Optimize Your Chapter's Social Media

I know that many people, including me, have wondered what they could do to use their chapter’s social media more. EVENTS! Every chapter has events: socials, formal/informal recruitment events, philanthropies, etc. Everybody, you have to admit it, wants the world to know what their chapter is doing, and how awesome it really is! Social media is the easiest and CHEAP way to do it! 

Using social media is simple! I have been saying this all along. If you are the planner or programmer of the event, if you have the time and knowledge of social media then do it! If you don't have the time or the knowledge find someone who does. If you have never learned the term delegate - social media is the best place to do it. 

Me personally, I don't use every social media platform, but there is someone in my chapter who does. I have delegated it to them to work on those platforms. If there is something that I want blasted across all medias I will just send an email with the photo or information to post! Super easy right?!? This is the quickest and best way to promote your chapter all year long, especially when an event isn't happening. 

You're probably thinking about how you can use Social Media to promote your event, well let me help! Break it down: Pre-Event, during the event, Post-Event. 

Pre-Event

Get the word out there. Make sure that you aren't solely relying on social media though. You will potentially miss an older audience and your school's community and the town surrounding. Make sure that you table, visit businesses, hang banners and flyers, and what ever else you do, but just add in the social media component. 

When you are spreading the word about the event make sure it is factual, has all of the information needed that a participant might need. Also, share your flyer in posts so that way viewers can share it as well. 

Another thing to consider is doing a mock video to get others noticing your event. Once chapter on our campus did a Harlem Shake (when it was cool) to advertise their poker tournament. Other chapters at a near by school have done a video to show the different way people run in a 5k for their event. My chapter is adopting that this year and making a video of the different kind of bowlers out there. In case you didn't catch that, we do a bowling tournament for our bigger philanthropy. 

Incorporate #TBT to your event from the past year, talk about how successful it was and how you want to make it even better this year! 

During the Event

Post pictures! Pictures of your members working the event, participating, etc. This works really well if it is a come and go event! In the spring we had our Pancake Feed, Flapjacks and Snapbacks. All throughout the event we were posting pictures of girls making and serving the pancakes, the guests at our event and women in their snapbacks. This lets those who haven't come yet or are questioning if they want to buy a ticket at the door to get over to your event as soon as they can because they don't want to miss out. Also, just reminding the community that the event is going on helps! Some people may not have looked at their ticket or have gotten swept up in the way of life and forgotten what day it actually was. 

Chapter Members at Flapjacks and Snapbacks. This photo was actually used in a "during the event" post.

Post Event

Let the community, family, friends, those who came, and those who donated how successful your event was. As soon as you know a total amount raised, share it! This will reassure that what the community and those who came to the event gave was well worth it and that it is going to a great cause! 

If you haven't been promoting a philanthropy, make sure that you let everyone know how much fun was had, if it was recruitment related: the number of women you got, or how that specific day went. A sisterhood retreat: show the craft you made or share the most memorable moment of the day! Get others interested and coming back to hear more information! 

Don't Forget!

Make sure when you are using social media that you take the time to explain what your philanthropy/event is for. 

Give a shout out to those who have donated money (if it applies). This will most likely want to get competitors to donate as well!

I hope that this will help you make your event even better! Rock that social media and get your chapter some time in the lime light. 

Until next time! 

You Don't Have to be PRVP to do Public Relations

So many women think that they have to be their Vice President of Public Relations to actively represent their sorority, FALSE! Anyone can, and technically everyone is always representing their chapter.

"You are always wearing your letters." 

If you are your respective chapter's Public Relations Chair like I am, I have some useful information for you to think about and potentially implement on your campus. SOCIAL MEDIA! Use it, it can be your best friend and it is a quick and easy way to keep the world up to date on what is happening, and doing it in real time. It is great for big events on campus like homecoming! Check out how I have been keeping our campus up to date on our chapter's successes during homecoming!

Members of our Battle of the Brains team right before the event! 

Here is a tip that I have learned, if you are managing multiple pages, make sure that you are posting to the desired page you want your information on, and not your personal page. Being a PRVP is definitely in need of a someone who is paying attention to the details! I have flubbed a few times where I have posted to my personal page, which is great because I am promoting my chapter, but then I have to go back and fix that post and send it to our page! Here is the most recent flub I had the other morning!

The post after our team won 1st Place in the Battle of the Brains Competition.

If you are using social media from a chapter stand point make sure that you are following up on what you have posted before, especially if it is a series of events, i.e. Homecoming or Greek Week.

Like I said earlier, you don't have to be your chapter's Public Relations Vice President to promote your chapter positively. You can talk up your chapter, post videos that inter/national headquarters provides, talk about events, successes, and just how awesome your sisterhood is! Social Media will get what you want out to the world quick but you know that saying "actions are louder than words" it is so true, even more so in the sorority world.

As members of sororities we are under such scrutiny from the public and those who do not know how awesome and special Greek Life is. Show your campus how awesome Greek Life is through you actions. Create a service project for around campus, volunteer in your local community, sit in the front of the class, get to know your teachers, be prompt on all assignments, and easiest of all WEAR YOUR LETTERS! You paid good money for them, why not flaunt them, I know that they are all adorable so why are you hiding them!

I love all of my letters! 

You are always wearing your letters, they are forever imprinted on your heart, make sure that the world knows that, and you as an individual have to remember that you don't have to run your chapter's public relations to help promote your chapter, for true success it has to be a chapter wide effort. I hope that this post has empowered you to get out, promote your chapter, and truly your letters and the organization that you are a part of.

Getting Your Name Out There Using Social Media

It is every sorority girl's and general organization member's dream to be that number one organization on campus and to be known by every student on campus. I wanted to share with you some tips, tricks and ideas I have learned firsthand from my position as Public Relations Vice President and Vice President of External Recruitment.

First, let me tell you a little bit about me, that way you will have full confidence that you too can make anything Public Relations possible. I am going to be a senior at the University of Nebraska-Kearney (UNK) and at my campus there hasn't been much of anything PR wise except for the last two years. In November, I was elected to both of my current positions which one is all about publicizing my chapter, and the second publicizing sorority recruitment to all of the new and current UNK students. I had no experience and I had never seen anyone really do PR who held the position before me. Have no worries though! I was able to teach myself how to use new programs and to learn from others.

To better your PR take a look at what other campuses or chapters on campus in your area are doing to get their name out there. If you see something that another chapter is doing that you like, take it, adapt it, and make it better. There is always improvement for whatever is being done, so don’t worry that you feel like you are copying someone, you are simply just building off of what they have done before. Don’t forget to check out what the fraternities are doing also! I have adapted some of their great stuff to work for my chapter!

Create pages and utilize social media for your organization. I have done this both for my chapter and our Panhellenic Council. One site is never enough! Not everyone uses the same types of social media, you want make sure that you are reaching all of your audiences! Some of the hot social media sites to use right now are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

This is the sorority life page I created for the University of Nebraska-Kearney with influence from the Sorority Life at Indiana State University page. 

Facebook will allow you to reach to your current members, those new to your school and alumnae as well! Not only can you reach a wider audience, you will be able to post longer stories, share what others have to say and can have members promote more prominently than twitter! Twitter is great for the sweet and short to the point updates! One thing to consider doing is promoting your longer Facebook stories that exceed the 140 character limit by linking them in your tweet and having all of your chapter members re-tweet the story. Instagram is great for showing what is happening now, in present time. Pintrest is any easy way to show your chapter style, collect future ideas and share with the world your old ideas.

This seems super overwhelming right? Don’t let it be! There are great programs out there that let you plan out your posts! My favorite is HootSuite. You can plan out your posts in advance allowing you to get a great deal of your posts done in between 8-5, rather than feeling like you have to sit at your computer with your sites pulled up at all hours of the day. Also learn to delegate. It helps to have one person in charge of each social media, so that way they can implement your ideas but keep track and have more time to work on each of the social media platforms.

I hope you have found this post useful on how to integrate social media sites in promoting your chapter or council! Have questions or comments, feel free to leave them and we will get back to you! Once again thanks for coming to the LP Blog!