Social Networks in Higher Ed: Go Big or Go Home
At Inigral, we’ve launched a few Facebook apps – white-label Accepted and Enrolled Student Social Networks that live inside Facebook. So, we’re starting to get the hang of what works and what doesn’t. We’ve also seen some data around the interwebs.
Here are some thoughts:
Seeding and the Hollywood Launch
Social Networks need to be seeded – they need to have key influencers with a presence and activity so that early adopters see visual cues on what to do within the network. Most people don’t want to be “first” at anything; it’s perceived as risky for one reason or another. So getting influencers like student leaders in there adding the kind of content you want to see is important.
Launches are often more effective if you build up anticipation with an early adopter user group. You can build an early sign up form. A lot of web products will just have a beta-sign up for months. This means the day they launch they can email everyone that left their email and get an instant, critical user and activity base. 37 Signals has more on the Hollywood Launch here.
Manifest Destiny through Positive, Multi-Channel Communication
Giving students the impression that this social network will INDISPUTABLY be their social interface to the school let’s them know they might as well get on and participate.
The most exciting time to be involved in a trend is right before it gets big. If users know it’s going to be popular, they’re happy to invite their peers. If they think it’s going to be a dud, they act too cool and don’t go back. Part of this is launching a good product, but it also centers on how that product is communicated.
Students need to be hearing about the social network on all fronts. Email, flyer, direct mail, poster, digital signage, portal, the works. Creating genuine awareness is a multi-front effort.
Hit Critical Mass… and Fast
In order to have sustained activity in a social network participation must hit a “critical mass.” This means that staged pilots just don’t work. The network effect says that a network increases in value exponentially with each incremental unit of growth. So, each additional user makes the social network more valuable. A network with 10,000 people is more than 10 times as valuable as a network with a thousand people, etc. If early adopters get the impression that other people are not going to participate within a short time frame, even the enthusiasm of the early adopters fizzles out.
Conclusion
If you have a good product, and you successfully communicate about it, and hit critical mass in a rapid time frame, you will have succeeded. ”When the users first experiences of system usage were positive the information about the system started to spread to other students…” (Silius, et al 2009). If not, it will be a continuing communications struggle. ”Negative rumors are not easily replaced with more positive information,” (Silius et al 2009).
