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.

In Defense of the Non-Ninja

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

On a normal day, I wake up and check Twitter on an Ipad, usually while still in bed.  I double check Facebook on a Droid, usually while walking my dog.  Eventually I’ll use the same phone to check-in to the train station on Foursquare before going to work, where I spend at least part of the day monitoring alumni activity on those same platforms using Tweetdeck.  I would define myself as a social media ninja.

Described another way—I’m very comfortable in the social media universe.  If you’re reading this, I suspect you are as well, or at least you have the time to learn about it.  Yet, as social media gets more integrated into what we do, we need to learn how to tell the story of social media to the non-ninjas in our lives.   These are the people who don’t know the difference between a paycheck and a check-in, a ceiling fan and a fanpage, and think Tweets are a bulk Easter candy.

Social media is becoming so important to the work we do that we have to be able to talk about it in the workplace without it devolving into an Abbot and Costello routine. (He’s our fan? I thought he was our follower?)

Here are some thoughts about communicating effectively with the non-ninja:

1. Lack of Facebook knowledge does not equal the lack of a high school diploma. When talking to your boss, your boss's boss, or your mother about social media, don’t treat them like Forest Gump with a login.  Remember how you felt before you learned to ride a two wheel bike?  Watching all the other kids zoom past you?  Until you learned you probably felt frustrated.  Don’t stoke that frustration in others. 
2. Why say “geosocial” when “check-in” will do?  I had no idea how to describe Foursquare or Scvngr until I was at the CASE Social Media conference, at which point I learned the word "geosocial."  That was 3 weeks ago.  It might be a little too soon to assume everyone in my life intuitively knows what it means.  Don’t use fancy lingo that only you understand just to make yourself look smart in front of decision-makers. 
3. Social media is changing the "how", not necessarily the "why."  The goals of alumni relations and advancement are certainly evolving.  However, in the end, we are still seeking a high level of engagement and participation. Social media is becoming a powerful tool in meeting these goals.  Remember though, your vast experience with and understanding of Facebook does not necessarily trump someone else’s years of experience in donor relations, marketing, event planning or gift solicitation. It is up to you to show how these tools can help enhance their efforts to meet measurable goals.

As social media integrates itself more and more in what we do, there will be more ninjas than non-ninjas. Until that day comes, patience, understanding, and some deep breaths will help everyone maximize the use of these new technologies.

Has Advancement Advanced in Social Media Use?

Michael Stoner is the president of mStoner and a faculty member for the CASE Social Media & Community conference.

Last year, CASE members reported that nearly all institutions (94 percent) were using Facebook to connect with important audiences. Their main purposes for using social media were engaging alumni (86 percent), strengthening their institutional brand (72 percent) and increasing awareness/advocacy/rankings (58 percent).

These were just some of the findings from the first survey of social media in advancement, conducted through a partnership between CASE, mStoner, and Slover Linett Strategies. We've reported on the results elsewhere and wrote a white paper, "Succeeding with Social Media: Lessons from the First Survey of Social Media in Advancement," that digests what we learned and provides some additional insights.

We're now busy analyzing the results from the second survey, which launched in February and closed in early March. I'm not going to share too many of our findings—we'll release the results on April 13 at the CASE Social Media & Community conference in San Francisco. Cheryl Slover-Linett and I will open the conference with a presentation of findings from the new survey.

What I will say is that it's interesting to see what's changed in a year. And how much hasn't. In general, the shifts are smaller than I would have anticipated.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of institutions consider Facebook the most successful social tool for meeting their goals (87 percent in 2011 vs. 85 percent in 2010). There are a few shifts in the ranking of other social tools, but not big ones. I could say much the same thing about the changes in other areas of the survey.

Here's an example of a place where I expected to see more change occurring in the future: "Is the use of social media developing spontaneously or is it the result of planning in your unit?" In 2011, 7 percent of respondents indicated "highly spontaneous" and 17 percent "highly planned." Last year? It was 8 percent "highly spontaneous" and 13 percent "highly planned."

It looks as if the majority of institutions are still relying on counting measures (number of comments, tweets, etc.) as indications of social media success. Compare that with the Altimeter Group's research on the measures corporate social strategists are using to measure social media engagement:

 

So what does this mean? We are still combing through the data and don't have all the details yet. Stay tuned for the results of the second survey in April.

Survey Results Point to Tensions, Opportunities

We believe social media helps us achieve our goals, yet we’re measuring success by numbers rather than actions.

We like our independence managing social media but would welcome more coordination and planning across our institutions.

We say the greatest barrier to effective use of social media is lack of human resources, yet we don’t think our institutions will provide those resources in the immediate future.

These findings, culled from the results of the first survey on the use of social media in educational advancement, offer a look at the state of social media today – or at least in June, when the study was conducted by mStoner, Slover Linett Strategies and CASE. The results are presented in a newly released white paper written by Cheryl Slover-Linett and Michael Stoner.

Not surprisingly, the survey results tell us that most institutions are on Facebook and most are engaging alumni and friends among their primary audiences. Fewer are engaging employees or parents through social media. Fewer still are using social media in crisis and issues management (a use just added to Andy Shaindlin’s evolving matrix on the impact of social networks on alumni relations).

The more intriguing findings may sound a bit familiar to those of us who were around when we were helping our campuses figure out the web: How do we measure? Who’s in charge? How do we get it done? Arguably, the need to explore and understand the answers to these questions may be more urgent today than it was then given the rapid pace of change and the accompanying cultural shift in how we interact with our constituents.

In addition to calling attention to the challenges and tensions associated with the evolution of social media in advancement, the survey findings suggest that we want our social media initiatives to be more strategic, more collaborative, more integrated and better resourced. Perhaps the results can be used to start campus conversations about opportunities on all of these fronts.

The white paper looks at how we’re using social media and for what goals, how effective we think we are, how we manage and deploy social media, perceived barriers to success, how we determine success, and what we see happening related to social media in the coming year.

It also includes thoughtful feedback on the survey results from Andrew Gossen of Cornell and Charlie Melichar of Vanderbilt, co-chairs of the joint CASE commission task force on social media, and by alumni relations commission chair and Alumni Futures guru Andy Shaindlin. And it features case studies that take an in-depth look at how four institutions are using social media. Download it from the CASE website.

What findings did you find to be most surprising? Most enlightening? Most helpful?

 

An Interview with Peter Johnson, University of North Dakota

Members of the CASE social media task force are interviewing colleagues at institutions they think are using social media effectively. Peter Johnson is the executive associate vice president for university relations at the University of North Dakota. He was interviewed by Don Koijch, associate vice president for marketing and communications at the University of Illinois Foundation.

DK: What social media programs is the University of North Dakota currently engaged in?

PJ: We have several units on campus that are helping build a community on Facebook. We also have a presence on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and iTunes U.

DK: Which do you think are the most effective?

PJ: Facebook is great because it provides a pathway to connect and communicate. It’s engaging and immediate.

DK: What have you tried that you think hasn’t worked?

PJ: We haven’t yet made YouTube a top priority, and we’ve only dabbled with iTunes University, so we haven’t seen a lot of return in those channels.

DK: What new social media tools are you considering or exploring?

PJ: We recently hired a full-time social media coordinator for the office, so our latest initiative has been committing more staff time and energy for these tools.

DK: Are social media initiatives integrated into your strategic communications plan?

PJ: I’ll give a “soft yes” to that. We’ve been including it in our plans, especially as we’re looking at social media as part of a new campus web redesign.

DK: How are your social media initiatives organized and resourced?

PJ: Many departments on campus have created social media opportunities within their various sites. And we’re making university relations a centralized unit by hiring a full-time social media coordinator.

DK: Where does the buck stop when it comes to social media decisions?

PJ: Right here, at the campus Office of University Relations.

DK: What do you wish you knew when you were first exploring social media initiatives that you know now?

PJ: I wish I knew how important social media has become to the generation of students now in high school and college. It’s tough to know what’s a fad and what is here to stay.

DK: Has the University of North Dakota established any type of social media policies?

PJ:  We have -- as complete a set of social media policies as seem logical at this time.  Under Heather Bushaw's leadership, we did some research and "CASEd" -- or "borrowed" from, if you prefer -- the best policies we found, adapting what we needed to for the environment at The University of North Dakota.  You can find the policy at http://und.edu/socialmedia/policy/.

DK: What advice you would give to someone planning to launch any type of social media initiative today?

PJ: Find out what’s cutting edge and stay with it. Find out who does it well and learn from them. And hire somebody whose job it is to think about social media 24/7. 

 

 

The Longest Running Education Blog in the World--Insights From a Veteran Blogger

For more than a decade, Proctor Academy’s Chuck Will has been the leader in social media amongst educational institutions—well before the term was even coined. Cleary University’s Amanda Chaborek, who first heard about Chuck’s Corner at a CASE District I conference in 2004, interviews the veteran blogger and director of communications for Proctor below.

AC: When did you start Chuck’s Corner and what exactly is it?
CW: I started Chuck’s Corner in 1998 and according to MStoner, it is the longest running education blog in the world. It’s about trivial stuff—what’s going on in the dorms, science labs gone awry—the every day stuff. I think it’s important to show that we are not perfect here…that we are a real school with real students.

AC: What is the readership of Chuck’s Corner?
CW: We have tens of thousands of regular readers.

AC: What other social media initiatives is Proctor Academy currently engaged in?
CW: On the front page of our website, we have a major Twitter presence (if anyone mentions Proctor Academy via hashtags, retweets, etc., it shows up); Proctor In Focus, a Flickr stream which enables anyone in the world to download pictures for free; a Facebook fan page which alumni regularly use for networking and event promotion; LinkedIn; UStream, which we use to stream online major events such as commencement; and customized web pages directed to different constituents in lieu of magazines and newsletters. The customized web pages have been a huge hit in terms of stewardship. For example, if someone donates to ceramics and dance, he or she would receive a customized web page with info/updates/news on those specific programs. We also use Flickr to archive school photos.


AC: Are social media initiatives integrated into your strategic communications plan? If so, how?
CW: Our communication plan is relatively organic, evolving as we identify new opportunities and resources. Right now, Facebook plays a significant role with alumni communications; Chuck's Corner is first and foremost an admission and current parent blog; Twitter informs parents, alumni and other schools of school news; and Flickr is meeting image archival needs while documenting campus happenings. What is important is that a communication plan is responsive to emerging opportunities.

AC: How are your social media initiatives organized and resourced?
CW: It is all about decentralization! I am the content generator and the photos are all cataloged in LightRoom.


AC: Where does the buck stop when it comes to social media decisions?
CW: Our Development and Communications Team meets somewhat regularly to brainstorm ideas. There is no formal committee for Chuck’s Corner, but if someone has an issue with a post, their requests will be taken into consideration. This may happen once or twice a year at most.


AC: What have you tried that you think hasn’t worked, and why?
CW: Student Voices (student blogs) has traditionally been hard to get students involved. We’ve had to use English classes to pull content. Twitter has only been marginally successful.


AC: Looking forward, what social media initiatives are you considering or exploring?
CW: We’re looking at students using Flip Cameras to interview players during practices before big games and right after the games to stream through the homepage.


AC: What social media resources have you found to be invaluable (i.e. what resources would you recommend to your peers, and what resources do you wish were available)?
CW:

• Twitter: Seth Godin, Huffington Post
• Seth Godin’s blog
• “Smart Marketing Practices”
• Read other blogs!

AC: What are the two most important pieces of advice you would give to someone planning to launch any type of social media initiative today?
CW: Demand the freedom to be creative AND transparent. Also, look at the skill set of the people in your department. Pair them up with what they are good at and what they enjoy versus compartmentalizing people into job descriptions.

Finally, if you are setting up a blog, start with pictures and then work in blog content. The writer and photographer should be the same person.

An Interview with Sara Adamson, University of Sussex

Members of the CASE social media task force are interviewing colleagues at institutions they thought were using social media effectively. Below, Marina Pedreira-Vilarino, deputy development director at the University of Sussex, interviews colleague Sara Adamson, corporate editor with the university’s publications and branding team.

MP-V: What social media initiatives is the University of Sussex currently engaged in?

SA: We have a presence on Facebook, including a general Sussex fan page, an alumni fan page and a library page. We also have a YouTube channel and a number of Twitter feeds, including a general Sussex feed, a feed for staff and a feed for students.

We are currently developing a Flikr stream, and will be adding digg and reddit buttons to our website soon. We also have our own internal social networking site, SPLASH.

The Development and Alumni Office (DARO) also has a group on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Within Facebook, DARO has a fan page for the American Friends and also links to other other university pages and Sussex alumni geographical subgroups created by and large by alumni themselves.

MP-V: Which initiatives do you think are the most effective or successful, and why?

SA: Our Facebook pages are currently very popular, with a lot of alumni, prospective and current students interacting with the pages to ask questions, contact each other and start discussions. I think they’ve been successful because we keep them updated with interesting content and interact with our ‘fans.’

MP-V: What have you tried that you think hasn’t worked, and why?

SA: We do have a profile on other social networking sites (e.g. Bebo, Orkut) but it’s impossible to keep on top of all of these, especially since they can fall out of fashion so quickly. Using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is the most time-effective way we can use social media, as they are all such popular sites. The development and alumni relations office had a presence in Xin but it wasn’t as popular and we needed to focus resources on the sites that appealed the most to our audience.

MP-V: Looking forward, what social media initiatives are you considering or exploring?

SA: We’ve have recently formed a social media networking group from across the university so we can have a joined-up approach to our communication in this area. The group is made up of colleagues from the library, web team, other departments (e.g. student recruitment) and is fairly informal. We just get together and share knowledge, thinking about ways we can work together, and sometimes invite external guests in to share their ideas about what we could be doing in social media.

MP-V: Do you have social media policies or guidelines or common practices?

If there are any negative comments posted, for example, on our Facebook wall, we don’t delete or censor as this often causes many more problems than it solves. We try to reply to (and rub) the negative comment if we can, or in a pinch we add more content on top so it moves down the wall!

The Sussex Alumni Facebook group does not censor content either so that it is seen as a place for alumni to post anything they want openly. We respond to comments to show we listen and to create a genuine and meaningful dialogue with our alumni.

MP-V: How are your social media initiatives organized and resourced?

SA: There is no specific budget at the moment. It’s pretty ad hoc with different areas of the university managing their own social media presence. When revising the job description for the alumni officer post, the development and alumni office has made this area of work the responsibility of this post-holder. The director of communications has the ultimate responsibility for social media.

MP-V: What do you wish you knew when you were first exploring social media initiatives that you know now?

Not to be afraid! Embrace it -- it’s not going to go away. Also, that it’s worth starting small rather than trying to have a presence in too many social media sites and not being able to maintain it and keep content fresh.

MP-V: What are the most important pieces of advice you would give to someone planning to launch any type of social media initiative today?

Have a think about who you’re trying to communicate with and what social media will be best to reach them so that you stay relevant and targeted. Tone of voice is also important – you can be more playful in social media than you would in other media. Don’t forget it’s interactive, so it’s a useful tool for listening to your audience as well and communicating to them.

Tried-and-true Social Media Resources

What social media resources have you found to be invaluable? What resources would you recommend to your peers?

During interviews with social media leaders at more than 20 educational institutions, members of the CASE social media task force asked these two questions as part of an effort to begin developing a list of tried-and-true, peer-endorsed resources for advancement professionals who are either just stepping into or already working in the social media arena.

For staying on top of social media trends, tips and resources, interviewees suggested:

• Mashable
• Hubspot
• edSocialMedia
• copyblogger
• Seth Godin’s blog and Twitter feed

Suggested tools for tracking, aggregating and managing social media, include:

• Hootsuite, which is “useful to manage a group of people and assign permissions, update accounts,” according to an interviewee
• TweetDeck, a Twitter aggregator
• Google Reader, “helps monitor what is said about brand”
• Google alerts, email updates of recent Google results based on terms and topics
• Addict-o-matic, an aggregator of Web content by topic
• Digg, a tool to identify and share Web content
• Tweeter, a Twitter Interface that allows users to post new tweets through Facebook
• RSS feeds, “invaluable in terms of cross-pollinating multiple accounts from the institutional website”

A couple of respondents suggested checking out:

• Clay Shirky’s “How social media can make history”
• The Cluetrain Manifesto

Some of the survey participants stay tuned to social media trends by scanning what’s going on at other institutions and by relying on the expertise of on-campus colleagues. Others mentioned growing their skills and knowledge by attending face-to-face and online social media conferences. And one enterprising participant follows a self-developed list of 350 Twitter feeds by experts in the field, noting that they often include to links of case studies and helpful articles.

What would you add to the list?

An Interview with Cara Huey, Community College of Allegheny County

Members of the CASE social media task force are interviewing colleagues at institutions they think are using social media effectively. Below, Melissa Starace, director of alumni affairs at Northampton Community College, interviews Cara Huey, project assistant in alumni affairs at Community College of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania.

MS: What social media initiatives is your institution currently engaged in?

CH: At CCAC, the college maintains a profile on Facebook. The CCAC alumni program maintains a separate Facebook profile (3,406 friends and counting!) and an online community through Harris Connect. I am currently exploring the possibility of using Twitter and/or LinkedIn.

MS: Which initiatives do you think are the most effective or successful, and why?

CH: For the alumni program, Facebook has certainly been successful and effective. We have a large following, and the site provides a way to link alumni back to our CCAC website. Facebook has been extremely effective when we’re promoting events or news about the college. As far as CCAC as a whole, the college’s Facebook page is slowly gaining fans.

The Harris Connect online community enables us to utilize a blast email function, which is extremely convenient and time effective.

MS: What have you tried that hasn’t worked, and why?

CH: We tried using MySpace for the alumni program, but the site has steadily been losing popularity to Facebook.

MS: What practices do you use to manage your online communities?

CH: With Facebook, my most important practice is to immediately remove any comments from our page that are not acceptable (i.e. use of profanity). With the online community, we try not to overwhelm our alumni with too many email blasts.

We also work to respond to discussions and questions on both platforms as quickly as possible. I tend to think of social media as fast food—it is convenient and we want it fast.

MS: What are the two most important pieces of advice you would give to someone planning to launch any type of social media initiative today?

CH: Many organizations launch business profile pages on Facebook. This limits the functionality of what you can do. I recommend starting a regular profile page, working on building your followers and then creating sub pages off of that profile. I recently created a fan page for the CCAC Alumni Association off of the CCAC Alum profile, and we already have more than 500 fans.

The best piece of advice I could give would be to explore social media personally before you attempt to incorporate it into the workplace. For example, create a personal profile on Facebook and learn how to search for friends. But be sure to keep your personal and work profiles separate.

Measuring what matters. It takes time.

Am I wrong or is the conversation about social media metrics stuck in the mud? We are confronted by a preponderance of data that points to social media as something a lot of people use. To wit, on Friday, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project reported that “the percentage of U.S. adults ages 50 and older nearly doubled from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010… During the same timeframe, the percentage of adults from 18 to 29 years old using social media rose from 76% to 86%.”

 

Not too surprising. In fact, I would be bold enough to say that we can officially declare social media as "used" by our various constituencies, in the broadest sense. Where we may very well be missing the boat is in the balance of output and acquisition-based vs. outcome-conversion-based metrics being used to measure the effectiveness of social media efforts. Reflecting on the results of the CASE/mStoner/Slover Linett Strategies social media study, the three most frequently cited tools for measuring social media effectiveness were, number of friends who make a post, sheer number of participants, and click-throughs. Lower down on the list were things like event participation, donations and, the golden ticket in my opinion, surveys. How can we know if we are changing opinions and attitudes and inspiring action without testing the waters?

 

Having a strategy, complete with goals and associated metrics, behind your social media program is essential. Further, tying that strategy into your overall communication, engagement and institutional initiatives is critical to the internal relevance of your program. If someone at your institution asks "How's our social media program working?" we need to not only have the tools at hand to provide an informed answer, we should have the analysis to back it up and a plan to repeat the parts that have been successful.

 

Pointing again to the social media survey, the biggest challenge we have is likely resource-based. Nearly every respondent noted that they are using in-house resources to measure the effectiveness of their programs. This means that, in all likelihood, staff are either being asked to fit measurement into their already busy schedule (which was probably the same case when they were asked to take on social media responsibilities!), and have very little time to take a thoughtful approach to measurement. Sound familiar?