Meet #hesm pros to follow: Dan Zaiontz (@danzaiontz) from @SenecaCollege on social media success, challenges & tips

Dan Zaiontz, Special Projects Coordinator & Marketing Professor at Seneca College, is one of the 15 higher ed professionals who presented at the 2nd Higher Ed Social Media Conference (now available on-demand).

Dan is the author of an upcoming book about college presidents using social media, “#FollowTheLeader: Best Practices in Social Media for Higher Education CEOs.” He also teaches at his institution and works on special projects for the Strategic Planning and Public Affairs division.

In this 3-question interview, Dan tells us about his most successful initiative with social media, his biggest challenge and shares some advice on how to cope with the 24/7 world of social media in higher education. Oh – and he also granted my request for a selfie!

1) What is the most successful social media initiative you’ve run over the past year?

I used Twitter to recruit college and university presidents to partake in my study of social media best practices for higher ed leaders.

This effort was successful, in part, because Twitter (like other social networks) provided me with a direct channel to reach individuals that I would otherwise have a challenging time connecting with – namely, senior executives at North American colleges and universities.

Since social media does away with the traditional gatekeepers that might make reaching college presidents an arduous task, I was able to gather insights from a number of dynamic higher ed leaders who were active on Twitter (and other social networks). Interestingly, this lack of gatekeepers also makes life for higher ed leaders on social media somewhat… uncertain– from one perspective, their stakeholders and constituents can engage with them like never before; from another perspective, with such engagement comes unique risks and opportunities. My presentation will highlight some of the key ways the presidents I spoke to navigate and negotiate those ups and downs.

2) What is the biggest challenge you face in your social media work? How do you cope with it?

Leaders and senior executives continue to see social media as something they feel obligated to do, struggle to find the time for and view it as offering little in the way of return on investment. I help them to see the potential opportunities in social media engagement by highlighting some of the possible benefits such as intelligence gathering, promotion of thought leadership and strategic relationship building.

3) Social media work never stops. How do you maintain balance in your life & work given this constraint? Any tips, techniques or tools?

It’s no big secret that tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck help social media users share content with followers even when you are away from your smartphone. I’m a big fan of those tools in terms of scheduling content at certain times. I’m also a fan of tools like Sprout Social that help you better understand who you are engaging with.