Social Media: Is Conn Doing Too Much?

I remember when I registered for Conn, not long ago, being suddenly bombarded with commands to set up my email account, explore CamelWeb and follow ConnCollegeLive on Twitter.  It struck me that Conn, a notably small school, seemed to have its own corner of the web carved out exclusively for the college community.

As it turns out, this plot stretches pretty far—with Connecticut College accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google+ (yes, with a whopping 100 followers, it is a real thing).  What this means, then, is that even on the most irrelevant social network currently in use (unless, of course, you still have MySpace), Conn is there, updating its students on every move Katherine Bergeron makes and every outstanding new feature Shain will one day have to offer.  Whether we like it or not, everyone on campus is being exposed to Conn social media.

The truth about these social media accounts is that sure, one or two can be useful.  When ConnCollegeLive updates that there will be a network outage, valuable information is communicated through this medium.  The issue, though, is that if ConnCollegeLive tweets about an occurrence, CamelWeb puts up an announcement, everyone gets an email, and—who knows—maybe there’s even a Google+ post about it.

And, of course, a Twitter or Facebook update for any Conn event is delivered as just one piece of an extensive feed of information, with updates from SGA, SAC, class accounts and an array of clubs, services and other organizations, all of which repost and share each other for maximum exposure.  The result, then, is that the same message gets delivered to every user five different ways, and we end up with quantity rather than quality of information.

I spoke about this issue with Andrew Nathanson ’13, a recent Conn grad who most students know from one of the College’s many social media outlets.  Nathanson told me that his job is to tailor information for various institutional channels, explaining that his aim was “to build a vibrant social media campus,” particularly through the use of ConnCollegeLive, which is most relevant to students on campus in the event of weather cancellations or, as we have frequently seen of late, technical difficulties.

My conversation with Nathanson reminded me of an assembly the class of 2018 had during orientation earlier this year, when we were instructed to check ConnCollegeLive and CamelWeb before so much as getting out of bed.  I remember that this suggestion struck me as a little absurd for a couple of reasons: one, that recent tweets from ConnCollegeLive appear on CamelWeb, making a visit to both the website and the Twitter account redundant; and two, that I doubted a campus event or update would be so integral and essential to my morning that it should precede brushing my teeth.

The truth is that if a real emergency were to occur and, say, we all had to take those potassium iodide tablets, at the very least, we would get an email notification.  If we’re being perfectly honest, I most frequently check CamelWeb to compare my meal options.

During our conversation, Andrew brought up another important group of people to be considered when one thinks about Conn’s social media presence: alumni.  He explained that while the ConnCollegeLive Twitter account is geared toward ensuring that current students (and, of course, the sacred prospies) are kept updated on every possible thing that occurs on campus, the official institutional account, ConnCollege, has the real grown-ups in mind.

Andrew told me that if an alum sees a Conn tweet or Facebook post on their feed, it might be the only time they think about their beloved alma mater all day; therefore, Andrew and the other people over at the Office of Communications need to ensure that “that one post is the perfect thing.”

While researching Conn’s media outlets, I learned of another, now extinct, means of delivering information to the community: a daily “Today on Campus” email.  Though I, as a first-year, never received this email, Opinions Editor Aparna Gopalan ’17 told me that it was “the hands-down most useful communication from Conn” distributed.  Instead of the email, this year, we get our updates from CamelWeb and array of social media accounts, which spreads the information across multiple platforms.

In order to learn more about the discontinued email, I contacted Eileen Jenkins who, as Conn’s Manager of Internal Communications, used to compose the “Today on Campus” message.  She explained to me that the email was a “stop-gap measure” intended for use only until CamelWeb had been redesigned to be more user-friendly.

Now, as Eileen explained, everything that would previously have been included in the email can be found on CamelWeb, along with most other campus information.  Eileen said that using CamelWeb helps to limit the number of emails sent to each student and is, therefore, a more efficient means of communication.

Although I cannot personally compare the “Today on Campus” email to CamelWeb, I have to agree with Eileen that CamelWeb does a pretty good job.  I only noticed one discrepancy between Eileen’s comments and Andrew Nathanson’s: All of the information that was previously communicated with the email is now posted on CamelWeb, so no mention was made of ConnCollegeLive or other social media outlets.

It seems that the essentials show up on CamelWeb (and, of course, we still get lots of emails), which renders other forms of Conn media somewhat frivolous.  The school pours resources into tailoring posts for platforms that are typically free for public use and, on top of that, it seems that what these posts are, at their core, superfluous.  Therefore, I got the impression that maintaining the image of having an electronically engaged community gets higher priority than the actual goal of communicating important messages.

It seems that Conn social media–or, at least, its appearance to outsiders–is an investment; if the College spends the right amount of money cranking out its “perfect” posts, alumni might see some scenic Instagram photos of the Arbo or updates on the soccer team and feel inclined to take out their wallets.  While it may be a nice idea to think that the Office of Communications just wants to make the alumni smile, their nostalgia is for profit.

Social media’s theoretical job, as I’ve gathered, is to encourage activity that in the past happened organically: It tells us how to get involved, and it tells alumni to make donations so we can renovate more buildings.  While social media has its perks when it comes to getting information across, if everything is already posted on CamelWeb, then we can conclude that social media usage has gotten excessive.  This surplus makes it easy to feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of Conn updates that show up on every possible network.

The College is trying intently to keep us posted on the place where we are, supposedly, already present and, hopefully, somewhat in-touch, but somehow I doubt that reading more Conn-sanctioned tweets actually makes us more engaged students.  My advice for limiting the Conn information that gets streamed your way? Stick to Google+.