Social Media Homework: What I’m Reading- Stamats Higher Education Marketing Blog

Nov 20th 08 Posted by Fritz McDonald in Strategic Creative

Social Media Homework: What I’m Reading

Social Media Homework There are a number of excellent books on social media out there and many more on the way. I’ve read two recently that I think everyone should read:

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky

Both will help you make the case for integrating social media into your institutional marketing. Groundswell focuses on strategy and research and demonstrates how to develop both. Clay Shirky’s book will help you persuade others that social media tools can be used in substantive ways. A number of people at our recent SIM TCR conference mentioned having read both–let me know what you think of them.

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Here are some comments from a previous discussion:

Comment by Joanne Toone on November 20, 2008 at 8:35pm
Thanks for the recommendations Fritz. I think my voice has been heard at my institution and there is interest in developing my position to work exclusively on online communications and social media within the enrollment management division. I have been asked to research what other schools have done in terms of job descriptions and salaries and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on where to find this kind of information. I have researched on the usual higher ed employment web sites but the positions are few and far between still.

Comment by Fritz McDonald on November 21, 2008 at 11:53am
Hi Joanne: great to hear from you…and I really enjoyed getting to know you in Tampa. It’s funny that you brought this up–my University and College Webmasters listserv just posted a postion for online media producer, which I think is a great title. You can follow this through: http://listserver.itd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=uwebd&text_mode=0. This is a CASE service and a good one…I get more ideas and feel I’m more in touch on this listserv than almost anywhere else. Brad Ward, who spoke at our conference, is the Electronic Communication Coordinator at Butler University…a title that should be modified in light of his 2.0 expertise and more in line with the social media world he knows so well (want me to talk to you boss, Brad?) And Karlyn Morrisette of Dartmouth, who also speaks for us and with us, is the Emarketing Strategist. Finally, I just recently saw a California company post a postion for Social Media Strategist, which is a perfect job title…I would recommend contacting Karlyn, Brad, and also Kyle James from Wofford in addition to checking out the listserv.

Comment by Brad J Ward on November 24, 2008 at 11:16pm
Joanne – Thanks for contacting me on 11/21! Hope those documents were helpful. If anyone else has similar questions, feel free to email me at bradjward@gmail.com.

And Fritz, I might have to take you up on that offer…

Comment by Karlyn Morissette on December 9, 2008 at 9:50am
So I finally sucked it up and read Groudswell. Great book! I had been putting it off because I feel pretty comfortable in understanding social media as a marketing tool and wasn’t sure how much it would really offer me, but I definitely picked up some new ideas.

Comment by Fritz McDonald on December 9, 2008 at 12:22pm
I know what you mean, but I learned a few things from it as well. You really should read the Shirky book when you get a chance–it won’t teach you anything, but it’s a great, big-picture, what does all this mean kind of book.
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