As you’ve probably heard (or read in my previous post), the eduStyle awards include a people’s choice award for the best higher ed blog this year.
As a partner for this category and a fervent supporter of higher ed blogging, I’ve decided to publish a series of interviews with the 5 nominees for this award. My goal for these interviews was to provide a good and fair introduction to all these blogs — and help you cast your vote. So, don’t forget to vote by June 1st and let the most popular blog win!
Blog title: SquaredPeg.com
First blog post: “Welcome to SquaredPeg”
Number of posts since you started: 210
Total number of RSS/email subscribers: 835
Number of unique visitors in last 12 months: 73,627 absolute unique visitors
Authored by Brad Ward, SquaredPeg is the blog that uncovered the so-called Facebook Gate in December 2008.
1) Why did you start your blog?
SquaredPeg.com was started in September 2007. It was originally intended to be a team blog between myself and three co-workers at Butler University in the Office of Admission. I eventually took over the blog on a personal level and continued to grow it from there. We wanted to have a platform to share our thoughts and connect with others, as well as showcase the cool things we were doing with technology and new media in admissions marketing and recruitment. I have been blogging in some form for about 7 years now, so it was natural to start a new blog dedicated to my work and professional career.
2) In your opinion, what is the biggest differentiator of your blog? What makes it different from the other higher ed blogs?
Practical advice from someone who doesn’t just talk about the tools or possibilities, but has actually done it in higher ed. I’ve tried to focus posts on projects where these tools have been implemented and the successes or failures of that implementation. I hope that my blog provides practical advice, insight and encouragement to others who are trying to figure out or implement new media and the social web into their strategy. There are a ton of blogs out there that talk about the social web and new media, but they often don’t even use the tools themselves or have any experience with the practical application or strategy of it. I hope my experience and knowledge helps SquaredPeg stand out from others in the blogosphere.
3) What are your most popular posts? What’s your favorite post?
‘FacebookGate’ is definitely the most popular. There were about 55,000 views in the 5 days after that was posted. It had about 275 comments. Other than that, there are several posts with more than 20 comments and other posts with 1,000+ views. My favorite post is from when I celebrated 200 posts a few months back. It was a lot of fun to go back and see how far SquaredPeg has come!