The explosion of social media has drastically changed the way that prospective undergraduates and their parents (as well as the rest of the world) see your school. While you think you're controlling the message through your "official" communications, people are out there uploading not-so-flattering videos, commenting on "gossip boards," and swapping stories on sites like Facebook and MySpace. It's easy to feel that your school's brand is out of your control.
What do you do? How do you manage your institution's brand and reputation when you can't control the conversation? This presentation examines where prospects are going to find out about your institution, what they're saying, and how memes get made and spread. Along the way you'll get some practical advice and case studies about what others are doing to join in the conversation and leverage social media for recruitment and retention.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Cheap, Fast, and
Out of Control
Social Media, Recruitment, and Reputation Management
PRSA CHE Summit 2009 April 16, 2009
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
August 15, 1971
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
The 6 big trends that are
changing everything
๏ The consumer is in control
๏ The move from atoms to bits
๏ Moving from real time to MY time
๏ The end of centralization
๏ The future is always on
๏ The end of the desktop
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
“Mommy, why can’t I pause the TV?”
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Broadcast
Media
Web
Mobile
Email
Social Media
Prospect
Direct
Mail
Telemarketing
Print
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Social Media & Recruitment
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
source: http://belanger.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/the-ebb-and-flow-of-social-networking/
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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studentPOLL study of social
media and college choice
Joint study with studentPOLL and CollegeBoard.
Online survey administered to senior registrants for the SAT
Email invitation in third week of October to a random sample sample
of about 34,000 registrants
960 surveys completed
Findings weighted to represent socioeconomic, racial, income of
registrant population
12. 225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Demographics of sample
Gender
Male 44.5%
Female 55.5
Race
Asian/Indian 10.2%
African American 12.3%
Hispanic/Latino 15.2%
Caucasian/Middle Eastern 55.7%
Other/No Answer 6.5%
Income
< $50,000 19.8%
50,000 - < 100,000 22.5%
>= 100,000 21.3%
DK/NA/REF 36.3%
13. 225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Use of SNS nearly universal
Nine out of every ten college-bound students visits social networking
sites
African Americans are more likely (97%) than Hispanics (86%) or Whites (88%)
to visit SNS
84 percent have a personal page or profile on a social networking
site
African Americans are more likely (93%) than whites (84%) to have SNS profile
page
Lack of time (46 percent) and parental veto (28 percent) chief
obstacle to those without profiles on sites
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Facebook and MySpace
dominate SNS world
Facebook and MySpace are by far the most used sites.
79 percent have profile on Facebook, 69 percent on MySpace
Profiles lower than 10 percent on all other sites
Asians (87%), Whites (86%) and African Americans (73%) are more likely to have a
Facebook page than are Hispanics (55%). Hispanics (88%) are more likely than Asians
(60%) or Whites (65%) to have a MySpace page.
Facebook the most often visited site (60 percent) with MySpace far behind (38
percent)
Asians (69%) and Whites (also 69%) were more likely than African Americans (46%) and
Hispanics (31%) to visit Facebook. Hispanics (68%) and African Americans (52%) are
more likely than Asians (24%) or Whites (29%) to visit MySpace.
15. 225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
source: Annenberg School Digital Futures Report 2007
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Example: UMBC Prospects 2008
sample: 4,970 prospect email addresses
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
UMBC Prospects: Demographics
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Teens and social networking
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Teens and Communication
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But...
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The point:
๏ They’re connected all the time
๏ They like to talk
๏ News spreads faster than ever
๏ They consume and create
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Where are they talking about you?
(and what are they saying?)
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
It’s not just Facebook/Myspace
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QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Video
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
“Cornell Drunk”
“University of Arizona Pool Party”
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Comments
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Ratings
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Flickr
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Out of control
๏ You can’t control this. Period. Get over it.
๏ It’s about what you say about yourself and what they say about you.
๏ Cognitive Dissonance is bad...unless you’re doing it on purpose.
๏ The good news/bad news: more media = less attention
๏ Don’t think “campaign,” think “play” (or, if you have to talk to your
boss, call it “testing” or “experimenting”)
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
+ =
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
How trends get made
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Memes
๏ units of cultural information
๏ cultural evolution or cultural diffusion
๏ subject to natural selection
๏ variation
๏ competition
๏ mutation
๏ it’s not survival of the fittest, it’s survival of fastest (those best able
to spread)
Richard Dawki
The Selfish Gene
1976
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Virus Host
Virus
Virus
Virus
Viral Transmission
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TB Transmission
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High School Dating
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Graph of The Internet
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
“The Tipping Point”
๏ “Hubs”
๏ “Superconnectors”
๏ “Influentials”
๏ Viral media based on the theory that a few important people in a
network can accelerate transmission and acceptance of an idea.
Malcolm Gladwell
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One-to-one
๏ Memes take hold because culture is ready
๏ Six degrees of separation true, but connectors not important
๏ People influence others around them
๏ Anybody is just as likely to launch a trend as anyone else
Duncan Watts
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
vs.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Online Brand Management
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
fries!
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Institution Constituentsbrand
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Doing it right
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Viral Media
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
(but recent research indicates only 15% of
“viral” media passed on)
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
QuickTime™ and a
Apple Pixlet Video decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Doing it wrong...
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
...then again...
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
There’s nowhere to hide
๏ Memes travel...or not
๏ Honesty will out
๏ Your brand is your experience....like it or not
๏ Forget about “crafting” anything
๏ Embrace your detractors
๏ BE HONEST
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Reputation = Brand
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
The brand doesn’t make the institution,
the institution makes the brand.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
“Brand” is a collaboration
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Dealing With It
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Lessons of Generation TXT
๏ Things have changed. Drastically.
๏ New technology, new mindset.
๏ Show, don’t tell.
๏ More information is better...they’re going to find it out anyway.
๏ Print still matters...for different reasons than you think
๏ Accountability is a must.
๏ Authenticity is a given. “Three Under a Tree” ain’t gonna work anymore.
๏ It’s about the experience.
๏ Think individuals, not audiences
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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225 e. redwood street baltimore, md 21202 410.837.5555 www.idfive.com
Let’s Talk!
sean.carton@idfive.com
Notas do Editor
This is the day that the US went off the Gold Standard. It’s essentially the day that the world became an information economy, an economy based on data rather than stuff. All of a sudden money went from representing a physical-world commodity to representing what we said (and/or agreed) it represented. Everything that’s happening right now-- from the economy to the internet-- is a direct line on the vector of this change.