presents
making digital
connections
in higher education
Four proven models For connecting with people

social media: defined
What is social media anyway?
tools trend
how people use decentralized,
people-based networks to
del.icio.us get the things they need
from each other.
Bottom Line: social media isn’t just a list of destinations.
it’s a new standard of expectiations.

it’s part of how our expectations — our very culture — is shifting.
People are taking a new “tac”:
the vast majority of people report the opinion they trust
t trust most is one from “someone like me.” For the first time in
our history, peers have bested the wisdom of experts.
no matter how unusual, or obscure the topic, we want — we
a access expect — to be able to find information on it. and not just
information, but details, perspectives, and context.
it’s all about how we enter that decision-making situation.
c confidence We are unwilling to go unarmed, to be at the mercy of
the expert on the other side of the table.

today’s 16- to 24-year-olds have even higher demands.
growing up online has shaped how teens and young adults receive,
process, and act on information. they expect communication to be:
Brief they send one billion text messages each day.
instant they don’t even remember B.g. (Before google)
always on there are no office hours when you’re always connected.

hoW PeoPle are
using social media

how We use it
the ways people use
social media today fall
into three key categories:
CONTENT
Works like: Blogs
Wikis Twitter
YouTube
RECOMMENDATIONS CONNECTIONS
Works like: digg Google Works like: Facebook

how We use it
1 create content
• Publish a blog or website
• Upload video or pictures
CONTENT
• Create music or mashups Works like: Blogs
• Write articles or commentary
Wikis Twitter
YouTube
RECOMMENDATIONS CONNECTIONS
Works like: digg Google Works like: Facebook

how We use it
2 make connections
• Create online profiles
• Interact with friends
CONTENT
• Seek out new connections Works like: Blogs
Wikis Twitter
YouTube
RECOMMENDATIONS CONNECTIONS
Works like: digg Google Works like: Facebook

how We use it
3 make recommendations
• Post a rating or review
• Make a comment
CONTENT
• Tag or rank content Works like: Blogs
• Contribute to articles or wikis
Wikis Twitter
• Vote YouTube
RECOMMENDATIONS CONNECTIONS
Works like: digg Google Works like: Facebook

how We use it
21% of people
create content
69%
37% review 35% join
+ are “spectators” who
read and use the ideas,
reviews, and content
and comment and participate
they find
in social
19% tag
networking
and collect

how We use it
Social media has reached critical mass
• 206 million Americans used the social web in 2008
• the most popular Youtube videos have a wider audience than
the most-watched Super Bowls
It’s not just for communicating with potential students
• 75% of college students use the social web, but so do 60% of the
wired wealthy
• Facebook’s fastest-growing population is 50+, followed closely
by the 41–45 age group
• the average twitter user is 31

hoW colleges
use social media
todaY

colleges and universities have been early adopters of social media.
For example, americas colleges out-blog the business world:
2007 2008
Fortune 500 companies 8% 13%
inc. 500 companies 19% 39%
colleges and universities 32% 41%

they use a broad range of tools and tactics
85% of college admissions offices report they use at least
one form of social media:
61% Social networking
48% Video blogging
41% Blogging
36% Message boards
16% Podcasts
10% Wikis
What else: Private schools have been much faster to adopt social
communications than public schools.
(umass, 2009)

students are “fans” of the effort.
average number of Fans (per collegiate Facebook page)
april 1 1,493
may 1 1,814
June 1 2,042
July 1 2,335
0 600 1,200 1,800 2,400
(Blue Fuego, 2009)

students are “fans” of the effort.
largest number of Fans (as of 7/9/2009, 11:15am est*)
lousiana state university 55,686
university of kansas 45,820
texas a&m 42,898
ohio state university 39,456
stanford university 37,812
indiana university 35,107
university of missouri 31,526
michigan state university 28,287
university of Florida 21,189
West Virginia University 20,994
0 15,000 30,000 45,000 60,000
n= 1,035 *active university-owned accounts only (Blue Fuego, 2009)

But are slow to get involved
Pages With most Fan Posts – June 2009
lousiana state university 347
sunY Plattsburgh 150
kent state university 144
ucla 106
sunY oswego 104
university of new haven 100
Penn college of technology 92
savannah college of art & design 87
university of missouri 75
university of central Florida 68
0 100 200 300 400
(Blue Fuego, 2009)

the Problem:
colleges — and, most businesses — are quick to
test tactics, but aren’t taking a larger strategic view
• so most are doomed to underperform
• or worse: cnet estimated that 50% of social media campaigns
launched by Fortune 100 companies this year will fail

deFining
Your strategY

Why do colleges and universities invest in social media?
For many of the same reasons they invest in more traditional
marketing and advertising:
create encourage inspire create
awareness connection loyalty ambassadors
• Recruit best-fit students
• Build powerful relationships with alumni
• Create stronger reputations

how should you use social media?
ah, the big question.
there’s really just one essential thing to
keep in mind: It should provide value
ValUe To ValUe To to the customer and to the brand.
college audience
looking at it another way, the circles
could read:
• true to the core of your brand
effeCTIVe SoCIal MedIa STRaTegy • new or unexpected

start with an honest appraisal
What you can
CONTROL What you can
! web
! private
! blogs
communities
INFLUENCE Where you can
PARTICIPATE
! targeted applications
! user-generated content
! licensed tools ! social networks
! peer-to-peer
LESS RISK MORE RISK

set a strategy
start with who get to know what your
audience does on the
you want to talk PeoPle social web
to, not what
technology define what you want to
oBJeCTIVeS accomplish
you’ll use.
tools decide which social
technologies to use
Your Social Media Strategy

foUR PRoVeN
models

1 Build a Community
let your audience support and connect
with each other.
Pros:
• Very authentic way to use the social web
• inexpensive to operate and can reduce costs
Cons:
• takes a lot of work to seed and build
• the crowd can turn on you if you’re
unresponsive
Make sure you:
• set expectations: What does success
look like?

1 Build a Community: Best Buy’s Blue shirt nation
• connects tens of thousands of employees
• in a forum to talk to and support one another
• Where they can solve problems, share ideas, archive solutions,
build a whole new kind of interconnected culture
• and just be people — who make jokes, have
complaints, dig new things
Who else is doing it:
• TiVo customers solve each other’s technical problems
• Victoria’s Secret Pink fans on facebook vote and
chat together
• doylestown hospital connects its mobile workforce of 360
independent physicians via an iPhone application to provide
a highly responsive healing environment for thousands
of patients

1 Build a Community: sunY new Paltz
• started with a defined goal: increase the
academic quality of the incoming fall class
• created a tiered invitation system: First build
relationships with the students we want most;
then open it up to the entire class
• dedicated two people to act as hosts and
update content
• delivered results: increased the percent of their
“highest selectivity” group that made deposits
from 30% to 37%
• gave accepted students compelling reasons to
spend time on the site. an average visit: nearly
14 minutes.

1 Build a Community: executing the strategy
execution must-have:
Make it easy
• Be as creative with technology
as you are with strategy
• leverage the tools your
audience already uses
• don’t ask people to do more
than they need to
www.realnebraska.unl.edu

2 Energize Passionate People
it’s about inspiring individuals to carry your message
into the places they talk, connect, and create.
Pros:
• Builds relationships with influencers
• gets real people talking one-to-one
Cons:
• scale is limited to personal networks
• more difficult to listen to the conversation about
your brand because it is widely dispersed
Make sure you:
• encourage fans to be transparent about any
direct contact they have with you, samples
they receive, and so on

2 Energize Passionate People
it takes a new way
of thinking.
What’s wrong with
this picture?

2 Energize Passionate People
it wasn’t built to be
easy to pass on.
• Bold
• succinct
• action oriented

2 Energize Passionate People: Zappos customer service
• Built its social media strategy on a core tenet of the
brand: We’re a customer service organization that
happens to sell shoes
• hundreds of associates and executives use social
media to connect one-on-one with customers
• they answer questions, give advice, solve
problems, build relationships
• to create brand ambassadors who cannot stop
telling “i ♥ Zappos” stories
Who else is doing it:
• Ford Fiesta is offering a six-month test drive
• dell won big with free laptops
• iBm supports its bloggers and alumni
• aurora health and others are “tweeting” cutting-edge surgeries

2 Energize Passionate People: Wittenberg university’s Witt nation
• started with a defined goal: Build stronger
relationships and reach out to like minds
• attached the campaign to the core of the
brand: a unique time, unique people
• 13 talk leaders traveled 8,000 miles to host
events in 27 cities
• met more than 1,000 passionate fans
• integrated the “on the road” experience
with an online community
• collected stories that will live on beyond
the road trip

2 Energize Passionate People: executing the strategy
execution must-have:
Use a personal voice
• social media rewards casual
interactions
• authentic brands are uniquely
well-positioned to succeed
• Voice is the single most
important element

3 Find a Good Idea
imagine if you could get the very best development
or marketing ideas you’d never thought of from
people who actually use your product.
Pros:
• connects you to the best ideas inside your own
company and in your larger community
• often very cost effective, leveraging resources
you already have
Cons:
• can generate overwhelming content
• can take your brand in inauthentic directions
Make sure you:
• have a very savvy filter for the input

3 Find a Good Idea: exxon
• leveraged a idea crowdsourcing engine called
innocentive that connects problems to solvers
• took on a sticky problem: how to separate frozen oil
from water
• connected with an unlikely “expert”: an illinois
chemist from the concrete industry
• got an almost immediate solution to a 20-year-old
problem
Who else is doing it:
• Bell canada’s employees share ideas and vote the best
ones to the top for executive review
• mini listened to what its customers were saying
online to target its marketing
• P&g gets fresh ideas from pet owners who log in to share insights

3 Find a Good Idea: sXsW
over the years, many of the most compelling panels
and presentations for the sXsW interactive Festival
have come directly from the online community. their
social strategy harnesses the power of those crowd-
sourced ideas both to bring the best content to the
conference and to build reputation and attendance.
• Built an application that accepts and categorizes
panel ideas from the industry
• in 2009, 100 of the 150 sessions were created and
selected by the community
• tens of thousands of attendees and supporters vote
• hundreds of thousands read about the panels on
blogs and in other social media

3 Find a Good Idea: mayo medical school
• inspired by testing various social media tactics
• Found that Facebook groups were more effective
than their traditional orientation efforts
• earned 100% participation with right content,
right experience
• noticed better teamwork and integration in
incoming classes
• refocused staff time and cost savings on curriculum
“We used to worry about learning their names
because we didn’t want them to feel isolated. Well,
now they know everybody by the time they get here.”
— Barbara Porter, assistant dean for academic
and student affairs

3 Find a Good Idea
it takes a new
way of thinking.
What could
go wrong with
this video?
www.youtube.com “Motrin Moms”

3 Find a Good Idea
talking to your
audience makes
all the difference.
• resonance
• authenticity
• accuracy

3 Find a Good Idea: executing the strategy
execution must-have:
Prepare People
• test and roll
• have a response and crisis plan
• Prepare internal stakeholders
for what to expect and how
you’ll interact

4 Meet a Need to Make a Connection
the toughest way to use social media
is also one of the best: give people
something they need.
Pros:
• creates significant conversation
• Builds brand perceptions and attachments
Cons:
• hard to do
• tends to be a long-term commitment
Make sure you:
• test the concept with users of social media
before you go live

4 Meet a Need to Make a Connection: Fedex
• needed a relevant way to participate in social media
• scanned the various tools and networks people use,
looking for a gap
• Found a limitation on Facebook: members can send
email-like messages, but can’t add attachments
• Built a branded app that filled the gap — winning
100,000 installs in the first 48 hours, #1 most active
page, and lots of repeat users
Who else is doing it:
• american express is offering tools for small business
• Brooklyn museum gave new photographers an
exhibit curated by a social community
• goodwill of Washington dc is selling hand-me-down fashion

4 Meet a Need to Make a Connection: university of minnesota
• carlson mBa program needed to
make direct connections with more
potential students
• overcame the barriers of communicating
with non-traditional students
• answered questions in real time and
created a searchable archive
• increased the number of applications for
the incoming class

4 Meet a Need to Make a Connection: executing the strategy
execution must-have:
Seed the Destination
• “if you build it they will come”
no longer works
• sometimes your best audience
is inside your organization
• social tools help propel your
growth with transparent choice

case studY

The Rebrand
it was the ideal time to evolve Capital’s brand for three key reasons:
new LeaDerShiP Changing STraTegiC aPProaCh ShifTS in The markeTPLaCe
Since President Denvy Bowman in recent decades, Capital’s Trends in demographics, student
took office in march 2007, strategic focus started to swing preference and even institutional
his vision and dedication have away from classical learning to commitment are changing what
played an important role in more professional pursuits. now it takes to be an in-demand
guiding the school from a that pendulum is moving back, university.
period of controversy to one of emphasizing the liberal arts core
opportunity and alignment. while supporting selected
professional programs.
The BoTTom Line
Capital needed to define what it stood for so it could thrive in the future.

The Process
DiSCoVer Define CreaTe eXTenD
observe organize visualize execute
listen align verbalize implement
question plan conceptualize document

The Outcome
what we deliver the taNgible beNeFit
The a relevant liberal arts core and deep professional focused students ready to begin purposeful careers and
programs that are taught in a demanding, hands-on lead meaningful lives.
offer environment by internationally renowned leaders who
care about just one thing: engaging students.
what we aSPire tO
The
ViSion Transforming lives for the common good.
what we StaNd FOr
The
eSSenCe Critical thinking, critically applied.

gIVINg The
Brand Back
to the students

willyou.capital.edu

Youtube embed

Facebook integration

Facebook Page

Flickr Feed

Flickr tagged search

customized Backgrounds

the seeding
strategY

sidewalk chalk

url on chalkboards

Flyers

desktop Backgrounds

eXtending the
strategY to
admissions

extending the strategy
THE CHALLENGE: convince accepted students to com-
mit to capital for the coming academic year
• 5 admission counselors
• 5,000 accepted students
• 600 student commitment goal
• 1-month timeframe

Postcards
STeP inTo oUr STUDenTS’ ShoeS
willyou.capital.edu
SearCh The CiTY (on YoUr TermS)
Short North Gallery Hop / Columbus Blue Jackets / Easton Town Center
North Market / South Campus Gateway / Huntington Park
Promo West / Drexel Theatre / Hocking Hills / ComFest / Jeni’s Ice Cream
What will PreSorTeD
firST CLaSS
U.S. PoSTage
you do?
PAID
CoLUmBUS oh
PermiT no. 944
Something interesting is happening all across campus. admission office
our students are sharing their career goals and lifelong 1 College and main
Columbus, oh 43209-9987
aspirations (as well as what they’re up to Saturday night).
Turns out, they’re a pretty focused bunch.
Take a look at willyou.capital.edu. it’s for our students,
but we want you to be a part of it, too.
(we’d love it if you mentioned you’re coming to Capital.)
DeCiSionS. DeCiSionS.
name
May 1 is the national deadline to submit a deposit aDDreSS
CiTY, STaTe ZiPCoDe
and choose the college you’ll attend.
if you haven’t sent a deposit yet, you can submit it
online at www.capital.edu/deposits.

the social approach
FACEBOOK COMMUNICATIONS PLAN:
• counselor invitation
• share capital Facebook page
• event invitation for “college choice day”

the tools
subject: hi, i’m your capital university counselor.
hey ______,
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
my name is __________, and i’m your admissions counselor at capital university.
any question you have about capital (seriously, anything) i’m here to answer.
i’m sending this email to remind you that the national deadline for enrollment is just around the corner —
may 1. don’t forget to submit a deposit. You can submit yours to capital online here:
www.capital.edu/deposits
also, the students on our campus just got involved in something i think is pretty cool (even the university
administration got involved!)
see it at willyou.capital.edu
if you have any questions for me, the best place to reach me is on Facebook. add me as a friend here:
<link>
hope you’re having a great end to high school. let me know what i can do to make your college choice
an easy one.
-_________
if you’d rather not get an email from me, i understand. Just reply to this message and type “no thanks” in
the subject line. (that way i’ll find it easily.)

results

admissions
capital was able to exceed
target enrollment — in a
100%+ year when most private
schools were forced to
accept lower numbers.

traffic
120,000 total unique visits to
microsite in 3 months.

engagement
in less than a day, the campaign’s
#1 in Facebook page gained more
fans than any other capital
24 hours
page, and our Facebook
presence was second only to
capital’s alumni group.

engagement
350
300
250
Total Fans
200
150
100
50
0
18-Mar 25-Mar 1-Apr 8-Apr 15-Apr 22-Apr 29-Apr
Date

Participation
of students wrote
6% “Will You” statements
on the Facebook page

Building brands. With purpose.