How Social Networks are Changing College Marketing, PR, and Alumni Relations Dan Forbush NAICU Public Relations Academy February 1, 2009 Evolution of Computers in Marketing Communications 1970s Early 1980s Mid 1980s Late1980s Mid 1990s Late 1990s Mid 2000s Late 2000s Mid 2020s IBM Memory Typewriter Desktop Publishing CompuServe Email / Listservs Static Web Dynamic Web Social Web We’re Here Mobile Web Neural Web 2009: Our Expanding Digital World Facebook MySpace Twitter ITunes YouTube Flickr LinkedIn iGoogle Basecamp Blogs Box.net Podcasts Slideshare Wikis The 2008 Presidential Race Main Obama Facebook Page Obama’s YouTube Channel Obama’s LinkedIn Group Obama in Twitter ‘Obama Everywhere’ OrganizingforAmerica.com Obama’s Achievement ‘Barack Obama won the presidency in a landslide victory by converting everyday people into engaged volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, email advocacy, text messaging and online video.’ Michael Krempasky EVP, Digital Public Affairs Edelman Why Our Use of Social Networks is Exploding* They enable us to manage large extended networks more effectively They provide information about others that serves as a ‘social lubricant,’ making it easy to interact They give us new ways to connect with one another over shared interests, problems, or experiences, and to mobilize coordinated actions * Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008 In Higher Education “Social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace now constitute an integral part of the daily communications practices for many students. For those of us in higher education, it is particularly important to understand SNS practices, outcomes and motivations for use because these sites are fundamentally changing the social fabric of the university … “ Nicole Ellison Michigan State University ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008 Social Networks Are Transforming PR, Marketing and Alumni Relations Because: They’re interactive, engaging and ‘viral’ They powerfully support ‘word of mouth’ They’re merging with conventional Web sites They’re the future Inauguration Day What’s Your Social Networking Strategy? At Skidmore We see the introduction of a Skidmore-managed social network as our best hope for strengthening our connections with young alumni Why Do We Need to? Caller ID Screening: Annual fund callers now must make 16 calls for every live connection Revenues from Calls are Declining: From $260,000 in 2005 to $110,000 in 2008 Renewed Focus on Volunteers: Personal contacts by peers are key New Capabilities the New ‘Skidmore Network’ Must Offer Enable alumni to easily network by professional groups Enable alumni to easily network by affinity groups Enable alumni to post electronic class notes And… Alumni must be able to access the new Skidmore Network using their Facebook user name and password Why Facebook? By Surveying Our Alumni, We Learned: • Twice as many Skidmore alumni use Facebook as MySpace • 79 percent of alumni who use Facebook say they use it daily • The more experienced with Facebook a Skidmore alumnus/a is, the less likely he or she is to join a Skidmore-managed network Here’s What They’re Telling Us ‘Why reinvent the wheel? Facebook and Linkedin are sophisticated sites with lots of resources. Skidmore won't be able to duplicate their service.’ ‘Who needs to remember another password?’ ‘You need to go where people are, not expect them to come to you.’ What Makes Facebook So ‘Sticky’ ? ‘Friending’ Content-Sharing Content-Sharing Content-Sharing Content-Sharing News Feed (mine) News Feed (all friends) Interactions Galore (50,000 Applications) Facebook Pages Ideal for creating niche communities - Institutional voice - No ads - Visible to all – no login needed - Link Event pages to it - Listserv function - Blog function - Discussion topics - Share photos and videos - Pull in videos from YouTube - ‘Fans’ can connect with each other And more … Measurement Facebook’s ‘Insight’ tool enables you to analyze traffic to your Page by any of the following: Page Views Unique Views Fans New Fans Wall Posts Discussion Topics Photo Views Audio Plays Video Plays Page Views Fans Creating a Niche Community in Facebook Creating a Niche Community A Q&A •An Alumnus Q&A •YouTube video Creating a Niche Community is ‘Notes’‘Notes’ is like a blog like a blog Creating a Niche Community Alumni profiles Creating a Niche Community Alumnus MySpace Page Key Goals in Skidmore Network Create an application that enables alums in any profession to create and maintain profiles of themselves in a Facebook community directly relevant to their interests Link these profiles to their profiles in Skidmore’s alumni database so they can easily update key information Would You Like to Partner with Us ? Let’s develop the architecture for an ideal alumni community in Facebook and share the development costs! Write or call me: dforbush@skidmore.edu 518-580-5746 Facebook Connect will be in key in this Facebook Connect ‘We believe the next evolution of data portability is about much more than data. It's about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.’ Facebook May 9, 2008 How It Works Developers may add Facebook’s ‘rich social context’ to their own websites Users may connect their Facebook account to any partner website for ‘single sign-on’ Users may take their profile information with them wherever they go on the Web Users may take their friends with them wherever they go on the Web New Forms of Facebook-enabled Public Dialog: Two Examples Facebook Connect With CNN.com Facebook Connect With CNN Forum An Example from Higher Ed Ithaca College: Facebook Connect With iModules Facebook Connect with iModules’ ‘Encompass’* Connects member identity and content in their Ithaca College alumni community directly to Facebook. Event registrations, class notes, and online donations can be published on a member’s Facebook News Feed. *Thanks to Ithaca’s Julie Doherty for the screenshots that follow Single Sign-on Visitors to the alumni community with a Facebook account can associate their identity with a member record in the alumni site. Once successful, the accounts are “connected” and the member can choose to login with either their community or Facebook username and password in the future. Single Sign-on Login page includes the “Connect with Facebook” button Single Sign-on Clicking on the Facebook button invokes this login dialog box Single Sign-on Page allowing member to “link” the two accounts Single Sign-on Successfully logged in, pulling picture and name from Facebook News Feed Propagation When visitors, logged in via Facebook Connect, interact with an enabled form, they are presented with a dialog box. Visitors may elect to propagate their activity into their Facebook News Feed or not. News Feed Propagation Confirmation step of an event with a “Share on Facebook” button News Feed Propagation Dialog box confirming publication to Facebook News Feed News Feed Propagation Facebook News Feed including alumni web site member activity There’s a Lot You Can Do To Strengthen Your Institution’s Visibility in Facebook Itself – for Free! We’ve Launched a Series of Facebook Pages and Groups Skidmore Alumni Class of 2013 Alumni in Digital Media Skidmore Musicians Online Skidmore Global We’ve told alumni we’ll help them create their own We’ve Created ‘Skidmore Interactive’ To Bring It All Together This is our ‘home page for Skidmore’s online communities’ It’s the core of our social network We Embarked on a Graphic Identity Program in Facebook. Here’s our Main Alumni Group. Our Career Services Page Our Class of 2013 Page Our ‘Online Musicians’ Group We Produced a Special Issue of Our Magazine: ‘Digital Skidmore’ We Inserted a Four-Page Promotion: ‘Making Friends with the Web’ Our objective was to build alumni audiences in Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube and to begin a serious discussion about a Skidmore-managed social network Plus: We’ve created a team of student Facebook contributors We’ve brought our entire Alumni Board into an ‘Alumni Board’ group in Facebook We’ve created an alumni social networking advisory group ‘Laddering’ Support through Tiers of Engagement* Advocate Recruit others to donate, host an event, create a group Social Post pictures or videos, write a blog post, join a discussion or group, post a class note Personal Create a profile, post a comment, make a donation, sign up for email, ‘friend’ a classmate *Edelman Challenges Resistance to Facebook among faculty and colleagues Mastering new technologies and genres Finding comfortable blend of one’s personal and professional persona Figuring out how to play the role of ‘community manager’ Role of Community Manager Establish goals, develop strategy and monitor progress Master the new tools and teach others Keep content fresh Generate and promote the ‘conversation’ Serve as the institution’s visible, interactive representative in social spaces Develop and extend ‘online persona’ Aspects of Your ‘Online Persona’ Your profile content: photo, bio, photo collections, videos Your friends The nature of content you post The ‘voice’ with which you post Your privacy settings My Facebook Profile Other Networks, Sites, and Smart Approaches Twitter.com Tinyurl.com Twitter feed Yammer Basecamp BigThink Google Maps ‘Mashup’ at Colgate Box.net Slideshare The Vatican on YouTube To see these slides again: http://www.slideshare.com/dforbush