UM-Flint University Relations (UR)

Commencement is always a big day for content on a college campus. Traditionally, a Commencement day at the University of Michigan-Flint will see a spike in social media traffic. April 29, 2012 was no exception. But this post isn’t about Facebook visitors or Flickr photo views.

The real story this year is this: The 2012 Spring Commencement ceremonies were the first ever to be live-streamed on the web. After years of trial and error, and with the help of the very determined staff from Mediated Classroom Services, the stars aligned and UM-Flint’s Commencement was opened up to a world-wide audience.

I could list for you all of the reasons that a live-stream of Commencement is so important to a university community, especially a university with such a diverse international population. Instead, I offer you this note received by University Relations the week after Commencement.

I just wanted to tell you that my family back home in India was so very happy to be able to see my commencement ceremony online. For some reasons they were not able to make it to the US for my graduation, but they were so excited and proud to have watched this moment live! My mother has asked me specially to contact those who made this possible and I thought you would be the best person for that. Thank you so very much for enabling this feature and making our graduation a memory of a lifetime. Please continue this feature for us international students and for others who have family in other parts of America.

On April 29, the live-stream of Commencement was viewed in 15 countries, including India, Oman, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Syria, Canada, Germany, Austria, Thailand, Switzerland, and Ghana. In addition, there were over 500 viewers from within the United States. Because Commencement was available online, a brand new audience was able to join in the excitement of the day and celebrate the accomplishments of the newest class of UM-Flint alumni.

And I’m so glad to have been part of it.

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communications Specialist

For those of you just tuning in, we in University Relations are formalizing UM-Flint’s social media strategy following a five-step process: goal-setting; choosing social media channels; messaging and communication; evaluation; and adaptation. We’ve decided that we’re going to grow and nurture UM-Flint’s connection with its online community, and we’ve determined by which channels.

Now the hard(er) part. How do we accomplish these things we’ve set out to do? What do we say? Where do we say it? All this and more!

A good starting point is to consider our audience. If we were just venturing into social media, we would have identified a target audience when we set our goals. In our case, though, we’re able to look at our existing audience and learn a few things. For each channel (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) we can determine:

• Who is our audience?
• What subjects/information/content will likely be of most interest to them? (Here, we can examine past precedent and instead ask, “What subjects/information/content is best received?”)
• What is our audience expecting of us?
• How can we best serve and be a part of our communities?
• What content and messaging will help us accomplish our goals?

By and large, the audience that engages with the university most through social channels is current students, followed by prospective students. From each of these groups, we get comments and questions about deadlines, admission, events, campus way-finding, etc. We’ve determined that people like to know what’s happening on campus, they want to be able to provide feedback to the university, and they like to see themselves and their peers featured in photos and videos.

With these observations in mind, and using our goals (to grow our communities and increase participation) as guides, we can can begin to determine what sort of content is best suited for sharing with our communities. We know that the communication is going to be fluid. We can’t predict what conversation we’ll be having tomorrow, next week, or later this year. But as we decide what conversations to start and what messages to share, we can be mindful of what is of the most interest to our audience(s).

And something we can’t forget: Where will we find or gather the content we need? In University Relations, the staff meets at 9am each morning to share ideas for content. We talk about what’s happening and what we might want to discuss, where content might be best shared, what content we need to collect, and what content we need to prepare for. Down the road, we plan to create a content calendar to help us be mindful of annual noteworthy content.

The next step in our strategy process is to evaluate our methods. Luckily, even though we’re just now formalizing our strategy, we’ve been operating in this way for some time. Instead of implementing our strategic decisions for some amount of time and then checking our progress, we can jump right into measurement. And that’s what we’ll do next. Are we on the right track? We’ll soon find out!

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communications Specialist

If you’ve been following the formalization of UM-Flint’s social media strategy, you may recall that the team in University Relations recently set official social media goals for the university. These goals centered around the growth and engagement of UM-Flint’s online communities. If we continue through the cycle as we’ve outlined it, the next step is “choosing social media channels.”

Given that the university is already engaged on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and Foursquare, we’re clearly not choosing channels from scratch. Instead, our decisions concern the channels on which to focus our energy. Which channels offer the greatest potential for building community?

If we were starting from scratch, this would be the time for research. We’d ask questions like:

• Who do we want to reach/engage?
• Where are these people already engaging online?
• Which channels that will best allow us to connect and engage?

However, because we’re working a little backward, we have the advantage of seeing what’s been successful thus far. Our data tells us that:

• Facebook is the most successful channel for us in terms of connection and engagement. As of this writing, the UM-Flint Facebook Page has more than 7,400 total likes with a potential reach of over 2 million. Engaging successfully with this audience will increase the likelihood that our content is viewed and shared.
• With nearly 1,500 followers, the university’s Twitter account has considerable potential. There is some work to be done toward quantifying engagement and reach, but there has been a growth of interaction between followers and the @umflint account, as well as an increase in the use of the #umflint hashtag.
• And then there’s YouTube. The videos on UM-Flint’s YouTube channel have been viewed nearly 80,000 times. Over half of those views occurred on the YouTube channel itself. The content we post is being consumed on YouTube, not just where we embed videos on the web. We’re not going to get the interaction on YouTube that we get with Facebook or Twitter, but we do need to contribute more content to our channel and give users more good stuff to find.

All of this isn’t to say that we should ignore or abandon other social networks. We will continue to use Flickr for event photos, add tips to Foursquare, and brainstorm ways to utilize new tools as they come along (Google+? Pinterest?). But as we move forward toward the goal of building and engaging communities in measurable ways, we will focus on our biggest assets. With this narrowed focus, we can more strategically develop our messaging and communication (which is our next step, if you’re keeping track).

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communications Specialist

The UM-Flint Social Marketers Group meets quarterly to talk about topics related to social media and share ideas. Below is a recap of the last meeting.

QR Codes

What is a QR code?

Best Practices

Things to Remember

• A QR code is essentially a link that can be accessed via mobile phone
• Everything in this video:

Other Notes

There was a brief discussion about Pinterest. For some good examples of Pinterest being used in higher education, here are some resources:

“Higher Ed Pinerest Examples and Directory” by EMGOnline

“Best Practices for Pinterest in Higher Education” by Higher Ed Live

Next Meeting

Following a suggestion from the group, the next meeting topic will be measurement and analytics for social media. The meeting will be set for a date in June. If you are interested in this topic or social media in general, we invite you to join our group! For more information, contact Alaina Wiens at alainag@umflint.edu.

 

Joanne Sullenger, 1993

When I arrived at UM-Flint in 2001, I had never heard of the Critical Issues Forum. My first introduction to it was by Joanne Sullenger who was the Vice Chancellor for Development. Joanne always had University Relations design the brochure for the event. So when it was time, Joanne called me into her office for a meeting. What I thought would be a rather quick tell-me-what-you-need-and-when-it’s-due kind of meeting, turned into several hours of explaining to me the importance of the Critical Issues Forum. Always impeccably dressed in a business suit (I don’t think she ever wore the same thing twice), Joanne would explain to me all of her thoughts, plans, and concerns for each of the speaker events. Peering over her glasses at me, Joanne would say, “Jennifer, you know, everything has to be absolutely perfect at Critical Issues.” She was right.

Joanne had the event down to an art and a science. She knew what she wanted, and no detail was left undone. In her exacting way, Joanne would go over and over all aspects of the event while I sat on the other side of her desk, staring at a painted gourd that she had on display. Stargazer lilies on every table—I always wondered if those stargazers were symbolic of “gazing at stars” or famous people, but I never asked. Menus that she fretted and fussed over until they were culinarily perfect. Timelines that had down to the exact minute what everyone was supposed to do and when. Memos and letters were sent out to all the actors who had a role in the event production. It was a little intimidating to be in the presence of one of the all time greatest planners planning such a high profile university event.

In those days, Joanne ran Critical Issues with an iron fist. The doors to the Michigan Rooms where the luncheons were held were kept tightly shut until exactly noon when people were allowed in to claim their seat. Joanne never actually sat at the lunch, but ran around greeting people, making sure everything was just so. The luncheons were always flawless, Joanne ever the gracious hostess. At the end, she would give us all bouquets of stargazer lilies to take back to our offices. The hallways of the second floor of University Pavilion would smell like those lilies for days on end.

Watching Joanne at the Critical Issues Forum made a huge impression on me. From her, I understood that you don’t rest at the event your responsible for—instead, you stay on your feet, you worry, you check, and you do all you can to make things run smoothly. Leave nothing to chance. More than anything else, Joanne understood that she was a steward of Mrs. Thompson’s vision. Joanne keenly felt that responsibility, and she honored it. Many times when I am standing in the room at Critical Issues, I think about Joanne and hope that she would approve of the evolution of the event from those days in the Michigan Rooms. I am grateful for the hours I sat on the other side of her desk, listening to all of her opinions on what makes a great Critical Issues event. No, we don’t have the lilies anymore. The room is bigger. The speakers all do two events instead of one. But the spirit of the event remains, as well as the attention to detail. The stewardship continues.

As a result of Joanne’s care and concern for Critical Issues, we are linking her legacy with this event by naming the 10:00 a.m. sessions the Sullenger Dialogues. It is fitting that we would carve out a bit of this iconic university event in her honor. I think she would be proud, but she would probably worry that I didn’t fuss over the catering menu quite enough. She would be right.

Jen Hogan

As we convened for our official Social Media Goal-Setting Meeting in University Relations last week, I explained my past dilemma to my colleagues. I’d been producing monthly social media reports for nearly two years, all the while struggling to answer the question, “So what?” Because we didn’t begin our social media journey with measurable goals in mind, I had no way to know when we were successful or failing.

And so it began–the examination of what we’d really like the online social spaces for the University of Michigan-Flint to be and do.

We’ve long looked at our social networks as a place to share brand-related content and influence the perception of our brand. But we decided there’s more. We want UM-Flint’s social networks to be online communities, where not only the content–but the experience itself–reinforces our brand.

At the University of Michigan-Flint, everyone matters. 

How does this translate into measurable goals? To begin, we will aim to:

1. Grow UM-Flint’s online communities within in-use and new networks.

2. Increase engagement/participation within communities.

3. Capture “success stories.”

In my last post about social media strategy, I identified five steps: goal-setting, choosing social media channels, messaging and communication, evaluation, and adaptation. I want to be careful to move through these individually and in order. I must admit that we had great conversations about how we could achieve our newly articulated goals across the web and what measurement might look like. I’ll dive into some of our plans in my next posts.

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communication Specialist

Once upon a time, monthly Social Media Updates were produced for UM-Flint. These updates evolved a bit over time, but then the process halted in late 2011. I promise you there is a thoughtful reason. Allow me to explain.

As is the case with many institutions, UM-Flint jumped into the social media game without really considering things like strategy, goals, or measurables. This isn’t to say we entered into these endeavors blindly. We knew that social media were becoming invaluable communication channels. Over time, we have focused and evaluated our efforts. Today, UM-Flint’s social media presence is more intentional and constructive than ever before.

The inescapable truth, however, is that we’ve done things a little out of order. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’re probably familiar with the idea of “Strategy First.” When I’m approached by departments on campus looking to get started with social media, I always advise that any social media effort start with a clear strategy. “Define your goals,” I’ll say. “Identify your target audience and find out where they’re living in social media.” After all, how can we know what content to share or engagement opportunities to offer if we’re not sure who we’re talking to? Or if the people we’re talking to aren’t there to listen? Further, how can we hope to measure our success if we don’t know what our goals are?

Ideally, I believe a social media strategy should be an ongoing process that includes the following steps.

• Goal-setting
• Choosing social media channels
• Messaging and communication
• Evaluation
• Adaptation

If I had to identify where UM-Flint lies in this cycle, I’d place us in the Evaluation stage. We have our social media channels, we communicate our message, and now we’re taking a good, hard look at how well we’re doing. One problem: What was our goal again? How do we know when we’re closer to reaching it? We talk about engagement and reach, but I’d like to know how much of our “engagement” is positive. I’d like to see what percentage of our community is being engaged, and what measures garner the most interaction.

There are so many things to think about and explore. It’s exciting! But the first step is to get back to basics. Even if UM-Flint had set out into the social abyss with very clear-cut, concrete, measurable goals, I’d argue that every goal should be evaluated on some regular basis. By their very nature, our online communities are going to change and evolve–chances are we aren’t interacting with the same audience for very long. And so we’re going to start at the beginning to find out where we are.

My intention is to move through the steps I’ve outlined above, and create new metrics and reporting structures. In the mean time, I won’t be compiling the old-format updates that include numbers of clicks or follower counts, but I will be posting about my progress and findings along the way. Stay tuned!

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communication Specialist

Once again, University Relations set out during the fall semester to discuss undergraduate marketing materials, brand, and perception of the University of Michigan-Flint with Genesee County and surrounding area high school students. We received useful information that included a few observations that we should further review to enhance the focus group process.

Focus Group Results 2011-2012

Commencement is a big day for students, their families, alumni, faculty, and staff. It’s also a big day in University Relations. From event coordination to marketing and communication, every member of the University Relations staff has a part to play on graduation day.

It’s been a long-time goal of ours to live-stream video from Commencement, making the event accessible to viewers all over the globe. With the help of our friends in ITS, we are closer to reaching this goal. Unfortunately, internet connectivity at the event venue proves challenging. A recording of the event was successful and a low-quality stream was achieved, but we are hopeful that we’ll be set for a full-on live-stream of the April 2012 Commencement ceremony.

In the absence of live video this go-round, we did our best to provide a connected online Commencement experience on December 11. A “Connect with Commencement” website was created that featured photos uploaded throughout the day. Tweets using the #umflint hashtag were also collected to help spread the excitement and congratulations.

Our efforts saw the following results:

• 293 unique pageviews
• 1,011 photo views
• Roughly 100 tweets with the #umflint hashtag

So that the community could share their own photos, the website included a slideshow of all photos posted to Flickr and tagged “umflint” on Sunday. No photos were tagged. In the future, we’ll monitor the Flickr traffic during Commencement before promoting this feature on the web.

Overall, we were pleased with the success of our efforts! We will continue working toward a live video web broadcast for Commencement, but the social media integration we achieved this time around will definitely be put to good use from here on out.

Connect with Commencement on your own:

View the December 2011 Commencement photo set on Flickr.
View the Storify archive of the Commencement social media activity.

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communication Specialist

I’m back from Austin, Texas and happy to report that the 2011 HighEdWeb Conference did not disappoint. Two and a half days packed with inspiring presentations were just what I needed to get focused. For a taste of what you missed, many of the sessions were captured via blog by Link: The Journal of Higher Education Web Professionals.

I will spare you my pages of conference notes, but will share a few of my to-dos for the coming months:

• Explore opportunities for interactive mobile content utilizing Foursquare and other channels.
• Make online content more accessible, starting with captions for all university YouTube videos.
• Look for opportunities to work with students who create great content.
• Enhance UM-Flint’s online community by connecting and participating in a more meaningful way.

These things may not sound overtly complex, but each could be major. Expect to see some brainstorming in the realm of social media as we look toward 2012. There is much to think about. We know that social media cannot be used as broadcast channels and that we should encourage feedback and engagement (however we choose to define these terms), but we have to move even beyond a two-way conversation and truly connect with the members of the community we are trying to build.

Alaina Wiens
New Media Communication Specialist

Image Source: ihtatho on Flickr