Social Media: What We Need to Do with It, What We Can Do with It
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Michael J. Powers
Director of Web Services
Office of Communications
April 2, 2009
Slides and this handout available at
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What Is Social Media?
Social Media Goes by Many Names…
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Web 2.0
Read/Write Web
Social Computing
Groundswell
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...and Has Many Definitions
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“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”
—Tim O’Reilly
The groundswell is a “social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”
—Charlene Li and Joshua Bernoff, in Groundswell
“People having conversations online”
—Brad Ward, squaredpeg.com
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A Working Definition
Social media is aboutcomputers talking to computers, andpeople talking to people,to get things done.
Computers Talking to Computers
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RSS
XmlHttpRequest()
Open APIs
Facebook Applications
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People Talking to People
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Blogging:Blogger, LiveJournal, Wordpress
Social Networking:LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook
Media Sharing:Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Ustream
Microblogging:Twitter, Yammer
Social Bookmarking/News:Delicious, Digg, Reddit
Social Calendars:Upcoming, Eventful, Meetup
Social Reviews and Opinions:epinions, Yelp
Other: eBay, Amazon.com reviews
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Who’s Talking?
Social Media is Big and Growing
35% of adults have a profile on a social network site
75% of adults 18–24 use social networks
—“Adults and Social Network Websites”
Pew Internet and American Life Project (December 2008)
What We Must Do with Social Media
We need to talk—they are already talking about IUP
- Sometimes It’s Good
- Sometimes There Are Questions
- Sometimes Bad Things Happen
“Punk’d”:“companies that were blind-sided by the internet, they didn’t understand the impacts of the power shift to the participants, or how fast information would spread, or were just plain ignorant.”
MonitoringResponding
What We Can Do with Social Media
Social media presents a huge marketing opportunity for higher ed
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Web 1.0: About links
Web 2.0: About conversations and community
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Social Media & Integrated Marketing
Allows everyone—students, faculty, parents, staff, alumni—to be a messenger
Can allow us to get our messages out to more people
We need a strategy for a many-to-many world: POST Planning Process
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People
- What are students, prospects, parents, alumni ready for?
- What do they want?
- Remember that they don’t use social media for our benefit.
Objectives
- What are our goals?
Strategy
- How do we want our relationships with our students, prospects, parents, and alumni to change?
- What will that look like over time?
- How will it change us?
Technology
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People
September 2007:
77% of IUP students were on Facebook at least once a week
51% were on YouTube at least once a week
December 2007:
93% of all teens use the internet
64% of online teens create online content
55% of online teens have a social networking profile
Objectives
- Attract the best students we can
- Help them get a great education
- Find donations to help us do 1 and 2
We might measure that by:
- More inquiries
- Higher SAT scores
- More diversity
- More applications
- Better yield
- Better buzz
- More donations
Strategy
How do we want our relationships with our constituents to change?
- We want people to become advocates for IUP
- We want students and alumni to be proud of their school
- When couches burn, they need to be able to talk about their great education
What will that look like over time? We may be:
- Providing content for constituents to advocate with
- Building social media with our constituents
- Empowering active members to better advocate for IUP
- Keeping in closer contact
How will it change us?
Technology
Tools will change. The community remains.
Use what they use:
- YouTube
- Sharing/collecting tools like Digg and Delicious
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What We’re Doing Now
News and Events
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Getting us out there on Google & RSS
Making the website more useful and credible
Added sharing tools last month
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YouTube Channel
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1,222 views, weekly content updates
Exclusive content that reinforces our message pillars (we can go over 10 minutes)
Not much dialogue yet
Need to get more media from students and faculty
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Facebook Page
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982 fans, weekly content updates
Videos
Virtual tour
A few comments
User-generated content possible, but we don’t yet allow it.
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Class of 2013 Facebook Groups
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Official: 460/Unofficial: 606
- Members are mostly accepted students
- Viewers probably include others
- Web Team hasn’t had the time or knowledge to intervene
- But doing so could pay off
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Entire IUP Campus Facebook Group
Ideas and Demos
Encourage student and faculty production of more online video
Invite all prospects to join an online community
Continue that group into freshman year to aid in retention
Open office hours
More
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Encouraging alumni networking on LinkedIn
Facebook Connect for our iModules community
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Limiting Factor: Time
Students Can Help
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- Make it part of their job
- Give them the flowchart
- Have them log what they find
- Don’t expect them to see the big picture
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Choose a small project and grow it
Sources
My ongoing collection of links on social media
What Is Social Media?
O’Reilly, Tim. “Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again,”
Li, Charlene and Josh Bernoff. Groundswell. Harvard Business Press: Cambridge, MA, 2008.
Ward, Brad J. “Implementing Social Media on your campus”
Who’s Talking?
Owyang, Jeremiah. “A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2009.”
Lenhart, Amanda. “Adults and Social Network Websites.” Pew Internet and American Life Project.
What We Must Do with Social Media
YouTube - Rats Take Over KFC/Taco Bell
Owyang, Jeremiah. “A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media”
YouTube - Unsanitary living conditions in Lawrence and Scranton Halls, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Pipes: Social Media Firehose
IUP Social Media Tracker
MonitorThis
What We Can Do with Social Media
Joly, Karine. “It’s the Community, Stupid!“
Owyang, Jeremiah. “Social Media Marketing Storyboard #1: Fish Where The Fish Are”
Lenhart, Amanda, Mary Madden, Aaron Smith, Alexandra. Macgill “Teens and Social Media.”Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Ward, Brad J. “Have you checked your foundation lately?” SquaredPeg.
What We’re Doing Now
IUP’s YouTube Channel
IUP’s Facebook page
Indiana University of Pennsylvania: Class of 2013 Official Group
IUP '13
The Entire IUP Campus
Ideas and Demos
Café New Paltz
Stanford’s Facebook Page
Stanford’s Open Office Hours
Ward, Brad J. “Implementing Social Media on your campus.” SquaredPeg.
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