Using Social Media to Communicate

Using social media to communicate – opportunities and challenges Jesper Laugesen Communications Department

Jesper Laugesen
Communications Officer at the University of Copenhagen
Primarily working with
Web content (supporting local webmasters)
Blogs
Online marketing
Wikis
Experiments with social software
… and more

Agenda
Social media – web 2.0
What?
Who?
Why?
Where? When?

What is social media?
Social media is
Blogs
Wikis
Social Networks
Podcasts
RSS
Mash-ups

But more than that…
Social media is
user-driven
user-generated
and/or
user-centric
(at least, that’s what the
user likes to think!)

Changing the focus
content  communication
delivery  dialogue
producing  participating
Mass media  Participatory/niche media (one-to-many) (many-to-many / few-to-few)

Source: http://flickr.com/photos/jsuler/209356213/

Source: http://flickr.com/photos/terinea/1104709726/

But: Back to the most important person…

It’s all about me
My friends
My family
My interests
My studies
My dog
My love interest(s)
… all about me – and
 My relations
My sharing
My following

So, what does it mean for YOU?
They talk about you. They share links about you. And whatever
they say, it’s perpertual
In blogs – everyone can write
RSS / syndication – everyone can read about it
Del.ici.ous - sharing favourite web pages
Wikis - Power of the crowd
Online Friends - MySpace, Beebo, FaceBook, LinkedIn etc…

Blogs
I have no idea what it is they are saying…
… but they are saying something!

Wikipedia
Not only a source of (questionable?) academic references…
You are there too!

Facebook
Here, as well…

Should you join the conversation?

It matters:
Social media are tools that
foster exchange of ideas
enables and encourages conversations
allows communities to form
It’s about people
Tools that let people share and be found
Conversations of the Marketplace
Voices of the People
They matter because:
The Trust factor
Impacts to Google Results
Rapid Word of Mouth
Different than Broadcast Marketing

Cornerstones of ’corporate’ participation
Authenticity matters, not transparency
Tell the truth
Decide on a policy of employee participation (confidentiality, privacy, freedom of speech, rights and obligations)
Don’t expect them to come to you – go to them
Participate!
Try it out…
No one knows what’s coming

10-15 years ago…
World Wide What?
Mobile phones were bulky, rare and expensive
A Sony walkman was state of the art
CD’s were pretty cool
WIFI was science fiction
My Space was a physical location
Contact across the Atlantic was either by snailmail or painstakingly expensive phone

1½ years ago…
Facebook didn’t exist
Second Life was all the rage
The first videoblogs appeared
Blogs were rather new – and something the cool kids did

Today
Social networks rules the web
DataPortability is ’the thing’ of the moment: Connecting, controlling, sharing, remixing
’ Lifestream’-services (jaiku, plaxo, etc.) compete for control of the datastreams beyond the social networks
Identities are a commodity
More than ever, access is ubiquitous and data perpertual

Tomorrow?

Impact / use of Social Media
Recruiting
Students
Staff
Research
Dissemination of knowledge
Dialogue with researchers worldwide
Executive Leadership & Visibility
Showing the ‘human side’ of rector and/or other leaders
Branding

Lessons learned
People will talk and write about you. Adress the the good as well as the bad
Communities are the goal – conversations is the means
If noone else does it, start the conversation yourself
Social media isn’t a magical solution to all your problems
Speak the truth - the Internet remembers everything. For a very, very long time.
Encourage dialogue
Identify, acknowledge and empower your ambassadors

Lessons learned
Tomorrow brings new technology – plan for flexibility
Have the courage to let go – you can’t control it even if you try
Social media should be a component of your overall web strategy
Embrace your first-movers
Test, try, fail and learn what works in your organisation
Expect the best, prepare for the worst
Ensure your policy for participation is clear – and known

University of Copenhagen
Encourages and facilitates blogging (Management, faculty and student body alike – at blogs.ku.dk or on independent platforms)
Management supports trials in new media, be it Second Life, YouTube channels, blogging networks or Facebook groups
Publishes pod- and vodcasts
Monitors the Danish blogosphere on a daily basis (we still need to put a decent ’response programme’ in effect, though)
Converses with the public through blogs, wiki’s and videos

Examples
Copenhagen UniVirtual ( virtuel.ku.dk/en )
(questions via YouTube, webcasting)
Blogs
Syndicating content @ blogs.ku.dk
Rector and pro-rector (danish)
Medical Museion
Danish Arrhythmia Research Centre
Agri Environmental Policies
Facebook
Applications, groups, networks
Podcasts
Faculty of humanities
Instant Messaging/chat
Realtime guidance/councelling of students

What can you do?
Encourage blogging
Host your own
Or use paid or free services (blogger.com, wordpress.com, edublogs.org)
Prepare for students, staff and faculty participation in social networks and blogs
Codes of conduct (may – to some extent – be covered in employees contracts and/or existing policies)
Encourage your organisation to experiment
Beware of the gatekeepers and firewallers (but deal with their warnings seriously)

What can you do?
Prioritize:
Podcasts, blogs, wikis are relatively ’mature’ technologies
(Don’t shy away from these – but remember nothing looks more abandoned than a chronology that hasn’t been updated in months)
New social networks pops up every day
(don’t bet all your money on one horse – it may be out of the race tomorrow)

What can you do?
Monitor the Internet
Google is a good place to start
You also need to monitor
The social networks
The blogosphere
Wikipedia
If hit by a blog- or facebookstorm
Be proactive
Show you care about what ’they’ are saying:
Reply
on blogs
on facebook
in own and other media

Q & A
Contact:
Jesper Laugesen
University of Copenhagen
Nørregade 10
DK – 1017 København K
Mail: [email_address]
Phone: +45 35 32 42 74
Find me online at
laugesen.org
linkedin.com/in/laugesen
laugesen.jaiku.com
www.myspace.com/laugesen
www.last.fm/user/jlaugesen /
Flickr.com/jlaugesen
facebook.com
blogs.ku.dk
Københavns Universitet, Kommunikationsafdelingen

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Using Social Media to Communicate

by Jesper Laugesen

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