Social media marketing of Australia’s G8 universities

A few days ago I accidentally clicked into the homepages of University of New Sales Wales for an offer extension. What appealed me was to find that there is some social media linkage on UNSW’s homepage, one is Twitter and the other is RSS feed. 

Out of curiosity, I searched all the homepage of Australia’s G8 universities. Very interestingly, there are great differences in social media marketing among the eight universities. Here is a comparative table I have made.

G8 universities	SMM links on home page	SMM links descriptions	SM No.	SMM types	Score (1-5) on SMM
Adelaide	√	1.      large icons 2.      distinct at a glance 3.      double hints with both big and small icons 4.      show followers of its Facebook and Twitter in detail	9	Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, RSS, Flickr, Blogs, FourSquare, Vime,	5
Monash	√	1.      large icons 2.      distinct at a glance 3.      show followers of its Facebook a little bit in detail	5	Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, LinkedIn	4
ANU	√	1.      relatively small icons 2.      not obvious because in the corner of the page	4	Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, iTunes U	3
UNSW	√	1.      relatively small icoms 2.      relatively obvious because  color contrast and in the middle of the page	2	Twitter, RSS	2
Mel U	√	1.      extremely small icons 2.      extremely unobvious because color in black	1	/	1
USYD	×	/	/	/	0
UQ	×	/	/	/	0
UWA	×	/	/	/	0

(Although the last three universities may have some social media for marketing themselves, but there are no links in their university-homepages. You can see all of G8 universities' homepages and compare them.)

In my opinion, we have already stepped into an era for universities to marketing with social media. Universities are constantly exploring new ways to use social media to fulfill their missions of engaging and sharing knowledge with their constituents. It is obvious that this new trend brings a new competition for brand building and reputation gaining among G8 universities in Australia. There is no doubt that social media brings a new platform for universities’ marketing. Instead of focusing their attention on promoting information to mainstream media, the public affairs offices of some universities are using the power of social media to engage the community directly. In many cases, 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.

There are 8 highlights of how universities are using social media for marketing, although some are not conducted by these social media pioneers of G8 universities in Australia.

1.      Gathering and sharing information

2.      Showcasing student and faculty work

3.      Providing a platform to broadcast event

4.      Connecting people

5.      Producing, not just promoting

6.      Creating a dialogue and communicating to students

7.      Coaching for the spotlight

8.      Emergency notification

The above table proves once again that Monash is exactly good at Marketing, I am so proud of our university. But from my view, there is still some further enhancement need to be developed by our university’s Marketing Department, comparing with Adelaide’s homepage and other world famous universities’ in the social media marketing area.

What do you think about it? Agree with me?

Microblogs Shed New Light on China's Train Crash

Here is a picture posted on Sina Weibo (Microblog) showing the July 23 bullet train crash

The best way to fully understand the July 23 bullet train crash near Wenzhou City in southeast China's Zhejiang Province is not from China's one-sided traditional media, but through microblogs that are gaining momentum in China. Microblog has gained much popularity in China since 2010, attracting millions of users who have extended its use beyond social networking and turned it into a media platform. It has surpassed Twitter both in terms of diversity of functions and amount of information. China's Twitter-like microblogs--Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have enabled a new level of transparency, while at the same time highlighting the awkwardness and lack of accountability of the Chinese regime's way of governance.

The events of the deadly July 23 train crash, and its aftermath, are being gradually pieced together through microblogs, like a puzzle taking form. In this case, microblogs have helped gather information regarding the actual number of deaths. It also enabled family of victims to gain real-time information. In addition, microblogs contribute to call for people around to donate blood for helping those victims. 

Through the aftermath of the accident, the rapid exchange between microblogs and traditional media demonstrates the power of microblogs. The earliest messages were sent by people on the trains during the accident. "Please save us," a passenger wrote on a Twitter-like blog. "The train is leaning toward one side now. And it's totally locked. The first few carriages hit each other."

Furthermore, Microblogs also showed the world many vivid details that would have been omitted by traditional media. In this case, it includes the family members' accounts of the accident, reporters' questions and suspicions at the scene, and lawyers' professional advice to victims' families. These messages provided victims and their families with assistance, and awakened peoples' awareness of their civil rights.

The advantages of microblogs as a new media form are their speed and ability to mobilize. Their effects are revolutionary. Due to its ability to spread information quickly, they can foment the development of an incident. This is what traditional media and even Internet media lacks.

The drawback of microblogs is that the credibility of a message can be questionable. The limited length of a message makes it difficult to provide enough detail. And each person views things from his own perspective. Besides, because of Internet censorship in some countries, sometimes information post on microblogs may be “blocked”, as it happens in the Chinese train crash

It’s obvious that Microblog played an important role in facilitating public debate in the aftermath of the July 23 bullet train collision. Internet users flooded major microblog platforms, questioning the government’s handling of the accident and offering condolences to the victims. From this view, the huge power of WOM via microblogs shows a potential platform for social marketing and other marketing behaviors. Although there is still a long journey for the Chinese to get real freedom of information, Microblogs may be a good start.