Lately, I'm suffering from a very bad case of information overload. So many things to read... So many things to comment on... So many things to blog about... It has become more and more difficult to keep up with all the interesting initiatives, discussions and happenings taking place in higher ed. That's why I've decided to try something different and challenge myself to act as a better editor by providing a regular (I'll shoot for weekly) selection of the information you can't afford to miss if you're working in web, marketing and PR in higher education: "Catch up-Date with Karine." Published early in the...
Read MoreThat's what I've learned this morning by reading "Emergency Alerts via Facebook and MySpace Are New Ways to Reach Students," an article written by Jeffrey Young from the Chronicle of Higher Education. A group of researchers at the [University of Maryland at College Park] is also working to build a prototype of a homemade social network for the university's Web site designed for use in emergency situations. The project is an outgrowth of work by Ben Shneiderman, a professor of computer science at the university, and Jennifer J. Preece, dean of the university's College of Information Studies. They published an article...
Read MoreThe University of Bath Web Services team didn't expressively request any help, but if any higher ed web developer can provide some tips, it looks like it would be more than welcome as Phil Wilson hints in this blog post: So, two days in, and dealing with FBML, the Facebook API and the low quality of the documentation has felt very much like playing a Grand Master at chess, only he won’t tell you the rules. None of this is to say that we haven’t made progress of course (because we have!), but it has meant we’ve had to revise our initial...
Read MoreWhen I was asked to present the closing keynote at eduWeb 2008 last October, I said to myself: "this is great! For the first time in my life, I'm 100% sure I will have the last word ;-)" Then, when I picked my topic, "It's the community, Stupid! 7-step plan to raise and nurture any community online," the idea of standing alone talking about the community for 45 minutes or so felt a bit weird. That's the reason why I asked Brad Ward from Butler University, Mike Caulfield from Keene State College and Adam Stahr from UNL to share on camera some...
Read MoreAre you responsible for your institution's social networking website? Do you manage your university's Facebook Page or Group? Are you in charge of the online community targeted to your alums or students? Keep reading. I'm currently working on the closing keynote I'll give on July 23 at the eduWeb conference (as well as an upcoming University Business column on the topic): It's the community, stupid ... 7-step plan to raise and nurture any community online Blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more have made their ways in higher education. Whether you work in admissions, communications, marketing, PR, student...
Read MoreYesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours reviewing the 3 nominated websites for the eduStyle Awards in the "Best Use of Video" category: Boston University, NJIT and University of Notre Dame. I watched all the videos accessible from the 3 websites and even checked out the YouTube channels of these 3 institutions. After spending some time watching the videos available on these YouTube channels (and a few others), I was surprised to see that many videos still don't follow these 5 basic rules - and thus might not realize their full potential: Make your video visual, short and fast-paced You really got...
Read MoreChances are you've already read this article published today in the New York Times: College Alumni Magazines Struggle to Compete With Facebook. The article written by Cate Doty doesn't provide any breaking news as higher ed blogger D.W. noted in her post published earlier today: News of the Obvious: Younger Alumni Turn to Facebook Versus Class Notes. But, the piece is definitely an interesting overview worth sharing with your VP or president - especially if you want to build your case to add a digital interactive version for your print magazine (and, if you plan to do so, you might want...
Read MoreUPDATE: Facebook doesn't support anymore the process described in this post. Sorry :( As you probably know if you've been reading this blog for some time, Facebook pages have been a late addition to the feature list of the social networking website. Last November, Facebook pages were launched as a way to provide businesses, brands, organizations and higher ed institutions with a way to set their own profile on the network. On Facebook, profiles have always been reserved to individuals. Some institutions learned it the hard way by having their institutional profiles taken down. Before Facebook Pages were launched, groups were the...
Read MoreI had a very interesting experience this morning presenting a session about higher ed podcasting in the US to a room full of people at the University of Warwick in the UK. No long flight or dreadful jet lag required (but no nice sightseeing in the UK either :-). I did my presentation using WebEx and my dear webcam. What was really neat about this experience was the fact that Tom Abbott, Web Manager at the University of Warwick -- who invited me to present in the first place at the Podcasting for Education conference -- took the time to...
Read MoreHigher Ed Experts was officially launched on April 23, 2007. It was supposed to go live on April 17, but it just didn't feel right to do it as scheduled after the tragedy that stroke Virginia Tech. As you can imagine, I had many sleepless nights in April 2007 working on the launch of this new website as well as the new venture it was supposed to support. Since the launch (and the rocky start with my first web conferencing vendor - I now work with WebEx, the market leader), I've witnessed more than 1,200 people working in universities and colleges...
Read MoreJust forward this article published yesterday in the eMarketer newsletter (but hurry, these are usually only accessible for a limited-time only): "Student Noses Buried in Facebooks". According to Youth Trends' February 2008 “Top Ten List Report,” Facebook and YouTube are included in the top 3 picks for favorite websites - ahead of Google - named by college students. Heard recently about Facebook fatigue? Here's eMarketer analyst's take on the new buzz word: "Although some have suggested that consumers are less interested in social networking than they once were, that is clearly not the case for college students,” said Debra Aho Williamson,...
Read MoreThis morning, I received a few emails asking if it was still possible to register for the March 4-6 webinar series about Facebook applications (the initial registration deadline was yesterday). As a result, I decided to postpone the registration deadline until this Thursday (Feb 28) at 8PM ET. If you want to learn more on how to engage students via Facebook applications, this 3-webinar series featuring Chris Mocko (KissMe creator & Stanford graduate student), Mike Richwalsky (Allegheny College) and Dr. Tony Hirst (The Open University) should help. Institutions registered for this series include: Tufts University RIT/NTID Saint Michael's College Alfred University Berkeley College US Naval Academy Alumni Association University...
Read MoreThe popular social networking website has just announced yesterday a few new features for its Facebook pages on the Facebook page dedicated to Facebook pages (gosh, how many times can I write "Facebook" in a single sentence? ;-) including the following: Users will be able to upload photos to Pages. Check the settings on the Photos application on your Page to turn this on or off. You can now replace your profile picture on your page with dynamic content, including flash and fbml (a subset of html). Just install one of the apps (links to them are on the Facebook Pages page)...
Read MoreAccording to a tip from a reader, I should be able to add a new entry to my higher ed facebook application directory soon. If this email from US News & World Report (that was forwarded to me this morning) is to be believed, this application will be launched along with a Facebook page for the release of the 2009 edition America's Best Graduate Schools at the end of March: [...] Facebook page and application that will be an all‑inclusive resource for information on graduate schools, rankings, and the grad school selection process for users and their friends. Using data...
Read MoreBy now, you've probably heard (or seen on TV or on the Web) what happened last night at Union University in Jackson, TN. As reported by Ashley Anthony of The Jackson Sun in "Union University tornado damage update", 2 dormitories were destroyed in Tuesday night's tornado, 51 students were taken to the hospital and 9 stayed overnight. But, this emergency situation also made another casualty: the university website. As far as I can tell, the website was down all this morning -- until 12:30PM ET. Since an error page including an online form showed up at that time, I guess it wasn't due to...
Read MoreI've just filled out an online survey from Jupiter Research about online social marketing with lots of questions about blogs, social networking websites, facebook widgets (or applications as they are called by facebook) and the likes. While more and more big brands are starting to engage their target audiences on facebook via these applications, only a few universities and colleges (fewer than 20 as you can see in my higher ed facebook application directory) have created an application of their own. Kind of strange when you think about it. Almost all our student population (prospective, current and even young alums) live inside...
Read MoreMy first UB column for 2008 (geez, I'm starting my third year with University Business, time passes by so quickly) is now available in the February issue as well as online: "Facebook Applications: The Game Changer?" I borrowed the catchy title from Allegheny College Mike Richwalsky's and Josh Tischianey's presentation at HighEdWebDev in Rochester, NY. In this piece, I provide several examples of Facebook applications built by higher ed institutions. You can find direct links to these applications in my new Higher Ed Facebook Applications directory, a selection of 26 interesting apps currently available. Last, if you'd like to learn how to...
Read MoreThis has been a busy week in the social networking website world. Last Monday, a few days before the launch of the new Facebook features, Yahoo! launched a new social networking website targeted to college students and alums: Kickstart. Scott Gatz, Senior Director of Yahoo's Advanced Products, manages the Kickstart's team. Despite a busy week, Scott has taken the time to answer a few questions about this new website just for you (read the end of the interview for more information about the $25,000). 1) Your team has just launched Kickstart, a new social networking website for college students and...
Read MoreThat's the big question of the day with the launch of Facebook pages, a new feature of the popular social networking website introduced to Facebook users this morning on the company blog: You now have a way to connect with things you are passionate about. We've launched Facebook Pages, which are distinct, customized profiles designed for businesses, bands, celebrities and more to represent themselves on Facebook. And, here is how the new feature was introduced to businesses and other organizations now welcome (profiles have been reserved to individuals since the beginning) to "establish an interactive presence on Facebook:" Every Facebook Page is a...
Read MoreIf you couldn't make it to Rochester last week for HighEdWebDev, I've got good news for you: you can watch 3 of the presentations (including the best of the conference by popular vote) given at the conference courtesy of the conference committee, the presenters and Higher Ed Experts (yours truly) for... free! You'll need to be a HEE member (free membership is open to you if you work in a higher ed institution at www.higheredexperts.com/register) and to register online. For more information, visit www.higheredexperts.com/highedwebdev As you've figured it out by reading the title of this post, this free webinar series will help you...
Read MoreMark Heiman from Carleton College presented a session titled "Social Networking Software: Meeting the Expectations of the MySpace Generation." The presentation was covered by one of this year's guest blogger. This is Martine Lafleur's second post. Mark Heiman’s presentation kept me on my toes with great graphics, just the right touch of cynicism and good storytelling (not just slide reading). Here is the story: After hearing from their Alumni service the dreaded words: "we are meeting with vendors" to add interaction capabilities to the web site, the web team at Carleton College pleaded to have time to evaluate the project before anything...
Read MoreThis morning I really wanted to attend two sessions scheduled at the same time: Jay Collier's presentation and the panel discussion about crisis communications and technology. So, when I saw Josh Tysiachney from Allegheny College in the "Social Applications and Content" room, I asked him if he could do me a big favor and blog Jay's session. Josh stood up to the challenge and became a guest blogger on the fly. This is Josh's post Jay Collier from Bates College provided an informative session on why it is important for higher ed web professionals to be aware of what's being said...
Read MoreWant to watch the recording of this session? It's available for free as a screencast to people working in universities or colleges at www.higheredexperts.com/highedwebdev ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dimitri Glazkov, one of this year's guest bloggers, covered the session about the Facebook Platform presented by Mike Richwalsky and Josh Tysiachney, the Allegheny College Web Team. This is Dimitri's first post. Presented by Mike Richwalsky and Josh Tysiachney from Allegheny College, this session was definitely a bleeding edge affair. Mike and Josh represent a small fraction of colleges that actually use Facebook. Not only that, they also build Facebook applications, and this, no doubt earns them...
Read MoreSeth Meranda, one this year's guest bloggers, sat in this session presented by Matt Herzberger from the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. This is Seth's first post. Matt started his presentation with The Machine is US/ing Us. Where to Start To begin with, Matt gave a quick review of major social media tools, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, WordPress, Flickr, Wikipedia and del.icio.us. In addition, he discussed the importance of knowing what exists about your institution on these sites. You can’t control these, however as a marketer and developer you should be aware of the conversations taking...
Read MoreAfter the registration deadline expired yesterday evening, I received a few emails asking if I could give people a bit more time to register for the October 1-5 webinar series about social networking websites: Social Networking Websites Week - All You Ever Wanted to Know about MySpace, Facebook and Co: October 1-5 2007 Social networking sites are the number one destination for students, and connecting with them through this new medium can be a powerful way to inform and create interest. "Social Networking Websites Week" brings together experts from across the country to teach you more about how to use MySpace and...
Read MoreIf you read this blog, you probably understand how important Facebook has become for our prospective and current students as well as our younger alums. While this new communication channel should always be used with caution by higher ed institutions to avoid "invading" their students' primary social hang out, it makes a lot of sense to take advantage of advertising opportunities offered by the platform (and I don't make a dime by writing this - although if Mark Zuckenberg and any Facebook Execs read these lines, chocolates or flowers are always welcome ;-). One of the cheapest (that could also be the...
Read MoreI've already posted a couple of times about "Social Networking Websites Week - All You Ever Wanted to Know about MySpace, Facebook and Co," a 5-webinar series scheduled on October 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (with the 50% discount for HEE members, the total price for the webinars is just $250 - more information is available at www.higheredexperts.com/socialnetworking) that I designed for Higher Ed Experts, so this is just a quick reminder of the registration deadline. Registration will close this Monday. If you plan to attend, you can register online. Don't forget to join Higher Ed Experts first at www.higheredexperts.com/register...
Read MoreIn "Facelifts for the Facebook Generation" published today in Inside Higher Ed, Andy Guess gives a good round-up of the web design trends in higher education: As universities start to unveil the next generation of college Web sites, their efforts include a mix of approaches that tend to overlap. Lewis and other Web administrators note several trends: * The Facebooking of college Web sites. Lewis said colleges were looking toward variations on social networking to keep in touch with students after they graduate and maintain databases for fund raising. [...] * Showing, not telling. Simon...
Read MoreAfter interviewing Fred Stutzman for my UB column about social networking websites, I invited him to present the first session of Social Networking Websites Week, the 5-webinar series I designed for Higher Ed Experts: October 1st, 2007 1PM-2PM ET Visa for MySpace and Facebook: do’s and don’t’s for higher ed institutions exploring the new social networking frontier Fred Stutzman, a facebook and social networking expert working on his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science, will provide an introduction to the unwritten rules of these popular social networking websites. He will also discuss the...
Read MoreThat's one of the findings of "The Game Has Changed: College Admissions Outpace Corporations in Embracing Social Media," the preliminary executive summary of a study conducted by 2 academics from the Center for Marketing Research of the University of Massachussets at Dartmouth: Nora Barnes, Ph.D. and Eric Mattson. This study is based on detailed interviews with 453 admissions departments as explained by both searchers in the introduction of their online report: The responding institutions are diverse in student size (from under 50 students to over 50,000), annual tuition (from less than $1,000 to over $40,000), funding (69% private, 31% public) and...
Read MoreI've been working on these 3 new webinar series for a while now, and I hope you'll find these 3 programs (11 webinars in total) by Higher Ed Experts interesting and useful for you, your team and your institution: Lights, Camera, Action - How to Add Online Videos to Your Marketing Mix September 11, 12, & 13 2007 - 3 webinars for $150 Online Video Production 101: Tools, Tips and Tricks to Shoot and Produce Web Videos by Andy Mrozkowski, Admissions and Marketing Webmaster at Mars Hill College Cover Your Own News for YouTube (and the Web) by James Todd, Writer and...
Read MoreIf most of your advertising budget is spent on newspaper and magazine ads, probably not. That is if JupiterResearch, an independent firm providing research to the online industry, is right. According to one of its recent reports, published last week, "Media Consumption Patterns: Online Vies with TV As Primary Medium," online users spend as much time online as they spend watching TV, while users under the age of 35 spend more time online than on TV. The press release also points out a mind-boggling fact about advertising spendings: Despite this trend, however, advertisers continue to spend disproportionately on print, with newspapers garnering...
Read MoreWhile more and more universities and colleges are looking into the opportunities offered by the third-party social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook or by private social networking applications offered by vendors, Elon University has chosen a DIY approach. Over the course of 4 months, a team of four built what now looks like a pretty good "Facebook clone," a social networking application including networks for students, faculty and staff members, alumni and parents: E², Elon's Town Square. I first heard about this interesting initiative about a month ago. David Morton, Elon's Web Manager, will be presenting a webinar on...
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