Let’s be clear up front, you’re brand is probably not Coca Cola or Apple.  Unless of course you are Coca Cola and Apple, then welcome.  But, more than likely, the group of people that relate to your organization as a brand is different than your potential customer group.  This is especially true in government and higher education.

While you might have your NASA or your Harvard, where people would proudly where shirts emblazoned with logos prior to building a relationship with you, chances are this is not the case.  Your regular government agency or university is not “sexy.”  And there are so many other agencies or universities that your constituents or potential students probably don’t even know for sure the immense variety of what you do or offer.

It is easier to spend marketing dollars on name recognition, however if no one knows what you offer them, what are you hoping to get in return for this investment?  The same goes for social media, it is harder to build a community with a group of people who do not already know and understand your core brand.

In order to get the most bang for your buck, take a look at the programs and services you offer.  Do you have a top notch state park system?  Do you have a PR program that is resonating with a whole new demographic?  These are the things that will resonate with specific groups of constituents.  If you identify areas to strategically market towards or build communities around, chances are you will be more successful and develop more engaged long-term relationships.

Remember, people care about what your brand/organization means to them…not necessarily what you want them to care about.

Some questions or revelations about social media come out of how you personally relate to businesses and companies.  As I was driving in a small Columbus, Ohio suburb passed several resale shops, I thought to myself about a local shop that I have a relationship with.  I have bought items there and even sold items there.  Several times, the owner has encouraged me to send them pictures of the furniture in our house or to join their Facebook group to share.  Still, I have yet to make the effort.  It doesn’t mean I don’t like the shop or wouldn’t recommend them to someone.  I have just not found any personal reason or benefit to build an online relationship with this business at this time.

I then thought to myself that while I have not friended or liked this business, if they sent me a friend or fan request, I would probably approve it.  Should I expect this business to be proactive?  No, but it might be beneficial to them.

• Let’s suppose the company takes the time to invite new customers to like them on Facebook;
• The new customer, having had a hopefully positive experience, may be more likely to accept the request and potentially build on the relationship.
• The customer may find out more about the business that would increase their patronage, or they may share information about the business with other friends.
• This step happens far more quickly than relying on the customer to take the initiative to search and “like” the business on their own.

Sure, this is an ok idea for a small business, but how would you feel about a large corporation doing this?  Would it annoy you if Apple immediately asked you to like them after you bought your iPad? Or if Travelocity wants you to like their travel gnome after you book that flight to Vegas?

What about Government?  Would it creep you out if a state park asked you to like them after you stayed over night at a park lodge?  What about after you renewed your plates at the BMV (you bought the new license plate, so know they ask you to like it.)  What about the IRS after you pay your taxes?  Ok, perhaps that goes a little too far…

I do see the potential benefit for Higher Ed.  A student comes for a college visit or enrolls for the first time, and they receive a Twitter follow or a Facebook request.  Somehow that doesn’t seem as threatening.  Now the student is able to build a relationship with the University and other students.

So what do you think?  Is it more authentic and more valuable to let the customers come to you?  Or, does it make sense for companies and organizations to be proactive and find their potential friends/fans online first?

Once upon a time in business, government, higher ed, non-profits…somebody somewhere must have been responsible for encouraging organizations to adopt email.  This post dates me, but I imagine a time in the 1980’s when businesses still relied on carbon copies, phone calls, and letters.  And maybe people had personal word processors…but hardly anyone had networked, online computer systems. (I seem to remember my parents starting to use computers at work in the early 1990’s.)

Who were the people that stood up within these respective fields and said “There’s this thing called email and we need to look at the business implications”?  And why are we not hearing their stories or advice more?  I, personally, would love to know how these advocates and evangelists convinced people that email was a good thing.  I want to know, were there immediately guidelines issued for email use?  What were the roadblocks or crisis communications situations that occurred?

I have yet to meet any self-identified email evangelists.  I have to believe they are out there…but I have no hard proof.  What happened to them?  Have they retired, moved on to other innovations, etc.  I think there are things we could learn from them about social media and the potential stumbling blocks we face.  We are trying to change the way we do business, just like these email evangelists must have done.

If you have encountered any of these thought leaders from the email revolution, I have a few questions:

• Who was responsible for helping government and higher education see the light?  How long of a process was it to gain buy-in and adoption?
• If you have talked with these people, where are they now and what advice have they given you regarding social media?  Do they support social media in business?

What do you think we could learn from the email revolution?

Some higher ed institutions obviously got the memo on social media.  For instance, my alma mater Carnegie Mellon University is very active in social media and even has two students who will be doing fellowships with Facebook.  Another Twitter friend, Shannon Paul, brought up her alma mater Madonna University’s engagement in social media just last week.  But there are other institutions (and specifically the academic side) who either haven’t looked at the potential or have been shut down by the administrative side.

Many of you know that I work in both government and higher education.  Higher ed did not have the same call to action as the government sphere through the Obama campaign and the change of administration.  When the President took office, the White House got it’s own New Media director and agencies followed suit.  Universities that were not technologically proactive are now feeling the push to figure out what to do with social media.  Just like in Gov 2.0 or the business realm, administrators fear losing control of the messaging.  They worry that folks engaging in social media will be off message or off brand, embarrass the institution, and cause more harm than good.

Fearing social media is healthy to a certain degree (we should respect the potential dangers) but this fear can also be short-sighted and it postpones the inevitable discussion.  The reality is, students already expect and consume information digitally.  If we expect to recruit, retain, and engage with students, we must consider how social media effects our strategic plans. I have found that the adoption of social media in an institution generally relies on internal champions who speak up with conviction.  Who will rise up and speak on behalf of your faculty? Of your admissions office or your development office or your alumni office?  So many areas of higher education can be impacted by social media, which leads me to…

My Challenges to Those of You in Higher Education

Lead by Example

Know the space. Get your feet wet in social media personally.  Listen first.  If you feel comfortable and confident in your knowledge, contemplate how social media may integrate into higher education.  Knowing you can’t necessarily change the institution’s policies overnight, focus on what you can change.  Speak with conviction about what you know well.  Find advocates who believe in you and the potential improvements.  Mentor others so that more faculty and administrators begin to consider the impact of social media on higher education.

Utilize Social Media Resources in Research

The Library of Congress will be home to Twitter’s 50 million plus tweets since 2006.  How might this impact your research?  The Pew Research Center is already talking about it in a recent Washington Post article.  I challenge you to consider how these types of resources can be used professionally.

Connect with Thought Leaders

When Gary Vaynerchuk launched Crush It! we talked about how he might get it into college classrooms.  I checked back with him recently and the list of colleges using the book include Champlain College, UC San Diego, NYU, Grand Valley State University,Emerson College, and several others.  Knowing the impact Gary’s book has had on social media and business communities, I was surprised by who’s not on this list.  What this tells me is that professors and instructional designers don’t know enough about social media, who the thought leaders are, and how they might integrate this type of resource into their classroom or online course.

New books by social media thought leaders are released frequently, and some have even made the New York Times Best Seller list.  I encourage you to check out Trust Agents or Engage, just to name a few more. If this literature is shaping the current business world, your students should at least be aware of it.  And the great thing about these thought leaders is that they are generally accessible and even excited to provide information to students and academics alike.

Integrate Social Media into Classes

Something I try to do with my classes is consider how social media might impact the discipline.  For instance, with my media relations and crisis communication class, what might my students need to know about the role of social media?  This isn’t limited to communications or technology disciplines.  Consider how social media might impact political science, music, history, or psychology.  I encourage you to expand your assignments by asking students to read or comment on blogs, subscribe to RSS feeds, search twitter regarding current affairs, or listen to a webinar or podcast.  This will enrich their experience and provide a contrast to their scholarly research.

Recently, my friend Chris Brogan said that talking about social media is boring, but doing social media is not.  This post is a little bit of both.  While many feel that they have this social media thing figured out, there are still those organizations who are just getting started.  I want to make sure that you don’t feel stupid or like a fish out of water…I want to encourage you to take it slow and really get to know the social media environment.  Many schools are rushing to add classes specifically on social media, digital marketing, etc.  My question is, how can we teach social media if we don’t use it or understand it? 

Let me know how you are working to integrate social media into higher education.  What else needs to be done?  Where does social media fit into the university’s strategic plans?

Higher education is seemingly lagging behind government on the mass-adoption of social media.  Why is this?  You’d think that the bureaucracy of government would far surpass that in a college or university.  Sure, some higher ed institutions have been quick to jump on board.  We have Tufts University who is already accepting college essays via YouTube and my alma mater Carnegie Mellon University with humanized Twitter personas.

From my experience, government’s development and distribution of social media policy was based on a few important factors.  For one, we wanted to encourage employees to use social media strategically and inline with business goals and objectives.  Along the same lines, we wanted to get something established to reign in potential employees who might abuse social media.  Providing policy is a proactive step so that employees understand what is expected of them.  Let us also not forget another important factor—the presidential election.  The Obama campaign highlighted social media as a key component in their victory.  This led many government leaders to consider the benefits of social media not just during the election but also during the regular course of government business.

So, getting back to my question, why is higher education so far behind on adopting and participating in social media?  From what I can see, they have the potential to gain even more than government.  Institutions have the potential for increased enrollment, better retention, increased brand awareness, larger donations, and more.  And let’s be clear…by adopting and participating I do not just mean creating an account or setting up a profile.  I mean truly bringing social media into the fold of a comprehensive university strategy. 

What do you see as the roadblock?  And why have other institutions been able to get around this earlier than others?