continuing the conversation: social media for comms & pr at the university of melbourne

Continuing the Conversation

Using social media for PR & communications at

the University of Melbourne

David Scott (@dascottonline)Wednesday 27 October 2010

INTRODUCTION: who am I & why am I here?BRAINSTORM: what is best practice public relations & communications online and why?TACKLE PROBLEMS: what are the key points of conflict & concern when operating in media/PR/comms online?

HOW WE DO IT: what is the University doing at the moment?

OPPORTUNITIES: in what areas can the University do better?

THE END: what can we take away?

TODAY

“The old view of online as a separate space, cyberspace, apart from the real world, was an accident of history…Our

social media tools aren’t an alternative to real life, they are part of it.”

Clay Shirky in Cognitive Surplus

BUT FIRST……a little audience participation

ME!It’s all about

What makes for good PR (and customer service)?

What elements make for agood communications

strategy?

? !

Which of these attributes are most relevant to social

media?

"Ideal conversation should be a matter of equal give and take, but too often it is all 'take.' The voluble

talker - or chatterer - rides his own hobby straight

through the hours without giving anyone else, who

might also like to say something, a chance to do

other than exhaustedly await the turn that never

comes.“ Emily Post (1922)

Can you RELATE?

AND NOWFOR A FEW EXAMPLES

The GOOD:

The BAD…

…and the UGLY:

NOT ONCE… …BUT TWICE

SEEMS SIMPLETO DO IT RIGHT, RIGHT?

Pointsof

concern Numbers v Quality

Training

Time

Monitoring

WHAT WE DOAND HOW. AND WHY.

Official Facebook Fan Page (6700 fans), 15+ associated sites

@unimelb 3973 followers, growing at 200/week, plus @uommedia and 22 others

Official YouTube channel: 90 subscribers, 30000+ channel views,

No official ‘central’ presence, Eng/Alumni have accounts, 8000+ photos

Specific MBS, Management & Marketing accounts. Alumni has more?

WE KILLED

WHAT WE GETAND HOW WE CURRENTLY ANSWER

WHAT WORKSAND WHAT WE’VE FOUND DOESN’T REALLY WORK AT ALL

Links

Questions

Surprise!

Doing things in isolation

Broadcasting

TwitPitch

Unimelb Q&A (no shoes)

SUCCESSREALLY CAN BE ACHIEVED

“Why Murdoch was happy”• @Tealou had 1,258 followers – all Murdoch’s

target audience• If 10% of followers considering Murdoch = 125

If 10% negatively influenced = 12 students• 12 students = loss of $450,000 over 3 years, in

addition to damage to their reputation• Cost to save: $15,000 per year

ROI: 2,900%

THE MURDOCH EXAMPLELEARNING FROM OTHERS, VIA THE ‘MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE 2010’

THE CONTEXT: Murdoch University had a similar enquiry to previous examples – negative and wanting help. They picked it up via monitoring and responded

accordingly. This is what that they calculated it was worth…

Other Industry COMPARISON

MACQUARIE UNI VC IS ON TWITTER USYD HAVE NEARLY 18 000 FACEBOOK FANS

…AND RMIT POST NEARLY 40 TIMES/MONTH TO THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE

WE HAVE OPPORTUNITIES…AND ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

CAN WE BE MORE TARGETED OR DO WE NEED TO BE MORE GENERAL?

IS SOCIAL MEDIA ESSENTIAL FOR

EVERY COMMUNICATIONS

CAMPAIGN?

HOW DO WE EXCITE AND ENGAGE OUR STAKEHOLDERS?

WE ARE NOT SUPERHEROE

SBUT NO ONE EXPECTS US TO BE!

CONCLUSIONS