July 15th, 2009 | by Vadim Lavrusik

Vadim Lavrusik is a new media student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is @lavrusik on TwitterTwitter and blogs at Lavrusik.com.

Instead of focusing their attention on promoting information to mainstream media, some university public affairs offices are using the power of social media to engage the community directly. In many cases, social media tools like Facebook Pages have given universities an opportunity to speak to audiences on their own, reaching thousands of people interested in keeping up with news at the school and connecting with others on the social network.

Universities are constantly exploring new ways to use social media to fulfill their missions of engaging and sharing knowledge with their constituents. Below are just 10 highlights of how universities are using social media for public affairs. As always, please share other examples you have used or come across in the comments below.

1. Gathering and Sharing Information

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The point is to try to educate and provide a glimpse into what the institution is like, said Dan Wolter, director of University of Minnesota News Service, which has a Twitter following of 2,900 and 1,700 YouTube subscribers. Many larger universities have multiple accounts across various channels that are specific to departments or schools (i.e., Twitter, YouTubeYouTube, Facebook accounts for the medical school, English department, admissions office, etc.) and often times the school’s news service or public affairs office will pick out information that could appeal to the broader audience and share it through the general university account, Wolter said. These social media tools are often used to supplement traditional press releases being sent out.

2. Showcasing Student and Faculty Work

That can be as simple as featuring photos taken by students through a photo album on the Stanford University Facebook page, which boasts 38,000 fans. Or it can take the form of an elaborate YouTube rap video a pair of Stanford students created for a biology class assignment that the school’s News Service shared on multiple social media channels:

3. Providing a Platform to Broadcast Events

Stockholm University (@Stockholm_Uni) in Sweden provided a live streaming video on its website for those who could not attend a seminar on environmental issues and another on file sharing, said Maria Erlandsson, press relations manager at Stockholm University, which has multiple social media accounts on services like Twitter, in both English and Swedish.

To accompany the video webcast of its main 2009 commencement ceremony, Vanderbilt University (@VanderbiltU) designated a page on its website that gathered commencement tweets that included the #vu2009 hashtag. This allowed students and others to report on the commencement happenings as they were being attended. (Example: “Can I just record the applause and play it back everytime I’m supposed to clap? My hands r tired. #vu2009” via @triciafields).

4. Emergency Notification

“Some students check their Facebook more often than their school’s e-mail accounts,” said Nyleva Corley, the Web and social media manager in the public affairs office at University of Texas (@UTAustin).

Corley said that when the school had a case of H1N1 flu (previously known as swine flu) this past spring, they used Twitter to notify the community of the case as well as pointing them to information and resources.

The University of Minnesota has an Emergency Notification group on Facebook that it uses to blast messages to its 2,300 members during a case of an emergency. It provides another way to reach students that spend a lot of their time there during critical situations, Wolter said. Wolter’s team has used Twitter and Facebook to notify university students of bomb threats as well as announce the cancellation of classes during snow storms.

5. Connecting People

The 46,000 fans of the University of Michigan Page often connect to one another, for example, especially incoming students who are eager to make new friends. Facebook groups made for a specific graduating class and university Twitter accounts have a similar effect.

6. Producing, Not Just Promoting

YouTube is instrumental in that for many schools. Patric Lane, health and science editor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill News Services (@Carolina_News), said there have been several times in which blogs like The Huffington Post would embed one of the videos from their YouTube channel. Though getting a video like this picked up drives traffic, the YouTube audience contributes views directly as well.

The same thing can be said of university Facebook Pages. Stephen Orlando, director of print media at the University of Florida News Bureau (@UFNow), said their press releases posted to the school’s Facebook Page reach 21,000 people. “So we feel that even if the news media doesn’t pick up a news release, we still have a way to reach our audience,” Orlando said.

Cynthia Hoke, director of the News Service at the University of Georgia, is using their Facebook Page as a publishing tool as well. Many of their links get comments, criticisms, and inspire a conversation on the topic.

7. Creating a Dialogue and Communicating to Students

Blogs are actually a great example of how schools are getting into the conversation. Though they’re not real-time, blogs provide a format for dialogue via comments. During the school year, the University of Texas hosted student blogs called “Longhorn Confidential” in which two students from each grade level blogged about their experiences at school. The public could respond to each post via comments, and often did. “It served as not only a story-telling format, but created dialogue as well,” said Corley, the school’s public affairs social media manager.

8. Facebook Office Hours

Facebook office hours are something of a four-part process. First, a Facebook note is posted promoting and describing the professor or faculty member hosting the “office hours.” Then a video is posted with the faculty member talking about their research or work (or that of their department). Next, fans then have a chance to ask the hosting member questions via comments. Finally, the faculty member answers questions through a second video, often addressing those commenting by name.

So far, Hsu from Stanford said the experiment has been a success, which is evident by how many questions are being asked of the faculty members – and by the positive reviews the practice has gotten. “It’s not just about Stanford news, it’s about taking part in the community of social networks,” Hsu said.

9. Coaching for the Spotlight

Lane from University of North Carolina said their YouTube channel often serves as a coaching tool for their experts and professors to get used to being on camera. “When they do go on to do a ‘real interview’, they can be more confident, more capable. They can communicate in a more effective way” Lane said.

10. Getting Wired Via Mobile

Ian Hsu from Stanford said the development of the app, which was done by two students, was commissioned by the university and has further potential. What if the campus was sprinkled with signs that point visitors with iPhones to be able to connect to the application, he asked. “There is a lot of potential there,” Hsu said.

For those without an iPhone, the school also has a mobile web client that allows students to access their mail, check the calendar, and more all from a mobile device. Other schools have also introduced similar applications (Duke University, Georgia Tech, U Cal at San Diego, etc.). The Chronicle of Higher Education recently did a series on schools introducing mobile applications.

Greater than 97% of college students own a cell phone, so connecting with students via mobile devices is smart.

by David Spark

David Spark (@dspark) is the founder of Spark Media Solutions, an organization that helps companies build industry voice through storytelling and social media. He blogs at The Spark Minute and can be seen and heard regularly on Cranky Geeks, KQED, Green 960, and ABC Radio.

From tracking fires through Twitter to breaking news before you see it on a major news network, we’re constantly hearing stories of how social media connections enable the community to help each other out in times of crisis. We love these stories. So here are five unique tales of social media coming to save the day.

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1. An emergency personnel support network

For emergency situations, such as Hurricane Ike in Texas, Ramirez set up a closed Twitter network that’s used for private non-official conversation and communication among his team and their partners, the Red Cross and Loews Emergency Response Team. The private network allows them to speak openly and freely about the stresses and the isolation they’re dealing with. The Twitter network has become critical for their disaster recovery operations, said Ramirez. “You always have that feeling that the team down the road is superhuman,” Ramirez said, “When you’re dealing with 300 rescues a day and you’re miles from your colleagues, you need that social support that reminds you that you’re only human.”

During a disaster, the top issues are usually locating potable water, gasoline, food, shelter, and electricity. The ones who can best uncover that information are emergency personnel deployed on the ground in the disaster areas. Ramirez’s team and their partners use Twitter to keep each other informed as to the location of available services and supplies. It’s important to keep the network private, said Ramirez. Lack of non-critical personnel on the network reduces cross chatter and the privacy prevents rumors from spreading.

In the case of Hurricane Ike, not only did the Twitter network help them find water, gasoline, and shelter, but it was also critical for warning personnel sleeping in tents in Galveston, Texas that there were two lions and two tigers roaming the island. Once alerted on Twitter, the personnel immediately moved to a safer location.

One aspect of concern that many don’t think about during a disaster is the loneliness. The team at Galveston were very isolated and had to sleep in shifts so that they could provide 24-hour support. Late at night official communications are silent and voice communications can often be poor. Using text messaging and Twitter, staffers up late at night would play games, such as Texas Hold ‘Em, just to decompress. The Twitter and SMS communications were critical to the team’s mental health. “If you don’t have outreach, you can’t decompress,” said Ramirez.

For the next disaster, Ramirez is setting up a private social network using either CollectiveX or Ning (he hasn’t decided which yet) to act as a searchable repository where people from various agencies can post their situations and get input from staff. Ramirez has found that trading experiential knowledge from others who have dealt with similar situations is invaluable to a successful emergency response. All he wants to do now is create a bank of that information that’s searchable so his team and others can rely on it.

2 & 3. Survive foreign medical care

What she learned from the Twitterati is that in Argentina you can call for a doctor to make a non-emergency house call at any time. She got the number to call and the cost (55 pesos or about $15 US) so she knew what to expect if someone quoted a higher price. She also learned that it’s better to first take a house call before actually going to the hospital. Your hospital visit will go more smoothly with a house call recommendation.

In another situation, Shulman was able to pay forward the favor to a friend of hers who was in Beirut when his dog seemed to be having a seizure and he was nowhere near a vet. Through Twitter she was able to connect her friend to a vet. Within two hours the vet advised Shulman’s Beirut friend that he keep the dog as calm as possible and in a dark room. Keep away from his mouth and speak soothingly. And to further calm Shulman’s friend, the vet let him know that in general epilepsy in dogs is not as severe as it is humans.

The next day, Shulman heard from her friend via Facebook () that his dog was fine and they were going to the vet that day.

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4 & 5. The homeless need raincoats right now

When he was working for the Burbank Winter Shelter in California, he was responsible for 150 homeless people waiting at a bus shelter about to get rained on. Driving around LA, he asked the Twitterati where he could find raincoats in bulk. He got advice to go to Sportmart and Costco where he cleaned them out of every raincoat they had. But one Twitter follower, Michael Buchanan (@holycowcreative) was so enthralled with Horvath’s cause that he blogged about it and raised $453 to buy and ship Horvath another 100 raincoats in just two weeks. The influx of raincoat advice charged Horvath, who joked, “I was on a mission to turn every homeless person in Los Angeles yellow.”

In another case, Horvath had a homeless friend, John, who moved to Seattle for a job opportunity only to get mugged upon arrival. Feeling helpless because he didn’t know anyone in the area, Horvath tweeted out if anyone in Seattle could help his friend. It was 27 degrees that night and all the winter shelters were full. Within minutes, one person close by to John walked up and handed him $100 so he would have a place to sleep for the night. For the rest of his time in Seattle, another Horvath Twitter follower shared his one bedroom apartment with John.

For more on Horvath, read my previous Mashable () article, “5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded.” While he’s not homeless, Horvath is without an income and relies on reader/viewer donations through his video blog invisiblepeople.tv. For his next adventure, Horvath is planning a cross country road trip to Washington, D.C. where he’ll visit tent cities in locations such as Las Vegas, Nashville, and St. Petersburg and let the homeless tell their own stories on his blog. Whrrl is his first sponsor, but he needs more donations and sponsors to make it happen.

Technologies to track a crisis

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One recently launched application, now ready for hurricane season, is Emicus. Arguing that the web and social media have proven to operate a lot more efficiently than FEMA, Emicus aims to aggregate and optimize the flow of information and direct people to rescue services. Another far simpler site to check out is Crisiswire, which tracks and aggregates traditional and social media news from various emergencies.

Got a social media crisis story of your own? Feel free to share the tale with your fellow Mashable readers.

by Catherine-Gail Reinhard

Catherine-Gail Reinhard is creative director at Videasa, an agency that focuses on creating video infotainment for the web and emerging media platforms. You can follow her on Twitter.

As YouTube () has grown into the preeminent video sharing service online, marketers have tried, with limited success, to broadcast themselves and to reach audiences with their messaging. And while individuals have used YouTube as a platform to step into the spotlight, most brands have been left behind in the shadows. Save for the occasional media-supported viral video blitz, or user generated contest, commercial success on YouTube has been elusive to the many brands that have tried to reach for that brass ring.

This is not to say that brands will ever reach the heights of popularity on YouTube that individuals have achieved, and it would be naive to start a Sponsored Channel with the expectation that millions of viewers will tune in right away. However, YouTube does represent a great opportunity for marketers to reach consumers who are searching for information about a brand or related products and services. YouTube can also be a powerful direct marketing tool, provided that it is considered as part of the marketing mix rather than a tactic in a vacuum.

One thing is becoming apparent: The brands that achieve long-term success on YouTube are the ones that consistently and frequently publish refreshing content that has intrinsic value for audiences online. Here are some of the standout brands that have created a strong position on YouTube by understanding the zeitgeist of collective content generation and some of the clever marketing tactics they are using to build their presence on the site.

Some brands are missing the boat

I have also specifically excluded some very large brands from this post that have created one or more viral “one-hit wonders” but continue to use their branded YouTube channel to only post their television commercials online. These global brands tend to generate buzz for their one “viral” video but these efforts prove to be largely campaign-centric and media supported. Many of these brands still neglect to publish content on an ongoing basis.

Additionally, I have not included brands on this list that professionally create content as their primary product or service (i.e. newspapers, magazines, TV shows, Internet TV, entertainment companies, music industry, movies).

5 YouTube case studies

1. Quiksilver & Roxy

The fantastic aesthetic of wicked waves and big beautiful swells help make Quiksilver and Roxy’s content hypnotically captivating. Companies that market products with an exciting angle or naturally beautiful aesthetic have an easier time creating content, to be sure, but Quiksilver and Roxy’s webisodes and mini-documentaries go beyond cool surf footage and give consumers inside access to what goes on behind the scenes on the professional surfing, skating and snowboarding tour circuits. The video selection also features vlogs by the pros, lifestyle profiles of up and coming musicians and a potpourri of other content.

The marketers at Quiksilver Inc. are bringing consumers value by offering them a look behind the scenes and giving them access to free content that, in the past, might not have been available at all or would only be available by purchasing surfing or skating DVDs. At the same time they are also extending the value of their sponsored Surf, Skate and Snowboarding event marketing dollars by using these events as opportunities for filming exciting videos.

Quiksilver posts a new video about once a week (Roxy posts slightly more frequently), which helps them both maintain a consistently fresh presence. Eventually, these brands might benefit from producing shorter videos on a more frequent basis. For a relatively niche apparel company, posting almost 200 videos in 2 years is no small achievement and the marketing teams at Quiksilver Inc. deserve recognition for their forward-looking efforts.

2. Ford Models

Let me start out by saying this; it’s really not fair to include Ford Models in this list. They have access to the most beautiful women in the world, are a part of what is perceived as an ultra-glamorous industry and have resources that the average brand marketer can only dream of. Unfair advantage? Sure. But there are plenty of other brands that spend huge dollars on YouTube without realizing a fraction of the results of Ford Models. Even without all the in-house resources, the marketers at Ford Models deserve a hand because they are doing a lot of things right:

1. Publishing multi-lingual content: Broadens their potential audience to include an international contingent. Also, by widening their appeal, they are working the system and increasing their chances of appearing on the lists of “Most Viewed” Channels on YouTube.

2. Offering a wide range of practical infotainment: From vlogs of models traveling to exotic locations, to tips from pro stylists, to behind the scenes videos of photo shoots and fashion shows, the content on the Ford Models YouTube page provide valuable information to their target audience.

3. Patience is a virtue: Since 2006, Ford Models has uploaded over 554 videos. With so many videos produced, Ford Models has learned what works for their brand and what doesn’t. By constantly producing and uploading videos, they have learned to tailor their messaging and have also created a large archive of searchable content that continues to accumulate views.

Online video is a relatively new medium and brands need to understand that their video content, like their websites, will continually be refined and will evolve to the needs and expectations of audiences. The smart tactics employed by Ford Models have led to the slow and steady growth of their large subscriber base but they have invested a significant amount of effort to get to this point. Brands that want instant results should expect to spend a great deal of money on media.

3. University of Phoenix Online

As broadband has become widely available, the dream of attending college online has come to fruition. Private online education programs have become so popular that even the old guard Ivy League Universities have begun to offer classes or access to lectures online. But when it comes to marketing its online classes via video, University of Phoenix Online leads the charge. On YouTube, University of Phoenix has hundreds of video testimonials, reviews, mini-documentaries and webisodes.

It’s not that their videos have huge numbers of views, or that their channel has that many subscribers (some have only a few hundred views); In this case, building a subscriber base is not important in terms of University of Phoenix Online’s marketing objectives. What is important is that they have at least one video to connect with each prospective student that searches for an online school or visits their channel.

Where University of Phoenix Online’s video marketing excels is in having a large number of videos, which increase the odds that the prospect will find a video featuring a real, relatable student with whom they can identify. Among the most watched videos on the channel are a compelling testimonial by MSNBC Anchor and graduate, Christina Brown, and a mini-documentary series featuring a diverse cast of graduates with inspirational stories about their life experience.

By being the first in their category to create a sponsored channel on YouTube, University of Phoenix Online automatically falls at the top of any search on YouTube for online schools—even if a user searches for a competitor. Using compelling, emotionally charged content, University of Phoenix Online has turned their YouTube channel into a virtual recruitment machine to convert prospects into enrolled students.

4. The Home Depot

The Home Depot stands out in their category because they publish content about subject matter that is relevant to their brand without being over-the-top in promoting the specific products that they sell. The smart marketers at Home Depot know that bringing value to consumers in the form of free educational content does three important things:

1. Establishes Home Depot as a trusted expert resource for Home repairs and renovation projects

2. Promotes the products and tools that they sell by using “product placement” instead of outright commercial-style pitches.

3. Humanizes a faceless corporation: Home Depot has a long history of featuring employees in its advertising campaigns: The tutorials online are hosted by the same straight-talking, orange-apron-wearing folks who work in their stores.

From simple repairs around the house (like replacing a toilet) to more complicated home-renovation projects (like re-tiling the bathroom), the free content offers practical knowledge and money-saving tips. One key point of distinction between The Home Depot and other players in their category is that they have not over-designed their YouTube page and have opted for the standard layout with a custom background image. The overall production values of the videos are not slick and overdone–they feel native to the Internet instead of “made for TV.”

5. Nikefootball

Few companies can even dream of having the marketing resources of a brand like Nike. Nike has lots of marketing dollars and yes, they hire big celebrities like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, but that success on YouTube isn’t necessarily only about hiring big names–it’s about being in concord with their brand.

The takeaway here for marketers is this: To thine own brand be true. Nike as a brand is well known for celebrity sports endorsement deals. Starting when Nike was but a nascent brand with Ilie Nastase, up to the present day, Nike has made its name by associating itself with sports stars. Not that the strategy hasn’t had its share of pitfalls (Nike Air Vick III), but it would be off-strategy and off-brand for Nike to suddenly start releasing a string of poorly-produced, low-budget videos just because the videos live on YouTube.

That being said, some of Nikefootball’s most-viewed videos (mostly from a specifically urban-targeted campaign) are filmed with a mashup of unconventional production equipment like Closed Circuit Security Cameras, Webcams, and Cellphones. But I want to draw a distinction here that there is a difference between cool videos created using experimental filmmaking techniques and just plain garbage.

The Nikefootball channel is targeted to the UK but Nike cleverly maintains Nikefutebol, an additional Portugese language channel to cater to the fierce Brazilian soccer contingent. Indeed, of all the sponsors on YouTube, Nike probably maintains the greatest number of channels (Nike, Nikefootball, Nikefutebol, NikeBasketball, NikeSoccer, NikeGridiron, NikePlusTV, LeBron, insidenikerunning, NikeWomen, NikeWomenUK, nikecorre, nikecorresp, etc…). While not every brand has the resources to maintain so many channels, it is notable that Nike has opted to create a variety of branded and lightly branded channels that cater to the different audiences for each of their product lines instead of trying to silo all their content inside a single Nike channel. This makes it easier for consumers to find content that is relevant to their needs without having to sift through hundreds of extraneous videos.

Catherine-Gail Reinhard is Creative Director at Videasa, an agency that focuses on creating video infotainment for the web and emerging media platforms. Recently, Catherine completed an extensive research study of marketers about online video. Contact her on Twitter () @catherine_gail for more information about the study.

Peter Kim is a Senior Partner at Dachis Corporation.  He blogs about social computing and marketing at Being Peter Kim.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been curating a list of social media marketing examples.  The list started with 100 examples (including 35+ from Mashable) and has since tripled in size with the participation of over a hundred contributors with examples from companies around the world.

We could probably come up with 3,000 examples instead of 300 – but the current set already gives us a pretty good sample to think about.  One takeaway: for now, those neurotic about missing “what’s next” can relax a bit.  Consumers still use a broader set of social tools than corporations, but new categories of tools aren’t emerging rapidly today, giving brands a chance to catch up.  It’s time to master the last big thing while you have a chance to catch a breath.

As corporate adoption emerges, there’s nothing wrong with learning lessons from others and making them your own.  Start by making sure you have all of your bases covered with the major tools.  In other words, copy and paste the items below, then fill in the blanks with your own company-driven effort.

Here’s a framework of 22 tools to consider with notable brand examples:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations – social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

And use this username check tool to see if your brands/preferred handles are still available.

I haven’t found a single company doing all of these today. Forget divining a big, meaningful business objective before getting started – you’ll end up in analysis paralysis. Just make sure you’re making an existing business function better and get started.  Today.