by Andy Williams, If you aren’t using Facebook, YouTube, MySpace or some of the other so-called social networking sites, you may be missing out on a prime opportunity to market your campus card or other university program.

The University of Minnesota uses Facebook, YouTube and sometimes Twitter to keep its students in the know and coming soon will be an ambitious video about the day in the life of a U Card user, said Alison Bloomster, marketing and operations manager, U Card Office, at the university. “This is where your students are, and this is where you need to be,” she said.

Bloomster showed attendees at the NACCU conference in March ways to use these sites and did a repeat performance during a NACCU-sponsored Webinar in June.

“Social media is a huge evolving topic which you can use to augment your current marketing plan. It’s a great way to get in touch with students as well as faculty,” said Bloomster. More importantly, today’s students, sometimes labeled millennials, or Gen Y, expect this, she said.

To develop the best strategy for using social media, universities need to understand what the core users of this technology want, said Bloomster. Play to some of the traits the generation exhibits. They feel they are special because they have been treated with kid gloves and have had high parental involvement in their upbringing. They also are confident, team oriented, believe social rules are good because they provide order, have been pushed by their parents, faculty and peers to work and study hard, and are achievement oriented, she adds.

And they’re technology natives. They are part of a generation that has always had access to cell phones and computers.

Non-traditional channels

The choices available for marketing are infinite, she said. “You have the Web, email, blogs, instant messaging, picture sharing and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, a system that enables phone calls via the Internet).” None of these choices existed even a few years ago. “I really believe that social media fits best with promotion. It gives you another way to be visible on campus,” said Bloomster.

“What makes social media different is that it’s interactive. You don’t have to know html to post pictures anymore. It’s a way for people and for you to connect to your customers, your cardholders. When you’re moving into the realm of interactivity, you’re creating channels of social media, where you and other users are connecting with each other,” she explained.

Still Bloomster views social sites as simply an extension of a university’s overall marketing and promotion program.

“Social Media the noun can refer to all the Internet and mobile-based channels and applications that people use for sharing and interacting around text, photo and video based information,” she added. “It’s a channel of communication in which the audience can participate by adding comments, instant messaging, or editing the story themselves.”

The university has its own Facebook site. You have to be a member to view the pages which means you’re either a university employee or a student. “We decided to use Facebook because it’s very user friendly. We’ve uploaded photos, we do wall postings, and we have used Facebook for promotions.”

Another site used by the university is a popular video-sharing site. “YouTube is amazing,” she said. “You can create your own channels. We have a channel there and we’ll be posting our video blog (a day in the life of a U Card) there once it’s finished.”

Regardless of the social media you’re using, don’t be afraid to experiment, she suggested. That’s the only way you’ll learn what will work best for your institution. “There is no magic bullet here. Some will make sense, like wall postings on Facebook.”

The university also started using Twitter, sending out, in Twitter parlance, “tweets,” little messages your Internet-capable phone can capture or you view on your computer. This works really well during peak enrollment periods or recarding. “You could check to see, hey there’s an hour wait right now,” said Bloomster. A tweet is limited to 140 characters and it’s not used “so much by students, but it is by staff and faculty,” she added.

The media, at least for now, is free and paperless, which also makes it environmentally friendly.

Bloomster supplied some suggestions about using social media:

* Keep it fresh
* Be consistent in your postings
* Be creative, inventive
* Play into the tastes of your audience
* Invite students to participate
* Cross promote to build usage
* Use contemporary type faces, bright colors, post a link to your Facebook site at the bottom of your emails
* Solicit questions on your site
* Post customer stories and testimonials
* Keep postings current and relevant
* Inform, don’t advertise
* Use caution when using txt spk

“Think about all that we know about the millennial generation, all the workshops we’ve been to and apply that to using social media,” she said.

Remember that interaction is key. “Information should be interesting and useful. Play into the tastes of your audience, the millennial generation and their parents,” she said.

Promote your social media, whether it’s your Facebook page or Web site, via email. “Millennials are content providers and will want to post their comments on your site, such as their experiences with the campus card,” said Bloomster.

To millennials social media is a life style. “It’s really important you recognize that,” she added.

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It’ll Get Your Juices Flowing

“This Study Suggests That The Social Media Revolution, Is Right Here, Right NOW!”

The results of a study into the adoption of social media have been released by Massachusetts University.

by Helen Leggatt

The results prove that social media is coming to the business world at a faster rate than many anticipated. It was undertaken “to see if there was a difference in the knowledge and usage of social media in companies selected by growth rate rather than revenue.”

Respondents were from Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500, a list of the U.S’s fastest-growing private companies. The report surveyed marketer’s familiarity with six prominent social media (message boards, blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, wikis), and the importance they placed on its inclusion in their marketing strategy, along with which they were currently using.

Of the 121 Inc. 500 respondents, 66 percent felt that social media was “somewhat important” or “very important”.

Social networking was one of the most recognized of the six choices of social media at 42 percent, followed by message boards with 38 percent. Despite that, message boards were being used the most, 33 percent, and not social networking which was being used by just 27 percent. The difference in usage may correspond to a relative lack of knowledge of implementation of social media, whereas message boards are now becoming the norm… (Cont Below)

… In the past few years, many social media sites have become huge hits with users. Flickr is a premier photo sharing site and del.icio.us has become a major hub for sharing website recommendations. Both Google and Yahoo have purchased social networking sites and many more companies, such as Disney.com and Time Magazine, have revamped their websites to include social networking capabilities.

“The hype is real,” states the executive summary. “The social media revolution is coming to the business world.”

To Reach Helen, Click Here Enjoy

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Myth 1 – YouTube Logo Says You Don’t Know What You’re Doing
Most people who visit your site are more likely to feel comfortable by way of brand association when they see the YouTube logo. If you’re marketing to a highly technical niche, you’re also giving a sub-conscious message that “this is easy – you only need to use YouTube”.

Myth 2 – YouTube Player Can’t Be Customized
Yes it can! There are a number of size and color options for the player by default, and anyone with even basic HTML skills can modify the supplied HTML to use whatever color scheme fits with the target website.

Myth 3 – YouTube Player Can’t Be Auto-started
Yes it can. Just add “&autoplay=1” to the end of the URL in the supplied HTML!

Myth 4 – YouTube Videos Can’t be Used in Membership Sites
You can see where this is coming from, however they can still be used in this way if you add value with transcripts, etc.

Myth 5 – No Link Tracking
YouTube Insight provides detailed visitor tracking.

Myth 6 – Related Videos Take Traffic From Your Site
That’s true, but only if you choose to display related videos in your embedded player!

Myth 7 – Google Ads are Promoted on YouTube Videos
Again, this is true – but only if you add Google ads to your video…!

Myth 8 – YouTube Can Change The Rules
Again, true, but not the full story. Whilst in theory, YouTube could change all the rules tomorrow, it’s highly unlikely that they would as they would risk their whole business collapsing under them!

Myth 9 – YouTube Might Advertise Inappropriate Products
Since the advertising only happens on YouTube’s site, this doesn’t affect embedded content.

Myth 10 – You Have No Control over Your Content
That depends how you define control! You create it, you edit it and you add it to your website using your choice of player colors and size. How much more control do you need?

We hope that these myths have been cleared up and that YouTube carries on being used to great effect in your Internet marketing. At the end of the day, it’s a fantastic service and it’s free! What more can you ask for?

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YouTube, owned by search giant Google Inc, has been unavailable for users in China, which filters the Internet for content critical of the Communist Party, since late on Monday.

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