Comments on: Social Media Marketing Is More Than Just Facebook

By: Wanted: Director of Social Media Marketing – Marketing Education

Wanted: Director of Social Media Marketing – Marketing Education — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:02:49 +0000

[...] of comments. Next, the staffer should develop a social media marketing plan. I have written before about the limited ways in which most colleges and universities engage with social media. They view [...]

By: Tracey Halvorsen

Tracey Halvorsen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:49:14 +0000

Mark,

Great post, and interesting insights into the work we have been doing. Obviously Jeremy is missing the point that the UMBC site IS an aggregator, requiring little interaction with the site itself in order to continue sharing fresh and relevant content – long term. The problem with focusing exclusively on Facebook as an admissions strategy is that prospective students on Facebook are reluctant to connect with Admissions departments of the 10-15 schools they may be considering. By creating the unique aggregator site, we are not only allowing the UMBC students to promote their school and their lives, we are creating a space for prospects to get an unfiltered look, vs. a controlled “admissions oriented” Facebook fan or group site.

The appeal of this, or its long term success is yet to be seen. However, isn’t it our jobs to try pushing the boundaries to see what else might work better? A site like the be.umbc.edu site exists somewhere in between a primary college or university Website and Facebook. I think the landscape is large enough for multiple experiences and ideas, and I look forward to continuing to explore how to leverage the content being created by students in order to connect with potential students.

By: Mark N

Mark N — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:49:30 +0000

Jeremy – Glad to hear that you are so happy with your Facebook strategy. Why don’t you let us know which institution you represent, then we can all get a sense of your marketing efforts.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:20:24 +0000

“It centered on admissions offices tapping existing student networks and creating institutional presences of their own on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. There were the expected comments.” – Most schools would rather leverage the free tools that their audience is already on rather than recreate the wheel and pay some agency to develop an overpriced microsite.

“Much of the way admissions offices currently use Facebook and Twitter amounts to glorified extensions of their public relations activities.” – You obviously haven’t done enough research in this space.

“In the future, people will generate their own content (i.e. text, music, video) and select which content they consume based on their own preferences and the preferences of social groups with which they affiliate.” – More evidence for just meeting them on their platform of choice rather than trying to re-create the wheel with your ‘hip and trendy’ sites.

What happens when UMBC students graduate? Do you anticipate them coming back to this site? Or even coming to it in the first place? They’re already on Facebook now, and will continue to be. I’d rather have a connection to them on a site they visit daily/weekly than pay to develop a platform that will have a few months of traffic and die off (it happens all the time.) Facebook is a long-term strategy, and it’s a sustainable connection, from prospective student to student to alumni. The moment they stop coming to your fancy microsite, you’ve lost them. It’s apparent this blog post is only for self-promotion of what you can do (charge a school for a fancy site) compared to what you don’t understand (the strategies leveraged in the article).

Setting a date on my calendar to see if this is still around in 6 months, or if it dies off like most microsites.

By: Rick Hardy

Rick Hardy — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:42:53 +0000

Mark, spot-on analysis, both on what’s happening today and where it’s all going/should be going for higher education. Participation rates in social media by colleges and universities are inflated because of what you have described. Your solution makes a lot of sense. It will require marketing leaders to be even more connected on their campuses so that they are able to convert community members to the institution’s social media marketing initiative–quite a challenge on college campuses where marketing is not usually seen in a favorable light. Thus, your last point about framing it as an educational function is worth considering.