Social MediaWhat do we know? What should we do?

CASE/New York Times Knowledge Network

October 27, 2009

Robert M. Moore, Ph.D.Managing Partner

2 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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Apps and YieldWhat’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 PollCollege Board/Art & Science Group, January 2009

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As for yield…

•Of 30 information sources, institutional Facebook/MySpace page ranks 28th

• 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 DecisionLipman Hearne, October 2009

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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

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Integrating the media13

Content in Motion

FacebookUniversity launches “Our Houses” channel to aggregate stories/blogs/posts/videos about housing options. Alumni invited to post their residence hall memories. Students add tags and comments. Photos re-appear on their personal pages and in the feed.

University website Residence life page highlights living options, Survey probes accepted student preferences..

YouTubeStudent-made videos of house assets/personality re-posted to University YouTube channel and website.

TwitterRAs “tweet” about house activities., including link to student videos on YouTube. Post re-tweeted by alumni and posted to Facebook.

BlogsRAs write about their houses and comment on others’ blogs.. The feed s are reposted to Facebook pages.

Social BookmarkingStudents use social bookmarking tool on University site to share the story.

Resident Assistants (RAs) launch “my house” competition for incoming students.

Some Sites to Visitand Steal Ideas From

Carnegie Mellon

•Great branded YouTube channel•Content that begs to be shared

www.youtube.com/user/carnegiemellonu

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Marquette University

•Integrated campaign•Focus on peer-to-peer dialogue for incoming students

http://tinyurl.com/mufb2013

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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

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San Diego State University

•Social media as generator of story/institutional visibilityhttp://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

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Olivet Nazarene University

•A branded, segmented channelhttp://www.youtube.com/user/OlivetNazareneU

• Not featuring the most popular selectionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLByTnNwico

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University of California

•Always room for a new idea

http://bigideas.berkeley.edu

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Questions?