A year ago when I was just getting my feet under me as marketing coordinator for EducationUSA, I knew social media would be an integral part of what I needed to do--but how exactly I'd go about that task wasn't quite clear. We are a network of 400+ centers in 170 countries under the EducationUSA umbrella. We share a common mission to be the official source on U.S. higher education for millions of students and their families each year. We also knew that our continued success would be largely dependent on providing our advisers, some of the hardest working individuals I've ever met, the tools they needed to better connect with their students and with our friends in the U.S. higher education community that are so vital to our success. How to use social media was one of those lights for me.
A year ago, the extent to which most (not all) of our advisers were using social media began and ended with Skype and other IM tools. In our entire network, we had only about 4 active Facebook profiles/groups/pages while Twitter was not even in our vocabulary. Some intrepid, forward-thinking centers had undertaken video projects they made available out in cyberspace, but there was no central collection point for this content.
Today, we have 80 different EducationUSA Facebook fan pages, profiles and groups, 35 Twitter feeds, and over 70 videos on our YouTube channel. Over 900 higher education members in the U.S. now subscribe to our HEI eNews (now published bi-weekly). Most significantly, we have a new vehicle for getting the word out about EducationUSA - our new website which brings all of these tools together and makes them shareable in the new world of social media.
Ultimately, these new tools, or new media allow us to reach out in more interactive ways to key audiences. Moreover, 2009 will certainly be remembered as the year "Social Media" became key buzzwords for institutions looking to counteract shrinking recruitment budgets, as well as global networks to share their message. The real rub here is how U.S. higher education and EducationUSA can work together to utilize these tools to encourage more and better qualified international students to come to America for their studies.
Over the last twelve months, I've compiled a list of 5 guiding principles for how we are approaching our task in this new and ever-changing world of social media:
- Get Connected, Be Relevant, Stay Involved.
- Live Where Your Audiences Live.
- Keep Them Coming Back for More.
- Listen, Listen, Listen.
- Your Name Matters.
When just starting out in your use of social media, the best advice is always to start small with one maybe two different tools. That first step really is the most important -- to commit to using one or more new media. That being said, all the commitment in the world does you no good if your content, your posts, your comments are not relevant to your intended audience. Make an effort to use any market intelligence you have to create content that resonates with your audiences. As much as I love the film, Field of Dreams, social media is not a "if you build it, they will come" environment. To be successful in this medium you must dedicated time and personnel to monitor, post, and respond to questions and comments received.
Live Where Your Audience Lives
Part of a successful social media strategy is to be present where your audiences -- e.g. your prospective students -- spend their time. If you're targeting students in Japan or Korea, do you have your information available on mobile sites? For the first time in 2008, worldwide, the internet was accessed more from mobile phones than from computers.* Those mobile numbers will only grow larger. If 2009 was the year of social media, 2010 will mark the rise of mobile social media. Believe me when I say that "there's an app for that" could not be a more appropriate for the future of mobile social media in many countries.
That being said, if your goal is to enhance your outreach to African students, mobile is as important but more along the lines of SMS text messaging as opposed to the wide world of social media accessible through smartphones and other similar devices.
If you are targeting a particular country through social media, let's say Brazil, recently identified as one of the, if not the #1, most social networked country in the world, Facebook might not be the only place you want to have a presence--Orkut has been top dog there for some time (though Facebook has expanded over 1000% in the last year there).
Keep Them Coming Back for More
Part of the success of social media is the viral nature of sharing content that reminds me of an old shampoo commercial--where someone has a great experience, loves the product, and then he/she tells two friends and so on and so on--as the old word of mouth concept takes exponential growth to a whole new level. Success is not only in spreading your good news, but also keeping that audience connected to you. How do you do that? Send updates to fans, followers, or contacts that directs them back to new content on your website, or on your social media presences or both. Repeat customers, just as in the real world, are what sustains your success. Ideally, social media allows you to create and maintain an online community of supporters to keep your message out there and understood.
Listen, Listen, Listen
Many marketing professionals have experienced a rude awakening with the rise of social media. No longer can a college or university (or any business for that matter) rely on their control of message. Colleges have perhaps learned this lesson in the past few years better than most with the rise of various student-driven blogs like College Confidential. There are simply too many places online that students can get information about what they are looking for that are completely out of the hands of those who have a product or an institution to promote. Just as we all hate spam emails, those business that throw out their tired sales pitches using these new media are committing the same cardinal sin: not listening to what their customers want. Customers, or students in our realm, can control the message and the conversation. In social media terms, success will be earned by those who listen first, second and third, before responding. This is the customer service taken to the virtual world. Marketing success in the use of social media is dependent more than ever to how service-oriented and responsive you are to the needs of your audiences.
Your Name Matters
Identity in the marketplace of ideas is everything. Knowing who you are first is important, no question. Everyone who is involved in promoting your brand must have buy-in to this identity. Additionally, to be remembered you must protect your name and be consistent with your name as much as possible. As marketing guru, Al Ries, indicated recently, "If you don't think names matter, yours may be forgotten." In the end, you want your name to be associated with a positive idea or concept in the eyes of your audiences.
Bottom line, the brave new world of social media is out there for the taking. Are you taking advantage of these new media in your work? Comment here or email me to continue this conversation.
* The source for this statistic is a book called “Mobile Advertising” by Chetan Sharma, Joe Herzog, and Victor Melfi.
