UPDATE: 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 this is a very nice prize as the pass cost is $995!
This 1-day conference will feature several speakers from the US, Finland and Brazil – all will be sharing great insights on important issues including web governance, social media and analytics.
Here is the conference track program:
- Social Media and Information Strategy by Bob Boiko, University of Washington
- It’s the End of the Web as We Know It (And I Feel Fine!) by Mark Greenfield, University at Buffalo
- Websites & Brand Strength: A Guide to Achieving a 90% Positive Customer Rating by Bob Johnson, Bob Johnson Consulting
- Overcoming Limitations – Web Analytics for Higher Education by Shelby Thayer, PSU Outreach
- What to feed your Search Engine – The evolution of search analytics at HBS by Ravi Mynampaty, Harvard Business School
- Building a brand for a newcomer: from nowhere to world-class stature by Tapio Hedman, Aalto University, Finland
- Interdependency of Search and Social to Create Engaging Strategies by Martha Gabriel, Business School Sao Paulo
So, how can you get a chance to win the free pass?
This is very simple.
- First, you need to work for an institution
- Then, just post in a comment below a link to your favorite higher ed facebook page (it can be yours or a page from another institution) along with a sentence explaining what’s special about this page.
I’ll draw the winner among the entries next Tuesday, March 22 at noon ET Thursday, March 24 at 3PM ET (sorry but I forgot I was on webinar duty this week. The name will be posted on this blog and I’ll email the winner as well.
If you don’t win the free pass but work for an institution, you should know that you are eligible for 25% discount on the conference registration.
This page is special because it highlights the very best and brightest of our world renowned music department, top notch academics, stellar athletics and so much more through text, photo and video. It unites the past, present and future generations of Cobbers by creating a space for discussion, insight and shared sense of community. It is just as much an honor to work at this incredible institution as it is to call myself a Concordia alumna.
I would be blessed and honored to win a free pass to the J.Boye conference in order to further the success of Concordia by continuing to build on our higher ed marketing strategies. Thank you for the opportunity!
Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota: http://www.facebook.com/concordiacollege
Sure, I’m a homer, but I’ll be nominating the page for Webster University: http://www.facebook.com/websteru
Why I like it? The default landing tab for non-fans is a welcome tab that provides randomly-selected videos and the most sought-after information about programs, campus locations, financial aid, etc. The tab sends more than 500 people per month to the website with URLs we can trace throughout the site.
I would like to nominate the page for Berry College: http://www.facebook.com/berrycollege.
Berry’s has upwards of 5,000 page likes, more than doubling its current student population of 2,000. The page is extremely active and it does a good job of generating conversation and not just pushing content out to the masses.
Not sure if alumni pages count for a higher ed institution but if so here are my thoughts. While I would love to nominate our page http://www.facebook.com/CUBoulderAlumni it still has a ways to go to compare to some others like the Webster U page shared by Patrick above. We are gaining on our engagement which is as important as a good landing tab. I will be working in some more dynamic components in the near future though to enhance that element of the page.
I have also always liked the community tab on the Stanford Alumni FB page – http://www.facebook.com/stanfordalumni?sk=app_19757109720. I think it is an easy to use yet content rich resource for their alumni.
We are proud of the way we’ve integrated http://www.facebook.com/huntingtonuniversity with our other marketing efforts.
When visitors first arrive, they are greeted with a custom welcome tab with randomized graphics and video links, an offer of free music downloads, and quick links to our academic programs. This page incorporates material from our undergrad recruitment microsite, http://www.huntington-youniversity.com.
There’s an Alumni tab, too, with links to the most commonly used services in our portal, such as the alumni directory and transcript request form. You can purchase a Huntington University license plate or an engraved brick in our Alumni Plaza here, too.
The Wall is open to fans for posting comments, links, photos, and video. We try to achieve a healthy balance between promotion and realtionship-building. For example, we regularly invite alumni and students to describe their favorite Homecoming or Spring Break memories, etc. Last fall we started a thread that exceeded 50 replies.
We’ve also customized a tab that has links to other Facebook pages for various HU groups and teams on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The main http://www.facebook.com/huntingtonuniversity can then serve as a central hub linking all these social-media efforts.
Come take a look. I hope you’ll “Like” our page.
Our undergrad admissions does a great job with the facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/stonybrooku The new virtual tour incorporated in menu and accessible without leaving facebook is a new hit! http://www.facebook.com/stonybrooku?sk=app_89534166522
Lynn – by far, your fb page is the best one I’ve seen so far in terms of how clean the presentation is and features you have. I love that you have a clearly stated policy on the page.
I would like to nominate two from the UK. Is that allowed? If you need them in Order here they are:
1. http://www.facebook.com/unibirmingham#!/ – I really like the University of Birmingham well designed Facebook page. I love the Heroes tab which takes you to a stylised intro page highlighting their academics. Maybe they should have some student heroes too though!!! They also have tabs for Diary, Youtube and Flickr giving a useful insight into the University. Their discussion board is also heavily used encouraging two way discussion.
2. http://www.facebook.com/UniversityofDundee#!/ – similarly I like the University of Dundee for many of the same reasons. Nicely designed for impact. I particularly like how they signpost their other social media outlets. They have also included a poll to find out ‘What your favourite way of finding out whats going on at Uni?’ – simple but very important!!!
I nominate Texas Tech University’s primary FB page. It has more than 100,000 “likes.” http://www.facebook.com/TexasTechYou The content posted is diverse and robust enough to engage community members of all ages and affiliations with the university on a regular basis. It drives nearly 1/3 of traffic to other Texas Tech sites, including Texas Tech Today.
I nominate http://www.facebook.com/blufftonUniversity. Built for an alumni audience, it has also attracted current students, prospective students and parents. It’s messaging balances stories about what our students/alumni are doing with walks down memory lane – all with an ultimate goal of strengthening connections with Bluffton which will result in real-world actions of attending alumni events and/or giving back.
I have always like SUNY Plattsburgh’s facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/sunyplattsburgh
They’ve found a way to incorporate audiences (prospective students through alumni) by providing specialized tabs that are very well developed. The page is very active and Plattsburgh does a great job responding to questions and posting interesting content.
The FB page for Duke’s Fuqua School of Business (at https://www.facebook.com/Duke.Fuqua) is my favorite.
The page is informative but also down-to-earth and fun, and it has increased interaction amongst various fans (including prospective students, current students, staff, faculty, and alumni) and the school.
Texas A&M has a great Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/tamu). It embraces the idea of community and social media, as there is posting and interaction from a wide variety of stakeholders. That, coupled with their recent social media scavenger hunt makes their page one to check in on regularly.
I work at Old Dominion University and believe we have done a good job connecting with our students through our page. Many offices are linked and supported through the main ODU facebook page. A highlight from this year is the use of the Facebook page for encouraging voting to win the National Mascot Challange!
(http://www.facebook.com/Old.Dominion.University)
I’ve always found the University of Delaware to have a fairly vibrant online community. I like their exclusive Facebook page for new students as well as their separate page “Blue Hen says…” that reinforces the student voice and encourages community and branding/loyalty. The main page is very simple and streamlined everything is easily accessible and very well communicated. The social media call outs are well thought out and explained to the user – why should they go to your YouTube page? Overall, I’ve used it as a great inspiration for the Facebook pages I’ve worked with.
http://www.facebook.com/udelaware
Congratulations to Shane Donaldson! I look forward to meeting you in a few weeks at our annual international conference!
For those that did not win, we offer a 25% discount to higher education institutions. We hope you will consider attending :)
We have a very exciting higher education track this year as you can see from above.
Congrats again to Shane!
Cheers,
Joel Shapiro
J. Boye
jms@jboye.com
http://jboye.com/conferences/philadelphia11/