As I wrote in the introduction of an interview with Michael Crow, ASU President, he is one of the first higher ed presidents to see blogging and podcasting as efficient communication channels with his different constituents.
President Crow isn’t the first president-blogger, as Lou Anna K. Simon, MSU President, has been blogging since January 2005 and Patricia McGuire, Trinity University President has been posting since September 2005.
I bet we’ll see more and more higher ed presidents join the blogosphere this year — as many CEO’s did in 2005.
So, why not yours? Or, as some of you might think: why yours?
Below are my top 3 reasons to suggest the idea to your university president:
1 – Blogging can widely spread a president’s main ideas, opinions and messages in a more personal way.
Basically, you get the best of both worlds: a very large audience (like articles, press releases, speeches, etc.) and a more conversational tone (as used in emails and face-to-face conversations)
2 – Blogging is made of 2-way conversations that can be as open as a president wants.
By opening and moderating comments to a blog, it’s easy to invite, get and control feedback on a blog. This specific feature can make it the perfect online PR tool, even for presidents who prefer to stay in control.
3- Blogging can also become a very easy and efficient way to keep in touch with different target audiences.
Thanks to built-in RSS capabilities, a president can post messages targeted to students or alums that will be directly delivered to their RSS readers. Just by tagging posts by audience types, the blog can become a multi-audience communication platform, while remaining a repository of all messages.
These are just a few reasons why I think college presidents should follow these 3 presidents’ lead.
I’m sure I’ve missed some important ones. What do you think?