As a digital ethnographer and networked researcher, I tend to play in different social (media) spaces. I typically try out new websites and platforms that I hear about from other scholars, practitioners, and researchers. Most of you know I can be found in a few key social media spaces (I’m looking at you Twitter, WordPress, SlideShare & Flickr); however I do use a number of other social platforms to collect, archive, research, collaborate, and write.

Image from responsys.com

Over the past week, I started conducting my own social media audit for what I use and how it’s being used. Part of this is process is to keep track of files and resources, and also think about what I’m sharing and using online. In being purposeful with social media and my web tools, I wanted to see what I am using or not using. Recently I have been cleaning up a few of my digital spaces, to take inventory and assess how I’m using these spaces personally and professionally.

For example, I updated a title on a LinkedIn employment role by adding “Graduate Student” to my Research Affiliate position for the Center for Knowledge Solutions (which I have been contributing for the last couple of years), and I received a number of “congratulations” for the “new” job:

Then I discovered my name had changed on my Delicious account. I use this account to archive my tweets & tags for what I share on Twitter, so I was surprised to find my new found love for “fun and enjoy with my friends” while advertising mature dating single websites:

This was quickly fixed within hours thanks to the Delicious Team, and I’m back to my normal nerdy self on this social bookmarking website:

This incident reminded me it was time to review my social media spaces to see what I use and what I need to lose. It is easy to take advantage websites like JustDelete.me to kill off your pages; however I wanted to take stock of what I am using and document how I am using it. To assess my digital footprint and identity, I started my own social media audit spreadsheet o’ fun with the following columns:

URL for the profile
record & update passwords
review account settings (privacy)
date activated
date terminated (if deleted or archived)
verify information is correct
update bio, picture, etc.
review platform access & connections
assess unused or less accessed social media spaces to delete
identify how these social media platforms are being utilized

Have you conducted your own social media audit lately? If so, how have you review and cleaned up your online accounts on your various social media platforms? How do you keep track of what social media spaces you use? Please share any tips & tricks. Thanks!

Dissertation, PhD, Social Media

Your Higher Ed Website + Search: “Social Media Guidelines” or “Social Media Policy” = A Database for My Dissertation Research

November 15, 2013November 15, 2013 Laura Pasquini

Yes. I know that this may be my LONGEST blog post title ever. I created it for one reason. It is the equation which will help me move my research forward for my dissertation.

You may recall a previous request for this from an earlier blog post: Gathering #SocialMedia Guidelines from #HigherEd. So, basically what I’m saying is…

I NEED YOUR HELP! => Submit Your Social Media Guidance Please!

My dissertation research methodology (good ol’ Chapter 3) will involve text mining analysis for reviewing all these many social media guidelines (policies, strategies, beliefs, regulations, etc. included) I am gathering right now. The caveat for this type of research is – I need to build a large enough database of documents to examine and evaluate. BONUS: After collecting all of these documents, I will share this Social Media Guidance database AND my research findings for you here: http://socialmediaguidance.wordpress.com/

As of today (4:30 pm CT), I have collected approximately 176 Social Media Guidance documents from 13 different countries. Hoo-ray!

Check to see if your institution is listed below, and if it is not – please SEARCH YOUR COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY WEBSITE to see if you might just happen to have social media guidelines, a policy, a directory, and/or anything that might be related to social media. Thank you!

Social Media

Do You Have Social Media Goals?

November 14, 2013November 20, 2013 Laura Pasquini

After participating in today’s Social Media Metrics in Government Using GSA Guidelines webinar hosted by Hootsuite, I began to think more about the WHY and HOW social media guidelines and policies develop. This session discussed how the government developed their guidelines around their GSA social media goals which were connected to their strategic communication plan and web presence.

Obviously this webinar had a focus on measurement and assessment for social media use using both free and paid tools, like Hootsuite; however it offered some sound advice to organizations that are just developing social media guidance or for those who are re-thinking their social media policy. Instead of starting with a policy, strategy, or guideline list of what to do or not do, it would be more helpful for institutions to think through the WHY of social media. This process provides organizations focus, sets out objectives, and creates a rationale for social media use and how these goals might be measured and assessed. For example, the GSA wanted to use social media and social data goals, included:

Be more effective in how they distribute critical information to citizens & communities
Engage citizens to help shape to public programs
Better inform strategies leading to greater efficiency
Increase use of innovative tools and services to further development

It is important to consider your institutional goals when organizing your social media guidance, here a few suggestions given from the webinar – but I am sure your organization has many others.

Internal Considerations:

Collaboration
Knowledge sharing
Cost saving & cost avoidance strategy
To be transparent
Talent acquisition

External Considerations:

Citizen engagement – Active use and participation (2-ways)
Promote services and resources
Provide customer service – feedback
Provide real-time resources – expand upon current communication channels

Here are a couple of examples shared from the GSA for their use of social media goals:

Another reason to consider developing social media goals before establishing your guidelines is to consider how you will evaluate social media use for your organization. Social media management of your resources is critical. To help assess social media engagement and use it will be helpful to align your goals to evaluation as part of your strategic communication plan. Social media analytics and metrics through different 3^rd party tools and social dashboards; however what will be relevant for your organization to track and use for assessment purposes. You want to connect your goals to your key performance indicators (KPI) and desired evidence-based outcomes.

One example was the use of hashtags from the Twitter for Public Health case study to outline a clear system for planning social media management. This public health group utilized a hashtag, #SM4PH, to build hype around the start of a regular, organized Twitter chat and to launch a hashtag for community development. Their goal was to measure the impact of the hashtag use, conversation, and community involvement before, during, and after this first chat to assess the long tail of this campaign.

Does your organization or institution have social media goals? How do these goals support your social media spaces? How do you assess and measure your social media goals? Let me know.

Reference:

Macey, B. (2013, November 14). Social media metrics in government: Using GSA Guidelines – Webinar. HootSource. Retrieved from http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-metrics-gsa-guidelines/

UPDATE 11-19-13: If interested, this webinar is available for viewing on demand.

Higher Education, Social Media

Gathering #SocialMedia Guidelines from Higher Education #SoMe #edusomedia #highered

October 24, 2013January 7, 2014 Laura Pasquini

When discussing social media guidance in higher education, there seems to be a lot of grey areas. Social media use is a relevant topic on many college and university campuses. Over the course of the next few months, my plan is to review social media guidelines to sort out the grey, and identify more black and white ideas about social media guidance.

To pursue my dissertation research, I am currently gathering ANY and ALL Social Media Guidelines from Higher Education Institutions from ANY and ALL COUNTRIES. If you currently attend, work, teach, or know of any a post-secondary institution that provides guidance for social media, then I need your help! Please search your institutional website for “social media” guidelines. Keep in mind, your higher education institutional “guidance” for social media may also be labeled as: guidelines, policy, tips, rules, beliefs, regulations, strategy, or take on another name. If you are aware of any websites, documents, or artifacts that guide social media in higher education, please COMPLETE THIS FORM.

Please consider contributing to help advance social media guidance and use at our post-secondary education institutions:

Submit a Social Media Guideline & Policy Document

The following website was created to gather and build a social media guideline database and share information about this research:

http://socialmediaguidance.wordpress.com/

If you have questions, concerns, or want to get more involved in this social media guideline project, please feel free to CONTACT ME. Thank you!

EdTech, Professional Development, Social Media

My #edu13 Sampling Tour at @EDUCAUSE

October 21, 2013August 12, 2019 Laura Pasquini

With limited time in my October schedule, I was only able to drop into the 2013 EDUCAUSE annual conference (#edu13) in Anaheim, CA for a couple of days. It’s unfortunate that I was not able to stay longer; however I’ll share my sample of the #edu13 higher education and technology conference. {This is what happens when you are traveling to conferences, writing a dissertation proposal, advising for Spring 2014 registration, teaching a class & training for a marathon all in the same month. Lessons learned for next year.}

I was fortunate to be able to attend #edu13 since Tanya Joosten (@tjoosten) asked me to co-facilitate a virtual workshop on Social Media for Teaching and Learning. Much of this session shared ideas from Tanya’s book, our research article, and our practical application for utilizing social media for learning/teaching. During the session we modeled our teaching/learning expectations by encouraging participants to interact & dialogue with us on Twitter. Our emphasis was not on the tool, but more on the social learning and interactions you can have to augment educational experiences:

Here is our digital handout from the workshop: http://bit.ly/edusocmedia13

Before I had to leave EDUCAUSE on Wednesday, I attended the #edu13 Prepare for Lift-Off: Becoming a Successful IT Pilot Site Panel and took a few digital notes: http://bit.ly/pilotpanel

During this session, Tanya Joosten (@tjoosten), Amy Collier (@amcollier), and George Veletsianos (@veletsianos) discussed the TOP 10 questions every institution should ask before piloting a technology solution for learning at their campus:

Why should this solution be introduced to the campus?
How can the solution improve student learning?
Does your institution have readiness or capacity to pilot a new solution?
Who is the audience and are the stakeholders?
What is the pedagogical model that will lead to the greatest?
How will a vendor be selected for the new technology?
How would faculty be selected to participate?
How do you evaluate the impact of the solution on the identified outcomes?
How do you diffuse the innovation on campus and beyond?
What are your questions?

Since I missed out on the live happenings, I made sure to follow the #edu13 backchannel and my tweeps while traveling home. If you don’t have much time or interest in text mining all the many tweets, The Chronicle curated few conversations on Twitter and EdTech Magazine compiled a list of people to follow at EDUCAUSE 2013.