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With increased focus on alumni associations as portals for support for university strategic priorities, Duke and the University of Virginia have come forward with best practice communications worthy of serious notice. Both elite institutions with significant endowments, in 2009 they wrestled with what Jim Collins calls “the brutal facts” that “great” organizations must face — and then provided a full accounting, and solutions, to alumni and other constituencies.

In my whitepaper last year on “Communicating Value During the Economic Downturn,” I cited Duke’s early wins at keeping alumni informed and thus generating credibility, understanding and greater support. The recessionary spiral, the whitepaper argued, became “a timely chance to communicate more and focus a lens on the organization’s value while donors, alumni, volunteers, employees and those receiving services are seeking facts and assurance.” 

A year later in Duke Magazine’s November-December 2009 issue, “Sizing Up a Smaller Duke,” the university followed through with more details of its challenging financial realities and, importantly, its proposed remedies. Duke kept the faith with its constituents by focusing a lens on difficult, yet thoughtful, steps to scale back its ambitions due to to decreased endowment and fundraising revenues. Institutions build greater trust and buy-in when they share their realities with us, especially through comprehensive approaches that are more sustainable than knee-jerk cost-cutting occurring at many higher ed institutions. 

In his last year as president of UVA, John Casteen is carrying a similar message around the U.S. in his regional tours. Speaking to alumni and parents in San Francisco in January, he talked about the belt-tightening in a context of continued growth and progress in the university’s $3 billion campaign. And with his 20-year view as president, Casteen previewed the university’s continuing challenges and ongoing recalibration with declining state support. (That visit, by the way, was followed up with a personal note from Casteen to every attendee.)

Today UVA’s 2008-2009 annual President’s Report arrived by email in a stunning high-tech electronic format with links, videos and slideshows — and a clear message from the president: “Using new technology allows wider circulation with lower production costs. For the first time, we can now send the report to every member of the University faculty and staff, as well as all alumni.” The contents contain lengthy financial details along with a forward look at “imagining our third century.”

While alumni associations ask, “do we still matter?,” Duke and UVA are offering some solid answers through their communications strategies. And what they are also letting their supporters know is that university strategic planning is once again on the front seat as institutions rethink how best to balance mission and market. UVA’s 2020 plan is already in process.

Two new studies provide new and compelling data about ongoing struggles to keep social media in the strategic marketing mix by nonprofits and corporate chief marketing officers. These reports confirm some trends I’ve observed recently with clients in university marketing communications and alumni relations offices – good ideas and technologies need appropriate staff and budgets to put them fully to work.

Coincidentally I also heard about social media fatigue from a couple of favorite bloggers. Here’s a quick summary of these recent cyber exchanges:

• A study by the public relations firm Weber Shandwick found that the vast majority of nonprofit organizations (88 percent) are experimenting with social media to engage key audiences, but a significant majority (79 percent) are uncertain of how to demonstrate social media’s value for their organizations. And, only half (51 percent) report active use of social media. In reporting on the study, the Association of Fundraising Professionals noted that  nonprofit executives are skeptical about social media’s ability to reach donors, media and policy makers.
• More than four out of five (84 percent) chief marketing officers (CMOs) allocate less than ten percent of their budgets to experimenting through social media and non-traditional communications channels, with more than half (55 percent) allocating just five percent or less, according to a study by The CMO Club and Hill & Knowlton, while the number of adult Internet users who have profiles on social networks quadrupled to 35 percent in 2008, from eight percent in 2005.

What I find most illuminating in the current conversations is the vital shift in focus to resources — people and budgets. It’s easy to get excited about new technologies and experiment at the front end, but the reality of sustainable implementation unfortunately seems to be more of a “Phase 2″ than a “Phase 1″ consideration. 

Of particular interest were these findings in the Weber Shandwick report: “With nearly 70 percent of nonprofit professionals projecting their 2010 communications budgets to remain the same or decrease compared to last year, finding the resources and expertise to implement social media strategies is a widely shared challenge. Fifty-two percent of organizations concede they do not have enough staff to manage their current social media outreach and almost two-thirds (64 percent) report that their organizations do not have social media policies and guidelines in place for employees and board members to engage appropriately online.”

University and nonprofit communications staff are smart, can-do professionals who often go the extra mile to meet expectations. Many of them have simply started creating social media communities through their websites as another service that adds to the many things on their plates. As these reports show, these staff and their bosses would be well-served to step back and assess their strategies for social media, its relevancy to the outcomes they seek and how they are going to provide the resources to keep the tweeting and friending going.

As universities and nonprofits look once again at tight budgets for the next fiscal year, here’s a plan of action for scaling social media practices in your marketing mix:

• Begin with assessing the needs. What are you trying to accomplish, and why?
• Determine the best tools for your organization, not other organizations.
• Decide what’s real: Who will do the work? Do they have the skills and the willingness? What will staff have to stop doing to tackle more active social media engagement? What will be lost if one communications tactic becomes a priority over the others?
• Cease looking at social media as activity that staff can do in their free time.
• Engage only in activities that can be done well.
• Put social media responsibilities and outcomes into annual workplans; integrate and measure their activity; resource them appropriately with people and budgets; reevaluate every 90 days.
• Consider phased implementation — start small, set expectations appropriately and ramp up as resources become available — or as the measurable results make a case for adding more social media support.
• Can volunteers be trained and used effectively to help advance social media activities?
• Equally importantly, assist communicators at all levels in learning how to manage up. Often their superiors don’t know the process or the best solutions and need wise counsel, even if it’s not what they want to hear about the latest trend.

And, if you’re still with me, here are some honest insights from bloggers Michael Stoner and Brad Ward about how they are scaling their own social media activity in the context of making smart business decisions.