Harvard’s Web Communication Plan

This post is about Harvard’s Web Communication Plan. Harvard is a well-known and prestigious university. Although it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the USA, Harvard’s university has a huge web communication plan, and it is present in all of the main social networks and websites.

First, they have numerous pages on Facebook, the main one is Harvard, and after this one we find specific pages for all the schools, associations, or institutions related to the University (such as Harvard School of Public Health, or Harvard University Press). On the Facebook page, we also find links to its home page, Youtube channel, Twitter account…

According to Susan Payton, a “Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:

• Links to your blog posts
• Links to related articles (whether they’re yours or not)
• Videos
• Photos
• Discussions

This type of content is key in getting people to “Like” your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company’s website and, of course, buying your product”.

Harvard’s page meets all this requirements. That means that the university knows how to successfully use Facebook which is the one of the most important web communication tools, as it appeals to a lot of students and people in general.

The same happens with the Twitter account, which is regularly updated, and has thousands of followers. Tweets are related to the academic life. As well as in Facebook, Harvard has diverse Twitter accounts, which are dedicated to specific parts of the university.

The home page is also divided into different parts, and specific information is found in different pages to which you arrive from the main one. The information here is the more accurate and reliable one, and it’s the more visited page when you’re looking for Harvard’s information.

Harvard has also accounts in Youtube, Foursquare, iTunes, Delicious, etc. A lot of blog posts mention it in WordPress, and it has 53.800.000 results in Google.

Harvard uses a lot of different tools to its web communication plan, using all kind of social networks, websites and communication tools, even if the most important one is its main page and Facebook page. The university knows how to use the Internet to offer information and facilities to both its students, professors and anyone interested in it.

References:

1. Harvard University, Wikipedia (6 June 2011 at 23:18), retrieved 2011, June 10, 12:49, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University

2. Susan Payton (2010.9) HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page. In Mashable. Retrieved 2011, 10 June, 12.24 from http://mashable.com/2010/08/26/business-facebook-page/

3. Antony Mayfield (October 7, 2010) 8 Quick Tips for Developing a Facebook Marketing Strategy. In Mashable. Retrieved 2011, 10 June, 17:48 from http://mashable.com/2010/10/07/facebook-marketing-tips/