One of the first rules of social media for organizations is to "let go." Let go of your control over your brand, your inhibitions, your fears and your worst nightmares. If you really believe in your product, service or offering - the people will do the right thing and tell others the truth. If they tell the truth and it isn't flattering, well, congratulations you have something to fix. We all have something to fix in our organizations, that's for sure. If you don't think you do, you're the mark at the table.
Recently, our company had the chance to work with a respected University in Illinois called Olivet Nazarene. They came to us with a notion that they wanted to be authentic, transparent and allow others to spread the good word about their school (hey, they're evangelical christian.) They wanted to connect to prospective students and parents on their terms. So, basically we had to create an environment that 17-year olds would find cool and that their parents would understand how to navigate. ONU wanted a place where students, alumni, prospective students, faculty and staff could tell the story of the school through the use of multi-media.
The underlying strategy was to treat the school like a retail environment and allow people to post ratings and reviews of all aspects of the school. In addition, we added multiple layers of ratings for students, parents and more, since they will have a different perspective. In addition, we basically created a shell of an experience and the content is all populated using 3rd party API's of popular social networking sites where the brand was already present. So, we subscribed to the hub and spoke social media model for this effort.
Among other things, the primary business objectives were to give people a transparent look at the school to ensure that they make an informed decision about the school. This reduces churn and transfer rate after the freshman year, creates a more engaged, positive student body and happier alumni. Also, a by-product of the ratings and reviews area is that the leadership of the school can track trends on areas of the school they might not have heard about, otherwise. A built-in research tool, if you will.
I applaud ONU for taking the leap into social media and relinquishing control of their brand. That takes confidence and fortitude. It will take some time for this content community to take seed, but we are confident as this year's high-school seniors are evaluating schools, they will use SEEWHATSONU to make an informed decision.
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