Marketing gems from #amahighered

There are many great conferences I'd like to attend, but personal responsibilities have kept me from traveling the past few years. Thankfully, I can live vicariously through colleagues tweeting with conference hashtags. Here are some gems from today's American Marketing Association Higher Education Conference:

• @Zehno: If you offer your alumni mag for sale, would anyone buy it? It's about audience, not institution.
• @lynseystruthers: "Kids on Facebook live below the fold. The fold is dead." -- Fritz McDonald
• @admmlr: Don't be a social media butterfly. Pick a couple of providers that work with your audience and do them well.
• @amahighered: 68% never go beyond page one of a website - SCARY
• @admmlr: Don't hide your blog behind a portal - Google can't find it! Lost SEO opp.
• @davidpoteet Can't forget that the 'social' in social media means audience particip. Seek influence, not control." -- @melissarichards
• @donschindler: press release you write today and push out can still be working for you a decade from now
• @ideasemerge If you're afraid to let people speak about your brand, you must not be fulfilling your brand promise.
• @francisrizzo3 Unless they simplify it, Google Wave will never be the new anything.
• @johntlawlor #10: Online is everyone's job. [Make sure you at least have an internal content strategy & a reaffirmation of core values]

Hopefully I'll be tweeting from one of these conferences in the next year!

Thinking practically about social media

Who says you need a full-time professional staffer dedicated solely to social media before you can build an institutional presence?

If you follow many Web marketing blogs, you might get the impression that implementing a social media strategy is a time-consuming commitment of staff and/or funding. However like most graduate and professional schools, my law school has a fairly small communications staff. We are generalists by necessity, and we work hard to make the most of our limited resources.

Two recent higher ed blog posts feature a more practical perspective on integrating social media into an existing communications workflow. Michael Stoner's "Small staff, smart choices yield social media success for Baylor School" shares the story of an independent school communications director's foray into social media, one that closely mirrors my own. Andrew Careaga's "I, (not) Robot: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the Borg," discusses the advantages of using technology to distribute official communications into social networks.

Here are other factors my office considers before adding to our social media mix:

• Audience involvement: Are active prospective students or alumni already using the social media site? How would an institutional voice fit into the conversation?
  
• Channel credibility: Is the site mainstream (yet)? What is the culture of the channel? Are other graduate or professional schools establishing an official presence there?
  
• Office utility: Can we tweak or repurpose existing content for the site? Can the site help us streamline our current processes? Can we save institutional resources by shifting to a social media site?
  

Sure, it would be nice to be on the leading edge of every development in the social media revolution. But even a small daily investment in social media, when done strategically, can yield great rewards.

Low-cost creative productivity tool #2: Mind-mapping software

Problem: High volume of disorganized information and thoughts.
Solution: Mind-mapping software.

Once upon a time (18 months ago), our site architecture needed a complete overhaul. Hundreds of links had to be sorted out into new categories, some needed to be deleted, and other pages needed to be researched and created. Papers, charts and lists were spread over my desk.

If only I knew then about mind-mapping software (thanks to a Get-It-Done Guy podcast). By creating an organizational tree with branches and nodes that can be opened and collapsed, moved, color-coded and deleted, it is much easier to visually identify themes and eliminate weak or redundant ideas.

I first tried it out a few months ago when re-organizing our H1N1 site from a chronological series of lengthy e-mail messages to a more sensible resource site with sections on our institution's response, what to do if H1N1 affects you personally, and information on the virus itself from other organizations. Mind-mapping software allowed me to simplify the content and present it in a more complete, user-friendly manner.

Now I'm hooked—there is potential for organizing lengthy articles, presentations, publication design and other creative materials. I use FreeMind, which is available Mac and Windows versions, but there are many of free and low-cost options out there.

Previously in this series: Low-cost creative productivity tool #1: Google Docs

Twitter lists for higher ed

Coming soon to a Twitter feed near you...lists!

I was slow to get into social media, but quick to get into Twitter. The editor in me loves how the 140-character limit forces people to get to the point. My PR side loves the networking value. The journalist in me loves having a place to broadcast. My inner information hound loves the sheer volume of content.

The folks at Twitter are now in the process of adding the simple, but valuable functionality of lists, which can be made public or private. Here are a few basic ideas for higher ed institution accounts:

• Alumni list - help alumni followers of your list identify and find each other through an alumni list.
• Profession list - separate those you follow who are leaders or employers in the profession.
• Peer list - connect with fellow institutional Twitterers from other colleges and universities.
• University list - highlight other accounts from your institution, possibly including faculty or top administrators.

How are you considering on using Twitter lists for your institutional accounts? Are there any drawbacks we should watch out for?

Halloween in Higher Ed

Every year, our faculty support office holds a Halloween party complete with costume and pumpkin decorating contests. It's a blast to observe, though it usually appears that there is only 10-15% participation in the costume contest (and I'm not in that group).

In a law school where professionalism is paramount, it's easy to see why the holiday isn't widely observed during office hours. Our dean has been known to visit offices with treats (God bless her!), but our communications office has remained firmly in the no-costume camp. One year, I tried to go as our events coordinator since people frequently mixed us up, but alas, our campus was hosting a moot court competition that day and she wouldn't let me borrow her name tag.

For those of you who are considering dressing up for work (or perhaps managing the fall-out by others who do), here are some interesting resources:

• What costumes might breed fear in the hearts of faculty? Check out what the staff at Inside Higher Ed compiled a few years ago from academics across the nation.
  
  
• The Society for Human Resource Management recommends that organizations set costume guidelines, enforce dress codes and discipline when necessary for costumes that are too revealing or offensive.
  
  
• What better way to celebrate Halloween at work than by using it as an excuse to preach your brand? Last year, D.W. of the Old College Try blog dressed as her school's official color, Pantone 281. I'm considering printing sandwich-board-sized versions of our incorrect inverse logo (aka "Halloween tower") to educate the campus on what not to do.
  
  
• Author/blogger Michael Stelzner offers three simple marketing lessons from Halloween:
  1) if you want someone knocking on your door, turn on the light, 2) be prepared to give something away, and 3) engage visitors and they will love you. His readers offer some other great takeaways in the comments section.
  

Social Media and Faculty Publicity

Faculty stars. You know who they are, and so do they. They may be prolific authors, influential activists, professional leaders or international speakers. Their achievements are frequent and important within their spheres of influence.

And these stars want you to magnify their shine through publicity.

Not too long ago, there weren't many options for handling stellar, PR-happy faculty. You could give into their requests for publicity in the few channels available (namely news releases or institutional publications), featuring them with such frequency that other quieter professors become obscured. The other option was to draw a line in the sand and say no, offending the well-regarded faculty member. Needless to say, both options had significant drawbacks.

Enter the social Web to the rescue!

With a flexible and well-designed Web site and social media presence, higher ed communicators now have a broad range of tools at their disposal for promoting faculty achievements. Instead of saying "no, we can't write another news release about you" to a prestigious professor, we can now respond with "congratulations, we've already posted your news to your department Web page and our college's Twitter feed." Here is our new range of options:

• College/university magazine article
• News release
• Home page spotlight
• Lower-level Web site features (i.e., departmental home pages)
  
• Facebook update (reserved for accomplishments that reflect more widely on the institution)
  
• Twitter update
• Flickr/YouTube (if media available)
• "Faculty applause" or "Faculty in the news" Web pages
  
• Testimonial quotes/features in marketing materials
• E-newsletter profile

Environmentally Friendly Marketing

In honor of Blog Action Day 2009, here are my tips for reducing your marketing department's environmental impact:

• Integrate print and online communications. Print and online media each have their own strengths and weaknesses. By blending both through integrated campaigns, you not only increase your effectiveness; you can reduce publication page counts and the economic and environmental costs associated with them. One of our favorite tactics: instead of using larger direct-mail pieces, we prefer designing oversized postcards directing audiences to the Web.
• Take another look at your print vendors. The printing industry has discovered that the market demands more environmentally conscious alternatives, and many companies have responded with cost-effective means of meeting the need. Even if there isn't an FSC-certified printer in your area, find out what your vendors (and their competitors) are doing to reduce their environmental impact.
• Examine paper choices throughout your college. There is a wide variety of green-certified papers available. Think beyond publication printing, and also consider your institution's choices in letterhead and copier paper stock.
• Don't forget everyday decisions. Print electronic documents only when absolutely necessary. Keep a recycle bin next to your office trash can. Reuse office supplies when possible. Optimize your computer's energy settings.