higher ed marketing

The Wired Campus blog reports that Reuters reports that another media organization, ABC, plans to open five university news bureaus this fall.

It’s an effort by ABC “to bolster its connection with younger viewers.” I wonder how that will change media coverage of campus events. One Wired Campus commenter suggests: “It seems to me that the ABC staff might get some training from the university students in multimedia rather than the converse. The real challenge for ABC would be the management of local content in competition with blogs and wikis.”

—————-
Now playing: Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Turpentine
via FoxyTunes

The RSS cache is getting a bit cobwebby. Times to toss out some links. There’s more where that came from (said in a Napoleon Dynamite voice) in the Google shared items.

• Ad-Blogging Crank Rants About ‘Must-Attend’ Marketing Confabs. The title says it all. Worth a skim. Via Dennis Miller’s latest Sunday Afternoon Thoughts.
• Separating the personal from the professional in social media identity. Via PerkettPR’s Persuasive Picks from sometime last month.
• Is content still king?
• The Twitter Conversational Index And The Twitter Noise Ratio. More measurement ideas from Stowe Boyd.
• More good stuff from Boyd: The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam, And The Rationale For MicroPR.
• Firefox Add-ons for Higher Education Web. A plethora of add-ons, toolbars, etc., for Firefox fans.
• Fact-checking the media: the bloggers strike back. Karine Joly connects the dots between some higher ed bloggers vetting some recent Chronicle of Higher Education pieces.
• Meanwhile, journalists aren’t the only ones blowing it with new media. See PR bludgeons itself — again, Robert French’s summary of a discussion going on at PROpenMic tied to the Gina Trapani prspammers wiki story (see Friday’s post).
• What every good marketer knows. Seth Godin dusts off a three-year-old list and adds a few new bullet points.

—————-
Now playing: Old 97’s - My Sweet Blue-Eyed Darlin’
via FoxyTunes

Lifehacker writer/blogger/editor Gina Trapani has taken the art of blacklisting PR flacks to a new level with a wiki listing of PR firms that spam bloggers.

The idea of publicly shaming PR spammers first gained traction when Chris Anderson first chided “lazy flacks” on his blog. (See my post from last November, PR flacks and the new media: a cautionary, not-so-long tale.) But Trapani has made blacklisting a more social act, inviting other bloggers to add their favorite PR offenders to her wiki.

All of this has led Todd Defren of Shift Communications (one of the firms on Trapani’s blacklist) to post an open letter to Gina Trapani on his blog, appealing for her to remove his firm from her list. “If you can dig up the offending email from a shiftcomm.com address,” he writes, “I will publish and critique it on my blog, and will include any of your personal comments as well. We’ll gladly fall on the sword if it’s in service to improving our agency and our profession as a whole.” (Via @flackette.)

Wednesday’s post about Nine Inch Nails’ recent announcement they were giving away their new album over the NIN website opened up some discussion about the merits of free. Plus, it gave me fodder for today’s Friday Five. And best of all — say it with me — it’s free!

1. Brad J. Ward has been thinking about free for a while now, and shares a post from March called ‘Free’ is here to stay.
2. Eddie Merille, a relatively new higher ed blogger, has also been thinking about free and shares some info about how the video game industry is embracing the concept of giving away stuff.
3. Mark Greenfield points to an excellent (albeit long) Wired article by The Long Tail author Chris Anderson about the future of free in business: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. Brad Ward also references the article in his post (mentioned above) and points out that Anderson has coined a new term: freeconomics.
4. Most music fans know about the blog Stereogum, which gives away a lot of mp3s.
5. Music lovers also might want to check out RCRD LBL as a source for free tunes.

I’m not the world’s biggest Nine Inch Nails fan. In fact, until last night, I only owned one NIN album, Pretty Hate Machine. And only because, as a indiscriminate musical gourmand I figured out, through reading reviews and listening to samples of various NIN recordings, that Pretty Hate Machine pretty much epitomized the best and worst NIN had to offer. (But for the absolute best of what this band (or at least front man Trent Reznor) has to offer, watch this video of Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.”)

But last night I downloaded the new NIN album, The Slip. Not because I’m a big fan, or because I had to have it, but because it was free. As CNet’s news blog reported earlier this week, Nine Inch Nails is offering The Slip exclusively online — for free. On their website, NIN says they’re offering the work “as a thank you to our fans for your continued support.” And presumably those “fans” include curiosity-seekers like me.

So I’m listening to The Slip this morning and thinking about the notion of free.

What is it about this idea of free that draws us in? Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at MIT, writes about this notion of free — or FREE! as he calls it — in a new book titled Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (More info at preditablyirrational.com.) “What is it about FREE! that’s so enticing?” he wonders. “Why do we have an irrational urge to jump for a FREE! item, even when it’s not really what we want?”

The answer, Ariely believes, is this:

Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! we forget the downside. FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is. Why? I think it’s because humans are intrinsically afraid of loss. The real allure of FREE! is tied to this fear. There’s no visible possibility of loss when we choose a FREE! item (it’s free). But suppose we choose the item that’s not free. Uh-oh, now there’s a risk of having made a poor decision — the possibility of a loss. And so, given the choice, we go for what is free.

Would I have purchased The Slip as a physical product — say, as a CD? Not on your life. Or even as a digital album at a reduce price? Not at all likely. There’s too great a chance I might not like it, and I might feel cheated.

But when the product is made available for free, then there’s no risk. What have I got to lose? Other than some time listening to some music I may or may not like. (So far, through nine of the 10 tracks, the album’s decent in a techno/industrial/ambient sort of way. I don’t feel cheated of my time, since it also gave me a topic to blog about.)

The fact that Nine Inch Nails offered me something for free, at seemingly no risk, makes me feel pretty good about Nine Inch Nails. In my mind, these musicians are now somehow altruistic. At this moment, I feel better about NIN, even, than I felt about Radiohead after they let me purchase their In Rainbows at a price I chose.

This exchange between me and NIN seems like nothing but a win for me.

But it’s also a win for NIN. As Kneale Mann points out, this exchange isn’t quite as free as it seems. Like me, Mann downloaded free or discounted music from NIN and Radiohead. He also downloaded a new single from Coldplay. (Not me. Some free stuff just isn’t worth it.) “All three now have my email address. I’m now in the database. If you ask most marketing people, they would say that each participant in a study is worth about $10-15 which is about the price of (say it with me) a CD!”

Still, in my mind, a worthwhile exchange.

So what does this have to do with higher ed marketing? A lot.

Selecting a college is a risky proposition. Will I be happy here? Will I fit in? Can I make the grade? Will a degree from this school help me get a good job?

So is giving money back to your alma mater. How can I be sure the money will be used according to my wishes? What is their investment track record? Should I give my money to some other worthy cause?

Are there any free options, incentives or services we can offer prospective students, prospective donors and others that would help to lessen the perceived risk of investing in higher education?

What about waiving the application fee for a limited time as an incentive to get students to apply early in the admissions process? That’s a form of free, isn’t it?

What about giving alumni a special “third year free” in the alumni association for two years’ worth of annual dues?

What are your thoughts about free?

—————-
Now playing: Nine Inch Nails - Demon Seed
via FoxyTunes

* Apologies to Red Hot Chili Peppers

From Redesign Must Die, by Louis Rosenfeld

Louis Rosenfeld’s great presentation on web redesign is worth a view — and not just because it has kittens. The slideshow is from a recent “Redesign Must Die” presentation at the University of Illinois, which Rosenfeld mentions on his blog. Hat tip to College Web Guy, who really likes the lipsticked pig picture Rosenfeld put in the presentation.

Go take a look — for the kittens, or for the pigs, if not for the sake of your own institution.

—————-
Now playing: Nine Inch Nails - Discipline
via FoxyTunes

The nominees for the first-ever* eduStyle Higher-ed Web Awards have been selected. From a list of 1,800 potential nominees, the list has been winnowed down to 37 schools in 18 categories. It looks like some very good designs are in the running. Go to the People’s Choice section and cast your vote. (You must be an eduStyle member to vote, but it’s easy to sign up. There’s no excuse not to, really.)

* I call this the first-ever eduStyle awards rather than first annual — which is what eduStyle calls it — because something cannot be annual until it recurs. (Old journalism habits die hard.)

—————-
Now playing: The Raveonettes - Blitzed
via FoxyTunes

Welcome to another one of those “I’m so busy I have no time to blog except to post this note to tell you how busy I am” posts. Yeah, you know the ones. The ones where the deluded blogger, thinking dozens of loyal readers are waiting eagerly, anticipating the next brilliant post, is wracked with guilt and feels possessed to say that he, well, has nothing to say. This is one of those posts.

But since it’s Friday, and I suggested in last Friday’s post that a Friday Five would be in the offing this week, here are the top five reasons I’m too busy to blog.

1. If I’m going to get out of the office by noon today, I’ve got a lot to do.
2. Paralyzed by the backlog of unread items in my RSS feed.
3. Lack of motivation.
4. Lack of bloggable ideas.
5. A severe and lingering case of Spring Fever! (Even on a stormy morning.)

So that’s it. Nothing to see here, really. You’ll likely find something worthy of your time at one of the many fine blogging establishments listed on the blogroll to your left. Good luck.

—————-
Now playing: Ha Ha Tonka - Gusto
via FoxyTunes

A couple of months ago I posed the question on this blog, Should universities tweet? and received a good response. (I also posed the question on Twitter and got a great response there, too.) More recently, Kyle James has explored the same topic, in more detail, and with video.

BTW, below are some of the responses from Twitter users to my query (warning: some profanity ahead). You can see that opinions vary.

—————-
Now playing: The Raveonettes - With My Eyes Closed
via FoxyTunes

Seth Meranda hates portals. That much is clear from this lovely rant against the portalization of higher ed websites.

To Seth’s way of thinking, portals are a manifestation of all that is wrong in academic administration. They are “a poor excuse of bolting on a silo of political process to a university’s website.”

Not only that, but:

Portals are not designed for the correct target audience (students), rather they are designed to enforce out-dated, non-user-centric workflows that appease [non]decision makers. Furthermore, portals fail to aggregate the student life experience. They do not combine all aspects of student interests (academic, residence life, involvement, advising, athletics), instead they primarily focus on only the academic side.

In addition, portals do not provide branding. Slapping your logo on the top and scheming the colors isn’t branding. Branding is entrenched into user experience. Branding revolves around your students’ experiences and expectations related to your institution. Portals cheapen brands by lowering user experiences and hindering expectations.

Seth goes on to advocate “a more holistic, user-experience-centric approach. ‘Experience Architects’ need to work with students (current and prospective) to determine online content and design. Student input needs to become the dominating impact on our future realignment strategies. … The ‘Experience Architects’ will hold the conversations with students, and both will work collaboratively.”

Ron Bronson tends to agree. Riffing off Seth’s post in an entry of his own titled Portals Aren’t Solutions, he writes: “If more innovation, collaboration and assessment of what students need was being done, we’d be able to go a lot further along in creating useful applications and leverage the talents within our own walls a lot better than we do.”

I can’t say I disagree with either Seth or Ron. But it would be nice, for the sake of debate, to hear a different perspective.

I wonder what Paul Redfern’s take might be on the topic. Paul presented a good session about merging portals with university websites at the CASE Communications, Marketing and Technology Conference earlier this month. Paul is the director of web communications and electronic media at Gettysburg College, he seems to have found a happy medium. Maybe he’ll join the discussion. Paul?

—————-
Now playing: The Raveonettes - Blush
via FoxyTunes

This video’s been making the rounds lately. Lori Croy @ Mizzou first shared it with me (it’s her department’s new theme song), then saw it on Seth Meranda’s blog.

Check out some other great new media hip-hop vids at Mo Serious TV.

—————-
Now playing: Basia Bulat - December
via FoxyTunes

Today is World Graphics Day.

Who knew?

Icograda, for one, because that’s the organization that sponsors the day. And the folks at How magazine, for another, because they told me so on their blog.

Anyway, the reason for World Graphics Day, according to Icograda, is to provide an “opportunity to recognise communication design, its role in the world and to celebrate Icograda’s anniversary. It has been celebrated internationally since 1995.”

On this occasion, designers reflect and hope that our international network can contribute to a greater understanding between people and can help to build bridges where divides and inequities exist.

Check the website for a list of World Graphics Day events.

—————-
Now playing: Talking Heads - Artists Only
via FoxyTunes

Had lunch yesterday at my favorite local Chinese buffet, and the fortune cookie said:

Who am I to argue?

I’m outta blogland for a bit to enjoy spring. Yard work and nature beckons.

Hope you have a little fun this weekend, too.

P.S. - Friday Five will probably return next week.

—————-
Now playing: Art Brut - Good Weekend
via FoxyTunes

The communications staff at Missouri University of Science and Technology (that’s where I work) recently created a del.icio.us account to keep track of our online news stories and blog posts. (We use Google Alerts and Technorati to find the stories in the first place, then we select the ones we think are the most important or most closely tied to our key messages to post on del.icio.us.)

Using del.icio.us makes it easier for us to keep track of media coverage, but we’ve also discovered a side benefit: del.icio.us gives us yet another tool for measuring and analyzing our media relations activities in the sphere of online social media.

del.icio.us shows you which stories are saved by others, which is an indication of popularity. If no one else is saving your stories, then there’s a pretty good chance that either:

1. the online world finds your stuff borng, or
2. the stories aren’t getting to the right websites

A quick case study: Last week, when the earthquake hit the Midwest, we touted one of our quake experts (J. David Rogers, the Hasselmann Chair of Geological Engineering) to the media. He spoke to 15 different media outlets that Friday, most of them from the Midwest but including our state’s two largest daily newspapers and a couple of TV and news radio stations. But none of the stories were saved by other del.icio.us users except for a LiveScience.com story that quoted Rogers and appeared on Yahoo! News. Now we know that 10 other del.icio.us users also saved that story. We also can find out who those users are and what else they’re interested in.

Another recent news release — about some research on biodegradable plastics bags — got picked up by Popular Science magazine’s blog PopSci.com, and that also was saved by 10 other users. (Another popular sci/tech blog, Gizmodo, picked up the story, and although no other del.icio.us users have saved it, a quick look at the comments shows a high level of interest among Gizmodo readers.

So, the takeaways here, I guess, are:

1. del.icio.us is a great, simple tool for posting and tracking your institution’s online news and blog mentions
2. del.icio.us gives you an opportunity to see who else is interested in the story, which could possibly lead to new connections and conversations with alumni, researchers, other academics
3. del.icio.us may give you insight into which online sites are most popular for niche readerships, which in turn may help you adjust your media relations efforts

—————-
Now playing: The Raveonettes - Blush
via FoxyTunes

As Karine Joly pointed out a few days ago, U.S. News & World Report — already the monster of the college ranking games — has unleashed a new Facebook application on the world, Gradzilla.

The magazine says this new app is designed to help students find grad schools by accessing data from the magazine’s rankings for graduate programs. U.S. News blogger Alison Go probably pegs it to Facebook culture with her post/announcement: “Keep track of schools, and—in that quintessential gen Y narcissistic way—tell all your friends about it. The polls are probably the most fun; designed for you to ask friends which school you should attend. But the polling questions aren’t limited to that (or anything, really). The possibilities are endless—and not necessarily so innocent.”

Will Gradzilla be a killer app for undergrads looking to further their education? Time will tell. But so far, according to the Gradzilla Facebook fan page, the tool isn’t necessarily tearing up Tokyo (30 users and 23 fans as of this morning). Perhaps this social media experiment will meet the same fate as so many other Facebook apps. To misquote Blue Oyster Cult, “History shows again and again how fickle social networkers point up the folly of apps.”
—————-
Now playing: Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla
via FoxyTunes