Althouse: "Our institution has launched new reporting requirements for all NIU social-media accounts that are, to put it mildly, onerous to the point of ludicrous."

September 24, 2013

"They want us to count all interactions. And document whether they are positive, negative, or neutral. They want screen shots to document all of our counting and downloaded analytics. Every. Month."

University, confused and desperate about what it's saying about itself, decides to go all-out looking confused and desperate, which is one more thing it's saying about itself, and — unlike all those blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds written by miscellaneous University personnel — it's the thing that gets a big article written about how confused and desperate it is, and that article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Just when you think new media is scorching your reputation, old media bites you in the ass.

It's so unfair!

Ron said...: These rules are put in place by a related clan of the From-Behinders; the Sphincter-Tighteners. In spirit, the S-T's believe that if you can control every atom in every situation, Order Will Be Maintained. Alas, the Universe mocks these efforts...; 9/24/13, 6:57 AM
David-2 said...: Seems like a step in standard empire building to me.

By making it difficult for individual staff members/administrators to run social media sites that apparently represent the offical 'voice of the college' the public relations department can justify increases in its own budget so it can take over these sites and do them 'properly' and 'officially'.

Yes, it may inconvenience the people who were doing their own thing before, but that's unavoidable.

It may even contribute to lowering their enjoyment of their jobs.

But don't worry: If that happens the HR department will eventually get a budget increase as well.; 9/24/13, 8:09 AM

Althouse