Social Media: What Do We Know? What Should We Do?

Social Media What do we know? What should we do? CASE /New York Times Knowledge Network October 27, 2009 Robert M. Moore, Ph.D. Managing Partner

What we’re talking about
Engagement vs. outreach
UGC vs. institutional messaging
Tall-grass prairie vs. English formal garden
Social media provide a means of participation , not a new channel for same-old “push” communications

Ubiquity
96% of Gen Y have joined a social network…
… and by 2010 they’ll outnumber the baby boomers.
More than 50% of 21-year-olds have created content for the web.

Rapid rise
Social media now ahead of email in internet usage
Achieving critical mass
Radio: 38 years to reach 50MM users
TV: 13 years to 50MM
Internet: 4 years to 50MM
Facebook: 100MM users in less than 9 months
If Facebook were a country, only China, India, and U.S. would be larger
More than 1.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook…daily.
More photo uploads on Facebook now than Flickr

Everybody’s talking
Wikipedia has over 13MM articles…
… and it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Blog count: 200MM+
78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
… only 14% trust advertisements.
… power of WOM.
First commercial text message: 1992
Now, 7B per day.

The audience
Today’s 21-year-olds have:
Watched 20,000 hours of TV
Played 10,000 hours of videogames
Talked 10,000 hours on the phone
Sent/received 250,000 emails or IMs

The audience
Outside of school, today’s average teen spends 6.5 hours/day with media:
33% on the web
26% TV
21% telephone
15% radio
When average teen graduates, they have spent 11,000 hours in school
… and 15,000 watching TV.

The new social “commons”
31B searches on Google every month.
1 in 6 higher ed students are enrolled in online curriculum.
For teens and tweens, email = “talk to the hand”.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world
100MM videos…and counting.

Apps and Yield What’s Working?

Survey says…
89% of rising seniors visit social networking sites
Facebook and MySpace dominate
70%+ visit at least once a day
Primary rationale: staying in touch with friends
Only 18% use social media in college search
Exploration of “fit” most important
Social networking sites rank at the very bottom of information sources in inquiry and application stages.
Student Poll
College Board/Art & Science Group, January 2009

As for yield…
Of 30 information sources, institutional Facebook/MySpace page ranks 28 th
9% “very/somewhat influential”
But , 6 of top 10 sources are WOM/personal
Parents, college friend, current student, alum, HS friend, faculty member
Social media, as contributors to WOM, are extremely powerful peer-to-peer and WOM tools.
High Achieving Seniors and the College Decision
Lipman Hearne, October 2009

So what to do?
Monitor
Twitter, RSS feeds, tagging
Engage
As an individual, not an institution
Launch and listen
Engaged response – positive and negative – will be immediate
Observe and imitate
Integrate
Part of a comprehensive strategy – not the strategy
Resource
People + skills + time = social media success

Integrating the media

Some Sites to Visit and Steal Ideas From

Carnegie Mellon
Great branded YouTube channel
Content that begs to be shared
www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu

Marquette University
Integrated campaign
Focus on peer-to-peer dialogue for incoming students
http://tinyurl.com/mufb2013

Keele University
Integrated Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds
Involving both prospective students and alumni
http://twitter.com/KeeleUniversity
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172067565725&ref=nf

San Diego State University
Social media as generator of story/institutional visibility
http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/admissions/
http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news.aspx
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2366012258&ref=search&sid=571741716.325577468..1
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C1FF5BD745210C76&search_query=sdsu+living+on+campus

Olivet Nazarene University
A branded, segmented channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/OlivetNazareneU
Not featuring the most popular selection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLByTnNwico

University of California
Always room for a new idea
http://bigideas.berkeley.edu

Questions?

http://www.lipmanhearne.com	73
http://66.151.27.48	3
http://www.slideshare.net	2
http://www.google.com	1

Social Media: What Do We Know? What Should We Do?

by Lipman Hearne Inc. on Nov 19, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

4 Embeds 79

Statistics

Social Media: What Do We Know? What Should We Do? — Presentation Transcript