Social Media 101: Understanding the Posts, Tweets, and Information Sharing Phenomenon Holly Nicholson Department of Communications and Marketing Jason Rhode Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center

Opportunities Speak to your audience where they are ― 80% of NIU students surveyed reported that they use Facebook “often” or “always” ― 73% of online teens use social networks (prospective students) ― 66% of online adults (18+) use social media

Opportunities “Everybody else is doing it!” ―95% of college admissions departments are using social media Engage and interact with your audience Cost-effective marketing Quickly answer questions

Challenges Negative feedback Requires updating and monitoring Keeping content social Finding social media platforms that work best for your department

Landscape

There is a social media tool for everyone. PUBLISH > REVIEW > BOOKMARK > DISCUSS > LOCATE > SHARE > NETWORK

Best Practices Be authentic ―Be open about your identity and professional affiliations ―Keep deletions to a minimum ―Admit mistakes, be upfront/prompt with corrections

Best Practices Be sensible ―Check for accuracy ―Use proper etiquette ―Be thoughtful about controversial topics ―Consider consequences of networking with students on personal social media sites

Best Practices Be vigilant ―Be quick with responses ―Keep profiles/pages updated with fresh content Be interesting ―Use a natural and conversational tone ―Post a variety of content using multiple media ―Ask questions

Best Practices Respect Listen Add value Respond Do good things Share the wealth Praise others Don’t “spam” Be real Collaborate Protect yourself, your department, and the university

Policies All social media sites – Be familiar with platform terms of service – Do not post confidential information – NIU foundation is the only agency authorized to seek gift support

Policies Institutional Social Media – Notify Communications & Marketing when developing profile/mobile application – Develop a strategic plan – Adhere to graphic standards – Department sites reflect on the university – Have more than one administrator per page

Policies Non-institutional / Personal Social Media – Be honest about university affiliation – Use disclaimer when discussing university matters – Do not use the NIU logo, especially for promotion – You may link to NIU website/social media profiles – University reserves right to review for compliance – University will not partner with external entities

Social Media at NIU smashup.niu.edu niu.edu/marketing/social media facebook.com/NorthernIllUniv twitter.com/NIULive youtube.com/NorthernIllUniv flickr.com/northernillinoisuniversity foursquare.com/NIULive Search for Northern Illinois University on Google+ Holly Nicholson ∙ Social Media Specialist ∙

Jason Rhode, Ph.D. Assistant Director, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center Northern Illinois University niu.edu/jrhode twitter.com/jrhode

Agenda Facebook Basics Create Page Create Group Create Event Twitter Basics Send Text Tweet with Hashtag Send Direct Message Tweet photo

Facebook 17

Facebook: What is it? Social networking tool, allowing users to connect with each other online Allows individuals to create profiles that include almost anything they want to post Dynamically links users’ information to others with similar information Allows for easy, spontaneous networking accessible online or on mobile devices

Optimized for Mobile Platforms

Native Apps for Mobile Devices

Desktop Clients seesmic.com/seesmic_desktop

7 Things You Should Know… educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutFaceb/

Profiles

News Feed

Wall

Groups

Personal Pages facebook.com/jasonrhodephd

Organization Pages facebook.com/facdev

Events facebook.com/events

Groups vs. Pages No updates No applications No usage stats Open, closed, or secret Not indexed by external search engines like Google Updates directly to user news feeds Can add many applications Usage stats including visitors per day Public Indexed by external search engines like Google Facebook GroupsFacebook Pages

Fans vs. Friends Can view any public posts to a public Page Wall Status updates posted to a Page appear in Fans’ news feed Acquaintances Can post to Page Wall Can view posts to a Friend’s Wall as set via user’s privacy settings Status updates posted to a Profile appear in Friends’ news feed Personal friends & family members Can post to Friend’s Wall Facebook Fans Facebook Friends

Create a Page facebook.com/pages/create.php

Create a Group facebook.com/groups

Create an Event facebook.com/events/create

Facebook Help Center facebook.com/help

Twitter 36

Twitter Described “Part blog, part social networking site, and part cell phone/IM tool. It is designed to let users describe what they are doing or thinking at a given moment, in 140 characters or less” – Educause 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter

Twitter Search

Trending Topics "most breaking" news stories from across the world; hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter

Platform Independent Twitter messages, referred to as “tweets,” can be sent and received from multiple platforms: – Web-based Twitter account – Software client on any desktop or laptop – Twitter app on smart phone – Twitter app on tablet – SMS from any phone The same Twitter account can be accessed from any of the above platforms!

The Web: Twitter.com

Twitter App: Smart Phone

Twitter App: iPad

SMS Account can be configured to allow for messages to be sent via SMS to 40404

_hudson_p.php 45

Election Coverage on Twitter 46

election.html

Haiti Earthquake 48

Following Others Following someone on Twitter means: a) you are subscribing to their Tweets as a Follower b) their updates will appear in your timeline c) that person has permission to send you private Tweets, called direct messages

Followers People who receive your tweets

Anatomy of a Tweet

Hashtag (#) The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

@Mention Any Twitter update that anywhere in the body of the Tweet. (Yes, this means that replies are also considered mentions).

@Reply Public reply to another Twitter user, always beginning

Retweet (RT) Tweet that is reposted to your followers, either by clicking the “Retweet” link on the Twitter website or by beginning a tweet with

Direct Message (D) Private message sent via Twitter to one of your followers

Favorites Favorites, represented by a small star icon next to a Tweet, are most commonly used when users like a Tweet and wish to save it for later.

Lists Collections of other users

More Resources

Send Text Tweet with Hashtag

Send Direct Message

Tweet Photo

Twitter Help Center support.twitter.com

Questions?? Thank you for coming!