PR & buzz

You might have already heard about this YouTube video as several higher ed bloggers (mstonerblog, The Old College Try and edustir among others) and twitterers have mentioned it this week.

President’s Day at Macalester College is a 5-minute online video featuring President Brian Rosenberg.

Not your traditional college president video at all.

This online video is a humorous insider’s tour of Macalester College where the president does all sort of things to showcase the school and its spirit.

Take the time to watch it now if you haven’t yet.

Released on President’s Day – just 4 days ago, the video has more than 15,000 views – it’s not a huge hit in YouTube terms, but it’s definitely a popular video that resonated with the MAC community as some of the comments on YouTube prove it.

Here are just a few among the 22 that were posted on YouTube at the time of this writing:

• I love this video! It makes me proud to be at Macalester. I think it takes courage and ability to look at things in a fun manner to do something like this. I am extremely proud to be a part of this community and I want to thank people whose creativity and hard work makes this college one of the most amazing academic environments in the country.
• That was great! ….. Makes me even prouder to be a “Mac Dad”! ;-)
• It’s this kind of self-aware humor that makes the Mac community awesome.

Since I know you are always interested in learning more about this kind of initiatives, I contacted Amy Phenix, director of Communications and PR at Macalester College, yesterday and asked her a few questions about this original video.

1) Can you tell us a bit more about this video? How did you get the idea? How did you convince your president to go for it?

The video was truly a collaborative effort with the president. We knew that we wanted to do more video as another way of engaging alumni. The communications team got together and brainstormed five concepts that we shared with the president and vice president for Advancement. I continued the brainstorm with them and we settled on President’s Day as the hook for a humorous look at campus and student life today, through the eyes of President Rosenberg. From the very first conversation, President Rosenberg was engaged. He came up with some of the funniest bits. No convincing was needed, which is a good thing because I don’t think it would have worked with a reluctant star.

2) How long did it take to create this video? How big was the team and how much did the video cost?

We shot all but one scene in a day (probably about 6 hours of shooting), and we turned it around edited in a week. It was a very fast production process and the shoot was well-orchestrated so we were able to stay on schedule.

The team included four people on our staff, plus an alum we hired to shoot and finalize the script.

It was very low-budget. Other than a freelance videographer, who spent about 40 hours on preparation, location scouting, script and shooting, we did all the work in house. Total cost was about $2,500.

3) How did you promote this video?

We sent it to our alumni (about half of whom we have email addresses for), friends, and current parents, promoted to the campus community, and posted on Facebook and Twitter. We also shared with reporters who cover higher education.

4) This video generated a lot of buzz (15,000 views and many mentions on blogs, etc.). Has it met its goals? Have you noticed a bump in donations or requests for information from prospective students yet?

We are extremely gratified with the response and have exceeded our goals. Because this is the first time we’ve done something like this we didn’t know what to expect. We have seen a bump in donors and donations. The impact on prospective students is a bit more difficult to gauge this early.

Unless you’ve been really, really busy (and away from your computer, iPhone or iPad – wait that one isn’t out there yet ;-), you’ve already heard about Yale’s admissions video: “That’s why I chose Yale,” a 16-minute tongue-in-cheek musical, highly produced but all done by students or recent alums.

Picked up by the New York Times, the Washington Post and other big names in media, the video has gone viral on YouTube (more than 300,000 views at the time of this writing) – and has resulted in many high praises as well as angry comments on different blogs and listservs.

Here’s the video in case you didn’t get a chance to watch it yet:

Brian Niles from TargetX – who is very well connected in the admissions world – managed to contact Andrew Johnson, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions who was behind this production, and got him to sit in front of a web camera for a 20-minute discussion about the video.

No time to watch the interview now?
Here are my notes:

• The video wasn’t designed to be put online initially, but to be used as a fun introduction before the traditional information session and the campus tour. Johnson explained that it was meant to be used as one component of a campus visit and definitely not as part of a new branding campaign. However, it was decided at some point to put it online.
• They decided to do the video in-house with students after requesting some bids from video production companies. Johnson said it was done with a little amount of money – about 10% of what professional companies were asking for this type of video. When prompted to give a dollar amount for the video budget, Johnson explained that it had not been tallied up yet as the expenses were on several admissions officers’ credit cards (Really? Wow).
• The video took 10 days to film and several to edit. The video was then reviewed in house to make sure it was vetted.
• The musical format was chosen to showcase a more fun yet accurate side of Yale. The student film maker, Ethan Kuperberg, had just completed a musical when he was asked to do this project. Johnson managed the project, but also wrote the music.

Make sure you watch this great video interview by Target X to learn more as I’ve just highlighted the most important points. And, again kudos to Brian for getting us more info on this unusual video.

Care to tell us what YOU think about the Yale video? Post a comment!

My 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 has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.

Previously AVP of Marketing and Public Relations at his alma mater, the University of Florida, Joe Hice started to work as the chief communications officer at NC State University last week.

What’s really interesting here is that Joe has decided to share his first 100 days on the job through his new professional blog (he used to blog at The Gator Grotto) cleverly named HiceSchool Blog.

HiceSchool Blog

So, if you ever wondered how it felt to start a new job at this level, check out the blog.
You might learn a thing or two along the way. You might even offer some useful suggestions to Joe.

This is one of these posts I have to write as soon as possible.

I was working on my weekly newsletter when I checked very quickly Twitter and saw this tweet from Mike Richwalsky about an online video:

Twitter / Mike Richwalsky: Great 1-take video from UQAM. Great coordination + shooting.

Mike knows online videos, so I checked it out and you should too (if you haven’t already seen it on CNN):

It’s a great 1-take 4-minute video that was produced in just 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Really great work with close to 200,000 views on YouTube at the time of this writing.

But, it’s actually more than another silly – yet successful – student video.

It’s the ultimate energizing campus (more like building in this case) tour video with class rooms, labs, cafeteria, commons, etc. And, it’s part of a student-led project started in Germany, University LipDub, inviting students to produce this kind of videos to showcase their institutions, students and even faculty members… just for fun.

What is lip dub? » University LipDub – What do you do after studying?

I’ve watched a few of these videos and it really looks like this is a non-US trend started in Germany, picked up in other European countries – widely in France – and currently catching up in Canada, especially in Quebec, the French-speaking province.

Here’s a playlist including 18 videos:

After watching a few, I can’t help but think that there’s something to be done to get more of these produced in the US.

What a great project to suggest to your students and an innovative way to present your institution!
What do you think?

Duke University has done it again.

With “Office Hours,” a new series in partnership with Ustream launched today at noon ET, the institution has found another great way to showcase the expertise of its faculty.

The idea – put a professor in front of the camera for an informal Q&A with the university community and Ustream viewers – looked interesting on paper (well, I mean on the web) when I saw the announcement yesterday on Duke Today.

Ariely to Launch ‘Online Office Hours’ Series Friday at Noon

That’s why I was in front of my screen today at noon ET to see if its implementation could meet my expectations.

It did.

Duke University has again written a page of higher ed web history (can’t you see I really liked what I experienced? I bet you can).

Accessible right from the Ustream homepage, the 45-minute (?) long office hour with Professor Ariely gathered more than 150 viewers. Questions could be asked via email, on a dedicated Facebook page – broadcasting live the stream – as well as on Twitter.

I asked the first question via Twitter and it was promptly answered by Professor Ariely (around 9:00 in the recording).

Twitter question

You cannot imagine (well, you probably can, but I’m emphatic today) how excited I was to be able to ask a question – while at lunch – to a Duke professor and get the answer in a matter of minutes.

Just great.

Watch the recording – made available a few minutes after the end of the event- and I’m sure you will agree (if you don’t, please tell me why. That’s why comments are for)

Please note that the recording takes 39 seconds to start – so be patient if you watch it from the video player below.

Who needs television when you can actually interact with experts at this level?
Who needs television when you can actually demonstrate the expertise of your faculty to the world?

So, I’m pretty sure it won’t be long before other institutions follow in Duke’s footsteps and we see more of these “Office Hours” with faculty all around the country (world, should I say).

What do YOU think?

The 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 why good web copy still matters in this age of YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. He will also share best practices in authoring great copy for websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter make sure your messages reach your targeted audiences.

May 6, 2009 – 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: May 13, 2009)
Web Writer Coaching 101: How to find, train, and nurture web contributors on campus
Mary Beth Kurilko, former Director of Web Communications at Temple University, will show you how distributive web content authorship can be the solution to all your institution’s web content issues. She will also share her 10-step plan to enroll, train and turn into great web contributors any of your campus administrative or academic writers.

Webinars: Higher Ed Experts

Already registered institutions include:

Appalachian State University
Suffolk University
Lethbridge College
Harrisburg Area Community College
Widener University
Penn State University
SUNY College at Oneonta
Kettering University
Indiana University East
SAIT Polytechnic
Eastern Mennonite University
Saint Anselm College
Olympic College
Florida International University
CSU Office
Connecticut College

For more info or to register: www.higheredexperts.com/writingright

If you have any questions, just email karine@higheredexperts.com

I have no clue when this new feature was implemented by YouTube, but it’s now possible to embed a YouTube channel on any web page, but just grabbing a piece of code (as you would with any YouTube videos or playlists).

Here’s a quick visual demo of the 2 steps using Duke University’s YouTube channel as an example:

Step #1: Locate and grab the “embed this channel” code

Step #2: Paste the code on your web page (or blog post) and here’s the result:

First, let me start by a quick disclaimer, I might be a bit partial on this topic for 2 reasons:

• I’ve known and collaborated for almost 3 years on different projects (conferences, webinars, etc. including the upcoming “Saving Big” Webinars for which registration ends tonight by the way) with the blogger behind this blog – Joe Hice, AVP of Public Relations and Marketing at the University of Florida.
• I’ve shared a few pointers about blogging (including my 12-step plan for better blogging) with Joe when he decided to start his blog last Fall.

Now that Joe’s blog, Gator Grotto: A refuge from hastly jugdment, has a few posts behind its (crocodile?) belt, I really see a great institutional yet conversational – and sometimes even controversial – blog in the making.

Joe is a seasoned communication professional, a great presenter and writer (he worked as a journalist earlier in his career) with a unique voice and it really shows on his blog.

While the blog has been live for just a few weeks – close to 2 months, it has already managed to develop a readership of about 300 regular readers, mainly based in Gainsville where UF is based.

Dealing with topics as diverse as an old myth around the place of birth of the famous Gatorade, budget cuts, rankings or research, Gator Grotto is a refreshing take on the executive’s blog genre.

In an email exchange we had last week, Joe shared a few behind-the-scenes comments about the whole process. I’m publishing below a few excerpts of this email with his permission.

After 2 months blogging, what can you say about this experience?

We’re still trying to find our voice as we move forward. Our president has endorsed and supported the blog, so we are a point of contact with UF. That’s good, but it also means we’ve got to take the University’s official position into consideration with everything we post. That has kept me in check, somewhat, and I think it’s the right way to go.
[...]
It is more challenging than I anticipated. It’s easy to just cut and paste things, but when you start including your thoughts and comments, taking into account UF’s position on issues, trying to provoke discussion, etc., it’s quite a task. For UF, and me especially, it has been a great learning experience. I’m certainly no expert, but feel more confident every day. I can also manage WordPress pretty well.

Any blogging success story yet to share?

I was proud to help uncover some previously unknown, or at least, unsubstantiated facts in the development of Gatorade. People have said from time to time that FSU had a sports-related drink in development several years before Gatorade. That was actually posted as fact on national television during the Florida State vs. Florida football game. Well, a number of people were offended and I did a post about Gatorade being the original. It was actually the first post we did on the blog.

Literally hours after the post went up someone sent us a pdf of a news story that appeared in the Tampa Tribune about three years before Gatorade was launched. In the story, the writer referenced Seminole Firewater. That created a stir and I posted the update along with a picture of the old article. That interested the Florida Alligator newspaper in the story and the reporter actually tracked down a few members of the FSU football team who had supposedly been drinking Seminole Firewater. But the best was yet to come. One of those team members was T.K. Wetherell, the president of Florida State University. He did say that the team give them something to drink, but it was nothing more than a Cool-Ade flavored drink accompanied by an orange slice, ice and salt tablets. The Seminole Firewater myth was exposed by the president of FSU. Pretty cool, I thought, and the Gator Grotto blog played a part in the discovery. It was a great way to launch the blog.

Does your VP or president have a very original take on blogging? Should they? What do you think?
Let us know by posting a comment.

Happy New Year my dear regular readers (and casual browsers)!

My first UB column for 2009 (actually it’s the one that was scheduled for the December 2008 issue) is now available in the January issue as well as online: “Should You Twitter? Real and effective communication, 140 characters at a time”

Here’s a quick excerpt to give you a reason to read the column:

Wondering why you should read a column about a web service powering the dissemination of 140-character messages?

Here’s a short, 140-character answer about Twitter: It can help individuals and institutions reach out to their network to share info, request help, organize, and update everyone in real time.

A bit dry, I know. [The column includes] a few more examples to illustrate the long answer.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do so at http://twitter.com/karinejoly.

By the way, if you are a University Business reader who has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.