QR codes: the good, the bad and the ugly

Looking for an easy, trackable way to drive people to your website? Never fear, QR codes are here!

You don't have to be a smartphone user to notice these trendy little marks popping up on everything from magazine ads to outdoor signage. For the uninitiated, these little QR (quick response) codes are just text that can be scanned into a smartphone using one of the many available QR reader apps. The text may be a sentence, an e-mail address, or (most often) a Web page, and readers will often open the links into a Web browser.

While I'm still using a dumbphone, I'm jumping into this trend head-on for our print advertising and direct mail pieces. As much as we want people to visit our website, it makes sense to make this process easier. We have yet to know whether this is a temporary fad or the start of a lasting bridge between the print and online world, but the cost is minimal enough to make this worth a try.

Smartphones aren't necessary to generate these codes, and you don't need to pay a dime to generate codes with analytics. They are ugly, but as long as you keep some of the contrast, you can spruce up the look slightly in Photoshop. So how do you get started?

• Set up a free account with a URL shortening service that offers QR codes and analytics. Right now, bit.ly and goo.gl both include QR code generation for all shortened links, and they also track clicks. Accounts for both of these services are free, and I wouldn't be surprised if market pressure leads similar services to follow suit in the near future.
• Make sure your site is (at least moderately) friendly for mobile devices. If a huge portion of your website is Flash-driven, you'll want to phase that out before driving mobile users to it. Smartphone users will expect that the sites they're going to have been created just for them, so don't violate this expectation by making it incompatible with their phones.
• Focus on function, then form. Designing around these codes can be tough. They're not inherently attractive, and they need to be at least .75" square in size to work. Test them out *every* time you use them, just like you should for a regular Web address. The more phones you can test on your first few designs, the better. Once you know the original code works, then you can experiment with color variations (then test them again).

Happy coding!

DOs and DON'Ts of building a great virtual tour

My office just launched our first multimedia virtual tour, complete with 360-degree photos, audio and video clips from our beautiful campuses. My web editor did a fantastic job of managing the project, and I'm thrilled with the results.

In a tight economy where fewer prospective students can afford to travel to potential graduate schools, a good online tour can improve your recruiting efforts with long-distance prospects. Multimedia features can provide a rich glimpse of life at your institution and transport students into your campus experience. Here are my tips on developing a great virtual tour:

• DO start with great photography. Any online tour, multimedia or not, requires great photography. You can have all the technical bells and whistles in the world, but if the photography is weak, you might be better off not having a tour at all. Our 2008 redesign of our website included a photo tour with large, striking images of campus, and such tours can usually be designed in-house with the same images you use for other marketing materials.
  
• DON'T just consider higher ed vendors. Even though we found our vendor has done some work for a few higher ed institutions, most of their work had been for hospitals and travel destinations. The quality of their work was very competitive with the major higher ed tour firms, but the prices were within our budget.
  
• DO plan your photoshoot carefully. In addition to following the typical rules for photoshoot planning, consider the implications of working in a different format. A traditional photo that showcases an entire building and expansive horizon might not work in a 360-degree format, which may make the building look small in proportion to the sky and other natural features.
• DON'T add technical bling for its own sake. A talking cartoon tour guide or student voiceover might seem cool at first, but such features can get annoying very, very quickly. If multimedia features don't add meaning to the experience, don't add them.
• DO consider off-campus locations. As I already mentioned, virtual tours can be very important for prospective students outside your geographic area. By definition, those students will need to know more about life outside your campus. Highlight attractive areas in your local community, and include hotspots that show more details about professional, cultural or recreational opportunities.
  

I want a new website for my department. Now what?

It's an increasingly rare request: to start a new website from scratch for a department. Redesigns, yes. Website expansions, all the time. New landing pages for marketing, of course. But creating a new site for a department or program that has lived without one for the past 15 years since the World Wide Web went mainstream? Not so much.

Yet as I've recently began the thought process for educating a program director on how to build a good website, it has become a good refresher on the foundational concepts that we all should be considering when working on any Web project:

1. What do you want your website to do, and who do you want it to serve? Go no further until you can answer these questions. Every other decision streams from knowing what goals you want your site to accomplish and for whom.
   
2. What content should the site include? Since most websites serve first as informational resources to outside audiences, it's good to assess what you're already publishing for these groups. Do you have print brochures, news releases, advertisements or information on other websites about your program? For example, an academic program might not already have its own stand-alone site, but the program's faculty may already have their own biographical sites. If there are frequently asked questions that your program receives via phone, that information may also help guide the content of the site. Do remember to include a description of what the department/program does, the main contact information, and the physical location.
   
3. What information or functions are most important? Use the answers to #1 and #2 to develop the information architecture of the page. A good website sets priorities and communicates them to the user. Trying to clutter too many links on a program's home page confuses users and ultimately will make your entire site less effective.
   
4. Once you build it, who will maintain it? Building a website creates the responsibility for keeping its information current and accurate. Who will handle that responsibility? Will they be trained in maintaining the information themselves, or will they need to work with someone who already has that knowledge? How often should the site's information be reviewed and updated? A department that has survived this long without a website may not appreciate the long-term commitment they represent. Websites are not one-time projects that season as they age; their owners must preserve their content lest they rot.
   

Have you heard about the census?

In case you missed the billboards, television, radio, print, online or direct mail advertising, there's a census going on! Many are growing tired of the $133-million campaign designed to increase survey return rates. It's a consistently branded message with high saturation, and for heavy media consumers, those messages can be hard to escape.

Those of us who work in higher ed, particularly in marketing communications, can experience similar saturation with our own brand messages. The same color palettes, the same typeface families, the same look on brochures and print collateral, the same Web design. Even if there is latitude in the brand's application among different audiences and demographics, the consistency of a well-managed brand can feel boring for those who live it every day.

For some, the temptation to revamp brand guidelines every 2-3 years can be great. But right around the time we want to abandon the design ship, that's when our outside audiences are just beginning to identify and recognize our look. This impact is magnified in Web site designs, where it takes time for users to grow accustomed to the placement and organization of links and content.

No, we shouldn't let our designs to become dull and dated. The key is to take a balanced approach in adding fresh elements while staying true to the core brand imagery. Sophisticated designers and strong creative directors can maintain this balance; we just need to keep reminding ourselves and our internal counterparts that we are not our own target audience.

Alumni class notes: print or online?

In January, I sent a quick-and-dirty, unscientific survey on alumni class notes to college and university editors to find out more about their use online. Thanks to the 32 editors who responded. Here are the results:

• Do you post your alumni class notes online?
• 71.9% Yes
  
• 28.1% No
  
  
• If you post your notes online, how do you post them?
  
• 43.5% PDF of entire print magazine
• 30.4% Special Web page devoted to notes
• 17.4% Magazine Web site
• 13.0% Searchable database of class notes
• 4.3% News section of online alumni community/network
  
  
• For those who post their notes online, have you reduced or removed them from your printed magazines or newsletters?
• 66.7% No, we post complete class notes in print and online
• 13.3% Removed from print publications entirely
• 13.3% Other
• 6.7% Yes, we have reduced the number of class notes published in print
  
  
• Are your class notes publicly accessible online?
• 45.5% Yes, anyone can view and search our class notes
• 36.4% Yes, but the class notes can't be easily searched
• 18.2% No, they are in a password-protected site for alumni
  
  
• How often do you update your class notes online?
  
• 52.2% Every time magazine is published
• 4.3% Twice annually
• 17.4% Quarterly
• 4.3% Every two months
• 21.7% As submitted
  
  
• What are the sources of your notes? (Check all that apply.)
  
• 90.3% Alumni submissions
• 74.2% News clippings
• 25.8% Class representatives
• 16.1% Other: development office research, campus sources, obits only from news clippings, other alumni (but double-checked)
  
  
• For how long do you post individual class notes online?
• 86.4% Permanently, as part of the magazine issue
• 9.1% Six months
• 4.5% Two years
  
  
• Who updates the online notes?
• 28.6% Alumni relations staff
• 38.1% Alumni magazine staff
• 33.3% Communications/PR staff
• 23.8% Other (student workers/interns, magazine designers)

As educational institutions everywhere try to find ways to save costs, many are choosing to move their class notes online from print publications. Pros: the move lowers printing costs and can drive traffic to your alumni Web sites. Cons: security concerns from alumni, potentially reduced interest in the print publications, and issues of information permanence.

Need another reason to take Facebook seriously?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Facebook is now beginning to direct more Web traffic than Google in several categories. Likewise, our law school Web stats have seen a dramatic increase in traffic from Facebook in the 12 months. We didn't release of our official Facebook fan page until April 2009, but still, the change is fascinating.

A few details:

• Facebook has become the #1 referral source to our site, after organic searches on Google, Bing and Yahoo.
• Our main university's .edu site is the #2 referral source (after Facebook).
• From Jan. 15–Feb. 15, 2010, we received nearly 27 times the number of Facebook visits than the same timeframe in 2009.
• Our Facebook page has just over 1,050 fans. Not too shabby when compared to most law schools.

Fantasy ad buying

My husband loves playing fantasy sports. He bids for players, monitors their stats, makes changes to his rosters, and follows their games, even if they don't play for his regular favorite teams.

This past year, I've had the chance to experiment with online advertising. Not traditional banner advertising (though we've done those, too), but targeted text advertising through Google Adwords and Facebook. Like fantasy sports, this kind of advertising allows you to also bid for keyword placement, monitor stats, and make changes throughout your campaign.

While I'm far from an expert in these channels, here are a few of my takeaways from the experience:

• Check out your competition. And by competition, I mean the other organizations who are advertising for your keywords. Are they groups you want to be associated with from a branding standpoint? For example, a Google search on "law schools" yields paid advertising from unaccredited online institutions, which an ABA-accredited school wouldn't want to be mistaken for. However a search for "online masters library science" yields a combination of universities from the for-profit, public and private-nonprofit sectors. Related conclusion: Niche degree programs seem to have a better balance of programs with decent reputations.
• Remember why users are in that channel. Why do people use Facebook? To connect with others. Why do people use Google? To find information. If you're trying to build your social networking communities, then Facebook may be a natural fit. If you're hoping to drive people to your Web site to learn about your programs, Google would be a more logical choice. Last year's study by Noel-Levitz on prospective student use of social media indicated that students generally don't use Facebook to research schools, so save yourself some trouble and find a more appropriate advertising medium.
• Prepare to be vigilant. Unlike traditional advertising, Facebook and Google ads are prioritized based on a pay-per-click bid amount. Your bid rate is compared with what other advertisers are willing to pay and has a direct correlation to the number of impressions your ad will get. This amount can fluctuate daily, but there are other reasons to pay close attention to your campaign's analytics. In Facebook, you can run similar messages and compare the click-through rates on them. These results can help not only to inform your decisions on which ads to run in Facebook, but also to let you know what messages resonate more with your target audiences. In combination with my other research, these details have helped me develop more relevant messages for our other marketing efforts.

When done strategically, online advertising can be an exciting addition for your marketing mix. Few other media can provide such tangible details about the effectiveness of your work. Plus, because the ads are paid on a pay-per-click basis, the online providers provide ample resources to help you improve your campaigns.

Who knew that ad buying could be so much fun?

Free ways to monitor your brand online

Composite sites that search several sources in one swoop:

• SocialMention.com
• Addictomatic.com
• Google Alerts
  

Search your institution's names on these sites and use the RSS feed on the results page to create your own alerts:

• Ask.com News Search
  
• Yahoo News Search
• Bing News Search
• Google Blog Search
• Google News Search

Some of these may seem repetitive, but I find that by monitoring them on a personal portal (such as MyYahoo or iGoogle) makes them fairly easy to scan through for differences. It's also good to incorporate a saved Twitter Search through your preferred Twitter posting tool (mine is TweetDeck).

If you truly want to become the "Big Brother" for your institution, you can research prospective student forums or sites where students can rate your faculty or other aspects of campus life. Just try to keep things in perspective—the Air Force Blog Assessment chart is a handy tool for deciding if, when and how to respond.

Favorite free online resources for higher ed marketing

Need to hire a photographer in another geographic area? Check out the College/University Editors directory of recommended photographers or another from the University and College Designers Association.

Want to check out other schools' style guides? Check out the UCDA style guide index.

Wondering what your Web site looks like in other browsers? Visit BrowserShots.org or find out which ones you can test or emulate on your own machine at the SiteWizard.com.

Can't keep up with the acronyms that frequent texters or retired military colleagues are using? Go to AcronymFinder.com to see every possibility.

What Web development languages are colleges using?

Earlier this year, I surveyed the University Web Developers listserv about Web development languages. Here are the long-overdue results:

What Web development languages do you use at your college or university?

1. PHP (77.1%)
2. JScript (38.6%)
   
3. Perl (31.3%)
   
4. Cold Fusion (25.3%)
5. ASP Classic/VBScript (22.9%)
6. Java (21.7%)
7. ASP.net/VB.net (18.1%)
8. Python (16.9%)
9. Ruby on Rails (14.5%)
   
10. C#.net (9.6%)
11. JSP (9.6%)
    
12. Other (6.0%)

What Web development languages do you think will be mainstream five years from now?

1. PHP (81.9%)
2. Java (43.4%)
   
3. Ruby on Rails (38.6%)
   
4. ASP.net/VB.net (36.1%)
   
5. JScript (34.9%)
   
6. C#.net (25.3%)
   
7. Python (24.1%)
   
8. Perl (18.1%)
   
9. JSP (14.5%)
   
10. Cold Fusion (13.3%)
    
11. Other (8.4%)
12. ASP Classic/VBScript (3.6%)

The survey was completed in July 2009 by 83 university Web developers. Yes, we recognize that we can't really foresee what might be around in five years, but for the purposes of planning now, this survey was extremely helpful. Thanks to my trusty Web developer Russ Wright and to all who participated!

P.S. To the Web developers reading this...do you agree with these five-year projections, and if so, what factors keep the language around?