Facebook unlocked the Timeline format for Pages only a week ago. As usual with changes on Facebook, the higher ed community has been very quick at adopting the new feature. I was curious to see what some of the early adopters in higher education had done with this long-expected new format (when it was released for Facebook profiles, many wished it for their Pages). It's available as a preview to every Page Admin for now, so the switch is still optional. However, it will be rolled out to all Facebook Pages on March 30, 2012. So, I did a bit of totally unscientific...
Read MoreUPDATED on Jan 27, UWGB and other institutions got their official pages back, for details, check the bottom of this post. After reading Todd Sanders' blog post on how the official UWGB Facebook page was hijacked by Facebook (basically by switching the institutional page with the "community-generated" FB page), I asked Wednesday morning on Twitter and Facebook if anybody else in higher education had noticed any change. Twitter / @karinejoly: Facebook has stolen offici ... And, it looks like a few other institutions are in the same boat including Ithaca College, Monroe CC, Radford University, etc. Check yours and let us know if your...
Read MoreFacebook finally rolled out its new profile format, Timeline, to all users before the holiday break. Beyond sharing in a timeline format all you ever did on Facebook (that is if you don't edit your privacy settings), your new Facebook user profile has now a reserved space for a Cover Photo, the equivalence of the big banner image that is so popular on higher ed homepages - and other websites or blogs. Some Facebook users have already come up with some VERY creative (or just plain fun like the one Todd Sanders, aka @tsand, from UWGB used on his profile as shown...
Read MoreFollowing in the footsteps of Tuft University that started to accept videos in place of traditional essays last year, the University of Dayton has decided to offer to its prospective students the opportunity to make an "audiovisual" impression as part of their college application and... get a chance to win a $40,000 scholarship over 4 years at the same time. This scholarship contest, embedded in the college application process, is an original twist on recent social media campaigns conducted by different institutions. Video contests are not new in higher education, but what's different this time is the fact that the winning...
Read MoreLast week Kyle James reminded us that the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachussets Dartmouth had just published the results of its latest study on social media use in higher ed. With 456 interviews performed from November 2010 to May 2011 among a representative sample of 4-year institutions in the US, the findings of this study are valid within a +/- 4% range. While they confirm some widely-shared assumptions on the state of social media in higher education, these results also reveal some surprising trends. According to this study, 100% of colleges and universities now use some form of...
Read MoreI've tweeted on several occasion about Betsy Soler's YouTube videos. Betsy is the community manager in charge of social media at FIU and she hosts this video series. These weekly videos offer a review of FIU latest news and feature comments from students and other members of the community, comments posted during the week on other social media platforms. Haven't watched one of these yet? Do it now! While the videos are well-produced, fun and engaging, I really love the fact that they fully integrate (in a meaningful and smart way) all the different pieces of the FIU social media puzzle. This...
Read MoreMeasuring the return on investment (ROI) of social media initiatives isn’t easy – definitely far more difficult than using Facebook, Twitter and the likes. However, while 68% of the respondents to the second CASE survey on social media practices in higher education think measuring the ROI of their social media initiatives is tough, it’s not impossible. It’s not even THAT difficult. You just need to learn how to use social media analytics – and then get on the program (and if you want to find out where you stand when it comes to web and social media analytics, make sure you take my...
Read MoreEverybody wants to know how social media is doing in higher education lately (unless it is how higher ed is doing social media ;-) Slover Linett Strategies Inc., mStoner and CASE have just released the high-level results of their Second Comprehensive Study of Social Media Use by Schools, Colleges and Universities (you can find more info about the first study on Michael Stoner's blog). This study was conducted via an online survey. In March 2011 a random sample of 18,000 CASE members was invited via email to complete this survey about social media strategies and practices. A total of 951 responded resulting...
Read MoreUPDATE: Congratulations to Shane Donaldson from the University of Rhode Island! It's Christmas in March (and not just because of the late snow some of us have seen last week)! You might not know it, but I always try to use the leverage I have in higher ed to get some cool prizes for you - that's my way to say thanks for your time and support. As a result, this week, you're getting a chance to win a free pass for the higher ed track of the J.Boye conference taking place in Philaldephia on May 4, 2011. And, let me tell you...
Read MoreHave you ever read Facebook Terms of Services or promotion guidelines, Twitter Rules or LinkedIn User Dos and Don'ts? If you have, congratulations! You are among the (happy?) few. How can I be so sure? I regularly come across examples of institutions (and companies) conducting social media initiatives on these platforms in breach with these rules. And, if you have a closer look at social media practices in higher education and elsewhere, you can also easily spot several of those "outlaws" these campaigns breaking the TOS or other guidelines supposed to govern the use of these services. Don't want to take...
Read MoreA picture is worth a thousand words. But, what about an infographic? Rumor has they might be worth millions of dollars - which is probably why they have multiplied like crazy for the past few months. A good one can get you featured on Mashable, the Holy Grail of online PR. It can result in thousands of retweets, likes, links and clicks. No wonder the online education lead generation industry - among others - has been churning infographics out like there's no tomorrow. While I was doing research for the online graduate course about social media campaigns I'm currently designing and...
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, Texas A&M University ran an integrated (mashed up?) social media campaign on campus using not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of the most popular social media platforms, namely Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Foursquare. When I watched the YouTube video announcing the campaign (on Patrick Powers' blog), I was impressed by its production quality and decided to learn more about it. Diane C. McDonald, Director of Social Media (cool job title) at Texas A&M University was kind enough to answer my questions so we can all learn from her experience planning and running this...
Read MoreUnless you haven't been checking twitter this past few days, you must have heard about the MB Tweet Race that just took place. As I explained a couple of weeks ago on this blog, Todd Sanders (@tsand) from UW Green Bay took part in a social media campaign orchestrated by an automaker, a real race - between 4 teams riding real cars across America - powered by twitter fuel provided by supporters and friends. Todd and John should be winning WON this race (results have been announced at 4PM ET) - even though they were seen as the underdogs in terms of...
Read MoreDon't think we can do it? Well, yes, we can. Thanks to Todd Sanders who works at the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay, we have a unique opportunity to do it very simply. We just need to rally this great community behind Todd and another member of our higher ed family, John Pederson, and help them win a race against 3 other teams composed of TV personalities, wonder mothers and tech gurus. I realized how talented Todd was in front and behind a camera whe we worked together last Fall on a video sponsored by Higher Ed Experts to introduce Steve...
Read MoreIt's been awhile since my last 1-1-1 Express Book Review (see what it is in this post). Not that I stopped reading books all together, but something else always came in the way of writing these reviews. Anyway, I'm back at it. O'Reilly's PR person sent me a pitch about the facebook marketing book by Dan and Alison Zarrella a couple of weeks ago. I got the book in the mail last week and took the time to read it from cover to cover, so I could review it for you guys. So, here's the 1-1-1 Express Review for the facebook marketing...
Read MoreOur little world of higher ed has finally its cable TV talk show - except it's not on cable TV and it's pretty good. It looks like Seth Odell (who works at UCLA and blogs at As Media Change) did it. After weeks of preparation Seth has launched a great new project: Higher Ed Live, a 30-minute live streaming show scheduled on Sundays at 7PM ET. While I didn't managed to watch the show live, I caught the archived version this morning. Tim Nekritz from SUNY Oswego was the inaugural guest and did a great job sharing news and resources about Facebook Places,...
Read MoreLast week Rick Stutz, Coordinator of E-Communications at Juniata College, emailed me to share the video tour that was created for his college's library. This funny 4-minute video piqued my interest, so I decided to find out how it had been done. Rick Stutz, Nathan Wagoner, Director of the Digital Media Studio and John Mumford, Library Director (who stars in the video) answered collectively my questions by email. 1) Can you tell us a bit more on how this video was produced? The idea started with a simple insight: a 'tour' of a building like...
Read MoreThe good folks of Noel-Levitz have just released their E-Expectations 2010 Report presenting the results of their latest survey of 1,005 college-bound high school students. This 12-page report is full of really great findings that should help you fine tune your student recruitment strategy. So, make sure you download the PDF file who is made available to the public for free. Here are a few things of interest (there are more, so make sure you read the report): While many (including yours truly) have been announcing the death of print marketing, this report seems to indicate that paper isn't dead for high school...
Read MoreI know this is a very long title for a short post, but what I can say... Last week Fortune released its list of the smartest people in tech in several categories. Dr danah boyd, who will present an online master class about the social media practices of young adults this Thursday for Higher Ed Experts, was nominated the smartest academic in Tech. The smartest people in tech - Smartest Academic: danah boyd - FORTUNE So, this online master class is your chance to listen to the smartest academic in tech this week. Registration are open until tomorrow (July 13) end...
Read MoreYou might have heard about it after Facebook developer conference, F8, back in April but the new Facebook Analytics dashboard was officially rolled out on all accounts a few hours ago. You can access it from www.facebook.com/insights. One of the really cool new feature is the possibility to add a bit of code to your website to link it to Facebook Insights to get some real data on how your fans interact with your own web content. Want a quick (well, 15-minute long) tour of this new feature? Just watch this video recorded at F8. Fast forward at 4'30 and stop around...
Read MoreWith all the current buzz around the professional use of Twitter, Facebook or YouTube in admissions, alum offices or institutions at large, it's hard to believe that social media has been around in higher ed for 5 years or so. While MySpace isn't the talk of the (campus) town anymore, it played an important role - a few years ago - in this social media tsunami. At that time, danah boyd was already studying and researching these websites -- and her work made me think about the possibilities for admissions marketing practices back in February 2006. More recently, I shared...
Read MoreA frightening and yet interesting thing happened to Rachel Reuben from SUNY New Paltz a few days ago. The Facebook page she created 2 years ago for her university disappeared. Rachel tried everything to get the page back as she explained in a post she wrote last week:Feeling Naked: A Tale of the Disappearing Facebook Fan Page. Long story short: Rachel finally got her page back but not the 5,000 fans - although Facebook has since let her know that they are investigating the issue. SUNY New Paltz | Facebook This incident and especially the lack of responsiveness from Facebook definitely put...
Read MoreMy new UB column is now available in the October issue as well as online: "Social Media Measurement 101: A seven-step plan to set up (and benefit from) a simple social measurement program " Here are the 7 steps: 1. Define measurable goals for social media activities. 2. Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) carefully. 3. Plan ahead and properly set up the right measurement tools. 4. Capture the data at preset intervals. 5. Don’t forget some benchmarking. 6. Share your measurement data. 7. Use measurement data to craft your next moves. Social Media Measurement 101 If you are a University Business reader who...
Read MoreConcordia University's John Molson School of Business has used online videos to promote its Graduate Program in Business Administration with great success. I stumbled upon this mini-series composed of 4 different YouTube videos last week and found it very compelling. What I like about these videos is their punch, simple call-to-action (go to the website) and authenticity - it doesn't get more authentic with current students from JMBS talking right to prospective students. Really great work and great acting talent. That's why I contacted the manager of Concordia's YouTube channel to find out more about it. Shelagh Peden, Information & Project Coordinator at...
Read MoreThe registration deadline for the "Writing Right for the Web" 2-webinar series scheduled on May 5 and 6, 2009 is now approaching fast. For more info and to register, you can visit www.higheredexperts.com/writingright This series features 2 speakers who have mastered the art and craft of Web writing: Tim Nektriz from SUNY Oswego and Mary Beth Kurilko from Philadelphia U (and former Temple University) May 5, 2009 - 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: May 12, 2009) Web Writing 360: How to write right for all the online media Tim Nekritz, Associate Director of Public Affairs at SUNY Oswego and Chief Content Editor of Oswego.edu, will explain...
Read MoreOnce again I found in my inbox this morning a message from someone who wanted to register for the upcoming webinar series: “Saving Big″ (the initial registration deadline was yesterday at 9PM). As a result, I decided to postpone the registration deadline until next Friday (January 30, 2009) at 9PM ET. Register for Saving Big Webinars If you want to learn about a few creative ideas to save big on your publications and admissions marketing while getting great results, this 2-webinar series featuring Rachel Reuben (SUNY at New Paltz) and Joe Hice (The University of Florida) will be worth your time and...
Read MoreOur good friends from the Pew Internet and American Life Project have just released a very interesting 17-page report about adults and social networks websites. The big news in this report is the increased interest shown by online adults for Facebook and Co according to the results of two different surveys done in May and December 2008. The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years -- from 8% in 2005 to 35% now,1 according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s December 2008 tracking...
Read MoreUnless you were already on vacations or enjoying your office holiday party, you've probably heard about what some (and according to my sources, Andrew Careaga was the first to coin that term) have called "FacebookGate" A few days before Christmas, Brad Ward uncovered, on his blog, a scheme perpetuated by College Prowler and another company to create hundreds (more than 300 according to Brad's research) of Facebook "Class of 2013" groups under false pretense and using some trademarked material (logo, name, etc.) A lot has been written about the topic, but it looks like things have settled down on the Facebook...
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 MoreThis session is presented by Richard Hesel from the Art & Science Group. Why this research? studentPOLL is quarterly survey done since 1994 about different issues with a national sample. Now, sample is done through The College Board and their SAT takers database. 90% of every college-bound students visits social networking websites (97% of African American) 84% have a profile page (93% of African American) Why don't they have it? Parents 28% Don't have time 46% Facebook and MySpace dominate 79% on Facebook (55% for Hispanics), 69% on MySpace (Hispanics 88%) 60% Facebook the most often visited with MySpace far behind 38% 70% visit site at least once a day, 32% 3...
Read MoreThis session is presented by Marilyn Kail, AVP of Marketing and Communications and Jay Brown, Director of Marketing for Web Communications. First, CMU started with web 1.0 by doing a homepage redesign with a content management implementation. The old design was done in the mid-90's and... it showed. The new design breaks with the traditional horizontal photo banner format. Interesting take on the traditional higher ed university homepage. Then, CMU moved into Web 2.0 They captured other users on Facebook, YouTube and iTunes U. Very efficient channels that don't cost a dime. Being known as the "robotic" university, they decided to create viral edgy humorous videos: the...
Read MoreFor the past few days I've been busy wrapping up my presentation for the marathon 4-hour workshop I'll give this Sunday at the AMA Symposium for Higher Education. And, I can report that blogs aren't dead or "so 2004" as Paul Boutin would love his readers to believe after scanning his Wired article published on October 20, 2008: Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug. Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. [...] And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty...
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