So the Leeds Communications team has done a pretty good job of educating and engaging our internal faculty and staff about Social Media and its possible relevance to their personal and professional lives. At least I think we have.We still get puzzled looks and raised eyebrows from some of our constituencies who don't see the ROI. But then many of them are not "in the trenches" as those of us trying to build communications, media and PR strategies in a rapidly changing communications landscape with, in our case, very limited resources.
Interestingly, the more we pursue a SM strategy, the more feedback and connections we are getting from others who are active in SM or just interested our efforts. It's been great too! One of my campus communications colleagues shared a blog post of another higher ed professional who is leveraging these new tools to benefit her faculty. Rather than relying on the traditional mainstream media model of pitching faculty stars for possible coverage, she is using SM to do it herself. It was gratifying to see her rational as we are pursuing similar strategies for our faculty and programs as well. To pave the way, we held several SM presentations including "What is SM?" "SM Basics" and "Social Media and Pedagogy" ( I had to throw the "pedagogy" word in--it's big in academia) Actually, we didn't host that one, a school colleague did, but it was definitely in conjunction with our efforts. We've gotten positive feedback and folks seem grateful to have a better understanding of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. And just in recent months we have been getting great response to our online efforts in these areas. Not bad for "free"?
Interestingly, the more we pursue a SM strategy, the more feedback and connections we are getting from others who are active in SM or just interested our efforts. It's been great too! One of my campus communications colleagues shared a blog post of another higher ed professional who is leveraging these new tools to benefit her faculty. Rather than relying on the traditional mainstream media model of pitching faculty stars for possible coverage, she is using SM to do it herself. It was gratifying to see her rational as we are pursuing similar strategies for our faculty and programs as well. To pave the way, we held several SM presentations including "What is SM?" "SM Basics" and "Social Media and Pedagogy" ( I had to throw the "pedagogy" word in--it's big in academia) Actually, we didn't host that one, a school colleague did, but it was definitely in conjunction with our efforts. We've gotten positive feedback and folks seem grateful to have a better understanding of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. And just in recent months we have been getting great response to our online efforts in these areas. Not bad for "free"?
Leave a comment