I’m presenting locally today, and I am grateful to the staff of the University of Rhode Island who are playing host to me. We’ll be talking about how to ramp up their social media presence and also how social media may be impacting the student experience. Whenever I speak to audiences on these topics, I always stress the importance of making sure you go back to basics. There are three simple questions that we all know to ask, but seem to forget in the rush to get online. Don’t get on social media just because “that’s where the students are,” but go in with a plan. Ask yourself:
- Who is your audience?
- What is your GIFT?
- What are your outcomes?
Additional resources that may be of use to the URI staff and others:
- To see examples of colleges and universities using social media in creative ways, check out a list of my Higher Education Social Media Spotlights.
- A modified version of my talk today was given as a keynote at the at the 2014 ACPA Residential Curriculum Institute. Archived here.
- An informative podcast from Higher Ed Live on “How to Manage Social Media in Higher Education: A Guide for Campus Administrators.”
- If you want to hear more about my JetBlue stories, check out my posts on the topic. 🙂
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