Posted by Alexa

It is not necessarily that young people are uninterested in civic involvement; it is that they do not feel that current communication channels allow them to express themselves. This finding from Gerodimos (2012) is interesting because it challenges the common “young people don’t care about anything these days” complaint we hear so often today. It appears that young people want to learn how they can make a difference without having to conform their entire lives to a given civic issue. Organizations should attempt to appeal to them affectively, especially through visual material such as images and videos (no wonder Pinterest is so popular!). Gerodimos’ finding that young people relate better to “real people” reminds me of the debate in the marketing literature about whether a brand’s personality should match a consumer’s actual or ideal self. Recent findings (i.e., Malar, Krohmer, Hoyer, and Nyffenegger 2011) indicate that actual self-congruence has the greatest impact on emotional brand attachment. More than ever, it seems that consumers resonate with media that focuses on the average person rather than a glorified celebrity.

Tufekci and Wilson’s (2012) study of social media use among participants in the Tahrir Square protests is fascinating. I am surprised that even a quarter of their interviewees were women and find it intriguing that women were significantly more likely to use Twitter to communicate about the protest. Clearly, social media allows women to have an opinion, even though they may not have any other opportunities to participate in political activity. Social media turned many of the protest participants into citizen journalists and gave them the courage and social support they needed to participate in the protests. When you think about the power of social media in these terms, it really is quite amazing what it can do.

Loveland and Popescu (2011) find that forum discussions tend to be negative and full of personal attacks. This reminds me of Brian’s blog post from last week, which questioned whether consumers engaging in political discussions on SNSs is really civic engagement or merely trash talk. Loveland and Popescu’s findings seem to suggest that much of the discussion on online forums is trash talk. It seems reasonable to think that what occurs in forums also holds true on SNSs, however, as mentioned by the authors, anonymity may encourage negativity on forums, whereas it is more difficult to be anonymous on SNSs. But I agree with Brian; it does seem like an awful lot of political discussion on SNSs is trash talk, so I wonder if consumers are starting to care less about anonymity.

Finally, I very much enjoyed Rupert Murdoch’s (2006) quote, “to some in the traditional media business, these are the most stressful of times. But to us, these are great times. Technology is liberating us from old constraints, lowering key costs, easing access to new customers and markets, and multiplying the choices we can offer.” In order to survive, corporate media has no choice but to take such an approach. More new media does not have to result in the death of traditional media; it simply means that old media must change with the times and work with new media to offer a dynamic product. As mentioned by Burgess and Burns (2011), Twitter hashtags make it possible for ordinary citizens, political actors, and professional journalists to participate in civic engagement. As users express their own opinions, they will also discuss their opinions on content posted by traditional media sources. Traditional media should view this increased access to “real” people who are participating in the discussion through social media as a major opportunity, not a threat.

Oct

2012

My Abstract: Exploration of New Media in College Recruitment, A look at current usage and future potential

Posted by Meagan Fertig

In today’s society, colleges and universities are utilizing the digital world to send out their message. As many platforms of social media come without financial cost on the institution and have easily quantifiable results in reach, it makes fiscal sense for institutions to take advantage of these platforms. In doing so they not only push out information about themselves to a wider audience, but also to have an increasingly interactive exchange with students researching options for continuing education. This is significant because 68% of college bound students are using social media as a resource for information about higher education institutions (Inigrals & Zinch, 2012).

In “Social Media in Higher Education: A literature review and research directions”, the authors give a comprehensive review of student and institutional usage of social media technology within higher education. Interestingly, the authors point out that today’s traditional age college bound students, born in the mid nineteen nineties, have never known a world in which they did not have access to high speed internet at home or school (Nyangau& Bado, 2012, 6). It would never occur to these millennials to research their options in any other way than through the internet first. In addition to being internet natives, this age group expects a communicative interaction online, not simply a display of information as has previously been provided on university websites. It becomes important then for those in higher education to understand the attitudes of this group of potential students towards new media platforms and online interaction.These can lead institutions to ask relevant questions about their audience and how to address the needs of that audience online.

By understanding how this group of students is using new media, institutions can develop the type of online presence that is attractive to this population of prospects and fills their needs. As Alexandra Tilsley reports in her piece for Inside Higher Ed., “the way to get a high return on investment is to focus on engagement”(2012). Her article includes results of a survey titled “2012 Social Admissions Report” which surveyed more than 7000 students. A look at how students are using the social media in their college search, the survey provides concrete evidence that needs vary from one demographic group to another (Inigral & Zinch, 2012). Through application of this audience awareness, these institutions can increase not only their enrollment figures but can even capitalize on the specific demographic groups their institutions have missed reaching in their prior recruitment initiatives.

One of the largest influences in today’s digital world has been brought on by mobility. Mobility has brought with it the ultimate facilitator of convenient interaction, those that can happen at any moment the student chooses. Smartphones have brought internet usage to a new level, and prospect to institute interaction is no exception. “Mobile 101 for Higher Ed”, another study by Inigral, Inc., looks at the current mobile market and how higher education is adapting (2012). It goes as far as to provide a “cheat sheet” for how institutions can be successful with a mobile plan (Inigral, 2012). Using this type of mobile plan, institutions can be at the fingertips of its desired audience at any time they or the student chooses.

Unfortunately, simply providing more interaction online and stopping the practice of providing hard copies of materials does not mean that institutions have reached their audience. The article “Social Media and Marketing of Higher Education: A Review of the Literature” reviews sources looking at the usage of social media by higher education institutions for recruitment, and if students are using social media in their college research. Evidence showed that college bound students were still using traditional sources such as university printed material and college visits before they were consulting online interaction(Canche, Davis, Charles, Deil-Amen, Rios-Aguilar, 2012). Additionally, the article cites the need for institutions to have a plan in place for using social media, which they don’t always have (Canche et al., 2012). In an article on return of investment through social media in higher education, 78% of the institutions it surveyed said that social media had changed the way it recruited but 29% had no social media plan (Barnes & Lescault, 2012). The message taken from this is to develop a strategy, not simply a social media presence.

As previously mentioned, many of these new media platforms can provide actual reporting on an institution’s reach through that specific outlet. For example, when using Facebook pages or Twitter’s Tweet Deck, administrators receive back data on exactly how much exposure was created as a result of a posting. These features take the guess work out of what is and is not working as a result of online presence utilizing those platforms. Using this data, institutions can tailor the version of themselves to present on each platform that will garner them the most beneficial interaction and exposure to prospective students. Without understanding how to utilize the voice that these forms of new media facilitate, institutions run the risk of being silent and invisible to their prospects.

Barnes, Nora Ganim. & Lescault, Ava M. (2012) Higher Ed Documents Social Media ROI: New Communications Tools Are a Game Changer. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. Retrieved from http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/socialmedia/socialmediagamechanger/

Canche, Manuel Sacramento Gonzalez., Davis III, Charles H.F., Deil-Amen, Regina., Rios-Aguilar, Cecilia.(2012).Social Media in Higher Education: A literature review and research directions. The center for the Study of Higher Education at The University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University. Retrieved from http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hfdavis

Inigral, Inc. (2012) Mobile 101 for Higher Ed. Inigral Insights. Retrieved from http://www.inigral.com/research/mobile-101-for-higher-ed/

Inigral, Inc. & Zinch, Inc. (2012). 2012 Social Admissions Report. Slide Share. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/inigral

Nyangau, Josiah. & Bado, Niamboue. (2012). Social Media and Marketing of Higher Education: A Review of the Literature. Journal of The Research Center for Educational Technology. Volume 8, Number 1. Pages 38-51. Retrieved from http://rcetj.org/index.php/rcetj/article/view/180/264

Tilsley, Alexandra. (2012). Social Networks and College Choices. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/24/survey-examines-how-prospective-students-use-social-media-research-colleges