alumni futures

5 Interesting Social Media Uses in Higher Ed

There are as many ways to deploy social technology as there are opportunities to do so.

Today I'm highlighting five approaches to social media that I thought noteworthy. I also mention what I think is the key benefit of each approach.

 

1. West Virginia University: Gigantic social media icons

I don't know if bigger icons are more effective, but they make an unforgettable impression on the first-time visitor.

Key Benefit: Impossible to miss the institution's presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Foursquare. Plus, thoughtful social media Do's and Dont's – if anyone reads them.

 

2. Johns Hopkins University: Hopkins Interactive

This service helps prospective and admitted students to connect with the school "by offering them open, uncensored information about student life on campus and in Baltimore."

Key Benefit: Exemplifies a communication culture of openness.

 

3. University of Oregon: Social Media "Best Practice" page for campus communicators

This page is a clean, simple to use guideline and link resource for campus wide consistency. Policing social media usage is hard, but clarifying common guidelines and policies will go a long way toward helping a decentralized institution be more consistent and compelling.

Key Benefit: Centralizes and focuses social media best practice across a decentralized institution. Compare this with the thorough, but hard-to-read document from the University of Texas.

 

4. University of Delaware: Social Media Portal

A simple, very clean page that hosts direct links to the University's various official presences.

Key Benefit: One-stop shopping for official social content from the institution. It's a good visual reminder that a manageable number of official commitments allows the staff to focus on content, instead of worrying about covering every possible social website.

 

5. Webster University: Commencement social media summary

This recap of graduation activities includes a Twitter hashtag (#webstergrad), video from Ustream, alumni comments and more.

Key Benefit: Event-based organizational scheme curates and aggregates content for easy scanning by alumni, students, faculty, staff and families of graduates. The Storify.com platform provides opportunities for the creative communications professional (thanks to Patrick Powers for the pointer to this page, which he created).

 

Have you seen other creative, original or experimental uses of social media in educational advancement? Leave a comment. 

Note: This article is cross-posted to the CASE Social Media blog.

Alumni + Photos = Social Currency: Travis Warren

This article is written by Travis Warren, CEO and Founder of WhippleHill Communications.

When I first read about the Library of Congress’s Flickr project, I couldn’t wait to check it out. It made me think about how schools could benefit from digitizing their photographic archives. I spoke with others at my alma mater, Proctor Academy, about putting our archives online for public viewing. Scanning the collection would make it more much widely available but I thought that the impact could be even greater. Could we turn these assets into a form of social currency?  

I hoped that pushing photos from Flickr out to our Facebook and Twitter networks would start conversations and increase the sense of community online. The photos would serve as conversation starters, or ‘icebreakers,’ putting people at ease and creating a reason for them to engage.  

Before we could begin we needed to get organized. We set up a Flickr account, and started scanning and posting photos one hundred at a time. Initially, rather than focusing on ‘conversations’ (currency), we set out to simply build our collection (assets). After we had about two thousand pictures posted, we began publishing links to the photos on Facebook. 

Early on we learned a number of valuable lessons. Many photos failed to generate interest because they were from too far in the past, or because they had uninteresting captions. Relying heavily on the ‘Insights’ from our Facebook page, we refined our photo selection process and overall approach. The gender, age, and location of our audience helped us better determine which photos to post.  

Before long we felt comfortable taking risks with our images and captions, trying hard not to take ourselves too seriously. Humor through photo or comment was often the best icebreaker. We realized humility was also key to starting conversations. Mistakes happen –occasionally we misidentified people, places or dates, and sometimes found that our mistakes led to the best conversations of all. We also selected photos from upcoming reunion years and focused on programs we knew our alumni were invested in and would love to respond to.  

It might sound a bit illogical not to announce what we were doing. In fact, we just started and let whatever would happen, happen (read Seth Godin’s latest book, Poke the Box, if you’re looking for inspiration). Once a week or so we posted links to archive photos on our Facebook page or tweeted about a photo. It was great to realize our initial hunch was correct – that there was endless opportunity in digitizing archives. And as we found out soon enough, the rest takes care of itself.


Photos: 
Ski Hill Men – engaging Reunion years. 
The Bird in front of Morton House – inviting humor. 
Caution Boy’s School – inviting humility.

Related articles

• What's in it for you? Why should social media be a priority on your campus? (case.org)

Staffing for the Social Web: 4 New Ideas

An interesting question arose in a recent email exchange among several professional colleagues (including Alumni Futures Advisory Group members Andrew Gossen of Cornell University and Liz Allen, consultant and author of the Adaptivate blog):

"What is a model staffing strategy for online communications in advancement?"

Here are four relevant, forward-looking ideas from the discussion: 

1. The Need for Research
There is an increasing need for staff who can handle qualitative and quantitative research, as well as metrics (to track return on investment). Cornell's Gossen commented: "This is increasingly important, because social media monitoring tools are becoming more sophisticated, and many programs are integrating social channels more tightly into their web presence."

[There is a need for staff who can handle
qualitative and quantitative research.]

2. The Need to Work with Data
Gossen says that "alumni programs will increasingly need someone to work with data." In addition to building online interaction around data to make it more relevant to individual users, "this staff member would be thinking about great infographics to replace most of the text-intensive stewardship content we currently use to keep donors engaged."

[Note fun but informative map infographic above, showing US states as comparably-sized national economies. Click it to view full size.]

3. In-house Realtime Content
Advancement offices will soon need access to professionals who can generate multimedia content in-house and on the fly. Webinars, livestreaming video, and graphics and data mashups will become must-have features of the social web, and alumni will expect them to be available in realtime.

[Communications staff engage more people than traditional staff
who interact only at events.]

4. Integrating Communications with Alumni Relations
Finally, Liz Allen points out that alumni communications professionals should be integrated into the practice of alumni relations. "Anyone handling communications in an alumni office must be an alumni relations professional, not just a communications person who happens to work in an alumni association." Allen points out that communications staff engage with many more people than do traditional staff members who interact only at events. "That person needs to have personality, to understand alumni relations and its role at the institution, and to have genuine alumni interaction online and in person."

These ideas aren't yet critical breaking points for alumni communications. But it's important to think about what changes will make future engagement strategies more effective for the institution and for alumni and donors.  

Infographic via The Economist

Related articles

• Social Media Staffing and the Org Chart (adaptivateblog.com)
• The Enterprise Social Media Adoption Path (johnbell.typepad.com)

Chiclets Are Not a Communication Strategy

"Chiclets" are the ubiquitous little squares you see on websites, carrying the logos of various social media tools and RSS feeds. They're named after the brand of chewing gum that comes in small pillow-shaped pieces (photo below). Internet chiclets make it easy for site visitors to subscribe to your blog, become your Facebook fan, follow your Twitter feed, and interact with you online in a number of ways. 

Chiclets are multiplying across the Internet. Originally, they were limited to the orange "broadcast signal" button signifying an RSS subscription. (RSS was one of the very first things I wrote about when Alumni Futures launched in early 2007).

Now, organizations provide a chiclet for following them on every social platform where they have an account (the samples accompanying this article come from various websites). The most popular are F (Facebook), IN (LinkedIn), and T (Twitter). 

The problem with these buttons is that the content doesn't always live up to the promise. In the last week I've seen a non-profit with a Flickr chiclet, but no photos uploaded in the last 5 months; an alumni association linking to a Twitter account which it has never used; and a college annual fund asking me to add them to my Gmail page with Google Buzz. 

Making it easy to follow your content across the social web is smart. But remember: you need a social media component in your communication strategy, to ensure that your content actually appears on social sites. Go ahead and design some attractive chiclets, but figure out how you can actually use social platforms to reach your target audiences.  

Then develop a content strategy to feed those channels with relevant material, written to match the medium. 

Chiclets are delicious, but they're not a communication strategy.

Polaroid of more traditional Chiclets from Jessica Nichols via Creative Commons.

Related articles

• How to Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Site (mashable.com)
• RSS Isn't Dead, Just Ask Google Reader Fans (blogherald.com)
• 5 Social Media Takeaways from The Economist (socialmediatoday.com)

Will Non-Profit Groups (or Anyone Else) Join the Diaspora?

Last July at the CASE Summit in New York, Internet observer danah boyd commented:

"People aren't addicted to technology. They're addicted to other people."

If that's true, a social network designed in response to the main criticisms of Facebook should be a winner. If it delivered...

• a simple interface, 
• flexible, simple privacy controls, and 
• the ability to group friends, family members, and co-workers into separate 'aspects'...

wouldn't a large number of people abandon Facebook and switch to the new platform?

We're about to find out. 

All About Diaspora
Diaspora is an early-stage social networking alternative to Facebook. In the wake of widespread concerns about Facebook's ever-changing privacy policies, a group of software developers announced they would create an open-source site whose members could connect with friends, co-workers and family while maintaining complete control over their privacy via very simple controls.

Will Diaspora displace current Facebook users? 

Actually, Diaspora may not be a "Facebook competitor" at all. Despite all the hand-wringing about Facebook's threats to privacy and (potential) abuses of information, Facebook's membership is not yet shrinking. Its members' friends, family and colleagues are already there, and relatively few have left the site. It is very possible that relatively few people care enough about the privacy issue to start over with a new network. 

If that's true, then the clean interface, ease of use, and total control over information that Diaspora offers won't make a bit of difference to Facebook junkies, because people will just keep using Facebook and Diaspora will be popular with a small number of privacy freaks. 

Implications for Organizations
How can groups and organizations use Diaspora? For example, would a university be able to create a profile and use it to connect with alumni or donors?

If organizations hope to use Diaspora to reach constituents, they are in for a tough time. Currently, each Diaspora member controls his or her own individual "social graph." An alumni association cannot collect alumni on Disapora into a group; each alumnus would have to create a new "Aspect" (i.e., a personal group) and name it "School alums" or "Classmates." But they won't – because these schoolmates are also "Friends" – which is a default Aspect within the Diaspora profile.

So it's unlikely that individual Diaspora users will create "Aspects" for a cause or institution, and therefore prospects are bleak for organizations that hope to use Diaspora to reach individuals. 

Just Theories
Diaspora is only in alpha release, hardly established and (as yet) accessible to a very small number of users. And online social networks in their current form are just five years old. The shape of the market, the number of potential new members, and the roles that specialized platforms can play are all yet to be determined. 

So all theories about whether Diaspora (or other platforms) will influence, replace, or be dominated by Facebook are just that: theories.

How do you think it will play out? Is Diaspora a "Facebook competitor," or is it a different tool for different uses altogether?

Related articles

• Will Diaspora Be The One? (tengoldenrulesblog.blogspot.com)
• The 'Facebook killer' won't look like Facebook (www.cnn.com) 
• Facebook Alternative Diaspora Launches Private Alpha (techcrunch.com)
• Is Diaspora too late? (zdnet.com)
• Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline (www.eff.org)
• Diaspora Hands On: Social Networking Built on Privacy (appscout.com)
• The next big thing in social networking? (edsocialmedia.com)

The Real World versus the Internet: A Reminder

In the "real world" – offline – organizations deliver themselves to donors, friends or alumni by sending magazines and newsletters, and by hosting events. For example, alumni organizations have organized after-dinner speakers for well over a century, with the more recent addition of homecoming, reunions, faculty lecturers on the road, alumni travel programs, and networking mixers.

In the "virtual world" – online – these same organizations have done the opposite. With the advent of the Web, they tried to convince constituents to come to them. They tried luring them to web sites where the organization lived its online life, inviting members and donors to join them there.

If that model truly applied to the offline world, the same organizations that host events like the ones I mentioned would never offer opportunities outside the confines of their own campus. Instead of going out to meet their constituents where they live, institutions would insist that these people come to them. I don't know of a single alumni association or other member-type organization that operates on this basis.

So why did the same organizations' leaders shape their online strategy this way for so many years?

To a close approximation, the online world is a proxy for the real world – in terms of interaction, of establishing a presence, and building relationships. If you're trying to nourish and enhance your real world programs, then nourish and enhance your online presence as well. And do it where your members live their online lives.

That means embracing the social platforms and channels where they are already interacting and connecting with other organizations, other groups, and other individuals. You can maintain your own "place" on the Internet and invite your audience to visit you there. But remember that even when they aren't on your web site, you can still spend time with them online.

I'm certain this advice will sound obvious to many. But I still have conversations with people who don't understand it (or don't believe it), so I think it's worth reinforcing.

When I teach a workshop or meet with a client, I tell them this face-to-face. Maybe if I publish it here, it will reach them where they live online. 

And I hope they'll do the same when they have something important to tell their own audiences. 

How Do Alumni Groups Use Twitter?

As Twitter (apparently) continues to grow, more and more organizations have official accounts, sending out news, event announcements, and other updates in varying proportions. 

In the next couple of weeks I plan to look more closely at associations' use of Twitter: what kind of updates they publish, how their numbers shape up, and whether there are any discernible trends. The likely result will be a short white paper and posting here about what I discover.

What do you think I should look for? What do you want to know about how alumni organizations use the microblogging service? Do you think it matters whether an alumni organization uses Twitter?

Note: This won't be a scientific survey, just a snapshot in time of some publicly observable organizational behavior.

Meanwhile, the most interesting question about associations' use of Twitter won't be answered by looking at their Twitter content. That question is, "What is the result of using of Twitter?"

Organizations should attempt to measure the outcomes of their social media usage. Quantitative, traditional marketing metrics will probably not show a huge benefit from Twitter use (for example, new donors, additional memberships, increased event attendance).

But for associations, Twitter isn't really a marketing tool; Twitter is an engagement tool. Associations not using Twitter may be conspicuous by their absence. It's a unique channel, its content appears in real-time, and is increasingly consumed on-the-go (i.e., it's a highly mobile channel steadily converging with location-based services). 

How is your organization using Twitter? And what outcomes – if any – can you cite?

Note: I'm on Twitter as @alumnifutures.

Additional resource: 

I maintain a list of Twitter feeds from about 135 alumni organizations. You can see at a glance how a cross-section of alumni associations use the service:

    http://twitter.com/#!/list/alumnifutures/alumni-orgs

If you know of an alumni association using Twitter that is not on my list, tell me and I will add it.

 

Photo: Twitter sand sculpture by someone with a lot of free time, by Rosaura Ochoa via Creative Commons.

Questions from Europe: Educational Marketing, Authenticity and Web 2.0

Two weeks ago, a small group in a big room in France had a compact conversation about several expansive topics. 

The Web 2.0 workshop I co-chaired for the European Association for International Education included 27 individuals from organizations across 14 countries. Their roles ranged from advancement to public relations, but emphasized student recruitment. Sweden and the Netherlands were the most prominently represented, with one-third of the participants between them.

Participants absorbed a number of case studies, showing how various institutions have used Web 2.0 tools to engage wide-ranging audiences (with equally wide-ranging degrees of success – a couple of them being outright failures). Along the way, we discussed the trials and tribulations of relying on user-generated content, trying to obtain institutional support, and receiving uncertain returns on investment. 

A few key ideas cropped up, and I share them here for consideration or comment.

Despite the talk about "user-generated content," many of the cases and examples discussed involved universities talking about themselves on user-dominated platforms. There's a difference between a university's communication officer using Facebook to share information about the institution, and alumni or students using Facebook to share their opinions about the place. 

Some questions arise: 

• Will university managers eventually adapt to the collaborative, networked aspects of the Internet? 
   
• Will they eventually stop relying on one-way content, using social platforms to broadcast magazine articles and press releases? 

The research side of the academy relies heavily on network effects to share and publish information. Scholarly journal citations are proxies for connections in a network – they connect authors whose work depends on mutual relevance. Furthermore, they publish publicly and as widely as possible so as to benefit everyone. But many of the international student recruiters at EAIE are publishing information primarily (or solely) to benefit their own institution.

When will institutional leaders fully support and invest in distributed communication (like the content on social platforms), instead of assuming it's something "young people do"? Probably not until the people currently in lower- and mid-level management positions rise to the top ranks of institutional leadership themselves. They're the ones who best recognize, through first-hand experience, the outcomes that widespread use of social technologies is generating.

A final thought occurred to me as the group dispersed and our workshop discussion faded from the hall.

Which of these two alternate futures is more likely?: 

Scenario 1: At some point soon, mere marketing will cease to attract any attention at all. Ads that rely entirely on manufactured images and broadcast "stories" will be invisible to an audience increasingly accustomed to so-called authentic voices and content. This will make the recruiter's or fundraiser's job one of brokering true stories that reflect users' experiences, instead of manufacturing fantasies designed to appeal to people's desires.

Or...

Scenario 2: Marketers become so adept at manipulating content that users will be left wondering what is authentic and what is hype, which stories, profiles or brands are the real thing, and which ones are made up to fill a niche created by the demand for the services or programs they are in the business of providing.

Are you facing these dilemmas already? 

How are you approaching them? 

Are you succeeding? 

How do you know?

Leave a comment...

 

Photo of EAIE reception in Nantes, France by Andy Shaindlin

Overseas Workshops and Presentations: France

As I mentioned in July, I'm heading to France this week to co-present a workshop for the European Association for International Education...

 
EAIE Workshop in Nantes, 15-16 September:

I will co-present with Illuminate Consulting Group's Dr. Daniel Guhr at EAIE's annual meeting. I've been lucky enough to deliver workshops and training at EAIE programs in Norway, Hungary, Spain and France, and am grateful to be invited back. 

This year, Dan has developed an ambitious workshop called How to Strategically Deploy Web 2.0 Platforms, Tools and Communities. 

ICG research interns have compiled a number of detailed and diverse case studies that will form the basis for part of the workshop. In a few weeks I'll let Alumni Futures readers know how to purchase copies of the reports, which I have been editing for ICG.

 

AFF Breakfast Program in Paris, 21 September:

Next week, on Tuesday, 21 September in Paris, I will deliver a breakfast talk sponsored by the Association Française des Fundraisers (AFF). The topic is Alumni Community Management. I will discuss how to use social networks and the web (including blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms) to listen to alumni and build a dialog with them. You can still sign up online.

The presentation will be in English, although I can stumble along in French as well, if needed. I am very grateful to Céline Morel for helping to make this event happen.
 

Note: I'll be away from the blog for a couple of weeks, but will return at the end of September. Until then, in the spirit of social media, enjoy this series of alumni-related messages from a Twitter user last winter:

 

 

 

10 Challenges of Social Technology: Familiar Obstacles

Prolific web strategist and social tech blogger Jeremiah Owyang once again summarized the online community manager's world in a simple table (or "matrix," as he calls his ubiquitous charts). This one is called Challenges of the Social Technology Industry, July 2010 Edition. He calls the matrix an "opportunity list" for those of us using social technology to improve our business. 

Look at the full matrix and at least read through the challenges Jeremiah identifies. I've listed them below (with my own comments on how they might apply in educational advancement). 

Print out the chart, and highlight the challenges that you face. 

Then work with your organization's leadership, staff and volunteers, and draft a plan to address who in your organization will lead the effort of solving these challenges – assuming you don't already have a roadmap.
 
 

10 Challenges of the Social Technology Industry 
(via @jowyang); comments from @alumnifutures (Andy Shaindlin):

1. Noise overwhelms signal:
   Filter alums' tweets, blog posts and status updates so that quality and relevance prevail. Limit your organizations's output to conversational, relevant posts, with lots of question and a few fun polls.
   
   
2. Amateurism threatens expertise:
   Invest in training dedicated staff whose job description includes social media monitoring. Reach out to alumni, students or donors who have created their own social network groups in your institution's name, and partner with them to increase quality of group activity.
    
3. Power shift to participants:
   Don't talk all the time. Remember what a community manager looks like: small mouth, big eyes, big ears. Online communities are listening stations for organizations.
    
4. Fast moving industry creates confusion:
   Once you assign responsibility for social media management in your organization, schedule an update and reassess your progress within 60 days. The space is moving that fast.
    
5. Risk of overhype:
   Don't sign up for every site or service that gets "hot." Watch trends, and try to anticipate, but remember: deploy social media tools to help you achieve your organization's pre-existing business goals. Merely seeming "up to date" doesn't help you.
     
6. Lack of qualified talent:
   Don't have an expert in house? Create one. Invest in training and professional education so you can promote from within, or hire someone who understand how students and alumni are using social technology (see #2 above).
    
7. Measurement elusive:
   It's possible to measure return on investment, return on attention, and lots of other payoffs from attending to social channels. Start with this article from the Journal of Interactive Advertising or this post on Mashable about "measuring social media health."
    
8. Disparate data and irregular standards:
   Don't worry so much about benchmarking against other institutions. Start measuring outcomes and impact and track changes internally over time. Your data, benchmarks and standards will differ from your institutional competitors'.
    
9. Culture shift creates an internal rift inside institutions:
   Institutional leaders are concerned about being criticized by bloggers, tweeters and Facebookers. Social media-crazed staff members worry about falling behind the social media curve. Seek a compromise (and give your boss a copy of Open Leadership by Charlene Li).
    
10. Privacy woes scare companies and consumers:
    Advancement shops are pretty good at protecting the privacy of the donor database. This is no different. Learn what information is private and what is public in the platforms your organization uses, and respect absolutely the privacy and shared data of your stakeholders. Their loyalty will remain intact.

Related posts from Alumni Futures:

What Does a Community Manager Look Like?

The Alumni Organization Social Network Matrix: 18 Use Cases

Photo credit: Obstacle road sign via Creative Commons from Guillaume Lemoine