Dive Brief:
- While there may be a limit to how easy social media use can become, four of the nation’s most active chief information officers have advice on how to at least be effective in the role.
- The four administrators told eCampus News the first thing to do is to start — even if it feels like a waste of time or not worth it — and then to develop online relationships with colleagues and those it may have been hard to connect with otherwise.
- Understanding the target community helps administrators tailor the use of each social network for the best results when it comes to engagement and effectiveness — information about network outages may not be the most useful on Twitter, for example, where followers see posts in pure chronological order.
Dive Insight:
Most campuses now have social media teams who handle the institutional presence, but many administrators have found value in having their own professional accounts. Among key pieces of advice, however, is to think hard before starting about how often you’ll use it and how. An anemic presence on social media is sometimes worse than no presence at all. And overly sensitized messaging from a too-careful president isn’t always good either. In fact, former University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe was criticized for staying silent on racially charged issues on his campus before he was pushed out by student protesters.
Social media can be a minefield. Administrators can get in trouble whether they use it, don't use it, or simply don’t use it well. Those just getting started should seek internal expertise on their own teams and be strategic as they develop their online presence.