SOCIAL MEDIA MIX IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATION PLAN: A BRIDGE TOWARDS

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTVittoria Marino

(Professor in International Marketing)

Erasmus Staff Training WeekUNIVERSITY OF SALERNO

(ITALY)

Letizia Lo Presti(PhD Student in Marketing and Communication)

The “modern University”

There is increasing recognition that higher education institutions can play an equally vital role in the community, intellectual and cultural life through their engagement with the public.

The university can be active contributors to positive change but can gain practical benefits from it.

Then, more focus on…

dialogue… exchange…

relationship…resources…listening…

The “engaged Campus”

Service learning

1° MISSION :RESEARCH

2° MISSION :TEACHING

3° MISSION :SERVICE

Community Services based

Capstone experiences

Partecipatory Action

Research

Community based

Capstone experiences

Source : Furco (2010), Engaged Campus, British J. Of Educational Studies, Vol. 58 (4), pp.375-390

An engaged campus can be ehanced where there is an intersection of three components of the tripartite mission

“is myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public. Engagement is by definition a two-way process, involving interaction and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit”.

(By National Co-oordinating Centre for Public Engagement)

The goals of Public Engagement :

In particular University Public Engagement:

What is “Public engagement” in the Higher Education…

to facilitate informed debate and dialogue in the community on issues of local and global importance‘; and to design and deliver high quality teaching and learning that responds to community needs and produces graduates who are ethical, employable and engaged citizens‘ (Garlick and Langworthy, 2008, p. 160)

Different way to say: “public engagement”

The Universities practice their work to society in different way and using different terms as well…

community engagement

civic engagement

public service

community service

outreach

neighbours

community-university partnership

social engagement

learning in the community

Student engagement

Public access to facilities

Public access to knowledge

Faculty engagement

Widening partecipation

Encouraging economic regeneration and enterprise

Institutional relationship and partnership building

How much public engagement exsist?

The universities are consciousness of public engagement?

Examples…

Engaged Learning + research (EL+R)

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Born in 2011. It is characterized for being Community-based. It proposes a lot of activities on community engagement: for example, Engaged learning; service learning; Fieldwork; Community research and Conference and workshop about engagement, diversity

POLITECNICO DI MILANO

PolisocialCultural and socializing iniziatives to connect people and university community. Student Fieldwork. Social problem solving.

The universities are consciousness of public engagement?

Office of External Affairs and Communications

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

It organizes all the iniziatives about public engagement: Open Cambridge; Cambridge Science Festival; Festival of Ideas; Cambridge Community Knowledge Exchange (research matchmaking programme)

MIT (US)

Mit Public Service CenterApproach learning by doing.

A lot of iniziatives: -Fellowship&Internships community focused-Grants for supporting public service activities-Service-learning-Volunteer Programs- Community Service Work-Study

Examples…

Student engagementUniversity Community engagement and international student…

Source: Leischman D., Lawley M., Raciti M., (2010), Community Engagement and International Student Experience: A Definition, Proceedings of the 2010 Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy / P. Ballantine and J. Finsterwalder (eds): pp.1-9

Recent evidence suggests that students want increased community involvement in their international experience

Several national surveys report that students would like more interaction with the local citizens of the host nation

Students who have higher levels of contact with the local community:-- often experience better academic and social success (Furnham and Alibai, 1985)-- display lower stress levels (Redmond and Bunyi, 1993)-- increased satisfaction (Noel, et al, 1996)

Student engagementA definition of University Community engagement applied to the international student…

“Mutual creation of knowledge and value networks on a personal and professional level, via international student involvement and partecipation in unique university facilitated community experiences”.

International Students

are involved with activities during their international

student experience

University looks beyond on

campus university-students interactions promoting community

engagement activities

Local regions where international student have the

opportunity to develop personal and

professional skills

Value Co-creation

Students assimilate local and global

cultures

More personalised services experience

Mutual collaborations

DIALOGU

E

DIAL

OGU

E

Source: Leischman D., Lawley M., Raciti M., (2010), Community Engagement and International Student Experience: A Definition, Proceedings of the 2010 Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy / P. Ballantine and J. Finsterwalder (eds): pp.1-9

Student engagementA typology of International Student Community Engagement

Examples…

Source : Leischman D., Lawley M., Raciti M., (2014), A typology of International Student Community Engagement. E.Journal of Business Education&Scholarship of Teaching, 8(1), pp.1-17

CONCERT, FESTIVALS, LOCAL

EVENTS

EX.: WORKING IN RESTAURANTS

INTERNSHIP, SERVICE LEARNING, WORK

INTEGRETED LEARNING EXPERIENCE

VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES IN COLLABORATION WITH NON-

PROFIT SOCIAL RELIGIOUS, ORGANISATIONS

INFORMAL CONVERSATION WITH

LOCAL, VISITS TO MARKET AND PARK ETC.

USING PUBLIC TRANSPORT, DINING

LOCAL CAFE’ ETC.

Student engagementA typology of International Student Community Engagement

Examples…

Australian National University

A photography projectThe project aimed to enhance interaction amongst the Canberra community and students without making any separation between international and domestic students . The photographs were considered by a committee of people in the Canberra art scene who selected 25 photographs to be printed for the exhibition

Faisal Shah - The fountain of life In My Eyes: Reflections on life in Canberra by ANU students

The students involved in the project have since formed an

ANU photography club and the ANU is considering using the

photos as part of its recruitment activities.

Source : Australian Government, Enhancing the International Student Experience . A report on seven demonstration projects funded by Australian Education International and conducted in collaboration with Universities Australia (available on https://internationaleducation.gov.au)

Student engagementA typology of International Student Community Engagement

Examples…

Griffith University

A environmental projectincluded on-site training followed by conservation activities including beach debris clean ups, in-water marine debris clean ups and turtle conservation education workshops

International and Australian students work together to

remove washed-up plastics that represent a risk to the

local marine wildlife

The Moreton Bay Marine Wildlife Conservation Project

Source : Australian Government, Enhancing the International Student Experience . A report on seven demonstration projects funded by Australian Education International and conducted in collaboration with Universities Australia (available on https://internationaleducation.gov.au)

Student engagementA typology of International Student Community Engagement

Examples…

University of Western Sydney

A workshop Sixty students, international and domestic, attended career readiness workshops over a four week period developing skills in problem solving, communication, project management, cross-cultural understanding and globalization. The students reported they learnt valuable cross-cultural communication skills during the program.

A group of the sixty students who completed the SELP at

their award ceremony

SELP (Social Engagement and Leadership Program)

Students improve their career readiness

Source : Australian Government, Enhancing the International Student Experience . A report on seven demonstration projects funded by Australian Education International and conducted in collaboration with Universities Australia (available on https://internationaleducation.gov.au)

Social media: uses and opportunities

Social media: attributes and opportunities for University Communicators

Social media are able to interact on a more global scale and encourage networking

They provide in allowing geographically dispersed stakeholders, to experience content from university

They allow the university to buid both relationships and reputation

Social media are immediate becouse of informal voice and interactive communicationSocial media are quick and easy to use, also they are “free”

BUT…LOSING CONTROL FULL-TIME

OPINION LEADERKelleher, T., & Sweetser, K. (2012). Social media adoption among university communicators. Journal of Public Relations Research, 24(2), 105-122.

A view on social media marketing

A good example in http://connect.mit.edu/ MIT's social media site.

interactiveintuitive

A lot of pictures

Connected with other social networks

Tell us a lot of stories and experiences

A view on social media marketing: to take part in the “University Community”

A good example in the “Open Office Hours” at the Stanford University

engagementpartecipation

Intimate connection

with Faculty

Source : http://mashable.com/2009/07/15/social-media-public-affairs/

to answer students questions

to listening to their opinions

to take action

to share their campus culture

to collect and share these experiences

They use also blogs and hashtag (#)

to share stories

Today…how Universities are using social media

Social media and student engagement

The most popular social media website for college students is Facebook

Researchs show that anywhere between 85% and 99% of college students use Facebook

Source: www.TopUniversities.com

Student engagementStudent engagement. How students use online resources

Source: www.TopUniversities.com

Social media and student engagement

Weekly frequency of social network use for different academic activities.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

TIME DEDICATED TO DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES ON SOCIAL NETWORKS (SCALE

OF 1 not at all TO 5 a great deal)

Avg.

Arrange to meet group of friends 3.75

Find out what is happening in my group of friends 3.48

Comment on photos/videos/other documents 3.17

Share information, files, photos, document 3.09

Gossip/browse 3.09

Get back in touch with other people 2.96

Find out about current affairs (news) 2.80

Tell about what I’m doing 2.33

Make friends 2.08

Use the apps and games on the SN 2.06

Share my feelings 1.91

Make new professional contacts 1.76

Look for a pertner/date 1.58

WEEKLY FREQUENCY OF SOCIAL NETWORK USE FOR DIFFERENT ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

Avg.

To resolve queries about content or exams with other students 2.82

To find out what has been covered in class during non-attendance

2.81

To do coursework 2.65

To remain apprised of what is happening in a subject (changes, unforeseen avents)

2.57

To exchange lecture notes 2.52

To exchange useful documentation and resources for the subject 2.50

To resolve doubts about about my life at university 2.28

To find out about activities organised by my university 2.11

To organise extracurricular activities 2.10

To consult recommendations on books or resouces made by the teacher

1.79

To contact experts on the topics of study 1.65

Tutorials consultations with teachers 1.64

Source: Gómez, M., Roses, S., & Farias, P. (2012). The academic use of social networks among university students. Comunicar, 19, 94-100.

Social media and student engagement

Weekly frequency of social network use for different academic activities.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

TIME DEDICATED TO DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES ON SOCIAL NETWORKS (SCALE

OF 1 not at all TO 5 a great deal)

Avg.

Arrange to meet group of friends 3.75

Find out what is happening in my group of friends 3.48

Comment on photos/videos/other documents 3.17

Share information, files, photos, document 3.09

Gossip/browse 3.09

Get back in touch with other people 2.96

Find out about current affairs (news) 2.80

Tell about what I’m doing 2.33

Make friends 2.08

Use the apps and games on the SN 2.06

Share my feelings 1.91

Make new professional contacts 1.76

Look for a pertner/date 1.58

WEEKLY FREQUENCY OF SOCIAL NETWORK USE FOR DIFFERENT ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

Avg.

To resolve queries about content or exams with other students 2.82

To find out what has been covered in class during non-attendance

2.81

To do coursework 2.65

To remain apprised of what is happening in a subject (changes, unforeseen avents)

2.57

To exchange lecture notes 2.52

To exchange useful documentation and resources for the subject 2.50

To resolve doubts about about my life at university 2.28

To find out about activities organised by my university 2.11

To organise extracurricular activities 2.10

To consult recommendations on books or resouces made by the teacher

1.79

To contact experts on the topics of study 1.65

Tutorials consultations with teachers 1.64

Source: Gómez, M., Roses, S., & Farias, P. (2012). The academic use of social networks among university students. Comunicar, 19, 94-100.

Student engagementStudent engagement. College students use Facebook

Students are more interested than faculty in using Facebook for educational purposes

There is a positive correlations between social networking website use and college student engagement.

They spent a mean of 101.09 min on

Fb per day

They check Fb a mean of 5.75 times per day

On sample of 2368 students (a mean of 22 age; 64% female and 36% male):

Source: Junco (2011), The relationship between frequency of Facebook use, partecipation in Facebook activities, and studnet engagement, Comèputers&Education, 58, 162-171

To be transparent

To listening

To manage the content

To be present when student has needed of information

Social media could be really useful if we’ll be really ready

In conlusion…to be ready!

Social media are powerful tool and give a lot of opportunity for creating a “university community” in a “social community”

WE ARE “ON THE RIGHT TRACK”…BUT

A RESEARCH ON EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

GOALS OF THE STUDY…

This research investigates which forms of social media communication are mainly used by the European Universities to engage their own stakeholders

This research deals with the problem of gaugingthe engagement rate in the University by means of social network

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Tweets Posts

SYSTEMATIC SAMPLE OF EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES

(345 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES)

10%

A SAMPLE OF EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES

.

We Verify the presence on the main social network platforms:

Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin

Online edition of “Ranking web universities 2013-2014”

3.379 European Universities

201 Universities(58%)

The universities that were found in all of the three social networks or that

were found at least in Facebook and in Twitter

50 Universities(25%)

The sample just we have analyzed

The 50 European Universities

The 50 European Universities analyzedUniversity College London Universidad de Vigo Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Universität Hamburg Universitè de Nantes Universidade do Algarve

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Universitè Denis Diderot Paris 7 University of Malta

J. W. Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main Otto Von Guericke Universität Magdeburg Liverpool John Moores University

Aarhus University/Aarhus Universitet National University of Irland Galway Universitè de Technologie de Compiegne

Universität Leipzig University of Eastern Finland Università di Camerino

Università di Pisa Università di Parma Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli

Aristotele University of Thessaloniki Technische Universität Ilmenau Universitè Charles de Gaulie Lille

Universidad de Salamanca Abo Akademii University Ècole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees

Universität Regensburg Università di Cagliari Technische Universität Hamburg Harburg

Chalmers University of Technology Tallinn University of Tehnology Universitè du Littoral Cóte d’Opale

Universität Bielefeld Universitè de Limoges Universidad de Burgos

Universidade Nova de Lisboa Universitè du Luxemburg Mines ParisTech École des Mines de Paris

University of Tartu Middlesex University University of the Arts London

Universidad de Murcia University of Greenwich Università del Molise

Politecnico di Torino Technische Universität Braunschweig Universitè Jean Moulin Lyon

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Kingston University London

THE ANALYSIS

10 tweets 10 postsCategories of

communication

Stakeholders

Categories of communication

Stakeholders

STUDENTS

STAFF

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

PEOPLE

1.000 MESSAGES

INFORMATION SHARING

CONTENT

FANSHIP

INTERACTIVITY

PROMOTION

An example in Facebook

PROMOTION

STUDENT

An example in Twitter

FANSHIP

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY

An overview of the current social network use in the 345 European Universities

Source: own elaboration

Results:

Distribution of Twitter and Facebook on the 5 communication categories

Source: own elaboration

Results

Distribution of categories communication for stakeholder in Twitter and Facebook

Source: own elaboration

Results

Distribution of communication categories for target in Twitter and Facebook

Source: own elaboration

Results: retweetability rate

Retweetability Rate for categories of communication and stakeholder

Source: own elaboration

Results: likeability rate

Likeability Rate for categories of communication and stakeholder

Source: own elaboration

Conclusions

The European Universities are oriented towards the "Engaged Campus" (Fulco, 2010)

The engagement is fully verified in the categories “Information sharing”, “Content” and “Fanship”.

Yet few posts are addressed to “People” and to Staff

The most effective tool to involve the University Community seems to be Facebook, especially when: the messages are related to “word-ofmouth” information, multimedia content or the "University brand" concept

Twitter seems to be more engaging when the messages are of interest to Students and Staff, especially if related to the “Content” or “Fanship” categories

Thanks for the attentionThank you for the attention

vmarino@unisa.it

@vittoriamarino2

llopresti@unisa.it

@letizialpr