Making the most of social media

Graeme Earl, Lisa Harris, Flo Broderick Presentation to USRG Chairs’ Meeting

4th July 2013

Plan

• Trends overview• What we’ve been doing– Blogs– Curriculum Innovation

• Hangout – Graeme • What we plan to do– MOOCs

TRENDS

Source: Internet Trends 2013 by Mary Meeker

Digital Trends 2013 by Smart Insights• Complete the poll and view the results– Mobile (think smartphones and tablets)– Content (engagement through SMM drives SEO)

Source: Internet Trends 2013 by Mary Meeker

The power of video• According to Ofcom we each now watch an average of 1.5 hours

of video per month • Online video audience grew by 8% per year in the UK last year• 64% of UK users have a smart phone (82% of all phone purchases

in Dec 2012 were “smart”)• 73% of 16/24 year olds are active on social networks• 1/3 of UK page views are from mobiles/tablets (Comscore, April

2013)

• #sotonmooc conference• #digichamps “draw my life”• #digichamps “Stargazing” event

Source: Internet Trends 2013 by Mary Meeker

What does Google like?

• Social media interaction with a blogpost is the *biggest influence* on its search visibility:

1. Facebook shares2. Facebook comments3. Facebook likes4. Tweets

http://www.socialmediastrategist.co.uk/blog/1-news/175-social-media-seo

WHAT WE’VE BEEN DOING

Our Projects

• Blog.soton.ac.uk• Student Digital Champions• Curriculum Innovation• Social Media in Live Events Project (SMiLE)– #SXSC2– #MDRweek (great work by Alison Simmance)– #PortusMOOC #websciMOOC

Blogs: pulling it all together• Use the blog framework as a central point pulling in your other social media

content: Digital Economy Blog or to aggregate a series of blogs as per Multidisciplinary Research

• Tweets – Flickr – LinkedIn – Vimeo - Slideshare – Pinterest - Soundcloud - YouTube

• You can also embed other social media within individual blog posts• Video is increasingly important, especially authentic user generated

content• Provide sharing buttons so that your readers can share your content on

their own networks• These activities provide a regular supply of googlejuice to the blog

“Quick Wins” • Put community at the heart of what we do:

– Create register of university twitter accounts with a feed to aggregate all posts and display it on uni home page

– Create register of university blogs with a feed to aggregate all posts and display it on home page

– See for example http://www.emc.com/social-emc/index.htm

• Share buttons on everything!!! – the latest versions allow ‘share to a specific group’

• Here is a useful twitter list of university groups compiled by Digichamp Nicole Beale

• Publicise www.blog.soton.ac.uk (free ‘branded’ blogs for staff and students on a Wordpress template)

• Social media support for university “rockstars” to get started• Formalise the Digichamps programme across Faculties/SU/WSA

Student Digital Champions: Flo Broderick

• Met at SXSC2 last October• Took Digital Marketing and CI modules, learned

interviewing skills and video editing• Helped out in a big way at Digital Media Europe • Masterminded student contribution to

Digital Literacies Conference • Provided student perspective on our research into

online learning MOOCs• Just back from MOOC filming in Portus• Soon off to Madrid to work for Telefonica Digital

Living and Working on the WebThis module focuses on the development of online identities and networks to enhance employability in the digital age.

Specifically, it investigates how the digital world is influencing how we:

• collect, manage and evaluate online information – ideal preparation for dissertations• build an effective online identity for personal or career development• create and curate content via blogging and video production • interact with others for networking, team-building and project management purposes• deal with online privacy, safety and security issues• participate remotely in live events

Working in small groups, students engaged in real time with a ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ audience at the University Digital Literacies Conference in May 2013.

For more information check out the module webpage and video and the students’ feedback video

The reflective summary allows you to think about where you’ve come from and where you are now and how useful it might be for

you in the future - this is something you don’t get on other modules

My opinions have often been changed by what other people have put forward on the discussion board

One of the big benefits of studying online is the flexibility to fit my academic life around my professional life which has been really useful

No idea is lost - we can continue to share information and ideas online beyond the duration of a specific seminar

WHAT WE’VE GOT PLANNED

Eating the dog food• The Portus MOOC (and the Portus Field School it builds on) is a

direct consequence of each of these University areas of strength and investment:

• Digital literacy• Student co-creation and employability• Curriculum innovation• Multidisciplinary research and teaching• Student-centred• Disability and accessibility• Research data• Openness

MOOCs

• Showcase the university’s teaching and research and student contributions to encourage additional enrolments on campus courses and inspire innovation there

• Critical to this is the sharing of participants’ intentions/experiences via social media - these interactions carry an authenticity that traditional promotional materials lack.

• Mobile/tablet access to features is crucial

Changing the learning landscape

• Mobile:

• lectures and slides

• annotations (video, text, image,

like, tag, map)

• posts and comments

• shares e.g. twitter

• curation e.g. Storify, Scoop.it,

3wdoc.com, soometa

• Tests

• Offline e.g. kindle (BookPress)

• collaboration

Learner generated content

Collaboration with Winchester College

• Talk on Digital Identity @ College on 16th October

• Pupils attending DE lunch on 21st October – Witold Mielniczek’s Flying Car funded by Kickstarter

• Recruit keen pupils as trainee digital champions• Widening the participation agenda…errr maybe

not, but an interesting link nonetheless