Wikipedia the film Revenge of the Nerds and you’ll get an idea of what inspired me to write this post. It starts in the first line of the article.
“Revenge of the Nerds is a 1984 comedy film satirizing social life on a college campus.”
Three words catch my attention:
“1984,” “social” and “college.”
1984 was one year before I was born (age spoiler alert) and before the “Internet” was wide-released. Computers were hitting the scene and the word “social” was synonymous with international uprising or shoulder pad-wearing teens awkwardly dancing to Duran Duran at their high school dance. Zuck, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like and ICanHasCheeseburgers were far from the periphery.
As much as we all love to reminisce about the hairspray-toting 80s, fast forward to present day.
“2012,” “social,” and “college.”Give me the first three things that come to mind.
You’d be shamelessly lying if you didn’t see images of thumbs-ups and #fail whales dance in your head.
For a Millennial like me, it’s hard to imagine college life without the privacy-killing and uber-compelling thing that has been dubbed “social media.”
Even then, social has evolved from a simple way to stalk friends, self-promote and express oneself to become one of the most powerful mechanisms of social change within the last five years. Organizations, movements, (you name it) large and small can interact with their stakeholders on a completely different level. There is no closing time. There is little inhibition. Digital courage is on overstock.
Whether or not this has been the conundrum that has supposedly affected the “acceptance” of social media for higher education is debatable. You’d be hard pressed NOT to find an institution of higher education involved in social media in some way.
The true elephant in the room is how higher education has employed social media to reach stakeholders. Higher ed institutions are (dare I say it?) underachieving.
By nature, higher ed institutions should be incubators of social change. The majority of the audiences are supposedly digital natives or adopters, connected by similar motives and desires and accessible through fun-sized packs of programs, associations, and even living quarters. So, what’s missing?
The answer to the question: Why?
Why is social media important to the institution? Why must stakeholders be there? Why now?
Higher ed institutions can’t expect a gold star simply because they’ve claimed their spot. They must embrace who they are, identify their unique reasons-to-believe and strategize how social media can bring this to life.
If the reason is compelling, honest and rooted in reality, then an institution shifts from involvement in social media to a social institution. Authenticity, relevance and adoption gets easier because it becomes second nature. Suddenly, “social” and “college” can move beyond raunchy teen fiction into real life.
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Angela Yang is Social Media Specialist at RDW Group with years of experience in word of mouth marketing for CPG, retail, higher education and healthcare brands. She graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a degree in Strategic Communications and can be found cooking, blogging and sporting neon on the weekends.
@AngelaCYang | Kitchenbeet.posterous.com | Linkedin.com/in/AngelaYang
