Media Review: Higher Education Administration with Social Media

Fishman, S. M. (2012). Media Review: Higher education administration with social media: Including applications in student affairs, enrollment management, alumni relations, and career centers. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 49(4), 471–474. doi:10.1515/jsarp-2012-6625 Available at http://journals.naspa.org/jsarp/vol49/iss4/art9/ Media Features and Reviews Media Review: Higher Education Administration With Social Media: Including Applications in Student Affairs, Enrollment Management, Alumni Relations, and Career Centers Wankel, L., & Wankel, C. (Eds.) (2011). Higher education administration with social media: Including applications in student afairs, enrollment management, alumni relations and career centers. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing. 283 pages. ISBN 978-0-85724-651-6 ($79.99 paperback). Reviewed by Seth Mathew Fishman, University of North Texas Higher Education Administration with Social Media explored the challenges and beneits of using social media in higher education, with an emphasis on answering questions that may emerge in the implementation and continued engagement of social media. This is the second volume in the JSARP 2012, 49(4) © NASPA 2012 htp://journals.naspa.org/jsarp doi:10.1515/jsarp-2012-6625 471 Media Review: Higher Education Administration with Social Media Cuting-Edge Technologies in Higher Education series, edited by St. Johns University associate professor of management Charles Wankel. Along with Professor Wankel, this second volume is edited by Seton Hall vice president of student afairs Laura Wankel. Twenty-one higher education professionals from Denmark, the United States, and the United Kingdom authored the material in Higher Education Administration with Social Media, which is divided into four parts: (1) enrollment management, (2) advising and mentoring, (3) public relations, and (4) alumni relations. However, for clarity, I would advise readers to consider these four parts in a very broad manner and focus more on the chapter content. This book does not follow a linear structure, whereby each chapter builds upon the previous chapters; rather, readers can read chapters and parts out of order without sacriicing comprehension. In addition, as is well established, technology changes constantly and social media seems to evolve at warp speed. When reading this book, the reader should bear in mind that some of the discussed social media platforms are no longer relevant (e.g., MySpace) or fading (college blogs) and can easily be substituted for an emerging platform (e.g., social bookmarking sites can be interchanged with Pinterest). The editors acknowledged in the introduction the emerging chaos that occurs as some technologies become more mainstream (e.g., Twiter) and they desired to present in the book an overview of social media applications and its application in a variety of functional areas on a college campus. Part One begins with Bree McEwan’s opening chapter on Facebook hybrid engagement that provides a very solid overview on social integration, which is supported with citational authority. Ater providing an overview of social integration, adjustment and retention, and a discussion of college students’ usage of Facebook, McEwan addressed the many challenges of social media. These included the nature of self-disclosure, communication skills, information overload, perceptions of social media usage, and how social media may hinder students in forming relationships at their institution, particularly if they are new students. In the next chapter, Nicole Merril presented the use of digital ethnography as a means of understanding on-line communities. Merril provided the results of an exploratory study (n = 30), with interesting indings related into the “norms, rules, and workings of social networking communities” (p. 26) that may be helpful to those practitioners working with international students. In the following chapter, Philip Griiths and Anthony Wall highlighted their own indings, this time from two diferent uses of social networking sites (SNS) within their institution. The authors openly discussed their lessons learned and raised an important and timely question faced by many colleges and universities: “Is an SNS the new e-mail?” (p. 65). The importance of this question cannot be overstated with the proliferation of smartphone usage and the availability of integrated applications connecting to SNS. The next ive chapters of Part Two addressed areas related to advising and mentoring students. P. Charles Livermore raised the potential use of Second Life technology from the vantage point of the library sciences. Although the emergence of Google Art Project and Google Street Finder provide some virtual experiences, Livermore implores readers to consider the possibilities of Sec- 472 doi:10.1515/jsarp-2012-6625 htp://journals.naspa.org/jsarp © NASPA 2012 JSARP 2012, 49(4) Media Review: Higher Education Administration with Social Media ond Life in higher education, particularly in distance education. Next, Melanie Booth and Arthur Esposito shared their experiences in academic mentoring and incorporated what they identiied as a “high tech/high touch” approach to student development and support services. A highlight is Esposito’s perspective on his approach to Facebook privacy and professional boundaries, an area that many student afairs practitioners struggle to establish. The subsequent chapter includes an overview by Neil Ford, Melissa Bowden, and Jill Beard on socialbookmarking and its ability to increase collaboration and evaluation skills. This is a good chapter to view through the lens of Pinterest and consider other social media curating sites such as Storify. The authors also raised and addressed an important question: Do students want to communicate with academic support staf through social media? In the following chapter, based upon indings from a NAFSA: Association of International Educators survey and her own study abroad and campus marketing experiences, Peggy Schouten provided readers with 13 ways to utilize social media with other communication mediums. She then shared 10 additional “best practices” and concluded with a visual representation (although the screenshot text is diicult to read). A timely chapter on the use of social networking sites and career management by Nancy Richmond, Beth Rochefort, and Leslie Hitch highlighted the importance of social network theorist Granoveter’s concept of “weak ties” and how these “friends of friends, friends of acquaintances, know people that we do not know” (p. 149). Richmond et al. provided several career management strategies that incorporate SNS, focusing on LinkedIn’s continuing traction with employers. Part Three, which is rather brief, related to social media and public relations. With the increased usage of Twiter for NASPA conferences, Nicole Osborne’s chapter on social media ampliication, the concept of extending the boundaries of an event, such as a conference, through social media usage, is quite timely. Professionals whose work involves event planning should read this chapter carefully and refer to the numerous Twiter examples that Osborne provided. She ofered a useful overview for creating, implementing, and evaluating SNS usage for events and conferences, while also ofering a 10-item planning checklist for amplifying events and conferences. In the following chapter, Karen Weaver discussed her experiences with social media, fans, and athletics and raised a useful question to consider: In utilizing social media, are you looking to reduce costs or raise revenue? Weaver also asked college administrators to consider how to connect with their smartphone audience, a salient suggestion in 2012. The last section of the book focused on alumni relationships. In the irst chapter of the section, Eric Kowalik implored higher education professionals to think deeply about the phrase “Just because you can do something does not mean you should” (p. 217) and provided ive questions to ask before using social media in higher education. Heather Makrez authored an experiential chapter that included an overview of some possibilities of SNS, with a focus on LinkedIn usage. Makrez concluded the chapter with a discussion of potential policy issues and suggestions on how to monitor social network postings. In Jon Hussey’s overview on Twiter in higher education, the inal chapter in the section, he asked readers to think of Twiter as a type of community and in varying degrees, this is the mindset of the other contributing authors. JSARP 2012, 49(4) © NASPA 2012 htp://journals.naspa.org/jsarp doi:10.1515/jsarp-2012-6625 473 Media Review: Higher Education Administration with Social Media This chapter would be beter suited at the beginning of the book, as it provided the best overview of Twiter and ways for admissions, career services, public relations, and alumni afairs to act and interact with social media. There are always challenges with edited books; and the biggest challenge that I encountered as a reader is that the individual authors did not reference each other, which would have minimized duplicative material and ofered a richer context for readers to compare the authors’ discussions and suggestions. I like to see the “About the Authors” at the end of the chapter, not at the end of the book, which is likely a publisher style preference. Although only briely mentioned in a few chapters, an emerging area in this ield is interactive applications within social media, particularly Facebook, and preference sharing (e.g., Spotify for music). As mentioned earlier, with the speed of changing technology, readers must substitute some discussed technology platforms with those that are new and emerging. Overall, each chapter ofered nuggets of useful considerations and ideas for those working in any higher education institutional type. This book is certainly beneicial for the scholar-practitioner searching for theories and foundations that pre-date the rise of social media in higher education. For those who consider themselves a social media novice, they will no doubt ind this book helpful in providing a solid overview of the subject. I would also recommend this book for those whose portfolio of responsibilities includes social media creation, implementation, and evaluation. Many of the authors raised important challenges and candidly discussed the costs, beneits, and return on investments of social media planning and management process. In the introduction, Wankel and Wankel stated that the higher education community must “arrive in the future by taking the path to it” (p. xviii), and their edited book certainly provided guidance in how to successfully navigate down this path. 474 doi:10.1515/jsarp-2012-6625 htp://journals.naspa.org/jsarp © NASPA 2012 JSARP 2012, 49(4)