Getting to the Meat and Potatoes of a Social University
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 at 2:00pm -- Rahul Bhagnari
Colleges and universities have started utilizing social networking tools in a variety of different ways. It’s important to maintain this kind of online presence–-allowing your content and yourselves to be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through a variety of different channels. It becomes imperative then to utilize social networking in a functional rather than dysfunctional way.
Here are some tips and tricks for setting up a coherent social network:
Don’t be Intrusive/Invasive/Intolerable
Interact!
Promote and Fundraise
With Cascade Server, you can utilize WordPress, Twitter and Facebook connectors to sync up your content with your various social networking tools. Plus, mobile sites have never been easier to develop with out-of-the-box designs and templates ready for you!
Be sure to check out the Hannon Hill Twitter and Facebook accounts too! We’re always open to new followers, friends, and likes, of course!
Here are some tips and tricks for setting up a coherent social network:
Don’t be Intrusive/Invasive/Intolerable
- I hate to start off with a don’t, but it’s one of the more important rules of social networking. You don’t want to clog people’s feeds with information that doesn’t even apply to them. Think about the audience you’re reaching and how you can better serve them.
- Utilize Twitter to post about emergencies (nuclear meltdown, perhaps), random campus occurrences (a squirrel army attacking all graduate students), or special events (free fried chicken giveaway)
- Use Facebook to bring attention to long-running events and programs, like Spring commencement or study abroad and co-op deadlines
- Incorporate LinkedIn by promoting alumni and current student networking events. Start discussions about different industries using campus faculty/staff
- Instead, provide a central location to consolidate and syndicate all of your social media interactions. Check out the recent Union College webinar and how they implemented their Social Media Mash-Up network
- Most importantly, know your audience for each Social Network. Don’t start discussions on LinkedIn that would be better handled by a Twitter account. Where's the fun in being redundant? Utilize LinkedIn for genuine connection between different individuals, stimulating conversations and random tidbits about other alums. Like - how many alumni own their own business? It can be a tool for so much more than just shameless promotion and networking.
Interact!
- Put a face to your University! Your social media interactions define you as a University and it’s important to have a clear and confident voice in your presentation
- Create special ways for your students to interact with you on-the-go. Almost everyone has a smart phone these days (thanks catchy advertisements) so syncing everything to be easily digestible on mobile devices is key--and helps extend your reach
- Host live chats or Skype sessions with students to air grievances, comments and concerns. Take these seriously--being an accessible university means you take the good with the not-so-good
- Share your content! Share your lectures and faculty with other colleges and universities. Creating a network of students, alumni and faculty from various institutions can really help make you a voice to be reckoned with
- Never hesitate to respond to Tweets and Facebook comments. This encourages interaction with your followers and sets a precedent for the future
Promote and Fundraise
- Networking is key.
- Promote social networking of alumni and more tenured faculty members with new students and new professors. Harness your ability to bring various groups of people together for the benefit of everyone
- Showcase your students’ talents on YouTube! Advocate for various professional organizations on your blog. Promote the hell out of an event for a student association--it all helps paint a clear picture of your university
- Try out “Day in the Life” Twitter feeds. Have a live Twitter feed of various faculty members, students, and staff around campus showing what an average day for them is like
With Cascade Server, you can utilize WordPress, Twitter and Facebook connectors to sync up your content with your various social networking tools. Plus, mobile sites have never been easier to develop with out-of-the-box designs and templates ready for you!
Be sure to check out the Hannon Hill Twitter and Facebook accounts too! We’re always open to new followers, friends, and likes, of course!
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