How Have We Grown? The CASE Social Media Conference, Then and Now

Jen Doak (@jpdoak) is the online communications specialist at CASE.

A lot has happened in social media and advancement since April 2011 when the second Social Media and Community Conference took place in San Francisco. It was a different time then: Facebook had not yet discovered chronology, people were posting pictures of lunch without fear of faculty-member retribution and most folks were struggling with questions like getting staff on board, letting go of control and how to measure return on investment.

I had written a semi-serious post from that conference on my favorite quotes taken from the hashtag, and there are still many insights that I think  hold true and will for some time. For example:

• “Technology has created an environment where we don’t tell them what’s important: They tell US what’s important.”
• “If you don’t pay students, you may also exclude high-quality low-income students from being able to work for you. Pizza is not pay!”
• “What’s the ROI on social media? I don’t know; what’s the ROI on our phone system?”

But the state of social media at institutions has evolved in those 360 short days. Facebook’s got an IPO (and Instagram), Google+ has become the empty new McMansion development across the street, and attendees at the 2012 conference in Chicago have moved from “How do we get on board?” to “What do we do next?” and “How do we sustain engagement?”

Our stellar 2012 faculty had key insights on crisis communication, content strategy, social media in alumni affairs and fundraising, and recruiting students using social and mobile. Now that their colleagues have started to realize the importance of social media, attendees were looking at how to get their presidents tweeting.

Here’s a Storify of just a few of this year’s insights, again thanks to our enthusiastic #casesmc Twitter community. If you’d like to join in on the discussions (and often-wacky side discussions), you can do so on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. And check out mStoner marketing manager Mallory Wood’s post on resources, live-blogs and presentations.

How have you seen the social media and advancement landscape change over the last year? Which insights have you found evergreen and which need to be amended—or discarded?

 

Social Media for Young Alumni - A #CASESMC Preview

Matthew Herek (@mherek) currently serves as the associate director of young alumni engagement in the office of alumni relations and development at Northwestern University.

We need to talk about young alumni and social media. 

The need to engage young alumni seems to be on the agenda of most development operations today, the theory being that compelling young alumni to be part of the larger alumni community from the get-go is easier than convincing someone who disengages to reengage later in life.

Next month at the CASE Social Media and Community conference, I’m doing a presentation about young alumni and social media. It’s based on my own experiences as someone who was once a young alum and is now in charge of the engagement strategy for 20,000 of them. I’m using my space in the blog to offer a sneak preview of what I plan on discussing:

(1) I know more at 32 than 24: “Young alumni” is a massive demographic term when it comes to social media. If you’re older than 29, you actually didn’t have Facebook in college. If you’re older than 25, there’s a good chance you didn’t have WiFi in college. If you’re like me, in 2001, you used Dreamweaver to create a website that pretty much does what LinkedIn can do for you today.

(2) Avoid being the awkward guy at the cocktail party: We make the assumption that because people have clicked the "like" button they don’t mind us showing up in their Facebook feed non-stop.  

(3) Don’t put young alumni in a box before they are dead: It’s important that social media does not become the only place that we want young alumni to volunteer (Thanks for your interest in the club of Tulsa, how would you like to run our Facebook page?). 

(4) Larger-than-life figures are not scalable: In 2008, President Obama used social media in unprecedented ways to galvanize volunteers and raise a huge sum of money. Universities are not the same type of transformative force as a presidential candidate. We spend too much energy trying to create a replica of that moment instead of learning lessons from it.

(5) Engage the flux capacitor: Young alumni have specific memories of their time on campus (we all do really). We often fail to use social media to shake an emotional response out of young alumni and there are ways to do this!

(6) Young alumni need a social media Yoda: Young alumni will care about what you know once they know that you care.

(7) First listen to understand: The temptation to use the social media megaphone is great. How often are you using the tools in question to truly listen to what young alumni are saying?

(8) Transmit the story, but don’t control it: Young alumni in particular put tons of content on social media. Think about using it to tell their story to a wider audience.

As the conference is still a month away, I’ll be fiddling with this presentation until then. Maybe you’re coming and have something specific you want to see discussed. Let me know in the comments section.

A Crisis Communications Case Study: Snowmageddon at Seattle U

Sarah Hyde is the social media coordinator for Seattle University.

A snowstorm hit Seattle over MLK, Jr. weekend that resulted in our campus closing from Tuesday night through the rest of the week. Snowstorms in the city are rare and can shut down the entire public transportation system. At Seattle University, our inclement weather communications plan includes protocol for posting updates on our website, general phone line, local news websites, campus-wide email blasts and social media. During the week of “Snowmageddon,” as we dubbed it in our office, our social media outlets turned out to be a vital source of information sharing.

Seattle University campus during the January snowstorm. Image by Chris Joseph Taylor.

Each day of the snowstorm, as other universities announced closures and cancellations, people flocked to our Twitter and Facebook channels seeking information.

The pros:

• Facebook and Twitter are easy and fast to update and allow for rapid exchange of information. It’s easier to update Facebook several times with small updates and news than it is your website.
• News outlets, hungry for content, scan social media for images and videos, which can lead to greater exposure for the university. This can be a great opportunity to get your campus in the local media.
• Social media gives a platform for opinions, which can be helpful in determining the mood in the community and future planning.

The cons:

• It’s a lot of work for your social media manager and communications team. During Snowmageddon, Seattle University was closed from Tuesday night through Friday but many of our team members worked 12-hour days, staying up late waiting for updates and decisions and then rising before six a.m. to share information and answer questions.
• Social media gives a platform for opinions. Above, this was listed as a pro— but it can also be a con.  Those opinions are often negative, and users are easily frustrated when information is not shared quickly enough or decisions are not to their liking. Comments can stack up fast, so Facebook, in particular, requires constant moderation. As much as you might want to delete a negative comment, you can’t as this could lead to increased backlash.

Should your university find itself in a “snowy” situation this school year, don’t hesitate to make Facebook and Twitter your go-to places for news and updates. Of course, you’ll want to cover all your bases regarding your website, phone line, etc., but  more audiences are turning to social media for current information and also to compare you to your neighboring schools.

Be ready when the storm hits! Here are some suggestions for weathering the storm:

• If you don’t have a social media manager, identify someone on your communications team who can take the reins of moderating your university’s social media accounts. This person should be comfortable handling a variety of comments—positive and negative. Give this person a lot of caffeine and pats on the back as he or she won’t be sleeping much for a few days!
• Maintain good communication between your social media manager and the person who makes decisions about closures and cancellations. The social media person is going to be on the front lines answering questions and fielding criticism, so he or she needs to be well-informed and up to date.
• Have some official language drafted that’s approved by your school’s decision makers that the social media person can share on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to think ahead and have language prepped for multiple situations.
• Be prepared to supply the local media with images and video of your students enjoying the snowy weather.

With a little organization, you can maximize a rare opportunity to capture a different aspect of campus life and share it with the world!

The Seattle University campus under a blanket of snow. Image by Chris Joseph Taylor.

 

Book Review: Digital Leader by @equalman

Many people read author Erik Qualman's (@equalman) first book, Socialnomics. If not, you may have viewed one of his videos on YouTube regarding the social media revolution such as this one:

 

Qualman has aided several companies in building leading digital strategies, focusing heavily on the use of social media.

His latest book is Digital Leader. In it, Qualman provides an easily digestible (if not necessarily easily launchable) strategy for individuals to maximize their leadership potential in the social media/digital space.

Digital Leader breaks down into five main parts, each set around what Qualman sees as a truth that will help you develop your own digital STAMP. They are: Simple, True, Act, Map and People.

I personally enjoyed reading Digital Leader. Qualman writes with a style that is both conversational and motivational. Professionals who have spent time trying to articulate a vision for social media to supervisors and colleagues will find several "a-ha" moments in the ways that Qualman distills transformative technology into parallels with the non-digital world.

Qualman uses the book to challenge the reader to assess who they are currently in the digital world and to recognize the potential of who they could be in that same space. His suggestions are also quite realistic. Although Qualman wants people to take full advantage of the full spectrum of social media possibilities, he does recognize the need to power down and go offline. In fact, he recommends committing to checking email only twice a day. This is welcome advice for those of us who check our email with the fervor of Pavlovian dogs.

I have only two criticisms of the book. The first is that Qualman appears to implore people to use the digital space for only “big” moments. In parts of the book, he shows impatience for using time to talk about the TV show you watched as opposed to spending it creating content for a blog about changing the world.  He does this because he feels that every step we take in the digital universe leaves a lasting footprint—with the theory that we would want our footprints to stand out.  I agree with this to a point.  However, if our digital persona and our "IRL" (in real life) persona are indeed one and the same, authenticity only comes when we share all of ourselves. I think Qualman underestimates the long-term value of future generations knowing some of the day-to-day things that we found interesting in the present day.  For purposes of future research, we are all now primary sources. 

My second quibble is that at times he tends to remind the reader about some of the famous people he has shared the stage with or worked with.  His ideas are strong enough to stand on their own without him needing to seek an imprimatur from a well-known CEO or world leader.

This book is full of great ideas without being dense. It is the perfect read for an airplane trip (although I recommend the hard copy so you do not have to power down below 10,000 feet).

Qualman is on Twitter @equalman, and he interacts often with readers and answers questions.

If anyone else has read Digital Leader, I would be curious to know what your own assessment of this book is in the comments.

The World Has Gone Viral: Get Busy Tweeting

Matthew Herek (@mherek) currently serves as the associate director of young alumni engagement in the office of alumni relations and development at Northwestern University. He works to integrate social media in ways that increase engagement and participation in the alumni community.

OK, perhaps that title is a little dramatic. I suppose it would be something if the plot of Contagion 2 centered on the one Twitter holdout who could retweet the cure for an awful disease, but instead destroys the world.

Now that it’s 2012, and five years since Twitter came on the scene, it’s safe to say the platform is way beyond the "early adopter" stage and has grown past its awkward "what everyone had for lunch" years. Twitter has become a national treasure. It can be used to topple political regimes, gauge reaction to major events and force telephone service providers to reverse course on fees. Many companies employ people to monitor Twitter and respond to questions and complaints.

With all of these functions, surely there must be a way for alumni and development professionals to use it. I offer the following observations:

1. You don’t have to be on Twitter to use Twitter:  Twitter is a very open resource and the search functionality alone makes it worth a visit. Go there and search for hashtags, like #casesmc or #higheredlive. Perhaps you’re a prospect manager heading into a huge meeting with a big shot from United Airlines—use Twitter search to see what people are saying about his/her company (if nothing else, you might know what kind of mood they’ll be in). This has potential for career services shops as well. Using Twitter search, you could teach job-seeking alumni how to research potential employers.

2. Growing Your Network: Would you ever think that following a presenter from a conference would lead to great restaurant recommendations? Is that even useful? Sure it is! As an alumni professional, you would be amazed at how connecting with professionals on Twitter can help you when you need a personal recommendation for the perfect place in a far-off city to take a prospect for dinner. Remember: Research shows we are far more likely to listen to recommendations from our friends than from strangers. This makes Twitter more useful than Yelp.

3. I sense much anger in this one: Do we even need Jedi knights anymore? Telepathy is not necessary to gauge the mood of your alumni base after big news hits. Just check in on Twitter after any major news event for your institution and there will likely be a dedicated base of promoters who are making statements about it. My feeling is that these raw 140-character primal screams are more of a mood indicator than one alum’s well-thought-out email sent five days later. You have to be on top of this.

4.    Filters are so 1990:  Remember when institutions relied on press releases and university communications were carefully crafted to “control the message”? Those days are dwindling. Arizona’s athletic director tweeted the announcement of the institution’s new football coach. Popular student athletes like Kirk Cousins at Michigan State and Alexander Netter at Northwestern are offering opinions on the events of the day without going through sports information directors. University presidents are developing dedicated fan clubs on Twitter talking about everything but the university.

As an alumni professional, you need to decide if you want your alumni to be more informed about the university than you are. If you want to wait until news is properly disseminated through your communications office, you may have to spend extra time addressing the rumors, false information and unconfirmed reports that have already piled up online.

If you have not used Twitter before, try it now. If you have some other ways professionals can use it, share them in the comments section.

Using New Media Tools to Promote Faculty Research

Jen Doak is the online communications specialist at CASE.

Most media professionals are now familiar with some online tools—if they don’t at least read blogs or participate in social networks, then they have had articles or press releases published on their institution’s website. But how can new media like blogs and content-sharing sites help advancement folks with an issue as old as parchment and quill pens: getting a general audience excited about academic research?

Menachem Wecker, formerly a writer and editor for George Washington Today, The George Washington University’s online news site, is now an education reporter with the U.S. News and World Report. He is also the conference chair for CASE's Annual Conference for Media Professionals, which will be held in Washington, D.C., next month. While there, Menachem will be moderating a panel on using new media to translate faculty work for a broader audience. He was gracious enough to answer several questions on the topic.

What are the common challenges for media relations professionals in promoting faculty research?

I'd say the primary challenge is that there isn't necessarily a common language. Many faculty members speak a language called "academic," which may be foreign to media relations professionals.

On the faculty side of things, if you've devoted your entire career to studying something narrow, like the sociology of Elizabethan cutlery, the chances are very good that you are going to resist having to collapse the research in your magnum opus to small sound bites that work well for reporters. Even if the media relations professional is well versed in a particular academic discipline, she or he is increasingly called upon to be a generalist as well, and how many people can follow a scholarly conversation in law, medicine, business and the arts?

There's also another issue, which is one of scope. New research--under certain conditions--can be newsworthy, but it also might be too technical or too focused for many journalism outlets. It becomes the media relations professional's task to find a way to make that research more accessible and more relevant to larger audiences.

What advantages do new media tools have over traditional media approaches to these challenges?

One topic that we are going to address on the [Media Relations Conference] panel is the potential of blogging. Many professors' email boxes are goldmines of information. One professor I used to work with--a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso--used to exchange thousands of words over email with reporters covering East Africa and the Horn. We started publishing those email exchanges on the blog, and just by repackaging existing content and posting it to the [publication sharing] site Scribd.com, we got tens of thousands of fresh eyeballs.

The only investment many "new" (though they're hardly new!) media tools require is time; many of them are free. Professors—if they write accessibly, blog regularly and construct their sites properly and strategically--can sometimes achieve digital followings that overshadow many of the reporters that they used to pitch.

What new media tools or platforms work best for promoting faculty research?

With the caveat that I'm on the payroll of none of these companies, I'd say the following tools/platforms are essential, in descending order of importance:

1. Scribd (for posting transcripts and then embedding them in other sites)

2. Twitter (for driving traffic to your site or as a microblogging platform if you don't have a site)

3. WordPress, Blogger or another blogging platform

4. Facebook/Google+/Tumblr (if you've got the time)

5. BlogTalkRadio or any of the other web-based radio stations.  

How can media relations professionals collaborate with faculty, either using new or traditional media approaches, to ensure accurate translation and effective promotion?

When I worked at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, I was charged with raising the profile of 300 faculty members (about half were full-time and half were part-time). Of course, that was too many to actually collaborate with. My thought was that I would start with the ones who really wanted to be engaged in social media and to connect with reporters, and in the unlikely event that I actually could help all those professors, I would then resort to begging/bribing/threatening/or in any other way cajoling the others to enlist.

Needless to say, I more than had my hands full with the ones who were already excited about social media—and it turns out they were the ones who were willing to work hard at building online presences and audiences. That'd be my advice to media relations professionals: Work with the folks who are already interested in the power of social media. And don't be surprised if those who used to be nay-sayers change their minds when they see their colleagues' success.

 

How do you use new media to promote faculty achievements? (You can also use the hashtag #casemrp to discuss these and other advancement and media relations issues.)

What's Going On? A Few Great Crisis Communications Sites

Jennifer Doak is the online communications specialist at CASE.

Crisis planning is a necessary part of any institution’s communications strategy. And social media outlets have become the best way to get up-to-the-second information out to your audience. I recently found a few great examples through a Facebook group and thought I’d share.

Many institutions have set up websites that replace homepages in the event of an emergency. San Diego State University’s urgent information page has information on how to receive text alerts, a Twitter feed of its news account and general information on campus emergency preparedness.

The University of Southern California’s emergency homepage replacement site includes similar resources, including relevant phone numbers and access information.

Wright State University has a wealth of information on its emergency management site, along with an explanation of possible text alert delays and a widget for the National Terrorism Advisory System. It provides audio files of pre-recorded messages for campus building alerts as well as information on email alerts, text and voice messaging, radio and TV channels, and which social networks to follow. I really like how it has a sidebar that lists specific procedures and resources for tornadoes, winter weather, evacuation and more.

And during the most recent Virginia Tech shooting, a Blacksburg student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, provided a thorough, accessible account of the day through its Twitter feed.

Stuck on what you should plan to say through these channels? Deborah Grant, vice president of university communications and marketing at Tulane University, gives some advice managing communications in the face of a crisis on our Advancement Talk podcast (available as a premier benefit).

What’s your institution’s crisis communications plan? What institutions are really great at providing this information?

Opportunities to Delight

Sarah Hyde is the social media coordinator for Seattle University.

In a key scene in the classic holiday film Miracle on 34^th Street, a customer is frustrated because she can’t find what she’s looking for at Macy’s, and Santa—the real Santa, as it turns out—directs her to another store for the item. Soon the gesture yields positive hype for Macy’s and business booms.

Last month, Seattle University experienced a similar “everybody benefits” situation when it did something unusual and honored a competitor. We published a full-page ad in the Seattle Times wishing the University of Washington, our neighbor a few miles to the north in Seattle, a very happy 150^th birthday.

The University of Washington is recognized by many as one of the nation’s finest public universities and a global leader in healthcare research. Founded in 1891, Seattle University is an independent Jesuit Catholic university. Seattle is home to many people who hold degrees from both institutions.

We social media advocates are usually the first to say, “Do it online!” When we do print, we’re mindful to drive people back to the website. So why spend the money on a big ad praising our competition? Answer: because it’s a good idea to applaud the good work being done around you, and sometimes, as it turns out, a simple gesture in print can come back to benefit you online.

Years ago, there would have been little consideration given to Seattle University investing in a celebration of the University of Washington. But in recent years, Seattle U has undergone a transformation—in academic programs, student services, campus improvements, entry into Division I athletics—and enjoys a significantly enhanced profile. We are comfortable with our status and with recognizing the University of Washington for its contributions and for 120 years of friendship and partnership. In some instances, we compete for students and we compete in athletics. But in many more ways, we work together, and we share a passion for educating future leaders.

When the ad ran in the Seattle Times, the response was overwhelming. After receiving our digital file, staff from the Times called us to say how much they loved the ad. The UW answered back by posting a thank you to Seattle U on its Facebook page, along with an image of the ad itself. This post became a sensation as Twitter and Facebook lit up with discussion with hundreds of UW and SU users liking and resharing the item.

The UW’s digital response to our printed olive branch was a real testament to the power of tipping your hat to your neighbor. Additionally, the conversation that took place on social media platforms illustrated the full benefits of transparency in today’s crowded media market and the potential power combo of print and web. What began as a print ad that reached hundreds of thousands of Seattle subscribers became an item shared electronically across the nation. By posting the ad online, UW really maximized the impact of the ad, carrying a print success one step further via social media.

Anyone who operates a social media site is looking to engage an audience. We spend a good amount of time brainstorming and planning campaigns for social media outlets, hoping to start a fire, but time and again the evidence shows that online audiences respond the most to content that suprises and delights them. Our gesture of friendship with UW, when re-posted on social media sites, was acknowledged and magnified by both the UW and SU audiences.

The success of our print ad via social media serves as a reminder to be opportunistic and look for chances to re-post or share information from other platforms that engage your audience, much like the Macy’s Santa pointing that shopper to another department store. Whether you’re sharing an article about a faculty member, a photo of campus or an ad praising another school, never forget to delight your audience.

Social Media and the "Four Rs"

Tony Burgess-Webb is the co-founder of Sociagility.

The annual planning season for fundraising is in full swing and as the economy continues to falter, achieving the best return on investment will be on everyone’s minds. No more so than in the area of social media. Yet many seem to be struggling with a framework for measurement which makes sense for the sector.

Most organizations across all sectors are still grappling with the issue of measuring social media. As Econsultancy’s State of Social 2011 report finds:

41 percent of respondents report that they do not have an ROI (return on investment) figure for any of the money they spend on social media marketing, while 26 percent say they can attribute an ROI figure to a tiny amount of the money spent on social media.

For how much of the money you spend on social media do you have an ROI figure?

The problem is that without full financial data—i.e. exactly what has been spent and what has been returned or saved—a real ROI calculation is impossible. Even more fundamentally, without a framework for setting objectives which relate to organisational success, any measure of social performance is fairly pointless. So I’d like to suggest a simple framework for applying social media measurement to the higher education sector, starting with the ”three R’s”—not reading, writing and arithmetic—but reputation, recruitment and revenue.

Reputation

An institution's reputation is first and foremost about the fundamentals, genuine performance, a really good student experience and value for money. It is also about the perceptions created both by the volume of information about a brand and the value of what the brand says about itself as well as what third party communications say. Social media impacts both. There’s no good reason why this aspect of social media cannot be measured directly via surveys or studies.

Recruitment

Generation Z (born between 1994 and 2004) is the age group most engaged with social media. This group expects its peers and desired brands to be engaged as well. Not engaging, or merely paying lip service, sends a strong negative signal and opens up a competitive advantage for other institutions.

Research by The Student Room shows that potential students value online sources most for evaluating the quality of the teaching experience, the social experience and other key section criteria relating to the experience they can expect, i.e. what do my peers think? What do existing students say?

Revenue

Social media and networks also have a part to play in two other sources of funding: Government and alumni. Not being present on social media platforms to showcase achievements and engage on relevant issues impacts an institution negatively. Among alumni, social media provide a natural way to connect which is not simply dependent on events and emails. With this group, more than most, tools exist for measuring the real impact of social media in achieving wider goals.

Return on social

Proving that social marketing in isolation delivers a real ROI is a fruitless exercise. It’s usually next to impossible to determine real dollar returns, just as for many other parts of the marketing or operational budget. The three Rs may or may not provide a suitable framework for some social marketers in education to show how their work adds value. But some kind of framework is necessary. Only by setting clear objectives and measuring the contribution social marketing makes, can we discern the fourth R—a useful, understandable and genuine return on social?

Useful resources:

• New metrics for social media
• B2B social media metrics need to match goals
• Best social media metrics: conversation, amplification, applause, economic value
• The social media ROI conversation [video]
• Measuring social media ROI: 3 things to consider
• How to create social media metrics that matter
• 12 marketing predictions for 2012
• Social media ROI not well understood

Social Media Burnout? Already!?

Matthew Herek currently serves as the associate director of young alumni engagement in the office of alumni relations and development at Northwestern University.

It had been a while since my last blog post. This time, something funny happened on the way to the laptop. A new school year was upon me, and with it, the requisite events that I'm sure all of you also have on your calendars—including welcoming new alumni across the country, student orientation on campus and football games.

During this time frame, I realized that social media was not a priority for me in the context of my job. Postings were less frequent. I did not have time to personally welcome each new Twitter follower. The Facebook fan page became more dependent on other people to provide material.

Why did this happen? I'm a champion of these technologies. If I'm not a ninja, I'm at least a blackbelt. Is it possible I'm burned out already? If I'm burned out, what do the other people around me think about the effectiveness of social media?

I have good news and bad news for those of you reading this. The good news is that after further diagnosis, I'm not burned out on social media. The bad news is that my temporary social media shutdown may be indicative of just how far we have to go to make social media an integrated part of our alumni engagement and fundraising strategies.

I propose that the best way to measure how dedicated your institution is to social media is assess how important it is during periods of perpetual whitewater. When every staff member is pitching in to make sure that a wealthy donor's visit goes well, who is making sure that new Facebook content is being posted? When the gigantic alumni leadership event that requires every staff member (and possibly their relatives and pets) to drop what they are doing for a week comes to campus, who is banging the drum to make sure that event has a Twitter hashtag?

You can call it burnout or blackout, but either way it points to a real gap in social media strategy. If you know that for the immediate future, your institution will not have a team dedicated solely to social media, then you have to take these busy times into account when creating your social media strategy.

1. Remember that social media does require time, sometimes a lot of it. Social media is not something you can just get to when you have a minute. It is very nimble, but also highly disruptive. Do you allcoate time to regularly focus on your social media efforts? If not, you should at least consider scheduling blocks of time when you have advance notice that things are going to be absolutely crazy around your institution.
2. Would you ever let your phone go to voicemail for two weeks without checking it? I'll assume the answer is no, and if not...I'm probably a little bit jealous of you. Remember that social media is communication, and you probably have a percentage of alumni who look to your social media presence for news about your institution. You simply cannot vanish for an extended period of time. Some people say that you shouldn't post when there is nothing to talk about. I question how there can be nothing to talk about? You work at an educational institution, a vast buffet of items perfect for social media. At Northwestern, we've started posting a picture each week and asking alumni to identify the location on campus (credit for this idea goes to Greg Block at San Diego State). Colleges and universities do world-changing work—there must be something to talk about.
3. Share the social media load. Unless your job description says you need to be the sole curator of all things social media, consider bringing on another person (or two) to do some of the posting and content management. The speed of social media makes this a practical necessity.
4. Look at the calendar in advance. Don’t be surprised by your calendar. Every institution has a busy opening week at the same time every year. How many of us can say, with genuine surprise, "I really didn't expect yesterday to be such a long day?" This is somewhat repeating my first point, but you must treat the curation of social media content as a task on par with checking email, checking voicemail or communicating with your volunteers. Check your calendar and do not use being "busy" as an excuse not to be present on your social media channels.

Through this blog post, you have read my confession and what I plan to do about it. For social media to gain further traction and credibility at our institutions, those of us responsible for the upkeep of the channels must first treat it as integral to our own jobs. Perpetual whitewater is an apt description for the type of work we do. Even when water is splashing you directly in the face, you have to keep paddling.