Nichols Jumps Into Social Media With Both Feet
For the last 12 to 18 months, I’ve been hearing a chorus rising from local businesses about social media. Most medium- to large-sized businesses are firmly on the band wagon with Twitter accounts, LinkedIn profiles and Facebook pages. And even some small businesses are getting into the action, to varying degrees of success.
But the challenge with these new ways to connect with current and potential customers has been one of time: Who has time to keep three different social networks, a blog and a YouTube channel current? How does a sales person, a marketing executive, a CEO or an editor (including me) monitor these sites on top of normal day-to-day responsibilities? And oh yeah, we’ve all been trying to figure this out through the most severe recession in our lifetime.
Well, a critical mass is starting to be reached in all this social media mayhem. And the first sign of this emerging trend is blossoming in an unexpected place: Dudley, Mass.
Director Of What?
Nichols College, a Dudley-based school with a total enrollment of about 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students, have created a new position called director of social media and have hired an Assumption graduate, Justin Roy, to take on the job.
So, what exactly does a full-time “director of social media” do? Well, that’s still being figured out.
You see, Roy began working for the college in January remotely from Chicago. He only relocated to the area last month. He’s new on the scene, and let’s face it, there are no job descriptions readily available for his position.
But that’s also really exciting for Roy. He gets to make up the rules as he goes along.
“My typical day? It’s not too typical. It changes every day,” he said.
Now, I know what some of my readers are thinking… How could someone possibly fill up a 40-hour work with Twitter updates and Facebook posts? Roy has an answer for those doubters.
“It’s not just status updates and tweets,” Roy said. “It’s strategic.”
The strategy, Roy explains is about building the Nichols brand and reaching out to not only current students, but potential students (and their parents) via online channels. While he’s constantly monitoring social networks like Facebook and Twitter, he’s also working with various departments at the school to figure out how they can use these Web 2.0 tools. And he’s also working on launching three blogs.
In fact, Roy is filling a marketing role and he reports to Tom Cafero, the school’s vice president of marketing. While some may equate anything computer related with the IT department, Roy’s focus is less on hardware and more on branding.
What I find the most intriguing about Roy’s appointment is that it’s the first official sign I’ve seen that local businesses and organizations are willing to put some real marketing resources behind the social media movement. It makes sense that one of the first to take the leap would be a local college — their demographic loves social media. But I think Roy is the first domino to fall in the local economy. I expect many more “directors of social media” to start popping up — not only a local colleges but at for-profit firms as well.
Politicians may be debating the effectiveness of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (see page 31), but under their noses the real job creation is coming not from taxpayer dollars applied to infrastructure, but from geeky Silicon Valley companies.
The jobs being created by social media are small enough to be counted right now. But in a few years time, perhaps Roy’s title will be as ubiquitous as the “chief financial officer” or the “vice president of sales."
Got news for our Digital Diva column? E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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