social media – Page 40 – Andrew Careaga

More proof that social media is altering the way news is consumed and distributed: A recent study of news consumption trends from the Pew Internet and American Life Project points to the growing socialization of news content.

For people under 30, digital — and social — is the preferred method to share and get news content, according to the Pew study, which says that one-third of people under 30 get their news from social networks. A slightly higher percentage of that age group (34 percent) watched TV news, but only 13 percent read print or digital newspaper content.

Translate this to the higher education sphere. All colleges and universities are media organizations to some degree. Some institutions are more sophisticated than others, but we all generate tons of content, and we push it out through newsletters, alumni publications, our official websites and our social media platforms, to name a few. Since one-third of the under-30 demographic gets their news from social media, it stands to reason that at least that proportion of our under-30 stakeholders — young alumni, current and prospective students, younger faculty and staff — will follow suit. In fact, it’s a good bet that an even greater proportion of the under-30 people connected to higher ed institutions use social media to get their news.

How are we taking advantage of social media to share our news?

Are we leveraging our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn sites to distribute news from our university?

News-sharing should be a key component of our digital content and connection strategy. Let’s not toss out the good ol’ alumni magazine yet, but let’s think about how alumni news could — and should — be shared via social media to meet the preferences of that under-30 group of alumni. Let’s think about how to reuse content from the employee e-newsletter to communicate with our younger faculty and staff. Let’s remind ourselves that students don’t check email as often as they check their social media accounts.

Let’s start thinking about social media as more than a marketing channel. Let’s look at it as a news distribution channel as well.

There’s been a lot of PR and marketing chatter lately about the new Myspace. (That’s Myspace with a little “s” — not MySpace, which is so 2008.)

It’s shocking enough to learn that Myspace is launching a comeback. But even more shocking to my sensibilities was reading a headline like this one from PRDaily:

What brands need to know about the new Myspace

Wait. Wasn’t Myspace supposed to be dead? Didn’t we all abandon Tom’s site long ago to pursue the (then) up-and-coming upstarts Facebook and Twitter?

But apparently Myspace is undead — just in time for Halloween season. It’s making a comeback, and brands need to be ready, right?

Not so fast, fellow higher ed marketing types. While “it’s likely that brands will be welcome with open arms, eventually,” writes PRDaily’s Kevin Allen, it’s still uncertain how it will all play out. All signs point to Myspace focusing on the niche that made the original site popular in the first place: music. And according to Allen, “MySpace will likely skew younger,” since the kids love music. This means that Myspace should attract that college-age audience, and “therefore brands that target the 18-24 crowd will probably be early adopters.”

I can see a migration of college students from Facebook or Twitter to Myspace. Once their parents, uncles and brands — including their universities — get into their social media space, they tend to look elsewhere.

That’s certainly true with Facebook, once seen as the hot spot for teens, and Twitter, which was the subject of a rash of “teens don’t tweet” media reports a few years back. But at the university where I work, we’re seeing a rise in Twitter usage and a decline in Facebook usage among new students. In 2011, only 3 percent of our incoming freshmen said Twitter was their social media of choice. This fall, 14 percent did. Meanwhile, the percentage of freshmen choosing Facebook as their main social media platform declined from 93 percent in 2011 to 79 percent in 2012.

Why the change? The anecdotal reason I often hear is that, now that mom’s on Facebook, the kids want to hang out somewhere else.

But if mom follows the kids to Twitter, then where are they going to end up?

Myspace, perhaps?

Hard to say. Maybe the new Myspace should go up against Tumblr for social media supremacy with the younger crowd. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that people were proclaiming Tumblr as the new MySpace (with a big “S”), and now, some are calling the new Myspace the new Tumblr. So why not face off against Tumblr and let Facebook and Twitter increasingly focus on the “get off my lawn” crowd.

No matter what happens, we higher ed marketing types will need to keep an eye on the new Myspace. That doesn’t mean we need to chase this newly revarnished shiny object, though. Let’s heed the advice of a seasoned higher ed marketer, Michael Stoner, who in a recent post advises us to stay focused an “get to work on the really important channels,” whatever those may be for your institution. Stoner has a few suggestions. Go read his post.

Focus is apparently what the new Myspace is attempting. Maybe we should try it too.

But with a watchful eye on Myspace. So, let’s go reactivate our accounts, and let’s hope Tom hasn’t abandoned us.