Brand Champion of the Day-Social Media Committee, La Salle University

Those of you who know me are familiar with my work at La Salle University. Over the past few years I have had the pleasure of working with constituents at this Philadelphia institution of higher learning. From the president to the board, from parents to students and faculty to staff, all stakeholder groups have been involved in co-creating the adopted brand strategy. We are now in the implementation phase of the process. Like any good brand strategist, blogger and twitterer worth their salt, I am a big proponent of making effective use of social media to communicate the essence of a brand.

This past week I helped facilitate the first gathering of the La Salle University social media team. During the past year or so I have met individually with most of the team and discussed the importance of creating a social media team to create a plan for using social media to deliver the University's brand promise online. The meeting was fantastic. By all accounts, one of the best ever. But, don't take my word for it. Today, John Dolan, Vice President for Enrollment Management, shares his thoughts and recommendations for social media and university brands. 

"Don’t make the mistake of having your senior team lead the social media planning effort. Senior campus leaders that came of age in the 1980’s and 90’s are now Presidents, Vice Presidents, Deans and other senior practitioners successfully leading many aspects of higher education. One area that senior leadership is ill suited to lead is the emerging use of social media. Social media is so powerful that national events such as Egypt’s uprising have been influenced by or even started through social media activity.  With all this power, who should lead your institution’s plan for how your social media plan would actually operate?

"At my institution, La Salle University in Philadelphia, our brand and social media consultant, recommended a completely different approach. We selected young employees to lead our social media planning effort. The positive results were immediate during the first session. Our first meeting opened with a demonstration of the combined use of traditional media with new social media techniques like twitter. This was outlined by our 20-something sports information director, followed by a show and tell of a mobile device app for our alumni, presented by our young assistant director of alumni affairs. The older adults were amazed by the potential these systems have to advance our University. The younger adults were amazed that the older adults were amazed!

"If your company or institution is considering the appointment of a social media planning task force, don’t make the mistake of selecting the usual suspects. Make sure you create a nice mix of those familiar with the institution’s brand to esure content is consistent, but tap the young faces on your campus to lead the way. These young campus leaders think differently about how to harness the power of social media and their thinking will unlock the creativity your institution needs to take full advantage of social media."

John your thoughts are spot on. Thanks for your leadership and thanks for agreeing that the social media team at La Salle University is the Brand Champion of the Day. I am a champion of your brand of work!

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

 

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Those of you who know me are familiar with my work at La Salle University.

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