Social Media for Learning, Social Media for Marketing - what can we learn about control?

On the Social Media Marketing course I attended this week, I was struck by the rewards and challenges for marketing that paralleled the same issues in Education.

I'll start with an example (thanks to @reachstudents for this). Do a Google search for "student experience Nottingham" and you get something completely outside the marketing departments careful control of search engine optimisation:

The top hit there is this (unofficial) student produced YouTube video with 52,000+ views:

Now as it happens, although not the message the university would have chosen to put out, it's positive about the university - and indeed (by criticising Nottingham Trent) is says things the marketing department could never have done!

One of the key things for social media marketeers to understand is the need to give up control. The whole point of social media is that your customers will comment and respond in any way they like, and your best response is to accept this - the worst response is to attempt to control it. (Google 'nestle remove greenpeace video' for evidence of this backfiring!)

And when we talk about using social media in learning, indeed the changing of nature of education more generally, we always end up talking about the lecturer giving up control. I've struggled with understanding how the role of the lecturer is changing as we move to this model, but I find that considering the three social media marketing elements I discussed in my previous post allows us to draw parallels putting the lecturer in the role of the marketeer:

Aims: In marketing you are usually trying to increase and encourage customer engagement with your produce/service, whereas in education you are doing the same - but for the subject area you are teaching.

Value: As the marketeer using social media you are offering customers knowledge, new content and customer support - this maps easily to the role of the lecturer.

Audience: In marketing you tend to go to where you know your customer is, or do your best to drag them where you want them (usually your site). In education you have more freedom to use the platform of your choice, as your learners should(?) do what you tell them if they want to complete the course - but it would be wise to understand what social media your learners use already to maximise effectiveness.

What do you think? Can we learn from marketing to move education forward? Is there some aspect of social learning we can use to provide clever marketing opportunities? I'll let you know...