A few pictures of the MBA panel in progress using Google+ hangouts – a Boston College first!

Big kudos to Kristen Baumann, Associate Director Graduate Management Admissions at CSOM, and her team who masterfully moderated a successful Google+ hangout yesterday. This was the first time Boston College hosted a Google+ hangout on the official University channel (if you are unfamiliar with what hangouts are, click here to learn more.)

The attendees were accepted MBA students from around the world who had planned to visit campus on April 19. Given the state of emergency and citywide lock down, the admission event never took place. Realizing the potential of Google+ hangouts, Kristen organized a panel of current students to answer the questions. The hangout lasted for one hour. The discussion was robust and the students fielded questions on internships, coursework, the TechTrek program, housing and student visas.

Huge thanks to CSOM, Kristen and her student ambassadors for representing BC in such an incredible way and proving the feasibility of Google+ hangouts.

Are you interested in learning more about how your office could utilize hangouts?

In her story, Gabby Tarini writes, “Commonly known as a “mashup page,” the site will highlight the best of BC’s official social media. In addition to serving as a one-stop entry point for BC’s social media channels, the site will bring awareness to active social media campaigns and promote the best work being done on behalf of the University.”

This site was one of the original goals of the Social Media Council. It will offer all SMC members the ability to promote campaigns and present all of their individual social offerings in a central location. Members will be happy to see a new, easier to navigate directory (pictured above). Also included is a “profiled department” feature, which will allow us to showcase eight SMC members each month. We’ll have much more on all this at our next meeting on June 5.

We’re currently collecting information to make the final SM directory as complete as possible. If you are not listed in the directory on our Resources page, please email social@bc.edu to update your pages or information.

Social media wasn’t – and shouldn’t be – the first thing on many minds during such a time. However, social quickly emerged as the go-to vehicle delivering news to friends about runners and spectators, provided messages of reassurance for out-of-state families and, later, established a point to rally for support and fundraising. Social media became both a blessing and a curse – it quickly shared breaking news across the country and was responsible for the instantaneous dissemination of misinformation. (BC’s in house social media guru Prof. Jerry Kane has weighed in on what social managers can learn from the bombing.)

Like many colleges and universities in Boston, BC utilized email, text and social to get emergency notifications out about the manhunt and ‘shelter in place‘ order on Friday. BC’s Emergency Response Team issued several updates throughout the day. One need only scroll down through the week’s posts on Facebook or Twitter to replay the fear, anxiety, sorrow and then, relief and even jubilation over the five days. The content on Facebook reached more than 835,000 people during that time.

Departments across campus did a wonderful job sharing and re-broadcasting the emergency messages.  For that, we thank you. In such a heightened state, it is important and necessary to have us all speaking with one voice on behalf of the University.

Departments also utilized social tools in unique ways: on the day of the bombing, The Campus School used social as a means to help account for its 300+ runners during the chaos. Through Facebook, Twitter, Google docs, texts and phone calls all our students were quickly accounted for. A bright spot over the past week has been the work being done on the BC Office of Graduate Student Life Facebook page – updates on Brittany and Liza, Red Cross blood drives and much-needed comic relief via OGSL’s signature memes provide information to fans in a thoughtful way.

Outside BC, anyone who wasn’t following the Boston Police Facebook or Twitter page should look back over the past week. Both as a resident of Greater Boston and a social media manager, it was amazing to see an organization operating a social channel so effectively. The Patrick and Jess Run Again page – dedicated to BC 2005 alum Patrick Downes and his wife, Jessica who were severely injured during the bombing – is a masterful example of the power of video and incorporating YouTube and Facebook. (And great work by SMC member David Ayers from Student Services and the BC Jesuits who sent in videos.)

(If you would like further reading on responding during a crisis – take a look at Kelsey Follett’s practical advice on How (not) to use social, and brand management strategies from Patrick Coffee from PRNewser.)

In the days following the bombing, BC News & Public Affairs staffer Michael Maloney designed this “For Boston” logo that we used on our channels. The image was liked, shared, retweeted and repined over 250,000 times. People and many of our departments changed their profile picture, adopting this image as their own. It had a unifying effect, a virtual show of solidarity, but a scope we didn’t entirely anticipate. We should have.

When I first saw Michael’s design it spoke to exactly what so many are feeling: some of us are from Boston. Others, of Boston. This past week has shown that our state, the country, and even the world – for a time at least – we were all “For Boston.”

“If you are using the Social Media Widget plugin (social-media-widget), make sure to remove it immediately from your website. We discovered it is being used to inject spam into websites and it has also been removed from the WordPress Plugin repository.”

This plugin has more than 900,000 downloads and the potential to impact a lot of websites. If you have been utilizing this widget plugin, contact BC ITS. For further reading, ITS has produced a very informative website: Safe Computing that is great to review.

Before you read the answer, watch this. Gary Vaynerchuk is co-founder and CEO of a social media brand consulting agency, VaynerMedia. In his provocative keynote at the Inc. 500|5000 Conference Vaynerchuk turns the question on its head. “What is the ROI of your mom?” he asks. (A clip of that presentation is here but be warned, he uses foul language that may be NSFW.)  Those who use traditional media are seldom asked to quantify, but print materials, tv/radio spots and websites continue to be produced. Social is, in some ways, being held to a new standard. The good news is that many of the sites we use are rich with data, as long as you know where to look.

My advice when faced with the ROI question: combine anecdotal evidence with data. Throughout the year, keep a running list of successful interactions you have had on social. Actual examples of human interactions are meaningful. Has social helped your office communicate with students, staff, faculty, alumni? Prove it. Tell that story. (i.e. – one of my favorite examples from our Boston College Facebook page, is when a wall post from a BC alumna helped to fill the library shelves in a New York City school thanks to the donations from BC Eagles around the country.)

Stories are nice, but most managers also want to see proof. If you have had your social channel for more than a year, it is helpful to provide the year-over-year numbers – comparing not only fan count, but user engagement. Find a peer school or department and compare yourself through self audit. (Here is a great piece that explains some of the key social metrics to seek out: Social Metrics 101.)

Although Google Analytics is arguably the king of analytical tools, here are a few other resources that can fit all our budgets (read: free) and provide rich data points.

Tool #1: Simply Measured provides beautiful free reports for social channels on some of the platforms where analytical data might not be obvious (read: Instagram, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest).

Tool #2: Tweetreach is a good resource to quantify a Twitter campaign. If you have a hashtag, this might be well worth the time to check out.

Tool #3: Want to experiment with posts outside the work day? Try using the Facebook Pages App. Here are a few of the easy steps to schedule posts (and don’t require the monthly charges from social media software companies.) The app comes complete with Facebook’s insights.

What tools do you find most helpful as a social media administrator?

Members of the Social Media Council are now featured on the right navigation of the page under “Featured Channels.” Because there are more active channels than slots, we have enabled an “intelligent shuffle” function – if you don’t see your channel in the column, try refreshing the page. To double-check that your group, school or department is included, look at the bottom of the “About” page to see all the BC featured channels. If you are missing, email us at social@bc.edu.

Part of the increased functionality of the site will include “playlists” where we will profile different subjects across campus. Here are the playlists that are currently live. Upcoming playlists will include faculty experts, student arts and research. If you have an idea for a playlist, or think you have a video that should be included in what already exists, email us.

As stated at the last SMC meeting, this is shaping up to be the year of the video, with visual social media platforms exploding. With that in mind, we hope to use this space as a strategic way to promote all the great video content that is being produced across campus. We have subscribed to each of your channels. We ask all SMC members to subscribe to the University channel.

What do you think of the new design and functionality of the BC YouTube page?

The juxtaposition of the lightning quick response and the ancient event itself was captured masterfully by James Poniewozik of Time in his story, “The Papal Announcement: For a Day, (Very) Old Media Triumph.”

Poniewozik writes: “There was no high-tech rollout. There were no exit polls. There was just an archaic signal–white smoke billowing out from a pipe atop an ancient building. And then suspense: no leaks from highly placed sources, no reports from advance men. Just cameras trained on a balcony in Rome as the lights switched on and shadows scuffled about behind it. Then a curtain opened, and the glass doors and–Habemus Papam. The announcement of the pope was one of the few remaining legitimately suspenseful events that we get to witness today.”

At BC, we, like most around the world, paused to watch – standing in front of the television or huddled around computer terminals. Within seconds, our Twitter and Facebook feeds erupted with the news. In the Office of News & Public Affairs, the phones blasted with reporters clamoring for help reaching Jesuits, faculty and students. Reflecting on the hectic day, it was an interesting example of how tradition successfully pushed back against and then capitalized upon the rapid proliferation of technology.

Feelin’ the Love for #BCSocial

Happy anniversary, SMC! Before the meeting summary for last week, we just wanted to offer a quick word of thanks to all who have participated in the SMC over the past year. We are each covering new territory in our respective offices, departments or schools and it has been refreshing and energizing to hear from the different corners of the University about ways social is being utilized. These meetings wouldn’t be so informative without each one of you. So, very simply, thank you.

Director of the Office of News & Public Affairs and University Spokesman Jack Dunn kicked off the March 6 meeting with a brief talk about the importance of social media and the role we all play as brand ambassadors. “Be creative. Be interesting and engage,” said Dunn. “But always keep in mind that we each have a responsibility to the wider organization when representing BC in an official capacity.”

The 2013 State of Social Media at BC was next (For the complete PowerPoint, click here). In short, we are hoping to continue to build upon our success of the past year through increased collaboration and a set of shared goals. Our primary objectives for the next year include: launching the social media mashup site; establishing University policy; increasing collaboration between departments on contests or videos; advancing in the rankings; and soliciting feedback. We also hope to continue the SMC’s work of promoting best practices across the University. (For more on that, below you will find the infographic from visual.ly that was referenced in the presentation, “Reasons for unfollowing people on Twitter.”)

Next, ITS Training & Communication Specialist Jonathan McGrath led a discussion on how to decide which social platforms to use. A number of SMC members shared their stories about why they selected various channels – some yielded to pressure to get involved, others informally polled students about how to best reach them. The chief takeaway from the discussion was to try not to overextend on channels, but rather, focus on the quality of the platforms you do employ.

BC Social Spotlight: Senior Reference Librarian for Burns Library Justine Sundaram gave us an interesting look into the evolution of the Burns Library blog, Facebook and Flickr pages. (The Burns’ Flickr page enjoys over 500,000 views – a wildly impressive number by any measure!) Justine shared the Burns’ quiet success story – the library has utilized graduate student researchers, networking with other libraries and a heavy photographic component on their channels. Justine believes their popularity was due to the social channels’ launch coinciding with a push to digitize library holdings – data that all of us can use.

Finally, we decided that establishing a social branding tool – #BCSocial – would be a meaningful way to communicate among one another publicly or promote a given University effort on campus.

What should we focus on at the next SMC? Email us at social@bc.edu

…but who’s counting?

The Boston College Social Media Council is scheduled to meet Mar. 6, 2 p.m. in McGuinn 334. And you know what that means. No? Well, it means that the SMC is celebrating our one year anniversary! (insert gratuitous, yet celebratory meme of the minute here)

Leading off our meeting will be Director of News & Public Affairs, University Spokesman Jack Dunn. Jack will talk about individual responsibility when representing the University. Jack oversees all Boston College’s public and media relations efforts and teaches undergraduate courses in Advanced Public Relations at BC.

Piggybacking off Jack’s remarks, we will hold a brief “State of Social Media” to focus on where we are and where we’re going. The last year brought significant changes to the way we communicate at BC. With the ever shifting social media landscape, the upcoming year presents its own challenges.

Two SMC members have brought forward interesting discussion items. As the previous blog post stated, ITS Training & Communication Specialist Jonathan McGrath has asked us to focus about our social strategies: why did you decide to start a Facebook vs. Twitter account? Have you dropped one channel? Started another? Why?

BC Athletics Web and Marketing Specialist Katie Foley, has come up with an idea we’d like to float with Council members. Kate has suggested that we identify a hashtag (such as #BCSocial) that we can use on various channels – Twitter primarily – to talk SMC among one another. We brand our departments, what are your thoughts on branding ourselves?

Stepping into the “BC Spotlight” this month will be Burns Library Senior Reference Librarian Justine Sundaram. No pressure, Justine, but we’re hoping that you can give a master class on Flickr, blogging and Facebook. If you haven’t checked out these channels, please do so (and remember them when you are looking for something interesting to post – they are very rich resources!)

Sharing the spotlight is LSOE Associate Director Mentoring and Induction, Practicum Amy Ryan will also fill us in on a social media project she’s working on with grant support from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. This project is a resource for students and alumni to upload, share, download, and discuss lesson plans and teaching resources.

Looks like a full agenda. Don’t forget to RSVP to social@bc.edu so we have enough chairs (and cupcakes! YES. There.will.be.cupcakes.)

One student wrote in the post “#Hashtag University“: “This may just be because I am still nostalgic over Monday night’s Beanpot win over Northeastern, but I have been very impressed by BC’s presence on social media lately. The Eagles have really stepped up their game with a new Instagram account, BC’s very own version of the ‘Harlem Shake’ (with over 22,000 YouTube views since just yesterday) and not to mention the 27,000+ followers on the primary @BostonCollege twitter account. BC actually came in at an impressive #52 on Track Social’s list of top performing universities on social media. I expect this ranking will improve and soon maybe we’ll even give our friends across the river a run for their money (@Harvard).”

Another student wrote in the post “WeAreBC“: “Well, I had my doubts, but it looks like Boston College has a very strong social media game, which can only do wonders for the university’s already solid reputation.  We have to remember that at the end of the day, higher education is big business (tuition amounts aren’t going anywhere but up), so having a social media army in place that can adequately market the BC brand to prospective customers (students) can go a long way towards improving the bottom line.”

BC social earned praise in The Heights “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down” section for being “trendy” with Pinterest and called out by BostInno for the flurry of social postings surrounding the Beanpot.

Motivation to keep us movin’ for sure. Have a great weekend, SMC members!