Social media has been a function of college since the birth of social media.
Facebook itself started life as a college only application and many of the other now famous social media sites were dreamt of or “beta tested” during the respective developer’s college careers.
While not necessarily a social media site, Napster started life and gained popularity through college sites.
The access to sheer numbers facilitated the growth of that massive online community. More people created more choices which attracted more people and so the cycle begins and grows. This was bittersweet for Napster in the fact that as the numbers grew so did the usefulness of Napster but the new size attracted new attention of those who wanted to shut it down.
Now it appears, the same cliche’ “Double edged sword” that bit the Universities during the heyday of the the Napster vs. RIAA lawsuits is going to bite these Universities again with social media. A sad fact of life is that where there are a collection of people, there is also a collection of complaints.
To illustrate; I once read a compelling paper which essentially made the observation that the entire human race was a loose collection of tribes, especially and more so today than ever. Granted while that isn’t much of a revelation on the face of it, what was compelling was the fact that we still pursue this drive in modern society.
We are always looking for a tribe to belong to, that we can align ourselves with and share the recognized identity. Your family is a tribe, your workplace is a tribe, the after-work drinking “crew”, your very neighborhood, your state, your country, etc. Even “loners” belong to a “Loner” tribe as that is a societal distinction; you can’t escape.
You decide to put a tag on yourself for others to see how you are aligned, and that, no matter how subtle, is a tribe.
So what do we stereotypically assume that tribes do? In my perception, tribes mostly hunt and go to war. While you can make analogies all day in this regard, and its entertaining to do so, I just want to stick to one of the two functions I described: war.
In the past, and to some extent today, war is declared when a majority or all of the tribe feels wronged about something that they can assign blame to another tribe for. This is the psychology of “mob rules”.
Picture the tribe of “Unnamed College” students, and their shared outrage over some new policy or difficult educator. How it starts is immaterial, but how it ends can be disastrous. If the shared outrage becomes a riot, you can call the Police, but what do you do if the way they make war is online?
Consider the following statistics:
According to a February 23rd 2010 study the average U.S. college student has 87 email contacts, 146 cell phone contacts and routinely has approximately 438 friends across a number of social media networks.
The same study found that college males gravitate toward email and cell phone while college females overwhelmingly have more social media interaction.
Four out of every 10 college students report having a recognized brand on a social network as a friend. The same week a study indicated that there are 50 Million Tweets Per Day.
When you look at other statistics such as a November 2009 Ruder Finn study which reflected that 91% of adults use their Mobile Phones to Socialize, imagine how quickly the fire can start?
This study further revealed that Americans are spending nearly three hours a day on their mobile devices; more than even desktop users.
45% of the study respondents report posting comments on social networking sites, 43% are connecting with friends on social networking sites, 40% are sharing content with others and 38% are simply sharing photos.
Now imagine that a university has put its self in a situation that everyone is talking about……negatively.
In the fall of 2008, more than 4.6 million students took at least one online course—a 17 percent increase over the previous year. 73 percent of schools reported increased demand for their online classes. Now factor in social media sites and their reach.
The U.S. Department of Education analyzed research studies undertaken from 1996 to 2008 and has concluded the following:
1) Online education is more effective than face-to-face learning;
2) Online learning combined with some face-to-face learning (blended learning) is the most effective;
3) Face-to-face learning alone is the least effective method among the three types studied.
This clearly demonstrates a definite need for ORM for school administration, especially the online programs. We have entered a time when Andy Warhol’s prediction of 15 minutes of fame seems conservative, given the many technological ways to make your voice heard and your opinions known.
Everyone has the ability now to create content that is easily accessible, for good or bad.
Thankfully for Universities, there are ways to combat this wave of unsolicited media and solutions to minimize the damage.
There are proven techniques and solutions that can help keep your online reputation intact. If you need to protect your tribe’s online reputation from the many challenges that exist, Metamend has industry proven Reputation management solutions and expertise to assist you.
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