Social media utilization: weekly round-up 5

This is the fifth weekly round-up in which I analyze and monitor three Twitter accounts that I have chosen for their use of social media. The full explanation is here: http://iantangblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/explanation-of-semester-blog.html.

Today marks the end of the fifth week since I have started tracking their utilization, each using Twitter. Again, it was clear that the three entities have very distinct uses of social media, all aiming to contribute to the marketing of The George Washington University.


The George Washington University (@GWTweets)
The general University account continued to focus on what was happening around campus and heavily promoted Parents' Weekend and The Fray concert. It did a good job producing engaging content this week and garnered more Retweets and Favorites than usual. Because of the wide-range of topics, there wasn't a theme that represented the week.

The account did send out several tweets everyday while making sure not to cross the line to annoying. This can be shown because of the consistent interaction with the account. It used direct mentions and hashtags throughout. There wasn't too much special to note about this account.

The George Washington University Office of Undergraduate Admissions (@GWAdmissions)
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions continued to focus on their limited audience instead of the wider community as a whole. However, this week, it also had a very specific tweet aimed just at those applying at Early Decision.

Early Decision applications are binding and are designed for students most interested in attending a certain school. Many of the Office of Undergraduate Tweets get almost no interaction, yet this tweet received 6 Retweets and 9 Favorites, as well as a question. This is probably because the students most interested in attending the school are also probably more likely to pay attention to the Office's Twitter account and announcements.

Though the audience is limited, it does show the type of followers that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has and the content they should focus on. People who follow them mainly want updates to the application process. Because its Twitter handle is already so specific, its tweets should be as well. There is no need for it to cover as wide and broad of topics as it previously has because its audience doesn't care much about it.

The tweet only used a generic hashtag, but because it was so important and valuable to the people following the account, it naturally garnered lots of attention. This result probably would not have been the same when tweeting from the general GW account since most people there probably are not looking to apply for Early Decision. They are probably already part of the community.

This week, it didn't tweet about Parents' Weekend, but still garnered much attention. It could be problematic in that if they choose to only focus on the specific application process, there will be an endless cycle of following and unfollowing that takes place.

Peter Konwerski, Senior Associate Provost and Dean of Student Affairs (@GWPeterK)
Unlike Alumni Weekend when Dr. Konwerski changed his cover photo to a related banner promoting the special event, the same cannot be said for Parents' Weekend. The generic and typical University photo was kept. Furthermore, there was not one overarching theme to Dr. Konwerski's tweets this week. During Alumni Weekend, there was a dedicated hashtag on almost all of his tweets, which was "#GWAW13." Though he did use #ColonialsWeekend throughout the week, it was more sporadic and used less often.

The fact that he only used "#ColonialsWeekend" once in 6 consecutive tweets implicates that Parents' Weekend may be less important than Alumni Weekend. In fact, the use of the hashtag was not originally from Dr. Konwerski as well. The lack of focus on Parents' Weekend may be the fact that that specific audience is known to not widely use Twitter or any other type of social network besides Facebook. Parents have been known for "invading" Facebook over the past several years, but many still are not on Twitter.

Therefore, Dr. Konwerski may have wanted to continue engaging with the audiences that do use Twitter most, instead of direct his tweets at an audience that may not be there.

Though it made his account look all over the place, it was able to cover a variety of interests and groups of people, whether they were students or part of the University community. There were many tweets about events taking place on Twitter and the focus on tweeting content with a photo attached makes it more engaging to look at.

This week, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions excelled again at their use of social media. While they have typically been the least effective because of its lack of focus and being seemingly indecisive, this week, it doubled down on what the account was actually made for and received more interaction than usual. Because the account wasn't made for a broad purpose, the focus it provided this week actually worked in its favor.

The importance of social media in education

Social media has had an important impact on education, in addition to the other major areas of life that it has fundamentally transformed. The better communication that can arise from good use of social media on an institution's part has the ability to create a well-informed student body, meaning more student engagement, more interested prospective students and community that aspire to go to that institution as well as a safer environment for learning to occur. This makes institutions stronger and proves why social media is so important in the field of education.

Source: http://synthesio.com/corporate/en/2013/uncategorized/5-universities/

Events

With the amount of events that go on around a college campus, it's hard for students to hear about everything that is going on, much less keep track of the days and times those events are. Because students are always on social media, especially when they are bored, social media quite literally injects announcements right in front of students' faces. Instead of requiring students to go to a different location to find these announcements, social media allows a central hub where students can have the streams of both personal and professional life. They can easily learn about the events taking place around campus and even join in on the conversation to immediately ask about important details, such as location and time. Instead of posters, social media allows for back-and-forth communication, instead of a one-way interaction. On top of that, many schools are able to generate buzz via social media by advertising "hashtags" that relate to the event. Each student that tweets about the event using that specified hashtag will extend the reach of audience that the university has. And, best of all, that is being created with no extra cost to the university.

Source: Mashable, http://mashable.com/2009/07/15/social-media-public-affairs/

Marketing (Branding, Customer Service and Feedback)

Social media has also played an important role in helping the reputation of an institution and how it looks in the eyes of the public. In fact, for prospective students alone, according to DigitalTrends, "some 38 percent categorized their social media findings as influential in their enrollment decision." Facebook accounts for 57% of that research method, while YouTube accounts for 42% and Twitter 18%. This means that the online presence they build directly relates back to the interest that is shown from prospective students. To make sure that the smartest and most brilliant people continue to be captivated by a college in this new age, a college must show it is capable of building an online presence that is both engaging and "cool," as in that the institution shows it understands and is relevant to the modern age. With social media being a two-way street, it also allows personal connections to form where students will feel more inclined to apply to a university because of attention he or she may get from the university. A tweet, a favorite or Retweet directed at a particular student may make that one student feel special and spread goodwill about the institution.

Source: DigitalTrends, http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/college-grads/; ZDNet, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/how-do-universities-use-social-media-successfully/15059

Safety

In the past several years, social media has also played a large role in getting the word about alerts and security breaches, not just in universities but in large cities around the world. This has been extremely important because of the far reaches of social media in an age when security is becoming a high priority in society. It has worked really well in getting people to know about the ongoing security events because everyone is always on social media. As USA Today Educate quotes:

'Students use social media on a daily basis,' Sara Estes Cohen, an independent consultant in social media specializing in emergency response, said. 'It is important that emergency managers use the tools their communities are using.'

Again, as mentioned before, in addition to the fact that everyone uses social media, it also allows for a two-way communication: "The fact that it allows the community to post calls for help, questions, and other comments is what makes social media unique." This keeps the community much safer and educates students on the current situations on the campus.

Source: USAToday Educate, http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/ccp/more-universities-relying-on-social-media-for-emergency-communication

How to tweet ineffectively

Over the past month, I have monitored activity from three Twitter accounts: the official account of The George Washington University (@GWTweets), the official account of The George Washington University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions (@GWAdmissions) and the account of the Dean of Student Affairs and Vice Provost, Dr. Peter Konwerski (@GWPeterK).

Of the three, I have slowly concluded that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions uses their social media, specifically Twitter, in the least effective way. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has such a limited role that is reflected in its use of social media. Its tweets do not get much interaction because it has a narrow scope of audience.

This was one of its recent tweets:

This tweet is specifically directed to prospective students currently in the middle of the college application process. It has a brief description of the image that is included with the tweet. However, the main focus is on the image and the tweet would be meaningless and useless if there was no attached photo. For this reason, it is very image-driven. The purpose is to inform prospective students that they can schedule an interview with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, even if they do not live close of campus.

It is surprising that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions decided to disseminate this type of information in this manner, especially because the interview is not a required aspect of an application. There was no rush in tweeting this information (see paragraph below) and narrows the audience to just those applying to the University. It automatically excludes everyone else that may be just looking at going to The George Washington University. It can obviously be implied that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions assumes that their entire audience is comprised of prospective students since the tweet doesn't necessarily use a specific pronoun or subject.

It is a lot of information and people who are on Twitter are probably not trying to search for information regarding application interviews. Instead, they are trying to catch up on updates. Furthermore, the tweet was sent out in August 2013, several months before high school seniors really consider their applications. The interest may have been low, which the absence of Favorites and Retweets show.  It isn't content one would actively Favorite or Retweet either.

I think that this tweet is ineffective, especially on Twitter, because it focuses so heavily on the image. There was no link included where additional information can be found in a full-sized page. The image takes several clicks to open fully and may not be clear. However, it does allow for a better preview. Still, the narrow scope of the tweet and the difficulties the broader public may have relating to this renders the tweet ineffective, except to a very targeted audience that definitely did not perceive the tweet well.