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Writing for santa
- 1. WRITING FOR SANTA The joys and sorrows of managing communications for a social media rock star TERRY LAVENDER, MANAGER, COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
- 2. 2 ABOUT ME • Manager, Communications in the Office of the President at the University of British Columbia since November 2016 • 20+ years experience in higher education communications
- 3. 3
- 4. 4 SOCIAL MEDIA @ubcprez 5,167 followers 5 posts/day @ubcprez 19,672 followers 10 posts/day ubcprez 11,500 followers 5 posts/day
- 6. 6 CONNECTOR-IN-CHIEF “… communicator, coach, problem solver. While others in your organization can also fill those roles, there’s one critical job only a CEO can do: link the outside world (society, economy, technology, customers) with the inside world (your organization).” - Procter & Gamble Chairman A.G. Lafley (2009)
- 8. 8 SNAPSHOT: UNIVERSITY LEADERS & SOCIAL MEDIA • Facebook accounts: 58% • Twitter: 55% • Blogs: 35%
- 9. 9 SNAPSHOT: UNIVERSITY LEADERS & SOCIAL MEDIA
- 10. 10 MY ROLE • Speeches (200+ each year) • Video greetings (50+ each year) • Social media: • Facebook (ubcprez) • Twitter (@ubcprez) • Instagram (@ubcprez) • Blog posts (bi-weekly) • Podcasts (monthly) • E-newsletter (bi-monthly) • Quotes for news releases • Op-eds • Troubleshooting • Special correspondence and greetings • Etc., etc., etc.
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- 12. 12 MY THREE RULES: • Say goodbye to your own social media personality • Be careful when/how you post • Avoid controversy — but be interesting
- 13. 13 SANTA’S SOCIAL BLEND • The Institutional: Celebrating UBC accomplishments • The External: Interesting news items from the wider world • The Personal: News about Santa, his family and his dog
- 15. 15 THE EXTERNAL
- 16. 16 THE PERSONAL
- 17. 17 CHALLENGES • PERSONAL VS PROFESSIONAL - who are you speaking for? • VULNERABILITY - easy access to complaints • LOSS OF ANONYMITY - life is very public
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- 25. 25 POSITIVES COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - ability to connect with many different constituents BUILDING EXCITEMENT - impact on enrolment, engagement, pride in UBC DIALOGUE - discussing issues
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Editor's Notes
- Good morning Refer to title of presentation and perils of working for someone named Santa (anecdote about saying “Hi Santa” in December while on the treadmill)
- Most of this talk will be about my employer, Santa Ono, but first, a little about me. That photo isn’t me, of course, but it’s the avatar I use for Twitter and other social media sites. As I’ll explain later, one of the consequences of my job is that I strive to be as anonymous as possible on social media.
- And here’s the guy I work for. Engaged in one of his favourite activities — no, not crowd surfing — taking a selfie.
- He takes a lot of selfies. If you ever meet him, I can guarantee that he’ll ask if he can take a selfie with you. But he doesn’t just take selfies. He posts them — on Instagram, on Twitter and on Facebook. He’s very active on social media as you can see. Despite the demands of running a university with 65,000 students, 16,000 faculty and staff and a 2.5 billion dollar budget.
- But not all social media. He doesn’t do Snapchat.Or Pinterest. Or Reddit. It wouldn’t be a comfortable fit for him. It would seem phoney. Authenticity is important.
- Why does Santa feel the need to be so active on social media? Because, he feels, the president is the public face of the university. He uses this quote whenever he’s asked why he <quote> “wastes” </unquote> so much time on social media.
- As the university’s chief communicator, Santa has a lot of different groups he needs to connect with. He’s constantly building his own – and the university’s – brand
- Santa is hardly the only university president doing social media of course. There are many social media savvy presidents in the U.S., for example, Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University who has 19,300 followers. His Twitter handle is @HipHopPrez. And there are many others. Here in Canada, for example, York University President Rhonda Lenton has over 9,000 followers and has tweeted over 4,000 times. Queens’ president Daniel Woolf is also a frequent tweeter.
- But in Canada, Santa totally owns social media, especially among the major universities (with apologies to those of you from U of T, Queens or McGill)
- So what part do I play in all this? Here’s some of what I do.
- If you’re interested, you can find archives of Santa’s non-social communications at president.ubc.ca
- Since working for Santa, my own social media activity has been drastically curtailed. I keep my political opinions to myself, don’t post anything too personal or political on Twitter and Instagram and restrict my Facebook page to only a few friends. I’m very conscious that there are some faculty members at UBC who are hostile to the administration and who follow me on Twitter. So I generally restrict myself to reposting good news tweets from Santa and the university. When I’m posting on Santa’s behalf, I have to be conscious of the circumstances. For example, if he’s in a board of governors, it would not be appropriate for me to send out a tweet from his account as people would then wonder why he’s busy tweeting when he’s supposed to be meeting the board. I also try to avoid re-posting controversial topics of course. So, lots of cat photos instead! This requires a bit of strategy. While Santa and I want to avoid controversy, we also don’t want to make his social accounts too bland or corporate. So we try to find the right balance of good news about the university, topics that are of interest to Santa and personal
- We try intuitively for a mix of these three themes. It’s not precise and will vary according to external circumstances, what’s going on at the university and what’s going on in his own life. For example; if he’s got a heavy schedule of board meetings, there’ll be fewer personal items. If there’s a lot of negative press about UBC, we’ll post more links to external news and UBC corporate news. If he’s on vacation, there’ll be a lot more personal items.
- some examples -
- some examples -
- some examples -
- Social media has been great for Santa – it’s increased his profile and allows him to get his message across quickly But it does have its drawbacks, both for him and for the institution. Santa does most of his social media — Twitter and Instagram especially — himself and sometimes there’s a tension between the way Santa personally presents himself on social media and the way, as president of UBC, he presents the university and its brand. The personal brand and the professional brand are not the same thing, but they can certainly be compatible. But it’s never going to be perfect …
- Here’s a perhaps trivial example. Would people think that UBC is endorsing Skecher shoes? (probably not)
- Some more serious examples. Last year, the student paper complained about Santa making policy statements on Twitter.
- Ironically, in this particular case, Santa wasn’t making a policy statement – he was simply expressing his personal concern for the safety of a UBC grad who had been arrested by the Saudi authorities. The Ubyssey student paper misunderstood what the media relations spokesperson said to them.
- However, Santa has made some policy announcements on social media. Earlier this year, a controversy arose about the location of a new student centre. A lot of Twitter and Reddit comments were directed at Santa about the issue. One direct message in particular from an influential prof caused him to put the brakes on the development. It caught a lot of people – including myself and the university’s media relations people – by surprise. As you can see from the 250 likes, the announcement was positively received, but it’s an example of how a social media-active president can keep you on your toes!
- There are definite drawbacks to being so active and visible on social media for Santa. There’s loss of anonymity for one.
- And complaints
- And criticism of course. Santa said to me recently that a university president has to have a thick skin, because she or he is always going to be criticized whenever something happens, regardless of who was to blame
- But the benefits far outnumber the drawbacks
- Santa uses different social media channels in different ways. -FACEBOOK is good for student engagement, campus news
- - And also for discussion. Santa uses Facebook Live strategically to reach various communities.
- TWITTER is good for faculty, staff, community engagement
- INSTAGRAM is great for reaching out to students.
- Santa likes taking lots of pictures, so he’s a natural at Instagram
- I’ll wrap up by showing some of Santa’s social media hits. I’ve been trying to see what works and what doesn’t. Do people like posts about sports? About rankings? About him personally? His dog, or what? There doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern.
- His posts about his own mental health struggles are popular.
- Both on Twitter and Facebook.
- Poking fun at himself also works.
- Sports posts are popular too - though not so much university sports.
- A post about Stephen Hawking’s death made the top 10 list.
- As did a post about meeting the prime ministers of Canada and japan.
- And a post about him and his wife on their honeymoon.
- But the most popular one was this April Fools post.
- In the end, it all boils down to authenticity. By posting about his family, his mental health struggles, his dog and the people he meets; by posting news that piques his interest, Santa creates a persona, a brand, that people trust. And since Santa is the public face of the university; that helps UBC as well. Yes, there may be the occasional hostile tweet or minor controversy. But for him, and for me, it’s worth it.
- Thank you.