Social media for colleges and universities, part two

Last Monday I wrote a concerned article discussing why social media awareness should be a requirement for institutions of higher learning.  Although the short post only scraped the tip of this issue’s iceberg, it helped generate a lively discussion amongst a number of individuals, all with similar viewpoints to mine.

The discussion

First to build on the topic was Atlanta, Georgia student; social media maven; and ReadWriteWeb writer Corvida.  In her post entitled “Universities Need To Take Control Of Their Online Brand,” she covers a number of insightful topics such as damage control and student-held branding, but something in particular was unusually transfixing.  She wrote,

“Facebook is the #1 source for students to find out more about potential colleges and universities. It’s kind of funny to me how Facebook can have more persuasion and clout than a university’s website or campus visit.”

As I thought about this, and as I commented on her blog, the amount that colleges spend on advertising year after year is astronomical.  In 2005, the University of Maryland University College, for instance, allotted $65 million dollars for advertising alone.  If schools are so dedicated to attracting the best and the brightest that they’ll spend such immense amounts of cash, why don’t they invest a fraction of that time and energy in officially maintaining a presence on social sites such as Facebook?  Although I’m not entirely convinced Facebook is the #1 source, as Corvida contests, it definitely has to be up there, and it’s practically oxymoronic to focus on one rewarding sector (mail, etc. advertising) and ignore another (social media).

Perhaps fortunately, our extremism was reigned in a bit by Wofford College webmaster and .eduGuru Kyle James.  As an individual who deals with and blogs about social media for colleges on a regular basis, his comments proved exceptionally insightful.  James realizes that “we have to keep realistic enough to realize that us that understand the world of Social Media beyond Facebook and MySpace are the few, not the mainstream,” conservatively suggesting that a wise social media strategy involves creating great content for a central site, such as an .edu branded domain, and pushing this content out to social media satellites such as Facebook for accessible, yet controlled, advertising (check out Wofford College’s great Facebook Page for an example).

Coming full circle

Yesterday, James summed up the whole discussion on the .eduGuru blog by reminding professionals in similar fields that one of the primary audiences for social media is the high school and college student segment and that it would be unwise to forget that.  Even if adopting an aggressive social media campaign is too radical for a college set in its ways, he still recommends that someone takes the time to monitor the institution’s online identity just to keep an eye out for trouble.

I think this is the take-home message of the entire discussion: at the very least, it’s in everyone’s best interests that those responsible for the future of a higher education institution take the time to learn a little bit about social media and how far-reaching its effects can be.  One lucky student-made video about your school could go viral, accumulating over 90 million views; only a webwise social media steward can help ensure that this video carries a positive message about your institution, and not a negative one.

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