Recently we launched a site for University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as part of a collaborative project with Neustadt Creative Marketing. The site and campaign behind it is called College.Be and the site lives here. The success of this project hinges on how the current students use it, but the project was born out of trust. UMBC had to trust its students and trust that they understood what this site was all about. You see, the site is a social media aggregator, meaning once a student creates an account and ties in their social media accounts (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) anything they post to those networks gets pulled into this site. And this site is being used to market UMBC to prospective students. The fact that UMBC liked this idea is a sign of a very healthy university and of great students.

I am often asked by admissions and communications folks working in higher ed, “How many Facebook Fan Pages should we set up? One for admissions? One for transfers? One for prospective athletes?” I always respond with a question, “Well, would you become a fan of something you had no idea about yet?” My point is - I doubt prospective students are scouring Facebook looking for schools they may or may not apply to or attend and becoming fans. I also seriously doubt they are giving as much weight to what an Admissions representative has to say as they are to what current students have to say. Thus creating the case for why the in person visits are so critical, as well as why student tour guides should be carefully selected by schools. Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook is a great resource for schools to use to keep in touch with alumni and current students. I just don’t see the tremendous value in relying on it to connect with prospects.

I do think that allowing prospects to connect with current students in social networks they are comfortable within is the ideal scenario, assuming the school trusts its students, and assuming these students understand what it is they are being trusted with. I was pleasantly surprised at how excited and positive the UMBC students were when they were told, “This is a site for you guys to use, but it’s also a site we plan on using to market the school to prospective students. We want to ensure that the right kind of kid knows about UMBC and applies because they see what you all are doing.” They totally got it, and not only did they get it, they have embraced it. Personally, I would have loved this idea back when I was in school. I remember flipping through the viewbook every year, hot off the press, and grumbling to myself about bad photo choices or pictures of students who had graduated 4 years ago. With a site like College.Be I could have jumped online and ensured that every kid looking at my school knew all about it from my perspective.

What do you think? This is a hotly debated subject and I welcome all opinions and thoughts! Also - you can read Mark Neustadt’s thoughts on the project on his blog - here.

If you are one of the many non-believers when it comes to the importance and relevance of social media, I encourage you to take a few minutes and watch some startling stats. Then decide.

I have experienced first hand the fears many clients are facing when I was asked to do a UStream live interview with the guys from Lucky Startups to discuss fly-post, a pet project here at Fastspot. Shortly before getting started, I realized with sudden terror, that absolutely anyone could not only watch the interview, but post comments in the chat room. I have since come to recognize this same fear in the eyes, voices and emails of clients. Which has led me to ask, What are we afraid of? Conversation? No, I think we are all afraid of one thing, criticism.

Until the explosion of social media, most marketing was a one way street. Put your message, brand, brochure, product, commercial, website, whatever - out there in the world, and hope people like it. Now, its not so simple. Now, you have to endure the slew of feedback - good, bad and indifferent. It means we all need to put on our thick skins, and realize that criticisms, while often easily dismissed, can be extremely valuable feedback. In art school we called this critiques. As painful as they could be, those negative comments would force us to take stock and consider our creations, and make adjustments back in the studio. It was literally the life blood of “growth” as an artist.

So I challenge fearful clients and nervous marketers, don’t let this fear freeze you in place. Engage your audiences as they expect to be in this day and age of constant connections, and welcome the criticism. Use these slightly negative or uncomfortable bits of communication as a way to engage in constructive conversations, explanations to your audiences, and perhaps, even, as a vehicle for growth.

Fastspot works with a number of higher education clients and the topic of social media and marketing is a hot one. On one hand, many higher educational institutions are scared pantless of the notion that content might be getting created that they can’t control. They are very used to being tight-handed when it comes to their own marketing materials. But then, social media arrived. Obvious culprits like Facebook and YouTube made it very easy for students to post embarrassing or less-than-”academic” content to share with the world; or, worse yet, hijack what might appear to others as the “official” school Facebook page. Then even more sinister sites like StudentsReview.com and College Prowler came on the scene, promoting student reviews. All of a sudden, it didn’t really matter if colleges and universities thought social media was something beneath them—it was something they couldn’t ignore.

Here is what some schools are forgetting: Your brand, your reputation, the overall impression people have of you is comprised of many things. If I go to a party, get drunk, cause a scene, break expensive things, and offend people, then I will have tarnished my reputation, my personal brand. And, likewise, if I hear that a story is circulating about my antics at the party, I will know that I may meet people who have now formed an opinion about me based on that story. So, I manage my reputation by acting in a way that I feel best reflects who I am and how I want others to perceive me, even people I haven’t met yet. And here’s the real kicker: If I do go out and act inappropriately or embarrass myself, chances are that word will spread fast thanks to the social media networks that are becoming embedded in our daily realities. It’s not only words that are spreading; I should probably expect photos and videos to accompany the posts spreading like wildfire through my social networks about my less-than-optimal activities.

The above situation in corporate situations is called “crisis”. Many PR agencies sell “Crisis Management” services to help these companies deal with bad news in a proactive manner. This is very important for companies; they need to show their board, their stock owners, and the public that they are aware of the realities facing them, and are addressing them head on. However, higher education—especially top tier institutions—face an interesting dilemma. Since part of their appeal to those top-tier-seeking students is their selectivity, the last thing they want to do is advertise any bad news or address any unsavory situations. This creates a predicament: Do schools acknowledge difficult situations, or do they try to ignore them and keep up a good front? Regardless of the decision, schools need to recognize that others outside of their control will be speaking of it whether they like it or not. In my opinion, this makes the case for embracing all the realities—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Talking heads: Twitter avatars courtesy of fixoutlook.com, a Twitter-driven social site.

Now we arrive at the question: How do we embrace the realities being posted about us on these social media networks? Do we create a brochure talking about our Facebook page in hopes prospective students will become fans and get our take on things versus what they are finding elsewhere? Do we write long blog posts about things happening on campus with a positive slant? Do we hire a PR firm or advertising agency to help us spin things the right way?

None of those are the solution to the problem. The fact is, the people colleges and universities are seeking to communicate with are the very people who abhor direct marketing efforts, who can smell spam a mile away, who toss paper into the recycling bin with prickly disdain for the wastefulness of a mailer; all while juggling 20 text message conversations, checking their RSS feeds, commenting on a new video on YouTube, and posting to Facebook that they will not be applying to your school because you just ticked them off. Yes, the generation of the “entitled” and “self-righteous” may be one way to categorize this group. The other vantage point clearly shows a generation who places greater value on peer to peer networks, short blips of information, brands that put stories and reality in the forefront and embrace the “anti-marketing” approach. In the age of reality TV, social networks, blogger reporting, and instantaneous information sharing thanks to the newly-emerging real time sites like Twitter, a long winded page of copy about how great you are has a slim chance of getting any attention, let alone making a connection.

I was once given a very good bit of advice and some clever author made millions on this same tip when they published the book, The Secret. If you want something, ask for it. As a college or university, you undoubtedly have more fans than critics, especially if you consider not only current students, but also your faculty, staff and alumni. Chances are these fans are out there on campus right now, updating Flickr with some beautiful pictures they just took of their newly-decorated dorm room or of a speaker at commencement. Next, they are possibly shooting some video of friends at a party before they head off-campus for the summer. And most of them are probably posting their status, pictures or video to Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. With the exception of Facebook, you can see if my hypothesis is correct simply by going to these sites and searching for your institution’s name, then sorting the results by “most recent”. Amazing. All this great content is being poured out there on these networks, and most of it is probably benign, humorous or even flattering—it is, most importantly, real. Here lies the gold vein glittering in the mountain side. Now, how do you mine it?

Let me back up a bit and talk about Twitter. One of the reasons for Twitter’s meteoric rise to fame and popularity was due to the open platform on which it was developed. Any programmer can easily create their own app or Website, tweaking the way in which Twitter’s feeds are displayed and managed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of third party apps and Websites now jockey for a slice of this ever-expanding user group, and Twitter is happy to have so many dependents riding on its platform.

This idea isn’t new; it’s been a critical element in the success of earlier Websites like YouTube and Flickr. This concept of aggregation allows users to access, gather and arrange all this great content in any variety of ways which cut down on the need for redundant behaviors (like uploading videos to multiple sites; who has the time?), makes sharing content in multiple places easier (I update my status in Twitter and it feeds into my wall on Facebook), and helps users stay connected with an ever-expanding social network. I get comments on my video, my blog, my Facebook status, a new follower on Twitter and I know about them all thanks to my handy email alerts. I check my RSS reader to see if any new mention of my brand has appeared on Twitter, on a blog, anywhere on the internet. I review Google Analytics to see who was visiting my Website, what they were doing and how long they were doing it. Are you seeing the trend here? All this information, content, everything—its portable and malleable. And trust me, the companies who are winning the battle to have the most users on their sites are spending millions ensuring they keep them there—by giving them what they want.

So, the key is to ask your fans to keep doing what they are doing, but ask them to allow you access to certain parts and in certain ways. You are asking them to become ambassadors for you, empowering them to shape the future of the place they love so dearly by being their own “reality TV star”. Of course, you will be keeping a close eye as some ambassadors may get overzealous or misguided in their efforts, but you won’t tell them that. As you find the real gems in their mix, you will encourage them further by giving them a $100 Flip Cam to ensure they can make a video of graduation; highlighting their photos or blog posts; praising them for their witty status updates. And you use the power of these open networks to aggregate all this great content into your very own social media site. You’re saying to your prospective students, “Here, have an unfiltered, non-marketing, authentic and real look at who we are. If you like what you see, get in touch.”

They’re there browsing the photos being pulled in from Flickr and the newly-uploaded videos from YouTube, and considering following some of the students on Twitter who are posting interesting things. Guess what? You just tricked them into letting you market to them. Now you are speaking their language, giving them what they want, and staying out of the way. You are letting them decide to share a funny video within their own protected network of friends, comment on something they find interesting, or simply browse through the short, random, unmediated blips of data which form their opinion of you. You have the confidence of knowing you do in fact have some control over what has made it to the site, while also knowing these visitors are now less likely to seek that kind of user generated content out on their own. Why bother? It’s just been served up to them in one convenient location.

Note: Facebook is one gigantic exception to this scenario due to their limited accessibility to outside programmers. However, they are slowly moving towards a more open network as a necessity to stay as relevant as newly-emerging networks such as Twitter. We hope to be pulling in Facebook profile data, wall posts and photos in a matter of months.

So, we propose this to our higher education clients: Are you giving your prospectives what they want? If not, we suggest you get in touch, we have lots of ideas to share with you on how to go about doing this. And, make haste as you read this because another photo or tweet or video that may be painting your institution in a less than vibrant palette is probably making the rounds out there somewhere.

Here are two sites that are using user generated content to promote their own marketing agendas:
Sharpie
Baltimore City
We expect to be adding to this list soon, and if you have any great examples please let us know!

The first step is to set up a Twitter account and username. (You hopefully already know you do this at Twitter.com) Your username should reflect your organization and you should include all of the requested information within the “Settings” fields. Make sure you include an email address that is monitored; you will receive email notifications of new followers and any direct messages (private messages) you receive at this address.

Make sure you include the link back to your Website and the copy in the “One Line Bio” field that explains who you are and the purpose of your Twitter account; this can also be your organizational one line bio. Here is a critical reason why you should ensure your bio info and picture are unique: When you follow someone, they will see you in their list of “Followers”; all they will see is your username, real name, and picture. If they hover their mouse over your username, they will be able to take a quick look at your one line bio and this usually prompts them on whether they will follow you back or not. If you don’t share information about who you are, people will be less likely to want to follow you back, or even follow you at all.

If you choose, include your real name and upload a portrait vs. a logo. There are some studies supporting the notion that people prefer to make a personal connection as compared to following a corporate presence. Also, customize your profile. Don’t leave the default Twitter visual settings—picture, design, colors, etc.—in place.

Managing Twitter

Whoever is managing your Twitter account should be willing to “tweet” several times a week at the very least on topics related to your organization and area of focus. Ideally, you should contribute useful content, links of interest, upcoming program or event information, etc., as often as possible. The more content you contribute, the more likely you are to gain visitors who may be searching for words included in your tweets or simply watching the public timeline. You will also appear more “active” to a prospective follower, which will encourage not only more followers but “retweets”. Remember, Twitter is quickly becoming a search resource, so the more content you have out there and the more your content is “retweeted”, the more likely you are to grow your audience.

The person managing the Twitter account should also be available to answer questions and should browse Twitter’s search engine (http://search.twitter.com) for any mention of your non-profit or other related topics. It is important to keep the account active so potential followers will feel that they will get interesting posts and answers to their questions. We recommend you check your Twitter account for posts directly to you in the form of public tweets or private messages. You will also be able to see in the @username listing if anyone has mentioned your twitter account in a message to another Twitter user. If you see anyone mentioning you, make sure you follow the contributor or reply to a question they may be asking.

Twitter protocol is rather vague, but here are some good rules to follow: If someone follows you, follow them back; however, when you review your followers, we recommend you take a close look at each follower’s bio (by hovering your mouse over their username in your “Followers” list on the Twitter.com Website). Make sure they aren’t a spammer or completely unrelated to your organization. Follow anyone that seems to be a legitimate person or organization. You can always opt to “Unfollow” them anytime in the future or block them if they become a pest.

Twitter Tools and Applications

There are many useful Twitter desktop and mobile applications which make the service even more powerful than it is in the twitter.com browser experience. Consider using TweetDeck for your desktop application. If you are using a BlackBerry or iPhone, try out different apps until you find one you like. TweetDeck lets you spread out all of your messages and replies and sort those you follow into categories, which makes staying up on the posts much easier.

TweetLater.com lets you set tweets up to be automatically sent out over the coming hours and days. It’s a very useful Website if you are going to be traveling or want to enter a batch of tweets but not have them all go out at the same time—something we don’t recommend doing, as you will annoy your followers by taking up the entire browsing space with all of your posts.

I am a big fan of Twittelator Pro on my iPhone, but have heard great reviews of other iPhone Twitter apps, as well. Each has its pros and cons; try a few of the free versions out and see which one suits you best.

Another tip and perk to using an application like TweetDeck is the built-in URL shortening functionality. This will automatically shorten long links to be more Twitter-friendly and take up less space. Additionally, Twitter apps usually include tools for embedding pictures in your posts. Most studies show that tweets most likely to be clicked on, generate followers or get retweeted include links or pictures. The Website Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/) also allows you to create shorter URLs, as well as track your click through rates.

Twitter for Marketing and Promotion

Here are some great ways to consider using Twitter to promote your marketing and communication initiatives—and grow overall awareness of your non-profit.

Generate traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your Websites or the sites of partner organizations. If you ask your Twitter friends to tweet about it (”retweet”), the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up.

Remember, don’t be afraid to join the conversation. If you see someone asking a question or asking for advice, jump in! Also, if you want your message to be spread, ask users to retweet it for you. Usually, if you end your post with “Pls RT” (RT meaning “retweet”) and keep your original post short enough to make the RT easy, you will get your post spread to more readers.

Tip: Since each tweet is limited to 140 characters, if your original post is 135 characters and you ask people to retweet it for you, their newly-created message will automatically be too long. retweets append the post with “RT@yourusername” included to give credit back to the original poster. So, keep it short and sweet!

Help generate interest in fund raising. If you are running any kind of contest, give away, etc., Twitter can be a great way to spread the word.

Hire People/Find Volunteers. Need a new employee, freelancer, intern or volunteers? Send out a message asking for recommendations or resumes or send out a link to your site with more information on the open positions. This is a very quick and easy way to find good potential matches for your staffing or volunteer needs.

Get Feedback. Need an impromptu focus group? Send out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This is especially effective if you offer an incentive, like a free T-shirt to the tenth person who replies, etc..

Networking. Twitter can be used as a great platform for you to interact with other like-minded people and organizations. It can be used to establish relationships which you may call upon in the future for a variety of needs.

Real-Time Event Updates. Organizations can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and announce latest event happenings/changes. Use hashtags (#) as ways to universally tag and group tweets in one place.

Tip: Hashtags can be anything you want to make them so, if you are hosting an event called “Give Our Non-Profit Money”, you can add “#gonpm” to every tweet and your followers or fellow tweeters will be encouraged to do the same for any related tweeting. Then, clicking on that hashtag within any tweet will take the user to a listing of all of the tweets including that hashtag. It’s a quick easy way to group tweets so other readers can follow along with the thread or event postings.

Find people who need you. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential resource recipients online. Do a search for keywords related to your non-profit on Twitter Search and then follow those users.

Twitter Resource Links

Morning News article on Twitter Etiquette: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_thoughtful_user_guide/writing_my_twitter_etiquette_article_14_ways_to_use_twitter_politely.php

Another great site for Twitter information on getting started: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-twitter/

Cold Kiwi posted “The Top 15 Reasons to Use Twitter” and they cover many of the benefits Twitter provides: http://larrison.blogspot.com/2008/01/top-15-reasons-to-use-twitter.html

http://cutedogtheory.wikispaces.com/

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2009/01/05/social-media-target-strategies-for-a-better-2009/

http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/03/social-media-marketing-strategy/

http://www.twitip.com/whats-in-it-for-your-followers-how-to-be-a-useful-on-twitter/

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/01/creating-your-organizations-social-media-strategy-map.html

Have some other useful tips for non-profits or are you a non-profit using social media in new and successful ways? Let us know by adding a comment to this post!

You can follow me here. See you on Twitter!

One evening, while sitting around visiting with friends, a comment was made which became the inspiration for fly-post.com - a Website dedicated to the art and utility of the promotional flyer. The comment was, “I miss the good ole days when you could walk outside, look at the telephone pole, and know what was going on.” The resulting discussion honed in on one important element missing from the plethora of event based Websites which have become so ubiquitous in the recent years - they aren’t any fun to look at!

Of course, I am biased. I went to art school at the Cleveland Institute of Art in the early 90s, pre-Internet, and where every occasion from house parties, to yard sales to impromptu gorilla art exhibits warranted a flyer bordering on fine art. Around that same time, bands like Nine Inch Nails were emerging and working with talented artists like Derek Hess to turn the promotional flyer from utility to collector’s piece.

We conceived of fly-post as something in between the local city paper, the bulletin board found inside an art school or other visually inclined location, the neighborhood telephone pole and an invitation service like Evite. We wanted to provide tools to help the flyer makers promote their event or service, provide ways for the community to easily find and peruse these visual artvertisements, and celebrate the art of the flyer by allowing users to rate and comment. Lofty goals indeed, but after many months of brainstorming, designing, programming and testing, fly-post.com (beta) has launched!

We have been letting the beta site gain traction organically while we evaluate user interaction, gather feedback, make improvements, and slowly leak the word out via Twitter and Craigs List. While we want to blast it out to every blog and tech magazine out there, we are also cognizant of the power of growing slowly and being flexible enough to make improvements based on our community and user requests. So far, so good.

Fly-post has already had over 6,500 visits, with users spending an average of 3:09 on the site since it launched in beta last October. Word of mouth has served to help grow the user base, with many local businesses and organizations located in our home town of Baltimore being some of the most active early adopters. Regular posts from The Walters Art Museum, Atomic Books, and crowd favorites Dr. Sketchy (figure drawing class meets burlesque) and local band We Read Minds. As of this blog posting, fly-post flyers cover over 140 cities nationwide.

The site offers users many tools to help them share and promote their event, or an event they are interested in. Easy links allow users to post flyers to Facebook, insert into their MySpace pages, or email to a friend. Soon we will be including Craigs List friendly code snippets, and additional sharing tools for Twitter, Digg, etc. Comments and ratings will soon notify the flyer poster via email, and we hope to offer analytics for flyer creators to track their traffic. We also have plans to significantly enhance the RSVP system. We are in discussions with “green” printers, so we can enable flyer makers to place print orders at the same time as they are uploading to fly-post, if they are so inclined. And yes, an iPhone app is in the works - for those flyer fans who spot good ones out in the wild.

While we quietly work away in the background, focusing on improvements and enhancements, we welcome the growing community that will turn fly-post into the Web’s very own local telephone pole. So, looking for something going on in your neighborhood or city this weekend? Check fly-post.com, now you know.