Social Media What do we know? What should we do? CASE/New York Times Knowledge Network October 27, 2009 Robert M. Moore, Ph.D. Managing Partner

2 What we’re talking about Engagement vs. outreach UGC vs. institutional messaging Tall-grass prairie vs. English formal garden Social media provide a means of participation, not a new channel for same-old “push” communications

Ubiquity 96% of Gen Y have joined a social network… …and by 2010 they’ll outnumber the baby boomers. More than 50% of 21-year-olds have created content for the web. 3

Rapid rise Social media now ahead of in internet usage Achieving critical mass Radio: 38 years to reach 50MM users TV: 13 years to 50MM Internet: 4 years to 50MM Facebook: 100MM users in less than 9 months If Facebook were a country, only China, India, and U.S. would be larger More than 1.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook…daily. More photo uploads on Facebook now than Flickr 4

Everybody’s talking Wikipedia has over 13MM articles… …and it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Brittanica. Blog count: 200MM+ 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations …only 14% trust advertisements. …power of WOM. First commercial text message: 1992 Now, 7B per day. 5

The audience Today’s 21-year-olds have: Watched 20,000 hours of TV Played 10,000 hours of videogames Talked 10,000 hours on the phone Sent/received 250,000 s or IMs 6

The audience Outside of school, today’s average teen spends 6.5 hours/day with media: 33% on the web 26% TV 21% telephone 15% radio When average teen graduates, they have spent 11,000 hours in school …and 15,000 watching TV. 7

The new social “commons” 31B searches on Google every month. 1 in 6 higher ed students are enrolled in online curriculum. For teens and tweens, = “talk to the hand”. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world 100MM videos…and counting. 8

Apps and Yield What’s Working?

Survey says… 89% of rising seniors visit social networking sites Facebook and MySpace dominate 70%+ visit at least once a day Primary rationale: staying in touch with friends Only 18% use social media in college search Exploration of “fit” most important Social networking sites rank at the very bottom of information sources in inquiry and application stages. Student Poll College Board/Art & Science Group, January

As for yield… Of 30 information sources, institutional Facebook/MySpace page ranks 28 th 9% “very/somewhat influential” But, 6 of top 10 sources are WOM/personal Parents, college friend, current student, alum, HS friend, faculty member Social media, as contributors to WOM, are extremely powerful peer-to-peer and WOM tools. High Achieving Seniors and the College Decision Lipman Hearne, October

So what to do? Monitor Twitter, RSS feeds, tagging Engage As an individual, not an institution Launch and listen Engaged response – positive and negative – will be immediate Observe and imitate Integrate Part of a comprehensive strategy – not the strategy Resource People + skills + time = social media success 12

Integrating the media 13

Some Sites to Visit and Steal Ideas From

Carnegie Mellon Great branded YouTube channel Content that begs to be shared 15

Marquette University Integrated campaign Focus on peer-to-peer dialogue for incoming students 16

Keele University Integrated Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds Involving both prospective students and alumni &ref=nf 17

San Diego State University Social media as generator of story/institutional visibility ews.aspx &ref=search&sid= C76&search_query=sdsu+living+on+campus 18

Olivet Nazarene University A branded, segmented channel Not featuring the most popular selection 19

University of California Always room for a new idea 20

Questions?