How Social Networks Are Changing Academic PR, Marketing and Alumni Relations

How Social Networks are Changing College Marketing, PR, and Alumni Relations Dan Forbush NAICU Public Relations Academy February 1, 2009

Evolution of Computers in Marketing Communications
1970s IBM Memory Typewriter
Early 1980s Desktop Publishing
Mid 1980s CompuServe
Late1980s Email / Listservs
Mid 1990s Static Web
Late 1990s Dynamic Web
Mid 2000s Social Web
Late 2000s Mobile Web
Mid 2020s Neural Web
We’re Here

2009: Our Expanding Digital World
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Basecamp
Box.net
Slideshare
MySpace
ITunes
Flickr
iGoogle
Blogs
Podcasts
Wikis

The 2008 Presidential Race

Main Obama Facebook Page

Obama’s YouTube Channel

Obama’s LinkedIn Group

Obama in Twitter

‘ Obama Everywhere’

OrganizingforAmerica.com

‘ Barack Obama won the presidency in a landslide victory by converting everyday people into engaged volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, email advocacy, text messaging and online video.’
Michael Krempasky
EVP, Digital Public Affairs
Edelman
Obama’s Achievement

Why Our Use of Social Networks is Exploding*
They enable us to manage large extended networks more effectively
They provide information about others that serves as a ‘social lubricant,’ making it easy to interact
They give us new ways to connect with one another over shared interests, problems, or experiences, and to mobilize coordinated actions
* Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008

In Higher Education
“ Social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace
now constitute an integral part of the daily communications
practices for many students. For those of us in higher education,
it is particularly important to understand SNS practices, outcomes
and motivations for use because these sites are fundamentally
changing the social fabric of the university … “
Nicole Ellison
Michigan State University
ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008

Social Networks Are Transforming PR, Marketing and Alumni Relations Because:
They’re interactive, engaging and ‘viral’
They powerfully support ‘word of mouth’
They’re merging with conventional Web sites
They’re the future

Inauguration Day

What’s Your
Social Networking
Strategy?

At Skidmore
We see the introduction of a Skidmore-managed social network as our best hope for strengthening our connections with young alumni

Why Do We Need to?
Caller ID Screening: Annual fund callers now must make 16 calls for every live connection
Revenues from Calls are Declining: From $260,000 in 2005 to $110,000 in 2008
Renewed Focus on Volunteers: Personal contacts by peers are key

New Capabilities the New ‘Skidmore Network’ Must Offer
Enable alumni to easily network by professional groups
Enable alumni to easily network by affinity groups
Enable alumni to post electronic class notes
And…

Alumni must be able to access the new Skidmore Network using their Facebook user name and password

Why Facebook?

By Surveying Our Alumni, We Learned:
Twice as many Skidmore alumni use Facebook
as MySpace
79 percent of alumni who use Facebook say
they use it daily
The more experienced with Facebook a Skidmore
alumnus/a is, the less likely he or she is to join
a Skidmore-managed network

Here’s What They’re Telling Us
‘ W h y reinvent the wheel? Facebook and Linkedin are sophisticated sites with lots of resources. Skidmore won't be able to duplicate their service.’
‘ Who needs to remember another password?’
‘ Yo u need to go where people are, not expect them to come to you.’

What Makes Facebook So ‘Sticky’ ?

‘ Friending’

Content-Sharing

News Feed (mine)

News Feed (all friends)

Interactions Galore (50,000 Applications)

Facebook Pages
Institutional voice
No ads
Visible to all – no login needed
Link Event pages to it
Listserv function
- Blog function
- Discussion topics
- Share photos and videos
Pull in videos from YouTube
‘ Fans’ can connect with each
other
And more …
Ideal for creating niche communities

Measurement
Facebook’s ‘Insight’ tool enables you to analyze traffic to your Page by any of the following:
Wall Posts Video Plays New Fans Audio Plays Fans Photo Views Unique Views Discussion Topics Page Views

Page Views

Creating a Niche Community in Facebook

Creating a Niche Community A Q&A
An Alumnus Q&A
YouTube video

Creating a Niche Community ‘ Notes’ is like a blog ‘ Notes’ is like a blog

Creating a Niche Community Alumni profiles

Creating a Niche Community Alumnus MySpace Page

Key Goals in Skidmore Network
Create an application that enables alums in any profession to create and maintain profiles of themselves in a Facebook community directly relevant to their interests
Link these profiles to their profiles in Skidmore’s alumni database so they can easily update key information

Would You Like to Partner with Us ?
Let’s develop the architecture for an ideal alumni community in Facebook and share the development costs!
Write or call me:
[email_address]
518-580-5746

Facebook Connect
will be in key in this

Facebook Connect
‘ We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It's about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.’
Facebook
May 9, 2008

How It Works
Developers may add Facebook’s ‘rich social context’ to their own websites
Users may connect their Facebook account to any partner website for ‘single sign-on’
Users may take their profile information with them wherever they go on the Web
Users may take their friends with them wherever they go on the Web

New Forms of
Facebook-enabled
Public Dialog:
Two Examples

Facebook Connect With CNN.com

Facebook Connect With CNN Forum

An Example from Higher Ed Ithaca College: Facebook Connect With iModules

Facebook Connect with iModules’ ‘Encompass’*
Connects member identity and content in their Ithaca College alumni community directly to Facebook.
Event registrations, class notes, and online donations can be published on a member’s Facebook News Feed.
*Thanks to Ithaca’s Julie Doherty for the screenshots that follow

Single Sign-on
Visitors to the alumni community with a Facebook account can associate their identity with a member record in the alumni site.
Once successful, the accounts are “connected” and the member can choose to login with either their community or Facebook username and password in the future.

Single Sign-on
Login page includes the “Connect with Facebook” button

Single Sign-on
Clicking on the Facebook button invokes this login dialog box

Single Sign-on Page allowing member to “link” the two accounts

Single Sign-on
Successfully logged in, pulling picture and name from Facebook

News Feed Propagation
When visitors, logged in via Facebook Connect, interact with an enabled form, they are presented with a dialog box.
Visitors may elect to propagate their activity into their Facebook News Feed or not.

Confirmation step of an event with a “Share on Facebook” button

Dialog box confirming publication to Facebook News Feed

Facebook News Feed including alumni web site member activity

There’s a Lot You Can Do To Strengthen Your Institution’s Visibility in Facebook Itself – for Free!

We’ve Launched a Series of Facebook Pages and Groups Skidmore Alumni Class of 2013 Alumni in Digital Media Skidmore Musicians Online Skidmore Global We’ve told alumni we’ll help them create their own

We’ve Created ‘Skidmore Interactive’ To Bring It All Together This is our ‘home page for Skidmore’s online communities’ It’s the core of our social network

We Embarked on a Graphic Identity Program in Facebook. Here’s our Main Alumni Group.

Our Career Services Page

Our Class of 2013 Page

Our ‘Online Musicians’ Group

We Produced a Special Issue of Our Magazine: ‘Digital Skidmore’

We Inserted a Four-Page Promotion: ‘Making Friends with the Web’ Our objective was to build alumni audiences in Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube and to begin a serious discussion about a Skidmore-managed social network

Plus:
We’ve created a team of student Facebook contributors
We’ve brought our entire Alumni Board into an ‘Alumni Board’ group in Facebook
We’ve created an alumni social networking advisory group

‘ Laddering’ Support through Tiers of Engagement* *Edelman Personal Create a profile, post a comment, make a donation, sign up for email, ‘friend’ a classmate Social Post pictures or videos, write a blog post, join a discussion or group, post a class note Advocate Recruit others to donate, host an event, create a group

Challenges
Resistance to Facebook among faculty and colleagues
Mastering new technologies and genres
Finding comfortable blend of one’s personal and professional persona
Figuring out how to play the role of ‘community manager’

Role of Community Manager
Establish goals, develop strategy and monitor progress
Master the new tools and teach others
Keep content fresh
Generate and promote the ‘conversation’
Serve as the institution’s visible, interactive representative in social spaces
Develop and extend ‘online persona’

Aspects of Your ‘Online Persona’
Your profile content: photo, bio, photo collections, videos
Your friends
The nature of content you post
The ‘voice’ with which you post
Your privacy settings

My Facebook Profile

Other Networks, Sites, and Smart Approaches

Twitter.com

Tinyurl.com

Twitter feed

Yammer

Basecamp

BigThink

Google Maps ‘Mashup’ at Colgate

Box.net

Slideshare

The Vatican on YouTube

To see these slides again:
http://www.slideshare.com/dforbush

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How Social Networks Are Changing Academic PR, Marketing and Alumni Relations

by Dan Forbush on Feb 01, 2009

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