First, it was your little brother. Then, your parents. Now, the university is also hopping on the social networking bandwagon. But unlike your pesky relatives, the university isn’t signing on to share family pictures and nag — it’s after your wallet.
“We have ample anecdotal evidence that social media is uncovering new donors,” Barry Gossett, a major university donor, reported to the Board of Regents on Thursday. “Prior to 2007, all of us were busy solely answering the phones. That’s changed now.”
That change is evident from Twitter to Facebook to YouTube, where university President Dan Mote’s spring 2010 video address has notched more than 5,500 views in nine days.
And with fundraising continuing to fall behind expectations across the University System of Maryland’s 15 institutions, regents said they’re counting on social media to make up for the recession’s blow.
“It’s a better way of communicating,” said Gossett, chairman of the regents’ advancement committee. “You can get an instant response … as opposed to mail, where it comes and maybe you’ll open it, maybe you won’t.”
University officials shared several success stories with regents, who compose a governing board for the university system.
At Frostburg State University, the president’s newly minted blog has opened a new dialogue with the university community. At Towson University, Facebook invites have prompted unprecedented turnouts at alumni events.
And at this university, similar promotions fueled a student drive to donate meal points to peers struggling to pay their bills. The drive attracted 1,180 students who donated $22,700.
But with graying hairs and balding heads seated around the conference table, the regents and officials admitted they still have much to learn on the social networking front. In one instance, regent Tom McMillen referred to Twitter as if it were a foreign language.
“If we don’t speak in their language, we’re almost speaking in Martian to them,” McMillen said, referring to the younger demographic the regents are targeting. “We need to figure out how to speak with them now, so we can speak to them later.”
McMillen and other officials stressed that social networking isn’t targeted only toward netting short-term donations. Rather, he said an online presence will hopefully cultivate relationships that pay off in the long term.
“The last thing you want to do is hit people over the head and ask them for money on these websites,” the system’s Vice Chancellor for Advancement Leonard Raley said. “There’s a very subtle way you have to do this. So we’re trying to learn.”
Social networking is on the docket for the university system’s next communications retreat.
Still, even as university officials from across the state learn more on how to engage alumni on the Internet, Gossett said no one has any hard numbers yet on this trend’s effect on fundraising.
“Analyzing the true impact of social media is still very much so a work in progress,” he said.
With the economy still ravaging the university’s fundraising totals, Gossett said he hopes new donors identifying with social networks will bump up its bottom line.
The university remains about $282 million short of its $1 billion Great Expectations campaign, which was originally planned to wrap up by 2011.
And even as some economists are saying the recession is ending, Gossett said many donors are remaining cautious. At the beginning of the meeting, he reported big-time benefactors are continuing to give in smaller amounts and over longer periods of time.
Still, he said the university is beginning to see signs of a resurgence.
“I think we’re not quite there yet, but we’re seeing the trend starting to go up,” Gossett said.
He added that even if the university misses its mark for Great Expectations, it will have plenty of time to make up the gap.
“This is not a sprint — it’s a marathon,” he said.
slivnick at umdbk dot com
