Keeping our students safe on social media

The students entering our colleges and universities today are of the social media generation. They've been using it for most of their lives- it seems they have grown up online.

• But how many of these students are aware of the risks that this visibility may cause them?
•  Do they think about the fact that their every move can be tracked when they check-in places, or post pictures at campus-events?
• Are they aware that many stalkers often begin as"friends" on one of their networks?

When students are enrolled on our campus locations, it is our job as institution to provide a safe environment. In the present-day world of social media, keeping our students safe requires us to educate them on how to protect themselves online. My suggestion would be to include a social media safety seminar as part of the new-student orientation. I know some of you are rolling your eyes. You're wondering if student are actually going to pay attention to a seminar of this nature. But consider this:

• Burglars now use social media sites such as Foursquare to determine when homes are vacant, and open for robbing 
• Our students keep many valuables in their dorm rooms and off-campus apartments, such as laptops, Xbox systems, TV's, etc

• Cyberstalking is now more common than physical harassment 
• Students may not be aware that some of their followers on social media are doing more then following them. 

• Fake social network accounts can be created to obtain important personal information by hackers.

• Student could be vulnerable to identity theft that could affect their financial aid, future employment, etc. 

With this in mind, here are some ideas to help make social media safety seminars appealing and fun!

• Make them interactive. Check out this webinar to see a great example.

• Present the  information as helpful guidelines rather than rigid rules.

• Provide resources and intructions on what students should do if they find themselves in an unsafe social media situation. 

I learned more about social media policy and security through my Social Media Tactics and Strategies course at Marist College. After learning about all of the potential risks associated with online sharing, I am now more conscious of the privacy measures that I should take both personally, and for my professional brands. I also believe that colleges and universities need to be aware of the risks so they can educate their students, and employees about the risks in order to avoid potential crisis situations.

With this in mind, I leave you with one final video that you can share with your students to help keep them safe on social media.

New way to get into a competative college?

Hi All,

I hope posting again so quickly doesn't confuse you or detract from my post about buyer persona's, but I came across a fascinating news piece that relates to higher education and social media. While we haven't explored this concept yet, I'd argue that modern mobile phone technology can sometimes be considered social media sites. For example, iPhone's allow to group chat with many contacts. The Words With Friends app allows you to play scrabble with many other people and message back and forth. Overall, the concept of app's can be very social.

With this in mind, check out the video below from an applicant to Stanford's Computer Science Program:

To quote a Huffington Post Blog, "hat better way for an aspiring computer scientist to stand out than to build a custom iPhone application to communicate his personality and drive?." Personally, I think he is applying principles that we are learning in this course, maybe even the concept of Scott's buyer personas. Alex Greene's buyer's are the Stanford admissions counselors. They are looking for above average and creative students. He found a way to communicate with them that was interesting, and demonstrated that he met their needs.

What do you all think? Is this appropriate? Or has it maybe opened the door for other hopefully applicants to market themselves to your college?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/alex-greene-stanford_n_2664389.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Who's who is on your college's social media sites?

It seems every college or university these days has a presence on social media- can you honestly think of one that doesn’t have a Facebook page or Twitter? However you may also be wondering if these tools are actually generating the type of attention that your college is hoping for. Many colleges (and other organizations) are jumping on the social media network bandwagon just so they can have a presence in these areas. But does this work?

Well according to respected Public Relations and Social Media professional David Scott (2011): “To succeed on the web under the new rules of marketing and PR, you need to consider your organizational goals and then focus on your buyers first” (p.138) Therefore, it is not just enough to create pages on various social media networks; you need to have a plan and think about who you want to engage first! With this in mind, I decided to learn more about the planning processes required to incorporate social media into a college’s marketing and communications plan. There is a wealth of information available and while I’d like to share all of it with you, one thing in particular stuck out to me: Buyer Personas 

A buyer persona “is essentially a representative of a type of buyer that you have identified as having a specific interest in your organization,” and is “the single most important thing that you will do in creating your marketing and PR plan” (Scott, 2011, p.140). For colleges and universities buyers would generally be prospective students, their parents, alumni, local community members, your sports team’s fans. However, it is not enough to just define your target markets in these general terms because they seem generic and unreadable. Instead, you need to essentially create characters that represent each of your target buyers! The best way to explain this is to put it into practice, as I’ve done below with a fictional college.

Completely Awesome College (CAC) is residential campus of 4000 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students, located in a rural town upstate. Some of their most popular majors include Accounting, Education, Business Management, History and Public Affairs. While Completely Awesome has a vibrant campus life and some competitive sports teams, they also have a few programs that allow adults to gain their degree while working. Based on this, some buyer personas for Completely Awesome might be:

·         Sarah: a high school senior, living in a small town within two hours from CAC. She would like to be a history teacher someday, and hopes to attend a college where she can make close relationships with the students and faculty. She’s shy and fears that she may get lost in a large university. 

·         Billy: a high school student who lives in the same town as CAC. His family owns a local business and Billy would like to continue that tradition by working there after college. While getting a good business degree is important, Billy also wants a fun college experience.

·         Anne: a 35 year-old mother of 3 who works 2 part time jobs, one as a receptionist at a local insurance company and as a bank teller. She has a high school diploma and was always good at math. Anne would like to receive an Accounting degree, with the goal of obtaining a full-time job in a reliable industry.

·         John: is the director of the local chapter of the Boys and Girls club. He enjoys going to CAC’s girls soccer games and boys basketball games. John would like to develop a college internship program with CAC

Completely Awesome has not only identified 4 different types of buyers for their college, but has made them come to life by giving each buyer specific desirable characteristics and traits. From this, CAC’s degree marketing team can develop activities that attract these buyers. Please note that the buyer persona names are kept as internal information (Scott, 2011, p.143). In the social media plan, this may include pinning biographies of current students on the Pinterest page that shares their unique stories. The Facebook and Twitter Pages will provide updates about campus events and the vibrant community. A blog may be created, written by an adult student who addresses the challenges of managing work and school. Each of these things will attract CAC’s target market because rather than seeming cold and generic, buyers will recognize themselves in Completely Awesome, reinforcing the desire to become a part of the school.

While the concept of buyer personas sounds good in theory (as in the case of Completely Awesome), there must be evidence to support this theory in order to get your college on-board with the process. I’ve listed links to a few college social media pages that I feel demonstrate buyer personas. Do you feel these are good examples?

http://pinterest.com/ciachef/culinary-arts-students/
https://twitter.com/ohiostate
http://www.facebook.com/EmersonCollege
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FullSailUniversityBlog