The Web @ Queen's University

Social Media Applications Used by the Queen's community

Social Networking

Social networking sites provide web space for people to engage in social activity - sharing and interacting with family/friends as well as institutions/services and products/brands.

Facebook

Facebook

• 800M active users worldwide (Sept 2011)
• An online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges and universities, workplaces and interests.
• Others include: Windows Live Spaces, Bebo and Orkut

When using Facebook:

• Recommended format is to set up a page rather than a group. Pages allow for better tracking and administration.
• Among Canadian universities, and in Canada generally, Facebook is the most widely used social networking site.

Professional Social Networking

These sites allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

• 100M registered users as of March 2011
• A business-oriented social networking site, which allows individuals to create work history profiles and share them with colleagues, co-workers and employers.

Media Sharing

These sites provide a less formal venue for sharing digital media (audio, video, photo) where there are high amounts of traffic. Creating official university channels on each of these websites gives people the opportunity to subscribe and keep on top of Queen's news. Ideally these channels would all link back to the official Queen's web site.

You Tube

You Tube

• 3 billion views daily as of May 2011
• A video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips
• Includes a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos
• Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Accounts of registered users are called "channels".

When using You Tube:

• Please submit your videos to Marketing and Communications (web@queensu.ca) so that they can be posted on the official Queen's University channel.

Flickr

Flickr

• A photo/video-sharing website where anyone can upload, tag, browse, and annotate photos, as well as participate in self-organizing topical groups.
• As of January 2010, Flickr claims to host more than 4 billion images

When using Flickr:

• Share your pictures and videos of campus architecture, events, and reunions
• Be aware that once you post an image, you could be making it available to anyone, unless you restrict its rights.
  Please read the copyright settings at http://info.yahoo.com/copyright/us/details.html and be aware of any restrictions of usage of photos, i.e., photos of children, photos with specific usage agreements
• Tag all your Queen's images with "queensu" and "queens university"

iTunes

iTunes U

An application, used for playing and organizing digital music and video files.

Download iTunes Application

Queen's on iTunes U

• The iTunes U service was created to manage, distribute, and in some cases control access to educational audio and video content for students within a college or university as well as for a broader Internet audience.
• Content includes course lectures, public lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights, and campus tours as provided by top colleges and universities from the US, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
• iTunes U allows users to download individual streams or subscribe podcasts.
• Queen's has had an iTunes U presence since November 2006.

Learn more about Queen's on iTunes U

Blogs (Video Blogs or Vlogs, Micro-Blogs, Photo-blogs)

Blogs enable information sharing and encourage interaction while allowing for total control of the content visible to the public. They are a perfect venue for tackling less-formal subject matter - even ones that are slightly controversial.

Blog content is indexable (readable) by search engines. If the content is well written, user-focused and accessible, its searchability and ranking within search engines will improve. Blogs can generate large amounts of traffic to and from other sites, which creates more awareness and promotion of the person/institution that created the blog.

When using blogs:

• Recommended blog platforms are: wordpress.com, blogspot.com and twitter.com
• In the set up your blog, make sure that comments are moderated by the administrator before they are posted.

Twitter

Twitter

• 200M registered users as of January 2011
• A microbloging application where users can read other users' updates (known as "tweets"), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
• Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up or subscribed to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default).
• Users can send and receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS (receive only), or through applications such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite.
• Queen's branded Twitter backgrounds:
  • Library option
  • Ivy option
  • Limestone option

Forums

Forums are designed to create open dialogue between members that becomes archived (and also readable by search engines, provided the forum is not behind authentication). Forums require heavy maintenance and are more volatile in their potential for negative comments. As such, they should be moderated on a continual basis.

Contact

If you are unsure about the information you are posting, or unsure about what medium would be best to get your message out, please contact the Department of Marketing and Communications for guidance.

Kathleen Vollebregt
Director of University Marketing
Marketing and Communications
4th Floor, Fleming Hall, Stewart Pollock Wing
Queen's University
Kingston, ON K7L 3N6
613-533-3227