Transcript Colleges, Universities and Social Media

The New Face(book) of
Higher Education
Session No.: G-SUN-1030-f
Web 2.0
Colleges --- Universities
Social Media
Dr. Tom Seymour
Dr. John Girard
Minot State University
Minot, North Dakota
[email protected]
[email protected]
Introduction
As technology becomes more pervasive within
our society it seems as if we are constantly
surrounded by a sea of new and exciting
changes. One new change that has recently
caught the attention of several information
technology professionals is social media.
(Medure)
What is
Social
Media?

Social media describes the
online tools that people use to
share content, profiles,
opinions, insights, experiences,
perspectives and media itself,
thus facilitating conversations
and interaction online between
groups of people.
http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/06/29/the-definition-of-social-media
How long did it take to reach 50
million users?
Telephone: 74 years
 Radio: 38 years
 Personal Computer: 16 years
 Internet: 2 Years
 Blog: 1 year
 HR.com
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Social Media
The Social Media Share
Types of Social Media
Size Data Sourced from:
http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/
Google search stats:
YouTube stats
1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) - approximate number of
unique URLs in Google’s index (source)
2,000,000,000 (two billion) – very rough number of Google
searches daily (source)
$110,000,000 – approximately amount of money lost by
Google annually due to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button
(source)
24,400 – number of people employed by Google (December,
2008)
70,000,000 – number of total videos on YouTube (March
2008)
200,000 – number of video publishers on YouTube (March
2008)
100,000,000 – number of YouTube videos viewed per day
(this stat from 2006 is the most recent I could locate)
112,486,327 – number of views the most viewed video on
YouTube has (January, 2009)
2 minutes 46.17 seconds – average length of video
412.3 years – length in time it would take to view all
content on YouTube (March 2008)
26.57 - average age of uploader
13 hours – amount of video are uploaded to YouTube every
Wikipedia stats
2,695,205 - the number of articles in English on Wikipedia
684,000,000 – the number of visitors to Wikipedia in the last
year
75,000 - the number of active contributors to Wikipedia
10,000,000 – the number of total articles in Wikipedia in all
languages
260 – the number of languages articles have been written in on
Wikipedia (source)
minute
US $1.65 billion in Google stock – amount Google Inc.
announced that it had acquired YouTube for in October
2006
$1,000,000 – YouTube’s estimated bandwidth costs per day
(sources here, here and here)
Types of Social Media
Blogosphere stats
133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002
346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs
(comScore March 2008)
900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period
1,750,000 – number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most
popular Technology blog (January 2009)
77% - percentage of active Internet users who read blogs
55% – percentage of the blogosphere that drinks more than 2 cups
of coffee per day (source)
81 - number of languages represented in the blogosphere
59% – percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least
2 years source
Twitter stats
1,111,991,000 – number of Tweets to date (see an up to the
minute count here)
3,000,000 – number of Tweets/day(March 2008) (from
TechCrunch)
165,414 - number of followers of the most popular Twitter user
(@BarackObama) – but he’s not active
86,078 – number of followers of the most active Twitter user
(@kevinrose)
63% – percentage of Twitter users that are male (from Time)
Facebook stats
200,000,000 – number of active users
100,000,000 - number of users who log on to Facebook at least
once each day
170 - number of countries/territories that use Facebook
35 - number of different languages used on Facebook
2,600,000,000 – number of minutes global users in aggregate
spend on Facebook daily
100 – number of friends the average user has
700,000,000 – number of photos added to Facebook monthly
52,000 – number of applications currently available on Facebook
140 - number of new applications added per day source
Digg stats
236,000,000 – number of visitors attracted annually by 2008
(according to a Compete survey)
56% - percentage of Digg’s frontpage content allegedly controlled
by top 100 users
124,340 - number of stories MrBabyMan, the number one user,
has Dugg (see updated number here)
612 - number of stories from Cracked.com that have made page 1
of Digg (see all 41 pages of them here)
36,925 – number of Diggs the most popular story in the last 365
days has received (see story here)
Outbound Marketing is Broken
800-555-1234
Annoying
Salesperson
Inbound Marketing
Blog
SEO
Social Media
Social Media = Cocktail Party
Social media is similar to a cocktail reception
 Without constraints of time or space
 More public – easier for other people to listen
in
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Flickr: TECHcocktail
Men Vs. Women
Males vs. Females on Networks
Social Media Metrics
Visitors and sources of traffic
 Network size (followers, fans,
members)
 Quantity of commentary about brand
or product
 Social media leads
 Engagement duration
 Bounce rate
 Membership increase and active
network size.

Social Media Metrics
73% of online users read a blog
 57% join social networks
 45% have started a blog
 83% have viewed a video online
 39% subscribe to RSS feeds
 36% think more positively about
companies that have blogs
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Source: Universal McCann Wave3 research
into social media
Texting at Your University
Web sites
www.seymour-senate.com
 http://web.ndak.net/seymour/
 Movies
 Ads
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Twitter Media Sites
www.PollDaddy.com
www.WhyFacebook.com – twitter blog
 www.SocialToo.com – auto-follow $ 5.00
 www.TweetLater.com – preschedule
 www.Twellow.com – like keywords –follow
 www.ExecTweets.com – Execs Tweeting
 www.TwitterGrader.com – research stars
 www.TweetBeep.com – keyword alerts
 www.Involver.com – Facebook Contest
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Founded by Reid Hoffman in 2002
 Business oriented social networking site
 Allows users to have professional
connections and contacts with them
 www.Linkedin.com

Tips to Build Your LinkedIn Network:
 Start with the people you know
 Find people by searching
 Start participating in Answers
 Update your status often
 Connect your Twitter and LinkedIn
accounts
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BLOGS
Type of website maintained by an
individual that creates entries
 Usually can control who sees blogs
 http://senator-tomseymour.blogspot.com/
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About Blogs (web + logs)
Chronologically arranged websites
 Lots of content
 Easy to update / instant Web
publishing
 Attract inbound links
 Informal two-way conversations
 RSS feeds = more ways to be found
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 develops
loyal readers who subscribe
 indexed in additional search engines
smallbiztrends.com
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Created by 3 former PayPal employees in 2005
Video sharing website
Non-registered users can watch videos using a
search engine will registered users can upload and
view videos
Flip Camera and Droid
www.youtube.com
Search for Senator Tom Seymour
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Senator Tom Seymour in North Dakota Senate - TV Interview-2003
Senator Tom Seymour in North Dakota Senate - TV Interview-2003
no rating 5 months ago 38 views no rating minot66
Senator Tom Seymour in North Dakota Senate - TV Interview-2003
1:43 September 07, 2009
News & Politics
minot66
Senator Tom Seymour in North Dakota Senate - TV Interview-2003
38 views
Added to
Quicklist 0:58
Academic benefitis of YouTube
Distance learning capability
 Additional lectures capability (e.g. research skills,
presentation skills)
 Putting an issue into a particular context, e.g. old
lectures or class discussion recordings
 Perspectives for students to listen to lectures from other
professors and teachers
 Supplemental humour videos to break up a long lecture
 Ability to assign students assignments to upload videos
to spread knowledge


Hawaiian word for quick

A piece of server software that allows
people to edit web pages content

Wikipedia

Can edit each other’s info if you feel
its incorrect
Created by Dustin Moskovitz and Mark
Zuckerberg in 2004 as a way for their
fellow Harvard students to stay in touch.
 Over 400 million users
 Provided in over 70 languages
 More than 10 billion minutes are spent on
the Facebook homepage everyday
 www.facebook.com
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Why You Should Care
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Over 400 million active users
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700,000 new users every day
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3rd most trafficked website
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More than half outside college
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Fastest growing demographic
is those 35 years or older
130 friends Average on Facebook
Facebook – 5,824,000 plus
 Starbucks – 5,116,000 plus
 Coca-cola – 4,007,000 plus
 YouTube – 3,800,000 plus
 Skittles – 3, 600,000 plus
 Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on
Facebook: share photos, content on the web, blog
posts,information about events, and news stories

www.insidefacebook.com
Academic benefitis of YouTube
Distance learning capability
 Additional lectures capability (e.g. research skills,
presentation skills)
 Putting an issue into a particular context, e.g. old
lectures or class discussion recordings
 Perspectives for students to listen to lectures from other
professors and teachers
 Supplemental humour videos to break up a long lecture
 Ability to assign students assignments to upload videos
to spread knowledge

Sign Up at www.facebook.com
Facebook
ref. 1
Facebook
ref. 1
Engagement: Activity
Avenues and Opportunities for Colleges and
Universities to Leverage
Social Media
ref. 3
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Recruiting
Promoting, publishing and
connecting
Office Hours via Facebook
Emergency Services and
Notification
Alumni Engagement
Recruiting
With the advent of social media and as seen in the graphic
on the preceding slide, social media as a form of
communication is becoming second to none.
In order to leverage social media for recruiting to the
fullest colleges and universities need to ensure their
presence is noticed.
In the end “CONTENT” is King and these
institutions must ensuring that
Recruiting information is:
• Relevant
• Useful
• and Interesting
Social Media to Research Students
Students need to be wary of their online image or
presence. Just as employers are now using the
social media to research candidates, universities
are using it to research their prospective
students.
Colleges are even reviewing
prospective students posted
pictures to ensure the
individuals they are selecting
are on contributing to illicit
activities.
Ref. 4
Office Hours via Facebook
The University of Stanford has piloted a process of
offering Office Hours Via Facebook. With busy
schedules of students and faculty, Facebook
provides a forum for topics to be introduced,
questions to be asked, and answers to be
provided.
Most often video is posted on the research topic,
blog posts are where questions are asked used
to describe the topic of research and follow up
video answers commenting specifically on the
questions follow.
This method benefits both the student and the faculty in that Students can see all
the questions and answers asked. Faculty no longer need to answer a question
more than once, as their information in now available for every student to review.
Ref. 5
Publishing and Promoting
Ref. 4
More schools are using social media to
publish articles about academic
achievements and athletic events.
Keeping students engaged and
informed about all the various
opportunities offered.
A snapshot of Harvard University’s twitter
page from today shows us:
• Health Tips for Valentines Day
• Harvard Arts Medal Award for 2010
• Free Ice Skating at the Allston Rink
• Student Concert Event
Alumni Engagement
Colleges and Universities are extending the reach of their social
networking efforts to include one of their most powerful
resources, their Alumni
Through the use of social media Alumni
can benefit in the areas of:
Job placement
Collaboration with current students
Fundraising
Alumni Generated Content
Meeting with Alumni where they are at
Promoting Alumni Networks
Creating Mobile Reunions
Ref. 7
Connecting
The University of Michigan uses
Facebook as a mechanism to
allow its 46,000 friends to
connect with each other on
various topics. The effort has
been a particular success for
incoming freshman to connect
with each other.
The University of Michigan
supports varying groups
including one for each
graduating class.
Ref. 5
While the University of Michigan is one of
the largest in the nation, Facebook is
helping them create a sense of community
within their populous.
Emergency Services and Notifications
We have all heard the horrific tales of on campus
violence and shooting rampages. Just this week a
professor at an Alabama college allegedly shot six of
her colleagues, killing three.
Using text messages, twitter, and Facebook students and
faculty can be immediately have an emergent
situation brought to their attention. This type of
information can be invaluable in a true emergency.
With sprawling campuses and disconnected
constituents, social media is the only mechanism to
achieve speed of deliver and accuracy in information
during emergency situations
Waterfall’s AlertU emergency notification system already enables colleges
to send text messages to students, faculty and staff in the event of a
campus emergency. The system is integrated into current emergency
action plans quickly and easily, enabling an additional communication
channel that delivers vital information to registered users, students,
faculty and staff at colleges across the country (Feb, 2010).
Ref. 6
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Tufts University is now accepting YouTube videos from
prospective applicants for admission
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Approx 1000 of the 15000 applicants submitted
videos
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This is just new ways of Universities reaching out to
the new waves of students

Yale has used YouTube as a marketing pitch
for the school. Following the High School
Musical theme they recently posted a video
on YouTube called "That's Why I Chose Yale"
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/yale/
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Social Media Marketing can help to increase Adult Student
Recruitment
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Many Universities are now set up on FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace
and YouTube
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Universities have links to their social media sites on their university
pages
An Example: Saint Leo University
http://www.saintleo.edu/Admissions/Center-for-Online-Learning
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Used by some universities to build
online communities that allow
current and future students to
"interact, keep up with and explore
the "world' of that particular
university. Ex : University of Phoenix
Higher Education
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How large an impact are social media having on the way colleges and universities communicate with their
various audiences (students, prospective students, alumni, etc.)?
Social media are starting to have a large impact with colleges and universities, but we are very early in the
adoption curve. Admissions are the furthest along, and "student life" blogs, for lack of a better name, are the
most prevalent and popular, for example the admissions blogs at MIT.
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What are the disadvantages of using these tools in higher education?
The perceived disadvantages are that they take too much time, and may reveal "secrets" the institution does not
want to have publicized. Of course everything takes time, but plenty of very busy people make time to blog. In
reality, higher education administrators and other employees are just starting to realize blogs exist and may be a
very effective communications tool for them. As for "revealing secrets," anyone - students, administrators,
alumni, etc., can and will blog, anonymously if necessary. There are no secrets anymore!
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What are the risks of NOT using these tools?
The main risk is falling behind in the adoption curve and not reaping the benefits. For example, if a desirable
student is deciding between two colleges, and one has a number of blogs that better reveal what life at the
school is like, that can only be positive. If the school seems like a good match, most likely the student will
chose it, but if it's not a good match, better to find out quickly for all concerned.
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What are the implications in terms of cost and other "bottom line" measures in higher education?
The only significant cost is time, and students and fervent alumni can sometimes do the blogging happily and
not consider it work!
(Article online Social Media and Higher Education)
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Why is higher education uniquely suited for adoption of social media?
I'm not sure higher education is uniquely suited; however it is extremely highly suited as education is based
on the free flow of ideas and knowledge, and blogs and other social media facilitate that greatly.
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How do you predict the use of social media in higher education will continue to evolve and change?
Expect to see enormous growth in four areas:
a) Admissions blogs -- how can a potential student better understand what daily life would be like at that
school other than reading blogs written by students currently there? There is no better way!
b) Alumni blogs -- fostering a sense of community with alumni is something higher educational institutions
always strive to do, and blogs do this quite effectively. Quite bluntly, if former students view their
relationship as a prior business relationship, i.e. "I paid X dollars for Y years of education and a degree," that
will harm alumni involvement AND donations.
c) Higher education employee blogs. Not a great name perhaps, but a catch-all phrase for all high ed
employees blogging on their experiences, whether professors, administrators, or even janitors. Hey, my
freshman year janitor was only slightly older than me and a good friend to most of us, like an older brother.
He was also quite literate and intelligent. If he blogged on his experiences at Dartmouth, I would absolutely
read them! Ditto for many of my professors.
Another big benefit for professors is the networking with other academics working in similar areas, whether
it's researching the mating habits of the White-eared Hummingbird (Hylocharis leucotis - thanks Wikipedia)
or working in a similarly obscure branch of mathematics. A blogger is very visible to anyone searching on
their topic due to the search engines ranking bloggers highly.
d) Class blogs. For example, Delaney J. Kirk, PhD, Professor of Management at Drake University, ran an
experimental class blog and had 100% of the students contribute to it in the form of contents, including some
lively conversation. Compare that to a typical class where perhaps only 5-20% of the students maximum
participate.
(Article online Social Media and Higher Education)
Developed by a Vancouver-based
company in 2006
 Photo/video sharing website
 Also allows users to blog
 www.flickr.com
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www.ducttapemarketing.com
 www.google.com/alerts
 www.ping.fm – Update Your Social sites
 www.hubspot.com
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Created by Jack Dorsey in 2006
 Micro-blogging site
 Allows users to make posts up to 140
characters long
 Comparable to text messaging but online
 www.twitter.com -- SenTomSeymour
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Twitter
ref. 2
Tweet This!
Ever had a
problem with
individual
drinking at a
supposedly dry
college sporting
event?
Ever been worried
about confronting
them on your own
or why security
doesn’t notice
them?
Enter Twitter - some colleges are publishing
their twitter sites and text numbers as a
way for fans to anonymously inform
security at football games of individuals
causing problems or drinking
Keep up with bands
Keep in touch with friends
Get information on business’
Instant messaging
What is “Delicious” ?
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Is a social media Bookmarking website. Its primary purpose is to
allow the users the capability to save and store bookmarks online.
Furthermore, it also gives the users the capability to organise their
bookmarks with tags or keywords making it a really useful tool
The social aspect “kicks-in” when the user is given the ability to
follow other users bookmarks and also allow users to send or
receive links from other users
http://www.delicious.com
Potential uses for Delicious
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Provides you with the ability of keeping the same set of
bookmarks even though you maybe on a different computer
The ability to access your bookmarks from anywhere around the
world so long as you have an internet connection
The bookmark list becomes an organised collection of resources
Its an excellent social bookmarking tool and enables you to
develop a network and share bookmarks and information
It provides for an alternative search engine
What is “Slideshare” ?
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Slideshare is an online tool that allows a user to upload and share
your PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF
Portfolios on. The sharing can be done either publicly or privately
and an audio or mp3 soundtrack or narration can also be added to
make the page a webinar. These slides can also be further
complemented with YouTube feeds and community features such as
tags, commenting capability, favorites listing and slidecasts can also
be added.
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http://www.slideshare.net/
Academic uses for SlideShare
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Disseminating lecture material for revision purposes
Discuss lecture material using the comments feature to
aid understanding
As a student assignment assessing virtual presentation
skills
Find other presentations on your topic - save reinventing
the wheel
Building up a body of resources over time on a particular
topic
Drawing together conference / seminar materials using a
common tag or keyword
What is a “Podcast” ?
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A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video)
that are released episodically and downloaded through web
syndication.
The mode of delivery differentiates podcasting from other means of
accessing media files over the Internet, such as direct download, or
streamed webcasting
Podcasts – potential uses
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Podcasts are an excellent resource for distance
learning or self-paced learning
They provide excellent supplementary material for a
class or topic
Research material and articles could be shared
Lecture material could be uploaded in updated posts
Classroom lectures can be replaced with podcasts
In acquiring student assessment and feedback
Podcasts are excellent resource for collecting field data
An excellent article covering Podcasting for Learning in
Universities
Bebo
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Bebo, an acronym for "Blog early, blog often”, is a social networking
website, founded in January 2005.
It can be used in many countries including Ireland, Canada, the United States,
the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
A Polish version was launched recently, which uses a different user database.
There are plans for French German and other versions.
Founded by husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch, Bebo had a major
relaunch in July 2005.
It was bought by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850 m.
Bebo is similar to other social networking sites.
Each profile must include two specific modules, a comment section where
other users can leave a message, and a list of the user's friends.
Users can select from many more modules to add.
By default, when an account is created the profile is private, which limits
access to friends specifically added.
The user may select the "Public Profile" option so as the profile will still be
visible to any other members of a school they may have joined.
Profiles may be personalized by a design template that is the background of
the user's profile, known as a skin. (wiki)
Classroom Uses
File swapping
 Blogs, wikis and podcasts
 Early education to prevent social issues
 Enhance course content
 YouTube
 Twitter or Facebook lesson plans
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•City University of New York offers a graduate level class on using
social media for news gathering Examples of social media uses
are Twitter, FriendFeed, Scoopler and SearchMerge
•Stanford University uses Facebook to showcase faculty and
student work University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill uses
YouTube to post helpful videos for students and faculty on its own
YouTube Channel
•Georgia Southern University offers a course titled "Marketing
Connections: Facebook & Beyond"The class teaches
communication and networking skills.
• Class covers how to use social media and teaches the
value of communication with others by using online
assignments using Twitter and Facebook.
• Students are required to start a blog. The instructor
Barbara Nixon keeps a blog on the class assignments
and answers questions through her Twitter account.
Global Usage
Social Media Brings a Different
Category of Computing Users:
Creaters --- make social content go.
 Critics --- respond to content from others.
 Collectors --- organize content for themselves or others
using RSS feeds, tags, and voting sites like Digg.com
 Joiners --- connect in social networks like Facebook,
MySpace and www.linkedin.com
 Spectators --- consume social content including blogs,
user-generated video, podcasts, forums, or reviews
 Inactives --- neither create or consume social content
www.alexa.com
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Summary
Social Media is here to stay! As described in the preceding context the
younger generations have embraced Twitter, Facebook, blogging
and text messaging as norms within their communication
expectation. Colleges and Universities that choose not to recognize
this trend will find themselves further behind the recruiting and
development curve. Those who embrace social media and integrate
its capabilities into their everyday environment will realize significant
benefits.
Your University Will Not Be The
Same Institution
trends for
the
future of
web
Mediajobs.net indicates job
candidates are reviewed:
75 percent us LinkedIn more than once a
month
 66 percent use Facebook
 45 percent use Google Reader
 28 percent use Twitter
 57 percent plan to spend more time
maintaining a profile in an online social or
professional network
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a social semantic web of objects and
services
we are teaching the world to machines
THE ADVENT OF
MOBILE LEARNING
TECHNOLOGY
Number of people who carry a
mobile communication device
4 MILLION
Number of years it will take smart phones to
outsell desktops, notebooks and net-books
TWO
According to the E-Learning Guild Report:
Mobile Learning makes up
about 9.3% of the
overall training in an
organization
The content that is specifically
developed for
mobile learning is 13%
So again, what is Mobile Learning?
It is the acquisition or
modification of any
knowledge and
skill through using mobile
technology, anywhere,
anytime
and results in the
modification of behavior
The phone is more than a just simple
communication device
Fueling the rapid increase in
mobile learning is the
advent of more powerful
telecommunication networks
The phone is more than a just simple
communication device
Fueling the rapid increase in
mobile learning is the
advent of more powerful
telecommunication networks
Networks now support a
whole range of data and
internet access services
Mobile Learning at school
Duke University provided all
incoming freshmen with their
own 20-gigabyte iPods
The advent of Mobile Learning is upon us
New devices having new features
& new capabilities are appearing
at an accelerated pace
Upside Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
www.upsidelearning.com
E-mail: [email protected]
www.upsidelearning.com/blog
http://www.facebook.com/UpsideLearning
http://twitter.com/UpsideLearning
Images courtesy of www.sxc.hu
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Google Images, Accessed Feb. 14, 2010, via,
http://scorechicago.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/facebook-page-small.jpg
Google Images, Accessed Feb. 14, 2010, via,
http://infocult.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b88a69e200e5540552da8833-800wi
Master News Media Publications, Accessed Feb. 14, 2010, via,
http://www.masternewmedia.org/social_media/social-software/issue-andapplication-of-oscial-media-in-universities-report-20070726.htm
Harvard University, Accessed Feb. 14, 2010, via, http://twitter.com/Harvard
Mashable, “10 Ways Universities Share Information Using Social Media“, Accessed
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