Social media is not a must have
When people ask me about things like Twitter, Facebook or the value of other social media platforms, I’m always quick to tell them that social media is an investment. 
What that means is, just because other colleges and universities are using social media, you shouldn’t jump into the media simply because you think you need to keep up.
Many of us in the higher ed blogosphere are early adopters or people who evangelize technologies because we’re adept at using these tools. But it’s important to understand your institution and your wherewithal to support the development and management of new content.
If you need to update content on your web site, you probably shouldn’t worry as much about whether you have a huge presence on Facebook or. Why? Because it’s not guaranteed to be here tomorrow. No social network is. Once you’ve made a huge investment extending your brand to the platforms, how do you recover it once they go away?
The three keys to remember about social media deployment are:
1. Doing it wrong can hurt you, more than it can help you.
2. Learning and maximizing any new technology takes time and money. Without the personnel to effectively deploy and utilize these tools consistent with your messaging, you’ll found yourself floundering on another platform. With more work to do.
3. All of the social media in the world won’t revive a moribund institutional brand with no focus. You have to create a cohesive message and promulgate that in all your other areas of marketing, to extend your value into social media.
Social media is not a must have, despite how many people will tell you that’s where you need to be. You have to make a commitment and provide adequate resources or your efforts are likely to fall short. There’s a great deal of value in these tools and it’s incumbent for institutions to start pushing the envelope; not just in how these tools are used, but how their teams are structured to maximize benefits, break down silos and create better information sharing within institutions.
But make no mistake, social media is not a low-investment, high-yield tool. It requires attention and dedication to achieve success.
Illustration by Matt Hamm, used under a Creative Commons license.
No related posts.
04/03/2009
3 responses to Social media is not a must have
Pingback: The Importance of Networking: Greek Life vs. Social Media | Jessica's Musings
Thought provoking blog post – I just linked to it in my own blog. Really interested to read views of the possible downsides of using social media tools. I frequently see staff developing Facebook groups etc for their own groups of students, which raises two main issues: firstly a lack of equaliy in student experience and secondly, no insitutional cotrol over material published in the way centralised web pages are controlled.
Good post. It would be interesting to do a survey to find out just what kind of resources are being put into social media.