This presentation explores how the explosion of the Internet and social media tools have changed our society...and how in turn that affects marketing and promotional strategies, both personally and organizationally speaking. With a focus on higher ed institutions, innovative uses of Facebook, Twitter, and RSS to increase university constituency engagement are also discussed.
USPS® Forced Meter Migration - How to Know if Your Postage Meter Will Soon be...
Social Media & New Technologies in Higher Education
1. Social Media & New Technologies …innovative uses in higher education by Lauren McSwain-Starrett Friday, September 4, 2009
2. Topics About Me & About You Who’s Searching for You Online? How Social Media Has Changed Our Society (as well as Marketing & Promotion) Types of Popular Social Media Tools What Social Media Can Do for You Social Media Tools Provide Universities with Constituent Engagement Some Social Media Tools in Action at Higher Ed Institutions: Facebook, Twitter, RSS Where to Go From Here
3. A Little About Me… Getting your “vanity URL” on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and/or buying your own domain name, if applicable, is not vain – it’s just smart. Search terms in URLs come up higher in search results, so doing this helps you control what comes up when people search for you online (whether that’s you, personally, or you, your institution or organization).
4. A Little About You… Survey Results: Which Tools Are You Using?
5. A Little About You… Survey Results: What Are Your Reservations about Social Media?
6. A Little About You… Survey Results: Your Feelingsabout Social Media “I've used lots of these tools professionally, but I’d love tobe more effective.” “I’ve used these, but don't have the time to stay heavily involved.” “I don't buy into the ‘hype’—as fast as you learn one social media, there's another one.” “Social media is very necessary professionally, so I'm open to learning more.” “I’m not interested. I have work to do.” Ok, but know that social media tools can help you do the work!
7. Who’s Looking for You Online? Personally – Everyone is… People aresearching your name; what are they finding? An extension of your resume; does it help or hurtyou? Organizationally – Potential customers are… Can your audience/customers find your org? An extension of your marketing; if you don’t own your brand online, someone else will! And, be aware of the flip side, too… And yes, spammers, stalkers, and criminals may be looking, too.So just be smart –here’s what not to do. Don’t: Upload pics of your sweet new flatscreen TV. Post your home’s cool floor plan. Update your status to tell everyone you’re going on vacation. Your TV just might not be there when you get back! Be judicious in what you post and you’ll be fine.
8. The World Has Changed.… Social media tools and the Internet have “democratized” opinions, giving everyone a voice and a channel for grievances. United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way: ignore social media sites at your peril! The hit song “United Breaks Guitars,” posted on YouTube, did some serious PR damage to the airline, and demonstrates the power of the Internet when things “go viral.” “United Breaks Guitars” became a topcountry music download on iTunes
9. And So Marketing Has Changed… Then… Now… Personally – Self-promotion is unnecessary or even braggy; people will pick up on your achievements on their own, and you’ll earn the recognition you deserve Organizationally – Marketing is direct; a carefully-planned, one-way transmission with you talking to your audience, in hopes they’ll be convinced Personally – Self-promotion is essential to making yourself findable, owning your accomplishments, and framing how you and whatever you care about is seen Organizationally – Marketing is engagement; a two-way conversation, talking with your audience, building brand awareness, so if something “goes viral, you have advocates
11. What Can Social Media Do for You? Make you more valuable at work. Inform you of industry news, trends, movers & shakers Enable you to share resources, news stories, etc. Find you new, better work Extend your sphere of influence. Promote services, events, or causes you believe in Maintain a recruiting channel to find needed talent Broaden your audience. Build awareness of your issue or service Ensure “the real you” is easily found in searches Create a two-way dialogue with your customers/users Foster collaboration. Connect geographically separated staff, customers Share presentations, documents, images, resources
12. Social Media Tools ProvideConstituent Engagement For example: At the University of Virginia, you can… Become a fan of UVa’s official Facebook Page Follow UVa on Twitter Join UVa-affiliated departmental or alumni groups Watch UVa’s official channel Check out UVa podcasts & vodcasts Get UVa news & events delivered to you via RSS News Multimedia Social Networking
16. Higher Ed Uses of Facebook:Flyers for Advertising UVa used a Facebook flyer to drive student interest in a 2008 campus event during the Official Google Bus Tour. For less than $20, Facebook let us carefully target our ad to our desired audience. We got ~65,000 student impressions, an incredible return on investment for a tiny ad buy!
21. Hashtags – e.g., #grapevineBut… Isn’t It Mundane?? Well, it can be…But, tweets can also be very pertinent.You choose who you follow; you build your network around others with similar interests. If you’re following the right people & organizations for you, they’ll often clue you into websites you should check out, new trends you should know about, relevant news stories, etc. It’s true that your stream will also include non-professional things. But you may still reap benefits from hearing a good joke or learning about a cool new restaurant opening or something.
31. Where to Go From Here… 0. Get on social media sites now, if you aren’t already. Don’t fail to leverage a major communication vehicle! Keep your personal & organizational profile page fresh. Update your resume, post a recent image and/or status update, share useful links, news, rich media, etc. Be patient; it’s a long-term investment. Think slow & steady—viral marketing takes time. Keep safety in mind. Think before you post. Check default privacy settings. Make the most of your limited time. Use RSS!!! De-clutter your News Feed. Set Friend Lists. On more than one site? Use tools to post to all at once. Keep experimenting and learning more. Visit mcswain-starrett.com for more detailed tips.
32. Contact Info for Questions facebook.com/mcswainstarrett linkedin.com/in/mcswainstarrett twitter.com/mcswainstarrett mcswain-starrett.com
Notes de l'éditeur
And last but not least, there was this comment.Whoever said this: you are the person whose mind I’m going to try to change today!
PersonallyLong-lost friends,Colleagues, Family members, Neighbors, Old schoolmates, Conferences, Former work friendsPotential employers - 45% of companies are checking out potential employees’ social pages, a number which has about doubled in 2 years.ProfessionallyCurrent and Students, Prospective students, Faculty and staff, Parents, Alumni, Donors, Stakeholders too, Recruits, New hires – employees, LocalsFlip SideTVSpammers, stalkers
Dave Caroll couldn’t get United Airlines to give him compensation for the damage to his $3500 guitar – he saw the baggage handlers – and he spend over a year filing complaints and dealing with customer service reps who wouldn’t help him until he got so fed up he wrote a song, “UBG,” and named and shamed the airline by posting it in a YouTube video.The first 24 hours, he got 460 views. Then it went viral. 3M views in 10 days. Now, a month later? Almost 6M. His song became breakout hit, too. He put it up on iTunes for sale and it became the #1 cmdw.As for United Airlines? Well, after the public outcry and the international media attention, they finally listened. They offered him $1200 in vouchers afterwards to cover the cost of the repairs he’d paid out of his own pocket.And…United’s stock price plummeted 10% in the 4 days immediately after he posted the video on YouTube, losing $180M in value for its shareholders. That would have bought…oh, 51K replacement guitars.One negative blog entry or video can “go viral,” creating an overnight PR disaster for your organization – ignore social media at your peril!More people receive their news from social media sites than the New York Times & CNNSocial media tools have democratized opinions, given everyone a voice and a channel for grievances - Make your voice heardAirlines scrambling to deal with complaints on Twitter, negative feedback on YouTube
Manage what people find when they search for you – take control of your online presenceUtilize social media tools to build relationships with your customers – so if something “goes viral,” you gain supporters and advocates
Now, Facebook and Twitter, you’ve already heard a lot about…and we’ll talk more about those in depth in a moment, but some of these other tools, you may not know as much about so let me give you a quick overview.Social networking sites Big players, Younger users,Older users,Professional networking, Niche sitesBlogs Today there are 112 million blogs worldwide. 60-75% of all Web users read blogs (whether they are aware of it or not).Updater tools save timeOnline Dating Sites Big players, Niche sitesNews gathering, sharing, and tagging tools through RSSPeer review portalsConsumer-to-consumer salesShared Media Photo, Music, VideoOnline collaboration toolsSlideShare17M monthly visitors,50M monthly page views
Make you more valuable at work.Connect with experts, share relevant links and articles with colleagues - Facebook allows you to do this but so does LinkedIn and Twitter.Search for common terms of interest and find people in similar situations, who write about similar activitiesPost a question to your followers on Twitter or to your friends on FB and watch the advice roll in! Open dialogue you didn’t even imagine.It is who you know. Make your resume easily searchable/findable. Use LinkedIn. You can also request endorsements and offer them to others. Keep your name top-of-mind with connectors and people who may be hiring. Remind people about what you do.Extend your sphere of influence.Raise your profile. Or your office, school, or department’s profile.Advertise for jobs – need some student interns for your office? Try FB advertising!Broaden your audience.Build rapport and trust; enable people to see the face behind the business of your school, office, department, program.Students will apply to, and staff will want to work at, a place where they like the people.Make sure that you capture the social media names you want to represent you (this is similar to the URL land grab of the late ’90s). Register your name & identity before someone else does! This is true on Twitter and Facebook particularly…Give people several different ways to find and connect with you, so that they can do what is easiest and most convenient for them.Foster collaboration.SlideShare, Google Tools, even sharing photos via Flickr for real-time collaboration and sharing of resources
FacebookIn a 2006 study conducted by polling firm specializing in the college student market research, Facebook was named as the second most popular thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and sex, and only being ranked lower than the iPod.4th most visited website in the world; the #1 site for photos (ahead of many others like Flickr), about 28 million/day 65M FB for mobile usersDespite popular perception, teenagers make up just about 12% of the overall Facebook audience. In fact, there are more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today.Fastest-growing group on Facebook – women over age 35.
Facebook has several different useful options; personal profile pages, public profile or “fan” pages, plus group membershippagesMany larger universities have multiple accounts across various channels that are specific to departments or schools (i.e., Twitter, YouTube,Facebook accounts for the medical school, English department, admissions office, etc.) and oftentimes the school’s news service or public affairs office will pick out information that could appeal to the broader audience and share it through the general university account
Ability to do ads, flyers, etc.Facebook enables nanotargeted advertising – incredible precision.We set up an “event” on Facebook. We could have also set up a Public Profile – a “Page.”We got 65,000 impressions among our students with an $18 ad buy. Not much else compares to that.
Emergency notificationsTragedies do happen. Esp. since VATech.Students check their Facebook more often than their school’s e-mail accounts. With tools like Facebook and Twitter, some schools are finding it easier and quicker to spread news during an emergency. Significant cost savings of using Twitter.Swine fluMajor EventsLive tweets during commencement, conferences, guest speakers - providing a place for the university community to engage and participate in the event as it’s happening. Live streaming video or collecting tweets during an event through a common hashtagPublicizing Good NewsHighlight their experts and theresources they make available to the publicDistributing selected news clips in a way that’s timely but that doesn’t run afoul of copyright rulesRepost U. news in MSM and use as a publishing tool in itself to connect directly with their audiences.Campus FiguresBusy deans and program directors who don’t have time to keep up a blog but can find time to put out 140 characters every so often
News headlines, blog entries, sports scores, stock quotes, weather forecasts, podcasts, recipes, movie screenings, movie reviews, TV listings, travel deals, traffic reports…There’s an RSS feed for that!If you regularly visit websites like that and are not using RSS, you are wasting your own valuable time!When new material is posted at websites of interest to you…RSS delivers the update to you automatically…without you needing to remember to check manually for updates. Just read at your own convenience!Trouble? Nope. RSS can be set up in just seconds. And you can customize your subscription to the format to works best for you!
UVa has a page which pulls together the various RSS feeds available all over campus. News, calendars, events, lectures, sports venues, even computer downtimes are all available as RSS feeds, which you can then subscribe to. Schools, departments, offices, athletic facilities, etc. all post.UVa’s public affairs and external relations office posts UVa headlines too – sort of an internal UVa news service for faculty and staff. Great to subscribe to.You may want to subscribe to the Wash Post or NYT Education feeds, or feeds from other news sites you visit often like the Chron of Higher Ed.
Today we’ve highlighted 3 tools which have, hopefully, shown you that even if you went into this feeling like “I’m not interested, I have work to do” that actually these tools can help you get that work done!Whether personally or organizationally, if you’re not on, people are searching for you and not finding you. Don’t fail to leverage a major communication vehicle. Or discount the way these tools have changed our world. You saw what happened to United Airlines. They ignored social media at their peril!Keeping your online presence fresh inspires confidence in you or your organization. It’s not too hard – just a moment every few days or maybe couple of weeks to share something useful that you’d probably mention at the watercooler anyway. This is true whether you’re on FB, Twitter, or have a blog. Get online and update your resume, add endorsements, on LinkedIn.Be patient, think long-term investment and compound interest. Though social networking sites are free to use, they are still investments in the sense that they need to be worked at over time in order to reach their full viral potential. This is true whether you’re cultivating a personal presence online or an organizational one. It takes time to build a fan base on FB or a following on Twitter. Keep at it!Keep safety in mind. Don’t just accept default privacy settings. On FB, block, don’t just ignore, unwanted apps. Carefully select who you share what with.Protect your limited time. Use RSS. Declutter your NF in FB. Set Friend Lists. Use those to manage privacy and what you share. If you’re on more than one site, use tools to post to all at once.Dip your toe in the water and see if there’s anything valuable there for you. You can always unjoin – or be one of the zillions who joins Twitter and stops using it after a month! Cheap last minute concert tickets.I have more tips and more detailed explanations of lots of the things I’ve mentioned today at mcswain-starrett.com. If you’re interested in how to set up an RSS subscription, some links to great resources for higher ed marketing, some tips on writing for the Web, making better PPTs, using FB safely, and lots more, check out my site.