Tuesday, September 20, 2011
University of Wisconsin finds new ways to give scholarship
Some colleges have done some out of the ordinary things in recent years. Such as, offering a free ipod, creating a twitter account for mascots, and promising a full scholarship to the applicant with the best 140-character essay. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison
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This definitely looks like a great way to get community involvement to produce scholarships for the university students, and it looks like it’s working. When I consider this in light of the Uses and Gratifications article, the University is tapping into an element not really evaluated, which I would sum up to be a psychological element of participating in community support. For those online, having the ability to tap into social justice or grassroots movements, which are extremely popular right now, quickly and easily will become a purpose for connecting online.
ReplyDeleteAs for the University of Wisconsin’s the ability to gain support with a simple commitment of one dollar, and to have gained $8,000 in four days, underlines how quickly initial momentum can begin through social media
--CG
I think this is a great idea by the University of Wisconsin however I think that a follow up on the value this initiative provides to the university would be interesting. Such factors that would provide useful in an evaluation would be whether or not the university used these likes or follows to initiate a return on investment for donors. I think some corporations are concentrating only on the number of likes or follows on Facebook and Twitter rather than the actual value of these pages like whether or not followers are visiting links posted, visiting company website and most importantly buying or using their product or service. Digital media communicators need to ensure they are specifying their messages to ensure a substantial return on investment. Digital media at the moment is an expensive resource for companies and failure to prove it's value to a company will result in diminishing budgets, and as a soon to be graduate I would much prefer the budget pool to be flourishing.
ReplyDeleteI was quite interested in this post. I am on several listservs, and there I’ve seen plenty of questions about how to do it, but very few examples of effectively incorporating social media into fundraising for colleges and universities.
ReplyDeleteHere at SJSU, the Alumni Association and University Advancement have been looking into how to use social networking to build relationships with alumni and friends of the university as well as how to encourage them to financially support San Jose State. The SJSU Alumni Association is building its social network presence on various sites, and University Advancement has online donation pages and sends out email solicitations to alumni and friends of the university asking for support.
What the University of Wisconsin is doing makes a lot of sense from a development viewpoint. People who have an ongoing relationship with a university tend to donate. Getting people to follow on Twitter or “like” on Facebook could be the first steps in building that relationship.
Challenge grants such as the Twitter/Facebook challenge are commonly used in fundraising to encourage participation. The challenge continues to be to find ways to adapt what’s worked traditionally into new media, as well as to explore the new opportunities new media offers.
Like Bello, I, too see the value in following up to see if there is any ROI on the new Twitter followers and Facebook “likes.” Time will tell. In the case of increasing participation and dollars in donations, it will take quite a awhile to tell.