Bridging the Gap 2011 – How Your School Should Be Using Social Media
Erik Qualman, Academic Keynote Speaker – Bridging the Gap 2011 Social Media Conference
I had the opportunity to attend Bridging the Gap 2011 – Social Media Conference at Suffolk University last week. I was fortunate to sit in front of some of the most knowledgeable people in social media. Since I learned a lot of valuable information, I will be writing a blog entry for each speaker/panel from the event. Since Effective Student Marketing is in the education industry, I am applying what I learned to that.
The event’s Academic Keynote Speaker was Erik Qualman, author of one of favorite books, Socialnomics (if you haven’t read this book yet, you need to). Erik spoke about social media and how companies, organizations, businesses, and in this case schools, should be using it. Social media should be used as a listening tool. From a professional standpoint, I don’t think many schools take advantage of this. Use social media to its fullest advantage to monitor your school’s reputation. Reputation Management is a long, ongoing process, but it is essential. Your school’s role on social media is to:
The pattern of big error is that schools are not reacting to anything being said about them. Also, schools think it is all about Facebook “likes,” but it’s not. Facebook’s competition hasn’t been invented yet, but it could be tomorrow! Once your school’s competition is invented, your Facebook fan base isn’t going to follow you to your new platform. This is why it is important not to pay for your “likes” on Facebook, but to expand your presence on that particular platform naturally.
So remember, it is extremely important to utilize social media as a listening tool. People are talking about your school… but are you listening?
