Archive for December, 2008
With the economic downturn, 'Tis the time to be thrifty. Most of you have probably been asked to kiss goodbye 10%, 20% or even more of your office budget for this year. Not yet? Well, I hate to say that, but it's probably coming your way for next year. So, I've decided to take on a new mission: hunt vendor deals and other bargains for you my dear readers. When I stumble upon a great deal offered by higher ed vendors, I'll make sure to let you know (and, here is your cue if you're working for a higher ed vendor...
Read MoreAnd, that's just the program for the months of January, February and March 2009. I've just wrapped up the upcoming webinar series for the first quarter of 2009, and I hope you'll like the result. With the tougher budget times we're all facing in higher education, I've decided to focus the next webinar series I design for Higher Ed Experts on topics that will help you do more with less: social media, saving big, going paperless with your publications and implementing effective analytics programs for your Web and email initiatives. As usual, places are limited, so it's always wise to register ahead of...
Read MoreIt's that time of the year to reflect about what was done (and written) during the last 12 or so months. In the past (in 2005, 2006 but not last year though), I compiled a few lists of blog posts for you. So, here is another one: the list of the top 10 most viewed posts that were published in 2008 on this blog - each of them was viewed more than 1,000 times, so I guess you might want to add them to your reading list if you skipped them previously. How to get a branded YouTube channel for your...
Read MoreI wrote about UM holiday card last year, so I guess that's why Linda Martin, Executive Director Web and New Media Strategies sent a link to the 2008 edition this morning: Holiday Greetings from the University of Maryland Like last year, the 2-minute video is also available on Youtube (56 views at the time of this writing): 'Tis the season (even though it doesn't feel like it sometimes with all the bad economic/budget news), so why don't you share with us the holiday card of your institution by posting a comment. If I get a few, I'll feature them in a future post.
Do you Ning? If you're not familiar with Ning, here's what I wrote about it in University Business a couple of months ago: Launched in October 2004, Ning is a social networking platform aimed at giving anyone the opportunity to create social networks for anything. Offered as a free web service-with some premium options for minimal monthly costs-Ning now powers thousands of niche social networking websites. With extended privacy settings and flexible state-of-the-art social networking features, this platform has gained some traction in higher education as a viable alternative to solutions offered by traditional vendors. Among the institutions using the Ning platform are...
Read MoreDon't know if you got a chance to read "Getting Consumers to Spend $150,000 With a Viral Effort," this article published Monday in Advertising Age, but I'm pretty sure we would all love to have our institution featured in such a positive way in any media outlet (minus the price tag in the headline, maybe, in these difficult economic times): I'm not in the market yet. But the other day, my 12-year-old, Morry, showed me this funny video clip he'd seen on one of the free online games he plays. (Yes, we're cheap and we're raising cheap kids.) It showed a...
Read MoreI'm currently working on my next column for University Business to be published in February 2009. This article will present 10 very practical tips to do more (or as well) with less (budget, people, time, etc), which explains why my main focus lately has been on the economic downturn and its consequences for higher education. Even though economic crises can usually translate into positive outcomes (increased enrollment with many laid-off workers going back to college to upgrade their skill set), I have serious doubts about it in this specific case. Didn't the whole thing started with a financing meltdown? The...
Read MoreI've been thinking about this for a while now: How can we manage to keep up with all the amazing content and interesting conversations taking place in so many higher ed websites and blogs? I tried the catch-up-date post a few weeks ago on this blog, but realized quickly they were also drawn in the sea of published content. So, then I thought about email (maybe because I was promoting the Email Marketing 360 webinar series starting tomorrow) Why not try to compile the best of the content published on all the sites we wish we could visit more often in a...
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Lin Larson on 
Julie on 