Keep Reading]]> A couple weeks ago, I had the honor of attending and presenting at the PRSA Counselors to Higher Education Senior Summit in Washington D.C. The annual event brings together some of the top PR minds in higher ed to discuss best practices, strategy and emerging tactics. I shared an updated version of my award-winning presentation from HighEdWeb 2011, “Reinventing News on Your University Website.” The slide deck is below.

I was blown away by how much great information the speakers at the Summit shared. Here are a few of my favorite tidbits:

• Michael Smart, formerly of Brigham Young University but now out on his own as a PR coach and consultant, said that most reporters don’t want a press release; a customized three-sentence email with a link asking them if they want more information will do the trick. Reporters are busy, stressed and pressed for time nowadays. Don’t make their job harder with your wordy, self-serving pitch. Show real attentiveness to their beats, prove you’ve really read their work. In short, be relevant! EDIT: Check out the informative slides from his great presentation.
• Multiple speakers noted the value of a university strategic plan in guiding communications strategy. Seems obvious, but so many institutions are missing this piece, or not putting the two together. Tethering communications to strategy to institutional strategy, said Emory’s Ron Sauder and Georgia Tech’s Michael Warden, forces you tothink and act strategically. Do your actions match up against institutional values? What more, it also gives you the power to say no and look smart while doing so.
• More great nuggets from Sauder and Warden:
• I love their comparison to Kinko’s. So many higher ed communications office end up being Kinko’s, just providing on-demand services to whomever walks through the door or calls on the phone. Kinko’s is not strategic. Don’t be Kinko’s.
• If you haven’t seen The Soundbite University – a large-scale study of how higher education has been covered in the national press over the last 60 years – now’s your chance. Definitely worth a look.
• Another great reference: the 12th annual The Edelman Trust Barometer, which “examines trust in four key institutions — government, business, media, and NGOs — as well as communications channels and sources.” Traditional media still have a high trust value, but interestingly, trust in corporate media (think brand journalism) is increasing.
• Breaking news: bloggers don’t want to celebrate institutional accomplishments, but rather share consumer-oriented stories. Keep this in mind when pitching.
• Georgia Tech’s Amplifier is a great example of owned content, featuring quick turnaround commentary by faculty experts on current, relevant issues. This positions Georgia Tech as a thought leader on issues of the moment. It’s similar to BU’s Professor Voices blog.
• Blogs are great for “telling your story”, but don’t underestimate their power for SEO purposes, too. Better than an “experts guide.”
• Students are still your best brand ambassadors! Check out the Emory 360 video series for a great example of this in action.
• readMedia’s Amy Mengel delivered a great presentation on “Developing a Social Content Strategy: Finding the right mix of paid, owned and earned Media.” She discussed:
  • How Oregon State is effectively leveraging its experts directory for SEO
  • How Southern New Hampshire University’s Konami code promo for its game development program was great owned media
  • How social media platforms are not like Happy Meal toys where we need to collect them all
  • How she “can’t remember the last time I heard anyone talking about that amazing viral alumni magazine article” (hah)
  • How home run front-page media placements may not be worth all the resources they take to achieve
  • How Purdue’s 5 Students feature is a great example of making it easy to share your content
  • How Vanderbilt’s MyHealthChat does a stellar job of blending earned, owned and paid media.
• Excelsior College’s Mike Lesczinski also published a great wrap-up from the conference, as well as a short video with Mengel sharing her three takeaways from the pre-conference tour of NPR (which I was sad to miss!). Mengel herself also published a short wrapup.

Thanks to the folks at the PRSA for including me in this great event!

Keep Reading]]> On May 9, 2012, I kicked off a day of learning about Twitter in higher ed at NERCOMP’s “Tweet this SIG!” event. My session laid out the basic components of Twitter and principles behind effective usage.

Keep Reading]]> On April 18, I had the pleasure of co-presenting a webinar with Erick Mott and Fred Bals of Ektron. In the webinar, titled “Storytelling Tips for Digital Marketing Teams,” we gave an overview of the principles of storytelling, explained how storytelling supports business goals, discussed how to effectively execute cross-channel storytelling and provided examples of how this has been successfully done in the marketplace.

You can view the slides here:

Keep Reading]]> A webinar I delivered for swissnex San Francisco on “Creative Community Building with Social Media” is now available online. Watch the playback and download the slides here.

Swissnex is working to boost the use of social media by Swiss academic institutions. You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook, or learn more on their website. They also have a bunch of additional webinars available via their website, covering topics including social media for crisis communication, Twitter 101, building relationships with the press through Twitter and LinkedIn 101.

Keep Reading]]> A few bad apples spoil the barrel, and the same is true of infographics and QR codes. These tools have become the laughing stocks of web marketing, considered to be superfluous, shiny, ineffective communications tools.

This reputation is almost deserved. There are a lot of crappy infographics out there, loaded with gaudy graphics and context-less statistics. Likewise, there are lots of silly uses of QR codes, like this one.

But I don’t think either tool is getting a fair shake, and there are smart ways to use them in our communications efforts. I wrote about the value of well-crafted infographics for Meet Content last year. And Seth Odell blogged last summer about his change of heart on QR codes, which when done well can make our lives easier — or, as Tim Nekritz says, they should achieve goals and solve problems.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was taking the Capitol Metro bus to the Austin airport (because I’d rather pay $2 for buses than $30+ for cabs), this is what my bus stop looked like:

This is a great use of a QR code. I have multiple options for getting my desired info (the time of the next bus). In truth, scanning the QR code was the quickest way for me to get this info, which loaded on a mobile-optimized web page.

This is what I love about QR codes — they function as a bridge between physical world needs and digital world information. However, they are a transitional technology. They are our first stab at building that bridge. The methods of creating access points to online information in the physical space will evolve and become more intuitive and sophisticated, to be sure. In the meantime, QR codes are the easiest way to do this.

The same is true for infographics. I love this example by UNC’s Patric Lane, who used an infographic (designed in the same vein as pro football commentary on team advantages) to communicate a research news story succinctly, creatively and not weighed down by jargon. A potentially dry topic about collaboration (groan) and innovation (oy) is instead fresh and engaging (yay).

There are many cases where a QR code or an infographic would be a valuable marketing tool. We just need to think through our needs before throwing tools at them. But in addition, we can’t discount tools like QR codes and infographics just because they get bad press due to others’ sloppy marketing efforts. Don’t let popular opinion (on either side of the fence) drive your decisions. Let your needs and your goals take the wheel.

And just to conclude this post by making your head explode, here’s an infographic about QR codes

Keep Reading]]> Emotions are powerful. Feelings drive actions. They shape decisions and change minds.

Evoking emotion should be at the core of our marketing efforts. Do we want to encourage someone to apply? Enroll? Give money? Support a campus expansion initiative? Volunteer? Write to their congressperson on our behalf? They won’t do it unless they care. Unless it matters to them.

Since our content does our job for us, we have to create content that matters to our users. We have to convey how our activities align with their values, interests and beliefs.

I was pleased to see two recent blog posts touch on this topic. Jeff Kallay from TargetX talked about how all purchasing is emotional, particularly the decision of where to attend college. And on the other end of the life cycle, mStoner’s Fran Zablocki says that we should “operate under the assumption that every alum cares about something your institution does (or could do) enough to support it and you are left simply with the task of finding out what that something is and how you can enable people to support it.”

I mentioned the concept of the life cycle rather casually up above, but it’s a very serious consideration. For us to understand what our users care about (and thus drive action around it), we need to care about our users. To know what matters to them, we have to know them. And to truly care about and know our campus population — from prospective student through to alumni status, whether we’re marketing and communicating to them or on the phone trying to answer questions about financial aid — we can’t put an expiration date on that caring. It needs to be ongoing throughout the course of their relationship with the institution, which creates an (oft-neglected) obligation of knowledge transfer and information sharing on our part. And here’s a bonus — by truly caring, you naturally have that elusive authenticity thing everyone talks about.

You may be Bob and you may be Sally and I may be Georgy, but to a member of our community, we’re not separate people, in a sense. We’re the institution. And when it comes to that individual, our knowledge and understanding of them should be shared and continuous, both so they feel supported and special and so our content efforts are more effective. To not know them, as Zablocki has said before, is to not care.

After all, as the Lorax says: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Keep Reading]]> One of my favorite sessions at SXSW was the inspirational keynote by Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America, which “helps governments work better for everyone with the people and the power of the web.”

Code for America helps governments become more connected, lean, and participatory through new opportunities for public service — both inside and outside government — so we’re not only making a direct impact everyday, but also creating the relationships and network for lasting change.

Her message was inspiring. But as I sat there rapt, I couldn’t help but think about higher ed and wonder, “Why not us?”

#highered, we are falling behind *government*. We need to get on this.

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) March 13, 2012

In higher ed, we constantly complain about bloated enterprise software — whether it’s a CMS or an LMS — that doesn’t serve our needs. Projects take eons. Procurement drags on. Processes and programs are outdated. People are disconnected and overstretched. And our users suffer.

A CFA app for helping Boston parents figure out schools for their kids took 2 mos. to build. Thru procurement, would have taken 2 yrs. #sxsw

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) March 13, 2012

Why, I thought, couldn’t the Code for America model extend to higher education — or, more broadly, nonprofits in general?

What if there was a Code for America equivalent for #highered? Committed to current, sustainable and mission-driven technical solutions.

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) March 13, 2012

The mission of Code for America aligns with the needs of higher ed. It’s not just about building apps; it’s about creating a better environment internally that translates to better service for our community.

Code for America is about creating a demand for better, faster, cheaper, says @pahlkadot. We can do a lot with open, usable data. #sxsw

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) March 13, 2012

CFA fellows helped government employees realize that they had the magic in them all along, while spreading awareness of digital realm. #sxsw

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) March 13, 2012

RT @TWalk: “At its core, gov’t is what we do together.” CFA helps us think of shared problems & shared solutions, not ossified institutions.

— Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) March 13, 2012

When I returned from SXSW, I saw this post from the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha’s Liz Gross (with whom I thankfully got to spend some quality time in Austin – she’s a smart one). She wrote about a session on next generation student support technologies she attended during the SXSWedu prelude to the interactive festival.

During the seven years I’ve worked on college campuses, very rarely have I seen vendor technology successfully implemented in a way that changes how we work, or reaches the full potential impact on student success. By and large, I don’t think this is the fault of the vendor or the product. I think it’s our fault.

On many college campuses, the policies, procedure, and infrastructure that make up our student support services have not changed much over the last 15-20 years. In many cases, the people in mid-level and senior positions haven’t changed much either. Neither have the associated job descriptions. Entrepreneurs are pitching products at us constantly, some of which truly have potential to change the way we serve students. But, changing the way we serve students requires us to change how we do things.

I was glad to read this post for many reasons, particularly coming on the heels of Pahlka’s keynote. Gross makes clear that change cannot be dropped into an organization like a baby from a stork. Apps don’t magically cure systemic problems. Change has to come from within. We have to be willing to evolve, whether that includes partnering with an external organization or simply revisiting the way we do business internally.

I still think that a higher ed equivalent or offshoot of Code for America could be a boon for our field. But the reason Code for America has shown such promise is because of the willingness of city governments to take a chance, embrace change and pursue innovation. Can we follow their lead?

Keep Reading]]> On a couple of weekends ago, I found the following Facebook post from the University of Southern Maine in my feed, after having been shared by one of my friends:

With the likes alone, that’s nearly 40 percent engagement on the post. And look at the shares.

Instantly intrigued, I went to Wil Wheaton’s Tumblr, where the post (reblogged from Reddit) has 4,365 notes. According to Imgur, the image host, the image has 158,280 views. On Reddit, where the post lives in the Occupy Wall Street section, it has 1,838 net points (5,450 up, 3,612 down).

In other words, the kind of visibility we typically only dream of.

What Is This I Don’t Even

How did this image become a meme? Well, it’s pithy, poignant, timely and, yes, controversial. Also, there’s a hip looking dude with thick-rimmed glasses.

Shortly after the image became a meme, the USM student newspaper ran an article about the phenomenon. Interestingly, the quote did not come from Professor Read’s blog, a videotaped lecture or even a transcribed lecture. It came from a status update on his personal Facebook account; a friend created and published the image with the quote.

The timeline, according to the USM Free Press article, went thusly:

• Dec. 29: Professor Read posts the message as a status on his personal Facebook account.
• Jan. 8: Friend of Read’s creates image with quote from Read’s status and posts it to his own Facebook profile, as well as the Occupy Maine Facebook page.
• Jan. 9: The image is posted to Reddit by user kthrn with the caption, “my teacher says some smart shit. thought you might like it.”
  
  Judging by this post on the USM Philosophy department Facebook page, Wil Wheaton posted this to his Tumblr via Reddit on the same day.
  
  USM Philosophy also tweeted about the Wheaton/Reddit attention on Jan. 9. The university’s main Facebook page posted about it about a half hour after the USM Philosophy department’s post.

Virality and Reputation

From an administrative perspective, a phenomenon such as the Jason Read meme can go multiple ways. The USM Philosophy department (or at least the department’s social media manager) seemed to think the visibility was great, and they both tweeted and posted about it to Facebook. The main USM Facebook page reposted shortly thereafter in a similar vein, saying “Congratulations… It is much deserved.”

There are some institutions, however, that may shy away from the attention. Read, as evidenced on his blog and public speaking, has written about and studied the Occupy movement extensively. In an attempt to remain politically objective, some institutions may shy away from highlighting a faculty member who is outspoken about something of a political nature, out of fear that people may conflate his personal or academic perspective with the university’s official stance. As you can see in the comments on Reddit and even on the university’s own Facebook post, interspersed with pride from USM students and alums is political debate on both sides of Read’s argument.

My feeling? Higher education is about the free exchange of ideas. If an idea catches on, sparking civil and constructive discussion, regardless of the platform, that should be good news. Reputationally speaking, Read — and by extension, USM — appear relevant, engaged and impassioned. Philosophy is not just Plato and Socrates — at least at USM, it means wrestling with the issues of our day. And the school doesn’t even have to come out and say that. The idea speaks for itself.

When Worlds Collide

The Jason Read meme made me think of the ongoing college meme Facebook page phenomenon. There’s a page for Tufts, of course, and one that someone created about the current president stood out to me.

President Tony Monaco is on Facebook, and when a student tagged him on the post, he commented positively. That comment alone got 341 likes (as of Feb. 18). Granted, it’s an innocuous joke about his name and doesn’t touch on anything controversial or negative (as many of the other meme images do), but still. He didn’t get his feathers ruffled about students poking fun at his name, and his comment implied that he understood the nature of the Tufts Memes page beyond that one image.

What does this have to do with Jason Read? The common denominator is the endorsement of content that may not be completely politic, but is authentic and relevant. The potential pitfalls of the other, more problematic Tufts memes and tacit endorsement of the Occupy movement aside, the administrative acknowledgments of these memes are touchpoints between the university and what people are actually discussing and sharing in the real world. And those touchpoints can be powerful, as evidenced by the engagement and reaction they spurred.

The lesson for us is to be aware of how we can take advantage of those opportunities when they present themselves.

Points to Consider

• You can’t make this happens. It just happens. Like I blogged last fall, if you try to be cool by making your own memes, chances are you’ll only look foolish. We spend a lot of time doing marketing rain dances, hoping for virality. But most of the time, this stuff just falls out of the sky unbidden. And as in the case of Jason Read and the bulk of the memes out there, it may not even be something we create.
• That said, when it does happen, you should be aware and ready to acknowledge or respond — or to remain silent, whichever is appropriate. How do you know which is the best course? Here’s a rule of thumb: it’s worth a response if it’s awesome and brand-appropriate (trumpet it!), inaccurate (correct it) or hateful (disavow it). Otherwise, let it lie. (You may even choose to let the awesome speak for itself and not trumpet it.)
• Social media monitoring is a critical part of staying on top of these things, but that also relies on the content matching up with your keywords. In the case of the Jason Read meme, it was not apparent that the content was related to USM. This is where it pays to be connected with the social media whiz kids at your school (who are hopefully already your interns). They’ll likely know before you do when the next Jason Read comes down the pike.
• As we know, our faculty have lives outside the classroom. They post to Facebook. They blog. They tweet. They’re on YouTube. We can’t always control all of that, and that’s usually okay. But if they go viral, even if they know about it, they still may not tell you. That makes it our responsibility to be aware.
• Your campus photography will be appropriated for the making of memes. It probably has already. Are you going to go all DMCA on your students? Or will you accept this as collateral damage in exchange for a bit of visibility?
• On the Jason Read meme, nowhere does it mention his USM affiliation. Even though the Reddit post referenced “my professor,” the institution is not identified. I don’t know exactly how USM found out about the Reddit and Wheaton postings, but it didn’t take long for them to brag about it on social media. The nature of the meme phenomenon is that a lot of creative works fly around unattributed. If you want the credit and the credit is yours to claim, then by all means, claim it. Make some noise about it.
• What if there’s an inaccuracy? Or a false affiliation is being claimed? The same rule applies — no one will know the truth unless you attempt to drown out the falsehoods.

What else should we consider in the event that our faculty go viral?

Keep Reading]]> I’ve long been a fan of edSocialMedia. It’s a smart, engaging resource, comprising the voices of practitioners from a wide range of independent schools, higher education institutions and nonprofits, committed to moving forward at the same speed as the web. The sheer volume of content and events they offer — many at low to no cost — is impressive, and appreciated.

So I was honored to be asked in a new edSocialMedia venture, the inaugural edSocialMedia Summit. This one-day event, to be held in San Francisco on April 4, has the stated goal of helping you “create conversation, build community and generate action.” I will be giving a presentation entitled “Our Community: The Co-Author of Our Brand Story.”

I’m humbled to be a part of such an artfully assembled lineup. You’ve got experts on SEO, Facebook and LinkedIn. You’ve got people who have worked extensively both in higher education and with independent schools. You have people from within education and outside of education. The result is a well-rounded and well-informed group of speakers prepared to deliver a heap of helpful knowledge.

The folks at edSocialMedia wrote this blush-worthy blog post previewing my talk, and I shot this short video for them wherein I ramble about what I’ll cover:

Here’s the real kicker, though. A portion of the profits from this event will go to support “local, education-focused charitable organizations.” When I say portion, I don’t mean a measly 3 percent, or even some number we’ll never get to know. A whopping 25 percent of the profit will go directly back to education. And the organizers are taking suggestions as to which organizations should benefit. This is special, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Early bird registration ($200 for a full day of programming) ends March 1. I hope to see you by the bay on April 4!

Keep Reading]]> When we talk about multimedia content, nine times out of ten we’re referring to video. But today, I want to talk about an oft overlooked multimedia content type: audio.

At first glance (or listen?) you wouldn’t think audio is too sexy: nothing to look at, nothing in motion. Right? But well-produced audio can be quite a compelling content type. A story heard in the teller’s own voice, combined with the context of ambient noise and even tasteful background music, is a powerful experience.

It’s worth noting what most video experts say: shaky or grainy video will be forgiven if the audio is clear, so make sure you get it right. Even video is all about audio.

Writing for Nieman Storyboard, Julia Barton describes the impact of audio content thusly:

Writers and video producers live in dread of the wandering eye. Audio producers live for it. That’s what makes us, in our secret hearts, troublemakers. We want you to lose sight of everything in front of your face: to stare through that dish in your hand, ignore your children, drop into a glazed-over trance of our making. Maybe don’t drive off the road, but please do miss a few exits or get stuck in your car. Good audio should be dangerous that way.

Your story should always guide your content decisions. Which medium best serves your story? How is your story best spread and delivered? It’s worth considering audio as an answer to those questions.

Loud and Clear

Audio is alive and well as a standalone medium, as recent findings by Edison Research indicate:

• According to the 2011 “Infinite Dial” study [PDF] by Edison Research, the weekly online radio audience (including AM/FM and Internet-only streams) has doubled every five years since 2001, now reaching approximately 57 million teens and adults each week thanks to the prevalence of broadband internet and mobile devices.
• Forty-one percent of respondents said they like or love audio podcasts (compared to 36 percent for video podcasts), and 53 percent like or love online radio.
• In Edison’s fifth annual “The Current State of Podcasting” report, published in fall 2010, they reported that 12 percent of respondents had listened to an audio podcast within the past month, with 70 million Americans ever having listened to a podcast (31 percent of whom are between the ages of 12 and 24).

Podcasts are not as hot as they were a few years ago when Karine Joly wrote about the state of higher ed podcasting in the U.S., but there are still 150,000 available in the iTunes store, including a bunch of higher ed podcasts.

Another indicator that audio is a highly viable content type is the success of Soundcloud, the “social sound platform” that has quietly racked up 10 million users and recently landed $50 million in new venture capital funding.

The Soundcloud API has also found its way into Facebook, Storify and thousands of other applications. This includes the recently released Storywheel, a hipster version of the audio slideshow app Soundslides that allows users to create narrated slideshows with their Instagram photos.

The Case for Audio Content

The creation of high quality audio content is within our reach.

• A white paper by audio content platform Cinchcast observes that audio content is exceptionally easy to produce nowadays, whether it’s with your laptop or iPhone.
• With Audacity—a free, open-source audio editing tool—we can easily produce great sounding clips.
• Resources like Transom.org highlight exemplary audio content from public radio and collects valuable tools and advice for audio storytelling.
• We already have the opportunities to capture audio content all around us: interviews, events, performances, even chance conversations.

One of the most powerful examples of audio content is NPR’s StoryCorps oral history project, which gives ordinary people the opportunity to record their life stories for both broadcast on NPR and archival in the Library of Congress. Middlebury has a StoryCorps-type project called Murmur, launched in fall 2010, where they collect audio stories from members of the college community at different locations around campus.

“We got all kinds of ‘Middlebury people’ to tell us their personal stories about specific times and places on campus—students, alums, faculty and staff,” says Middlebury senior editor and communications specialist Blair Kloman. “It was almost contagious the way people would hear a story and then get in touch and say ‘I remember a time when…’”

They bridge the campus environment with the audio content by placing orange icons around campus prompting people to call a phone number and type in a three digit code that corresponds to the campus location—in the same vein as the Toronto project that inspired Murmur. (This begs the question of why they haven’t plotted the audio on a campus map, in the vein of this “narrative archeology” project.)

“It started as an alternative to the campus tour for prospective students and has now blossomed into a way for everyone to experience another perspective of the campus,” says Kloman. “Alums love it at reunions, parents love it at family weekends.”

When I was at Tufts, we did a lot of work with SoundSlides, an affordable and easy to use program that allows you to create rich media slideshows with photos and audio files. One of the projects of which I am the proudest is one of my last, a recap of beloved president Larry Bacow’s final Commencement ceremony.

We also used Soundcloud to embed audio files of an alumni chorus singing the school song and the fight song on our History page. An even better example of Soundcloud in action in higher ed comes from Marywood University. They embed high-quality audio clips of interviews into news stories, enhancing the plain text content with the perspective of a story subject in his or her own voice — and perhaps also giving members of the media a sense of how that faculty member would sound on TV or radio.

How are you using audio content to tell your stories?

Photo by joshsemans / Flickr Creative Commons