Erasmus University Rotterdam
Social Media Handbook
T E G NNECTED! CO
CONTENTS 1. WHAT & WHY: SOCIAL MEDIA? 2. TWELVE STEPS TO INCORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA WITHIN YOUR DEPARTMENT STEP 1 – FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.......... 4 STEP 2 – MEET OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PHILOSOPHY.................. 4 STEP 3 – LISTEN....................................................................... 4 STEP 4 – PARTICIPATE WITH OUR SOCIAL MEDIA................... 5 STEP 5 – LEARN FROM THE EXISTING CHANNELS................... 5 STEP 6 – EVALUATE YOUR DEPARTMENTS’ GOALS.................. 5 STEP 8 – CHOOSE YOUR CHANNELS....................................... 5 STEP 9 – TELL US WHAT YOU ARE DOING................................ 6 STEP 10 – IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN.......................................... 6 STEP 11 – MEASURE YOUR SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES.... 6 3. MEASURING TRAFFIC 4. COMMUNICATION GUIDELINES DO’S & DON’TS........................................................................ 8 USE DISCLAIMERS................................................................... 8 BE TRANSPARENT.................................................................... 8 BE ACCURATE......................................................................... 8 RESPECT OTHERS.................................................................... 9 IF NECESSARY ALERT THE INTEGRITY COORDINATORS........ 9 HONOUR COPYRIGHTS........................................................... 9 DON’T SPREAD ANY CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.............. 9 TELL US ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES......................................... 10 BE GENEROUS & SHARE........................................................ 10 5.CRISIS MANGEMENT.................................................. 11
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#1
WHAT AND WHY:
SOCIAL MEDIA?
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What is Social Media?
- Connectedness
Social Media is best understood as a group of
Most kinds of Social Media thrive on their con-
new kinds of online media, which share most or
nectedness, making use of links to other
all of the following characteristics:
sites, resources and people.
- Participation
Source: ”What is Social Media” by Antony
Social Media encourages contributions and
Mayfield
feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.
Forms of Social Media Currently there are multiple forms of Social
- Openness
Media. However, we focus on the Social Net-
Most Social Media services are open to feed-
works, specifically Twitter & Facebook.
back and participation. They encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information.
Social Networks allow people to build
There are rarely any barriers to accessing and
personal web pages and then connect with
making use of content (password) protected
friends to share content and communication.
content is frowned upon.
The biggest social networks are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Conversation Whereas traditional media is about “broadcast-
Why does the ESE need to
ing” (content transmitted or distributed to an
participate?
audience), Social Media is better seen as a two-
• To make use of the possibility to reach
way conversation.
thousands of prospective students within
- Community
• To fulfill the need of the prospect to have
their ‘natural’ environment. Social Media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such
contact with the ESE via these channels. • Necessity; every university is doing it, do not stay behind or you will lose.
as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA? We don’t have a choice on whether we DO Social Media, the question is how well we DO it. – Erik Qualman 90% Of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements.
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#2 TWELVE
STEPS TO INCORPORATE
SOCIAL MEDIA WITHIN YOUR DEPARTMENT
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STEP 1
STEP 3
Familiarize yourself with Social
Listen
Media
We aim to always react to -in Twitter terms-
First try out the different channels, e.g. in your
‘mentions’ on Social Media channels.
personal environment. Then ask yourself:
Furthermore, we try to:
can I combine my personal and professional
• Thank people that support us
online awareness?
• Stimulate others to talk enthusiastic about the ESE
STEP 2
We send out a quarterly e-mail which contains
Meet our Social Media philosophy
the most relevant updates concerning our Social
Philosophy:
Media activities. If you want to start listening,
We use Social Media as a means to achieve our
send an e-mail to socialmedia@ese.eur.nl and
mission.
request to be added to the mailinglist!
Mission: The Erasmus School of Economics is an inter-
STEP 4
nationally renowned institute that contributes
Participate with our Social Media
scientific knowledge to future economic issues
Like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/
and aims to answer currently relevant issues of
ESEerasmus) and start following us on Twitter
concern to government and firms. The focus
(www.twitter.com/eseerasmus)! We can also
of the ESE is on the creation, the dissemination
be found on Youtube and Hyves. Start sharing
and the application of scientific knowledge, all
your own relevant content via these channels
from an economic perspective. The ESE relies
and further enhance the online awareness of
on the most recent insights in the discipline.
the ESE.
It collaborates with international scientific partners, and it has local footings in business issues relevant to the unique position that the
STEP 5
city of Rotterdam has as a hub of transport and
Learn from the existing channels
industry. The ESE ensures working conditions
The best way to see what you can do with
that permit innovative scientific progress and
our Social Media channels is to see what we
puts the academic education at the centre of its
are already doing! The channels you choose
activities.
should be in line with the overall goals (of your department). Further, they should be in good
Purpose: To create a strong online community of ESE’ers.
collaboration with your own on-line goals.
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STEP 6 Evaluate your departments’ goals What is the strategic plan of your department? • Which services are important for your mission? • What are your PR goals?
STEP 7 Create a Social Media strategy Use a Social Media philosophy; we recommend using ours (step 2). Go through the following steps: 1. Write an elevator pitch to quickly and easily explain what you are doing online; and what you want to achieve. 2. Write down what you want to achieve. 3. Analyse whether or not your goals within Social Media have meaning when compared to the overall goals of the organisation. 4. Denote how the usage of Social Media will complement your organisation strategy. 5. Find out what kinds of content you can deliver yourself and which kinds you will need from your community. 6. Write down the steps you need to take in order to fulfill this strategy. 7. Decide who is responsible for this.
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STEP 8
STEP 9
Choose your channels
Tell us what you are doing
socialmedia@ese.eur.nl
Ask yourself: • Is your audience on Facebook? • Do you have the time to update your page with valuable content? • Do you have the daily capacity and incentive to actively participate with your fans?
STEP 10 Implement your plan Create a short and long term implementation plan.
• Can you deliver special content to your stakeholders?
Tell your supporters what you will be doing and link to your Social Media activities from your
Do you have a clear goal with which Facebook
website and vice-versa.
can help you achieve said goal? If you cannot answer all these questions with a positive answer, do not create a page
STEP 11
but participate via our Facebook page
Measure your successes
(www.facebook.nl/ESEerasmus). Invite your
and challenges
colleagues to do the same.
Return (expected results) on Investment (what is your investment?).
OR How will you measure? You are ready to create your own page?
Relevant metrics:
Bear in mind that the name of the profile
• Name awareness
should clearly indicate your department and
• Brand Affiliation
consecutively the profile photo should be the
• Word of Mouth
logo of your department. Don’t forget to send us a link so we can promote you!
How do you measure this? • Retweets
• Visits (tracking codes!)
Ask yourself:
• Members
• Is there someone available that can Tweet at least once a day? • Do I have valuable information to share via Twitter?
STEP 12 Pass on your data and links
Familiarise yourself with the Twitter culture first
You are currently helping us to further enhance
(e.g. by creating a personal account).
the online awareness of the ESE.
Youtube Ask yourself: • Do I have enough movies to put on Youtube? If not, send us the movie and we will share and promote it for you!
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#3
MEASURING
TRAFFIC
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To see if all your hard work is reaping any bene-
link, this ‘click’ will be measured by us. This
fits, we provide you with the option to measure
way we hope to gain a better insight in the
the traffic you generate towards the website of
traffic that Social Media (specifically Twitter and
the Erasmus School of Economics. Here you will
Facebook) generates.
find a short manual on how to do this. You can only measure click-throughs to a page within the ESE domain (www.ese.eur.nl/..) . As an example we will use the following news item: http://www.eur.nl/ese/english/news/ detail/article/29513/ We have devised a simple form of categorization of our tracking codes, to keep the overview intact. We highly recommend you to select something identical if you wish to start tracking your own click-throughs. Take a look at the table below to view the structure: Tracking code
Year
Category
Specification
?cmp=ese2011-twin-bsc
ese2011
twin (Twitter Informational)
bsc (targets BSc prospects)
?cmp=ese2011-twin-msc
ese2011
twin (Twitter Informational)
msc (targets MSc prospects)
?cmp=ese2011-twnw-eng
ese2011
twnw (Twitter News)
eng (English message)
?cmp=ese2011-twnw-dch
ese2011
twnw (Twitter News)
dch (Dutch message)
Implementing the tracking-code is relatively straightforward; you simply add it behind the existing URL of the page. It looks like this: http://www.eur.nl/ese/english/news/detail/ article/29513/?cmp=ese2011-twin-bsc Right now, when someone clicks on this URL, the visit will be recorded by SiteCatalyst. It’s as simple as that. When Tweeting, and your message is limited to a certain amount of characters, it is wise to shorten your URL to save more room for other information. You can do this (among others) via www.bit.ly. Summarising, as soon as a person clicks on this
IMPORTANT All links that do not link to a (section of) the ESE site do not need tracking codes. Unfortunately, we cannot measure this traffic.
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#4
COMMUNICATION
GUIDELINES
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DO’S & DON’TS
their message in a personal context or not. They always have to be careful and be aware that colleagues are reading what they write.
Do • Use disclaimers • Be transparent
BE ACCURATE
• Be accurate
Research, copyright and viruses
• Respect others
Even though messages or information you have
• Honour copyrights
put online are mainly your own opinion or fact,
• Tell us about your activities
make sure your sources are reliable and check
• Be generous & share
their accuracy. Be certain you have permis-
• Comply with organizational arrangements
sion to place any confidential information, or
• Abide to fundamental principles
information which is protected by copyright. Only link to trusted websites. In the event that
Don’t • Don’t spread any confidential information
something has gone wrong, try to be the first to correct your mistakes without deleting or altering previous messages. Also state that you are
USE DISCLAIMERS Who are you representing?
the one editing the message.
Make sure it is clear that the opinion you give is
RESPECT OTHERS
your own, and not necessarily that of the ESE.
Everybody can read along
Below an example of a disclaimer you could
Remember that everyone, including your col-
use:
leagues, can read what you publish online.
“I am currently active (as a teacher/student) at
Furthermore, everything you publish remains
the Erasmus School of Economics. However,
available for a long time on the web. This is
everything you find here is my own personal
your own responsibility. Pretend as if your
opinion and is not read or gained permission
supervisors and family are always reading what
before posting. Opinions, conclusions and other
you post. Use your own judgmental instinct: it is
information you find here, are not necessarily
not smart or professional to embarrass the ESE,
the opinion of the Erasmus School of Econom-
university, students or colleagues via your mes-
ics.”
sages. If you have suggestions for improvement, denote these in a constructive manner. Even
If you do speak as the ESE, make sure this is
better, use the appropriate channels to show
clear as well.
your concerns and share your suggestions.
BE TRANSPARENT Tell who you are
Respect those you address. Naturally, ethic slander, personal insults and obscenities are not allowed.
When writing about the ESE, we kindly ask you to name your role within the organisation.
If you write about a competitor, make sure that
Board members, managers and supervisors have
what you write is accurate; without discredit-
a special responsibility. They need to evaluate
ing the other party. Avoid unnecessary or non
themselves whether or not they can publish
productive arguments, which lead to nothing.
18 Don’t add fuel to the fire, keep with the facts.
privacy of people and communities. Colleagues, students and interested can’t be citied without
When witnessing illegal, unsafe or unethical
permission. Never mention someone’s name
behaviour of a colleague, student or external
without permission and do not talk about
party, we appreciate it if you do not publish this
confidential details. You can however mention
online. Instead, approach one of the integrity
general items. Using pseudonyms, as long as
coordinators.
you do not reveal someone’s identity, is also allowed. Make sure that what you publish is
Putting cases as theft, fraud, unwanted intima-
not in violation with possible statements of
cies, etc. online can do more harm than good.
non-disclosure.
What is worse is that these cases even might not get the attention of the ones that can do concerns and has therefore appointed integrity
TELL US ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES
coordinators which thoroughly investigate such
So that we can share these
events.
with others
something about it. ESE wants to hear your
We want to avoid being seen as supervisors of
HONOUR COPYRIGHTS
your activities. To be more exact, we aim to be exactly the opposite: we want to share all the
Image, author- and citation
messages ESE’ers talk about with each other!
copyrights
Naturally, your contribution should be a part
Pay attention to copyrights of others and from
of this.
the ESE itself. You are not allowed to publish confidential or other brand protected informaor photos, make sure these are copyright free.
BE GENEROUS & SHARE
A useful website for such images is
Share your new discoveries
www.flickr.com/creativecommons/.
The internet is all about linking or connecting
Beware, first read the manual, because also
with each other. So, upon finding something
here is not every image free to use for all pur-
interesting, valuable or relevant: link to it! The
poses. Some photographers for instance want
more you link to relevant content, the more you
their name mentioned within or around the
will connect online and raise the popularity of
photo, for marketing purposes.
your messages.
tion without permission. When you use pictures
DON’T SPREAD ANY CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION Respect the privacy of persons and communities When speaking online about the ESE, do tell about all the good things you do and create valuable connections with your audience. However, pay attention that you respect the
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#5 CRISIS
MANAGEMENT
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LISTEN Negative message
EVALUATE 'Trolls' Does the comment come from someone or a website, notorious for slander?
Nonsense Is the message clearly nonsense, a joke, mocking or satirical?
Incorrect info Are there false accusations in the message?
Fair complaint Is the message a result of a negative experience with ESE?
REACT Don't react, only monitor Do not engage in the discussions right now, but keep monitoring the website. If a discussion starts, you should reevaluate these messages and decide wether to react or not.
Rectify React publicly with an answer with which you correct the facts. Keep the following in mind: • Be transparent • React on time • Be polite • Approach in a personal manner • Make sure there are no loose ends
Solve Make a public statement that you take this case seriously and will try to solve the issue. Said solution does not need to be shared publicly. This depends on the situation (evaluate this yourself). Bear in mind: • Be transparent • React on time • Be polite • Approach in a personal manner • Make sure there are no loose ends
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CONTACT Education Marketing Education Service Centre Erasmus School of Economics Erasmus University Rotterdam P.O. Box 1738 3000 DR Rotterdam The Netherlands Room H 6-01 t: (+31) 10 408 2111 e: socialmedia@ese.eur.nl
Social Media Handbook
Education Marketing Education Service Centre socialmedia@ese.eur.nl
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