By JP, on July 20th, 2012%
With nearly all PSE institutions on Twitter, we’ve established that it is important to have a presence. That presence has differing levels of dedicated resources, different goals and varying measures of success. Like Ornithology, this presentation will cover the study of behaviours, effectiveness, and measurements of PSE Twitter presences.
Defining your success on Twitter can be difficult, even more difficult when trying to explain it to someone who is Twilliterate. If being on Twitter is merely a way for your organization to check a box, that’s fine. But, if you are interested in taking that check box and turning it into an easily attained performance measure, this presentation is for you.
Like any dedicated birdwatcher, we took a look at some of the more successful Canadian PSE Twitter accounts and aimed to find commonalities in their behaviours and how that translated to their successes.
Finally, after searching for ways to define success from # of followers, % breakdowns of interactions to 3rd party measurements, we take a look at the different ways (free!) for you to measure your success.
Look past your number of followers and turn that check box into a CEO friendly success story.
By JP, on September 8th, 2011% I’ve had a lot of sporadic Facebook ideas throughout this week and I decided simply to write them down!
Facebook Ads: Target fans of your page on their birthday, with no specific call to action. Likely, they wouldn’t click on your ad, however, the positive brand interaction will still be fostered and at little cost (if any at all).
Increased Status Targeting: Recently, Facebook Marketing Solutions put out a post increasing the awareness of highly targeted Facebook ads specifically. This functionality is something I have been looking for to bleed into status updates for a while now. The ability to target specific areas of interest within a page update would be hugely efficient for Facebook pages. To me, this could be an area to become monetized. This would combat FB’s un-monetized server stress and would allow for interesting local contests.
Foursquare’s Event-based venues: This one I have been anticipating for some time. Soon, Foursquare venues will be able to have specific events in a venue. For anyone who manages a concert venue, or multi-sport facility they will be able to customize mayorships and check-ins. Annually, one of my projects, creates a venue at a large convention centre, I am curious to see where ownership of these time-sensitive venues would land.
Facebook as Google+: If you find the idea of circles attractive within Google+, you should know that Facebook has had the same ability for some time. Granted, in a stealthy presentation, FB has allowed you to write general status updates for specific friends to see only. Using the customization on your post, you can drill down through 4 layers of settings and ensure that only your BFF sees your link about the new Keanu Reaves movie.
By JP, on May 31st, 2011% I presented this topic to the #pseweb conference in Toronto recently. It did spark some debate among colleagues and it was great to see people really start to consider what they want to post on their own social media pages.
We took 10 Canadian University and College pages from accross Canada and analyzed their levels of interactions per post on Facebook. The results were very interesting and correlated nicely to the overall impact of the Facebook page. Have a look.
By JP, on May 12th, 2011% Just yesterday, Rains Media delivered this presentation along with @MatthewMelnyk to the Ontario Association of College & University Security Administrators (OACUSA).
Check it out if you are at all interested in Campus Security, Emergency Communications and social media investigative tools.
-JP
By JP, on February 27th, 2011% Why you should get Twitter.
Let your news come to you: Twitter brings the information you want directly to you. No waiting until 6pm for the daily news, or waiting for the journalist to have the IT guys update the website. Twitter’s trending topics can quickly show you what everyone around the virtual water cooler is talking about, right now. Never before has communication on world shaping events (think Haiti earthquakes etc.) happend so instantaneously. The stories are happening right now, go to one application and hear from all the sources. You can create topical lists in order to keep track of certain contacts or follow a search term (similar to Google Alerts, but on demand).
Connect with industry leaders: whether work, play, interest or hobby; odds are Twitter has your industry leader. Whether that is Justin Bieber ( ~8M followers), Biz Stone (~1.5M followers), or Martha Stewart ( ~2M followers) they all hold something of value to specific audiences. You get direct access to their sought after ideas and have the ability to add to their conversation. Most of all, you create friendships, well, at the very least, acquaintances. To some luddites this can be scary, but don’t worry; unless you have a “please rob me sign” you’re safe. Just check out UnMarketing`s Scott Stratten and you’ll understand.
Be up to the second:Twitter can send notifications to your mobile device the second your most sacred source updates (for me, TSN’s Bob McKenzie). This doesn’t have to be activated, but it sure helps you when you’re waiting to hear something (hockey’s trade deadline). This is a wonderful tool if you are at any major events or conferences. Using a search term or a Twittter #hashtag you can find other members of the conference and get their opinions on the subject quickly (great for speakers or event managers). After all, if Charlie Sheen can get one million followers in just over 24 hours, why can’t you #win as well and find some of your own followers.
Build your brand: one of the more selfish reasons, you can build yourself up and show off some of that hidden knowledge you have. If you love to talk about something, there are people on twitter who do too – and they’re easy to find with the search term feature. There is someone in the world that probably does the same things as you do, and earning the respect of your peers can be quite rewarding. Even if you have a question, your community can help you find the answer.
Chances are you know someone who doesn’t value Twitter yet (or that’s you?), send them this post and help out this lost soul  If you convert anyone, tweet @jplaurentian and I’d love to follow them.
By JP, on January 19th, 2011%  Dispersing information to other managers where pertinent. In any large organization, social media usually involves many moving parts – even more so in HigherEd, where many silos exist throughout the organization. Enabling the various content managers throughout the organizations to be cohesive and further to that, create a sense of community (online) can be challenging.
Here are some strategies from around the social realm to help you.
1 – Initiative: It sounds fundamental to say, but working together instead of passing the buck can be crucial to prospects finding the right answer. Allowing prospects to “ask a question once” can allow each content manager to learn a little more of each department as well as “show off” your helpfulness.
2 - Accountability: Participating in social media can be fluidic with staff changes and is sometimes something that is left to the wayside. Creating a sense of accountability, by promotion for “sanctioned” channels or enabling regularly updated channels to be featured on the web will allow you to bring value added to active participants in social media. Think of it as backing up a New Year’s resolution.
3 – Collaboration: As Vanilla Ice says “Stop. Collaborate and Listen“. Whether it’s a friendly inter-departmental re-tweet (the best kind of RT) or an integrated content schedule, working together can avoid mixed messaging as well as provide timely updates to a wide range of screens.
4 - Communication: This is something that can break down barriers and conquer the continual learning curve within social. The group also provides a venue for exchange of ideas, success stories and of course, horror stories. Tufts University, is an example of this in Highed. Coupling this in person working group, with an online presence for quick hits, is a great way to create a sense of community.
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