I Did These Things. Now What?

Ron Bronson’s post about spreading yourself too thin in his Edustir blog on Bloghighed August 17, was a wakeup blast of synchronicity for me.
I was just about to do a post about what more I can do in social media land.

And I’m still going to do it.
We’ve been producing podcasts since 2005. They’ve slowed a bit and evolved but we’re still doing them and still getting visits.

We also have every podcast transcribed, both to enhance search engine accessibility and to meet ADA requirements.
This year I created a biweekly TV talk show, “Conversations,” that airs on local cable. We edit the shows into 2-3 segments and upload them on YouTube.
We’ve begun doing student testimonials for YouTube.
We’ve been getting our feet wet with Twitter.
We’re nearing the 1,000 fans mark on our Facebook, which I think is good for a small, rural university.

A couple weeks ago, after months of thought, I, with the help of our IT department, launched the MU Blog, a mix of news and observation.

My news director is about to debut a twice weekly news video –stripped down, straightforward, using a web cam and keeping it under two minutes.
We’re making plans to gradually move our alumni quarterly online.

So, even after the great points made in Ron’s blog, I still wonder what more can we do?
My internal question with everything that we produce: is the content good? I don’t want fluff. None of us has time for that.
Are we speaking meaningfully to our intended audiences?

Is there more we can do in a meaningful, productive way?

Or should we be doing less?

I’m really asking.

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I was  vacation this week.  I decided, in my personal blog, to make a list of all I want to get done, and then document each day to see how many of the projects I actually accomplished, since (thanks John Lennon), life gets in the way of our plans.

Check out my progress or lack thereof.

CUPRAP Highlight: Mike Richwalsky

The CUPRAP audience was happy with Karine Joly’s presentation.  She left us feeling good, confident, informed.

Mike Richwalsky of Allegheny College shook us out of our comfort zone with his presentation,  “Put The Technology to Work” .

He cited the March 2009 Nielsen report that “social networks and blogs are more popular than email.”  The biggest jump in users is in the 35-49 age group (and based on my own anecdotal experience, I’d guess the 50-65 age group is gaining ground).

He then proceeded to describe how to blogging is the subfloor for the rest of social media.  They’re also great search engine magnets.  Everyone from students to the college president should be blogging, Mike said.  RSS feeds are the 2×4’s of site construction.

Crowdsource your content.  Share it with all who want to partake, and encourage them to share it.

Mike is a smooth and quietly enthusiastic presenter.  By now he had everyone nodding.  At precisely the right moment, he introduced Twitter.  Most of the audience had heard of Twitter.  Some use it for their personal lives.  A few use it professionally.

By the time Mike demo’d Twitter posting–Web, TXT, iphone, Tweetdeck, Twitterific and hashtags you could feel minds spinning at various speeds.

Twitter was creating a gentle buzz.

He showed examples of how the mainstream media is using Twitter, and how to use it in the field of customer service.  He also showed how it can keep you up to date on what is being said about your institution.

He asked how many people were totally freaked out with all the info.  Most of us raised our hands.  I’m pretty sure  I raised mine twice.

Mike nodded and moved onto Facebook.

He talked about fans, groups, creating and targeting ads, analytics and costs.

He forayed onto YouTube and showed examples of Allegheny’s work.

When he mentioned Ning, a guy at the next table, shoulders sagging with info overload, echoed in helpless despair: “Ning?”

Mike then mentioned that we’re all moving  to cloud computing and a woman near me shook her head:  “Oh my God, what’s cloud computing?” I think her hands were shaking.  Several people reached for the mini-chocolate bars that the Hotel Hershey makes available for crisis moments like this.

This crowd of new and seasoned PR/publication/Web pros talked about Karine’s and Mike’s presentations during the rest of the conference.  They were both models of good content presented in an organized, interesting manner.

I had created a Twitter account a couple years ago but just couldn’t get into it.  At the end of the presentation, I walked back to my room, sat down with my laptop, logged on to Twitter and began tweeting. . . .

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Both Mike and Karine are pioneers in the social media field.  I would suggest subscribing to their blogs to stay on the cutting edge of the field.

Here’s a link to Karine’s  collegewebeditor

And to Mike’s blog:  http://highedwebtech.com/

Wouldn’t hurt to subscribe to Bloghighed.org for a ton of great info on PR, publications, Web design, etc.

To Kyle, The Future, and Blogging

While going through some blogs this afternoon I reread Kyle’s six month report on blogging.  When I first read it I apparently never scrolled all the way down where he asked several of his favorite bloggers to post thoughts about what blogging meant to them.  I was honored that I was on the list and horrified that I hadn’t responded.
His post was dated July 8. . . .
That’s a century in the blog world.
But I’ll proceed anyway.
I’ve been a writer since I was a teenager.  I became a newspaper reporter I was 18.  I’ve written for newsletters, magazines, radio, TV and the Web.  I published a novel a few years ago.
Writing to me is communication.  I love sharing news, thoughts, posing questions, getting responses. Interaction.
Blogging is among the most gratifying forms of communication I’ve done.  I bask in the freedom of writing a post of any length, anytime.
Looking for a comfortable niche, I chose higher ed marketing, though there are many professionals out there with more knowledge and expertise. I find myself scrambling, as Kyle notes, to keep up with the latest news and developments in the field.  Maybe 10% of what I find goes into my blog.
One of the surprises in my blogging venture is that the most popular posts tend to be those that are about my own experiences in PR, writing, and most recently, a personal journey.  It underscores a couple things:
-People are hungry for knowledge
-Everyone loves a good story
The BlogHighEd community is a joy. The diversity of age groups and professions creates a wide variety of information to be shared and discussed.  I like the musings of the veterans. I love the energy of the younger professionals. I learn from your discoveries and experiments that you share with enthusiastic generosity. I read your posts knowing that I’m watching and interacting with pioneers at work, people who will be the future leaders in your fields.
That’s what blogging is for me.

It’s community in the best sense of the word.
Kyle, I hope this post is a case of better late than never. Comments, as always, are appreciated.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 11

I was overwhelmed by the hits and thoughtful responses to my last post. It became obvious that the changing nature of our respective fields is on the minds of a lot of professionals. I would appreciate any other thoughts.

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Virtual manipulation! Watch your avatar! Fascinating article about an experiment with avatars and human behavior.

I was reading with mild interest until I hit this sentence: “That kind of manipulation can also be used by marketers and advertisers. And author Mr. Bailenson foresees widespread use of virtual reality by commercial interests to push products or services.” Fascinating in a scary sort of way.

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Andrew Careaga ribbed me for lifting his title and adding a “the” and “blog”. Here’s the story. Two years ago I thought I’d experiment with a blog just to see what it was all about. I had my Jedi Web Geek, Jared Barden, help me set it up on Word Press. We sat in my office after dining at MacDonald’s, his favorite restaurant. When we finished he said, “What do you want to call it?” I had thought about it but hadn’t come up with anything. I knew enough about blogs to know the title should relate to the subject. After a half hour of doing searches and finding all my ideas taken, we tried “thehigheredmarketingblog” because “higheredmarketing” was already in use. (Such a small world.)

My JWG argued against it because it’s long and clunky. I agreed and still do but in this world of change, I’m going to remain steadfast after working to build a community of readers. I told Andrew in a comment that occasionally I’ll ask my readers to go up to my url, delete “the” and “blog” and hit enter. Off they go to higheredmarketing.

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Congratulations to Andrew Shaindlin. The Chronicle picked up his posting on what alumni associations might look like in 10 years. You can find his original post  here or at BlogHighEd.

I’m a little behind because the last post took longer to write than I anticipated. Actually, a final draft that’s clear, concise and hopefully a little entertaining is, as Bush said about being President, “a lot of hard work.” (I think he said it 10 times in that one short speech, meaning being a Presidential speech writer is really hard work).

I know it’s against the quick-turnaround philosophy of blogging but I usually write something, set it aside, come back and revise 3-5 times. Why?

I’ll answer that in an upcoming post.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 10

My brain is awash with info overload. (Picture, if you will, an awashed brain).

I just watched a Sun Microsystems –Project Dark Star press conference on MyRagan conducted on Second Life. I’ve been following Second Life since 2006 when Adam Curry (curry.com) was going crazy over it. Adam is the only business mogul I know who was cutting edge enough to discover SL and check it out as a business model, then have crazy cyber sex and talk about it with his wife on his podcast.

I’ve stayed away from SL it because I’m trying to avoid anymore addictions. I know professors teach courses on it. A few major companies set up businesses there and most failed.

I can’t get into it. I just can’t.

Why?

I don’t want to spend time creating an avatar and learning how to navigate. I also have a problem interacting with a beautiful woman who might really be a 60-year-old male pervert or talking with a muscular, tattooed green guy with black horns who’s probably a 14-year-old kid with more knowledge about code than I will have in 15 incarnations.

Finally, I realized during this SL press conference that I’m really uncomfortable watching a person make a presentation with a closed mouth. One thing basic to all human beings is that when we talk our lips move.

I want your opinion of Second Life – both Web developers and PR folks. What’s your feeling? Have you checked it out? Does Second Life have a future in higher ed marketing? If I’m missing something, set me straight.

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MyRagan, by the way, is a site (and a very good one) produced by The Ragan Report. It’s a grab bag of the latest in PR thinking and experimenting.

When you’re tired of serious stuff, they offer clips from The Onion (The White House Deputy Press Secretary putting a positive spin on his wife’s death (very dark humor) and Jon Stewart.

If you have a chance, check out the site (I know—NOT ONE MORE!) but there are some good ideas and conversations going on here.

IT folks should be interested in this myragan blog post: IT People. . . They’re Really Not THAT Bad

PR folks –well, everybody– will appreciate, Jon Stewart’s take on the “worst PR person ever.”

As an experiment, I posted my blog, The Passion of Bloggers on MyRagan just to see if I could attract more readers and if it would send visitors to BlogHiEd.

Which brings up another question. On how many social sites should we post our blogs? My personal blog (http://perfectsong.net/wordpress.com) is on my Word Press site and Facebook. This blog is on Word Press and BlogHighEd, and could potentially show up on Facebook and MyRagan.

A bunch of questions in this post but I’d love to have some conversations about them.