Social Networking

Have you seen NC State’s Twitter page yet?

Launched last month, it aggregates all the official twitter accounts on a single easy-to-use web page.

NC State on Twitter – NC State University

It looks sharp and really user-friendly.

Wish you could have a similar page for your institution?

Well, stop dreaming and send a thank-you email to the nice folks at NC State as they have decided to open-source the code powering their neat Twitter page.

But, before downloading the code, take a minute to read the short interview I conducted with Jason Austin, Senior Solutions Implementation Engineer NCSU – OIT – Outreach Technology (that’s a nice long title), about NC State Twitter page.

1) How long did it take to create this page?

From concept to design to implementation, we had 4 staff members in two departments working on it for about a week on and off. It wasn’t terribly labor intensive, just took some initiative and coordination to get it done. It started as one of those “Hey, we should make a page where all the campus twitter accounts are listed so people can find organizations they might want to follow.” Next thing we knew, we were working on a design and had the basic site up quickly. After the site went live, we began getting requests from other universities for the code, so we decided to package it up and distribute it.

2) What kind of traffic do you get on this page? Have you seen an increase in followers for the NC state Twitter accounts?

The page itself doesn’t get an overwhelming amount of traffic yet.
It’s had more than 5,000 visits so far, which is pretty good considering we’ve only advertised on Twitter and Facebook. The site isn’t linked prominently from the main university site yet, but we’re planning to promote it much more on the university home page and throughout the Web presence very soon.

The RSS feed of all the tweets probably gets the most activity because it allows people to stay up with real-time happenings on campus from all the twitter feeds and don’t have to actually follow all the accounts. That feed is part of our growing mobile site as well.

The real result is looking at the number of followers from the accounts listed on the page. The page has provided a great resource to put users in touch with on-campus groups and increase their relevant followers (not just spam). Our campus news account (@NCStateNews) now has more than 1,500 followers. It was closer to 1,000 before the site launched just over a month ago.

We should also note that putting this aggregate together has encouraged other organizations to start using twitter. We now have over 60 organizations using Twitter for all kinds of communications.
The site takes all of those feeds, puts them in a simple context, and gives a great sense of what’s happening at NC State right now.

3) What are the technical requirements to run your code for this page?

The code is based on PHP 5 and uses the Twitter API wrapper provided by the Zend Framework. No internal database is used at all. The accounts and tweets all come directly from the twitter API.

A frightening and yet interesting thing happened to Rachel Reuben from SUNY New Paltz a few days ago. The Facebook page she created 2 years ago for her university disappeared. Rachel tried everything to get the page back as she explained in a post she wrote last week:Feeling Naked: A Tale of the Disappearing Facebook Fan Page.

Long story short: Rachel finally got her page back but not the 5,000 fans – although Facebook has since let her know that they are investigating the issue.

SUNY New Paltz | Facebook

This incident and especially the lack of responsiveness from Facebook definitely put a whole new light on the current trend to rely more and more on Facebook for communications between an institution and its students…

About 3 months ago, I was interviewed for a CASE Currents’ article about private vs. public social networks for alums. While I didn’t mention the possibility of such an incident, I tried to offer a balanced view on the topic.

The article written by Caroline Mayer, The Inner Circle, has been published in the October issue (but is only accessible to CASE members), so I thought some of you might be interested in my answers to Mayer’s questions.

1. How vital is it for schools to set up an online community? Is it necessary and why/ why not? Are alumni associations without online communities missing out on something?

I wouldn’t say that it is vital for schools to *set up* online communities. However, I believe it is very important to join the conversation taking place on the Web (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn come to mind) as these online communities gather alumni who are definitely passionate about their alma mater and want to engage with their peers.

A few years ago, online community solutions were pitched by vendors as the next (natural) step to alumni associations relying at that time on more traditional print directories. These wall-garden solutions were sold as the ultimate tools to gather demographic data and contact information from alumni as they would allow them to connect with their old classmates. Unfortunately, most of the implementations of these solutions failed to engage enough alums to get the conversation rolling.

Today, while the tools have evolved and more and more associations have created groups or pages on popular social networking websites, it is easier to reach a critical mass. But, this doesn’t mean that it is easier to nurture and develop online communities. It takes a lot of work and time, and associations should only launch online communities if they are sure they can invest the efforts necessary to make them successful.

2. Does it make any difference how it’s done? i.e. should it be a private network where only alums can go making it feel special (and giving the schools the access to databases such as email addresses) or should it be where most of the alums hang out these days (Facebook, Linkedin).

As I said above, the problem with private communities is participation.

Alums (and other constituents) live busy lives offline and online. If schools can offer a unique and compelling experience to their community members, they can definitely be successful with a private social networking website. However, they should prepare to work harder and longer to attract and keep these members interested. If they are successful, their hard work will be paid by access to more contact information.

In the case of the most popular social networking websites, it takes less effort to attract community members as they are already using these websites to keep up with their friends and colleagues, but it doesn’t mean it’s easier to keep them interested. On these sites, alums have other options to spend their time – countless options just one link away within the same familiar interface.

3. Is a private network worth the costs? Do private networks provide anything that Facebook and other networks don’t?

First, a private network doesn’t always come with a big price tag. More and more institutions launch private social networking websites using the Ning platform – which is basically free or cost a minimal monthly fee if you wish to remove Google ads or/and use a branded web address.

Some vendor solutions do come at a hefty price though. While the user experience offered by most of these solutions is very similar to the ones provided at no cost, some vendors have set up interesting link between their community application and other CRM/ERM solutions, allowing to set up a system tracking community members from engagement on the social networking website to donations — or matriculation in the case of prospective students.

Private networks also provide a sense of greater privacy – especially when alum associations choose to keep them totally private (you have to be a member to read AND post). On Facebook, pages – used by institutions to manage their community – are indexed by Google. Any comments made on these pages by a fan – i.e. a member of a Facebook page – can be associated to its author right from a Google search.

4. Is a public network worth the lack of control?

It really comes down to participation and engagement. Is it worth losing a bit of control if people are actually going to come to your party? Probably. Moreover, if schools manage to create communities on Facebook or Linkedin and become their administrator, they actually keep some control – they can delete comments, prioritize the order in which some discussions are displayed, etc. However, there is always a risk of backlash if schools intervene too much and try to censor conversations.

My new UB column is now available in the October issue as well as online: “Social Media Measurement 101: A seven-step plan to set up (and benefit from) a simple social measurement program “

Here are the 7 steps:
1. Define measurable goals for social media activities.
2. Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) carefully.
3. Plan ahead and properly set up the right measurement tools.
4. Capture the data at preset intervals.
5. Don’t forget some benchmarking.
6. Share your measurement data.
7. Use measurement data to craft your next moves.

Social Media Measurement 101

If you are a University Business reader who has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.

Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business has used online videos to promote its Graduate Program in Business Administration with great success.

I stumbled upon this mini-series composed of 4 different YouTube videos last week and found it very compelling.

Really great work and great acting talent.

That’s why I contacted the manager of Concordia’s YouTube channel to find out more about it.

Shelagh Peden, Information & Project Coordinator at University Communications Services, was kind enough to answer my 3 questions over YouTube messaging system.

1) Did you use real students?

Yes, all subjects were JMSB undergrads (one non-JMSB) who showed interest in the program. They volunteered (not paid), and the whole thing was coordinated by a co-op student, including training the actors.

2) How did you promote these videos?

YouTube, GDBA website, Facebook, LinkedIn, our blog, sent to our alumni and friends (no print, all web-based and by word-of-mouth). The videos were also used the info sessions as an icebreaker, and someone went from class-to-class making 5-minute presentations. Most views of the video were through Facebook.

3) What kind of response did you got from prospective students? Were you able to trace any application to this initiative?

The program received more *qualified* applications than can be accepted (170 vs. 150). We didn’t specifically track applicants, felt it would be awkward to ask if they were swayed by video when it’s a graduate program.

This is our first program that targets Millennials (no ads in newspapers, just web-based).

YouTube – ConcordiaUni’s Channel

What I really like with Twitter is that it’s a great medium to get answers to most questions.

Earlier this week, I asked a quick question to the people who follow me on Twitter – and the general Twitterverse:

Twitter / karinejoly: Quick question: Why and what do you retweet?

I got a few answers to my question, but nothing that could help me get a better understanding of the practice of retweeting.

@mgraca: @karinejoly Any message I want to spread from the Wheaton College account, as well as interesting items from people I follow. #pleaseRT

@davidlmulder: @karinejoly I retweet anything that is particularly useful or interesting that I think people would enjoy #pleaseRT

@sliebler: I RT anything I find insightful, usually interesting blog posts since interesting blog posts are so difficult to find on my own. #pleaseRT

And, then tonight, as I’m doing my usual session of blog reading, I find this gem courtesy of danah boyd: the draft of a descriptive paper about retweeting as a conversational practice written by her, Scott Golder and Gilad Lotan.

The paper – currently under review – is titled “Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter” and is available as an 11-page PDF file.

I’ve just finished reading it and thought I’d share some of interesting points found in the analysis of the data sets used for this research – to get you to read it:

About tweets – from a sample of 720,000 retrieved from Jan 26 to June 13, 2009
22% of tweets include a URL (‘http:’)
36% of tweets mention a user in the form ‘@user’;
86% of tweets with @user begin with @user and are presumably a directed @reply
5% of tweets contain a hashtag (#) with 41% of these also containing a URL

About retweets – from a sample of 107,116 retrieved from April 20 to June 13, 2009
52% of retweets contain a URL
18% of retweets contain a hashtag
11% of retweets contain an encapsulated retweet (RT @user1 RT @user2 …message..)
9% of retweets contain an @reply that refers to the person retweeting the post

There’s definitely more to this draft paper, so go read it now!

But, before, why not tell us why and what you retweet by posting a comment?

The registration deadline for the “Writing Right for the Web” 2-webinar series scheduled on May 5 and 6, 2009 is now approaching fast.

For more info and to register, you can visit www.higheredexperts.com/writingright

This series features 2 speakers who have mastered the art and craft of Web writing: Tim Nektriz from SUNY Oswego and Mary Beth Kurilko from Philadelphia U (and former Temple University)

May 5, 2009 – 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: May 12, 2009)
Web Writing 360: How to write right for all the online media
Tim Nekritz, Associate Director of Public Affairs at SUNY Oswego and Chief Content Editor of Oswego.edu, will explain why good web copy still matters in this age of YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. He will also share best practices in authoring great copy for websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter make sure your messages reach your targeted audiences.

May 6, 2009 – 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: May 13, 2009)
Web Writer Coaching 101: How to find, train, and nurture web contributors on campus
Mary Beth Kurilko, former Director of Web Communications at Temple University, will show you how distributive web content authorship can be the solution to all your institution’s web content issues. She will also share her 10-step plan to enroll, train and turn into great web contributors any of your campus administrative or academic writers.

Webinars: Higher Ed Experts

Already registered institutions include:

Appalachian State University
Suffolk University
Lethbridge College
Harrisburg Area Community College
Widener University
Penn State University
SUNY College at Oneonta
Kettering University
Indiana University East
SAIT Polytechnic
Eastern Mennonite University
Saint Anselm College
Olympic College
Florida International University
CSU Office
Connecticut College

For more info or to register: www.higheredexperts.com/writingright

If you have any questions, just email karine@higheredexperts.com

It looks like the wait is finally over: YouTube just launched yesterday its new channel dedicated to videos produced by higher ed institutions and finally came up with a clear way to apply to get the education partner status.

And, you can thank YouTube employees if you know any, because this baby is the results of their work as explained in this paragraph in yesterday’s release notes published on YouTube’s blog:

Do You EDU? Educational Hub Launches: Using YouTube as a vehicle to democratize learning is one of the coolest, unintended outcomes of its existence. YouTube EDU is a volunteer project sparked by a group of employees who wanted to find a better way to collect and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities.

I’ve been writing about this topic for sometimes, providing some tips for your YouTube videos or suggesting last summer among others the non-profit status workaround, so I was really excited when I found out about YouTube EDU, its new portal aggregating content from colleges and universities (via @nancypricer on Twitter).

Beyond showcasing the most viewed videos produced by higher ed institutions as well as the most subscribed channels, YouTube EDU also offers to its visitors what seems to be a comprehensive directory of its college and university partners along with a dedicated search engine.

So. how do you get your YouTube channel on YouTube EDU if you’re not there yet?

Very easily.
Follow these steps and tips

• Just fill out this online form requesting your YouTube username and some basic contact information.
  
• Make sure you just do a single application per institution (YouTube advises offices, departments and other entities to seek guidance from Public Affairs or Academic Technology)
• Use your institutional email account in the application
• Be patient as the new partners will be included on a periodic basis as specified in the introduction of the form.
• For now, YouTube will only consider applications from “qualifying two- and four-year degree granting public and private colleges and universities.”

I’d love to figure out how long the average wait is going to be.

So, please post a comment including the date of your application submission and come back to tell us when you’re finally added.

About 2 months ago, I was interviewed for a CASE Currents’ article about digital magazines for alums.

The article written by Douglas Vaira, Living a Digital Age, has been published in the March issue (but is only accessible to CASE members), so I thought some of you might be interested in my answers to Vaira’s questions.

As far as digital magazines, where does the future lie?

I think we’re going to see more integration between print and digital publications. Given the shrinking budgets reported by many higher ed institutions, print magazines are going to take a hit in circulation, size, etc. When it was asked to find ways to save money to face a state funding cut in 2007, the University of Florida decided to take a hard look at its publication budget. At that time, I was asked to conduct a comprehensive audit and provide recommendations. Using this study as a starting point, UF has since been able to save more than 1 million in printing, postage and related costs.

However, I don’t think digital magazines should/will replace their print counterparts or even just mirror them. There is an opportunity to provide an even better experience to readers in a more cost-efficient way by making both media work together. Until digital paper becomes a fact of life – which will happen sooner than we think, it makes sense to keep printing magazines for alums, but maybe not as we’ve been doing it for the past 15 or 20 years. I think we really need to start designing magazines using an integrated approach with print and digital sections, with monthly/quaterly more in-depth features and daily/weekly electronic updates, with great copy and beautiful photo spreads and shorter text augmented by videos or slideshows.

What are some of the advantages of going digital?

There are several advantages of going digital. With digital magazines, institutions can skip altogether the costly and time-consuming printing process (as well as the increasing postage costs). It becomes possible to cover events in a timelier manner. Space isn’t limited by a set number of pages anymore. You can also provide a more comprehensive experience to readers including text, images (lots of images), video or audio interviews but also welcome/nurture instant feedback. Digital magazines especially in the form of Websites can become 2-way communication channels. Another advantage of digital magazines is the fact that you can get a very good idea of what your readers are actually viewing/reading. With the technologies available on the Web, it’s easy to find out where readers are clicking, how long they spend on a page, and the type of topics they are interested in by just checking analytics reports. Readers can also access very easily archives.

What are some of the issues or challenges you’ve seen with the format?

However, there are also some disadvantages with digital magazines. With so much information – and so many distractions – available on the Web, there’s a bigger chance to miss the reader. Even if you publish the best digital magazine in the world, you’ll still need to attract – and retain – readers. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to digital magazines or websites. It’s true that people can find you on the Internet easily by using a search engine, but you got to give them a compelling reason to search in the first place. That’s why these digital magazines require to be promoted on other channels: emails, postcards or other mailings. When an alum gets a print magazine in the mail, s/he won’t probably throw it right away into the recycling bin even if s/he doesn’t have time at that specific moment. A digital version might not be that lucky.

What are some best-practice ideas you might be willing to offer?

The recommendation I would make is to try to come up with an integrated approach using print and (a real – i.e. web-based) digital versions altogether, build both version as distinctive but complementary parts of a same magazine. Ithaca College has done something very interesting with a magazine targeted to prospective students, FUSE, that includes a print version and a digital version built using their web content management system. The digital version is updated more often, but the print version has definitely its place. The readers — the famous digital natives — have expressed a strong interest in the print version, proving that this isn’t the dead medium we thought it was.

It’s also important to offer possibilities for readers to subscribe to updates on their terms via email, RSS or even by pushing updates on Facebook and other social media tools (Twitter comes to mind). If you can keep printing your magazine, ask readers if they would prefer to receive it in their inbox instead. Some might find it more practical and more environment-friendly. Don’t launch a digital magazine without incorporating from the beginning some ways to measure traffic, reader behaviors, etc. If you have to go paperless (from print to digital only) for budget reasons, tell your readers in the print magazines and offer them the opportunity to be notified by email about new issues.

If you’re planning to go digital or paperless with your magazines, you should consider attending “Stop the Presses,” a 3-webinar series presented by editors who took this path. You can get more info about it at www.higheredexperts.com/stopthepresses

Once again I found in my inbox this morning a message from someone who wanted to register for the upcoming webinar series: “Saving Big″ (the initial registration deadline was yesterday at 9PM).

As a result, I decided to postpone the registration deadline until next Friday (January 30, 2009) at 9PM ET.

Register for Saving Big Webinars

If you want to learn about a few creative ideas to save big on your publications and admissions marketing while getting great results, this 2-webinar series featuring Rachel Reuben (SUNY at New Paltz) and Joe Hice (The University of Florida) will be worth your time and its cost (just $240 per connection – why not pack a room with your marketing, PR & admissions teams to watch both webinars to fire up a great brainstorming session?)

Some of the institutions registered for this series include:

• Yeshiva University
• Upper Iowa University
• Valparaiso University School of Law
• University of New Haven
• Emory University
• Cornerstone University
• University of Melbourne (Australia)

For more information and to register online, just go to www.higheredexperts.com/savingbig

Since we’re all experiencing tougher times in higher education, I’d like to extend a special offer valid for today only:

if you register and pay today (Jan 27) for Saving Big at www.higheredexperts.com/savingbig, you’ll get a free pass to watch on-demand one of our past webinars (you can choose among more than 30 great webinars).

If you have any problems or issues, just send me an email at karine@collegewebeditor.com

Our good friends from the Pew Internet and American Life Project have just released a very interesting 17-page report about adults and social networks websites.

The big news in this report is the increased interest shown by online adults for Facebook and Co according to the results of two different surveys done in May and December 2008.

The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% in 2005 to 35% now,1 according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s December 2008 tracking survey.

Below are some of the most interesting findings I grabbed from this report:

• 75% of our college crowd, young adults aged 18-24 have a profile (no big scoop here, but always nice to have some recent data, don’t you think?), 57% of online adults 25-34, 30% of online adults 35-44
• In February 2005, just 2% of adult internet users had visited an online social network “yesterday” while 19% of adult internet users had done so in December 2008.

• Social network users are also more likely to be students — 68% of full time students and 71% of part-time students have a social network profile, while just 28% of adults who are not students use social networks.

• Nearly one third 31% of online white adults have a social networking profile, compared with 43% of African-Americans and 48% of Hispanics.
• So, where are those networking adults?
  • 50% of adult social network users have a profile on MySpace
  • 22% have a profile on Facebook
  • 6% have a profile on LinkedIn

  MySpace users are more likely to be women, Hispanic or black, to have a high school education or some experience with college. The median age of a MySpace user is 27 years old. Facebook users are more likely to be men and to have a college degree. The median age of a Facebook user is 26 years old. LinkedIn users are more likely to be men, to be white and to have a college degree. The median age of a LinkedIn user is 40 years old.

• When users do use social networks for professional and personal reasons, they will often maintain multiple profiles, generally on different sites.
  51% of social network users have two or more online profiles
  43% have only one online profile

There’s even more interesting data about the type of use depending on the websites. Go download this free PDF report now – and use to back up your social media initiatives.