It looks like “FacebookGate” is happening again this year. I suggest reading the two links in the last sentence to get some context about the issue at hand.

What is Happening

This year it looks like they already created a fake group for us along with a bunch of other school’s class of 2014 groups. This is an issue because the creator and other members of the fake group are not associated with Wayne State University. Although I was impressed they did take the time to include our fight song and other information.

The Problem

It is not that we don’t control the group but rather that the group is part of a larger plan by an outside organization to market to our students on false pretenses. Although the fake group does list “(official group)” in their title it actually is not.

The Solution

Since we have been increasing active on Facebook in the past few years and many departments are pushing to get their freshmen involved early we setup a short URL. This can be used on any electronic or print publications to direct new students to the real Class of 2014 Facebook group. Hopefully over time as students join and we post more the fake group will get ignored so there is less confusion for the students.

URL to the official group is http://wayne.edu/2014/

If you have any questions about the situation or our use of Facebook feel free to let me know.

Slow and steady growth

Our approach with Twitter from the beginning has always been quality. We are not in it for the numbers and we only follow back accounts with a legitimate connection to the university. So far we are at 70% return follow rate which is very good, only 30% of the people we follow do not have a connection to the university.

We block spam accounts who follow us and our goal has always been to increase the stature of the university, not jump on the bandwagon. We are not looking for exponential growth but a good steady supply of advocates.

As we see an almost full saturation of social media by our prospective students it is impossible to ignore that these networks are a necessity to connect and help students make the decision to come to Wayne State University.

We just upgraded our YouTube channel to the beta version and added our own style. We have had a YouTube channel for a while but just recently we decided to take the plunge into the beta format. So far so good, we really like how smooth the interface is.

Whats different in beta?

• Complete reorganization of item placement
• Compact uploads, favorites and playlists
• AJAX style video switching
• Cleaner header and subscribe button
• Even more at the YouTube beta blog

Adding our own style

Making use of the customization options we added a background and overall style that fit the newest branding of the university. The new W is also prominently featured on the channel home and the video player.

Always looking for videos

We are always looking for videos to be included in our channel. Since we are part of the YouTube EDU group they no longer limit our videos to 10 minutes in length. This gives us a large opportunity to post full lectures, speakers and events.

If your department has a video you want posted or featured we would be happy to work with you to determine the best route for it. Just drop us a line at wcs@wayne.edu and we can go from there.

Recently I have been going around campus talking with various groups and administration about new communication tools and how was are using them to reach further and more personal than ever before. These tools are key to that new communication strategy.

Why we decided to put them on the homepage

We decided to link to them from the homepage for two reasons.

1. After a year we had a pretty constant growth rate and we wanted to start sharing this space with people who have not stumbled upon us yet.
2. Second is that we now have an extended network of students who just started blogging for the university. We have not officially announced them yet but soon enough we will, we snuck them in on the homepage RSS button if you want to get a preview.

We didn’t want to give the buttons too much attention since they are not one of the primary goals of the homepage. We placed them in the bottom right corner and grayed them out. We also put a “What are these?” help link for someone who is not already familiar with these icons.

Go ahead and check them out and start following if you find us interesting. If you don’t like how we are promoting our extended web presence let us know why, we would love to hear about it.

In the presentation I introduced what I call the Social Degrees of Participation. I wanted to give a little more explanation since the presentation was just headings and I talked in depth about pretty much everything.

Social Degrees of Participation

1. Observing – The first degree of participation is meant for people who know about the social networks and their tools from their friends or main stream media. They know they exist but have not ventured to interact on the sites.
2. Searching – The second degree is meant for people who are signed up for a few social networks and actively search out their interests or mentions of their self/business. They would like to know more about what people are talking about but do not take part in sharing content.
3. Conversing – The third degree is for people who see something on a network and respond to the comment/post. They actively seek and respond to questions or comments.
4. Connecting – The fourth degree is all about remixing content. Taking content posted externally and either reposting or remixing to post to get conversations started.
5. Creating – The fifth degree consists of people who are the originators or creators of content for the networks. They contribute content that is their own and people are actively responding to it.
6. Controlling – The last and most involved level is where you are contributing original content and people are actively looking for your content and connecting with you, making you the center of information and an expert in your field on that network.

What is your degree of social participation?

Learn about the opportunities social media brings for individuals, companies, and social causes. Find out how to use social media to

• engage your customers
• grow your career or business
• drive social change
• and more

Panelists

• Kevin Krason, President, Biznet Internet Solutions
  Founder of Biznet in 1994, Kevin’s strong leadership and business savvy have led Biznet to become one of the most successful web development companies in Michigan. Kevin’s skill at getting everyone on the same page has been instrumental for Biznet in establishing long term client partnerships.
• Shauna Nicholson, Marketing Manager, Biznet Internet Solutions
  Working exclusively in online marketing strategy, Shauna is known for her insight on social media marketing, Shauna is a resource for metro-Detroit businesses who want to leverage the most powerful online tools available. By transcending the social media hype and pairing reality-based business and marketing strategy to the tools, she positions clients to effectively secure measurable ROI.
• Ken Burbary, VP Digital at BIG Communications
  Ken has been involved in web development and interactive media his entire professional career. Constantly learning, he soaks up as many new pieces of information as possible. He’s equally passionate about both business and technology innovations driving his industry.
• Nick DeNardis, Associate Director of Web Communications at Wayne State University
  Nick oversees a staff of eight dedicated to web communications at Wayne State. He has initiated and maintains all of the university’s current social media initiatives. He hosts the video blog EDU Checkup where he reviews a higher education web sites live. Nick is also a .eduGuru writer and an active member of the higher education web community.

Where: Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, Michigan. We will be meeting in Room 121 at the Morris Lawrence Building (map). Plenty of free parking is available adjacent to the building.

When: Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Cost: Free! Open to the public.

RSVP Here