DE-DC-MD ASFAA November 8, 2011

 Why use social networking?  How to use social networking ◦ Introduction to Facebook and Twitter  Watching for trends  Proper sharing for financial aid professionals

 Make connections ◦ Students ◦ Schools and/or departments at your university ◦ Financial aid offices at other universities ◦ Financial aid groups (i.e. NASFAA)

 Be proactive to combat confusion ◦ Deadlines  FAFSA  Scholarships ◦ Timing  What are the most confusing times of year?  Post tweets that could help in advance ◦ Faster than updating a web site!

 Watch trends ◦ What are financial aid professionals discussing? ◦ What are common themes among posts from students? ◦ What information is coming from DOE?

FACEBOOKTWITTER  People “like” your page  Your updates appear on their “news feed”  Provide updates which can ◦ Vary in length ◦ Contain readily visible photos and link previews  People “follow” you  Your tweets appear in their “timeline”  Provide short, timely updates ◦ 140 characters or less ◦ Usually link to longer external content

 Visit twitter.com  Set up a new profile for your office  Make it public ◦ If you make it private, no one will be able to see your tweets unless you allow them to follow you ◦ No sensitive info should be posted via Twitter, so a private profile should not be necessary

 Visit Facebook.com  Create a profile for your office  Use your profile to create a “Page” ◦ The profile is the “administrator” of the page ◦ Once the page is created, place a link to it on your office’s web site

 Topics ◦ A topic is “trending” if enough people tweet about it at the same time ◦ Search financial aid topics to see what groups are tweeting about  Hashtags ◦ Users can label a tweet with a hashtag ◦ Use the # sign and the word you want to label your tweet with

 #finaid ◦ Note to Students: Take the earphones off before approaching the customer service counter. We should not have to ask 3x if you have #finaid#finaid  #pell ◦ 10,000,000 Pell Grant recipients in US today; 24% are African-Americans, 21% are Latino, says John Wison, Director of WH HBCU initiative  #financialaid ◦ So the new dir of financial aid at my seminary just sent everyone a link to sign the petition for student loan forgiveness... HE ROCKS!!

 Facebook is less about popularity and more about sharing ◦ View reactions to your posts and comments ◦ People can leave comments all in one place ◦ NOTE: Do not worry if only a few people “like” your page  Few may like it, but far more may view it  Some people may not want their friends to know they “like” a financial aid office!

 “Help me plz”  “Why is tuition so high? How much is credit per hour? this seems kinda ridiculous!”  “The state needs to get with it! Classes two weeks away and they still don't know how much they are going to be? Good grief!” – regarding yet to be released tuition rates

 Social networking is for informational purposes only  Nothing can replace the guidance of a financial aid counselor.  Every student’s need and financial aid package may be different  Audience must know the difference between an online post and the actual advice of a financial aid professional.

 Before you share any information from the pages of other users read the content! ◦ Twitter: Copy a tweet by “retweeting” ◦ Facebook: Copy a post by “share”  Just because you know a person or a group does not mean that you can automatically ensure the quality or accuracy of the content they share.  Always check the links before you share them.

 Separate personal from professional!  The office page is not a place for one staff member to post their personal opinions.  A Twitter or Facebook page is an online professional presence scripted by a person within the office.

 Pick someone who: ◦ is NOT impulsive ◦ pays great attention to details ◦ has solid communication skills  Do not have too many account users.  Several people may have ideas or content to contribute but you want to send a consistent message.

 Interaction - Wall provides more real estate than Twitter for communicating with others.  Privacy – If you want people to “like” your organization or group, you will have to create a public page so that people can find it.  Content control – You control who can post on your wall.  Depth of information –Keep it generic for the sake of privacy and compliance.

 Keep it short: Timely, short updates (140 characters or less with links included).  Make an introduction: Tweets can be used to introduce a topic and then lead readers to a page which has its content hosted elsewhere.  Identifying trends: You can perform a real- time search to view what people are talking about.  Dissemination: Quick way to share, less space for interaction.