On April 12, 2013, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) released results of their latest survey detailing social media use by colleges and universities. More than 1,000 institutions participated in the survey that solicited responses on several topics including, how professionals incorporate social media in their communication strategies, goals for social media, and current best practices.

The survey provides several interesting responses for consideration. I encourage you to read the results if you have the time. I found the following intriguing.

• 84 percent of respondents indicated that there are 0-1 full-time individuals at their institution 100 percent dedicated to social media efforts as it relates to their position responsibilities.
• Only 31 percent of respondents indicated that there were training resources provided for staff to focus on engagement strategies through social media and only 34 percent indicated there were training resources on content development.
• The largest identified barrier to the successful use of social media was staffing for day-to-day content management.

Certainly, there are several ways to interrupt data. Yet,  it appears there is still reluctance on the part of many to  invest in social media as tools to achieve institutional goals. This is despite 2010 results that found over 97 percent of college students were on Facebook and a 93 percent growth in students using Twitter from the last year.

Also, somewhat surprisingly, 76 percent of respondents affirmed that “Social media have great potential for achieving important goals in my unit.”

Certainly, the impact of Facebook and Twitter on college students is apparent. Furthermore, we are able to identify that social media has great potential in achieving institutional goals. Yet, there still appears to be reluctance on the part of administrators to commit staff to social media efforts, implement social media strategies, and provide essential training to staff members.

Why?

Is there a stigma associated with social media use at the institutional level? Are there a lack of best practices to utilize when developing strategies? Are the necessary resources allocated to other priorities? Do we believe that social media is a fad that will leave as quickly as it arrived?

Perhaps all. Perhaps none.

We have been too slow adopting social media as strategies for success. I find this concerning, not because we are neglecting social media, but it illustrates our lack of ability to be robust. Often, we discuss concern with the growing privatization of higher education. Often, I hear we must prove our worth, defend our expertise, and convince stakeholders that our specialization is value-added. Social media came quickly and we failed to keep pace. I’m not concerned about social media – we’ll catch up. But, with the rising pressures on higher education, I am  concerned about our ability to react when the next things comes. As departments and institutions, we have to find ways to be more adaptable to the trends that impact our field and our students. Businesses are far better at doing so and there is too much money in higher education for them not to recognize the potential.

I’m curious what you found interesting in the report. Utilize those comments below!

If we, as student affairs professionals, can create accessible, understandable, and interactive resources that facilitate completion of campus protocol outside the office then the precious time spent with students can be used for developmental conversations and not on mundane processes.

My Masters degree is not in event planning. The degree does not say “Masters of Student Media.” Nor did any of my coursework have brand development designed into the curriculum. Yet I find myself knee-deep in all of these topics as I navigate my first position and start a career. I love all of the varied work I do each and every day but the simple fact does remain that my education does not always match up. Most of the common language and skills that I use for this specific work came from random experiences, internships, hobbies, and favoring technical manuals to fictional thrillers. I still can’t shake the feeling if I didn’t have those experiences I was fortunate enough to have, then how could I truly do this job well? I then wonder about those working in student affairs that have “other duties as assigned” type work that is actually integral to their office, but weren’t trained for those duties.

I started my job at WashU knowing part of my position would be to find ways to integrate technology into our work. There weren’t any specifics to that objective – only the belief that the office could use some upgrading in hopes of raising efficiency. One delightful morning I brewed a pot of coffee, loaded it with creamer, doused it in sweet-n-low, then headed out to work. By the time I reached my office the entire mug of coffee was no more (an infrequent occurrence for me). Thirty minutes later and I had an entire chalkboard covered. What I created was a loose framework of technology systems to support our office. I also realized the impact that taking on this project could have.

The crux of what I created isn’t brand new; the belief that if students came to meetings prepared then more of the time could be spent on reflection and discussing decision-making. The exciting challenge lies in finding systems to facilitate this pre-meeting work in a meaningful way.

One example is the Event Registration Forms that I see springing up at colleges (admittedly, it’s one of the projects I’m working on at WashU). Event forms (such as Campus Lab’s Collegiate Link product they offer or even a homegrown one like UCF’s) can facilitate a great deal of logistics regarding event planning. The system uses conditional logic to invite the right campus partners into an event. It’s basically like a digital event coordination meeting that invites only the people necessary and lets them work on their own time. This frees up advisors to use their meeting time with students to discuss impact, decision-making, congruence with organization mission, or any other topic.

Another great example is using project management software in the office. Couple that with online appointment scheduling (Here’s an example) and you’re chopping out hours at a time that would normally be spent on administrative duties. Those couple hours each month can end up meaning the difference between a newly launched initiative that ends up positively influencing thousands of students and a half-finished proposal where you always seem to say, “It will be a summer project.”

I believe that I can help staff spend more time on the student development aspect of our jobs. If I can do that, I see it as a win. That’s the lens I apply to this search for a new technology framework in our office. It’s the reason I find meaning in that area of my job.

I imagine I was not the only one who scrambled to the Department of Education website the morning after the #SOTU to check out the new College Scorecard. Here’s how it works, you can select a specific school, or other category like location, size, campus setting, etc. (Note: I found searching by the categories to be a bit unintuitive as far as interface is concerned. I don’t think the Dept. of Ed will be winning any UX/UI awards any time soon.) You then get a screen of results that look like this:

So, you get some fancy gas gauges and some bar graphs with percentages — and that is it. From these (not highly informative) boxes, the student is supposed to glean enough information to put a college on their “list” or remove a college from said list. I say no ma’am.

I understand what the Department of Education is trying to do with the Scorecard, and I do think that we need to do a better job of educating prospective students and their families when it comes to options for higher education. My concern is that while some students will use the scorecard as just one of many sources, others will use it as their only source (I will argue that it will most often be the students who are historically underserved that end up in this situation), which may lead to them selecting a school, or ruling out a school, without gathering all important information. Short story, there is more to selecting a college than data that can be presented in a Kindergarten infographic.

There are some good discussions going on around the scorecard. Mallory Bower shares her thoughts on Career Development and the scorecard here, and the #AcAdv Chat from Tuesday 2/19 discussed the College Scorecard and advising.

What are your thoughts? Has your office discussed the scorecard? What positives do you see in the scorecard? Negatives? 

Image borrowed from Eric Stoller

Something that has always been a passion of mine in all of my various career incarnations is open-source information sharing. I see this as the concept that sharing awareness, ideas, creativity and results with colleagues in your field, helps them to not reinvent the wheel, but alter the wheel to help them be more successful. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that people should be paid for their services, skills and expertise, but something that I’ve seen in recently in the field of student affairs and higher education is the integration of this open-sharing mentality. From my perspective, I think it could be an amazing driving force for pushing the envelope in terms of student development and holistic education.

Open-sourcing comes in a variety of forms. Likely, since the initial origins of student affairs, networking and group dialogues have been a great source for getting ideas and information. As you move through time you see that journal articles and publications have sparked a collective consciousness of robust ideas and program development. Now, as we are working our way through the second decade of the 21st century, we are seeing a third movement, one driven by the digital universe that surrounds us. We’re able to share ideas in their infancy through blogging, while they are in process through things like twitter and Facebook, and post assessment via the various #SAshare platforms that are popping up across the internet.

This revolution, and the ability to “open-source” our student affairs know-how provides us a unique set of advantages that are just now hitting the field in a meaningful way.

1. Program development doesn’t require us to start with a blank slate. Instead, we are now able to take a program that has been initiated and tweak it to suit the needs of our population better.
2. We don’t need to learn only from our own failures, but can benefit from the failures of our colleagues. Although we may learn the most from our own failures, this allows us to be more efficient in our efforts without necessarily having to experience the downfalls associated with “failure.”
3. Broadening assessment ability by seeing how programs work in a “real world” laboratory. By proposing ideas and getting comments, criticisms, and real feedback as to how such ideas have worked for others, others can help assess the feasibility and ROI of a program or idea.
4. Alternative professional development opportunities that inherently arise when you learn from the experiences of others. Although you might not have a chance to go to a conference and listen to an expert speak, you can see the work they are accomplishing and utilize what you learn in your own niche.

In reality, the advantages to the increasing number of platforms showing up in Student Affairs is an exciting transformation and evolution. So share what you see, do, think, desire, and as you’re growing and thriving as a professional in the field, leave a crumb trail for your colleagues. Hashtag articles, tweets, and interesting tidbits with #SAshare, send out interesting projects to your small and national list-servs, post things on the multitude of LinkedIn groups and Facebook pages that exist, and as things progress, do your part to participate in and add to our online communities of higher educations open-sourcers. We may have gone through the golden age of student affairs integration, but we are now truly entrenched in the new age of student affairs.

Several years ago I was introduced to the podcasts over at Manager Tools.  Full disclosure I gain in absolutely no way from endorsing Manager Tools.  But we all collectively gain when our field is full of good, efficient and effective managers.

The folks at Manager Tools stress one tool more than any other: One-on-one meetings.  Sure – you may think – I talk to my team all the time.  This is a little different.  This is a structured, regularly scheduled (weekly is ideal) meeting with each one of your direct reports.

I have been performing structured one-on-one meetings as described by Manager Tools for 4-5 years and the time is well invested in the relationship with your direct reports.  On Thursday I asked my twitter stream “Interested in hearing from folks that have regularly scheduled 1on1s with their direct reports. Worth the time? Benefits?”  I got some great replies.

The first reply was from Gavin Henning, Senior Research Analyst in the Office of Institutional Research at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, U.S.  Gavin indicated that one-one-ones are absolutely worth the time and said the meetings are a great opportunity to give updates and get direction from your supervisor.  He also indicated how important it is to have a consistent time to connect and the importance of both direct and supervisor contributing agenda items.

I was very grateful to get replies from hall directors to vice-president student affairs.  Although I can’t share all the comments I received via twitter the overwhelming majority where in support of one-on-ones.  Rachel Barreca, a Canadian higher education professional who has for several years worked in the United Kingdom.  Rachel indicated that the one-on-one meetings were a great way to know your direct reports better and check-in with them personally.  Rachel also described one-on-one meetings as an opportunity to solve problems, discuss professional development opportunities as well as a provide feedback and direction.

You may be thinking to yourself – I have SO many staff.  I can’t possibly meet with all of them weekly.  Why not?  As a manager or supervisor it is your job to ensure your team performs.  If you work 35, 45, or even 55 hours per week – 30 minutes with each direct report is not very much time.  Think of it like this: 10 direct reports x 30 minutes would only be 5 hours.  Only 12% of a 40 hour work week.  If you don’t currently supervise full-time staff and you have a big team of part-time staff this may be more challenging.  It may make sense to meet bi-weekly or less frequently with part-timers.  However if you have 5-8 or less full-time staff you should have no trouble finding the time if you schedule it consistently from now till forever in your calendar.

I suggest you head on over to Manager Tools to the listen to their podcast on one-on-ones.

A little one-on-one summary

Absolutely worth the time invested!

Purpose: To develop and strengthen a professional relationship with your direct reports.

Format: 10 minutes for them, 10 minutes for you, 10 minutes for the future (coaching, professional development, growth, etc)

What are your thoughts on one-on-ones?  If you have tricks and tips for one-on-ones please leave them in the comments.

 Chad Nuttall is Manager, Student Housing Services (CHO) at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Pinterest has shown tremendous growth over the past six months, and is one of the few newer (non-google) social media sites to gain traction. But, is it a fad that will show waning interest, like other recent semi-hit Quora, or will it have a longer shelf life?

First, my theory on why Pinterest gained traction. I believe the visual nature of the site appeals to us for the same reason that photo sharing is such a primary activity in the social space. So, in this way, it shares the same traction that, say, Instagram does. Initially, it also tapped into an interest area and a target market (females predominately), and it “solved a problem,” in a way that many social media platforms don’t do. Many social media platforms fail to gain a core audience beyond the typical techie/early adopter set. Pinterest gave itself a leg up by avoiding that trap.

Now that it does have that traction, it’s being leveraged by others beyond that initial audience. Brands from General Electric (fairly thin page) to Whole Foods (much more robust) are experimenting.  In the higher education space, University of Pennsylvania’s Career Services (and the great work of Shannon Kelly) is setting a standard with their page.  Others like Skidmore College’s D-Hall and University of Minnesota’s Student Union, along with many others, are dabbling.  It will be interesting to see where other student affairs pros take it.

So, to my original question:  is it a passing fad or here to stay?  Obviously, we don’t know the full answer yet.  But, my feeling is that it has taken root, and fills a gap and thus will be with us at least for a little while.  It’s a fun site, and while it will probably continue to be a primary place for individuals to share, it will be interesting to watch brands continue to experiment and develop their space on the site.

What do you think about Pinterest for student affairs departments?

Cross posted on Service Design Thinking, Marketing and Innovation in Student Affairs

Gary Alan Miller is the Assistant Director for Social Media and Innovation at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Hope that was enough hashtags for you!

If you’ve always thought about taking the Twitter plunge in the name of professional development, we’ve got some great things in store for you this week in conjunction with the NASPATech conference in Newport, RI.

In addition to our regular Thursday #sachat this week we will feature a “special edition” chat in conjunction with our “Behind the #sachat” presentation at the conference. Please join us for an open discussion from 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm CST and feel free to recruit some new participants who may want to test the waters a bit.  In addition, for those attending NASPATech we hope you will join us at our session! Bring your laptop or mobile device and participate in #sachat while we discuss the potential that social media has to enhance networking and (free!) professional development opportunities.

Hope you will join us!

Facebook status update from my 18 year old cousin.

I was going to start this blog post on social media in student affairs with a full disclaimer about my admittedly self-perceived lack of technical know-how. After some thinking, reflecting and tweeting, however, I’ve begun to see that it is this seemingly innocent humour and language that may be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to integrating social media into our student affairs programming. Beyond building our technology IQ, perhaps it is time we also invest in nurturing our social media EQ-–identifying and confronting the underlying assumptions surrounding incorporating these tools into our professional practice. One of the many valuable lessons I’ve learnt in my time in student affairs has been the true power of words and language. Slang and other terms used in passing can distance us just as quickly as they can bring us together. In the case of social media, the way we talk about our tweets, Facebook posts or blogging can often do the same.

While facilitating presentations and engaging in discussions around social media at this year’s NASPA conference, one theme that came up rather frequently was the use of social media as a way to build community on campus, across institutions and throughout the student affairs profession. This desire for collaboration and unity is in stark contrast to the effect of several off-hand comments I heard during these discussions. For example, some colleagues I speak to about social media will laugh off their lack of knowledge around Twitter, claiming they’re ‘too old’ or ‘not hip enough’ to engage with this ‘new fangled technology’.

If we want to continue building and sustaining what we claim to be valuable relationships amongst our colleagues and peers, we need to start talking about social media as a piece of the larger community building puzzle. Rather than viewing social media as a separate space for engagement, I choose to view it as an extension of my local student affairs community. This blog post and my Twitter account, for example, do not replace the connections I made face to face at NASPA or even in my office, but they instead help me to sustain those relationships once the conference is over or after I’ve left the office for the day. Social media, to me, is another way to interact and share–it does not take the place of in-person interactions but rather encourages conversations to continue beyond the boundaries of geographic location and time zones.

I am beginning to see the need for a shift in the way we talk about social media from a tool that discourages interaction to a new way of encouraging and fostering connections. I will admit to sometimes being the one who complains about ‘those people who are always on their phones’, especially as an extrovert who craves and enjoys social interaction. However, even those complaints done in jest only serve to further the apparent divide between those who embrace social media and those who seem more reluctant to sign up. As with anything new, the language used to describe and discuss it can often further the fear and hesitation that comes with adopting a new way of doing things. In the case of social media, we often overhear complaints about students and colleagues so wrapped up in their phones that they don’t look up long enough to engage with those around them. These complaints, often voiced as jokes about the ‘digital divide’ between the generations, seem to only push us apart rather than bring us together. If we as student affairs professionals claim community building and engagement as important values, we must begin to reframe how we discuss social media as a tool for fulfilling these goals and examine how the language we use may limit, rather than encourage, connections. The way in which we talk about social media can have a far greater impact on building our technological competency than any online tutorial.

As Thomas Earnest Hulme so eloquently describes:

“Language is by its very nature a communal thing; that is, it expresses never the exact thing but a compromise – that which is common to you, me, and everybody. “

Lisa Endersby is a Student Experience Advisor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

You’re probably starting to see these Quick Response codes, even if you don’t know exactly what they are. While Tom wrote about these almost three years ago, they are really coming into the mainstream. In fact, I saw the first QR Code in my hometown newspaper this morning.

QR Codes are those little square boxes with black markings. It’s a modern version of the barcode. By scanning the code, you can be directed to a website, an email address, a phone number, or get any short message.

QR codes have been around for a long time, but they’ve become popular because of smartphones. If you have any Barcode App, you can easily scan a QR code for additional information.

Simply create a QR code for the Facebook page of your next campus event, and include it on any printed promotional material. People can scan the code, and be directed to the site for more (and portable) information.

Or how about some “guerrilla marketing?”. Post a flyer with JUST the QR code– nothing else. That will tempt a lot of students into scanning it just to find out what it’s all about.

It’s easy to create a QR code. There are many free sites that will create them for you online in a flash, like http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

If you like to see how they are being used in the music world, check out this article: http://bit.ly/eujni3

And if you want to see how it works, grab your smartphone, run your barcode app, and scan the QR Code below!