| B-schools talk the talk on social network sites | |
| Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata November 04, 2009, 0:30 IST | |
Log in to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn to keep alumni, students, aspirants updated about their institutes.
“Summer PlacementNotification: Process starts November 4. Media entry to campus restricted. Info to be sourced only through external relations (ER) secretaries...”
Reads like a notice board? Actually, this is a blog by IIM Calcutta (IIM-C) on its Twitter account and it's just one of India’s top management schools to have started using social networking and micro-blogging sites to keep students and aspirants abreast of placements and other institute-related information.
IIM-C is busy using Twitter.com to share the latest updates on its summer placements for its first-year students that will start on November 4. The process will run till the entire batch of 408 students is placed.
Paul Savio, one of the students behind this initiative, says: “We plan to keep sending out updates as often as possible, to intimate the public as to what is happening during the summer placement process. Twitter is our informal way of communicating with all those who are interested in the campus -- current studetns, alumni, faculty, press, associated universities and so on.”
IIM-C started using Twitter informally last December. “We are even connected to many other universities, both in India, like with the other IIMs, MDI, etc, and abroad, like with the University of Melbourne, among others,” Savio adds.
IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), on its part, started a Twitter account this October to provide updates on campus-related news and information on campus activities to the world. Vernon Fernandez, a student behind this initiative, says: “Twitter is a means of instantly broadcasting small titbits of news to a large audience. By updating activities on the twitter account, a large cross section of web-users, like the alumni, present students, future aspirants and interested press, can find out information on IIM Bangalore. We might even use the Twitter account to answer frequently asked questions about IIM Bangalore.”
IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), too has taken to Twitter.com, with its Twitter channel followed by almost 1,000 users and the blog read more than 10,000 times.
Rohan Desai, secretary of IIM Ahmedabad's media cell, said, “We may tweet once in a while about summer placements. Besides, the media cell at IIM-A maintains a blog at insideiima.wordpress.com. We also use YouTube and Facebook to connect with everyone from aspirants who dream of studying at the institute to alumni who love to stay connected.”
Meanwhile, IIM Lucknow (IIM-L) has created a presence on popular social networks like Yahoo Groups, LinkedIn and Facebook. These are managed by student and alumni committees. IIM-L is also present on Wiki through a detailed profile of the institute and its active committees. “We are working towards hosting a blog to serve as a communication medium to the outside world at large,” said Nitin Jacob, spokesperson for IIM Lucknow.
“For all major events on campus, like the recently concluded sports and cultural meet Varchasva, we have an active online presence. Again, the recently concluded leaders' conclave Samvit ’09 was actively followed on Facebook,” says Jacob. IIM-L’s twitter account has about 366 followers who occasionally re-tweet messages. The Varchasva fan page had regular traffic during the event and has about 380 fans.
At IIM Kozhikode (IIM-K) the placement season statistics covering final, lateral and summer placements, are released at the end of the process on social networking sites like Twitter. The target is to reach the intended audience covering maximum students and corporate entities.
Most B-schools feel social networking sites are expected to serve as a new strategic communication medium in the near future, not least because it offers a low-cost and virtual communication platform.
“Social networking sites like Twitter and LinkedIn allow us to maintain industry and alumni contacts. The alumni community prefers to keep in touch with their alma mater through Yahoo or Google groups. Facebook and Orkut are also widely used for related discussions and event updates. In addition to this, several managerial and social initiatives are publicized on social networking sites to generate public opinion and encourage community participation. The mentorship programme to offer assistance to CAT aspirants is operated online,” said Tess Zacharias, a student behind this initiative at IIM-K.
A good example of how social networking has been useful was when IIM-A used it to inform people about the “Joy of Giving Week” at IIM-A. Students offered a guided tour of the campus and visitors were charged a nominal fee of Rs 25 which went towards a social intitiative by IIM-A students called “Prayaas”. More than a 1,000 visitors made use of the opportunity and Rs 25,000 was donated to Prayaas.
XLRI Jamshedpur uses social networking sites to disseminate details about activities by the current batch, which in turn are expected to help the alumni and recruiters get a good idea about things inside the campus leading to the placement season.
A spokesperson for XLRI says: “The two major social networking sites XLRI is looking forward to are Twitter and Facebook. One of the major support social networking sites provide is the opportunity to interact with the aspirants and help future XLIers with all the information they need. So far this was being done through one or two MBA help sites that were still serving the purpose but it was more of a one-to-one conversation that could not help the masses. With blogs, Facebook and Twitter, both the purposes are taken care of. While Twitter and blogs help to disseminate the information in micro and macro forms, Facebookise the bridge between the two paradigms where both the group and individuals can converge.”
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