A presentation on using Social Media to promote University Clubs and Events, by Howard Greenstein, '88

1. PRESENTATION TO CORNELL
GROUPS AND CLUBS
PRESENTED BY
HOWARD GREENSTEIN
PRESIDENT
THE HARBROOKE GROUP
Entire presentation CopyLEFT (CC) 2008 by The Harbrooke Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

2. My Bio
2
 Howard Greenstein
BS from Cornell, Masters at NYU ITP

On-air DJ in the ‘80s, during and after college

Started first Web user group in US 1994, on Board of NY New Media

Association and NY Software Industry Association; First Internet
Streaming station in NYC - Netcast - 1996
Microsoft Evangelist: Internet Explorer and Windows Media Team

1997-2000 - responsible for top media properties including Fox, MTV,
Time Warner and ClearChannel
Other Media Startups, Ran 9-11 related charity

NYU Administration and Lecturer

Created Social Media Club 2006

Social Media Consulting


3. How Many People Have Passed
Along…
3
 An email?
 An article from an online newspaper?
 An emailed joke?
 A funny video clip?
 A web site or a link?

4. Social Media
4
 Describes the online technologies and practices that
people use to share content, opinions, insights,
experiences, perspectives, and media themselves.
 Social Software: “Software that’s no fun to experiment
with by yourself.” (It needs friends in order to work)

5. Elements of Social Media
5
 Social Networks
 Photo and video sharing sites
 Blogs
 Podcasts

6. Social Network
6
 Technically, a social network is a:
 social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or
organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of
interdependency...

7. Examples of Social Networking Sites
7
 B2B
LinkedIn

 Social Network with 20MM+ users. Business is facilitated as users connect other users.
XING

 4M+ paying users primarily in Europe; used to make business introductions and
connect for sales leads.
 Consumer
MySpace

180+ million users (and growing), still one of the largest web properties (Alexa)

The new way music gets discovered

Facebook

170+ million users, the place everyone wants to be now for business and social connections.

Fastest growing of all Social Networks; Huge in 12-34, growing 35+. Facebook is the 2nd most-trafficked social

media site in the world (comScore)
Imeem, BuzzNet, MOG

TV Sites like IslandDoo


8. Social Media to Spread the
Word
8

9. Your Members...
9
 Talk with each other

10. Teach Each Other
10

11. Tell Each Other Stories About Things They
Care About
11

12. Tell Stories?
12
 Probably the oldest form of learning/sharing of information
 Effective way to pass along information
 The original “Word of Mouth” marketing
 It is a form of Informal Learning
 (see the book Informal Learning by Jay Cross, published Nov. 2006)

13. 13

14. Social Media Makes it Easier to Spread the
Word…
14
 But it is not automatic.
 Example: A Non-Profit with a nice MySpace presence, but no link
to it on their site
 Same with Facebook
 If you build it…they may not come. Why not tell them about it?

15. Using Social Communities
15

16. Goals and Measurement
16
 What’s the goal of the community?
 Where are you now and where do you hope to go?
 What are you measuring (and how)?
 Can everyone see the measurements?

17. Running a Social Media Site Is Like
Hosting an Event
17
 Create a clear purpose
Inviting the early users

Setting the mood

Picking the people needed to get the party started

Having someone or a group tasked to help introduce new people

A basic set of rules or guidelines

A “bouncer” to take care of unexpected situations

A way for attendees to pitch in

Multiple ways to participate

Everybody has fun

References:

http://www.commoncraft.com/party

http://www.slideshare.net/leelefever/online-community-as-party


18. Community Moderation
18
 Self-moderation and self-policing – “report this”
 Tools to manage language and issues
 Reporting on the back end
 Personnel to moderate and manage situations where
“flaming” or “trolling” may potentially make community
communications uncomfortable

19. Facebook, MySpace and Other Social
Communities
19
 All intended to bring people together
 People can show their interests, join groups
 Photo and Video Sharing, links, information, invitations
 Applications – allow for games, socializing, spending
virtual time with friends

20. LinkedIn.com
20
 A professional/work focused social networking site
 Big draw is the Questions and Answers feature
 Some ability to form groups, but not as developed as some
of the other networks
 Great place to make connections for future employment,
to endorse the work of others by recommending them, to
get recommendations

21. What’s Really the Difference?
21
 Do you need all 3?
 Demographics – MySpace doesn’t seem to have many alumni groups
 LinkedIn good for Mailing Lists and some professional interaction,
especially job leads
 Facebook more for social interaction, even if it is ‘professional
social’ – more like a Cornell Club Cocktail party

22. Difference Between Pages and Groups
22
 Pages  Groups
 More like a ‘person’ with  Privacy, can be closed or
ability to have friends/fans secret
 Anyone can post to wall,  Can use email to
pictures, etc. communicate with members
 Communicate by “updates”  Limited to 5000 members (if
which show on the update you want to send mail)
tab or person’s wall  Can limit what is posted
 Can have applications  http://www.facebook.com/he
 http://www.facebook.com/ad lp.php?page=826
vertising/?pages

23. Facebook Pages
23
 FB is made up of personal connections – like your alumni
friends
 Pages and Groups
 Pages – like a personal page – pages can have fans that are
like friends
 Pages send out updates to the Update tab – not in FB
email.
Pages also are now able to create a status that shows in the main

page newsfeed
 Ability to create related events

24. Facebook Groups
24
 More like closed clubs
 Have privacy settings
 Can invite members via FB mail and email
 Can be more granular as to how things get posted, who
can post, and what kind of media can be posted
 Ability to create events

25. LinkedIn Groups
25
 Groups can have controlled membership, with ability to
manage content, discussions, etc.
Useful if you already have a group of members, as you can’t

easily invite people (Unless you’re already connected to them
on LinkedIn).
Can email to group members 1x a week

Can share management responsibility

Primary activity is discussions, ability to share news, have job

postings,
http://learn.linkedin.com/groups


26. Sharing and Managing a
Community
26

27. How to Get your Community Known
27
 Put it in your Email Signature! Promote it on your site!
 Watermark images in bottom corner with your URL -
they’re free advertising for your site
 Ratings, Polls, Reviews
 Make it easy for people to recommend your site, content,
etc. (sharethis.com)
 Set good examples for your members
Staff/Hosts participating in forums should be “perfect” members of

the community

28. Some specific advice on how to use
these communities
28
 Connecting members together
 Sharing photos from events
 Attracting new members
 Place to show good works done
 It’s a place to get FEEDBACK from members

29. Public vs. Private Sites
29
 Some Groups and some people, won’t be comfortable
with using public sites like Facebook or MySpace, or with
sharing using a photo or video sharing site
 Some social networking sites have a perception that
they’re ‘just for the kids’
 Some information is best shared privately within a
members-only environment

30. Consideration: Not Everyone Participates
30

31. The 1-9-90 Rule
31
 In online communities, there is a 1-9-90 rule
 1% of people will be most active and create most of the content
 9% will be active but will contribute much less
 90% will lurk and obtain information without giving back
Math 101 – if 1% contribute – you want a community of 5000 if you are

going to get 50 active people and 450 semi-active!
 Note, that 1% and 9% vary and change month to month
 Really successful communities grow by helping move
people from the 90 to the 9 and from the 9 to the 1 (or
shifting the ratio)

32. Less Computer-Literate Users
32
 Some people may are intimidated by a blog instead of an
online newsletter
 Some people don’t know how to join Facebook, nor are
they sure what they’re getting into
 Best practices to help:
Demonstrations at group meetings or webinars

Buddy Program – Experienced with inexperienced users – Great

opportunity to reach out to members– Some of them will teach
you!

33. Terms of Service
33
 Tell people how you expect them to act on your site
 That way, if they violate your ‘terms of service’ you can
remove anything they have posted in comments, etc., and
you are more legally ‘covered’ as a publisher
Again, a lawyer will have more information on this


34. Legal Considerations Continued
34
 When consulting I generally advise:
 Don’t publish falsehoods, or defame someone’s reputation.
 Be careful when republishing ANY information from another site or
source, (copyrighted or not) and always provide a citation to where
you found the information. (Fair Use)
 Watch for guidelines about the usage of logos, trademarks, and
other protected and valuable items of intellectual property.
 Learn the differences between being a publisher and being an editor.
 And of course, if you have questions, ask an attorney!

35. Non-legal ‘rules’ to consider
35
Posting photos – does everyone look good?


36. More “rules”
36
 Do you post photos with kids?
 Is anyone under an order of protection, in a foster care situation,
etc?
 Do you keep comments on a site if they’re negative?
 We could spend an hour on that one, but I advise yes
 Your site is a conversation. Not everyone agrees with you. That’s
ok.

37. Don’t run out of gas…you need volunteers
37
 Who creates the content
 Who will blog?
and uploads it?
 Who will edit?
 Who approves it?
 Who has the final say?
 Who monitors the social network?
 Jobs include: Welcoming new people, teaching, reminding people of
rules of etiquette

38. Your Turn!
38

39. Final thoughts
39

40. Thank You!
HOWARD GREENSTEIN
HOWARD@HARBROOKE.COM
http://harbrooke.com
http://www.HowardGreenstein.com/
http://blog.inc.com/start-up
http://Twitter.com/howardgr
Skype, Gtalk: howardgr
Google Voice Service: (646) 652 7270