Social Media and the University of Bath.

10th September 2010

What is social media?

“Social Media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.”

http://www.wikipedia.org

What are we including as social media?

• Forums and Online Communities

• Blogs• Social Networks • Multimedia sharing• Social Bookmarking• Diggs• RSS readers• Microblogging

Reasons social media is important…

• 73% of active online users have read a blog• 45% have started their own blog• 39% subscribe to an RSS feed• 57% have joined a social network• 55% have uploaded photos• 83% have watched video clips

Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popularonline activity – ahead of personal email

Figures from “What the F*ck is Social Media” by Marta Kagan

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in.

Your customers and prospects are talking

about you online. Your company needs to be

part of that conversation.

The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media, Jason Baer

“

”

Why should universities use social media to engage students?

• reach a large target audience• it’s relatively cheap – although time intensive• new generation of prospective students expect an online

presence• students will discuss us online, we should be part of that

discussion

How universities can use social media to engage prospective students

• Sharing information– Broadcasting university news and events– Departmental blogs that discuss current work and research– Videos of research or campus tours

• Showcasing student and department work– Videos, audio, photo sharing, blogs

• Connecting people– Creating a dialogue and communicating to students– Involving students in events– Allowing prospective students to meet online

Where is Bath?

• No social media policy or strategy• Presence on a number of sites

– Variety of owners– No clear message– Lack of overall responsibility– Some excellent pages– A developing community

University of Bath managed Facebook page

University of Bath rogue Facebook page!

University of Bath community Facebook page!

Searching for Bath on Flickr gives us some great images

We have a Flickr group – are we using it enough? Image library…

Cardiff University used flickr to engage students in the 125th

Anniversary events

Bath School of Management on YouTube, there is also a main University of Bath channel

Oxford University using YouTube to broadcast lectures

Stanford offers Facebook office hours for

students to talk to teaching staff

Strong twitter page – could we engage more?

What’s important?

• Being responsible for what we write• Being authentic and transparent• Considering our audience• Choosing the right tone• Developing community• Bringing value• How we moderate• Managing our time

What can we do?

• Communications/Web Services to take overall responsibility?

• Complete a thorough audit of what accounts we have• Develop a university wide social media policy and

strategy• Create a portal page on the website for social media• Link to Play and InPictures?• Delegate responsibility to others – with the policy and

strategy content should become more consistent