Authentic Perspectives

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

College football at U.S. institutions seems to dominate news headlines in the fall. Some of us work on campuses where whether the team is a success or not determines more than bowl position, but also how happy alumni will be when a brave student makes a phoneathon call.

Earlier this month, my alma matter Michigan State, pulled off a last second and somewhat miraculous win against the University of Wisconsin. I want to talk about how my numerous viewings of the big play on YouTube led me to connect with our alumni relations work.

With respect to Michigan State's win, user-generated content helps tell a more complete story than any one camera angle could.

In 1984, Doug Flutie, playing for Boston College, threw a similar touchdown pass, winning the game against the University of Miami. If you search YouTube, you will find exactly one video of this pass. It has been uploaded multiple times by multiple people, but you'll find only one angle.

I’m sure the two institutions have that image seared into their institutional memories, for better or worse. I’m also certain that if we could see a video of the reaction from the fans in the stadium, we'd have a more complete picture of what happened.

Fast forward 27 years. If you watch the Michigan State vs. University of Wisconsin game below for about 45 seconds, it will give you a good idea of how many different angles from which the play was viewed within the stadium. The many angles were filmed through handheld cameras, phones and other video-supporting media.

Following the play, there was a video review. Numerous videos of fans waiting for confirmation of the touchdown have cropped up, but this one is my favorite. It's what I think it would be like to be in the middle of a sonic boom.

As an alum of the school, I can tell you that it’s the poorly shot video of the crowd waiting in anticipation that I could watch over and over (and 24,000 people agree with me). On that Saturday night, 72,000 people might have been in the stadium, but many more felt a strong connection to the event. The connection did not happen because the marketing team was ready to produce content about fan reactions. The fans reacted and produced their own content, providing numerous perspectives that when combined created a panorama of emotion.

There are a couple of lessons here about social media. Social media allows us to engage our alums in the moment in a more authentic way than the most well planned marketing piece could ever hope to. From my own point of view, the videos of fan reactions stoke memories of similar reactions I had in the same stadium and remind me that passion is an important driver for inspiring alumni to engage and participate in meaningful ways.

A second lesson is to rememember that our obligation to tell the story supercedes our desire to own the story. There are moments in the lives of our alumni that should not be edited or made more palatable for wider consumption. If you decide to view the world through the lens of your alumni, make sure the view is authentic.

Practically speaking, isn't this an opportunity for your alumni magazine to provide a QR code linking back to some of these exciting videos? And, why not alert your campus archivist to alumni content?

The motto of the state of Michigan where the game took place is “If you seek a pleasant peninsula look around you.” Fellow social media curators, if you seek engaging content look around YouTube.

A Very *Social* Media Orientation

Ma'ayan Plaut is the social media coordinator at Oberlin College

As a young alum working at my alma mater, each fall, I'm awash with memories of my orientation at the same time as the new class begins flooding campus. My own orientation was filled with names and faces and meeting people in person who I had so happily met and fallen head-over-heads in friend-crush with through our Class of 2010 Facebook group.

Even as an administrator, I have been deeply involved with the incoming class on Facebook. I knew I had to do something to try and meet as many of these fascinating new students in person as possible, so I pulled out my trusty dragon backpack, filled it with the necessities (camera, iPad, water bottle and business cards) and informed my audience of my outfit on Facebook and Twitter. My plan was to embrace the "social" part of my social media coordinator job title.

I began with the northern part of campus, popping my head into as many rooms in as many dorms as I could—my only criteria was that the room contain first-years. My basic spiel was, "Hi! I am from the Internet! I answered your questions all summer, I blogged about you and I just wanted to say hello in real life and see that you're a real person. What's your name?"

This turned out to be a magical introduction. Most students (and parents!) recognized my name or identified my outfit from my Facebook post and were really excited to become involved with the two social media projects I had created for move-in day.

The first was a simple photo project, a snapshot of a new student (or students, if a roommate was also around) plus something to represent Oberlin or the class of 2015 in the photo. I got shirts (worn, held up to smiling faces or modeled on a sibling who was helping move in), sweatshirts, blankets, bracelets, IDs, lanyards and the ubiquitous hand signs for OC or 15 if it was too early in the unpacking process to have the Oberlin swag unpacked.

Why a photo project?

• Parents love photos of their kids. My mom is guilty of this. Each time I blog or post photo albums, she's always looking for photos of myself or my brother and points it out when she doesn't see either of us. I managed to get photos of about a tenth of our incoming class—and moms and dads everywhere are happy.

• "I wish I had taken more pictures." My (and Avenue Q's) mantra of making the most of college is to take lots and lots of photos. Getting our students started and smiling for the camera on day one encourages them to continue smiling for four more years.

• Class unity (and campus pride) is important. By having students represent their year or their connection to Oberlin, it made for a really cohesive album of images that clearly state these students' connections to our school.

The second project was a video with a simple concept—grab as many new students as possible and have them say one sentence for the camera. The sentence had to include answers to the following questions:

• What is your name? Secret: This was also so I would be able to learn the names of as many people as possible. It was a mild success. I can identify a great number of students by name and face at this point!

• What is your class affiliation? This allowed me to talk to transfers and double-degree students without getting into a confusing class year discussion. Most students said 2015, first year or freshman.

• What is one thing you're most excited about for the upcoming year? After a few students were unable to choose just one thing, I asked students for a sentence's worth of exciting things, which actually gave me content to work with later.

I had planned to shoot videos just on move-in day, but many other interview opportunities arose during orientation so I extended the interviews through the end of the week. What emerged were a few gigabytes of spectacular videos of glowing incoming students in a variety of dorm rooms as well as inside, outside and hanging out in groups, grinning like their lives depended on it and with their voices dripping with the most natural enthusiasm possible. Need proof? See for yourself.

Why make a video?

• Our students are cool. Very few of our current Obies, alums or faculty and staff have met these students yet—this video serves as an abbreviated introduction to our new class. Also, this was a great way to invite our new Obies into the family. (My repeated line was, "From one Obie to another, you're allowed to be excited! I'm bouncing around telling you about Oberlin, be excited with me!")
• New students are willing and ready to talk to practically everyone. It helps that I had a reason to be popping around and saying hi. Everyone already knew my name and it was time for me to do my part and start meeting Internet people in real life.
• Parents like to know that their kids are in good hands. Having an administrator pop in and say, "Hi! We're happy you're here!" is invaluable and good for curbing separation anxiety.
• Getting students involved on day one is a good, good thing. What better way to get people involved and excited about social media than telling them that they're a movie star and they should watch themselves on Youtube?

What sorts of activities did your campus have planned to welcome the new class?

Villains, Ducks and Flash Mobs: Four Ways YouTube Can Go Beyond the Brochure

Jennifer Doak is the online communications specialist at CASE.

We all know your institution has amazing faculty, first-class students and a meaningful piano soundtrack—but what makes it compelling? Let’s take a look at some creative (and not necessarily high-budget) uses of online video.

1. Tell stories.

  

Valencia College, “Dear Valencia”: This promotional video centers on students writing letters to the school, the faculty and eventually the community, thanking Valencia for believing in their abilities. It’s a simple concept, but the editing and content are incredibly well-done—and the cast outtakes give it a real human touch.

University of West Georgia, “Go West”: These three promotional videos for the University of West Georgia use a great slogan, “Go West,” to its advantage. Proactive students head to campus on different roads, using various vehicles, to find their own way to success. Simple, effective and beautifully done.

2. Create intrigue.

 

Park Tudor School, “Founder’s Day 2011: A mystery’s a-brewing on campus”:  I just love this Founder’s Day mystery. A team of two students travel across campus trying to find the president’s backpack, solving clues that use trivia about the school’s history. The video features a cackling villain, “Yackety Sax,” and karate-chopping staff members. It may not be the most viral video out there, but it’s a great way to build community—and I bet alumni loved it.

Whitworth University, “The Quest for the Golden Pinecone”: The pirate mascot’s choose-your-own-adventure-style journey was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this summer, and for good reason. Admitted students were invited to watch the video and then choose what would happen next – progressive videos were then linked to the Class of 2015 Facebook page.

3. Find out what’s hot.

 

Online content is all about creating, sharing and paying homage to memes—why not join in?

University of Oregon, “Call Me a Duck”: Oregon’s Office of Admissions is lucky enough to have a catchy custom-made song from On the Rocks, an a cappella group that’s pretty good at going viral.

Oberlin College’s Friday parody: Rebecca Black’s infamous earworm gets the commencement treatment for the Class of 2011.

Murray State Flash Mob: Flash mobs have become a huge trend on campuses in the past year, but I think Murray State’s got some amazing choreography here. I’m also a sucker for 90s dance tunes, school mascots and presidents riding the train. C & C Music Factory, anyone?

(Honorable flash-mob mentions go to the University of Minnesota’ s celebration of the College of Science and Engineering’s 75^th anniversary and Brigham Young University’s improvement on the wave. )

4. Show that you’re listening.

You may remember a previous blog post on Florida International University’s “Betsy Reads Your Comments” videos. But it’s not the only institution out there responding to their audience through YouTube. 

Aberystwyth University’s social media team answers frequently (or infrequently) asked questions, taken from its Facebook page, and puts them on an interactive YouTube menu. I love its top 10 tips: “Don’t get too attached to kitchen utensils” is advice we should all pay attention to, in my opinion.

 

Do you have numbers to add to the list? Other fantastically creative ways institutions are using YouTube? Post ‘em in the comments!

 

 

Why Higher Ed is NOT There Yet with Social Media Marketing

Karine Joly is executive director of Higher Ed Experts, a professional development company, and editor of collegewebeditor.com.

Last week, Kyle James reminded us that the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachussets Dartmouth had just published the results of its latest study on social media use in higher ed.

With 456 interviews performed from November 2010 to May 2011 among a representative sample of 4-year institutions in the United States, the findings of this study are valid within a +/- 4 percent range.

While they confirm some widely-shared assumptions on the state of social media in higher education, these results also reveal some surprising trends.

• According to this study, 100 percent of colleges and universities now use some form of social media–be it blogs, Facebook, Twitter, message/bulleting boards, videoblogging, podcasting, Foursquare, MySpace, LinkedIn or YouTube. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is the most widely used by institutions–only 2 percent aren't present on the most popular social networking platform.
• YouTube follows with an adoption rate of 86 percent, just before Twitter with 84 percent and blogging with 66 percent.
• What's a bit more surprising is the jump in podcasting use compared to the previous year–from 22 percent to 41 percent. I really don't understand what could explain this surge and this makes me question the reliability of this specific data point. (How was podcasting defined to respondents?)

Is success in the eyes of the admissions officer?

When asked how successful institutions are with the different types of social media channels they use, more than three-quarters of the respondents reported all channels (with the exception of the dying MySpace platform) as successful.

So, all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds when it comes to social media in higher education?

Not so fast.

 

A closer look at the results of two other recent studies, namely the 2011 E-expectations Study from Noel-Levitz and the State of Web and Social Media Analytics in Higher Education I conducted for Higher Ed Experts, raises several questions about the very rosy picture painted by the study of social media use in admissions offices.

• When only 9 percent of prospective students and 5 percent of their parents have a Twitter account, according to the Noel-Levitz survey, how can 72 percent of the institutions see Twitter as a successful channel?
• When 66 percent (a 15-point increase from the previous year) of admissions offices use blogs and three-quarters of students and parents said they never or only rarely looked at college blogs, how good can the social media strategy of the admission office be?
• When 95 percent of admissions offices pat themselves on the back when asked to evaluate the success of their efforts on Facebook yet only 49 percent of the institutions–according to the Higher Ed Experts study–track Facebook activity, what does Facebook success look like for almost half the institutions?

Obviously, I don't have the answers to these questions, but I believe there's a real need to go beyond the "social media checklist" tactic and adopt a more strategic and measurable approach in higher education.

Now that everybody is on board, it's time to find out what works for the institution and stop what doesn't.

Don't YOU think so?

FIU Community Manager's Weekly Videos

Karine Joly is executive director of Higher Ed Experts, a professional development company, and editor of collegewebeditor.com.

I'm a big fan of Betsy Soler's "Betsy Reads Your Comments," YouTube videos. Betsy is the community manager in charge of social media at Florida International University and she hosts this video series.

These weekly videos offer a review of FIU latest news and feature comments from students and other members of the community, comments posted during the week on other social media platforms.

Haven't watched one of these yet? Do it now!

 

While the videos are well-produced, fun and engaging, what I really love is the fact that they fully integrate (in a meaningful and smart way) all the different pieces of the FIU social media puzzle.  

This is a great example of how to scale community management while keeping the human dimension crucial to the success of any social media initiative.

Betsy agreed to answer a few questions about these videos.

1. Why did FIU decide to launch these weekly videos in the first place? 

Our goal was to find a new way to engage our readers and commenters on all of our platforms. It's another way to show that we are listening. It also provides another avenue to reach people who might not read our news website. We are targeting a younger demographic.

The FIU News website evolved from a faculty and staff newsletter to a university community news site and this content helps address the student audience. Students seem to relate to someone closer to their own age and it offers a different face for the university rather than just administration.

News at FIU - Florida International University

2. How are they produced?

We go over the weekly news stories and select those that elicited the most comments and feedback. We may also include any stories we want to highlight as a university. It is created by a three person team: a writer, a video producer and myself. Our current team includes Sissi Augila (who initiated the concept), Chris Necuze and Doug Garland who alternate video production duties. It's an in-house production.

It takes us approximately an hour to assess our content and develop a script. Afterward, it can take us anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half to film. Editing and post-production is anywhere between four to five hours.

3. What kind of impact have the videos had on audience engagement on other social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter?

Since we started producing these videos, comments on our news site and social media channels have been steadily increasing. It's too early to make the correlation between overall comments and the popularity of the series. However, BRYC videos consistently gets more views than our average upload to Youtube. It has made the university more connected, increasing suggestions for news content to our office.  

4. How do you measure your return on investment?

We have been measuring our return on investment by tracking engagement (views, comments, subscriptions, interactions, etc.) and this show is one of the tools to allow us to reach our goals. Our goal for next year is to double views, comments and fans alike.