Social Media

Twelve days ago, a second-generation alumnus of my university, the College of William & Mary, created a Facebook Page for his alma mater.  In less than two and a half weeks, membership exceeded 1,700, roughly 30% of the current student body.  Without any advertising or self-promotion whatsoever, this anonymous individual instantaneously had an audience almost certainly greater than that of the Flat Hat or Virginia Informer, two of the largest campus newspapers.¹

Although we’re fortunate that this individual is a proud graduate of the College and a responsible steward of its Fan Page, I am dismayed that this is the effort of a former student rather than the actual administration of the university.  In not embracing the powerful tool of social media, the College of William & Mary lost a valuable opportunity to officially communicate and interact with its student body, faculty, and staff via a website so popular it costs United Kingdom companies at least $250 million dollars daily.

Why social media should be a must

The Facebook Page is one of the most basic and easily accessible forms of social media available to a university like the College of William & Mary.  I’ve created a few since the medium was launched last year, and it’s safe to say that the process of designing and implementing such a page can take less than 30 minutes if the creator is at least somewhat Facebook-savvy.  As Facebook pages are virally integrated into the Mini-Feeds of connected users, it takes no time at all to accumulate members, such as the 141 per day that the William & Mary Fan Page did.

Other forms of social media and social networking such as Twitter and blogs provide excellent methods of reaching, educating, and interacting with a webwise student body.

Once members are established, keeping them informed of changes, updates, and other messages is extremely simple.  If you were to take a seat in any crowded lecture hall on campus, you’d spot at least five to ten students browsing Facebook on their notebook computers; being integrated on Facebook increases the chances that students will be browsing information you’d like them to see when they aren’t focusing on the topic at hand (certainly the lesser of two evils).

The benefits of social media extend beyond Facebook, too– other forms of social media and social networking such as Twitter and blogs provide excellent methods of reaching, educating, and interacting with a webwise student body.  William & Mary Rector Michael Powell, at a recent Convocation address, called the incoming class a “generation of YouTubians.”  While Mr. Powell was forward-thinking in recognizing this, I wonder why the rest of my own campus has not yet caught up.

Why colleges should control their own social media outposts

I mentioned earlier that it was a disappointment that a student had created the page, rather than the College’s administration.  Here’s why.  First off, it is not immediately clear that the page is unofficial and is run by an alumnus.  Often on social media sites, first impressions stick, and many users may not even take the time to question whether a social media outpost is legitimate.

What’s to keep a rival school or organization from creating a defamatory page, aimed to cause harm?

When such an outpost is not handled officially, all sorts of unpleasant circumstances may arise, the least of which is the devil of misinformation.  If data on an unofficial Facebook Page contradicted information on the official homepage of the university, confused students wouldn’t know what to believe.  Even scarier, prospective students, parents, and other groups who don’t know better could easily find themselves at the mercy of the third-party outpost.  What’s to keep a rival school or organization from creating a defamatory page, aimed to cause harm?  Although such libel would quickly be detected and caught if released under the umbrella of traditional media, if a college is not keeping an eye on its online reputation, such destructive influences could easily fly under the radar.

Lastly, colleges and universities often have many more resources than a single individual working alone.  William & Mary has access to a myriad of photos, articles, interviews, and other materials it could use to really make its web presence shine.  Instead, the student-created group uses one lackluster photo that looks like it was scanned out of a newspaper, unlikely to dazzle anyone.

What should colleges and universities do?

If colleges and universities wish to employ any social media leverage whatsoever, and I highly recommend it, it’s essential for them to establish or gain control of their brand on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, and Digg.   More is better, but the aforementioned services will provide the biggest bang for the buck.  If administrators are unwilling to go digital or are uncertain how to proceed, it’s highly likely that several to many students have the technical know-how to do what’s necessary. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to reach your students, faculty, and staff.

Your turn

If you’re a student at a high school, college, or university, how does your institution use social media effectively?  How does it fail?  If you’re an administrator, why do you choose or eschew media for promoting and interacting with your school?  This is an extremely important discussion and I’d love to hear some new viewpoints.

If you enjoyed this article or want to do further reading on a similar topic, I highly recommend Corvida’s post entitled, “Social Media and the 4 Tools I Wish My University Used.” Corvida is a highly renowned blogger whose specialty in social media makes her a true resource.  If you have any questions for me personally, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch with me by reading my Contact page.

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1. I’m corrected in the comments that these newspapers do have large readerships, but keep in mind these necessitate enormous amounts of manpower, effort, and financial resources as well. [↩]

A recent and interesting article to come out of Child and Adolescent Mental Health is a brief discussion of the possibilities of using social networking sites, such as MySpace, as counselings tool to engage adolescent clients.  Clemens, Shipp, and Pisarik (2008) recommend in a recent Practitioner’s Toolkit that mental health experts: a) be aware of social networking sites, and b) be knowledgeable about such sites in order to utilize these services as an occupational tool.

Summary

The amount of information that is generally shared on a social network profile, along with the interactions and encounters that take place and are digitally recorded on such sites, provide a wealth of resources at a mental health professional’s disposal for adequately meeting the needs of developing individuals.  Clemens et al. suggest two approaches for approaching this data:

1. Use reflection on the individual’s social networking profile as ‘homework.’ If the user steps outside of his or her own perspective for a moment, what does the profile in question say about him or her?  How does a MySpace profile, for instance, shed light on the different facets of the individual’s personality?  Insights arising from this private or shared introspection may guide future sessions.
2. Have the individual share his or her social networking profile with the professional. The writers suggest this may prompt revealing answers to certain questions such as “in what way does your online profile capture who you are?”  If the psychologist is able to remain impassive and non-judgmental through this process, such a mutual exploration can be extremely rewarding.

Clemens et al. appropriately warn of the level of trust such an openness requires and how sensitive the material posted to social networking sites can be.  The article aptly explains:

Looking over a MySpace profile together might be akin to a client handing you an invisibility cloak and inviting you to tag along on a Friday night to help them make sense of how they are acting in the presence of a group of friends.

In closing, the authors state that social networking sites such as MySpace remain an “untapped resource for mental health professionals.”  Much more work needs to be done to explore frameworks for counseling via these sites, but the benefits are potentially enormously rewarding.

Thoughts

It’s great to see mainstream psychologists utilizing the wealth of information available within social media to assist other human beings.  Although simple observations, such as the ones in this article, barely scratch the surface of the sheer amount of data on human interactions contained within these different services, it’s essays such as this Practitioner’s Toolkit entry that provide the foundation for future quantitative research.  There’s a need for psychologists to become more familiar with social media and online networks in general as more and more relationships are fostered, strengthened, or continued online.

As research continues, I suppose we’ll discover more specific causes, effects, and correlative factors between social networking personae and real-life interactions. For now, though, I’ll happily settle for foundational explorations such as this one.

Clemens, E.V., Shipp, A.E., Pisarik, C.T. (2008). MySpace as a tool for mental health professionals. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 13(2), 97-98.