Using Social Media in Student Services: A Strategic Plan

1. Using Social Media in Student Services: A Strategic Plan

2. Assumptions Made • Working in the Office of Student Activities (OSA) at Western Illinois University (WIU), a mid sized public institution located in Macomb, Illinois.

3. OSA Mission & Goals The mission of the Office of Student Activities is to provide students with practical, educational, and leadership opportunities that complement the academic experience and foster a sense of belonging. This is accomplished by offering support, knowledge, and resources to both individual students and student organizations in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of cultural, social, educational and service programs.

4. Rationale for Using Social Media • Coomesand Debard give us many helpful insights in “New Directions for Students Services: Serving the Millennial Generation.” We draw on their writing to help communicate why social media can help move our department forward through our mission in order to best serve students • “By exploring the factors that shape a generation’s peer personality and discerning identifying characteristics of that personality, educators can develop more effective policies and procedures (Coomes & Debard p.13).” As a department, we recognize social media as one of the most important characteristics of the millennial generation’s peer personality. Developing goals around this characteristic will be important in moving our department forward. • Millennial generation students as well as non-traditional students operate in communities and individually. These social media outlets allow for both individual and community engagement. As for the millennial generation, we can expect these students to desire attachment and connectedness (Coomes and Debard). These media outlets serve our students needs in an effective way. With the help of social media, we can provide optimum space for “offering support, knowledge, and resources to both individual students and organizations.”

5. Strategic Plan

6. Utilization of Social Media Websites • The Office of Student Activities will create accounts on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter in order to provide resources for students that will further our mission in our department and further the mission of Western Illinois University.

7. A page on Facebook will be created that students can “like.” Setting up a system where the latest information can be sent to a newsfeed that will reach the population of students whom check their newsfeed on a regular basis. Upcoming events, reminders of deadlines for student groups, and the latest information will be provided as status updates that will show up in the students’ newsfeeds.

8. A Student Affairs Professional will be in charge of a Facebook page that will also be able to send out event requests for events that provide cultural, social, educational, and service programs. Students will be reminded of upcoming events by looking at their homepage of Facebook. When the event is sent out to our Facebook users they will be able to further understand which events are coming and what may interest them.

9. The Office of Student Activities will maintain a twitter account that students can choose to follow. Tweets from the account will include upcoming events, attendance figures from previous events, and information that is pertinent to the students about the office. This meets the goals of “providing support, knowledge, and resources to students and student organizations”

10. Students will be made aware of upcoming events so they can check out the artist or speaker who will be on campus and mark it on their calendar. • Students will be able to comment on specific events and form a sense of belonging with others whom have attended the events. • Students will also be able to get their register or buy tickets via our twitter account. The students using this media will be well informed by the Office of Student Activities.

11. Utilization of a Home Grown Social Media Network • Many institutions are creating independent social media networks to communicate with student organizations and individual students. • These can be designed independently, or can be purchased via companies like myorgs or OrgSync. • Students and staff members are given a private log in to navigate the network.

12. This social networking site meets the goal of “providing support, knowledge, and resources to students and student organizations” by supplying information and resources for students to plan activities and communicate with one another.

13. A site such as the one displayed “fosters a sense of belonging” by providing a list of all existing student organizations. This gives students the opportunity to identify a potential community that satisfies their needs and interests.

14. By providing an accessible, comprehensive list of student organizations, this site provides “leadership opportunities” and “practical experience” for students. It also “complements the academic experience” by filtering the student organizations into areas that align with an individual’s unique academic interests.

15. This site also allows students to utilize tools that provide “practical experience”. Students can create an ePortfolio, submit constitutions, design forms to assist with maintenance of the organization, and track their involvement over their collegiate career.

17. The calendar allows students to organize their own schedule, but it also provides organizations the ability to learn to market their events and meetings.

18. Use of Existing Social Networks The Office of Student Activities will utilize social networks designed specifically for assisting students and professionals in student activities. For instance, the National Association for Campus Activities has created the Campus Activities Network to serve as an outlet for discussion and idea sharing in student activities.

19. Campus Activities Network facilitates blogs that directly relate to campus activities. These blogs provide “educational opportunities” to enhance programs, learn about the benefits of student activities, and discuss new and upcoming trends in higher education.

20. Students also have the ability to use the Campus Activities Network to enhance their academic experience by blogging about their own experiences as a student. This provides great practice in writing and publishing, and is a great tool for career building.

21. Finally, the Campus Activities Network allows students to post photos or videos from events and meetings, and view photos and videos from other institutions. It helps students to gather event ideas, and learn new techniques for event planning.

22. Reflective Blogging Reflective blogging creates more “educational opportunities” for students who have the chance to attend conferences or programs. This media gives students a forum where they can feel free to participate in a learning community that will be supportive and that will truly exist as a forum for learning. The reflective blogging concept provides the professional staff with a valuable tool in carrying out the part of our mission that states, “This is accomplished by offering support, knowledge, and resources to both individual students and student organizations in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of cultural, social, educational and service programs.” The blog will allow space for staff to be interactive with students even if they are hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away at a conference or if it is the day after a large program on campus. Have students in blogging groups or teams. This makes the experience more communal and team-oriented, which is more likely to deeply engage millennial students in learning (Coomes & Debard 2004).

23. How Does This Move Our Department Forward? • The use of social media will allow our department to better “compliment the academic experience.” We will “foster a sense of belonging” through social media that will make a difference for students across our campus in their level of engagement in the learning community we call higher education. Students will have an opportunity to lead these initiatives which provides them with “practical, educational, and leadership opportunities.” Social media initiatives are “supportive” in nature and will allow the students to be engaged in “evaluation” of their experiences. This social media overhaul will allow the department to reach new heights in best serving our students through well informed practice . • We best serve students by fulfilling our mission with well-informed practices and procedures. Social media has emerged as an invaluable tool that cannot be ignored by scholar practitioners whom desire to best serve students.

24. Potential Difficulties • Budget • Many of the initiatives and services proposed, such as OrgSync consist of start up expenses, as well as a cost to maintain the resources. With budgets being cut in many higher education settings, the rationale for this cost may not be realized. • Workload • The creation and maintenance of social media resources require a fair amount of time and energy. While some institutions already have established staff personnel for these purposes, others may not which creates problems when prioritizing task responsibilities. • Buy-In • Because of the relatively new emergence of these social media resources and the lack of research pertaining to their success, it may be difficult to gain buy-in from upper administrative officers, especially since most hail from a different generation. Without this buy-in, it will be harder to rationalize the expense of these resources and the time committed to them.

25. References Coomes, M.D., & Debard, R. (2004). Serving the millennial generation. New Directions for Student Services, 106. http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2008/02/04/towards-reflective-blogtalk/