Social Media 101By Tim Nekritz Associate Director of Public Affairs/Director of Web CommunicationSUNY Oswego

What is social media?

• Interactive parts of the Internet where we can communicate with such audiences as prospective students, current students, faculty, d staff, alumni, parents and friends of the college.

• Includes (but is not limited to) Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, Formspring, Foursquare and more.

Why social media?

• “Third space”• Customer service• Interactive nature•Media-rich•Where they are

• But remember to bring them back (hub and spoke)

Also: it’s expected

*Noel-Levitz E-Expectations, July 2011

5 top tips

1.Be present!Try before you buy

5 top tips

2. Be prepared!Have a content strategy

5 top tips

3. Be responsive!Reply and sustain

5 top tips

4. Be friendly!Have conversations

5 top tips

5. Goals before tools1.Does it help us meet a goal?2.What’s in it for us?3.What’s in it for our users?

Avoid OSS

Crowd-sourced additions• “Try to get someone who has a bit of a sense of humor (again not

always possible) as it makes the tone of your channels friendly and more approachable.”

-- Annalisa Boccia, Queen’s University

• “Be Valued ... Many are getting into social to ‘have another way of pushing our message’ or creating a new place for the same people to ignore the same press releases.”

-- JP Rains, Laurentian University

• “Be Yourself. Social media operates in a transparent arena where it’s easy to see who’s a jerk, who’s not telling the truth and who’s making themselves out to be more than they are.”

-- Patrick Powers, Webster University

Types? Oh so many …

• Facebook• Twitter• YouTube• Formspring• Foursquare/Geosocial• Photosocial• Blogs[We keep an online inventory]

Facebook

• The 800-pound gorilla

Considerations:• Page?• Group?• Individual account? (no)

#pancaketweetup

Twitter: 140-character stories

Twitter: 2 symbols are key

•@ symbol: replying or addressing someone

• # = hashtag, organizing around topic, conference, event

YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/sunyoswegovideo

Formspring

It’s allabout the Q & A

Geosocial/location-based

• Services tied to your smartphone

• Fastest-growing part of social media

• Location-based services have enormous potential to connect people to places, places to people, and people to people in places.

• -- Tim Jones, North Carolina State University

Geosocial: Foursquare

Photosocial

Blogs

Monitor and respond

• Social media is 24/7• Basic customer service, just new way•Most users just looking for an answer•Would you ignore your email for days?

Our FB comment guidelines• The discussion board is available for questions, often from

those entering or considering Oswego ... we hope to get you answers in a timely manner as you ponder joining our community. However, spam, blatantly commercial, obscene and/or denigrating messages are not welcome in this space and may be removed, as this page exists to serve a broader community.

Negative feedback?

• Honest complaints• Spam• Ragers• Trolls

Again, make sure you have a posted policy!

Content strategy

•What do you post?• How often do you post?

(And, of course, who posts it)

Great site >>meetcontent.com

Who has the keys?

Social media conduct

• Zappo’s social media policy: “Don’t do anything stupid”

• It’s pretty much common sense

Next steps

•What are your goals?• Look at your time/resources• Examine options/communities•Content strategy: what to say•Get social!

Questions?

• Also available at: tim.nekritz@oswego.edu … or http://www.facebook.com/tim.nekritz… or http://twitter.com/TimNekritz

Presentations http://www.slideshare.net/TimNekritz/

Social media users’ guide *NEW*:http://www.oswego.edu/administration/public_affairs/

socialmediaguide.html