Social Networks « The Student Affairs Collaborative

Social Networks

SA Team

#sabest / #sachat / Poll / SA Humor / Social Networks — View Comments
26
Jul 10

#SAbest Results (07-19 to 07-25)

The results of the first weekly #SAbest poll are in! Here are twenty of the top tweets that you voted for last week:

What is the first thing you do when you get to your office in the am? I peel off my #office page-a-day calendar for a good laugh. #sachatless than a minute ago via webTanya Vandermoon
TanyaVandermoon

Just a thought but could Lebron James (‘84), DWade (‘82), and Chris Bosh(‘84) be a case study in today’s athletic millennials? #sachatless than a minute ago via webGary Honickel
ghonickel

Breaking News: @jacksonj admits to stealing toilet paper in college! #sachatless than a minute ago via TweetDeckkevincleary
kevincleary

FT: Take ur training schedule from last yr, replace fun w/new ideas, move edu sessions to diff days, change atleast 30% #sachatless than a minute ago via TweetGridMichael Hamilton
MikeJHamilton

We had a World Cup Theme, and we constantly played our Vuvuzelas during the presentations. #sachatless than a minute ago via HootSuiteJeff Jackson
jacksonj

For many people working in HigherED, summer is defined by the days you have orientation and the days you don’t. #sachatless than a minute ago via webCollin Zimmerman
collinz

FT: YOu want a collective rolling of the eyes from students? Use themes #sachatless than a minute ago via TweetChatDionne
Dramanique

With the #sachat superlative results revealed, I’m wondering what everyone was voted in high school. Care to share?less than a minute ago via webStacy Oliver
StacyLOliver

@Brown_Melissa You can contribute right now! Your ideas and experiences are just as imp. as those w/20+ yrs of FT work. Jump in! #sachatless than a minute ago via TwitterfallJulie P-Kirchmeier
JPKirchmeier

Students are so honest. And dramatic. #sachat http://yfrog.com/4bl9iqjless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhoneMickey Fitch
mickeyfitch

In the last 7 days, there have been 202 unique contributors using #sachat. Wow.less than a minute ago via webseth hagler
sethhagler

RT @Davey_Jacobson: How Social Networking Helps Teaching and Worries Professors http://bit.ly/9TYzHV via @Chronicle #sachat #smchat #edtechless than a minute ago via TweetDeckWordBoom
wordboom

If you have embedded videos on your student affairs webpages, you need to check out this post: http://bit.ly/cOX4LY #SAchatless than a minute ago via TweetDeckEric Stoller
EricStoller

Hello #sachat, busy week, baby #2 born & job interview w/ a search com. any advice for group interviews, esp when they include students?less than a minute ago via TweetDeckdjdw
djdw

Awww… @littleredsaid hit the 200 follower mark today! I think we owe it all to his fame as an #sachat superlative winner! Thanks all less than a minute ago via TweetDeckLittle Red
littleredsaid

Just learning about #sachat but excited to join the conversation!less than a minute ago via TweetDeckGwen Schimek
gschimek

Interesting. States with greatest and lowest 6-year graduation rates. http://bit.ly/bHVXS1 #sachat #higheredless than a minute ago via SeesmicDebra Sanborn
DebraSanborn

Good night #SAchat – my topic may not win this time…but we’ll be back. Oh how we’ll be back!less than a minute ago via SeesmicTom Krieglstein
tomkrieglstein

FT: Themes underestimate the developmental level of our students #sachatless than a minute ago via webRey Junco
reyjunco

Wow, I can’t believe I missed out on the Theme Debacle of 2010 at the end of #sachatless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhoneJen K-L
jenontheblock

The poll is open for this week’s #SAbest – let the nominations begin!

Sean

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Collaborative Learning / Social Networks — View Comments
18
Jun 10

Why You Won’t Be Reading “How to Tell A Who-Do From a Guru, Part 3″ Here

These days, you couldn’t swing a LOLCAT anywhere on the internet without banging kitty right into someone pitching themselves as a “guru” of something or other. I’ve become especially aware of this as a new business owner, because people call me to pitch this-and-that, and probably some of the other.

I’ve written a third post in my series “How to Tell a “Who-Do” from a “guru.” Originally, I cross-posted it here as well. That was at about 3 or 4 a.m this morning. Then I got up this morning, re-read it, and decided it didn’t really belong here. Not because it’s not relevant to this community (I think it is), but because it contains an affiliate link and some salty language. I can do that on my site, but thought after some consideration (and some coffee) that it didn’t belong here. I like writing here occasionally, and so I decided that it’s best to keep it clean and non-commercial. It’s the social contract we have here, so I don’t want to blur the lines. I didn’t come here to sell you anything but ideas.

If you’ve been reading the series, please feel free to visit HigherEdCareerCoach.Com today and read along. The post is about the value of engaging in communities to get where you are going in your life and career. And in part, it is a tribute to the great community I’ve found here as an occasional contributor to this blog, and as a participant in #sachat on Twitter.

For me, engaging with this unique community of professionals has broadened my perspectives, challenged me, inspired me, and encouraged me. I feel that as I get where I am going in my career, I’ve got a great group of colleagues not just cheering me on from the sidelines, but helping me run the plays, go long and head for the end zone.

Yesterday, I learned (quite by accident) that somehow, Higher Ed Career Coach got ranked #49 on the Technorati top blogs for small business. It wasn’t something I was even thinking about, but it’s a nice validation that something is going right. And I give credit to the awesome people and communities I’ve been a part of, especially this one.

How do you tell a “who-do” from a “guru?’ Look around you, read this blog, and participate in #sachat and all the other hashtag chats that have been spawned by this community’s synergy, and I think you’ll get the idea.

I have seen the “guru” and he is us.

In the words of the Hopi Elders: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Cindy

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#sachat / Professional Organizations / Social Networks / Web/Tech — View Comments
7
Apr 10

Confessions of a Twitter Newbie

Now that I truly feel like Twitter and I can change our Facebook status to “In a Relationship,” I can come clean.

I, @cindykane, once thought Twitter would be a waste of time.

There, I said it. I struggled, resisted, complained, and even frowned once or twice at the thought of introducing yet one more social media tool into my life. I was a frequent Facebooker and liked it that way and could not imagine why in the world the universe needed to hear from me through Facebook, through this blog site and now through Twitter. I thought to myself, “who the heck would read my tweets and who the heck has time to spend on this anyway?” Well, a quick purge of Facebook applications found some time available and I can still hold my head up high even without a Farm in Farmville. Regarding why the heck anyone would read my tweets, I’ll keep that one rhetorical for fear of inspiring “unfollowership.”

I had a few choices to make regarding my lack of love for Twitter. I could have just ignored it, but for some reason it just wouldn’t go away. I could have just decided to stay in my safe little Facebook friend circle and happily tended to my farm. However, that wasn’t doing much for me in the name of stepping outside of “my circle” and I’m really not a fan of sitting by the sidelines and not getting involved. (ok, I’m Director of Student Involvement on campus…this works). So, there was no choice. I jumped in and figured it out.

Right when I got started:

I took recommendations from friends about people to follow who “use it well.” I didn’t define what that meant because I didn’t really know. I just let my friends show me who was sharing good things.
I didn’t follow celebrities. Granted, I follow them now… but at first I stayed away. Yes, Ashton Kucher (I’m sure he is an avid follower of this blog!) I am the one follower you didn’t have.
I didn’t tweet much. I still was trying to figure out what to put out there. Using the cocktail party analogy, I just sat in the corner for a while and did some “people watching.”

While I started my “figure out Twitter” project, I also read Tara Hunt’s book The Whuffie Factor. These two forces aligned for me in a way that I finally understood social media and why I needed to figure this out. I also realized that this wasn’t just about me and my personal networking/connections with friends, it was about what ways I could take the opportunities social media presents to the world and translate it to campus and ways to reach out to students. (If you want to read more, I did a series of posts on this book starting with this post called What’s a Whuffie?)

So, after a lightning bolt of “aha” arrived into my Twitter life, I now really can’t imagine not being connected in that way. I have really found a professional network on there that I never knew existed and found a way to (economically!) challenge myself to meet new people and learn about new topics without having to travel from the comfort of my own computers. If you are still struggling to find the relevance of the world of Twitter in your life, I’m happy to offer a few stories:

Twitter is an equalizer. I have debated some “hot topic” issues with people many years my senior in the field and have also been “schooled” by a few new professionals in the same manner. These lively discussions wouldn’t happen across a conference table because we’re all too focused on rank and politics.
Twitter is concise. As someone known for being a tad verbose, Twitter has taught me how to hone my communication approach when needed. It’s amazing how much you can say when limited to 140 characters. The brevity of Twitter is what makes it so powerful.
Twitter is simple. While the world of “hashtags” (don’t call it a number sign…trust me!) and “@” and the “DM” was a bit much at first, if you learn these few pieces of Twitter trivia, you are golden. That’s it. If you mastered Facebook you will find Twitter to be refreshingly simple. (and if you’re still confused, read my friend Ed Cabellon’s post called Teaching Twitter to Colleagues.)
Twitter is a community. You get as much as you give. The main difference between Facebook and Twitter is that Facebook is a “closed” circle and Twitter is an open one. Using the cocktail party analogy again, if I just kept sitting in the corner and not saying anything then no one was going to come talk to me either. So, I jumped in and started talking. Now you can’t shut me up This includes talking to your “friends” as well as talking to those who reach out and talk to you.
Twitter connects people in “real” ways. Some of the participants in the weekly #sachat met up at the NACA, ACUI, NASPA and ACPA conventions this year. I was a bit apprehensive about what these “tweetups” would be like but I know for darned sure that I wanted to check these folks out in person! What I learned was that while we were meeting for the first time, we already knew each other. You got the chance to skip the small talk and just pick right up “where you left off” to the tune of the last 140 characters you may have read from that person.

I confess, I had no idea what to expect when I met up with a group of student affairs people I had been writing in short sentences to since October 2009 in #sachat and beyond. What I found was a group of outgoing, hilarious, friendly, accepting people that were even more dynamic in person than they seemed online. In the wise words of Teri Bump, “you tweet who you are.” These people were the real deal and I easily could have spent my entire ACPA with them and not gotten enough time.

So, what are you waiting for? If you need some encouragement to climb on board just post a comment and I’m happy to help. As I recently learned, there’s an entire professional network out there just waiting for new participants and you just need to be yourself. Take it from me. The only way to figure it out is to just jump in!

Debra

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#sachat / Social Networks — View Comments
22
Mar 10

Finding your Student Affairs compass

We speak a lot about the meteoric rise of student affairs professionals communicating on Twitter. Within #SACHAT, our participant numbers have grown 500% since our October 2009 debut. We have so many colleagues engaged that we had to add a second chat time three months into the venture. Our #SACHAT meet-ups are occurring around the spring professional conferences and organically as our student affairs family find themselves in similar locations.

I had an opportunity to meet several of our #SACHAT friends in conjunction with the ACUI conference and spent some time exploring New York City with one of those friends. We made a day of it, walking and sharing stories, stopping for lunch, shopping a bit, and before you knew it, found ourselves uncertain how to make our way back to the car. We stood at a busy street corner, attempting to get our bearings. We asked a passerby for directions and then headed off to find our way. After covering quite a few more blocks and not yet seeing any landmarks leading to the car, it dawned on me that I could use the map function on my phone to aid our quest. This handy little GPS tool is not essential for navigation in my small Midwest city, so I had forgotten that I had it.

We determined our present location, entered an address for the parking garage, and lo and behold, walking directions were magically provided. So, we started out again in the direction of our vehicle, enjoying the city scenery, chatting, and enjoying the day. Only to miss a turn and get off track, again. Ah, but this time we had the map and directions. We backtracked, paid more attention to our map, and finally made our way back to the car.

Early in my student affairs career, I found easy ways to network with colleagues. I joined professional organizations, served on committees, and chatted regularly with colleagues at other institutions as we planned trainings and conferences. As I advanced in my career, it seems that I lost some of those opportunities, as my own work required more of my time and focus. At some point along the way, I lost track of most of my network, also losing the community that helped me brainstorm and recharge with energy and new ideas.

Then along comes a social networking tool like Twitter and fun little communities such as the Student Affairs Blog and #SACHAT. Once again, I am linked with other professionals, sharing ideas, and learning new ways to do things. I am engaged in building a community that challenges and inspires me. It is a community that grew through social network technology and like a GPS, helped me find my way.

SA Team

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Liz

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Assessment / Myspace/Facebook Best Practices / Online Tools / Social Networks — View Comments
13
Nov 09

Using Facebook Insights to Assess Your Facebook Page

Facebook Insights is an application available to all page
administrators. It measures
exposure, actions, and behavior related to your page. Insights gives you almost instant data––it is updated 12
hours after the end of each day.
Available data includes: geographic and demographic information about
your fan base, a record of interactions (comments, wall posts, photo/video
views, “likes”), and the growth of your fan base over time. All of this information is displayed in
the Fan Dashboard, and most of it can also be downloaded into a spreadsheet so
you can use the data in any way you see fit.

In Practice: How UW–Milwaukee University Housing Uses
Our Facebook Page

I created our Facebook Page
in July 2009. After the first week of school, we were hovering under 100
fans. Next, I harnessed the
influence of the Neighborhood Housing Office, who at that time had over 200
fans of their Facebook Page.
Within two days of suggesting our page to all of their fans, we had over
200 fans as well. By this point I
felt that our page had enough content and fan support/interaction to go
public. So, when we launched our
new website on September 10, I included a prominent link to our Facebook Page
on the homepage. Since then, our
fan base has grown at a modest pace of 3 pans per day, which should put us over
400 fans by the end of this semester.
Facebook Insights gives me the tools to track this data easily,
especially if I take note of the dates when actions with potential impact on
our fan base occur (other page suggestions, new advertising strategy).

By downloading the Fan Demographic data from Insights, I can
see that 75% of our fans are between the age of 18-24 and 5% are 13-17 years
old. So, it’s likely that 80% of
our fans are current or prospective students. The remaining fans are likely staff members and
parents/family members –– yes, we have had a parent become an active fan of our
page!

Knowing who our fans are is not enough; to truly assess our
Facebook activities, I need to know if students are interacting with our
content. From the Fan Interaction
data set, I can report on the number of total interactions with our content
(74), average number of interactions per post (1), total photo views (1711),
video plays (170), and comments on our content (30). Astonishingly, our Facebook Page has had 3,875 page views
from 1,234 visitors since its creation. Soon, Insights will also allow page
administrators to see the Click Through Rate and Engagement Rate, which will
provide a clearer picture of how many fans are responding to your content.

Do you use Facebook Insights for assessment or reporting? How have you used the data?

Liz

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Marketing / Myspace/Facebook Best Practices / Social Networks — View Comments
10
Nov 09

So You Want To Make A Facebook Page

This summer I created our department's Facebook Page and Twitter account.
Since then, other offices on campus have asked me for advice on Page
creation, gaining departmental buy-in, and increasing student
interaction. Although I can talk for hours about the intricacies and
possibilities of social networking, a beginner really only needs to
learn three simple steps. If you're unaware of the difference between
Pages and groups, learn more here.

Three Keys to a Successful Facebook Page:

Keep administration in the loop. At the very least, make
sure your direct supervisor knows you're creating the page. If you need
data to justify Facebook participation, check out this presentation by Dr. Rey Junco about Facebook and student engagement. If you face resistance to social networking, try these 7 Creative Ways to Introduce Social Media to Your Team. Also, many of the bloggers on this site can offer anecdotal information about Facebook use on their campus
Be intentional when choosing Page administrators. If
you're in the position to have access to more than one potential
administrator, make sure you have a mix of people that (1) have
knowledge about your department, (2) understand the how-to's of
Facebook, and (3) have lots of Facebook friends on your campus (or in
your target audience).
Add content, THEN advertise. Too often staff/students get
very excited about a new social networking opportunity and want to
advertise it to the public right away. I would recommend taking a few
weeks or months to build content (complete your profile information,
add photos and videos, post status updates, etc). If you followed Step 2 and used your well-connect administrators to suggest fans of your
page, word-of-mouth should already have garnered some fan interactions.
Only when your page looks like something that would entice student to
come back should you consider advertising it in official publications.
When you make the decision to do this, take any opportunity you can to
make your social networking presence legitimate. For example, we
provide links to our Facebook Page and twitter account on our
department's homepage.

These three steps should get you started. From here, your
interactions should lead you to develop your Page in the manner that
best serves your population.

Original post

Collaborative Learning / Social Networks / Technology and Programming — View Comments
14
Sep 09

Examples of How I Use Twitter In Student Affairs

Since my last blog post about connecting with students over Twitter, I've had some wonderful responses and conversations. Jeff Lail and I have been having a great on-going conversation regarding practical uses and examples of Twitter in Student Affairs and I thought, why not share it them with all of you?

1. Use Twitter Search to Find Students Who are On Twitter

Every day I do "Twitter Searches" for "Bridgewater
State" and "BSC" in them and try to reach out to students who "tweet"
about anything regarding the school. It's like a living "Customer
Service" line that I want to answer and follow up on. I also follow those users for future tweets and if they follow back, then I send them a Direct Message thanking them and seeing how they are doing at school.

2. Create Opportunities for Conversation

On Facebook, our Campus Center fan page
tries to engage our fans by asking questions and looking for
responses. For example, last Friday, Sept. 11th, we asked "Where were you 8 years ago" and we had 10, very honest and real responses. Remember, while sharing information is important, Social Media is about the conversation.

3. Ask for Opinions

We also will post polls to our followers to gather information and opinions. Our latest poll asked our fans and followers
what our Campus Center "Tag Line/Slogan" should be and it linked them
our online poll, which brought users to our website. The response has been
great so far!

4. Connecting with Faculty

I also reach out to classes using Twitter. For example,
the latest class I found was a Communication class being taught by professor Nancy VanLeuven that is using the hashtag #BSCPR and I try to connect with those students and Nancy. She is a great resource who is using Twitter very well. It reminds me of another great example from the University of Texas at Dallas from professor Monica Rankin. I wish all professors would at least consider doing this!

How are you using Twitter in Student Affairs? I hope this list is helpful, and keep Tweeting!

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Social Networks / Technology and Programming / Web/Tech — View Comments
30
Aug 09

Connecting With Students, One Tweet At A Time

I officially love Twitter. Over the summer, I dove into the Twittersphere and have fully adopted it into my professional life. Even though I've been fortunate to gain a small following on my @edcabellon Twitter account, I've really wanted to grow our Campus Center Twitter account as well. I still believe that students are out there on Twitter, I just needed to find them. Well last night, I did just that.

I signed onto my "@BSCCampusCenter" Twitter account, knowing that First Year students had moved in and many returning students were about to make their trek back to campus. I went through "http://search.twitter.com" and typed in "BSC". As the search completed, many of the results turned in the tweets about the "Hertha BSC" German Football team, but a few turned back some Bridgewater State College commentary. One student's tweets though, stood out:

So I started following her on Twitter, read a few more lines of her Twitter feed, and then started reading her Blog that was linked from her Twitter bio. She had a video blog post up and some very insightful, and well written blog posts. Within about 15 minutes, she started following our @BSCCampusCenter account and then Tweeted:

Well, that got my attention So I read more of her Twitter feed and noticed some BSC references, but nothing too out of the ordinary, so I decided to send her a Direct Message (DM), which is a private message through Twitter that only she would be able to see:

Thinking nothing of it, I went along and continued my search for more BSC students. Within minutes though, I got a DM back, that just blew me away…..

At that moment, it dawned on me. That simple act of connecting and communicating from a BSC office made her feel more a part of the community. Then, in her Twitter feed, I noticed that she had tweeted to everyone:

I was beyond excited! Twitter had given us the opportunity to connect in such a unique way. We hadn't even met in person, yet she felt more engaged with the college. Her view of BSC changed in that one Tweet, at least enough to accept my invitation to come in and meet me and our staff to further our conversation. Her reply?

I will continue to use Twitter to connect with more students in this way and encourage you to do the same! Share this story with your colleagues who still may be weary about using Twitter to connect with students, because it can work!

Best wishes on a great opening for you all!

Cindy

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Social Networks — View Comments
14
Aug 09

Whuffie IRL (in real life) for Student Affairs professionals

Hey folks…

Hope you have chosen to get this book by now…or do I have to keep writing posts about it to convince you? :-) We all know that the school year is about to start up again and I'll have to shift my topics to all things student involvement and leadership. If you're hoping to avoid me because of our back-to-school timeline, Whuffie will still be on the radar and you're out of luck!!

For those just tuning in, I've been posting a lot lately about a book by Tara Hunt entitled The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build your Business. We have explored ideas of changing our approach to social networking through ideas of mutual exchange instead of us just putting information out there and expecting students to flock to our doorsteps. The Whuffie Factor is Tara Hunt's idea of "social capital" and a way we can increase our presence and build community.

We last left off with the idea of "Embrace the Chaos" and I know that by this time of year we've all got a big dose of chaos to embrace, right? One additional principle of increasing Whuffie that comes naturally to student affairs is the idea of "Find a Higher Purpose." This is explored by the author clearly directed at corporate America, with directives like "spread love" and "think customer-centrically." She charges us to "help others go further" and "Doing well by doing good." Well, I'm not even going to devote type space to convincing you that student affairs is connected to this aspect of Whuffie. For goodness sake, "higher purpose" is what is supposed to help us be ok with these low salaries, right?

Her chapter on Whuffie IRL (In Real LIfe) does deserve some explanation for sure. She writes about work by David Macmillan and David Chavis (1986) who published research about community and ways people feel connected. Their four stages:

Feelings of membership
Feelings of influence
Integration and fulfillment of needs
Shared emotional connection

Student activities types… yes, this is just like a recipe for student organization development in a nutshell.

Building your department's Whuffie can help us to take the good work we do each day with student organizations and attempt to bring social media into line as one of our many strategies for building community. Give some thought to the "emotional connection" that users of Twitter or Facebook feel when those communities go down. I think some of our student leaders feel the same way when their meetings end for the year, right? When a community offers feelings of membership, influence, meets needs, and offers emotional connection, there's a formula for student engagement.

It's up to us, the emerging leadership of the student affairs profession, to explore online strategies as one of many ways we can engage students in the good work of our profession.

How do you get started? Hunt offers a checklist for entrepreneurs that I"m going to "Student Affairs-ize"

Step 1: Figure out what you are doing and for whom

If you don't know this already, then I have a strategic planning presentation I can offer. If that's already in line, then consider this in terms of technology. What are you "tweeting" about and who are you attempting to connect through your strategies?

Step 2: Apply the right tools for the right jobs.

Blogs are not going to do the same things as Twitter can do. Your tweets are only as impactful as the people who follow you and if you are blogging to no readers, you're not making a sound. Other posts are talking about how are students might not be tweeting, but will they? How about their parents? You know they are on Facebook, but do you want a fan page or a group? Take time to review what is out there and think strategically about what tools are right for the tasks at hand.

Step 3: Listen, learn and adjust

No blog is going to change lives overnight and your Twitter account needs to build followers before it makes an impact. Use tools to measure how often your work is being read and be active about getting feeback from students. As Hunt advises, you may need to recycle steps over and over until you reach the best approach.

Her Step 4 refers to "wash, rinse, repeat." At this point you have fine tuned your technology strategy and you are already light years ahead of your colleagues. Tech tools and communities will come and go, but we're not the ones developing them. These tools are merely one of many vehicles to reach out to students and help them to become part of our campus communities.

Are you ready to build your Whuffie this year? Is a new approach to social networking part of your department's annual goals?

Thanks for reading these posts.

Step 4:

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