Social Networks & Possibilities
Julian Spiegel, Anastassia Ševtšenko, Aneta Zebischová, Laura Smith, Alexandra van Vark, Maximilian Rietheimer Business & Management 2012 17. 4. 2014
Table of Contents Content Networks .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Google + ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Universities & Google+ ............................................................................................................................. 5 Facebook ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 Universities & Facebook............................................................................................................................ 7 Twitter ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 Universities & Twitter ............................................................................................................................... 9 Issuu ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 Universities & Issuu ................................................................................................................................. 13 Multimedia Networks ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Youtube ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 Universities & Youtube ........................................................................................................................... 16 Instagram...................................................................................................................................................... 18 Universities & Instagram ......................................................................................................................... 19 Pinterest........................................................................................................................................................ 21 Universities & Pinterest ........................................................................................................................... 22 Flickr ............................................................................................................................................................ 24 Universities & Flickr................................................................................................................................ 25 Blogs ................................................................................................................................................................ 26 Blogspot ....................................................................................................................................................... 27 Universities & Blogspot ........................................................................................................................... 28 Wordpress .................................................................................................................................................... 29 Universities & Wordpress ........................................................................................................................ 30 Career Networks .............................................................................................................................................. 32 LinkedIn ....................................................................................................................................................... 33 Universities & LinkedIn .......................................................................................................................... 34 Xing.............................................................................................................................................................. 36 Universities & Xing ................................................................................................................................. 37 Research Networks .......................................................................................................................................... 38 Research Gate .............................................................................................................................................. 39 Universities & Research Gate .................................................................................................................. 40 Social Media Grid ............................................................................................................................................ 42
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Content Networks • Google + • Facebook
• Twitter • Issuu
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Google + •
After page authority, a URL's number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor
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Google+ became required to comment on YouTube videos, there’s been a huge wave of backlash spreading across the Internet. (Important for our youtube account idea)
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Google+ communities make it easy to find your target audience
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The option to create circles, you can choose which update is shown to which circle.
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See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_M6PzXS9g
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Easy platform to market on. Google Plus allows for long conversations and you can build relationships.
•
Less used as Facebook, but because of the good features and the big Google network (all your most visited websites are Google owned) the growth potential is very high
PRO’s
CON’s
Easy way to send update to specific audiences ‘circles’ Google+ is still not mainstream used Enables group meetings, discussions in ‘hangouts’
Facebook still has a much larger audience
Positive effect on Google search ranking Good for marketing purposes Used and known all over the world Connection to google search, gmail, youtube, blogs
Ranking of Google+ (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Google+ Harvard
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Facebook •
Most used social network, 66% of internet users have facebook
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Universities can create photo albums with picture to show off their campus
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The ability to create different groups, people with the same interest can ‘like’ a page
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Easy way to share news with a large platform
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Facebook can be connected to other social media accounts such as twitter, Instagram, and blogs updates on these accounts will show up on the facebook newsfeed
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The possibility to start a discussion and the space for people to comment on updates
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The ability to create a poll and let people vote
PRO’s
CON’s
All target audiences are on facebook, students, potential students, alumni, researchers
May lose 80% of its users in the next three years, according to a Princeton university
Departments can share their news/memos on facebook, and be sure that their student and lecturers see them
You have to pay in order to get updates in the newsfeed of all your followers. If not, only 10% of your subscribers will see the post.
Show the identity of the university, share the achievements of the university and its students. If other accounts are connected, the updates on the facebook feed will draw interest to the other accounts. A facebook profile that interlinks all platforms can boost traffic on all accounts. Great possibilities to facilitate interaction, by starting a discussion or creating a poll
Ranking of Facebook (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Facebook Stanford
Indianapolis
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Twitter •
Online social networking and micro-blogging service
•
Registered users => can send and read short 140-character text messages, called "tweets" Unregistered users can only read them
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Described as "the SMS of the Internet."
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Total number of registered users: 1 billion approx. monthly active users: 241 million
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Country with the most users: China (35.5 million)
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47% of people who follow a brand on Twitter are more likely to visit that company's website
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Twitter's percentage of total European social sharing: 45%
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Twitter's percentage of total North American social sharing: 24%
PRO’s
CON’s
Free
Tweets are of a limited character count
Easy to use
Difficult to create a ‘buzz’
Trending
Needs to be constantly maintained
Providing real-time information to followers
Requires day-to-day observation of trends in order to reach wider audience Fast response is required time consuming
Good brand-reinforcement Fosters continuous information flow with audience
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Ranking of Twitter (according to alexa.com)
Universities & Twitter
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Prime example (most followed) Harvard (353 K followers) •
Promotes a vast number of university events/initiatives
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Tweets cover a range of different topics
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Tries to promote the hashtag: #HarvardCampaign
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The “Havard Campaign”: “A multi-year effort to engage alumni and friends around the world in the important work of strengthening the University for generations to come.”
Observation: followers most probably attracted to the long-standing prestige & popularity of the university. Note bellow the most influential universities on the platform => Ivy League & large US colleges with high prestige (see MIT etc.)
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MCI Twitter account (561 followers) •
Fairly active account => new tweets every day or every other day
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#MCI_Innsbruck is being promoted regularly, but not gaining much lift
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Good coverage of events/news, mostly referencing links to main web-page
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Issuu PRO’s
CON’s
Showing leaflets/brochures nicely
Limited usage without subscription
Targeted marketing possible
Limited interactivity (share on facebook, google+, pinterest)
80 million views/month Advancing in traffic rankings Also available as app 25000 publications every day Easy to maintain
Ranking of Issuu (according to alexa.com)
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Innsbruck informiert on issuu.com
Universities & Issuu Stanford offer of undergraduate programs
thz
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Multimedia Networks Video • YouTube Photo • Instagram • Pinterest • Flickr
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Youtube •
More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
•
Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
PRO’s
CON’s
Finding & reaching target audience around the world
Time consuming
Very interactive
Staff with technical skills & software required
Opportunity to introduce classes, alumni events, MCI, the city, Erasmus students’ experience etc.
Technical devices required
Easy maintenance
Person responsible for maintenance required (answering comments, uploading videos etc.)
Easy to share
Ranking of Youtube (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Youtube Popular examples: ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
https://www.youtube.com/user/Harvard https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwbsWIWfcOL2FiUZ2hKNJHQ https://www.youtube.com/user/VictoriaUniversity https://www.youtube.com/user/StanfordUniversity
Victoria University
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Stanford University
UC Berkeley
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Instagram PRO’s Rapidly growing in Europe Easy to integrated students/people Linked into other social media platforms (facebook..) Good basis for creative contest
CON’s Hard to control possible uploaded content by students #MCI already has 36360 uploaded pictures Important to come up with a unique #, in order to integrate people/ students effectively Europe has a rather small proportion on the overall usage of instagram
Easy to generate a lot of likes and clicks
Ranking of Instagram (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Instagram M.I.T.
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Harvard
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Pinterest •
Visual discovery tool
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Used to collect ideas for different projects and interests
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Individuals create and share collections (called “boards”) of visual bookmarks (called “Pins”)
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Total number of users: 70 million
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68.2% of users are female
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60% of users are from the U.S.
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Majority of users fall in the 25 – 34 years age range (27.4%)
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18 – 24 year olds represent 17.3%
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Average number of website visits generated from a Pinterest pin: 2
PRO’s
CON’s
Free
Self-promotion is difficult
Easy to use
Copy-right infringement issues
Low maintenance
Links to original posts are more likely to be broken the more the post is “re-pinned” Lack of coherent messages can create confusion and “unprofessional” vibes
Fosters positive sentiments Growing rapidly Encourages a sense of ‘community’ for students and alumni Ranking of Pinterest (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Pinterest Indiana University • •
-23,778 followers (=most followed)
Taking a “school spirit” approach – Indiana U. promotes its sports team, trade mark and school colours throughout its boards. Also the “IU Around the World” and “Hoosier History” are to be noted as novelty board themes. Fairly inactive member – only 23 “likes”.
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Daniels College -729 followers (Business field) • • •
Comments: large (leaning on excessive) number of boards – gives “messy” image. Some boards have little or no relation to academia or the institution itself. Relatively active member – 117 “likes”. Once again, many of the likes are of little or no relevance.
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Flickr •
Platform for sharing pictures and videos
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You can give your uploads a "tag", which is like a keyword Tags help you find things which have something in common. You can assign up to 75 tags to each photo or video
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Comments are possible to make to any upload creates communication
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Available also at an application for cellular phones
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Owned by Yahoo and available in 10 languages
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87 million registered members, more than 3.5 million new images uploaded daily
PRO’s
CON’s
Using ‚tags‘ promotes interconnection
Not as used as Instagram
Creating ‚sets‘ to categorize your photos
Co-branding is not well established
Basic version is for free (1TB)
Flickr requires a downloadable app for uploading more than six photos at a time
Seeing pictures even if not signed in
Ranking of Flickr (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Flickr Oregon State University •
encourages alumni to post photos of a cutout of Benny, the school’s mascot, taken in various locales with a tag: bennyonthemove
Colgate University • •
uploads photos to its Flickr account and lets people interact with them, including this set from an alumni reunion “If we post our photos to Flickr, they have their own social life”
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Blogs • Blogspot • Wordpress
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Blogspot • •
Great variety of easy to use templates with flexible layouts. Available in 60 languages and in countries across the globe
PRO’s
CON’s
Free
Person(s) with skills required to be responsible for maintenance
Integration with other Google products (Google+, Google Analytics, Youtube)
Time consuming
Interactive
Post generators required (text, photos, videos)
More customizable than Wordpress
Consistency of posts required otherwise loss of audience
Highly informative – gives additional insights in addition to website
Difficult to grow audience at the beginning of launch
Possibility to cover wide range of topics
Ranking of Blogger (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Blogspot Durham University
http://durhamunimusic.blogspot.co.at/
Boฤ aziรงi University
http://boun101.blogspot.co.at/
Other examples http://yalecycling.blogspot.co.at/ http://hand-drawn-animation.blogspot.co.at/
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Wordpress •
Over 56 million individual blogs, which receive over 100 million page views per day
•
3GB of free storage for posts and media
PRO’s Free (with limitations) Easy to add several ‘’Blog contributors’’ who would be responsible for posting and managing the blog Interactive Highly informative – gives additional insights in addition to website Possibility to cover wide range of topics
CON’s Person(s) with skills required to be responsible for maintenance Time consuming Post generators required (text, photos, videos) Consistency of posts required otherwise loss of audience Difficult to grow audience at the beginning of launch Not completely customizable
Ranking of Wordpress (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Wordpress •
Examples: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ http://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu/ http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/
Cambridge RDA http://cambridgerda.wordpress.com/
University at Buffalo
http://ubmba.wordpress.com/
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Brown University
http://thebruinclub.wordpress.com/
University of Kentucky
http://ukwrite.wordpress.com/
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Career Networks • LinkedIn
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LinkedIn •
Main purpose is to maintain and expand professional connections with potential clients, peer groups and colleagues
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Many universities are finding LinkedIn to be an effective tool to provide alumni with career resources
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Using LinkedIn means the process is often very hands-off for the schools
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Universities create a group and allow the networking magic to take place, with alumni sharing job opportunities by posting information to the group and creating subgroups that are focused to specific career or regional alumni chapters
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When creating an account you can add your CV
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277 Milion users, Men (59%) / Women (41%)
PRO’s
CON’s
Creating closed group for alumni interactions
Advanced account is not free of charge
Only basic version is for free
Focus on closed groups no use for applicants
Proffesional level of social media
Focused only on afer-study period life
Does not require day-to-day updates Closed groups live by their own life
Ranking of LinkedIn (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & LinkedIn Princeton - more than 45 alumni groups
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DePaul University • •
About 100 new members joining weekly The community has active job postings for alumni on the hunt for work, and most jobs are posted by other alumni
M.I.T. •
Private MIT LinkedIn alumni group allows students to join before they graduate so that they can network with alumni
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Xing •
Social software platform for enabling a network for professionals
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Users in 200 countries
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Available in 16 languages (Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish and Turkish)
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76% of all page-views come from Germany, 90% from the D-A-CH area
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Basic membership for free, premium membership in between €6.35 and €9.95 per month
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By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, it visualizes the small-world phenomenon. (A small-world network is a type of mathematical graph in which most nodes are not neighbours of one another, but most nodes can be reached from every other by a small number of hops or steps.)
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Personal profiles, groups, discussion forums, event coordination, and other common social community features, also offers the system for closed communities, called Enterprise groups with their own access paths and interface designs.
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See also: http://www.slideshare.net/swissnexSF/xing-for-universities
PRO’s
CON’s
Widely spread in the german speaking world
Not many students use the network
Visualizes the small-world
You only reach the German speaking world
Low maintenance
Hardly any other universities on there
4 out of 5 Swiss professionals use it Invitation mailings to your students and alumni
Ranking of Xing (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Xing RWTH Aachen University
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Research Networks • Research Gate
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Research Gate •
Already professors from MCI online (e.g. Mirski, Frischhut, Ebersberger) but no department created and low impact!
PRO’s
CON’s
Collaboration on research
Mainly biology and medicine research
Already 4 million researchers worldwide
Time consuming
Share, discover, use and distribute findings Ask questions and get critics from peers Stats provide reputation Job board function
Ranking of Research Gate (according to alexa.com)
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Universities & Research Gate
Profile of MCI Prof. Bernd Ebersberger
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MCI
University of Innsbruck
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Social Media Grid Platform
Applicants
Current Students
Exchange Students
Alumni
Researchers (Faculty Staff)
Google+ Facebook Twitter Issuu
x x x x
x x x
x x x
x x x
x
Youtube-channel Instagram Pinterest Flickr
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x
x
Blogs
x
x
x
LinkedIn Xing Research Gate
x
x
x x x
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