If you could
find a cost-effective way to expand your visibility, matching messages precisely
with targeted audiences while promoting your institutional brand, would you
take advantage of it? Social media allow
you to do this and more, fostering constituent relationships, expanding
interest in your institution and positioning your college or university as
being ahead of the technology curve.
Yet only about
100 of some 3,500 college presidents nationwide actively use Twitter as a
strategic communication device, with just a few more accessing Facebook. Approximately 700 regularly use LinkedIn,
YouTube, blogs and other tools. Those
who do not employ social media are missing out on a host of opportunities to
enhance and control their message while fostering the personal, interactive
relationships at the core of all effective branding and marketing.
Here are some
proven reasons we think you will “like” social-media applications as part of
your institution’s external-relations strategy.
For nearly 20
years, we have teamed to write on a variety of issues related to higher
education practices. So when Scott
Miller was appointed president of Bethany College six years ago, we created and
tested a long-term social-media strategy. The strategy focused on reinforcing
the brand of a nationally ranked liberal arts college located in a rural
section of West Virginia, and further engaging an already loyal base of alumni
and friends. In the process, we would position Scott as an experienced opinion
leader on a wide variety of higher-education topics.
The results have
been astonishing. In just five years,
with minimal cost, start-up and maintenance, we now have more than 1,100 followers
on Twitter, with an additional 73 lists, over 1,800 LinkedIn connections and
1,650 Facebook followers. This is in addition to visibility through regular e-cards,
e-blasts, blogs, opinion pieces, monthly presidential e-letters, a weekly online
newsletter and monthly online commentaries for The Huffington Post and a
statewide business newspaper.
Bethany’s direct
primary list of 30,000 has been greatly expanded by secondary and tertiary
audiences who receive institutional messages almost simultaneously with those
on internal e-lists. For example, a recent post to 1,655 people on
Facebook was quickly viewed by more than 7,000 followers as a result of the
share function. Therefore, entire new audiences for the institution, previously
unknown, have become instant constituents.
It remains
surprising to us that relatively few presidents and senior administrators have
embraced social media. Notable exceptions include E. Gordon Gee of Ohio State;
Santo Ono, the University of Cincinnati; Christopher Kimball, California
Lutheran University; David Rowe, Centenary College; Jeff Abernathy, Alma College;
John Maeda, the Rhode Island School of Design; Angel Cabrera, George Mason
University (who tweets and blogs in both English and Spanish); and Walter Kimbrough,
Dillard University.
Here’s what we
have learned from Bethany College’s social-media strategy:
Social media
quickly and effectively allow you to send disparate, relevant messages to
diverse audiences in a matter of seconds.
As
an active college president who is closely identified with the Bethany brand, Scott
controls eight different platforms from his desktop, iPhone, iPad or Netbook. Although
followers of each site receive a different message, since many are on more than
one site, all content supports the College’s mission and value of liberal arts
education and reinforces the branding message of Bethany. LinkedIn allows Scott
to advertise position openings to colleagues and to repost college media
releases often picked up as “tip sheets” by higher education and general
circulation media, while Twitter allows the president to reach alumni and
students with more personal messages (“shout outs”) for congratulations and
condolences. A recent tweet about a
campus-related death, for example, generated 7,000 re-tweets, posts and e-mail responses
within a few hours. Using the
president’s “public figure page” on Facebook, students, families and alumni are
encouraged to follow Scott’s activities without a privacy invasion to the
follower.
Social media
also permit you to control the frequency and distribution of your message. We’ve found that electronic distribution
services at nominal cost allow us to time-deliver messages to balance
distribution. These might include campus
news, reports and interesting articles from outside organizations that
reinforce your institution’s message and image.
In addition, by taking advantage of “dead times” in the news cycle, you
can schedule messages to arrive when audiences have time to read and assimilate
them. You can also ensure a high degree
of frequency, so that key audiences receive a continuous flow of appropriate
communications. Further, student
interns in the president’s office scan national media for outside news items of
interest to target audiences. Several campus units also funnel information to
the president’s office for consideration; however, the president controls all
messages that are posted.
Finally, in
times of crisis, social media are essential in distributing general and timely
alerts, messages and updates instantly and comprehensively. We’ve discovered
that many students, for example, prefer accessing social media to checking
their campus email accounts.
Thus, social
media reinforce the perception that the administration is focusing on
communications 24-7. Since 2007, Scott has transitioned from e-mail on desktop
to texting on Blackberry and Netbook to iPad and iPhone more recently. We will
admit that at the outset of our experiment, it took a while to set up templates
for Bethany’s weekly online newsletter, The
Old Main Journal, and monthly e-President’s Letter. It’s also important
to keep social-media content fresh and concise. The impact of this strategy, however, has far outweighed the time
needed to create and implement it. The
social-media initiative for Bethany College has been an unqualified success,
exceeding our expectations and widening the reach of Bethany’s marketing
strategy.
In the late 19th
century, when electricity was in its infancy, President and Mrs. Rutherford B.
Hayes, among others, are said to have so feared this new technology that they
asked their servants to turn the White House switches on and off. One day soon, we will find our early qualms
about using social media to be equally unfounded. Like electricity,
social media are here to stay, with virtually unlimited applications for
serving our institutions and target audiences. We urge you and your colleagues to harness this
vast potential.
# # # #
Dr. Scott D. Miller is President of the College and
M.M. Cochran Professor of Leadership Studies at Bethany College in West
Virginia. Now in his third college presidency, he has served as a CEO for
nearly 22 years. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of Academic Search, Inc.
Dr. Marylouise Fennell, RSM, a former president of
Carlow University in Pittsburgh, PA, is senior counsel for the Council of
Independent Colleges (CIC) and principal of Hyatt Fennell, a Higher Education
Search Firm.
They have collaborated on nine books, including
“President to President: Views on Technology in Higher Education” (2010) and
“Presidential Perspectives: Strategies to Address the Rising Cost of Higher
Education” (2012.) They are regular columnists for College Planning and Management and
Enrollment Manager. Both serve as consultants to college presidents and boards.
