I attend Emerson College, I’m a senior in Marketing Communications and the first thing I should have done is analyze Emerson’s OWN marketing ability (specifically towards social media). So here are 3 things that Emerson is doing well and 3 they are doing poorly, and how you can use this to your advantage.
1. NO SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
This is the front page of Emerson College’s website. Nowhere on the page does it have any links to Twitter/Facebook/Linked-In that students can find out crowdsourced content from students/teachers/faculty. (Read about my post on crowdsourcing and small businesses here)
An excellent thing that Standford University does is the opposite of Emerson’s.
At the bottom of their home page, they have a call to action to join them on the multiple sources of social media platforms that they are active in. An excellent way to connect and get more information on how they are interacting with the us.
For small businesses, having a bar/call to action on your homepage to multiple resources of social media platforms will be extremely useful to your content. It makes you more credible and reliable, because you will have a place for clients/prospective clients to see what others are organically saying about you.
2. Poor reaction to damaging news
Recently, the Daily Beast wrote an article about Emerson College being the most dangerous school in America. Must’ve been great for admissions:
Emerson is the only college in the country dedicated to communication and arts. It also sits in downtown Boston, and many of the crimes it is required to report occur at a nearby subway stations or in adjacent parks or nearby sidewalks, rather than on Emerson property itself. “Emerson College is an extremely safe campus with little or no crime on campus each year,” says Andrew Tiedemann. “Any crimes that happen on Boston Common and in the subway station show up in our report but do not involve our community. “ Still, its students are regularly on that subway, in that park, and they also live in apartments nearby. The school reported more than 80 robberies and 60 aggravated assaults, almost all near campus rather than on it, in 2007.
Given that they did offer a comment to the Globe, however it was brief and only offered an excuse to the ranking. Other reactions to the news was not documented in any accessible area. No mention of the bad news or reaction to it was ever shared to the Emerson Community either.
In any case, if it’s on the internet, everyone can see it. There is no filter or attempt to block information anymore, and its more credible to any company to just accept the negativity and turn it into a positive by either giving an in-depth reaction in a channel that we are all able to access, or reacting to the source outlet directly (commenting on the blog post)
3. No outreach to potential students cohesively
Their Twitter page tells the entire story. Emerson’s Facebook page only has content from their news feed (which can be found on the Emerson Website) there is no outreach to people interested. The Facebook page has no discussion board, and on top of that, comments are blocked.
In order to cohesive develop a brand, the brand must give content worthy enough. All Emerson’s content is completely recycled, and although they have a Twitter page, they do not have any sort of content or outreach. The way to gain loyalty, is by provoking organic content.
Although Emerson College does have many repercussions, there are some things that I do give it merit.
1. Good content
The broadcast method may be shotty, but what Emerson comes up with is quite good. Emerson MarComm has a large Twitter following which connects to their followers and their community.
2. Facebook presence
For Emerson’s Class of 2012 Facebook page, the class council is located as admin and used as a leading tool for other Emerson 2012 students to seek help/resources.
For any small business, it is important to divide any segment to discuss relevant topics, as Emerson has done with their years, discussing the updates and news of any specific company is important.
