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All posts by Steph Ricca

Facebook Sponsored Stories – How They Work for Colleges

An Introduction to Sponsored Stories

We all know the biggest influencers in our lives are friends and family. So in advertising the power of seeing recommendations and ‘following a trend’ is extremely effective.

Most friends want to go to the same college as each other, so why not advertise your college courses & open days to your colleges Facebook fans’ friends? The added bonus of featuring their friends” recommendation in the ad will influence their them to respond to your advert and ultimately become a student at your college!

Here’s how it works:

All content is displayed on your fans news feeds, however, when you create a sponsored story it is also displayed on the right hand side of their profile.

There are currently 3 types of sponsored stories:

1.    Page Like Stories

 

 

 

These ads promote your Facebook page to the friends of your Facebook page fans. They include the friend who likes the page in the ad.

2.    Page Post Stories

 

 

 

 

 

These ads promote your latest page wall post and can only be seen by the fans of your page. When you make a new post these ads will change automatically, keeping your fans up to date with all your news.

3.    Page Post Like Stories

 

 

 

 

 

These ads promote your wall posts to fans of your page and their connections. They include the fan who likes the post in the ad.

Sponsored Stories are an effective way of spreading the good work of your college, if you would like any social media advice, information about tagging your college on Facebook or if you would like us to run Sponsored Stories for your College then please get in touch.

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Net Natives’ Workshops College Feedback

Net Natives provide Social Media Workshops to colleges across the UK. These 45 minute webinars focus on specific areas of relevance. From reviewing your current website through to best practice on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, giving Colleges top tips and techniques to engage and attract with students and businesses using the relevant social platforms.

The workshops are followed up with a detailed and bespoke  activity pack with recommendations that came out of the session. If you want to attend one of the webinars, just get in touch with steph@netnatives.co.uk

The webinar was great as it provided a forum for me to pick up some useful hints and tips on the college social media strategy, and I have already put some of the strategies into place. Through speaking to Net Natives I can see that their knowledge on social media is second to none!”

Havering College F & HE

“Some great hints and tips and a very good understanding of the FE sector. Net Natives were concise and managed to fit the training in very well at such short notice.”

City College Brighton and Hove

“We all really enjoyed it and thought it was very comprehensive and your recommendations extremely useful. Thanks Net Natives!!! We’ll be in touch :-)

North Warwickshire & Hinckley College

“The workshop was very beneficial and all who attended the workshop thought it was worthwhile attending and very informative. Thanks”

Warrington Collegiate

“Really helpful, thank you. Very knowledgeable and down to earth.”

Ruskin College

The Net Natives’ SM Workshop has been very helpful for us. It has given us some really good starting points so that we can really get the most out of the various platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). Even as a regular Facebook User I was given some very useful pointers! The training has also highlighted various areas in which we need to create strategies. Net  Natives have a very friendly approach and are a pleasure to speak to. They have an excellent ability to explain things in a very easy-to-understand way!

Richard Huish College

Net Native are very knowledgeable and provided a great deal of food for thought and a better idea of what’s available to us. A particular strength of the workshop was being able to see examples of what could be achieved by looking at facebook and twitter, linked in pages. Another strength of the workshop is that we have been provided with recommendations to help take things forward. Thank you”

Lowestoft College

Would like to work with you in future on our Facebook advertising strategy. Thank you, it’s a pleasure to speak with you

York College

“Useful to have an expert’s perspective on current activity”

Sparsholt College

Really useful recommendations from the workshop. Your knowledge of how social networking can be used effectively was particularly impressive and we have already put some of the recommendations into practise. Thank you.”

Blackpool Sixth

“The webinar was great, though we felt a bit overwhelmed with all that we have to do now!!! We will be in touch again shortly to get cracking on it and are looking forward to continuing to work with NetNatives on some new and exciting projects.”

Stanmore College

“I did find the webinar v useful…It is a difficult balance as marketers are obviously skeptical about taking up a free offer and then the webinar being overtly used to sell your services (which all credit to you, you avoided and just focused on helping us, thank you). Thank you very much for your time and for the inspiration – I did find it really useful and it helped me to look at our social media presence with an invigorated and fresh approach.”

Newcastle-under-Lyme College

Net Natives were great and talked us through the options in a very clear and precise way with great examples of work you’d already done – thank you!”

Leeds City College

Great session to focus the mind and make us think more about why and how we are doing things via social media. Thanks”

Morley College

Very interesting and useful meeting”

BCA

“Net Natives spoke knowledgeably and provided some excellent insights and techniques for “quick wins” that we will be implementing. The session has also left us with much to consider with regards to future development and strategy.”

West Thames College

“Session was helpful, highlighted some things that had gone unoticed. Was nice to speak to a company that had ideas above the generic “get on social media or lose out” patter most send my way.”

City of Sunderland College

The webinar was excellent. It was clear and easy to follow. The presenter was very likeable and explained any questions I raised. Some great hints and tools gained. Thank you very much.”

Thomas Rotherham College

Net Natives are extremely helpful and knowledgeable!

Chesterfield College

If you would like to take part in a Net Natives’ Workshop, please get in touch to arrange a time and date which suits you! Or just email steph@netnatives.co.uk and she will arrange the session.

 

 

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South Thames College – Facebook Page & Advertising Case Study

After attending Net Natives’ Free Social Media Workshop, South Thames College were amazed at the potential of using Facebook to recruit new students.

They jumped straight in, using our Facebook Advertising Service and were overwhelmed with the results we produced. For their summer courses South Thames College received 760 responses from which, they had 140 course applications! Let’s see what South Thames have to say…

Net Natives put together a Facebook campaign for us that increased applications for the advertised programme tenfold. As well as getting a great response to the advert they also gave us a lot of help in getting our web page set up to maximise conversions. From advising us on setting up the adverts through to providing analysis after the campaign ended we got a great service on a limited budget.”

With their social media strategy being implemented based upon Net Natives’ free recommendations, South Thames College approached us on the next stage of their social media journey – to build them a fully interactive and branded Facebook page.  And we are as pleased as they are with the end product. Click the image below to have a look for yourself!

Click me to see South Thames College's New Facebook Page

 

There was great engagement on their Facebook page already, however they only had 64 fans. We found 15 different Facebook Pages for South Thames College including community pages and unofficial pages. To ensure they receive the most from their page we then merged all affiliated pages together and increased their fan count by 842 connections! A 729% increase in fans/connections over night!

This is what South Thames College have to say about Net Natives’ Social Media strategies and services…

I’ve loved working with Net Natives, they’re  efficient, informative, professional and fun to work alongside. They’ve come up with some really creative ideas with solid calls to action that have brought our Facebook page to life, increasing our fans from 64 to nearly 1000 overnight! They really know their stuff and have delivered on everything we asked for and more. I need to find another excuse for a project so I can work with them again. I would thoroughly recommend Net Natives to anyone!”

Jade Watson, South Thames College

If you would like any social media advice, want us to merge your Facebook pages, would like a Facebook page then please get in touch.

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Choosing your Facebook Wall Images

This is a common question that our clients have been asking us “How do we choose which 5 images go at the top of our wall on our Facebook Business Page?”

How it works:

Currently you cannot choose the 5 images which are displayed at the top of your wall, the images are automatically uploaded onto your wall when your organisation is tagged. However, you can remove the images which you do not want to display on your wall by pressing the little ‘X’ in the top right hand corner of the images.

Top tip:

If you’re promoting events, tag images relating to that event with your business name so they appear at the top of your page and are seen by your target audience!

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