by Kyle Schwarm
Wisconsin Technical College System
Madison, WI
Each year, NCMPR sponsors a presentation at the AACC Convention, which is a great way to provide exposure for your association. Our presentation this year, “Shaping your colleges social media strategies,” seemed to be very well received by the presidents and vice-presidents who attended last month, thanks to the great work by Barb Dreger, manager of college marketing at Fox Valley Technical College, Wisconsin. The attendees, however, were not the only ones to take away something of value. We were able to survey them on their familiarity and involvement with social media and found some interesting numbers.
It’s apparent that the 40 respondents are genuinely interested in social media for their respective colleges. Some 93 percent said social media is not a fad, while nearly 98 percent said social media is here to stay. Nearly 95 percent said they perceive social media as a valuable opportunity for their respective colleges and only 13 percent disagreed with the statement, My college is falling behind others in the deployment of social media strategies (50 percent agreed and 38 percent said they did not know). This is a potential wake-up call for the many community colleges who have not made social media a component of their marketing plans.
I plan to discuss this further in the July Counsel magazine. In the meantime, consider attending the Summer Institute in San Francisco next month. SEM Geeks are planning an intense, day and a half workshop for colleges that have been integrating social media into their marketing plans, but want to become more strategic with it. I hope to see you there.
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