Facebook – Page 18 – Andrew Careaga

Don’t be a robot.

That seems to be the mantra among many higher ed marketing thought leaders these days.

“Being a robot” refers to the practice of using RSS feeds to push content into the social media sphere.

For instance, if you write a news release or blog post at your university and then use RSS to push that same information to your university Twitter or Facebook site (or both), you have gone robotic.

The argument goes something like this:

The social mediasphere is all about conversation and engagement. And nobody wants to talk to or engage a robot, right? Robots have no human voice. Robots are inauthentic.

Besides, the content of your news release is either:

written in an institutional voice, or

written expressly for the traditional news media (journalists)

Nobody but journalists are interested in reading your news releases. Or so the conventional wisdom goes.

Then there’s the fact that your social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. — target different audiences, which have different information needs. People on Twitter may want one thing, people on Facebook may want another.

There’s more to the argument against robots, but those are the main points, as far as I can tell.

These are all valid arguments, to a point. But they generalize and overstate the issue. For instance, the idea that news releases are written for the press only is fallacious — or should be. These days, if your college or university news releases are written expressly for journalists, then you’re missing a huge opportunity. You’re missing a huge audience of content-hungry bloggers, tweeters, remixers and collectors who are eager to redistribute all sorts of content — even your news releases. If this is news to you, then you might want to check out David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

Also, remember that official information doesn’t have to be boring.

Humans, robots, borgs

There are some distinct advantages to harnessing the power of RSS to help you meet your social media objectives. And I think higher ed communicators ought to embrace that power.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a robot. But you may have to become a borg.

Technically, of course, a borg is more than just some sort of human-robot hybrid. According to Wikipedia, borgs are “cybernetically enhanced humanoid drones” made up of “multiple species,” not just humans, and they make decisions through a hive mind. But this is just a disclaimer for those Star Trek geeks who might be reading. For the purpose of my argument, and to stretch the robot metaphor further, let’s talk about the borg as a hybrid of human and robot.

So, if RSS feeds into the social mediasphere is the invasion of the robots, then a combination of automated RSS and human “voice,” typed in by an actual human being, is the borg. Does this make sense?

Here’s a screenshot of recent updates from the Missouri S&T Twitter account. This gives you an idea of the how the borgian process works. It’s a mix of automated feeds and personal updates, retweets and replies. The most recent update (the one at top) is an RSS feed of a news release, which also is fed to our Facebook site (a major no-no, according to the anti-robots), and the rest are labeled either “human” or “robot” in case you can’t tell the difference. (By the way, the most recent update got its first “like” thumbs up on Facebook just a few minutes after it posted there.)

Becoming a social media borg is a happy compromise for a number of reasons. Among them:

Thanks to RSS, you have a great way to share official content across multiple platforms.
People actually like to interact to official content such as blog posts and news releases.
If you’re strapped for time to spend with your social media communities, the RSS feed option allows for a more streamlined and efficient approach. I’m all about streamlining processes and automating those things that can be if it means we can devote our valuable staff time to those things that absolutely require the human touch.

I know I’m among the minority when it comes to the debate about authenticity. Or at least, judging from what I see on Twitter and the higher ed blogs, I assume I’m in the minority. But maybe there’s a silent majority of borgs out there awaiting their liberator.

Borgs! Romans! Countrymen! Lend me your URLs! And your RSS feeds!

P.S. – The odd thing about the anti-robot crowd is that some of them have no problem including Twitter update widgets on their blogs or websites. These widgets push the person’s latest tweets to a blog sidebar. Look to the left sidebar, scroll up, and you’ll find my status updates from Twitter right there. See? I’m not above using such a feed. But then again, I’m a borg.

P.S.S. – You will be assimilated. LOL.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to get to a conference, so when I heard that the web communications folks at my alma mater were sponsoring a half-day Social Media Summit, and bringing in two powerhouse presenters within driving distance, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Adding to the allure: finally, I would get to meet Brad J. Ward, whom I’ve known for years via his blog and Twitter, and the legendary Michael Stoner (@mStonerblog), whom I’ve followed (via his blog, print articles and consulting work) even longer. Plus, I’d get to reconnect with Elizabeth Allen (@lizallen) of Caltech (one word, little “t”), whom I haven’t seen since an April 2008 CASE conference where we both presented, and of course, Lori Croy of MU’s Web Communications (@croyl) and many other wonderful communications pros from Mizzou and elsewhere.

So, I went. And I was not disappointed. While both Brad and Liz did a nice job outlining the basics of social media to a mixed audience of newbies and those further along the social media journey, they managed to keep it lively and engaging enough for us old-timers. (For those who couldn’t attend, check out the hashtag #musms09 for the Twitter back-channel comments that ran throughout the event. Also, presentations should be posted soon at the Social Media Summit webpage.)

Friday Five observations from the event:

It was cool to learn about how Abilene Christian University used the free video service Ustream to live-stream (broadcast) the university’s opening chapel service via ACU’s Facebook fan page. The campus only promoted the event over Facebook and drew a hearty following. (I was too busy tweeting to write down numbers but I recall Brad mentioning a significant increase in new fans to that page.) The live-streaming also generated a lot of interaction and comments. I’m thinking this would be a cool thing to do for some of our own campus traditions, such as our annual St. Pat’s Week festivities. What traditions from your campus could tie alumni and others back to your school via a live-stream?
Liz showcased Oregon State University‘s Powered By Orange campaign as a stellar example of one university leveraging social media and bringing it all together into a nice package, and consistent with the university’s online look and brand identity. If you haven’t explored this site, you should.
Based on the questions and comments following Liz’s presentation, it’s apparent that university communications people are still struggling with the issues of control in the realm of social media. There were many questions about how to deal with inappropriate comments on Facebook fan pages, etc. It’s tough on Facebook, where fans can post without moderation. (With a blog platform, comments can be screened and approved before they show up live on the forum. But it doesn’t work that way with Facebook.) This is an issue that colleges and universities will have to contend with for some time, but the idea that transparency and openness should prevail seemed to carry the day. The audience and speakers agreed that it’s worse to censor than to allow for open expression, even when comments are inappropriate. Better to contact the individual directly, explain why such a comment was removed, and then move on than to expunge it from the site with no communication.
It was the first time I’d seen anyone use Prezi in a conference presentation. (But as I said earlier, it’s been awhile since I’ve been to a conference, so Prezi may be all the rage these days.) Brad Ward seemed to handle it well. I may have to play around with it sometime.
Liz Allen seems to be a big fan of Hootsuite for measuring and analyzing Twitter activity. So am I. But Brad seems to think CoTweet is a little simpler. I need to check it out.

And two bonus observations:

It’s apparent that walls and silos still abound in higher ed communications and marketing — even though social media could facilitate the dismantling of those walls. This, too, is about control and turf protection. This seems to be a way of life among universities, but campus offices and departments are going to have to learn to work together to be more effective in the realm of social media and to ensure consistency of a campus’s brand identity.
Don’t ever try to be a social media soothsayer. Brad Ward will call you out on it.