Content, not contests, key to long-term social media success.

Over the weekend, our student paper The Oswegonian racked up an amazing 158 Shares (and counting) for a photo on its Facebook page. That includes 73 Shares through the SUNY Oswego Facebook page reposting it — with the repost scoring another 480 Likes.

What didn’t these posts do? They didn’t say “Like this page for a chance to win a prize” or “Share this page if …” Why? Because good content through a good channel speaks for itself. It makes it own friends and pathways.

Say it with me: Content, not contests, is the key to social media success.

Yet my Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of posts like “We’re giving a prize to our 1000th follower!” and “Become our 5000th fan to win a prize!” This is all stunt-based and has nothing to do with content. Also, if you’re one of the followers or fans who helped build the community’s success, how should you feel that some late joiner gets a prize for just showing up (and then may leave anyway)? You’re right, you should feel slighted and unappreciated. For that matter, many are running contests that don’t adhere to Facebook terms of service, which could get the effort shut down.

>> Back to this this weekend, what attracted that huge level of interest for The Oswegonian and SUNY Oswego? A photo of the Laker men’s hockey team celebrating beating Plattsburgh (our archrivals) to win the SUNYAC championship and a return ticket to the NCAA DIII Tournament. No, it’s not an image you can get every day. But …

… it also attracted that interest because it came via channels that have built their audience through content. People have stayed connected and even watch those Facebook pages for news because of years of providing useful, helpful content.

I’ve talked before about how you shouldn’t beg for likes. Contests for likes, while looking perhaps a bit less desperate, are short-term efforts … the long-term goal is having content strategy and a commitment to making yours a lively, engaging community.

If none of the above has convinced you yet, stop to equate a Facebook page with a personal relationship. You want your friends to like you because you’re an interesting person, right? Not because you have to bribe them for affection? Social media is the same way. You want to build a relationship with the members of your community. It should be based on much more than a stunt.

After all, providing useful, helpful content to your community on a regular basis is the REAL prize … the gift that keeps on giving.

Pleased to meet you: The power of introductions.

Seems like I’ve spent quite a bit of time lately introducing people to each other or being introduced to people. And that’s pretty awesome.

Whether via Twitterduction (introduction via Twitter), inclusive email or face-to-face, introductions are where the magic happens. It’s where you can bring together two creative people who can take projects known or unknown to greater heights than they ever could alone. It’s where you can connect a solution to a problem. It’s where you can start anything from a friendship to a relationship, a collaboration to a business partnership.

Think about the people you’ve met who helped you, mentored you or otherwise brightened your life. Everyone we know can benefit by meeting new people who share interests, problems or passions. Social media does make this easier — I’ve encountered so many people there that I’ve later met (and were impressed by) in real life — but don’t neglect opportunities to put together two or more interesting people face-to-face with a handshake, over coffee or for a meal.

So, have you introduced anyone lately? If you haven’t, introducing two people who don’t know each other but would benefit from meeting virtually or in real life this week may be a modest goal. And who knows — it could prove the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Favorited tweets, rising: On content, connection and conversation.

While not necessarily the most important Twitter metric, the favorited tweet could be the most meaningful in its own way. I tend to think of someone favoriting a tweet as putting it in their Twitter scrapbook or hanging it on their virtual fridge. So when we see a huge surge in favorited tweets for our @SUNYOswego account, we must be doing something right.

The number of favorited @SUNYOswego tweets rocketed from 9 in November to 52 in December — and with 47 faves in the first 8 days of January, a new high-water mark appears inevitable. So why this astronomical leap? Of course, this all starts with tracking, content and interaction.

You really should track what people are saying about your college or brand online. Tweetdeck is great for doing this in real-time (other instruments like Icerocket and Addictomatic are nice too). We set up tracking columns for “SUNYOswego” (where people use the @ of our account or something the #sunyoswego hashtag), “SUNY Oswego” and “Oswego State.” (1: If your college has only one name commonly used, congratulations. 2: A feed mentioning merely “Oswego” became unmanageable by all those referencing Lake Oswego, a large Portland suburb.)

What a busy, albeit awesome day, looks like in Tweetdeck.

Seeing a comment under these columns can spark engagement. If it’s a question we can answer or direct them the right place, responding is a no-brainer. Moreover, if it’s a student tweeting they’ve been accepted or offering up praise of something or someone at the college, we usually want to retweet it, perhaps with comment. Sometimes it’s as simple as “congratulations,” depending on space available, although we may add more commentary or humor when possible. (Acceptance tweets in all caps have been known to earn the #ALLCAPSWORTHY hashtag, for example.) Very often, our retweet gets a retweet from the person we RTed (if that’s not too confusing), we gain a new follower (or three, as others see the second RT) and increasingly the user (or someone they know) favorites the tweet.

As author, blogger and all-around smart guy Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) would say, if someone took the time to say something nice about you in social media, how can you not take the time to show them a little love and attention? This idea of kindness helps drive why we RT and engage with these acceptance tweets. But it also makes good business sense, presuming you’re into that kind of thing. Yes, these students now have a connection with and favorable view of our college and become an audience for our content (read: awesome things happening at our college). Sure, they now have a point of contact if they have questions if they’re weighing us vs. other institutions. Absolutely, they see other incoming students tweeting and can start to form a network with them via Twitter. But in a more personal way, we show that someone here cares and shares their excitement at getting into SUNY Oswego.

Note that even as these tweets sometimes come in every minute or so, we try to space out the RT stream a bit so it won’t be too much of a firehouse. We realize some students see these RTs and post so their own acceptances can be recognized too. We did see the rare snark or whine posted digging at the excited tweets, but you don’t let the occasional lonely troll keep you from crossing the Bridge to Awesomeness. It’s even nice to get positive feedback from others in social media enjoying the parade of good feelings:

Yes, we replied back and even favorited this lovely tweet, if that doesn’t seem too meta.

Buzzfeed recently published a minor buzzkill on this trend, saying favorites are likely up everywhere because of a change in way the option is featured and its use as a “Twitter fist bump.” The article actually traces this increase starting with a December 2011 redesign that made the option more prominent and may have fostered a culture and conditioning toward greater favoriting. Which in and of itself is good if their assumption that perhaps “it’s a sign that Twitter is getting a little bit friendlier” is correct. But note that change occurred a while ago, and the huge jump in favoriting @SUNYOswego tweets by far outpaces increases in other metrics.

And however you slice or analyze it, seeing a huge surge in the number of people favoriting, RTing and engaging positively with your content is a wonderful thing. Where and how this converts into those admitted students enrolling at Oswego remains to be seen, but at least we have some nice benchmarks (and feelings) to start.

From War of the Worlds to fake Sandy images, disaster hoaxes have run their course.

On this very night, 74 years ago, perhaps the most famous unintentional hoax in history had millions fleeing the cities of the Northeast. This week, as a very real natural disaster bore down the same cities, the intentional hoaxsters who complicated the flow of real information should be ashamed of themselves.

Orson Welles’ radio presentation of War of the Worlds in October 1938 had disclaimers throughout the show, yet listeners to the acted-out news bulletins of H.G. Wells’ tale of Martian invasion missed the cues and/or got caught up in the public hysteria at a time heightened tensions in Europe barreled the planet toward World War II. Thus the fake invasion of New York City generated very real panic that in some cases took days to unravel.

Fast forward to 2012, where the very real threat of Hurricane Sandy threatened New York City and the Northeast again. The pranksters were out early, spreading false rumors that a number of colleges — most notably Cornell — had canceled Monday classes. While a majority of colleges in New York did indeed cancel classes later, the resulting confusion and need for institutions to pull their crisis communication resources into rumor control did no one any favors.

Then, as Sandy headed toward landfall, the hoax photos came out, jamming Facebook and Twitter feeds. I’m not sure what drives vile individuals to start hoaxes for a laugh and confuse a volatile situation. Many well-meaning folks — desperate for a glimpse into the disaster — shared the images which, like the Statue of Liberty in the eye of the storm, seemed too good to be true.

By the time what should have been an obviously fake photo of a shark in the water following someone out for a drive started making the rounds, the hoax photos had, well, jumped the shark. In addition to old standby debunking site Snopes.com, the Tumblr account IsTwitterWrong disproved many of the hoaxes in real time. Its coverage included the seemingly noble image of soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns during the deluge — that even made it into the Washington Post — being debunked respectfully by the Twitter account of The Old Guard itself.

By nightfall, as the storm inflicted damage to New York City perhaps beyond that imagined of War of the Worlds, we didn’t know what to believe any more. My twin brother and I, both born in Manhattan and he a resident of the borough until several months ago, traversed the Internet looking for photos we could trust. No easy task. The sentiment pervaded social media, as folks everywhere sought out verification for sensational images … perhaps showing the media literacy we should always have. When CNN and the Weather Channel went with a false account of flooding on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange — a delicious anti-capitalist election-year narrative — citizen journalists shot it down very quickly. I saw the first account of it and a subsequent debunking within a minute. With so many truly heartbreaking things going on in the city, untrue accounts swaying media and the public away from matters that needed attention prove truly unfortunate.

To state the overly and simplistically obvious, had social media been around 74 years ago, the panic of War of the Worlds would have been blunted before people packed their roadsters and headed for the countryside. Yet on the brink of another Halloween, some people use social media to spread disinformation while others use it to dispel rumors and disseminate truth. It takes increased vigilance to separate the tricks from the treats.

Alyssa Explains It All, or on being social and open to ideas

Our student blogs have really stepped up in content concepts this year, evolving past “this is what I did last week” and into more purposeful and useful directions. Since I believe in sharing, I’ll post more info here on the various projects, but wanted to start with how a random tweet turned into an outstanding freshman video blog.

On Sept. 1, this tweet to @sunyoswego caught our attention:

A freshman willing to make videos on the college experience? Were we dreaming? After checking Alyssa’s video channel, we realized she had talent, panache and essentially everything you’d want in a video blogger.

After a meeting, we decided on a theme, Alyssa Explains It All, often on the transition to college, an area where she is eminently qualified. Each webisode focuses on a topic, conveying it with humor and honesty, and it appeals to new students as well as those looking at colleges. She does all the work herself. The shows so far:

Episode 1: Time Management

Episode 2: Making Decisions

I’m very happy with how she’s developing the shows, and she has been asking users for topics to explore and explain. But the series also shows one more example of the importance of being in and listening to social media channels. And the importance of remaining open to new ideas and fresh talent. Because who knows … your next great content contributor could be just one tweet away!

want followers? don’t beg … create and engage!

How often do you see Twitter or Facebook accounts begging for followers or likes? Do you find these motivational? Or desperate? Or just pathetic?

Here’s a substitute solution: If you want more followers, don’t beg. Create content. And engage users. It really is that simple.

The above message for our @sunyoswego account appeared in the inbox last week. Quick math says the account added almost 10% to its total in one week. One week! But this wasn’t done via begging, or even via splashy posters or signs around campus (my social media budget remains stuck at $0).

What happened? We created. We engaged.

You may recall that, with students moving back on campus, we interacted, retweeted and crowd-sourced content. Then for the Student Involvement Fair, we asked participants to send photos, which we retweeted. And all along, we’ve been following our engagement strategy focusing on sharing what’s positive about our campus and retweeting/promoting what students and their organizations do.

What haven’t we been doing? Tweeting marketing taglines. Pounding our chest about how awesome we are (better that any praise come from students, alums and the like). Or begging.

Admittedly, a lot of those followers are new students or students coming back to campus, so it may not be sustainable at that meteoric level. But the new followers keep coming, most of them existing students. And those students in turn engage with us and create content we can retweet. Which brings more followers. It’s a wonderful loop, and it comes from positive and proactive stances on creating and engaging.

crowd-sourced event coverage, next level: engaging the crowd.

Getting students involved on our (or any) campus is mission-critical. Reasons include the personal — students’ sense of fulfillment, friendships and fun are important to their success — to the institutional, as conventional wisdom says involved students are more likely to stay in school and on track. So our Student Involvement Fair, the first week of classes, is kind of a big deal … and this year, for the first time, it made a big splash in social media thanks to more crowd-sourced event coverage.

When the fair unfolded on Wednesday, our campus-wide social media staff (all one of me) was stuck in the office dealing with news releases (a 20th century paradigm?), but students started carrying the banner for involvement. Representatives of various clubs and organizations tweeted invitations for any followers to come to the Student Involvement Fair, which we saw via our search columns for “sunyoswego” and “suny oswego” on Tweetdeck, so the @sunyoswego account amplified these invitations by retweeting. And then I realized just doing that was a missed opportunity.

So @sunyoswego not only posted a message for student organizations to tweet us pics of their setups, but we @ replied to all the organizations who had sent tweets asking students to come to the involvement fair. Responses from the @ had a 100 percent success rate — a perfect 10 out of 10, which isn’t huge but it’s 10 photos we didn’t have, and we collected a couple more.

In addition to RTing everything we received on Twitter, we posted the neat dozen photos as a Student Involvement Fair gallery on Facebook, which immediately drew a lot of attention, including 73 total likes, 14 comments and two shares with the first day. A picture of Alpha Phi Omega (above), our national service fraternity, even brought nice testimonials including “Yay!!! APO!!! One of the best decisions of my college years!” and “Great times with great friends. Met my best friends and my wonderful husband in APO. … Glad to see APO is still active.”

Our posting also drew at least one happy Twitter comment:

And, working in social media, we should all be very happy when we can build excitement and engagement. Or, rather, when our bright and involved students do it.

new to working in social media? 5 common mistakes to avoid.

It’s the time of year when many places have new people working in social media management, whether interns for colleges or other accounts or new hires ready to roll in this field. Which is exciting. And yet. I look at my Twitter ticker or Facebook feed and see so many people making simple mistakes that make me weep a little. So here are five common mistakes in social media you’ll want to avoid to make it all easier.

Watch your @. If you are replying to another Twitter account, an @ is entirely appropriate. If you’re trying to promote something and start with an @, you’re restricting your audience to only those following both accounts. If you want this message to reach your full audience, the answer is simple: Don’t start with an @! If you work in social media, you should be clever enough to know how to reword it.

Avoid the horse latitudes. Different studies say different things about when is the best time to post in social media, but what generally matters most is the content. After all, our most popular Facebook post ever went up on a Friday evening, which many self-styled “social media gurus” would advise against. That said, you should examine when your target market is active and when it’s not. When I see accounts post things appealing to students at 4:30 a.m., that doesn’t seem very wise. Lazy Sunday afternoons are also not the ideal time to try to engage a wide conversation with a general (not necessarily inspiring) question. And if there’s a much-tweeted event (Super Bowl™, award shows, “Walking Dead” season finale, etc.), any tweets — especially off topic — will drown in the flood.

Don’t be a robot. A friend of mine who just assumed greater social media responsibility announced she was unhooking the auto-feed that blasted her school’s Facebook and Twitter accounts simultaneously. And there was much rejoicing. A tweet that is awkwardly cut off in the middle and sports a Facebook link is essentially saying: “I really don’t care about Twitter.” Twitter and Facebook are two distinctly different media with different strengths and different audiences. You don’t run a TV ad on the radio or vice versa. Your social media outlets — while they should be integrated — also should have their own lives. If you can’t find 15 seconds to post something separately in Twitter and Facebook, you really don’t care about your audience.

Have conversations. Social media is not a bullhorn; it’s a conversation. Or a series of conversations. If your Facebook account is just your news releases with hardly any comments or likes, or if your Twitter account is just your posts with no @s or RTs, then it’s not very social. Also, when you post, don’t throw out lame marketing taglines. Sound like a human (see above), as if you were having a conversation with friends. Because even if you’re working social media for a brand, you ARE having a conversation with friends.

Know which account you’re in. Yes, at some point or another, we’ve probably posted something from the wrong account in haste. This is usually harmless, like when I answered a question last week from @TimNekritz via Tweetdeck forgetting to switch over to @sunyoswego. But there’s always the famous “#gettngslizzerd” example where a Red Cross employee accidentally posted about drinking exploits under the official account. To their credit, the Red Cross responded magnificently so the story had a happy ending. In terms of mobile posting, I make sure my personal Twitter account and any professional accounts are on different apps so I don’t have to worry about signing in or out. Whatever method you use, check what you’re doing so you don’t become a social media case study.

All that said, if you’re new to the field of social media management: Congratulations! It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s very fulfilling to help others and make connections. And know that there’s a massive support group of others working in this area on Twitter and elsewhere always willing to help with advice and feedback. After all, social media is about humans being social and helpful, and it really is a great job and community.

a man who wasn’t there: adventures in crowd-sourced live-tweeting.

If you work in social media in higher ed, you love the opportunity to live-tweet an exciting occasion like Move-In Day. But when social media is just one of your many duties — and you can’t get around on such a busy day — where do you turn?

Students, of course. In our case, we had a community of social-media-savvy incoming students moving in at SUNY Oswego on Friday — and it just so happened they were already live-tweeting. We just amplified their efforts, highlighted great content and enabled them — through things like promoting a #welcome2oswego hashtag — to build their own community and story.

While I did get out just long enough for a quick photo album of students moving in, helped by our awesome Red Carpet Crew, this Storify shows that the students themselves did most of the commentary on the day. Since Move-In Day is about them, that seems appropriate.

1. This was our favorite tweet of the day …
2. 

   I would hate to be the guy/girl in charge of the @sunyoswego twitter lol.. Its gunna be a long day for them. #QuickShoutOut

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   Jared Lahm

   Fri, Aug 24 2012 05:17:36

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3. … but truth be told, Move-In Day was so much fun on Twitter! It started early and ran late. Here are just a few highlights.
4. 

   Bring on the freshies #welcome2oswego

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   Ryan Sperry

   Thu, Aug 23 2012 21:46:29

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5. 

   Off to @sunyoswego !!!�

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   Melissa Vasti ♛

   Fri, Aug 24 2012 03:06:32

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6. 

   I move in to @sunyoswego this morning!

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   Rachel Edic

   Fri, Aug 24 2012 04:11:48

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7. 

   On our way to drop my baby girls off at #SUNYOSWEGO #bittersweet �

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   MommaDibo

   Fri, Aug 24 2012 02:48:38

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8. 

   We’re ready for you! RT @Cmerc29: All packed and ready to be @sunyoswego bound in the AM! #letsgo #soexcited #newstart #welcome2oswego

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   sunyoswego

   Fri, Aug 24 2012 04:40:04

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9. 

   Great idea! RT @taylormachin: @KatieRussell8 bringing biking back to SUNY Oswego #letsgo bringing my blades too #welcome2oswego

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   sunyoswego

   Fri, Aug 24 2012 05:07:01

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10. 

    Beautiful morning so far! RT @MommaDiBo: On our way to drop my baby girls off at #SUNYOSWEGO #bittersweet #welcome2oswego

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    sunyoswego

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 05:09:07

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11. 

    We’ll have people waiting to help you move in. Seriously! RT @melissavasti: Off to @sunyoswego !!! #welcome2oswego

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    sunyoswego

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 05:13:25

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12. 

    Welcome Class of 2016 to @sunyoswego! Wish I could rewind time and be moving in today and experiencing #welcome2oswego all over again.

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    Derek Goodroe

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 05:23:49

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13. 

    

    #oswegohereicome @sunyoswego http://instagr.am/p/OthsnBM4DX/

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    Danielle Work

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 05:46:52

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14. 

    So this is it?! #packingthecar #welcome2oswego �☺

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    Julia Heck

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 06:10:39

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15. 

    Can’t believe it’s move-in day already @sunyoswego! Dropping off my freshman… So exciting

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    MonicaGrau

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 06:14:19

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16. 

    Suny Oswego here Cody comes

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    Kärä LäFlämmë

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 06:56:35

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17. 

    Finally here #welcome2oswego

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    Kate Bailie

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:09:49

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18. 

    its move in day at @sunyoswego ….. I sooooo miss school, the lake and Daga living =( awesome 4 yrs in the land of Oz =)

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    Princess Kat

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:18:18

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19. 

    You’re almost here hun! RT @fancett_rae: Everyone is moving in. I just want to be at @sunyoswego already! #notfair #twodays

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    Monster.

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:20:18

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20. 

    

    Handmade name tag on the door. Nice! #welcome2oswego http://instagr.am/p/OtsW0bC-3p/

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    Joanna Giansanti

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:21:00

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21. 

    At seneca hall at SUNY Oswego! Wooo

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    Jordan White

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:24:43

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22. 

    

    Our awesome Red Carpet Crew in action! http://yfrog.com/esx5ttdj #welcome2oswego

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    sunyoswego

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:31:23

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23. 

    Check out our early photo album of new students moving in with our awesome Red Carpet Crew! http://on.fb.me/R79zoM #welcome2oswego

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    sunyoswego

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 07:44:31

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24. 

    Helping freshman move into @sunyoswego today!

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    Jess Iknewso

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 08:06:24

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25. 

    Hooray for our Red Carpet Crew! RT @jessiknewso: Helping freshman move into @sunyoswego today! #welcome2oswego

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    sunyoswego

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 08:14:32

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26. 

    So. Many. Freshman. #welcome2oswego #movein

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    Ryan Sperry

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 08:34:09

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27. 

    All moved in up at Suny Oswego @lindacohn @espnSteveLevy #sophomoreyear #letsgo

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    Doug Yorks

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 08:41:09

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28. 

    Lots of excited first year students and transfers in Scales Hall! #welcome2oswego

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    Omy Melo

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 09:06:32

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29. 

    Long day ahead. So happy for my sister who’s continuing the rest of her education @ SUNY Oswego!

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    Antonio Caban

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 09:23:27

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30. 

    All moved into my dorm room! So much change in just a few hours.. but I’m ready #sunyoswego #freshmanyear

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    Danielle Work

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 10:23:12

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31. 

    You’re going to love it here!!!! “@sunyoswego: Woohoo! RT @yazelroque: Im at #Oswego State!!! #welcome2oswego”

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    ♥Juli_Rae♥™®

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 10:39:36

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32. 

    

    ☺ @ SUNY Oswego http://instagr.am/p/OuHDGCNe7b/

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    Cassidy Farr✌

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 11:13:41

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33. 

    

    The arena all set up for Welcoming Torchlight for new @sunyoswego students! #welcome2oswego http://instagr.am/p/OuG4NjNTO-/

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    LeAnne

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 11:38:03

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34. 

    

    Well on the bright side, this is my backyard… @ suny oswego http://instagr.am/p/OuLEoqgLxV/

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    Taylor Blume

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 11:48:23

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35. 

    @sunyoswego Back from moving new students in and completely wiped, great job red carpet crew! Only three more events to attend today.

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    Maggie

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 14:31:41

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36. 

    

    Campus community picnic happening now! #welcome2oswego #SUNYOswego http://pic.twitter.com/VR1osC9i

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    SUNY Oswego FANs

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 14:43:31

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37. 

    

    View from SUNY Oswego http://instagr.am/p/Ouh06GJO8Y/

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    Jordan White

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 15:07:49

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38. 

    

    Freshie picnic #bff #sunyoswego http://instagr.am/p/Oumci_yNqk/

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    Big D.

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 15:48:04

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39. 

    Thank you suny oswego for the free food!

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    Robert Earnshaw

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 16:32:15

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40. 

    

    On my way to the torchlight ceremony #sunyoswego http://pic.twitter.com/0T8fpaNu

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    Tyler Edic

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 17:08:11

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41. 

    

    My view! � @ SUNY Oswego http://instagr.am/p/Ouxos-K0hM/

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    Michelle Strickland

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 17:26:14

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42. 

    

    Getting ready to host the @sunyoswego #Torchlight ceremony. http://instagr.am/p/Ouy3QxyA59/

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    John Mongiello

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 17:37:37

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43. 

    walking SUNY Oswego campus right now. hopefully a fun night to come…

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    Matthew Feeney

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 17:48:41

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44. 

    

    Getting ready for @sunyoswego Torchlight Ceremony!! #welcome2oswego http://pic.twitter.com/Hc8IH53q

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    Zach Polin

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 17:51:40

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45. 

    

    @sunyoswego To all my residents and to all new to Oswego, welcome! #welcome2oswego http://pic.twitter.com/y14vwfKE

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    Mary Adriana

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 17:57:11

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46. 

    My resident hall’s theme is Harry Potter #awyeah #win #sunyoswego

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    Taylor Blume

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 18:13:41

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47. 

    

    � @ SUNY Oswego Campus Center http://instagr.am/p/Ou3h6AP_Sp/

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    deıdre fαy

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 18:17:02

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48. 

    

    We know how to throw a party at @sunyoswego #welcome2oswego #OswegoPride http://pic.twitter.com/ZWtMCS9p

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    SUNY Oswego FANs

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:01:32

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49. 

    I’ve only been in SUNY Oswego for 1 day and I’m already loving it

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    Cory Ludwig

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:06:49

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50. 

    

    Dance party. #2016 #sunyoswego http://instagr.am/p/Ou9GnWyNro/

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    Big D.

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:05:49

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51. 

    holy cow, the college life is for real at @sunyoswego. let’s see how this goes

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    Derek Sexton

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:17:07

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52. 

    Laying in my new bed at Suny Oswego.

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    Samuel Rudin

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:25:10

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53. 

    

    Candlelighting! #welcome2oswego http://pic.twitter.com/MHcu80Xu

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    Alyssa Levenberg

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:41:39

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54. 

    #welcome2oswego all moved in and relaxing before my roommate comes tomorrow

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    Brandon Wilcox

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 19:53:24

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55. 

    To everyone who moved in today, #welcome2oswego! And remember, the journey is just beginning …

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    sunyoswego

    Fri, Aug 24 2012 20:20:15

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on curiosity, real-time web and shared experiences.

Millions of people around the world just gathered on their computers, tablets and mobile devices to share an amazing event, for many of them in the wee hours of the night. That it was not a sporting event, award show or tragedy but instead the triumph of science — the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars — is heartening to those who wonder about the human condition. But it was significant also in how NASA presented it and we consumed it.

If the event represented a test of how to use the real-time web and social media, NASA passed with flying colors. Their main webstream at nasa.gov functioned well and was filled with interesting content. No babbling talking heads or ads interrupted a flow of informed, yet accessible, commentary on the project, the science involved, the goals of the mission and every step as Curiosity approached the surface of Mars. The page featured an embedded social media feed for additional context. And the @CuriosityRover Twitter feed was friendly, funny and engaging. Perhaps even a bit cheeky, judging by the tweet that marked it landing on the surface:

And yes, even though it happened at an hour many reasonable people are in bed (around 1:30 a.m. Eastern), as of this morning it had 61,046 retweets and 10,582 folks favorited it. Its use of the “I am in you” meme and the first images being sent with cute notes like “You asked for pics from my trip. Here you go!” gave it more personality than most brands even develop in social media.

Its juxtaposition against NBC’s disastrous delayed-broadcasting Olympics coverage and resistance to use adequate webstream resources was best summed up, just before the landing, when the satirical @NBCDelayed account Tweeted: PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be showing the @MarsCuriosity landing on Tuesday at 8PM local. The real network had time-shifted the opening ceremony well into the night (refusing to webstream it) and faced criticism for its announcers making derogatory comments during the Parade of Nations. It doesn’t take, well, a rocket scientist to see how much better NASA’s execution was than NBC’s hamhanded, outmoded coverage.

The idea of a shared experience — such as Neil Armstrong walking on the moon or our communal horror at the Challenger explosion — seems almost outdated because the content we consume and the distribution channels are more diverse than ever. Between all the cable channels, web pages and gaming systems, audiences are increasingly fragmented. And yet to check out Facebook or Twitter during this time was to see a robust community celebrating this momentous achievement through observations ranging from snarky to sublime.

With the Curiosity landing, the shared social element added so much to its appeal. My two brothers and I, three space geeks separated by the miles, all watched, interacted and reminisced about launching Estes rockets in our neighbors’ field. Whatever your adult responsibilities, it’s hard to watch this and not feel like an 8-year-old with wide-eyed wonder and a sense that anything is possible.

For all the technology involved, the sights many will remember involve humans — all the scientists hugging, cheering and exchanging high-fives. Victory is not confined to the sporting arenas by any means, and the authentic emotion washing over these people, seeing years of work come to fruition, was beyond heartwarning. If that can convince more youngsters to go into the sciences, to pursue and achieve even more ambitious dreams, that will be a true win for us all.