Why Campus Sonar Is Focusing on Cultural Competency
A few months ago my colleague Shamell took us on an insightful journey around yielding and enrolling Black students. He highlighted strategies that emphasize the uniqueness of the Black student experience. In the very last sentence he made a call to action: Start by listening to Black people. This is why I’m here.
The Origin Story
I came across the job posting on Twitter: Social Media Data Analyst—Cultural Competency Specialization. Campus Sonar was looking for someone to "collect stories on the internet to share higher ed audiences' authentic experiences with our campus partners." Specifically, finding and understanding conversations from Black and brown communities to ensure these voices are uplifted and interpreted using a culturally competent lens.
I was drawn to the thorough and intentional details in the job description and background. I felt a strong alignment with my formal education in public relations and marketing and communications, much of which is rooted in social media, language, and conversational nuance. The bulk of my experience is in higher ed, where I worked in student life/cultural centers, complaints and appeals, and academics. College students are my specialty.
As a millennial black woman, I feel very much connected to my intersectional identities. I consider myself a pop culture nerd, I’m a fluent, native AAVE (African American Vernacular English) speaker, and an active social media user. TBH, I never had a position so transparently call to who I am as a person.
Now, as a Social Media Data Analyst, I amplify online conversation to support our partners in more holistic storytelling. I use my cultural competency knowledge to advocate for representing more diverse voices in our data.
What We Know
Folx more often share their experiences, positive or negative, in their social spheres, including the internet. Social listening is a powerful and incomparable tool for learning from these shared experiences.
Recognizing historically unheard voices provides a unique lens into campus climate.
Students choose to enroll and remain enrolled in colleges that represent their values.
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color) communicate in a variety of ways using the English language and cultural themes or references that may not be apparent to someone who isn’t regularly exposed to it.
Campuses and organizations need innovative expertise to navigate today’s digital communications landscape and become audience-centric.
Where We're Going
In my role I’m committed to collaborating with my team to listen consistently to all voices within our partner’s community. I’m intentionally contextualizing the experiences of non-white, LGTBQIA+, disabled, and other historically overshadowed voices. We strive to be inclusive across the spectrum of cultural competency with our most pressing business need being to find and understand conversations from Black communities.
Some ways we aim to meet our immediate needs include customizing and optimizing social listening software operations to account for alternative search terms (e.g., #BlackAt<campus> or #<campus>PrideMonth) and language variation and nuance to deliver online conversation data aligned with client research needs and goals. Additionally, our analyst-driven innovative insights on industry trends allow me to synthesize data observations and compare peer audience segments and historical data points using themes related to the BIPOC experience to understand what they reveal about higher ed opportunities. There is so much power in data informed strategy. It all starts with listening.
Stay tuned for more on my culturally competent focused industry trends and learn how your campus can benefit from Social listening for Social Justice. Interested in partnering with us? Learn more about our areas of expertise with organizations and institutions.
Jessica Houston
Social Media Data Analyst–Cultural Competency
Inductive Reasoning for Deeper Data
An internal a-ha moment inspired this article on inductive vs. deductive reasoning, and what it means for social listening.
(Nerds talking to each other on Slack. It was nerdy Sonarians on Slack). You read that correctly. Let’s get into it.
First, it’s pretty crucial to define what we mean by deductive and inductive reasoning—and where these processes differ.
With deductive reasoning, you start with general ideas and draw specific conclusions.
With inductive reasoning, you take specific observations and use them to form general conclusions.
Now how does this relate to social listening?
When utilizing a standard plug-and-play software, deductive reasoning rules: you’re starting from what you generally perceive about your audiences, then using the data you get to support or refute what you think you know.
You know that your audiences follow your @MyUniversity social media accounts, for example, and the software tracks how those followers respond to your posts—how many people see them, like them, engage. From there, you’re able to draw conclusions about what your audiences think about you, and support or refute your ideas about the type of content that resonates with them.
Or maybe, you believe “Topic X” is important. You tell the system that's something you want to track and give it the related keywords and hashtags. This gives you the chance to analyze the data that comes in about that particular topic, allowing you to make decisions and inferences about “Topic X” and its importance.
At Campus Sonar, we can (and do) utilize this method of listening. It has its place and can provide a lot of good information. But when it comes to creating a robust and holistic picture of your audiences, there’s still a pretty big gap:
What are people saying about you when they aren’t directly responding to your content?
What happens when they’re talking about “Topic X” in a slightly different way?
What happens when you thought “Topic X” was the big thing, but it’s really “Topic Y” (that you didn’t measure at all)?
We could go on.
These are some of the questions that inductive research helps answer, and where our Sonarian team shines. We don’t just enter a few key words; rather, we cast a wide net (using a robust Boolean query custom built for each client) to seek out mentions and conversations related to our partner institutions.
Our analysts then look at the results of that query—ranging from hundreds to thousands to millions of mentions depending on the topic and time frame—and validate it. We segment your data in ways that help us to process it and address your specific needs, then we get down to the business of analysis. We make observations, detect patterns, and produce insights we'd likely completely miss if we'd only used deductive methods.
We’re not making assumptions about your audience and then trying to prove them. We’re letting the conversation and the truths that lie within lead us and holding up a mirror to reflect what it truly shows.
With this approach, the Campus Sonar version of social listening (pairing comprehensive data with human expertise) “leaves no stone unturned.” We’re able to track, measure, and analyze earned conversation in a way software never could, and in doing so, we’re able to share an authentic view of your audience’s questions, opinions, celebrations, anxieties, and fears. Not just the data; but the story it tells.
We pair this newfound understanding of your audiences with your goals and your campus realities—we don’t just tell you what we found, we tell you what it means in relation to what you’ve identified as important. Then we walk alongside you to develop strategies for next steps, the tactics for putting plans into action, and the methods for measuring success.
This is where the learning, the opportunities, the change, and the magic … really happen.
Your audiences are out there, talking about you. You should be (inductively and deductively) listening to them. We can help.
Get insights from our latest industry trends research and understand how prioritizing relationships over algorithms can help you differentiate your campus.
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