Interim report final

SOCIAL NETWORKS & POSSIBILITIES

Julian Spiegel, Anastassia Ševtšenko, Aneta Zebischová, Laura Smith

Business & Management 2012

Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures .................................................................................................................................................... 3 1 Content Networks ...................................................................................................................................... 4

1.1 Google + .............................................................................................................................................. 5 1.1.1 Facts and Figures ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.1.2 Universities & Google+ ............................................................................................................... 6

1.2 Facebook ............................................................................................................................................. 8 1.2.1 Facts and Figures ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.2 Universities & Facebook.............................................................................................................. 9

1.3 Twitter ............................................................................................................................................... 11 1.3.1 Special Features of Twitter ........................................................................................................ 11 1.3.2 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 11 1.3.3 Universities & Twitter ............................................................................................................... 13

1.4 Issuu .................................................................................................................................................. 15 1.4.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 15 1.4.2 Universities & Issuu ................................................................................................................... 17

2 Multimedia Networks .............................................................................................................................. 18 2.1 Youtube ............................................................................................................................................. 19

2.1.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.2 Universities & Youtube ............................................................................................................. 20

2.2 Instagram ........................................................................................................................................... 24 2.2.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 24 2.2.2 Universities & Instagram ........................................................................................................... 25

2.3 Pinterest ............................................................................................................................................. 28 2.3.1 Special Features of Pinterest ...................................................................................................... 28 2.3.2 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 28 2.3.3 Universities & Pinterest ............................................................................................................. 30

2.4 Flickr ................................................................................................................................................. 32 2.4.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 32 2.4.2 Universities & Flickr.................................................................................................................. 33

3 Blogs ........................................................................................................................................................ 36 3.1 Blogspot ............................................................................................................................................ 37

3.1.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 37 3.1.2 Universities & Blogspot ............................................................................................................. 38

3.2 Wordpress.......................................................................................................................................... 40 3.2.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 40 3.2.2 Universities & Wordpress .......................................................................................................... 41

4 Career Networks ...................................................................................................................................... 43 4.1 LinkedIn ............................................................................................................................................ 44

4.1.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 44 4.1.2 Universities & LinkedIn ............................................................................................................ 45

4.2 Xing ................................................................................................................................................... 48 4.2.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 48 4.2.2 Universities & Xing ................................................................................................................... 49

5 Research Networks .................................................................................................................................. 51 5.1 Research Gate .................................................................................................................................... 52

5.1.1 Facts and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 52 5.1.2 Universities & Research Gate .................................................................................................... 53

6 Social Media Grid .................................................................................................................................... 56 2

List of Figures Figure 1: Google + Alexa Ranking .................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 2: Google+ at Harvard ............................................................................................................................ 7 Figure 3: Facebook Alexa Ranking ................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 4: Facebook at Stanford ........................................................................................................................ 10 Figure 5: Facebook at Indiana University ........................................................................................................ 10 Figure 6: Twitter Alexa Ranking ..................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 7: Harvard on Twitter ........................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 8: MCI on Twitter ................................................................................................................................. 14 Figure 9: City of Innsbruck on Issuu ............................................................................................................... 15 Figure 10: Issuu Alexa Ranking ...................................................................................................................... 16 Figure 11: Stanford on Issuu ............................................................................................................................ 17 Figure 12: Youtube Alexa Ranking ................................................................................................................. 20 Figure 13: Victoria University on Youtube ..................................................................................................... 21 Figure 14: Stanford on Youtube ...................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 15: Berkley on Youtube........................................................................................................................ 23 Figure 16: Instagram Alexa Ranking ............................................................................................................... 25 Figure 17: MIT on Instagram ........................................................................................................................... 26 Figure 18: Harvard on Instagram ..................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 19: Pinterest Alexa Ranking ................................................................................................................. 29 Figure 20: Indiana University on Pinterest ...................................................................................................... 30 Figure 21: Daniels College on Pinterest .......................................................................................................... 31 Figure 22: Flickr Alexa Ranking ..................................................................................................................... 33 Figure 23: Oregon State University on Flickr.................................................................................................. 34 Figure 24:Colgate University on Flickr ........................................................................................................... 35 Figure 25: Blogspot Alexa Ranking ................................................................................................................ 38 Figure 26: Durham University on Blogspot..................................................................................................... 39 Figure 27: Boğaziçi University on Blogspot ................................................................................................... 39 Figure 28: Wordpress Alexa Ranking.............................................................................................................. 41 Figure 29: Cambridge on Wordpress ............................................................................................................... 42 Figure 30: University of Kentucky on Wordpress ........................................................................................... 42 Figure 31: LinkedIn Alexa Ranking ................................................................................................................ 45 Figure 32: Princeton on LinkedIn .................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 33: MIT on LinkedIn ............................................................................................................................ 47 Figure 34: Xing Alexa Ranking ....................................................................................................................... 49 Figure 35: RWTH on Xing .............................................................................................................................. 50 Figure 36: Research Gate Alexa Ranking ........................................................................................................ 53 Figure 37: Ranking of Universities on ResearchGate...................................................................................... 54 Figure 38: Bernd Ebersberger on ResearchGate .............................................................................................. 54 Figure 39: MCI on ResearchGate .................................................................................................................... 55 Figure 40: University of Innsbruck on ResearchGate...................................................................................... 55 Figure 41: Social Media Grid .......................................................................................................................... 56

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1 Content Networks

• Google +

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Issuu

4

1.1 Google + Google+ is a social network created by Google, the most widely used search engine in the world. This has

the unique advantage that having a Google+ account leads to higher search rankings, an attractive factor that

distinguishes the platform (http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations). Additionally, Google also owns

Gmail and YouTube: meaning that the services are interlinked. In fact, for example, it is currently only

possible to comment on a YouTube video if you have a Google+ account (http://readwrite.com/2014/01/10/-

google-plus-inescapable#awesm=~oCQQxkgamgFrHY).

The Google+ network is very easy to use and very much facilitates the process of identifying and

targeting a specific audience. It is possible to divide an audience into groups, ‘circles’, and decide which

update is shown to which ‘circle.’ Another feature on Google+ is ‘hangouts', a place that enables group

meetings and discussions (http://www.fabulousblogging.com/2013/03/learn-how-to-use-google-plus-a-

beginners-guide/).

1.1.1Facts and Figures The platform currently has 300 million users, in comparison to Facebook which has 1.2 billion

(http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/the-loyal-users-of-google-plus-say-it-is-no-ghost-town/). Despite

a slow start, it is expected that this number will grow fast in the near future, since the younger generation is

looking for a replacement for Facebook (http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/14/5-reasons-why-you-should-

consider-google-plus-marketing/). As shown in Figure 1, Google + uses the URL of google.com to link to

their website, and therefore, is ranked on the 1st place globally.

PRO’s CON’s Easy way to send updates to specific audiences

Google+ is still not used mainstream

Enables group meetings, discussions in ‘hangouts’

Facebook still has a much larger audience

Positive effect on Google search ranking

Good for marketing purposes

Used and known all over the world

Connection to google search, gmail, youtube, blogs

5

1.1.2Universities & Google+ Universities around the world are starting to use Google+ in order to climb the search rankings. In particular,

universities are taking advantage of the ‘hangouts' feature: ‘hangouts’ can create more awareness for the

Google+ account, and therefore also more attention for the university behind the account

(http://www.educationdive.com/news/10-ways-educators-and-universities-are-using-google-plus/38423/).

Figure 1: Google + Alexa Ranking

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Harvard

As can be seen in Figure 2, Harvard is embracing Google+ in order to better promote its unique projects,

such as the architectural design projected illustrated.

Figure 2: Google+ at Harvard

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1.2 Facebook Facebook is an online social network, widely used all over the world, which allows individuals to create a

personal profile (as an individual or business/institution/organization), connect with other user as 'friends',

engage in instant messaging, write posts (composed of text, pictures or videos) and receive notifications of

their friends' or followed pages' activities (http://www.gcflearnfree.org-/facebook101/2).

1.2.1Facts and Figures About 67% of the internet users have Facebook (http://www.businessinsider.com/a-primer-on-facebook-

demographics-2013-10#!GtwkF). So it does not come as a surprise that it is ranked second most popular

website by an American commercial web traffic data collector Alexa Internet (Alexa.com), as shown in

Figure 3. Additionally it can be seen that most of Facebook's traffic originates from the United States, with

rising numbers also in developing nations (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com).

PRO’s CON’s

Very large audience: students, potential students,

alumni, researchers

May lose 80% of its users in the next three years,

according to a Princeton university

News/memos on Facebook are guaranteed to be

visible to page followers, if paid for (additional

service)

If not paid for, only 10% of followers will see

posts

Establishes and promotes image

Facebook profiles that interlink with other platforms

can boost traffic on all accounts.

Great possibilities to facilitate interaction

8

1.2.2Universities & Facebook The number of people that can be reached with a Facebook account make it a very interesting marketing

platform for universities. Principally, universities are taking advantage of Facebook's interconnectedness by

linking their pages to other social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, and blogs – so that their

audience automatically can view all updates automatically in the newsfeed (http://mashable.com/-

2011/10/17/facebook-marketing-colleges-universities/).

Stanford

Figure 4 shows, how Stanford University is deploying Facebook. They are especially focusing on pictures

and actively post them and create albums for different occasions, for example a campus tour in the

summertime.

Figure 3: Facebook Alexa Ranking

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Indianapolis

Figure 5 shows an example of the Butler University at Indianapolis, who appear on Facebook through their

mascot’s profile, Butler Blue II. This fresh approach to promoting the university and at the same time

entertaining their audience was able to create a lot of traffic.

Figure 4: Facebook at Stanford

Figure 5: Facebook at Indiana University 10

1.3 Twitter Twitter is an online social networking and micro-blogging platform that has been referred to as the “SMS of

the Internet" (http://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/swine-flu-s-tweet-tweet-causes-online-

flutter-109042900097_1.html) and can be accessed in a variety of different ways: through a specified

IOS/Android smartphone and tablet application, or most recently, also through the official website interface

(https://support.twitter.com/groups/50-welcome-to-twitter).

Registered Twitter users can set up a profile that will then be visible to the general public. Users can send

out maximum 140-character text messages called "tweets” that can be read by anyone, but only shared

(“retweeted”), favourited or commented on by other Twitter users. Other than text, users can also publish

videos or pictures in their tweets.

1.3.1Special Features of Twitter On Twitter, and also other platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram), users can categorize and group

together the contents of their tweets by using hashtags – a phrase or word with the "#" sign as a prefix. On

that same note, the "@" sign is used as a prefix before a username when users want to mention or reply to

other users. The use of these two prefixes before certain names, keywords and phrases enables the tweets to

be found by other users when conducting searches. Every day on Twitter there are new “trending hashtags”,

i.e. key phrases or words that are occurring with the most frequency in the Twitter cybersphere.

Most notably of all, however, is the possibility for users to “follow” the tweets of other users (which then

appear in the user's personalized newsfeed), and to in turn gather “followers”. The more followers a profile

accumulates, the more likely it is to be found in generic searches (Junco, Elavsky, & Heiberger,“Putting

twitter to the test: Assessing outcomes for student collaboration, engagement and success.” 2013).

1.3.2Facts and Figures According to alexa.com (2014) Twitter is one of the top most-visited websites, coming in at rank 11th in the

world and 9th in the US (Figure 6). It has an impressive 241 million active users a month, who have an

average of 208 followers each. As also seen in Figure 6, the genders are more or less equally distributed and

that the majority of users are from the US, without discounting the large proportion of users are based in

developing nations, such as India, Russia or China (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/twitter.com). The most

represented age group are young people between the ages of 19 and 29 (http://www.businessinsider.com/a-

primer-on-social-media-demographics-2013-9).

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PRO’s CON’s Free Tweets are of a limited character count

Easy to use Difficult to create a ‘buzz’

Trending Needs to be constantly maintained

Providing real-time information to followers

Requires day-to-day observation of trends in order

to reach wider audience

Good brand-reinforcement Fast response is required time consuming

Fosters continuous information flow with audience

Figure 6: Twitter Alexa Ranking

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1.3.3Universities & Twitter Twitter, thanks to its speedy use and far-reaching promotional possibilities, has naturally already been

adopted by many higher education institutions around the world.

Harvard

Harvard is one of the most “followed” profiles on Twitter, with 353 thousand followers. As can be seen in

Figure 7, the page promotes a vast number of university events/initiatives with tweets that cover a plethora

of different topics. Most notably, the page tries to promote the hashtag: #HarvardCampaign. An observation

of the profile leads to the conclusion that followers are most probably attracted to the long-standing prestige

and popularity of the university.

Figure 7: Harvard on Twitter

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MCI

Good coverage of events/news, mostly referencing links to main web-page The MCI main profile has a

decent number of followers (561) and is a fairly active account, with new tweets every day or every other

day. It also has good coverage of events and news, mostly referencing links to the main web-page. Though it

must be pointed out that the hashtag “#MCI_Innsbruck” is being promoted regularly, but not gaining much

lift. It is exactly here that we would suggest to make improvements with the new Business and Management

department's account, by interacting more with fellow users and possibly launching competitions featuring

“#MCI_Innsbruck” in order to gain more ground online (Figure 8).

Figure 8: MCI on Twitter 14

1.4 Issuu Issuu.com is a platform which facilitates publishing brochures, leaflets and other advertising material, and

has over 25,000 new publications every day. Figure 9 shows an example of a brochure of the city of

Innsbruck published on Issuu.com. Therefore, it can be seen that this platform is most probably going to

gain ground, also locally.

1.4.1Facts and Figures According to the Alexa Traffic Ranking, Issuu.com is globally the 446th ranked website (see Figure 10) with

a clear trend to advance further in this ranking. What can also be seen from the following figures is that the

educational level of the users is mainly graduates, which indicates that it is possibly a good platform for

attracting master students. So far, it is most popular among U.S. users, but also in India, which is a growing

future market (also for students and exchange students), it gaining increasing popularity. Nevertheless, also

western European countries have their share of Issuu visitors.

PRO’s CON’s Showing leaflets/brochures nicely Limited usage without subscription

Targeted marketing possible Limited interactivity

80 million views/month

Advancing in traffic rankings

Available as an app

Easy to maintain

Figure 9: City of Innsbruck on Issuu 15

Figure 10: Issuu Alexa Ranking

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1.4.2Universities & Issuu Stanford offer of undergraduate programs

The Stanford University shows how possible applicants may be informed about the programs offered by the

respective department. The presentation is much more appealing than just uploading a PDF document on the

university website. In addition, there is also the possibility of targeted advertising, if a business account is

purchased. The example below shows undergraduate programs offered by the Stanford University (Figure

11).

thz

Figure 11: Stanford on Issuu

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2 Multimedia Networks

Video

• YouTube

Photo

• Instagram

• Pinterest

• Flickr

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2.1 Youtube YouTube is a website designed for sharing video. Millions of users around the world have created accounts

on the site that allow them to upload videos that anyone can watch. By posting a video on YouTube, you can

share a video simply by sending the other person a url ‘link’ – that is, the 'address' of the relevant internet

page. Every minute of every day, more than 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.

When YouTube was created in 2005, it was intended for people to post and share original video content.

But since then, it's also become both an archive for storing favorite clips, songs and jokes, as well as a

marketing site for companies to promote their products. To express international scope of Youtube, some

figures can be pointed out: for example, more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month; also,

over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube (http://digitalunite.com/guides/tv-

video/what-youtube).

2.1.1Facts and Figures According to Alexa.com, Youtube's global and U.S. ranking is extremely high: third place for both. This can

tell us that, by creating well planned and executed content, high market coverage can be achieved and large

target audience around the world can be influenced (Figure 12).

PRO’s CON’s Finding & reaching target audience around the world Time consuming

Very interactive Staff with technical skills & software required

Opportunity to introduce classes, alumni events, MCI,

the city, Erasmus students’ experience etc.

Technical devices required

Easy maintenance

Person responsible for maintenance required

(answering comments, uploading videos etc.)

Easy to share

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2.1.2Universities & Youtube Currently, around the world, higher education institutions are using Youtube to attract prospective students and

offer a fresh insight into daily academic life through video content. The platform offers the opportunity for

universities to engage their audience in a more genuine and dynamic way.

Figure 12: Youtube Alexa Ranking

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Victoria University Victoria University has a large amount of various playlists that are meant for different target groups

(incomings, applicants, alumni, students etc.) Since the university is quite big, for our purposes the most

relevant playlists to focus on are: “Open-day” (to attract more applicants), “New to University” (to help

incomings) and also, it would be interesting to integrate sport facilities in order to show leisure time activity

possibilities (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Victoria University on Youtube

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Stanford University Stanford University Youtube channel has very interesting and popular videos with different guest lecturers

and commencement speakers that have become famous all over the world due to Youtube video distribution.

A wide focus in the channel is posting interviews and discussions with professionals in various areas,

creating the opportunity for audience to get a glimpse of less academic but perhaps more motivational and

exiting videos (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Stanford on Youtube

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UC Berkeley

University of Berkeley is one of the few universities with such a great variety of academic courses uploaded

to Youtube channel. What makes Berkeley‘s Youtube channel spectacular, is its scale and the scope. Not

only is there provided content for each class but it is done on constant basis – students from different

universities tend to use Berkeley’s lecture videos in order to fill in their gaps on certain subjects. UC

Berkeley has backed up its perfect highly academic reputation by creating Youtube channel that adds value

and supports the image (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Berkley on Youtube

23

2.2 Instagram Instagram was launched in October 2010 and became number one application in the Apple “App Store”

within 24 hours of its launch (http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2011/12/15/what-is-instagram-and-why-is-it-

so-popular/). Instagram is a fun and easy way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures and

short videos. You can snap a photo with your smartphone or use a photo that already exists in your camera

roll, then choose a filter to add some funk to it, give your photo a caption, add hashtages, and share with a

group of friends.

Currently, you can share your photos on Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter. Additionally, if you specify a

location with your photo, you can opt to “check yourself in” on Foursquare (http://instagram.com/-

about/faq/).

2.2.1Facts and Figures According to web traffic collector and analyser Alexa.com, Instagram is ranked very high in United States

(18th), still being extremely popular among other websites available in Europe (36th). The graph pictures

constant increase in ranking in relation to other sites which means high market penetration would be

achievable in a combination with great content provided from our side (Figure 16).

PRO’s CON’s Rapidly growing in Europe

Hard to control possible uploaded content by

students

Easy to integrated students/people

#MCI already has 36360 uploaded pictures

Linked into other social media platforms (facebook..)

Important to come up with a unique #, in order to

integrate people/ students effectively

Good basis for creative contest

Europe has a rather small proportion on the overall

usage of instagram

Easy to generate a lot of likes and clicks

24

2.2.2Universities & Instagram By using images as a chosen medium for promotion, Universities are grasping the chance to show-off their

facilities and activities in a vibrant and interconnected way through Instagram.

Figure 16: Instagram Alexa Ranking

25

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a very clean and nice Instagram account focusing on campus

photos as well as some out-of-the-box shots of library books, interesting perspectives of buildings and still-

life scenes happening in university, showing people and lectures. What makes their Instagram interesting is

exactly the idea of capturing thought seeking and interesting posts of university life rather than promotional

perspective (Figure 17).

Figure 17: MIT on Instagram

26

Harvard Harvard University’s Instagram account is a very good example of how university can use social media

platform in a creative way. It provides good photo content of campus, sport events, interesting day-to-day

activities in school and seasonal activities. Harvard University is also very popular among its students and

has almost 20,000 followers who actively comments and like the content (Figure 18).

Figure 18: Harvard on Instagram

27

2.3 Pinterest Pinterest is a social networking tool that enables users to discover, collect and share images whilst

simultaneously connecting them with other users who have similar interests and preferences. When using

Pinterest, individuals can create visual collections (called “boards”) of images found whilst browsing the

platform or, more generally, the rest of world wide web (called “pins”). Along with other image-focused

social networks such as Instagram, Pinterest is rapidly gaining popularity internationally (Gilbert, Bakhshi,

Chang, & Terveen, “I Need to Try This”?: A Statistical Overview of Pinterest.”2013)

2.3.1Special Features of Pinterest When signing up to the network, every user creates a profile that is then visible to the general public – with a

username, description, location and linking websites and/or social media pages (if available). Once the user

becomes active, “pins” are displayed on the profile and “pinboards” are created. A pin is an image,

associated with certain metadata, which the user has found whilst browsing the website or the rest of the

Internet. Just like the images on the social media platform Facebook, these images (“pins”) can be liked and

shared. The “pinboards” are collections of “pins” that have been categorized and organized by the user, with

a combination of a name and a possible description. Similarly to Twitter, Pinterest users can acquire

“followers” and become “followees” of fellow users. Every user has a feed which will display the latest

activity of the users he or she is “following”.

2.3.2Facts and Figures It has been reported that Pinterest has a total of 70 million users, as of July 2013, with 49 million residing in

United States alone (http://semiocast.com/en/publications/2013_07_10_Pinterest_has_70_million_users).

Also, the platflorm stands high in popularity rankings: it is the 26th most popular website in the world and

the 12th most popular in the USA, as seen in Figure 19 (alexa.com). When it comes to audience

demographics, it is striking how greatly represented females are on the network: 87.15% of users are female,

whilst only 7.04% are male (with 5.81% not providing this information) (Mittal, Gupta, Dewan, &

Kumaraguru, “The Pin-Bang Theory : Discovering The Pinterest World.” 2013). When observing the

geographic origin of the visitors, it is clear to see in Figure 19 that the platform is predominately frequented

by Northern Americans (45.3%) and visitors from other English-speaking regions of the world (alexa.com).

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PRO’s CON’s Free Self-promotion is difficult

Easy to use Copy-right infringement issues

Low maintenance Links to original posts are more likely to be broken

the more the post is “re-pinned”

Fosters positive sentiments

Lack of coherent messages can create confusion

and “unprofessional” vibes

Growing rapidly

Encourages a sense of ‘community’ for students and

alumni

Figure 19: Pinterest Alexa Ranking

29

2.3.3Universities & Pinterest With the boom of image-based social media, more and more universities (predominantly in the United

States, as our statistics illustrate) are opting to choose Pinterest as their tool of choice for promoting their

brand and bringing in additional traffic to their websites (Hansen, Nowlan, & Winter, “Pinterest as a Tool:

Applications in Academic Libraries and Higher Education.” 2012).

Indiana University

Indiana University is one of the most “followed” universities on Pinterest, with an impressive 23,778

followers. As can be seen in Figure 20, the university takes on a “school spirit” approach by hosting themed

boards that promoting its sports team, campus, events and extra-curricular activities. It is also evident that

the profile manages to consistently stay in theme by promoting the university trade mark and school colours

throughout the boards.

Though, despite these strengths, it must be pointed out that Indiana U. is a fairly inactive member – with

only 23 “likes”. This suggests that most of the profile's popularity is generated by students of the university

that want to express their “school pride” and is not so much the merit of the institutions “pinning” activity.

Figure 20: Indiana University on Pinterest

30

Daniels College

In the business field, Daniels College stands as a representative profile with moderate popularity (729

followers). What can be noticed here, in Figure 21, are a large (leaning on excessive) number of boards

which give a perceived “messy” image. Some boards have little or no relation to academia or the institution

itself and are therefore an example of how University Pinterest boards should not be organized.

In opposition to Indiana U., this college is a relatively active member with 117 “likes”, suggesting that a

high level of activity (especially in a disorganized way) does not guarantee heightened popularity.

Figure 21: Daniels College on Pinterest

31

2.4 Flickr Flickr is a multimedia platform for sharing mainly pictures but also videos. Flickr promotes sharing pictures

of anything from your personal life, your career or pictures of your day-to-day life any time and anywhere,

therefore Flickr is also available as a mobile application. A person does not need to be a member to view the

public content of Flickr. However only members can create a profile and add pictures and videos.

The advantage of Flickr is the ability to group pictures into albums so you can actually see only pictures

of the event you want. Other than that you see all of the pictures in one photo stream according to date

added. Another speciality of Flickr is the ability to give a "tag" to your upload, which is a keyword that

helps anyone to find your upload. It is possible to assign up to 75 tags to each photo or video. Also, anyone

can leave a comment on your picture which creates interaction with others. The visibility of content and

comments depend on chosen privacy settings by a member. Flickr is compatible with Facebook, Twitter and

Pinterest (https://www.flickr.com/groups/central/discuss/39682/; https://www.flickr.com/about/)

2.4.1Facts and Figures Flickr is owned by Yahoo and its revenues are accumulated on Yahoos’s balance sheet. It is available in ten

languages and more than 3.5 million new images are uploaded daily.

Flickr is globally ranked 84th and the number is dropping, as shown in Figure 22. Out of 87 million

registered members, the majority of 28,3% are from the United States, 5% from the United Kingdom and

only 0,6% members from Austria, as seen in Figure 22, which shows little importance in Europe and Austria

itself. In Figure X we can observe that there are slightly more women then men, however the different

education levels are more or less equally represented (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/flickr.com;

https://www.flickr.-com/about/).

PRO’s CON’s Using ‚tags‘ promotes interconnection Not used as intensively as Instagram

Creating ‚sets‘ to categorize your photos Co-branding is not well established

Basic version is for free (1TB) Flickr requires a downloadable app for uploading

more than six photos at a time

Seeing pictures even if not signed in

32

2.4.2Universities & Flickr Universities use Flickr in order to promote their activities to public not only to attract new applicants but

also in order to keep contact with the alumni. Flickr is mostly used in the United States as showed in Figure

X which is supported by the fact that only four Austrians universities are using it. Fachhochschule Salzburg,

Univetsität Wien, Fachhochschule Kärnten do not actively participate in developing their profile. Only

Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien has a profile that could compare to profiles of the US universities, having 43

sets of 1706 photos showing visiting lectures, seminars, open-house events, children visiting the university,

events, campus, pictures of building up their campus, excursions and workshops.

Figure 22: Flickr Alexa Ranking

33

Oregon State University

OSU has its own profile with 6.326 photos grouped into 141 albums (Figure 23). OSU shares pictures of

their events, conferences, talks, and graduations. However the most interesting fact about OSU is the

school’s mascot Benny, who has its own “tag” called “bennyonthemove”. Students, lectures or alumni are

provided with a little paper Benny which they take to various locations and afterwards post a picture of the

scene on Flickr to promote and support OSU (http://mashable.com/2009/07/23/alumni-social-media/).

Figure 23: Oregon State University on Flickr

34

Colgate University

CU has uploaded 5505 photos grouped in 195 albums (Figure 24). This is a typical example of a university

using Flickr and sharing anything that has happened: events, talks, Erasmus students and their events,

graduations and campus. CU’s reason for using Flickr is letting people interact with them and each other and

express opinions or suggestions. Melichar from Colgate said: “If we post our photos to Flickr, they have

their own social life,” which shows that Colgate strives for interactivity of not only students but any person

interested in Colgate University (http://mashable.com/2009/07/23/alumni-social-media/).

Figure 24:Colgate University on Flickr

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3 Blogs

• Blogspot

• Wordpress

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3.1 Blogspot Blog is an abbreviated word used for term “Weblog“, it describes different type of Websites and Portals

which share information on specific topics or wider categories. Blogs are often made on topics like Political

News and Political Topics, Sports, Web design, Blogging Tips, Technology Gadgets, etc. It usually includes

features like Blog Posts, Videos, Comments, Links to other websites, Widgets, etc.

Blogger offers great variety of easy to use templates with flexible layouts and it is available in 60

languages and countries across the globe (http://blogginggame.com/what-is-blogging-who-is-blogger-what-

is-blog/)

3.1.1Facts and Figures According to the American commercial web traffic data collector Alexa Internet (Alexa.com), it is ranked

vary high (15th place worldwide) amongst other websites and social networks. Target audience of Blogger

tells us that women are more likely to be interested on blog content than men. In addition, it should be noted

that Blogger main group of users usually are either entering to college or already started college. Further

information can be found in Figure 25 (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/blogspot.com).

PRO’s CON’s Free of charge Person(s) with skills required to be responsible for

maintenance Integration with other Google products (Google+,

Google Analytics, Youtube)

Time consuming

Interactive

Post generators required (text, photos, videos)

More customizable than Wordpress

Consistency of posts required otherwise loss of

audience Highly informative – gives additional insights in

addition to website

Difficult to grow audience at the beginning of

launch Possibility to cover wide range of topics

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3.1.2Universities & Blogspot Blogspot is also popular among universities for various purposes; it may be used to share student-created

content, publish events and also infotainment.

Durham University Durham University has created a blog for its Music Society in order to gather all relevant information for

students in one convenient place. As seen in Figure 26, the information provided varies from the vision of

the society and its goals to class timetables, forum, new applicants’ information and important dates not to

forget (http://durhamunimusic.blogspot.co.at/).

Figure 25: Blogspot Alexa Ranking

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Boğaziçi University This blog was created specifically for new university incomings who are interested in finding

accommodation (Figure 27). Good photo content makes browsing time efficient since it provides easy

access to various accommodation possibilities all on one site. The blog also provides useful information for

exchange and Erasmus students (http://boun101.blogspot.co.at/).

Figure 26: Durham University on Blogspot

Figure 27: Boğaziçi University on Blogspot

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3.2 Wordpress WordPress is a free, Web-based software program that anyone can use to build and maintain a website or

blog. It was originally intended as an easy way to set up a blog. But, thanks to the efforts of a large “open

source” community of WordPress programmers working to extend and improve its capabilities, WordPress

has become much more than just a tool for bloggers.

3.2.1Facts and Figures Currently, Wordpress has over 56 million individual blogs, which receive over 100 million page views per

day. According to the American commercial web traffic data collector Alexa Internet (Alexa.com),

Wordpress holds a very strong position in providing web data and ranks relatively high in both Global (18th

place) and U.S. ranking (21st place). As seen in Figure 28, gender demographic trend is the same as in case

with Blogger – women tend to be more attracted to Wordpress than men (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/-

wordpress.com).

PRO’s CON’s Free (with limitations)

Person(s) with skills required to be responsible for

maintenance

Easy to add several ‘’Blog contributors’’ who would

be responsible for posting and managing the blog

Time consuming

Interactive

Post generators required (text, photos, videos)

Highly informative – gives additional insights in

addition to website

Consistency of posts required otherwise loss of

audience

Possibility to cover wide range of topics

Difficult to grow audience at the beginning of

launch Not completely customizable

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3.2.2Universities & Wordpress In general, universities are using Wordpress for the same purposes as they are using Blogspot, since the

features the websites offer are similar.

Cambridge RDA

Cambridge has created a Wordpress blog (Figure 29) in order to collect, categorize in modules and provide

training material documents from Cambridge University Library for its students (http://cambridgerda-

.wordpress.com/).

Figure 28: Wordpress Alexa Ranking

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Figure 29: Cambridge on Wordpress

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky has created a very well designed website with good user experience and

valuable content (Figure 30). The blog is very well divided in several categories, making it easy to browse

and find specific information. The blog also provides a section with tutorials, workshops, document design

and information on creation video or website. All in all, as a university blog Kentucky has provided their

students with academically relevant information in a easy to find, exciting and modern way

(http://ukwrite.wordpress.com/).

Figure 30: University of Kentucky on Wordpress

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4 Career Networks

• LinkedIn

• Xing

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4.1 LinkedIn LinkedIn is a career/professional platform, whose main purpose is to maintain and expand professional

connections with potential clients, peer groups and colleagues. When creating an account you add your CV

and any accomplishments that you would like to share with the general public. Members also present their

skills and gather recommendations (endorsements) by other members which either confirm or negate its

truthfulness. All this information is used either by employers (for publishing jobs offers, searching for

potential candidates and reviewing the profiles of future employees) or job seekers (for receiving available

company offers and saving the jobs they would like to apply for).

A company can also create its own profile. LinkedIn members can add their employer to their own profile

or just follow companies that they are interested in it. All of these activities create a network of professional

connections (http://press.linkedin-.com/about/).

4.1.1Facts and Figures LinkedIn is currently available in twenty-two languages in over 200 countries and territories. Out of more

than 300 million registered users, 39 million are students and recent college graduates and, according to

LinkedIn, they are its fastest-growing demographic. Revenues for year 2013 were $447.2 million and are

gathered by payments for premium profiles, advertisements and talent solutions.

As showed in Figure 31, LinkedIn is globally ranked 8th and the number is rising. Out of all its members,

the majority of 33,8% are from the United States, in the third place is the United Kingdom with 5,4%. This

seems like a small number however we must not forget the whole picture. According to LinkedIn statistics,

Europe all together accounts for about 65 million of members. This depicts a great importance in Europe. In

Figure 31 we can also observe that the gender distribution show a slight dominance of women, and the

majority of users report to hold a graduate degree (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/linkedin.com;

http://investors.linkedin.com/; http://press.linkedin.com/about/).

PRO’s CON’s Creating closed group for alumni interactions Advanced account is not free of charge

Only basic version is for free Focus on closed groups no use for applicants

Professional level of social media Focused only on afer-study period life

Does not require day-to-day updates

Closed groups live by their own life

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4.1.2Universities & LinkedIn Many universities are finding LinkedIn to be an effective tool to provide alumni with career resources.

Universities create a group for its alumni and allow the networking magic to take place, with alumni sharing

job opportunities by posting information to the group and creating subgroups that are focused to specific

career or regional alumni chapters. Most university/alumni groups are private and therefore there is only

little info about it available for the general public.

MCI itself has a LinkedIn profile with 1,908 followers with only little input. MCI also has an Alumni &

Friends private group, where they posts link to other platforms, however most of its content can be found on

Facebook as well.

Figure 31: LinkedIn Alexa Ranking

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Princeton

Princeton has its own profile with 64,599 followers (Figure 32), where all of its achievements, events and

even graduates' theses are publicized. However Princeton is most known for its (more than 45) private

alumni groups for sports clubs, class/year groups, and for specific departments e.g., marketing

(http://mashable-.com/2009/07/23/alumni-social-media/; https://www.linkedin.com/edu/school/princeton)

Figure 32: Princeton on LinkedIn

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M.I.T.

MIT’s university profile has 144,336 followers and it is mostly used for promoting its students and alumni.

MIT displays their achievements, articles and interviews (Figure 33). Naturally, MIT also has a lot of its

own private alumni groups that allow students to join before they graduate so that they can network with

former alumni (http://mashable.com/2009/07/23/alumni-social-media/; https://www.linkedin.com/edu/-

school/mit).

Figure 33: MIT on LinkedIn

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4.2 Xing Xing is a social platform developed for professionals. The platform is designed to connect and expand the

network of members. The connections between members are visualized in the small-world phenomenon.

This is a type of mathematical graphs that show the relations in a spider web, where the nods in the web are

the members. Most other members, nods, can be reached with only a small number of nods in between

(Xing a network that works, 2013).

On Xing, a business or university can have a profile to share information with a wide audience. In

addition, there are different memberships available for the users. Besides the free membership, there are

premium memberships between 6 € and 9 € depending on the features. Xing also offers the system for

closed communities, called Enterprise groups with their own access paths and interface designs

(https://corporate.xing.com/no_cache/english/press/pressreleases/details/article/pressemitteilung-br-das-

neue-xing).

4.2.1Facts and Figures Although most page views come from the D-A-CH area, 90%, there are users in over 200 countries

(LinkedInsiders Deutschland, 2012). Therefore the network is available is many languages such as Dutch,

English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese,

Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish and Turkish (www.xing.com/about). As shown in Figure 34, Xing is

very popular in Germany (14th place in the Alexa ranking), but its worldwide coverage is rather low.

Furthermore, it is most commonly used by students or for work purposes (http://www.alexa.com-

/siteinfo/xing.com).

PRO’s CON’s Widely spread in the german speaking world Not many students use the network

Visualizes the small-world You only reach the German speaking world

Low maintenance Hardly any other universities on there

4 out of 5 Swiss professionals use it

Invitation mailings to your students and alumni

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4.2.2Universities & Xing Xing offers special profiles for universities, to create more attention, as shown in. The structure of the

network consists of personal profiles, groups, discussion forums, event coordination, and other common

social community features.

Figure 34: Xing Alexa Ranking

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RWTH University Aachen

Figure 35 show, how the RWTH University in Aachen, Germany, designed their landing page and introduce

the university itself as well as the network among their students they created on Xing.

Figure 35: RWTH on Xing

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5 Research Networks

• Research Gate

51

5.1 Research Gate Founded in 2008, Research Gate is a platform designed for researchers all over the world in order to

collaborate on their research and get feedback from peers. The researchers also connect their accounts to the

accounts of their institutions (and also departments), therefore, it is also an indicator for the research activity

of an institution (rankings are provided).

5.1.1Facts and Figures Due to the limited target group (only researchers), of course, the global rank of this platform is not too high,

but nevertheless, the number of visitors is steadily growing and the network expands quickly. From the

figures below, it can be seen that currently, more male than female researchers are using the platform. Figure

36 shows that the popularity is the highest in the US, but also Germany, India, and, surprisingly, Iran, are

countries with high shares of visitors (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/researchgate.net).

The following table lists the pro’s and con’s of using this platform:

PRO’s CON’s Collaboration on research Mainly biology and medicine research

Already 4 million researchers worldwide Time consuming

Share, discover, use and distribute findings Cannot be controlled, only facilitated

Ask questions and get critics from peers

Stats provide reputation

Job board function

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5.1.2Universities & Research Gate The following figure shows the current ranking of universities according to their research activity and

quality on Research Gate (Figure 37). From the ranking, it can be seen that all “big American universities”

are among the top ranked and that the trend of using this platform completely reached the states. Therefore,

it is expected, that this trend is also impacting the rest of the world (https://www.researchgate.net-

/institutions?ev=nav_institutions).

Figure 36: Research Gate Alexa Ranking

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Profile of MCI Prof. Bernd Ebersberger

Figure 38 shows the profile of Bernd Ebersberger, a Professor of the department of Business & Management

at the MCI. It shows, that only one person can create quite a lot of traffic, but, unfortunately, his profile is

not linked to the department of Business & Management, since this department doesn’t exist on Research

Gate. Therefore, the traffic cannot be attributed (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bernd_Ebersberger).

Figure 37: Ranking of Universities on ResearchGate

Figure 38: Bernd Ebersberger on ResearchGate

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MCI vs. University of Innsbruck

This is a comparison of the profiles and stats of the MCI and the University of Innsbruck (Figure 39 and 40).

Of course, the University of Innsbruck has much more researchers and publications, but this is not only just

because of the larger size, but also due to more engagement of researchers on Research Gate. Therefore,

their ranking is much higher (https://www.researchgate.net/institution/MCI_Management_Center_-

Innsbruck, https://www.researchgate.net/institution/University_of_Innsbruck).

MCI

Figure 39: MCI on ResearchGate

Figure 40: University of Innsbruck on ResearchGate

University of

Innsbruck

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6 Social Media Grid Figure 41 is called Social Media Grid and here we are comparing social media platforms with our targeted

group audiences. Also we have split the platforms according to its specifics as content platforms, multimedia

platforms, blogs, career platforms and a researcher platform. Obviously not every platform can satisfy all

needs of all the groups however we can see that Google+ and Facebook come up as the best solutions.

However there are some target groups as researchers where a more suitable platform should be utilized such

as ResearchGate.

Alumni audience can be reached by more than one platform. With Facebook or Youtube we can inform

them about current events of MCI or any news and achievements, however LinkedIn actually gives them an

opportunity to network and interact. Concerning applicants and current students we can observe that most of

the researched platforms would be feasible for these target groups. Therefore in this situation we must later

consider more aspects for suitability such as popularity of a platform and a reach that we could obtain with a

specific platform.

Figure 41: Social Media Grid

Platform Applicants Current Students

Exchange Students

Alumni Researchers (Faculty Staff)

Content P. Google+ x x x x x Facebook x x x x Twitter x x x x Issuu x Multimedia Youtube-channel x x x x Instagram x x x Pinterest x x x x Flickr x x x Blogs x x x Career LinkedIn x x Xing x Research Research Gate x

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