This project is funded by Gebert Rüf Stiftung, the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research and HEC Lausanne, Département des systèmes d'information

Abstract
The project „Social Media and Academic Communication“ (swissnex China in cooperation with HEC Lausanne, Département des systèmes d'information) aims to investigate the potential of Chinese social networking services to promote „Campus Switzerland“ in China.

A fact which is not much known to the average European audience is that Chinese social networking services (SNS) are amongst the fastest growing ones in the world: Sina Weibo is currently the leader in China (200 million users, 800’000 active users, 80 million postings per day as of October 2011) but other platforms such as Douban (for cultural and general contents) or Renren are also important players in the Chinese social medial landscape. More and more companies and institutions are using Chinese social media for their marketing activities. Foreign institutions (diplomatic and other official institutions as well as private companies) have also recently joined the bandwagon and use social media in order to promote their services, products and brands to the Chinese audience.  The availability and popularity of these social media tools is shifting the weight away from more traditional communication tools (press, TV, radio) towards digital means of communication. In addition, compared with Western academic institutions, Chinese academic institutions are highly visible on Chinese social networks. 

On this background, our project wants to answer the following question: To what extent are Chinese social networking services (SNSs) effective tools to promote „Campus Switzerland“ in China? The goal is to provide recommendations for Swiss higher education institutions on how to navigate the complex Chinese SNS landscape.

A number of sub-questions will help us address our central research question:
-        Stocktaking: To what extent are Swiss academic institutions active in the Chinese SNS landscape?
-        Benchmarking: How are other countries (e.g., Germany, France, UK and Canada) promoting their educational activities via SNS and other online media?
-        Demands:  Which Swiss institutions might be interested in promoting their activities via Chinese SNS? Which content is to be promoted?
-        Target assessment: What are the target audiences in China (students, parents; researchers, professors; universities, private institutions)?
-        Channel assessment: Which are the most relevant Chinese channels for „Campus Switzerland“ in terms of content, importance and scope for a particular audience?

Pilot project
In partnership with a selected number of Swiss (e.g., EPFL, University of Zürich, ZHAW, SUPSI) and Chinese academic institutions, we will develop and implement a pilot project over a 5-months period of time to assess the use of SNS in promoting „Campus Switzerland” to a Chinese audience (students interested in studying in Switzerland; universities wanting to cooperate or already cooperating with Swiss institutions). The pilot will also provide insights as how to organize the workflow to ensure the most effective presence of „Campus Switzerland” on Chinese SNS.
The current activities of swissnex China on different Chinese social networking platforms and its experiences will provide additional research input.

Was is the project aiming at?
The project aims to raise awareness amongst Swiss academic institutions about the importance of the Chinese education market and the fact that there is a way to connect to this market via social networking services.
Furthermore, the project targets to provide Swiss academic institutions with an informed basis for the decision as to using Chinese SNS to promote their excellence – as a destination for cooperations, studies or research.
The end result is to deliver a set of recommendations to Swiss academic institutions for navigating the landscape of Chinese social networks.

January – March 2012
Our research will focus on the following steps:
- An analysis on the different Chinese SNS and their functionalities in order to get a clear picture of their usage in the educational-scientific context.
- Identification of best practices as how to communicate via SNS to a Chinese audience
- Establishment of a clear picture of the needs of „Campus Switzerland“ by doing interviews and discussing with selected partnering institutions.

April – May 2012
Based on the needs of the Swiss institutions and the possibilities offered by Chinese SNS, we will develop a prototype communication structure and together with our partner institutions identify the content to be channeled to the Chinese audience.

June – October 2012
During this phase, we will launch the pilot project with our partnering institutions and monitor and analyze the SNS activities by the sample „Campus Switzerland”.

November – December 2012
We will draft recommendations on the usage of SNS to promote "Campus Switzerland" (based on the findings from the pilot project) and publish a White Paper on the use of SNS for the promotion of academic institutions in China (including a description of the SNS landscape).

Publications
The publication of a White Paper on the use of SNS for the promotion of academic institutions in China is scheduled for December 2012.

Links
GRS: http://www.grstiftung.ch
HEC Lausanne: http://www.hec.unil.ch/hec/home
swissnex San Francisco: http://swissnexsanfrancisco.org
Partner University/UAS: tbd