"Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is; the tree is the real thing." ~ Abraham Lincoln

1. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 1
Reputation Management
in the Age of Social Media

2. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 2
1) Reputation Management
2) Social Listening
3) Strategic Moderation and Policies
Overview
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

3. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 3
 A higher education institution's legitimacy hinges on its
reputation.
 It is particularly important for colleges and universities because
education is an intangible process for which students make a major
leap of faith to invest in, graduating with the school's acquired
reputation on their CV's.
 Schools are still adjusting to this new environment in which
reputations are increasingly important and yet beyond their
control.
 Advertising your brand too heavily risks creating the of a lack of
intrinsic quality or established reputation.
 75% of this year's frosh used social media to make their enrolment
decision, relying on the unsolicited opinions of respected third
parties.
1. Reputation Management
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

4. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 4
 Social media monitoring is an ongoing process to find and
better understand opportunities and stakeholders.
 U of Admissions Marketing provides a useful list of mostly U.S.
student forums, review sites, and other social media sources where
you can check your reputation and accuracy of data.
 There are several online tools available to help monitor your
school's reputation so that you may appropriately respond and
qualify the tone of conversation.
 Google Alerts are a quick way of delivering relevant "search query"
results to your inbox.
2. Social Listening
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

5. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 5
 Mention allows you to monitor millions of sources in 42 languages to
ensure you don't miss anything about your institution published on social
networks, news sites, forums, blogs or other web pages.
 HootSuite offers many solutions for managing communications, including
the Gmail app, which puts all of your social network activity and emails
into one view so you can monitor all your latest Twitter, Facebook and
other feeds from one central dashboard.
 The ViralTag app for Pinterest allows you to easily schedule, share and
analyze your pins on the dashboard, and the Vidcaster app lets you
quickly distribute videos across all your social networks while tracking
engagement with analytics.
2. Social Listening
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

6. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 6
 Engaging your community means first understanding the
conversations that matter most and identifying the key
influencers.
 On average, 1% of a site's audience generates 20% of all its traffic
by sharing its content or links.
 Measuring user behavior with Google Analytics can deliver insights
regarding the interconnectedness of your social media networks and
identify potential keywords that are most relevant to your audiences.
2. Social Listening
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

7. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 7
 To maintain the value of social media channels, they must
remain as authentic and independent as possible.
 Most schools would rather allow students to post honest negative
feedback than to risk accusations of censorship by intervening.
 However, establishing an official moderation protocol can limit the
possibility of forum abuse while clarifying expectations for both
administration and students.
 Begin by briefing all moderators about the politics and
dynamics of the online community, defining the limits of
permitted language and content.
3. Strategic Moderation and Policies
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

8. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 8
 For example, disruptive users may resort to the following
behavior:
 Post bombing: Publishing identical content repeatedly to jam up the
wall or newsfeed of a social network of forum.
 Link dropping: Posting a link with no introduction or attempt to
provide context.
 Off topic posting: Dropping links to completely unrelated material in
an attempt to disrupt the exchange.
 Personal profiling: Digging online to find personal information on
other users and posting it in an attempt to make them feel exposed
and vulnerable.
 Consistency is integral when dealing with members of the
community who overstep the bounds.
3. Strategic Moderation and Policies
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

9. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 9
 Online community managers should have ready access to
the answers of frequently asked questions and the relevant
contacts for retrieving further information.
 It is always preferable if a student chooses to correct negative
comments rather than intervention from the institution, and a team of
official student bloggers can help to balance a school's overall
portrayal.
 Colleges and universities with better reputations typically require
less marketing expenditures while being able to charge higher fees,
recruit better employees and students, and earn the trust of the
community.
 This standard of integrity is the goal of any organization.
3. Strategic Moderation and Policies
Source: Higher Education Marketing – Reputation Management in the Age of Social Media

10. Reputation Management in the Age of Social
Media
Slide 10
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