social media – Page 33 – Andrew Careaga

Welcome to the third installment of this blog’s “books that matter” series of book reviews in which I ask a fellow higher ed marketing or communications person to review his or her pick for the most important book all people in our field should read. This review comes from C.K. Syme (@cksyme), an expert in crisis communications and the author of a nifty little ebook titled Listen, Engage, Respond: Crisis Communications in Real-Time.

Groundswell: Living in a World Transformed By Social Technologies

Review by C.K. Syme

“The groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.”

So begins the 2011 expanded and revised version of my first social media bible: Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. There is no other book I’ve read in the last 16 years that has shaped my strategic communications philosophy more than this book.

Understanding how to work with the groundswell and influence it will give you a voice there. And this book is deliciously rich in research and case studies.

The first edition was written in 2006. It doesn’t seem like long ago, but social media years are like dog years — it was ages ago.

Two huge takeaways I learned when I read the first edition in 2006 that are still true today:

1. The groundswell isn’t the tools. The tool du jour is just the channel the groundswell uses to do life. Knowing the tools isn’t power. Understanding the groundswell is.

2. The world of personal data is changing. The power of traditional demographics is not enough. The new kid on the block is psychographics, or social technographics. Using data from the social graph, I can now access much deeper and more impacting data than demographics ever gave me.

My biggest takeaways from the new version (quotes or paraphrases from the book):

The groundswell is a collision of three forces: people, technologies and economics. And on the internet, traffic equals money.
The groundswell is inside organizations as well as outside. The same principles and practices engage internal and external constituencies.
Technologies come and go. Concentrate on the relationships. Chasing technology is like trying to jump on a speeding merry-go-round.
Listening to the groundswell is critical to engaging it.
To understand the groundswell, you need to know the dynamics of the participants. A strategy that treats everyone alike will spell failure.
The social technographics ladder is the key to content strategy. To ignore it is to invite failure (see #5).
When trying to tap into the groundswell, clarity of objectives will make or break your strategy.
Always consider your customers and what they will participate in, not the coolest and latest stuff you think will bring them in.
The groundswell trend is unstoppable.
Your brand is whatever your customer says it is.
To profit from listening, you need a plan to act on what you hear.
Online buzz can lead directly to sales.
The marketing funnel has outlived its usefulness as a metaphor.
Engagement pays off.
Every business operation is enriched by understanding and working with the groundswell.

If you’ve read the book, please feel free to add to the list in the comments. I’d like to hear what you think.

'Social Works' goes live Feb. 25. — ‘Social Works’ goes live Feb. 25.

Months in the making, a new book about social media in higher education marketing — perhaps the book on the subject — is about to hit the marketplace.

Social Works: How #HigherEd Uses #SocialMedia to Raise Money, Build Awareness, Recruit Students, and Get Results will officially be available in print and ebook formats next Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. (There’s also a launch party scheduled for the following day in Boston. I won’t say much about that, though, because I’m jealous that I won’t be there.)

Social Works is a collection of 25 case studies from colleges and universities large and small, public and private, all of which have embraced social media to help them accomplish a wide array of goals, from fundraising to student recruitment to alumni engagement and crisis management.

Edited by Michael Stoner (@mstonerblog), the president and co-founder of mStoner Inc., Social Works demonstrates, he writes, “that social media has the maturity and reach to be an integral component of campaigns focused on building awareness, recruiting students, engaging alumni and other key audiences, raising money, and accomplishing important goals that matter to a college or university.”

I was thrilled when Michael approached me about being a part of this project. He asked me to write a chapter on using social media for crisis communication, based on our staff’s response to a gunman on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus in May 2011. (I blogged about that experience immediately afterward. The case study goes much more in depth.) I was happy to oblige. It’s been a great experience and a truly collaborative effort with Michael, his team at mStoner and Eduniverse, and many of my colleagues in higher education.

To give you a taste of what’s in store, download a sample chapter from Social Works. This chapter, by Justin Ware (@justinjware), describes how Florida State University leveraged social media to raise more than $186,000 in an online-only campaign.