Its the institution of higher education that I stroll across Boston common to every day and will proudly become an Alumni of this coming May: Emerson College.
Emerson College is a private Communication and Arts School, located in the heart of Boston, that describes its curriculum and student activities as being innovative, creative and cutting edge. And this statement is mostly correct. Emerson has an innovative course catalog that allowed me to take the Social Media and Marketing course, for which I write this blog, in the first place. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of Emerson’s Student-run Marketing Agency, Emcomm. Other students in different disciplines are able to produce their own radio shows, help publish a magazine or weekly newspaper or be a part of an on-stage production. For such a social, communications-oriented college, one would expect Emerson to embrace new technology and communicate effectively though social media, yet Emerson’s presence in social media networks is confusing, at best.
Here is a Tweet discovered when doing a Twitter search for Emerson College, that seems to sum up this opinion:
The following three things are social media actions that Emerson College is doing poorly at this time:
1. The College has nor created and/or updated an overarching Emerson College account on Twitter, that should unite the individual accounts under the Emerson College umbrella.
2. The College has a Fan Page on Facebook, the the page only boasts 1,731 fans, which is less than half of Emerson’s current student body. By using the Fan Page to broadcast events on Campus and inciting conversation amongst current students and Alumni, there is definitely an opportunity to increase fans and interest in the page.
3. Emerson College has a huge film program, but does not have a YouTube Channel. This would be a great opportunity to feature student work that best represents the program.
Doing well:
1. Individually run accounts: EmersonMarcom, EmersonLibrary, Emerson Alumni, EmersonMafia
These accounts do well in connecting with a specific audience of those of a certain major, or EmersonAlumni. The EmersonMafia is actually run by student and not the college itself, but keeps current and former students informed of one another’s accomplishments and whereabouts.
2. Supporting the adoption of social media in the student body. Emerson offers classes in Social Media and Marketing and is commended yearly as early adopters of social media in the AAF National Student Advertising Competition. Twitter is huge at Emerson, and according to @BostonTweet, Emerson has the highest percentage of students on Twitter in the Boston area: http://www.bostontweet.com/pages/permaLink.php?id=30162. This is a great opportunity to leverage the potential followers that already exist on the micro blogging site.
3.Students who run the orientation program gained internet stardom earlier this year for a video posted on YouTube to incoming freshman. This type of communication, coming from present students and going diectly to incoming students is a great launching point, especially for the orientation program.
http://media.www.berkeleybeacon.com/media/storage/paper169/news/2009/09/17/News/Emerson.Orientation.Leader.Reaches.Internet.Stardom-3806842.shtml
A few suggestions Emerson can use to improve its social media presence are as follows
-Host a live chat with prospective freshmen via Facebook at several points throughout the admission process
-Integrate Emerson’s social media presence by linking to the college’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts, and possibly streaming Tweets tagged with Emerson college. By creating a central location for each aspect of social media, the message will be united and clear.
-Look into innovative ways other colleges and universities are using social media to keep students connected and to inform and assist potential students. One of my favorite approaches comes from Wittenberg University, who ran a summer road trip intended to connect students, alumni, and faculty nationwide. Learn more about their approach here.
I know that some of these things that you mentioned are in the works and some people are doing awesome social media stuff, like Emerson Stage.
http://www.facebook.com/emersonstage
http://twitter.com/EmStage
There has just been a hold put on some of building up social media for a few reasons.