Interlocking Social Networking

August 31, 2010 - 3:15pm | by rtbrown
Presenter(s)
Ray Schroeder (University of Illinois at Springfield, US)
Carrie Levin (University of Illinois at Springfield, US)
Session Information
November 4, 2010 - 3:10pm
Track: 
Student Services and Learner Support
Areas of Special Interest: 
Social Networking
Major Emphasis of Presentation: 
Practical Application
Institutional Level: 
Multiple Levels
Session Type: 
Individual Presentation
Location: 
Curacao 7
Session Duration: 
35
Concurrent Session: 
6
Abstract
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and a host of other social networking sites are used by our students and prospective students. We will demonstrate how to create a synchronized presence on all of these sites in order to send consistent messages to all.
Extended Abstract
Social networking sites have revolutionized the way we interact with others online; the way we market our courses and research; and the way in which we build a personal brand online. Collectively, social network sites reach the vast majority of people online. Yet, many institutions and individuals choose only one or two of the social networking sites through which to build their online presence. As a result, they miss more fully connecting with the larger online community. Other institutions and individuals may use a wide variety of the social networking sites, but they fail to send out a consistent message to the many sites. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and more; all can be interlocked to create a unified presence in the social networking world online. The key to the interlock is RSS. This session will show how we can interlock our social networking presence among the major social networks and reach a much larger audience with a consistent message. We will show how this builds an audience that is well-informed, connected and consistently updated. We will also demonstrate how this enhances search engine optimization. We will give examples of how the University of Illinois at Springfield has used these techniques successfully, resulting in national recognition, including the 2008 Award for Online Reputation Management from the Society for New Communications Research. Take just a moment to enter the words online learning (no quotes) into Google or Bing. You will find that the Online Learning Update - an interconnect cornerstone for us - is ranked among the top handful of results out of tens of millions. Or enter the words educational technology (again, no quotes) into Google or Bing - the results for our Educational Technology blog will again be very near the top. By interlocking these cornerstones with twitter, facebook, linkedin, and other social networks, we have optimized our results and are driving traffic to our sites. The goals of the session: * to describe the advantages of sending a consistent message to multiple sites * to identify the key social networking sites relevant to higher ed audiences * to demonstrate how to "broadcast" messages simultaneously to multiple sites * to share tools and techniques to determine the "reach" of your messages
Lead Presenter
Ray Schroeder is Professor Emeritus of Communication, and founding director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Schroeder has numerous national presentations and publications in online and technology-enhanced learning. Ray has published the popular Online Learning Update and Educational Technology blogs for the past decade. He was a Sloan Consortium Distinguished Scholar in Online Learning 2002-2003, recipient of the 2002 Sloan-C award for the “Most Outstanding Achievement in ALN by an Individual,” University of Southern Maine “Visiting Scholar in Online Learning” 2006-2009, and co-founder of the New Century Learning Consortium.