Alumni blogs ● Teach/Jobs Abroad

Mobile platforms shine! Source: Mashable

Examples of Success: Instagram Reposts Student Tag a Share tips & photos friend! tricks!

How to Find Success: Snapchat ● Program discount or app fee waiver ● Announcing new programs ● Behind the scenes look at sites ● Example: WWF’s #LastSelfie Campaign Source: TechCrunch

Examples of Success: Tumblr Source: Instagram Tumblr Source: Source: Dr. Who Source: API HuffPostTaste Tumblr Tumblr Source: Matador Network Tumblr Tumblr

Examples of Success: LinkedIn Communicate Share alumni deadlines programming Share updates, events, jobs

Examples of Success: Twitter Alumni tips! Deadlines Engage! Get their attention!

Examples of Success: Pinterest Create specific boards Provide what your audience wants Create visual, Optimize your Use existing content on a new shareable content description platform

Examples of Success: YouTube Create program specific categories Promote vlogging! Optimize your description/tags Make playlists

Examples of Success: Facebook

Actionable Next Steps How can you connect with students on your existing platforms (or new platforms) to more effectively meet your organizational and/or marketing goals?

#Hashtag Contest Challenge : Using the #NAFSA15 hashtag & #GenZMedia on Instagram, Meerkat, or Periscope, document behind the scenes life at NAFSA through an image or video Deadline : Saturday, May 30th (winner chosen the following week) Prize : Social media swag bag from GoAbroad/GoMedia, API, & St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Thanks! Any questions?

Ashley Houston Outreach Manager, GoAbroad ashley.houston@goabroad.com @midwestash Jeramy Johnson Vice President of Marketing & Development jeramy.johnson@apiabroad.com @jeramyutgw Mandy Reinig Director of International Education, St. Mary’s College of Maryland arreinig@smcm.edu @MandysMashups

References ● “Are You Prepared for Visual Social Media Marketing?” Krista Neher - ClickZ ● “Outside Voices: The Visual Web is Changing Everything in Media and Advertising” Ari Lewine, WSJ ● “The 7 Social Media Trends Dominating 2015” Jacqueline Woerner, ‘’ Emarsys ● “7 Takeaways from Social Media Marketing World 2015” Donna Moritz, SME ● “The Shift to Visual Social Media - 6 tips for Business [Infographic]” - Donna Mortiz - Socially Sorted ● “Top 9 Social Media Trends for 2015” - Ruxandra Mindruta, Brandwatch ● “Social Media and Storytelling, Part 4: The Growth of Visual Storytelling” Cameron Uganec, Hootsuite ● “Social Media Update 2014” - Maeve Duggan, Nicole B. Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Amanda Lenhart, Mary Madden, Pew Research Center ● “The Top Demographic Trends for Every Major Social Network” - Thiago Guimarães, Business Insider ● “Tumblr Overtakes Instagram as Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat is the Fastest-Growing App” - Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch ● “28 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2015 From the Pros” - Cindy King, Social Media Examiner ● “Visual Storytelling Using Social Media” - Sarah Eva Monroe - SlideShare ● “Why Your Brand will Love Snapchat in 2015” - Tom Edwards, iMediaConnection