What does it take?
by Christine Klaehn
What is the value of social media to your organization and to your brand? There are many types of brands--personal brands, commercial brands, experiential brands. Every brand makes a promise and sometimes a brand is severely damaged when the promise is an over promise (insert Tiger Woods). And sometimes, with much advice and diligence and patience, a brand, over time, rebounds and regains trust and admiration from its audiences (insert Martha Stewart). These brands, however, are made of one voice. An educational institution is made up of a chorus of voices.
We challenge the timidity that exists around social media and explore the nature of an educational brand -- its strengths, challenges, and opportunities. The goal will be to create new ideas and approaches to create something much richer than communication: engagement.
45. Tweets sent vs. received Month of September 2009 Engaging Broadening Our Net Building a Framework @DeanElmore 1936 followers @Suffolk_U 1329 followers
There is no such thing as beyond branding. Branding is a verb Build a framework Broaden our net
Corey McPherson Nash: Thoughtful Branding and Design Create distinctive, compelling brands and experience Our goal is to launch, evolve, enhance brands Our approach to social media is strategic
Corey McPherson Nash: Thoughtful Branding and Design Create distinctive, compelling brands and experience Our goal is to launch, evolve, enhance brands Our approach to social media is strategic
“ It was so far from sharing what you had for breakfast – yet it only works because it’s the same place where people talk about breakfast.” Evan Williams, Twitter Chief Executive referring to people using Twitter during the gasoline shortage in Atlanta last fall “ Putting Twitter’s World to Use” NYT April 14, 2009
Don’t need to go into this too much considering almost half, or 48% of college said they kept video blogs and 16% use podcasts says a NACAC report “Reaching the Wired Generation: How Social Media is changing College Admission”
Knowing More in a Different Way: Dunbar Number Humans are hard wired on the upper limit of people we know = 150 “ Ping pong messages feel even more intimate than a phone call.” (Mizuko Ito, Japanese sociologist)
BENEFIT: Discussion networks are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. Frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.
“ Harvard is more than classrooms and buildings. It is an interconnected community of people, ideas, and experiences, and we are actively pursuing ways to enhance those connections,” Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.
“ Harvard is more than classrooms and buildings. It is an interconnected community of people, ideas, and experiences, and we are actively pursuing ways to enhance those connections,” Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.
Emotional spectrum
Emotional spectrum
Emotional spectrum
You might find that you start using technology in unusual ways. Here is a project we put together for the Buckinham Browne & Nichols School, an independent K-12 school located in Cambridge. They have a tradition, dating back to the 1950s, that each graduating senior creates a painted ceramic tile that gets placed into a wall of the high school building. They had a major problem. These tiles were attached to the walls and they were demolishing a part of the building for renovations and upgrades. They tiles would be destroyed. POTENTIAL PR DISASTER FOR BB&N We came up with a solution for them that included photographing each of the tiles and grouping them by class year in a specially created Flickr account. Flickr allowed them to make the tiles public, share it with their online alumni community. This not only archived the destroyed tiles for generations of students and alumni but made them available for comments and discussions. Their alumni department now sets up a laptop station at many alumni events – it has become a popular node for conversation and reminisces at those events.
The numbers point to roughly seven years of declining demand ahead. Charles Sizemore, CFA, Co-author of the recently-published Boom or Bust: Understanding and Profiting from a Changing Consumer Economy
55% of students who start a bachelor’s degree at four-year colleges and universities, end up with a degree six years later The Bridgespan Group 2006
Your Audience: Prospective Students Twitter: 8% of online teens embraced Twitter 14% of teens said they blogged in 2009, compared with 28 % in 2006 (50% slip in 3 years) WHY?: Most teens want to socialize with their friends and peers, not broadcast to the larger world. Pew Internet and American Life Project “Social Media and Young Adults” February 3, 2010 FB created a framework that impacted behavior Blog is so open; status updates so Creating a framework focuses the message
Your Audience: Alumni Facebook: Adults 18 and older, Facebook has taken over as the social network of choice. 73% of adults profile owners use Facebook, 48% have a profile on MySpace and 14% use LinkedIn FB created a framework that impacted behavior Blog is so open; status updates so Creating a framework focuses the message
Put screen grabs of 5 videos: Add link to the #2
“Save the Rose Art Museum” had 4,671 members and it urged them to do a sit in protest at the museum today and a performance on Friday. Another social networking site, PAM: Perpetual Art Machine is launching a “not for sale” protest in which it urges all its members to start sending artwork addressed to the office of Jehudah Reinharz, President of Brandeis.
Influencing people we wouldn’t normally target
Let’s look at an example with two big universities here in the Boston area
Each of the two universities has several active twitter streams, but I want to take a look at two of the most popular: Suffolk’s OFFICIAL stream at suffolk_u, run by their communications department And BU’s Dean of Students Kenn Elmore Already you can see that they are somewhat different just by the avatar images
Suffolk_U Sent out 177 tweets in month of September (~5 per day) Got 14 replies/mentions in last 7 days .08 DeanElmore Send out 31 tweets in month of September (~1 per day) Got 45 replies/mentions in the last 7 days 1.45 If you take the ratio of tweets received to tweets sent, a measurement of how ENGAGED the person is with the twitter community you will see that Dean Elmore is 18 times more ENGAGED with its twitter audience than Suffolk University http://almightylink.ksablan.com/2008/11/tribune-23-times-more-engaged-than-times-on-twitter/
Let’s take a closer look at some tweets from Suffolk - Announcements - Headlines - Occasional shout-outs to the student body
Dean of Students Kenn Elmore Listening to what is going on on campus Asks questions Opinions on current events, especially those of interest to his constituency Links to outside sides Has a sense of humor Cory Booker is mayor of newark NJ Elmore knows something about politics and African American activists
We can see that these two similar media outlets have taken very different strategies in making use of this social media resource.
There is no such thing as beyond branding. Branding is a verb Build a framework Broaden our net