Final Assignment
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Final Assignment
Part A
Activities of Colleges/Universities on Facebook
There are many colleges and universities commonly do on almost every social media platform. While several activities can be seen varied that colleges and universities perform in these platforms. Hence, below is the comparison of some colleges and universities that compare “what each college/university do on Facebook Page and Twitter Account”
Brooklyn College
Several activities can be witnessed that Brooklyn College does on its Facebook page. The very first and initial thing which is also a very common activity that the college does on its Facebook page is to communicate the information and background of the college. But it is not only the thing that can be seen on the Facebook page of college.
It is so because Brooklyn also does many other activities on their Facebook page. Out of many, the first Brooklyn College do on the Facebook page is they share News and Achievements of the college accomplished in the past time or achieving in the current. These achievements mainly include the accomplishments of the professors and students on the national and international levels. While in news, they share the things about the college that help the past and present students to be updated all the time.
Furthermore, they also try to communicate with and engage the society and communicate the college, their community and their performance on the college level while conveying efforts of Brooklyn College for community wellbeing. Additionally, they do it by listing the key milestone back to the founding year of the university and promote themselves accordingly while conveying the role the college has played in the community and education field.
The City College of New York
The City College of New York has found highly engaged in social media especially on the platform called Facebook. The college has been found so because it uses the platform a lot more compared to other colleges in the region. As mentioned above, the common thing that the City College of New York does on Facebook is to communicate itself while conveying its accomplishments and rewards. But despite this, the college can be found highly engaged in sharing the updates about new policies regarding programs and degrees, and admissions. Beyond this, the college is also engaged in sharing and updating other important messages and concerns like “An important message from President Boudreau on DACA”.
In addition to it, the college also uses Facebook as the sources of collecting reviews from both past and current students which is also a common thing that almost every organizations and institute do, but it has to be stated here because the City College of New York focuses on this strongly when one compares with the rest.
For the purpose to convey their accomplishments and rewards, the college fills out the information in the pop-up and then expand the
Yale University
Yale University is the university that can be found having a historic background. The university can be found so because it has been founded in 1701. I found this information and details from the analysis of the Facebook page of Yale University. So based on this, one thing that came clear to me regarding what Yale University does on their Facebook page, is they communicate their credibility in education through communicating their credible and long-lasting history in the field.
Apart from that, Yale University also ensures the provision of virtual tours for prospective students is also an activity that the university do on their Facebook page. In this, they also answer each and every inquiry that others (e.g. students) have about anything like admissions, degrees, departments of the university and many other things.
Last but not the least, the process of welcoming and bringing new students together towards the senior students (who are engaged in their professional and practical life experiences) is also an act that the university performs on its social media platforms like Facebook. They bring news students together to enable them to develop associations with the people who have studied the same things, at the same place, and now apply the knowledge and things learned. The main purpose behind this is to assist the students to have a brighter future.
Columbia University (New York)
Columbia University (New York) is one of the educational institutes that are highly engaged in promoting themselves on social media and share their background and credibleness. Similarly, the Columbia University of New York does so. Here, the university does the activities that mainly include the communication of university background, achievements it has made while communicating the details of the admissions, etc. Further, they also work to engage the community as well while promotes the university’s events.
Activities of Colleges/Universities on Twitter
Brooklyn College
On Twitter, a number of activities one can see performed by an individual or organization or institute but beyond the common activities, the motion that Brooklyn College does the most on its Twitter account is they mostly communicate the achievements of its people like researchers, professors, and even students and the role that the college has played in performing so. The one and recent example of it is; @BklynCollege411 boasts three writers who made the distinguished year-end best books lists in @NY times, @washingtonpost and @TIME. http://ow.ly/kAvx50xsR87”.
Furthermore, the college also shares many other things which mainly include sharing the events like Alumni Holidays, their social work, and major situations or cases contribution through the writings and postings of the college about that. The example of this is, "The dangers @IlhanMN faces are real, relentless and deadly. What’s remarkable is Omar’s response. “Prof. @BayoumiMoustafa writes in @GdnUSopinion on the threats against the Congresswoman being fueled by her opponents in the @GOP.”
The City College of New York
Despite the very common activities, the City College of New York does many things on or through its Twitter account. First of all the activity, they do on the platform is to share the statements and information news. The one example which is a pinned post on the Twitter account of the college at the moment is “Interim President Vincent Boudreau's statement on #DACA https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/presidentsoffice/message-archive/president-boudreaus-daca-statement … #CCNY #DefendDACA #DefendDREAMers”.
Further and as other colleges, The City College NY also share their basic information like "First public institution of higher education in NYC, founded in 1847. Humanities, arts, sciences, architecture, engineering, education, biomedical education #CCNY". Apart from this, the college also uses its Twitter account for enhancing students’ collaboration and share important educational news and resources.
Yale University
The one activity that Yale University does on its Twitter account and that becomes even unique up to an extent when compared with others is they share research studies the most than something else. This can also be found in an appreciated act of the university that they share the material and studies that can have a huge contribution to one life and experiences. Here an example is a study shared by Yale University “With a cellular blueprint for lungs, @YaleMed researchers look to organ regeneration”.
Further, the university also runs students takeovers. The university does this for highlighting real-life experiences to give opportunities to prospective students to hear directly from the current students. For the purpose, the university develops campaign hashtags to enable people to easily follow the conversation(s).
Columbia University (New York)
As Columbia University has a huge number of researches and studies in almost every field. The university has been found sharing those studies and research findings with the communities that include professionals, students and professors of Columbia University and other institutes of the world. This can be found in a way that the university also works to share their contribution and role in particular fields like education, society and community development, etc.
Further and commonly, the university is also doing to showcase the work of its students and faculty while connecting with students and communicating with them.
How They Do
There are similar and different steps each college and university use to do what they want on their Facebook Pages and Twitter Accounts. These all take almost the same actions for the purpose to run their social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Hence those steps and actions that include both the same and different that each institute takes are analyzed below.
The Colleges/Universities that have been analyzed above in terms of what they do on Facebook pages and Twitter accounts do by taking several steps and use of different strategies. The colleges/universities do the above activities on Facebook through uploading different videos and posting different posts that contain the message and information the colleges/universities want to convey. Here, the design of different social media posts and create videos regarding the main concerns and upload on the Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
Further, they also feature images, include fine and relevant hashtags, use perfect GIF that fits the message to be shared, engage in two-way conversations, use pools (for getting feedbacks), and create Milestone on Facebook pages.
Effective of Colleges and Universities
The colleges/universities can be found enough and even highly effective. It is so because they do not use social media platforms for their own benefits like for promotions only. While, they are effective because they share valuable and credible information, data, concerns, materials, news, and research findings that are helpful for the community and public as well as for individuals. Additionally, these activities make them more persuasive and inspiring on their social media platforms in the community mind.
Messages They Give
Brooklyn College
The message that the Facebook page and twitter account of Brooklyn college give is;
The college aims to communicate itself to the communities where it is mainly based while ensuring its promotion to other communities to pursue talented students and competent professors. Additionally, they also effort for contributing to society’s wellbeing.
The City College of New York
As the college can be found highly engaged in sharing the updates about new policies regarding programs and degrees, and admissions on Facebook. The message it shares is they are focusing on sharing information about the above matters to capture a higher number of students to get admitted each year. While they also work to share the statements and information news.
Yale University
The message that has been gotten is the university attracts students by communicating their credibility in education and providing virtual tours for the prospective students on Facebook. Further, it has learned as well that the university always supports students as they engage past students (doing jobs now) with current students.
Columbia University (New York)
The message Columbia University (New York) gives is, they use social media platforms to promote itself as they communicate university background, achievements, and admission detail, etc. while ensures their contribution in particular fields like education, society and community development, etc.
Part B
College/University
Who are Postings
Types of Posts Examples
Likes and Followers etc.
Brooklyn College
Facebook page: college and page administrator
Twitter:
Students, faculty, public relations, and alumni, etc.
Videos, Photos, Events, and Polls, Retweets, and Hashtags, etc.
Facebook Page: 37,658
On Twitter:
9056
The City College of New York
Facebook page: college and page administrator
Twitter:
Students, faculty, and alumni, etc.
Videos, Photos, Events, Articles, Hashtags, and Retweets, etc.
Facebook Page: 46,107
On Twitter: 10.6K
Yale University
Facebook page: college and page administrator
Twitter:
Students, faculty, and public relations, etc.
Videos, Photos, News, Hashtags, Retweets, Articles, and Polls, etc.
Facebook Page: 1,344,661
On Twitter: 481K
Columbia University (New York)
Facebook page: college and page administrator
Twitter:
Students, faculty, public relations, and alumni, etc.
Videos, Photos, News, Hashtags, Events, and Quotes, Articles, etc.
Facebook Page: 393,984
On Twitter: 4289
In detail, the Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of the above four colleges are run and managed by the colleges and universities themselves. But the postings that one can seat each platform of every college and university are made by different entities. On the Facebook pages of all four institutes, the postings are made by the administrator of the Facebook while other departments such as promotion and marketing department and the events management body also have the access to the page. They have access to the Facebook pages of every college because they also make posts like promoting and advertising in the admissions months while events managers post about the new events that are coming to be held at and by the college or university.
Apart from this, twitter accounts are also managed and mainly run by the concerned departments or individuals in the college. But the posts that come to see are made by different people that mainly include Students, Faculty, Public Relations, and Alumni, etc.
Furthermore, the posts that have been seen on the Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of the colleges and universities discuses din this paper come to see in the shape of Videos, Photos, Events, and Polls, Retweets, and Hashtags, etc.
Part C
Brooklyn using Facebook and Twitter
The operations, activities, and practices of Brooklyn College have been found highly effective and efficient. The activities and practices have been found so on both platforms called Facebook and Twitter. In addition to this, the College has been found using these social media platforms in an effective way. In other words, the Facebook and Twitter platforms are used in the best possible way by Brooklyn College. This has been found that the college uses the platforms in the best possible way because the college uses these platforms for more than a few activities. (Some of these activities may cost the Brooklyn College if done on other platforms such as advertisement and promotion). While on Facebook and Twitter, the college promotes itself and the educational services it provides with almost no cost. Beyond that, the survey, accomplishments, and student engagement is also done on these platforms (especially on Twitter) by the college. So that is why it can also be stated that the college uses these two social media platforms in the best ways.
In terms of effectiveness and efficiency of using the platforms, the college has been found enough proactive and efficient as per the analysis of each platform. The college is performing in an effective way because first of all; the college uses Facebook for the purpose to communicate its history and background as well as their contribution to the educational field since their first day of beginning. The college also uses Facebook effectively because they communicate something that leads to expenses and costs if done on other sources like TV and Newspapers etc. such as achievements and winnings of students and professors that increase the reputation of the college in the community. Similarly, Twitter is used in the best possible way because the account seems to be run by a highly professional administrator and department.
In addition to the above, it has been observed as well that the twitter account of the college designed and established in a professional way that attracts the viewers of posts and pursues them efficiently. Despite designing, the accounts are also used for sharing cases, news, and writing and research which is also a strategy to have the inspiration towards the viewers and community.
Part D
Recommendations for Improving Social Media Use
Many ways and tactics can be suggested to the Brooklyn College for improving their use of Social Media but it is not good that there are many things suggested. But it is important that highly realistic ideas are recommended that are highly appropriate and perfect for the college and can help in improving its use of Social Media. Hence some highly credible, appropriate, reliable, and realistic recommendations are as follows.
Focus On And Start An Education Marketing Campaign
Brooklyn College has to focus on and start an education marketing campaign on their social media platforms. This campaign needs to be aimed to increase interaction with the target audiences and engage many users and public. Here, the college should use a highly strategic approach and focus on a single objective across every social media platform instead of only trying to start and simply run the campaign.
Use Social Media Analytics
The college has to identify and know what works for them and what does not. It should be done through the use of social media analytics to ensure the best possible practice to promote the content. Here, Brooklyn College should analyze the audience such as students, community, and other associations through the analysis of their characteristics. This should be done by gaining insights into college's posts, content Brooklyn shares on social media, and analysis of followers, etc.
The College Has To Use The User Generated Content Advantage
One of the most useful tools and methods for increasing the interaction and access on social media for higher Ed is to enable and allow the current students and even alumni to be involved with the social media accounts as the students are currently are very active on social media. Hence Brooklyn College has to adopt and implement this strategy for the purpose to improve its social media use.
Creation Of Social Media Groups
It is recommended to Brooklyn College that they should create social media groups on each social media platform. This is recommended because it would enable the college to connect with the right audience on social media. For example, the college should create groups that meet and cater to each group like alumni segment, sports groups, club groups, and groups of students and parents, etc. so that the effective connection with the community could be ensured.
End Notes
Linvill, Darren L., Sara E. McGee, and Laura K. Hicks. "Colleges’ and Universities’ use of Twitter: A Content Analysis." Public Relations Review 38, no. 4 (2012): 636-638.
Peruta, Adam, and Alison B. Shields. "Social Media in Higher Education: Understanding how Colleges and Universities use Facebook." Journal of Marketing for Higher Education 27, no. 1 (2017): 131-143.
Stockley, Denise, Patrick Blessinger, Charles Wankel, Krista Ann Voss, and Anil Kumar. "The Value of Social Media: Are Universities Successfully Engaging their Audience?" Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education (2013).
