Note about track sessions

Building Block

These sessions focus on topics that are (or will be) fundamental to the planning, implementation and measurement of social media programs for advancement.

Advanced

These sessions, which presume that participants are comfortable and experienced with social media platforms and concepts, engage with some of the more complex and ambiguous topics that are emerging as social media programs in advancement become more sophisticated.

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
CASE Simulcast Sessions

Day 1, Wednesday, April 18

Noon-1:00 PM
Registration

1:00-1:15
Welcome and Introductions

1:15-2:30
Keynote Address

2:45-4:00
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• BUILDING BLOCK
  

  

  What Do I Say? Content Ideas for Your Social Media Channels
  It bears repeating, content is king. If you are just getting started with a social media channel, it can be daunting to figure out what to say. Even those of us who have been doing this for a while experience an occasional dry spell or suffer through good, old-fashioned writer’s block. Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned pro, coming up with good stuff to use on your institution’s social media channels is sometimes challenging. This session will present some suggestions.

   

• ADVANCED
  Strategy and Social Media in Alumni Affairs and Fundraising
  When we struggle to answer questions about social media ROI, it's often because we're responding to the wrong questions with the wrong data. We need to view our alumni audiences on social platforms as online communities that present many of the same engagement opportunities as the offline communities that have been at the core of alumni affairs and development for more than a century. This perspective enables us to adapt things that we already do well to the social web space, as well as identify potential synergies between online and offline communities. Moreover, it allows us to link our social web efforts to the broader strategic goals that already inform our advancement efforts. And most importantly, it allows our engagement strategies to evolve in a way that takes into account the inconvenient truth that our alumni are now living more and more of their lives online.

4:15-5:30

Succeeding With Social Media

During this session, we'll look at what we learned in our third year of conducting the CASE/mStoner/Slover Linett survey on social media in advancement. What's changed—and what has stayed the same? How have schools, colleges and universities responded to external demands for stronger, more engaging social channels? How have staffing, management and policies shifted internally to keep up with these needs? Explore these and other findings. This year, we focused more sharply on success, probing on particular tools, practices and tactics of social media that help institutions to achieve successful outcomes. We'll look at what our data reveals about the characteristics of successful campaigns and institutions on social media.

5:30-6:30
Networking Reception

6:30
Conference Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own

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Day 2, Thursday, April 19

8:00-9:00 AM
Breakfast Roundtables

9:00-10:15
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• BUILDING BLOCK
  Social Media for Young Alumni: Good Servant or Bad Master?
  The graduates of the last decade are more likely to see social media as an evolution than a revolution. Knowing this, colleges and universities need to take due care to ensure their interactions through these mediums are engaging without being intrusive. Yes, young alumni are adept at all of the established and many of the emerging social technologies. That makes interacting with them in an impactful way something that requires exploring different perspectives and taking the conversation beyond a Facebook page to build an integrated community.

• ADVANCED
  

  

  Connect Your Own Dots: Social Media Integration as a Best Practice for Marketing and Communications
  Your audiences experience your brand and hear from you through a long list of social media and non-social media channels, and you shouldn't expect them to connect the dots. You need to develop an institutional plan that will allow you to stay on message across multiple communication channels using everything from social media aggregators to editorial calendars to social media campaigns. Not only that, a social media strategy isolated from your broader communication strategy is a risk. We'll share specifics and demonstrate best practices through case studies from educational institutions.

10:30-11:45
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• BUILDING BLOCK
  

  

  Recruiting Using Social and Mobile: “There's an app(roach) for that!” What You Need to Know
  How do you stand apart from your competition and become a top choice for prospective students? Gone are the days of one-way messaging and traditional brand marketing. It's all about real-time marketing and fostering engagement with your target market set. At this session you will learn how to integrate new media and technology into traditional marketing and communications channels and leave with five take-aways you can implement immediately.

• ADVANCED
  Geo-Social Nonsense: The Future of Location-Based Services and Their Role in Mobile Development
  Geo-social applications like Facebook, Foursquare, Yelp and others have received a lot of attention over the past year, and higher ed institutions are beginning to adopt them in interesting ways. But are they worth the hype? Discuss the sustainability of geo-location apps as they exist today, how they will likely evolve, and why these nascent forms of location-based social media will become the backbone of what mobile looks like in the future.

11:45 AM-1:45 PM
Lunch on your own

1:45-3:00
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• BUILDING BLOCK
  

  

  SM Analytics
  He who has the most followers doesn't always win. There are a number of tools available to measure the success of a social media program. The challenge is determining which metrics are actually meaningful. Explore the ways to measure effectiveness on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

• ADVANCED
  Social Media and the President
  Today, social media is pervasive. Not only are presidents expected to communicate with important constituents through social tools like Facebook and Twitter, but many recognize them as channels that allow them to amplify their messages. This session offers ideas on how presidents can maximize their use of social media—and why social channels are an important component of today's communications mix.

3:15-4:30
Elective Sessions (choose one)

• BUILDING BLOCK
  

  

  Plan Now, So You Don't Panic Later: How to Make Social Media Work for Crisis Communications
  Social media are unequivocally proven as powerful communication tools, but what about during times of crisis? Do the rules of social media engagement change when an emergency strikes? In this session, we'll view social media and crisis communications through the lens of the Sept. 28, 2010, shooting incident at the University of Texas at Austin. Social media, along with channels such as web, text alerts, email and sirens, were used to inform the campus and local community of the emergency situation. We'll explore the successes and challenges experienced while communicating during the campus lockdown and discuss the tools and channels, roles and responsibilities, the communication time line, technology considerations, the community response and lessons learned.

• ADVANCED
  Location, Location, Location: Where You Place in Search Engine Results Matters
  Have you ever considered how SEO affects your brand? Or, how you might increase your prospect pool by boosting your position in search results? Learn about how Loyola University Chicago is embarking on an SEO content-based marketing strategy using tactics beyond just targeted keywords. You'll leave this session with immediate take-aways on how to begin optimizing to increase your rankings in the search engines and deliver measurable ROI.

4:30
Conference Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own

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Day 3, Friday, April 20

8:00-9:00 AM
Breakfast Roundtables

9:00-10:15
Keynote Address
Speaker: Sarah Evans, Owner, Sevans Strategy

10:30-11:45
Future Trends of Social Media Panel

11:45 AM-Noon
Conference Wrap-up

Noon
Conference Adjourns

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