8/3/2019 NACE2011

1/6

Introduction:

Before I begin I have a few ground rules to go over:

1.) Not only do I NOT mind if you are face down in a computer or mobile device while Im

speaking, Im hoping youll take anything you find useful here and immediately communicate itoutward using the hashtags for today:

#NACE11 is the general tag and Im encouraging the use of #nace11SM

Im @douglasLmiller in that space and am in charge of curating the stream for

@depaulcareerctr as well. Ill leave some time for questions at the end if you have them.

2.) Even though I used the term Social Media in the title of this presentation Im an advocate

for the movement to stop using that term altogether.

Let me be clear about what I believe.

There is no such thing as Social Media.

Thats a tweetable quote, if you like. Take a moment to tell the rest of Twitter they dont exist.

Heres what I mean by that:

There have always been and will always be mediums through which we communicate &

organize. Some are digital. ALL are social because we are.

Having said that, I will now proceed to talking for the next hour about something I just said

doesnt exist. Hopefully the irony will not be lost on you.

After the Honeymoon: Making Social (digital) Media Routine and Successful:

I first started thinking about the topics Im presenting today by framing them as similar to the

experiences of the newlywed.

I wanted to express my thinking that digital media and higher education had only just begun this

long, complex relationship.

I sought even to capture the notion that - all too often - it is a relationship that is entered into

impulsively and without regard for long-range planning.

Also that there is a tendency to burn through resources quickly and leave ones head spinning

as the passion of the moment gives way to the realities of daily life.

8/3/2019 NACE2011

2/6

But as I began to compile the information I want for you to take with you today, I started to see

another image taking shape - that the arrival of digital media on the scene has created an even

more world changing impact worthy of a more spectacular metaphor.

Ive got two kids so, naturally, my next thought was the arrival of digital media is more like a new

baby for a first time parent. Certainly thats a life changing event for anybody who experiencesit.

But theres something so GLOBALLY shifting about the role these digital tools have assumed.

The prominence these digital tools have been elevated to and the hype that surrounds them all

is of a scale much more proportional to another kind of event that might serve as a better

metaphor:

Aliens have landed.

Let me paint you picture of where I think you are.

You get it. Social Media has landed and there is obviously no going back, you know that.

Like a giant UFO perching itself right on top of the ivory towers of Higher Education, social

medias efficacy is no longer a theory or a veiled conspiratorial myth - its real and its here.

Suddenly, the quad and the marketplace are filled with alien people speaking alien languages

and sharing alien technologies; and you know there is no denying that things will never be the

same again.

But what now? In the face of such wide reaching change, how do you marshal the resources to

compensate and take action?

Thats the thing about saying that things will never be the same; you cant just stop there.

Just saying things will never be the same and stopping there is like jumping out of an airplane

at thirty thousand feet and refusing to deploy the parachute - under-productive at best.

You know the landscape has changed. Now it is time to take steps to compensate. Its time to

move forward by being intentional about integrating this fact into daily life. Where to start?

Of all the things I say today, Ive tried to categorize them into these three general groups of

advice:

1. Make room for the truth

2. Be the Language

8/3/2019 NACE2011

3/6

3. Reverse Engineer Everything

Step One: Make room for the alien truth - prepare for The Adjustment.

Most folks working in digital media or calling themselves social media experts these days aregoing to advise you to start at what I think is closer to the end.

Youre going to hear things like set goals, define successes, determine measurement tools,

and establish benchmarks for return on investment.

Those are all great things to do - but in my opinion, there are so many things to do before you

get to those things that those who skip right to them are immediately overwhelmed and often

face some serious cultural integration issues internally down the line.

REMEMBER - ALIENS, people. ALIENS. Its a big deal. Slow down and take it a step at a time.

The first thing to do in this Brave New World is to identify your Ambassadors.

I'm not taking about Brand Ambassadors, which is ordinarily the kind of Ambassador you'll hear

someone talk about RE: social media.

The Ambassadors in this context are people who help normalize the idea in YOUR culture.

These folks are already inclined to believe in UFOs (to expand the metaphor) theyre already

early adopters of digital mediums so theres less culture shift that needs to happen in them.

We found ambassadors in our students, staff, faculty and in the community at large.

For example, I started having tutorial sessions about social and new media - exposing the

overall strategy to the entire staff to build confidence about using the tools and helping them

know how it all fit in to the bigger picture.

We reached out to students, faculty, and staff who were early adopters anyway.

We created a staff position (my position) specifically dedicated to leading on these issues.

We attached ourselves to a larger community inside the university doing these things and

became internal thought leaders (ambassadors) for the idea to other departments.

It can be one person or a thousand. Dont have any ambassadors? Hire to that ability, yes.

Avoid the temptation, however, to think that you can hire one expert and therefore insulate the

rest of your staff from being involved with digital media.

8/3/2019 NACE2011

4/6

You have to make room for the truth. It becomes a part of what you do everyday.

If aliens really did land, we wouldnt expect for only certain people to acknowledge it had

happened so the rest of us could go on about our lives as though it never happened.

Thats crazy talk.

In fact, an important part of The Adjustment is helping everyone to recognize that on some level

ANYONE can be an ambassador.

Taking steps to make it easy for anyone to be an ambassador can be as simple as creating a

unified email signature strategy and showing folks how they can help just by doing what they

always do - send and receive emails.

Facilitate adoption by creating safe zones of practice and failure.

You have to take a reading of your internal culture to see what their tolerances are for geek

speak, to understand how much push back the use and acceptance of these new tools will

create, and to develop plans of deployment that are not scary, expensive, and regrettable.

For our purposes, using digital media tools for collaboration as beta testers where feedback and

reflection featured heavily and provide plenty of teachable moments was one way we measured

those tolerances.

In specific terms, we knew that our world was going to be talking about LinkedIn a lot more than

some folks had been used to and we felt it imperative for us to be inside of those spaces andparticipate in conversations using those tools, so we created groups on LinkedIn that were

limited to staff and faculty only in order to provide a safe practice ground for understanding

what it was like to be in that space.

8/3/2019 NACE2011

5/6

Step Two: Be the Language

Im a word nut.

Hang out with me for very long and youre just as likely to hear me spouting off about Linguistics

and a universal theory of phonemic emotional attachment as you are to hear me talk aboutdigital media.

Words mean a lot, and what I find most amazing about words is how quickly we can get used to

new ones.

Im not necessarily talking about learning whole other languages, but there are levels of

abstraction to nearly any human activity that only those closest to the center of really have a

great handle on.

My brother is a truck driver and I know nothing about that world and every year we get together

and have to re-learn each others vocab words to share a conversation.

I say that to say this:

There are abstract concepts (RSS, Planking, ROI, Clickthroughs, LOLZ, Pings, Lurkers, etc...)

that go along with strategically deploying communication through digital mediums.

Those need to be communicated to your internal culture in varying degrees and in appropriate

doses.

TWEET MOMENT:When it comes to digital media, message is 20% content and 90% context. Context is THAT

important, but content cant be any LESS important.

Before you go thinking thats a typo, it isnt.

The math doesnt need to work out .

Because context is THAT important,

but content cant be any LESS important.

Curation, currency and change

8/3/2019 NACE2011

6/6

Step 3. Reverse Engineer Everything

APIs, RSS, and beyond.

Working with internal constituents can require some cultural sensitivity.

What is it about these technologies that work? Real time, User-centric, Open data, ease of

sharing, intuitive design.

Find out what channels of communication already exist that can be re-purposed

Make use of smart Alien Technologies and make the machines do the work.