PROJECT
Off-Campus Student Services
University of Connecticut
(OCSS)
Team Leader: Merz Lim
Ben Cannon, Mark Flynn & Akeya Peterson
DATE
FEBRUARY 23, 2011
CLIENT
STUDENTAFFAIRS.COM CASE STUDY
Overview
o
Services Provided by OCSS
o
Current Issues Within OCSS
o
Types of Social Media that will be Integrated in OCSS
o
Integration of Social Medias
o
Background on Social Media and Millennials
o
Challenges of Implementation of Social Medias
o
Future Implications of Social Media Integration
Goals & Mission of OCSS
Off-Campus Student Services, part of the Office of Student Services
and Advocacy, offers resources and advocacy for UCONN students'
off-campus living and/or commuting experience.
Off-Campus Student Services. Retrieved February 19, 2011 from http://www.offcampus.uconn.edu/
Provided Services of OCSS
o
Housing Fairs - A semi-annual fair that features local property
management companies/landlords and university organizations.
Information is also provided about living off-campus and the
services that are available to commuter students.
o
Commuter Appreciation Week - Held each semester to
acknowledge commuter students extra efforts to get to campus
daily. Events are held around campus such as:
• Pizza with the Police where UConn Police officers share safety tips and allow
students to ask questions in a informal environment.
•
“Morning Welcomes” where students are greeted in the commuter parking lots
with breakfast items and other useful items that a commuter may need.
Provided Services of OCSS (cont.)
o
Landlord Sharing Program - Documentation system that allow
students to raise concerns about the quality of their off-campus
housing and/or landlord that will lead to resolving the issue.
Landlords are given the opportunity to respond to the students
feedback. Documentation is also provided for future tenants to view
Current Issues for OCSS
o
Transportation:
Storrs, CT; rural location, lack of public transportation makes it
difficult to get around surrounding areas
o
Roommates:
Unlike students who live in residence halls who are
assigned a roommate, students who want to move
off-campus, have to find their own roommate(s).
o
Selling/Buying Items:
Other than word of mouth, flyers, or message boards,
students do not have a centralized management system,
where they could sell/buy their items.
Social Media
While there are a number of different definitions of social media,
the term refers to the media based on user participation and usergenerated content. Social media can take many different forms:
blogs, forums, message boards, wikis, podcasts, social
bookmarking, picture-sharing, and instant messenger. Some
specific examples of popular social media sties include YouTube,
Flickr, Facebook, FourSquare, and Twitter (Pikalek, 2010).
Social Media
Social media allows for intra- and inter-university
communication amongst and between faculty, professional staff,
and students (Manlow, Friedman, and Friedman 2010).
Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which
offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its
users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are textbased posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the
user's profile page.
Twitter. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://twitter.com/
Social Media
Facebook is a social network service and website launched in
February 2004 that has more than 600 million active members
Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends
and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when
they update their profile. Additionally, users may join groups of
common interest, organized by workplace, school, or college, or
other characteristics. More than 200 million active members
access Facebook through mobile devices.
Facebook. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.facebook.com
Twitter Campaign for OCSS
Why Twitter?
106 Million Users
48% Undergraduates Students
28% Graduate Students
43% 18-34 years old
52% Update on a daily basis
37% Login with a mobile device
76% of all Twitter Users are in
college and half update on a daily
basis and a bit over a third do it
from a mobile device.
MEET THE STUDENTS WHERE
THEY ARE AT!
Benefits of Using Twitter
o
o
o
o
Raise Awareness
Offer Proactive Customer Service
Answer Questions
Promote Events, Products, Services
Digital Buzz. Retrieved February 22, 2011, from http://tinyurl.com/284z9ge
Twitter Campaign for OCSS (cont.)
Making an OCSS Twitter Account
o Create a new account and use login information that anybody who
works in OCSS could have access
o Choose a username such as OCSS or UCONN OCSS
o Upload a photo – Suggested to use the Logo of OCSS
o Fill in your Bio Homepage
• Link the OCSS webpage
• Add a description of OCSS mission and services
• Put in location of the office of OCSS
o Choose a background or customize background
o View a Tutorial on Twitter: http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/thetwitter-tutorial
Twitter Campaign for OCSS (cont.)
Linking Your Resources
Once the OCSS Twitter account is created you can begin to link the
account to everything associated with OCSS.
o Every OCSS employee should have a Logo Link in their signature
EX:
Barry Smith
Social Media Coordinator
Off Campus Student Services
Phone: (860) 486 –1234
Clickable
Links
o Add links to the Twitter account on the OCSS UConn Webpage
o Facebook Profile should have a link leading to the Twitter Page
•
Could be added to the Information section or posted on the wall
o The Twitter Page should have a link leading to the Facebook Page
•
Tweet the actual Facebook page periodically and add link to the Profile
Twitter Campaign for OCSS (cont.)
Gaining Followers
In order to be successful the Twitter account needs to have followers
o Create an advertising campaign asking people to follow UConn
OCSS on Twitter
•
•
•
•
Post flyers on campus stating how to follow UConn OCSS
Update Facebook Page asking people to follow
Add the Twitter name at every OCSS event
Reply to followers gained
o Hold contest solely for individuals who follow the twitter account
•
For example, the 30th person to tweet about OCSS wins a gift card
o Become a trending topic by hash tagging OCSS
•
By placing # in front of OCSS it will highlight the name like a link. Then any
other tweets that have #OCSS in it will be put in the same category of tweets
Twitter Campaign for OCSS (cont.)
Maintaining Updates
The success of the Twitter Campaign relies heavily on how it is
maintained
o Maintenance
•
•
Understanding that the twitter account will be public and all students will
have access you must set appropriate guidelines for OCSS
These policies must be known by every person who uses the account
o Responsibilities
•
Will it be one specific person or multiple people and if it is multiple people
make sure they communicate responsibilities
o Usage
•
Suggestion: Only one update a day unless there is an upcoming major event
•
Tweet about resources, events, changes in OCSS, contests, etc.
Twitter Campaign for OCSS (cont.)
Creating Connections
Fast and simple Tweets can provide the connection to under utilized
resources currently lacking in student traffic
o Tweet about student needs and link them to the resources
Ex: Hey are you looking for a roommate but are having trouble finding one?
Click this link for help – http://www.OCSS.edu/OCH
This should link followers to the forum where
people post about roommate needs and wants
o Personalize how you use Twitter
•
Take pictures at events of contest winners or just attendees and tweet them
•
Reply back to specific followers and answer questions directly to them
•
Allow people to use UConn OCSS twitter as a venue for carpooling,
roommates, subleasing, or sell/buy items from one another
Millennials: Pew Research
The Pew Charitable Trusts - a not for profit organization,
dedicated to serving public interest by "improving public policy,
informing the public, and stimulating civic life.”
In February, 2010 they completed a comprehensive study of the
millennial and their tendencies, a large part of their research
focused on technology and social media.
America's newest generation, the Millennials, is in the middle of
this coming-of-age phase of its life cycle. Its oldest members are
approaching age 30; its youngest are approaching adolescence.
(Pew, 2010)
Millennials: Social Media
o
74% of Millennials believe that technology makes life easier
o
As of January 2010 75% of Millennials reported using social
media or social networking sites
o
29% of Millennials report checking social networking sites several
times a day
o
26% of Millennials report checking social networking sites once a
day
o
86% of College Students have some type of social networking
profile or page in their name
(Pew, 2010)
Millennials: Social Media (cont.)
o
While 8% of adults report using twitter, 14% of Millennials report
using twitter
o
62% of Millennials connect to the internet wireless from a laptop
or other handheld device
(Pew, 2010)
Difficulties Executing Plan
Consistency
o Management of the social media
o Updating frequently e.g. daily basis
o Linking of different social medias
o Staying relevant to the issues/services: Information provided is
what the students want or need to know
o Appropriate Postings
Marketing
o Internally – Getting people to invite friends
o Gaining the first initial set of followers
o Provide appealing giveaways
o Mixing medias by combing email, flyers, calendars with Twitter
Difficulties Executing Plan (cont.)
Boundaries
Social Media inherently has no boundaries, because of that we are
moving to an area that we do not know what the implications are.
Where sensitive data may become under attack with spam and
phishing attacks (Hung and Yuen, 2010).
Budget Implications -- in people not products
It takes considerable staff hours to maintain an effective site. At
least 10hrs each week in planning, to find content, posting, and
engage in the ongoing conversation (Pikalek, 2010). Thus it is
vitally important to have the right team in place to support the
ongoing maintenance needs.
Difficulties Executing Plan (cont.)
Initial Buy-In
o Students may not want to place more personal information of
themselves out on the internet
o
Not being knowledgeable in using Twitter
o
Population might not be tech savvy as an increase in nontraditional students enroll into college
o
Collaboration among other functional areas, such as student
services, IT, and program faculty for content ideas
Future Implications of
Integrating Social Media
Strategic Plan
o
A department must create one that fits the mission and values of
the office, if not, the use of social network may not be effective
(Hung and Yuen, 2010).
o
Being realistic- adding a social network into a department does
not guarantee success, it may become a sunk-cost effect. (Hung
and Yuen, 2010).
o
Integrating additional forms of social media such as FourSquare,
Blogspot, Flikr, Yelp, and other sites.
Future Implications of
Integrating Social Media
Strategic Plan
o
Collaborating with other functional areas and incorporating social
media into the classroom setting
o
University may not be ready for the integration of social media
o
•
Lack of resources to accommodate mobility of technology
•
Training of the staff to understand how to use the technology
Creation of smart phone application for OCSS
References
Digital Buzz (Dec. 21, 2010) Infographic: Facebook vs. twitter demographics. Retrieved February 22, 2011 from
http://tinyurl.com/284z9ge
Facebook. (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://www.facebook.com
Hung, H., & Yuen, S. C. (2010). Educational use of social networking technology in higher education. Teaching in Higher
Education, 15(6), 703-714.
Kohut, A., Taylor, P., Keeter, S., & Parker, K. (2010). The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. .Pew
Research Center, 1(1), 140. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/millennialsconfident-connected-open-to-change.pdf
Manlow, V., Friedman, H., & Friedman, L. (2010). Inventing the future: Using social media to transform a university from
a teaching organization to a learning organization. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 21(1), 47-64.
Off-Campus Student Services. Retrieved February 19, 2011 from http://www.offcampus.uconn.edu/.
Pikalek, A. J. (2010). Navigating the social media learning curve. Continuing Higher Education Review, 74, 150-160.
Slideshare. (n.d.). The Twitter Tutorial. Retrieved February 22, 2011, http://www.slideshare.net/Griner/the-twitter-tutorial
The Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Research Center. (2010). The millenials: confident, connected, open to change .
Washington, DC
Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://twitter.com