Thursday, January 21, 2010

More evidence of Social Networking's impact

In doing a quick catch up on some reading today I came across two articles about Christian Higher Education, and they both have interesting implications both for private higher education and for the age of social networking (which may be in decline, but that will be another post).

Ongoing issues at Northwestern College in Minnesota made the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and yesterday’s Inside Higher Education carries a story of how an article critical of Wheaton College was killed by Books and Culture.

I have very little insight into the particulars at either school, but I have a few years in Christian higher education, and a few in communication, and I think there are lessons that communication and marketing people at faith based and strongly mission driven institutions should be reminded of in the wake of these very public controversies.

1. You can’t stiffle conversations. In the good old days firing a professor or the killing of a story might have stayed in a small community, but now that information is instaneously shared. Inside Higher Education got a pdf file of the actual cover that was approved and then killed and has seen the article. Killing the story didn’t stop it, it probably just gained it wider readership. In the case of Northwestern they have taken several steps to finalize the controversy and move on, but the debate rages of Facebook.

2. You have to engage people where they are. If the debate is on Facebook that is where the organization has to engage. You can’t ask for debate to be turned off or ignore it. Dell Computers is great example where instead of ignoring negative blog posts they actively engage and try to solve problems. The same model could be applied here.

3. Inconsistency is the controversy. People and in turn social networks thrive on controversy and nothing creates more controversy than when someone says one thing and does another. Social networks function as fact checkers, and even if there is debate about the facts if it looks like you did one thing but said another, this is going to spur internet frenzy. This is a particular challenge for strongly mission driven and religious institutions because it is not only the mission of the place but commitment to beliefs that may be unpopular that are on the line. Read the comments on the Star Tribune piece and if you are a Christian who wants to see others recognize Christ your heart will break.

In part two of this blog post I will look at some of the underlying issues, but these are ones that I think apply to the profession.

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