Social Media and Institutional Leadership in UK Higher Education

Social Media and Institutional Leadership

in UK Higher Education

Sue Beckingham @suebecks and Simon Horrocks @horrocks_simon

Social Media for Learning Conference 2017 #SocMedHE17

Context and Hypothesis for our Research ★ majority of existing research on social media and higher education explores

its role in learning or student support

★ our work takes an original perspective, exploring the role of social media in institutional leadership and development

★ potential interrelationship: institutions with leaders who embrace potential & role model professional use of social media more likely to provide supportive environment for innovations in social media for learning/support

What is #DigitalLeadership?★ using digital tools effectively in leadership role

★ social media to engage/influence distributed audience(s)

★ many models and concepts of leadership

Leading in the Digital World

Digital media channels are the default mode for a significant proportion of stakeholder engagement and social media, in particular, provides HEIs and their senior leaders with opportunities to communicate regularly, personally, openly and responsively.

Qualman 2012 - Digital Leader

What Does #DigitalLeadership Look Like?

Twitter handle: @realDonaldTrumpFollowing: 45Followers: 44.8M

Why is #DigitalLeadership in HE important?

★ Promote institutional successes and strategies within/outside the University

★ Enhance direct engagement with students, staff and other stakeholder groups

★ Role model behaviours in relation to digital capabilities

★ Personalisation of senior institutional leadershipJisc 2015

Humanising institutions

Social media can offer a powerful way of curating, celebrating and disseminating examples of excellence in learning and teaching within and outside the institution, exploiting the potential to humanise universities by showcasing the rich diversity of people who work and study within them

Notter and Grant 2012 - Humanize: How People-Centric Organisations Succeed in a Social World

Transparency through open communication

When this is done regularly by senior leaders, this can connect them directly to key stakeholder groups, influencing and driving positive behaviours towards the realisation of strategic aims.

Li 2010 - Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead

Authenticity

It is important to find a balance of portraying a personality whilst also acknowledging that a leadership role represents a sector of society and an organisation.

Semple 2012 - Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do

Research Methodology

★ Focus on Twitter and LinkedIn

★ Focus on Vice-Chancellors (or equivalent)

A starting point50 most influential higher education (HE) professionals using social media

He is available routinely to answer queries from his 20,000 students and 2,000 staff via this platform and aims to follow back every student who follows him. He offers encouragement to anxious students during exam periods or clearing, and solutions to students who may be unhappy with some aspect of their course or student experience, as well as pro-actively supporting student sport clubs and societies. He also regularly embraces YouTube to offer top tips to freshers, share personal experiences and introduce new university ventures, such as #DMUglobal, a programme to encourage and facilitate travel for undergraduates to enhance their employability.

Dominic Shellard @DMUVC

Dominic Shellard, vice-chancellor of De Montfort University has embraced social media to transform the way he communicates and engages with students, staff and the wider public.

(Jisc 2015)

The UK Landscape

http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/about/Pages/member-institutions.aspx

149 University Leaders analysed

107 39

VCs that tweet

32/107 16/39

48 Leaders* with an identified Twitter account

*Leaders = Vice Chancellor, Principal or similar title

Findability

What would you expect to find in a

VC Twitter profile?

Findability

What would you expect to find in a VC Twitter profile?

● Identifiable username● Photograph● Bio includes VC as their role ● Link to university web page / Twitter account● Location of university● Potential to also add link to LInkedIn profile

➔ + University bio page including links to Twitter and LinkedIn profiles

Twitter profiles

★ 44 of the 48 VCs completed their bio, however only 75% mentioned their role as VC

★ Just 32 included a link to their university website.

★ Only six of the VCs include a link to their Twitter account on their university profile page.

Twitter Leader Board (as of 10/12/17) Following Followers Tweets

@valerieamos Valerie Amos 461 53118 3125

@peterhorrocks Peter Horrocks 808 12653 2206

@anthonyseldon Sir Anthony Seldon 2617 10841 1824

@hallam_vc Chris Husbands 520 10705 4303

@dmuvc Dominic Shellard 1336 9416 53092

@nick_petford Nick Petford 332 3056 5509

@hudvc Bob Cryan CBE FREng 75 2870 4892

@alicegast Alice Gast 13 2494 276

@rhulprincipal Paul Layzell 201 2450 3699

@caracaitchison Prof Cara Aitchison 758 2427 3842

Following 461 Followers 53118 Tweets 3125

Most followers

Tweets over 2 weeks

Tweets: 4

RTs: 35

Nested RTs: 1

Mentions: @SOAS @BruneiGallery @DenisMukwege @PanziHospital

SOAS: The School of Oriental and African Studies

Following 2617 Followers 10841 Tweets 1824

Tweets over 2 weeks

Tweets: 0 signed A.S.

RTs: 36

Nested RTs: 0

Mentions: 0

Following 1336 Followers 9416 Tweets 53092

Tweets over 2 weeks

Tweets: 80

RTs: 200

Nested RTs: 95

Replies: 25

Most Tweets

Hashtags: #loveDMU #DMUlocal

Mentions: @DMUglobal @DMUlocal @DMU_Pres @DMU_MaC @DMUPentecost @TheGalleryDMU @DMUHLS plus a wide variety of DMU sports teams

Promote institutional successes and strategies within/outside the University

Enhance direct engagement with students, staff and other stakeholder groups

Personalising leadership

Next Steps★ Interviews with Dominic Shellard, Cara Aitchison

and others

★ Detailed content and social network analysis

★ Please let us have your examples of #HEDigitalLeadership

Social Network Analysis

Smith et al 2014

ReferencesBBC (2016) Trump on Twitter: A history of the man and his medium. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38245530 (accessed 16/12/17)

Beckingham, S. (2016) VCs in Higher Ed that Tweet. Social Media for Learning Blog. https://socialmediaforlearning.com/2016/04/10/vcs-in-highered-that-tweet/

Jisc (2015) 50 most influential higher education (HE) professionals using social media. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/uk-higher-education-social-media-influencers-named-05-oct-2015

Jisc (2015) Building Digital Capability https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/building-digital-capability

Jisc (2015) Building Digital Capability: Being an Effective Digital Leader. http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6235/1/Digital_capabilities_effective_leader.pdf

Li, C. (2010) Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Notter, J. and Grant, M. (2012) Humanize: How People-Centric Organisations Succeed in a Social World. Indianapolis: QUE.

Qualman, E. (2012) Digital Leader. New York: McGraw Hill.

Semple, E. (2012) Organisations Don’t Tweet, People Do. Chichester: Wiley.

Smith, M. A, Raine, L. and Himelboim, I. (2014) Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters. Pew Research Centre http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/20/mapping-twitter-topic-networks-from-polarized-crowds-to-community-clusters/

Questions / Suggestions

#HEDigitalLeadership

@suebecks @horrocks_simon