here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zcOFN_VBVo

So, I find that one approach to get the companies, organization to understand is perhaps to look for practical ways to use it for day to day purpose then gradually scale from there.

I personally found 4 practical starting points just with Twitter alone and to share.. here’s the URL: http://www.ministryofsocialmedia.com/114/popular/4-practical-ways-of-using-twitter-for-business/

For the most part higher ed social media brand presence harkens back to the wild west days 1993,when the newly emerged web platform was filled with unorchestrated solo activities, and provided no gestalt.

The same issues we grappled with back in the day, need to be revisited for the social media platform but with a different lens. We all know what we want to accomplish. We want coordinated efforts that support the university brand experience and deeply connect to and build bonds with our audiences.

We have years of experience as marketing and communications professionals to draw on to achieve those goals.

We all need to coordinate, collaborate and communicate within the institution so that our social media brand presence has a gestalt built on a thoughtful set of investments that leverage the unique flavor of each platform and the skills of each social media brand ambassador.

1. Managing conversations
2. Managing platforms
3. Creating convergence among those platforms

Thanks for fighting the good fight!

Great post. Social media srategy or most people call marketing using social networking website is one of the best way to promote your product. Even giant breverage company Sprite have their own Bebo account to promote their product.

But many people have misuse the tools make this strategy look unprofessional.

Anyway it is just a thought.

Great post, my brother has recently also tried introducing his varsity to the benefits of social media, only to then run into the proverbial brick wall. If it’s not having Facebook being blocked by the Gestapo-esque web administrators, then it’s the misconception that social media is about spamming users.

What’s encouraging is that the tide is slowly turning. In the UK, plans are afoot to bring social media into the primary (junior) and high school curriculums.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

And, weigh in!

Black hat tip would be a proxy server. Just google “proxy facebook” there are plenty of them out there that will give you access to facebook through their attempts to block the site.

I have just today published a Facebook page for our college, a first in social media for our college — and was promtly informed by our IT department that they are indefinitely blocking access to Facebook via the campus network due to the Koobface virus. Of course, this will make administering the page a nightmare. Luckily I work remotely and can take on some of this task, however I am supposed to be a web developer, not a social media admin!

Anyway, the point of this comment is to ask if you or anyone else has come across this “strategy” (not) and how to deal with it.

Thanks again!

@Jason Many university’s don’t have an overall marketing or communication strategy.

I think it’s more important to start at that high level before jumping downward into a social media strategy without an umbrella to fit in.

@Brad Exactly my point to @Jason – most don’t have one. And I definitely agree with your take on the 3-5 months for a social media plan anyway. By the time we get around to writing one, it’s outdated and useless. That time would be much better spent implementing action items that will help further existing strategies.

@Kevin That’s an important struggle I think many of us are dealing with. How to do more with less. Social media is not a replacement, or “instead of” other traditional marketing tools — it’s in addition to.

@Larry You’re one of the lucky few.

@Nicole It seems more universities are finally starting to embrace the value of two-way conversations. Don’t just speak at them – converse with them! It is a little overwhelming how many tools there are out there. Narrowing down and zoning in on a select few is the best strategy to focus efforts, but someone who knows a thing or two about social media should be heavily involved in those decisions.

@Jason Keep on convincing – keep the shift going! Definitely right way to go.

@Casas I have several friends and family members that are teachers, so I’m very interested in how they choose to use social media (or not) in their classrooms.

@Mike I couldn’t disagree more with those colleges/universities that think those sites are time consuming with little benefit. (Ok, maybe MySpace, but that’s just because of my demographics.) We’ve seen an enormous benefit for the time we’ve invested into our Facebook Page. We’ve kept our fans engaged and we’re there all hours of the day/night (my colleague @Shana729 frequently replies between 4-6 a.m.!). We’ve had numerous conversations on our wall, and the fans are also actively conversing with each other.

@Elizabeth Thank you! Definitely agree with you that you can’t always apply traditional methods to new media forms, however, I think the fundamentals usually apply across the board. The biggest difference is the two-way communication – engage, engage, engage!

@Rebecca Ah yes, our ever shrinking SUNY budgets. Now, more than ever, is the time
to get creative. Social media can be very powerful, and for its dollar cost (mostly free!) we can really leverage it to help us when there aren’t enough dollars to go around in other areas.

@Heather Didn’t you hear? E-mail is dead. (Just kidding @KarlynM & @kylejames!)

@Fritz I’m so glad you weighed in here. I actually did read your white paper on the plane on the way to your conference last month. As I mentioned, your session really provided a great foundation that I think can be used in so many different mediums – not just social. However, I do believe that social media is one of the most important spokes we have in our marketing mix right now. I would see a value in creating a strategy, as long as it ties in to larger strategies and the larger goals are not lost sight of.

When I did research over the summer for my paper on “The Use of Social Media in Higher Education,” I reviewed about 100 or so university Facebook Pages. I’d completely agree with you that most of them weren’t accomplishing much of anything with them from what I could tell. There were very few that looked like they were
engaging their fans and not just duplicating their existing Web site. Not to toot my own horn, but I’d argue my university’s Facebook Page is one of the more successful ones I’ve seen. We have heavy interaction on the wall and discussion boards with our fans, and they regularly post fan photos. We haven’t had a strategy with this approach, other than to expand the number of administrators behind the
scenes so that the burden wasn’t solely on me to check on a regular basis. We now have three people from admissions and three people on my staff that scatter checking in with the Page throughout the day so that wall posts are answered as
quickly as possible.

Thank you again, Fritz (and everyone!) for your feedback – I’m excited to see how this conversation shapes and changes as we enter the new year with lots of new possibilities.

But this is precisely why I think you need a social media strategy. Right now, many schools have Facebook pages that aren’t accomplishing much of anything for them. On the eduStyle gallery, you see institution Facebook walls on which the only people writing anything are the institutions themselves. Generally, they take a passive approach by just throwing up a page and hoping someone will come. Usually, they won’t. Additionally, you see institutional Facebook pages competing with pages their alums or students have put up—and losing.

If these keeps up, Presidents who currently like or are interested in using social media will soon change their mind about it, and whatever resources you’ve been able to dedicate to it will dwindle and the Facebook pages come down. And that would be a shame, given that social media is an evolution in human communication, not a fad, one that will continue to increase in importance and power.

Instead of thinking of social media strategy as just another campus strategy, I think it would be better to put it in the hands of the people on campus like you who can really pull it off. Any good marketing or recruiting effort requires an effective strategy—why shouldn’t social media, even if it only occupies a supporting role?

If you’re interested in reading my white paper (with no hassles), you can find it here:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=20299145518&topic=5726