Archive for March, 2009

Interaction Isn't Predictable – Research, Adjust, and Build

Posted in highered, marketing, social media on March 11th, 2009 by Howard Kang – 10 Comments

I’m just going to be completely blunt and tell you that I think the social media portion of my web strategy has been a failure so far. Yes, I’m only a month in and awareness has increased and volunteer numbers have gone up, but I want more. It isn’t that social media is “not working” or that the numbers aren’t there. It’s that it hasn’t looked like what I expected. I had hoped the pages would be burgeoning with active engagement. I dreamed of times where students and members of the Springfield community would @reply a quick question to @uisvolunteer or write on our fan page’s wall to discuss how they liked an event and start to use the space as their own. That simply isn’t happening.

So I started to dig into the problem to understand why. I talked to students and looked at different trends and numbers for our campus and Springfield in general. I found a few good nuggets. I learned that students here don’t want to use Facebook or Twitter for information, they want to limit it to social networking. Students also don’t care for blogs. Most didn’t know what a RSS feed was. Further, out of all of our students (both undergraduate and graduate level) less than 1% are using Twitter. In the entire Springfield community? Less than .01%. Those numbers are staggering and factor into the big picture, but still doesn’t address the level of engagement. Low usage simply isn’t a sufficient excuse.

I’m noticing the voluntary nature of social media leads to a level of interaction that is unpredictable. Think about it. I could post this and you could forward it to some friends, retweet it on Twitter, comment, or do nothing. I may have an idea how something may go over and predict possibilities to a certain extent, but never completely know what will happen. So what does this mean for social media strategies? A cornerstone of any strategy should include periods of evaluation that include three stages: the Research stage, Adjust stage, and Build stage. It is my belief that if you’re not doing these things, you’re not creating the best strategy possible.

Research

We’ve all been told to listen, but here’s the thing, listening isn’t enough. It’s just one piece of an entire puzzle. What other points of data are you analyzing? Are you considering and learning about the target’s environment? How are you actively getting to know the people you’re targeting?

This is also a time where your organization analyzes internally. How is our progress looking? Are we still adding value and helping solve problems? Do our objectives align with our mission?

The marketing world revolves around the buzzword of influence. A major problem I have seen with marketers is incredible rigidity. Instead of reevaluating, time is wasted attempting to influence people to adopt a failing system. This research portion is the first step in meeting people where they’re at; focusing on relationship, trust, and collaboration, not simply influence. We need to focus on relationship and trust because we should come from a short-term and long-term perspective and this heavily influences positive word of mouth.

Adjust

After doing research it’s now time to set a plan of action. That’s why it’s important to have an overarching mission, flexible goals, and solid objectives so that plans can be perfected as you learn more. You need to do something with your research. Your strategy should never stay the same because people always change. As needs, desires, and be interaction shift, you should be right there moving with them. Don’t forget to consider long-term goals as well. Social media isn’t actively used on our campus now, but it will be in the future. That’s why I am focusing so much on building a sustainable system that can function well even when I’m not around.

Build

Now it’s time to implement your objectives and build on your foundation. Remember to think big and build small. Every small victory leads to more accuracy, more reach, and better content.

One thing I’m also working on that is important to remember is patience. I’m heavily engrossed in social media so it affects the rate at which I expect things to happen, i.e., immediately. Not everybody works on 140 characters and real-time communication.

Think of crafting your social media strategy as art. In photography there are rules that help you compose good photos, but ultimately rules can be broken and one photo can have forty different interpretations. Photography also requires trial an error to see which shots work. Building a masterful strategy can be arduous, but as you test the waters, evaluate, and learn, you’ll be creating an amazing community of engagement and effectively reaching your niche.

Doing the Springfield Polar Plunge!

Posted in personal on March 4th, 2009 by Howard Kang – 2 Comments

I’ve been inspired by the great Todd Sanders (@tsand) and am going to be participating in the Springfield Polar Plunge. I didn’t know it was even going to happen in Springfield until yesterday. If you don’t know what the Springfield Polar Plunge is, it’s basically a benefit for the Special Olympics. Plungers like me will jump into Lake Springfield (and hopefully be sponsored) and then hangout afterwards. Some other students wanted to join in and voila, our Polar Plunge team was assembled.

The event is coming up quickly (actually it’s this Saturday at 12:00 PM), so the time to support raise is fairly short. Please join with us to help out!

Here are some of my team’s fundraising goals:

  • $25 per plunger. They made a HUGE exception from the normal $75 so our students could be involved at the last minute.
  • At $75 – I will wear something like this to my plunge: http://tinyurl.com/aeofmd (Goal reached…shopping for outfit soon)
  • At $150 – I will shave my hair into anyway you want (by vote). I’ll even write a word into my head as long as it isn’t vulgar! (Donating to others on team counts towards the total!)
  • VOTE FOR MY HAIR HERE: Howard Hair Poll

LOCATION (Google Map): http://bit.ly/qsNH0

There will definitely be a photo and video blog post follow-up and I’ll make sure to give you a shoutout somehow in the video. I’ll get creative.

So please join me and sponsor us & come watch us!
I really appreciate you helping out, reading, and being a part of my life!

Team UIS Volunteer (So Far):

UIS Students:
Craig Rebou – http://www.firstgiving.com/craigjasonrebou
Justin Bournes – http://www.firstgiving.com/justinbournes
Andrew Nicol – http://www.firstgiving.com/andrewnicol
Steve Gifford – http://www.firstgiving.com/stephengifford
Howard Kang – http://www.firstgiving.com/howardkang
Jak Kern- No URL

UIS Staff:
Jeremy Wilburn – https://www.firstgiving.com/jeremywilburn
Ralph Shank – http://www.firstgiving.com/ralphshank