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♬ Social Media Manual ♬
Project Team Anne Marie Dumain
Matthew Holtz Mohammad Shihab
Mohammed Saihood Lina Eshaq
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♬ Introduction & Goals - p. 3 - 4 ♬ Social Media Platforms
♮Facebook - p. 4 - 5 ♮Twitter - p. 5 ♮Instagram - p. 6 - 7 ♮Pinterest - p. 7 - 8
♬ Management - p. 8 ♬ Measurement - p. 9 ♬ Contact Information - p. 10
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♬ Introduction
For an organization, social media is more than just an online “loudspeaker” to make announcements – it creates great opportunities for storytelling and for starting conversations. Having a positive online presence will “humanize” the VCU Department of Music and make it seem more relatable, ultimately strengthening the department’s existing ties with the Richmond community. There are several goals that social media can help VCU Music to achieve.
♬ Goals
Attract Prospective Students Social media profiles are a great way to attract prospective students to the music program at VCU. A strong online presence with engaging content will help potential students “get to know” the department better and motivate them apply and audition.
Promote Events With over 200 events a year, the department has many opportunities to utilize social media to promote events, but this goes beyond just announcing the information.
Engage the Community Social media makes it easier than ever for members of the general public to create a dialogue between themselves and large organizations. It’s important to give the public opportunities for feedback and discussion, which will ultimately help the department determine what’s working – and what isn’t.
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Build Relationships Supporting and interacting with other arts organizations in the greater Richmond area is a great way to build lasting partnerships and further strengthen ties to the community
Social Media Platform Guidelines
Facebook Facebook is the most highly used of all social media. For this reason, it is important to maintain a very active presence. Aim to update at least once per day.
So far, VCU Music has a well-established Facebook page. The department has done a great job of sharing relevant content on Facebook from other pages (news websites, etc.). It’s important to keep this up, but it’s also important to post original content too. Much of this content can come from Instagram, which will be discussed later.
Remember to keep events posted on the calendar feature to make sure people know about the specifics of the time and place of the function. Make sure to share relevant posts from the other social
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media platforms also, this will make sure our audience is well informed. Interact with people in the comments as often as can, it will make people feel connected to you.
Twitter Twitter is also a heavily used social networking site based on sharing 140-character text updates (known as “tweets”). Engagement on Twitter should consist of original content tweets to ideally be posted three or more times per day.
This is not always possible due to time restrictions, so retweeting relevant content from other accounts at least two times per day will still keep the VCU Music name on our followers’ feeds. People discover content on Twitter by searching hashtags, for example, #RVA. Using hashtags will allow VCU Music’s tweets to be discovered more easily - some good hashtags to use are #RVA, #VCU, and #music. Use the hashtags #tbt (throwback Thursday), #fbf (flashback Friday) when appropriate to coincide with the Instagram postings with the same themes.
Try to avoid following users that are not related to VCU Music, especially overtly political, religious, or controversial users. Following accounts related to visual and performing arts, education, Richmond and VCU is ideal.
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Instagram Instagram is a popular photo and video sharing app that gives users a variety of options for sharing enhanced visual media. Instagram enables users to adjust the look of photos and videos with filters, cropping, and options to adjust for brightness/contrast/saturation.
Instagram should be used to tell the story of VCU Music. Try to update at least once per day with relevant original content. This can include photos of staff, events, or even “behind-the scenes” at rehearsals. Short 15-second videos are also good to share to add some variety to the feed.
Like Twitter, users find content on Instagram by searching hashtags. Good tags to use are #RVA, #VCU, and #music. If a specific instrument is featured, tag that too, ex. #guitar. Try to use at least one hashtag with each post, but don’t go overboard, ideally no more than five. Some hashtag ideas: #tbt (throwback Thursday) and #fbf (flashback Friday) for sharing old photos, or #rehearselfie for
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pictures of students, alumni, or faculty taking “selfies” while rehearsing.
To enhance photography for Instagram, see these helpful tips: (http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/iphone-photography-tips/). Also, consider using free apps like PicStitch to make collages with multiple photos or PicLab for more enhanced filters and editing options. Although they are separate apps, they allow for easy integration with Instagram and will make the subjects of your photos shine.
Pinterest is a social bookmarking website conceptualized around the idea of a “bulletin board.” Users create “boards” of their own in
various categories and then “pin” relevant images and links to their boards. For example, someone might create a “Birthday Party Ideas” board with links to cake recipes, game ideas, and craft tutorials. The “boards” and content that you “pin” to them can be as specific or as general as you want.
The VCU Music Pinterest was created with the following “boards”: VCU Music, Guitar, Music Education, Voice, Piano, Strings, Woodwinds/Brass/Percussion, Jazz, World Music, Just for Fun, Quotes and Music for Your Mouth (music-inspired food). These boards are just a starting point – more can be created at any time. Get creative! Some ideas for future boards: Music History, The Science of Music,
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Musical Fashion, Music in Art, Books About Music, Movies About Music, Great Performance Spaces, Music Technology, Career Tips for Musicians.
For the instrument-specific boards, it is good to pin content that will appeal to players at a variety of skill levels as well as non-players. Beginner practice tips, advanced techniques, tutorials on instrument care, pictures of quirky or unusual instruments – the options are limitless.
Fortunately, Pinterest is not as time-sensitive as other social media because people often browse by specific topics. It is advisable to pin as often as possible, but a few times a week is fine.
To find content, browse the “Film, Music, and Books” section or use the site’s “search” feature to find things related to a specific topic, ex. “music jokes” or “jazz technique.” Follow as many music-related boards as possible, as this will make it easier to find content. Install the Pin-It button on your browser for easy pinning from any website (https://about.pinterest.com/en/goodies).
Managing the Accounts HootSuite Managing all of these platforms can be challenging, however applications such as Hootsuite can be used to have all of the feeds from all platforms on one “dashboard.” This minimizes the time spent jumping from site to site to check each account. Hootsuite can also be used to post to each of these platforms, as well as schedule posts for any time you choose. If you do choose to schedule posts, aim for around noon or five o’clock, when users are most active.
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Measuring Success Measuring the success of social media can be achieved through various means, mainly through website analytics. Facebook has an excellent page analytics section that will give you data on your reach and likes while displaying this information in graphs. If the desired amount of likes is not achieved, promotion of posts can be done for around ten dollars, and can reach many thousands of people. Like Facebook, Twitter also has an analytics section. It tells you important information such as link clicks, retweets, and favorites. In addition to built-in analytics on Facebook and Twitter, HootSuite also has built-in analytics. Tools such as Iconosquare can be used through a free trial to see detailed Instagram analytics also in graph form. Finally, success on Pinterest can be measure through its own built in analytics on the website in order to see how many people are pinning your posts, seeing your pins, and clicking your content. This is another very useful tool for measuring engagement, and it is important to check these analytics sites at least once a week to measure the progress of each profile.. The goal across all of these social media platforms is to attract relevant users on a consistent basis. A steady increase in followers across all platforms is to be expected if original content can be posted in a timely and consistent manner.
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Contact Information
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with you! Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Anne Marie Dumain [email protected]
Matthew Holtz [email protected]
Mohammad Shihab [email protected]
Mohammed Saihood [email protected]
Lina Eshaq [email protected]
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