Before I go any further, those who matter:

• Involved students.
• Potentially involved students (including the lost).
• The University (university staff, other clubs, our general reputation on campus, etc).
• Donors.

I’m not going to argue here why social media matters, that’s been done by many others. Some of the tensions I feel are:

• Students are using SM, and expect others to engage them with it.
• As a man wearing many hats, I don’t always have the time to engage everybody listed above using SM.
• I want our staff and involved students to engage others with SM; I need to demonstrate that to them.
• Not all of our staff see the value in SM.
• The “content” of my engagement isn’t the same for each group.

Let’s simplify and assume for a moment that individual staff manage communication with their own donors well, which leaves the first three groups. Let’s also focus on three tools for now:

• Facebook.
• Email.
• Twitter.

So, how do we effectively use these tools to engage effectively with these interest groups? Here are a few ideas:

1. The content disseminated using each of these tools should be different. The same information repeated over different mediums isn’t effective.
2. Email is targeted towards those who are already involved, since they have to sign up to the list if they want it. We should be sending out regular (once a week) updates during the campus year.
3. Our involved students already use Facebook, and to some extent Twitter; why not get them to help with our campus Facebook and Twitter accounts? What if we chose a student volunteer once a week/fortnight who had permission to update our Facebook/Twitter?
4. A private Facebook group for our CSLs (Committed Student Leaders) could not only be used to help us engage with them, but also for them to engage with each other through the sharing of praise points and ideas, etc. I think this would be a huge win on a campus like Auckland where CSLs don’t necessarily see each other throughout the year.
5. Facebook status updates on our fan page and twitter accounts shouldn’t just be “come to this event” messages. This is where we can engage with other clubs and groups (comment on what they’re doing), encourage our students to be involved in the wider campus community, and communicate who we are to the lost, not yet involved students, university staff, etc.

I’m particularly interested in your comments on ideas 3, 4 and 5 above, as well as other ideas you have. How can we better engage with those who matter to our local campus movements using SM tools?