Phillips Academy Embraces Social Media
PA employs multiple social media venues, including Facebook and Twitter, to connect with its extended Andover community
September 28, 2009
—After launching a new Web site just one year ago, Phillips Academy took only a few moments to enjoy its new online creation before embarking on yet another digital initiative—the development of a comprehensive social media strategy.
Those efforts have culminated in the launch of Andover’s fourth social media venue, a Facebook page that already boasts more than 2,200 fans. The fan page joins the Academy’s three other social media venues launched recently: a Vimeo video site, a Twitter channel, and an online alumni community built upon the Ning.com social networking architecture. A nascent YouTube video site also is under construction.
“In developing these venues, we were driven by the dynamic nature of social media and the online habits of parents, students, and alumni,” said Tracy Sweet, director of academy communications. “Cross-platform communication becomes critical during an era in which we have seen dramatic shifts in the way people consume information: They want information on demand. They are skeptical of crafted messages. They expect to have a voice.”
While the Phillips Academy Web site continues to serve as the school’s central online information resource, the new social media venues provide complementary avenues for connecting with alumni, parents, students and prospective students. In addition to making it easier for the school to push information out, the social media venues make it possible for community members to interact with the school and to collaborate and interact with each other.
The Academy’s Vimeo site contains 35 videos ranging from official admission videos to student-created videos. Fans of the site can comment on the videos, share them with friends, or even embed them on their own blogs and Web sites. The Ning-based alumni community launched in June has already attracted more than 1,600 members, each of whom can post photos and videos, create and join groups, and participate in discussion forums in a private, password-protected environment.
“We’ve been very pleased by the rapid growth we’ve seen in our online alumni community in just a few months,” says Debby Burdett Murphy ’86, director of alumni affairs. “Our alumni played a big part in developing the theoretical framework for this community and in advocating for its implementation. Now that we’ve actually built it, we are really excited about the possibilities. This is a new world for all of us, but we feel like we’re off to a great start.”
To visit Phillips Academy’s social media venues, click on the links below: