Over the past few months, the netizens have been irked about various developments surrounding the much talked about Anti piracy acts and censorship debate. Leading the pack are PIPA and SOPA. Various other issues have also cropped up on similar lines. Concerns pertaining to censorship of social media in India being one of them. For the ease of understanding let’s break them down and do a quick recap on what has been causing the stir in the cyber space.

2011 has been a remarkable year for many startups and stalwarts in the arena of Social Media. For most part, the socially active would remember this year as the year of major changes being rolled out by most social networking sites.

Even the most popular micro blogging site, Twitter, underwent a major UI changes. The ‘New Twitter’ was launched amidst much talked about anticipations and apprehensions. Here is a look at how the tweaks make Twitter grow.

After much anticipation, Google finally allowed brands to create their pages on Google+ social network earlier this month. With lots of pre-launch speculation as to features, functionality and the impact Google+ Pages for brands could have on search and on Facebook pages, many brands will surely be very very excited to make their presence felt on the latest social media platform. An early adoption may boost the brand numbers in short run but a close look is a must before diving in.

While it will be essential that brands make the most of the functionalities and features available to add something new and fresh to their social media user experience, emphasis will also be on the way they integrate their approach to social media and SEO which would be a very important element of Google+ pages.

The question about digital technology and its place in academia is one that is yet to be clearly answered. Understanding the benefits and costs of using digital technology is crucial when deciding if a particular tool, site or package may be used in universities.

Harvard University Twitter Handle

Universities are constantly exploring new ways to use social media to fulfill their missions of engaging and sharing knowledge with their constituents. Here we look at few ways in which universities can use social media without distracting the students.

Reaching out to the world

Social media tools like Facebook Pages have given universities an opportunity to speak to audiences on their own, reaching thousands of people interested in keeping up with news at the school and connecting with others on the social network.

Insight to the campus life

Perhaps the most common way, and the way in which most of us use social media, is sharing information about ourselves or things we find interesting. Because universities are educational institutions, they use social media to highlight their experts, as well as the resources they make available to the public/student. The point is to try to educate and provide a glimpse into what the institution is like.

Showcase work

Aside from sharing news and information, social media is often used in showcasing student and faculty work. That can be as simple as featuring photos taken by students through a photo album on the university’s Facebook page. Or it can take the form of an elaborate YouTube video by students as a class assignment. The idea is to let the general audience know what kind of work is being carried out in the university.

Getting Innovative

Rather than just use social media to promote specific events, some universities employ the tools to provide a place for the university community to engage and participate in the event as it is happening. This can be done through live streaming videos or collecting tweets during commencement through a common hashtag. This allows students and others to report on the event happenings as if they were being attended.

Hashtag Communications

Emergency Service

Emergencies and tragedies do happen. With the growing popularity of social media tools like Twitter, some universities are finding it easier and quicker to spread news during an emergency by complementing their e-mail and text alerts with a Tweet and a Facebook message or post. The University of Minnesota has an Emergency Notification group on Facebook that it uses to blast messages to its 2,300 members during a case of an emergency. It provides another way to reach students who spend a lot of their time there during critical situations.

Alumni Relations

Another key element of using social media is to keep the alumni body connected. With ever growing number of students passing out each year, keeping up with everyone becomes a task. Universities have utilized the services of groups and pages to get the alumni members stay connected. This not only helps connect various batches, it also gives opportunity to draw on resources that may be readily available to the university through its ex students database.

Providing Jobs

The key element of Universities is to provide jobs to the students. Some universities have used the social media platform to source out placements for students through the alumni members. Alma Mater is the best starting point for placements and a connected alumni cell with placement cell has made job search that much easier. The secret groups of Facebook seems to be a very popular tool not just to get fresh offers but also to source out the best job change for the members.

Job Forums

The benefits of social media to help students search for information, learn to communicate effectively and work collaboratively are well documented. There are resources to help academics consider the advantages of using social media in universities. They provide advice on using blogs, social networking sites, social bookmarking, collaboration, presentation and information management tools, and more for academic purpose. All it needs is for the universities to cease the opportunity and use the tool in the best possible manner.

Our last post, The Business of Tweeting, was an attempt at understanding what goes in creating a Twitter handle that is optimized for business communication. In this two-part post we will discuss what business requirements can be addressed through the use of Twitter account.

Twitter Network

The rise and rise of Twitter

Since its launch in 2006, the micro-blogging website has grown to become one of the most important online marketing and communications tools – which many people would say is second only to Facebook. It now hosts more than 1 billion tweets a week and is estimated to be worth around $10bn.

(Source: http://newtechpost.com/2010/08/03/twitter-grows-up-the-start-of-a-new-more-mature-era)

The growth has not been in just personal usage. From November 2008, when Barack Obama thanked supporters via Twitter after winning the US presidential election, to March 2011, when news of Tsunami striking Japan was being relayed via the micro blogging network, the growth has simply been phenomenal and diverse.

The untapped business tool

It’s true that Twitter is what a user makes of it. Some people publicize their daily activities, some make it about link love, some share quotes all day long. Smart people using Twitter for business mix it up. It must be noted, that while any business tool always aims at instigating a consumer to buy a product, social media tools such as Twitter are meant to build relationships with consumer. Hence harnessing the power of 140 characters becomes essential for Twitter Marketing.

Approaching Twitter Marketing

Twitter is a tool that can be utilized for sharing information about a brand, a person and at some level the offers that may be available through these brands. The three broad and distinctive areas where twitter marketing can be used are

1. Sharing information
2. Gather market intelligence and insights; and
3. Build relationships with people who care about the brand

As one would agree, a free tool which reaches out to 150 million users worldwide and roughly 5 million twitter users in India, that’s a lot of consumers waiting to be engaged without much expenditure.

Click here to read the details of conducting Twitter Marketing.