The Student Affairs Blog

How to Successfully Create a Digital Web Ambassador for Your College

As discussed many times on this blog and countless other blogs around the web, colleges need to be more active on social networking sites to engage new, current and former students. Not just the college as a whole, but individual departments within the college can benefit by having a web presence.

Often times the first question is whether to operate an account with a personal name so it looks more real, or use a school/department name so it looks more official?

Experimenting is happening both ways with various results. Here are two examples I’ve followed that might help your school/department develop a web presence.


The Personal Account:

Art Esposito is an academic advisor at VCU and has a personal Facebook account that he uses to engage his advisees. A quick browse through his profile and you can see him mixing personal and business contexts in an effective way.

He does state upfront his intentions with using Facebook for advising. It may not be needed down the road as advising on Facebook becomes the norm, but for now it’s good so students feel more comfortable engaging you with some predefined intentions that can dispel any worries they have in befriending you.

Remember to mix in personal information from time to time so it is not just business all the time. Otherwise it makes you seem stale and robotic. Use your best judgement as to what personal information to share. A rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t share it in the classroom with close students, don’t share it online.

Art currently has 855 followers on Facebook and through his use of posting videos, blogs, and links among many other tools he is effectively utilizing his personal account to be a better advisor.

The challenge with a personal account is what if Art leaves his job, switches positions, or gets a spot on Oprah’s show and becomes world famous as Art the Advisor? What happens to everything he’s built up on his account?


The School/Department Account:

Schools are not so good at creating a digital web presence that feels natural to both the school and the student, but it can be done. To find a good example, I had to turn to the corporate world.

The Chicago Tribune created a digital web presence called ColonelTribune. The first reaction of many, myself included, was that this was going to be lame. But CT fought back and through an amazing mix of persona building and valuable content, CT has become an effective PR tool.

I follow CT on twitter and am impressed at the Tribs ability to give a voice and personality to their fictitious character. Most of CT’s updates are links to articles on the Trib’s website, but ask CT a question and he’ll respond, challenge his thinking and he’ll respond. All of it builds up to a persona that is real enough to not dismiss as fake and valuable enough to want to follow.

The challenge with a fake persona is...well...it's still fake. Though I enjoy CT, I don’t feel as connected to him as I do Art and relationships go a long way in education.

If you aren’t already doing so, I think every school/department should experiment, like Art and CT, with using social media to engage new, current and former students.

What other examples are there of schools/departments effectively using a digital web ambassador?

Mission Impossible? Making a Statement

Earlier this summer Del Suggs challenged us to create contemporary mission statements that address why we do things. Sure enough, upon examining the missions of my scholarship and exchange programs, I found dusty and tired lists of the services provided, but not much about the benefit. The statements were certainly not representative of the active, evolving organizations or the students in them.

I struggled for weeks with rewriting why we do things in order to convey a new message of the vibrant nature of our students and goals. I found the best inspiration at a summer staff retreat. The homework exercise required writing a personal mission statement. And BAM. That's what it took. My struggle to define program mission statements had been hampered because I needed to define myself.

Helpful resources were found here and here to point me in a new direction for crafting a personal statement. By redefining self and the values that shape my work in student affairs, my program mission statements found new life and purpose.

Facing mission statement impossible? Try looking within.

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. --Richard Bach

Do you have a personal mission statement? How does it enhance the work that you do?

The New Age of Student Event Marketing - The 2D Barcode System

Sandra is sprinting as fast as she can down the hall so she isn't late for her Chemistry class. Halfway down the hall she approaches a table staffed by the Student Soccer Club who are trying to recruit new members. Sandra has always had a passion for soccer, but knows she can't be late for the class. As she goes by the table, there aren't any paper handouts for her to grab, instead she pulls out her cell phone and takes a picture of a 2D barcode sitting on the table. "Thanks!" she yells as she rushes on to just make it to class on time. Moments later her phone vibrates with an incoming txt that lets her know when the next soccer pick up game is, a link to the soccer club Facebook group, and a link to RSVP for the next game.

It's called 2D Barcodes and Case Western Reserve University is the first large scale school to test the system. From student event marketing, mapping bus routes, and in class Q&A, 2D Barcodes, or QR Codes, will probably be the next big technology to hit your campus and become a normal part of everyday life.

Case Western is working with Mobile Discovery and Scanbuy to make the new technology happen. Only people with a Case.edu email can sign up at Mobile Discovery and download the software needed to translate the 2D codes.

Set up is not as easy as point and shoot yet, but I suspect that as it becomes more popular, there will be more open source options that allow anyone to take a picture of any bar code and receive information. That is if schools will be ok with opening up more.

Clipart/Stock Photos = Cheap

vs.    or     vs.

No matter how cute the clipart puppy is, if it's on a piece of marketing material for an event, it screams cheap. Many schools use clipart because they think it's the only free way to use images. Not really true. The web has many great resources for you and your student leaders to get free, high quality images that you can use for your marketing. Here's a brief list:

 

• Sxc.hu is the largest free photo site on the web with millions of images. I use this one all the time as my main source.
• Stockvault.net has over 8,000 royalty free photos for personal and education projects.
• Openstockphotography.org is a search engine that goes through all of the Wikimedia Commons images, which as of April 2007 was over 1.3 million.
• Flickr.com is run by Yahoo and has millions of photos uploaded by amature photographers from around the world. The trick with Flickr is each photo has a different set of copyright settings attached to it, so you'll want to read about Creative Commons before you grab the photo you love. 

Here's to happy photo finding and better looking marketing materials for campus events.

 

Your Facebook Network(Tips and Tricks)

I'm sure by now you are fairly familiar with the Facebook interface.  Many users don't use all of Facebook's features.

The Network page can be a very powerful tool, but the Facebook interface does not allow the Network page to reach it's full potential.  The reason?  The only way to access your network is by clicking the network link at the top of the page.

It doesn't really jump out at you.   I think it would be a lot more effective if the News Feed dedicated a portion of the page to list Network Activity.

So what does the Network Page do?

• The Networks page lists
• Shows all the upcoming events in your network.
• Shows all the recently posted items in your network.
• Shows all the recently active groups among members of your network.
• Shows all the items in your networks marketplace
• Shows network statistics such as top music, movies, and Interests, TV shows, Books, and also displays percentages such as sex, political views, and relationship status .
• Shows nearby Networks
• Provides a discussion board and a wall.

So what can I do with all this?

Let's start with the groups. 

While searching through the active groups in your network you may stumble upon one titled Fall 2007 Freshmen, or something of the sort.  This is a great place to promote, and Recruit.  Tom recently posted a blog discussing this The Strange Power of the Go Getter Freshmen.

There may be other great active groups in your network you can promote with.  Take a look, just don't over advertise, because nobody likes spam, and overuse of these groups will begin to look like spam.

Let's move on to the people in your network. 

Near the top of the Network page six random members of your network will be displayed.  Above these six members will display how many people are in your network, and a couple links to search or browse within your network.  I don't see much use with the browse feature, as it only displays ten random people in your network.

Click the search link, and then continue on and click the advanced link.  I'm sure you have seen the advanced page before, but have you ever used it for student affairs networking?  The advanced search page allows you to search within every portion of a Facebook profile.  From the basic info to contact info, personal info, education info, and work info.  If you are looking for any particular characteristic to promote, or recruit  from you can easily search it from here.

Have you ever wondered which staff and faculty members have signed up for Facebook?  Well it's fairly easy to find out.  Scroll down till you see education info, and in the school status drop down menu you will see staff, and faculty.  select whichever one you would like to search, and click the advanced search button at the bottom of the page

What do your students like to do? what are their interests?  Sounds like you need to put out another survey.  No not at all, Facebook already did the Assessment for you!!  Check the Network Statistics page and you may find what you are looking for.  The best part is you can click each particular interest and get a list of the people who have added that interest to their profile.

How can you use this?  Look at each category, is there something that jumps out at you that you can create an event about?  perhaps if there is a particular type of music that is popular you can have a dance focusing on that type of music.  Maybe under interests you see a sport such as ultimate frisbee, why not host a tournament.  Look under the movies category, why not play one of the top movies for your students?  Be creative, and you can put together a great event.

Does anyone else have any networking, promotional or recruiting tips or tricks that they use with Facebook?

How to Create a Facebook Flyer

Facebook made it incredibly simple to create targeted ads based on location, sex, age, keywords, political view, relationship status, education status, and workplace. These target ads, called flyers, are a great and cheap way to market your events. If you've never tired it, here's a quick tutorial to get your started:

Step 1: Log into your Facebook account

 

 

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of your profile page and click on "advertisers"

 

 

Step 3: Click on "Order Facebook Flyers"

 

 

Step 4: Click on "Flyers Pro"

Flyers Basic allows you to pay-per-flyer-impression which means that you will pay around $10 to have the flyer appear 5,000 times on Facebook. With Flyers Pro, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad instead of just appearing on their page. I think this is the more effective approach because you are only going to pay if someone is interested and if they don't click through, you still get the flyer-impression on their page, but you don't pay for it!

 

 

Step 5: Add the info you want to your flyer

Facebook will update your flyer in real time so you know exactly what it will look like when it's live. You can add text, links, and photos to your flyer.

 

 

Step 6: Set a budget and the search criteria for who should see your flyer

This is where the power of the flyer gets impressive. You can narrow your listing down to only a select group of people if you want. Filter by location, sex, age, keywords, political view, relationship status, education status, and workplace. Only those people will see your flyer.

 

 

Step 7: See your results

Your flyer will appear on the side of a Facebook profile. And again you will only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

 

 

Step 8: Monitor your progress

Facebook allows you to monitor how well your flyer is doing. Click on either of these two tabs and you will see data for your flyer. You can also go back and adjust your flyer's content or search criteria at any time.

 

Emergency Text Messaging Part 2: Who should I choose?(A comparison analysis of four services)

This day and age it seems like everyone has a cell phone, many schools are beginning to tap into that technology, and use text messaging to inform students when needed.

Since the Tragedy at Virginia Tech, many schools are trying to get an emergency contact system in place.  What better method than text messaging.  Individuals usually carry their cell phones around with them, and a text message can deliver an immediate detailed message.

Many companies offer features that allow organizations, and clubs on a college campus to sent out updates, announce meetings, or advertise upcoming events.

This comparison analysis will compare and contrast some of the top text messaging services.

The Services

E2Campus

Costs $1 per user per year, is a good deal for smaller campuses, but can get pricey with a large population.

Offers unlimited groups. Which can include emergencies, events, sports teams, and can even include different campuses of a college.

Allows for unlimited group admins

Access to the E2Campus application is available from your PC, mobile phone, or a PDA

 
Informz

Has a one time setup fee of $300

Annual Licensing fee is $2,000

Text messages can be purchased in blocks, and range between 6 and 8 cents depending on how many blocks you purchase.

 

With all the setup fees this product can get pricey, It may be efficient for a larger campus to afford this, but may be way out of the budget of a smaller school.

Gives you the option to purchase a dedicated short code for $14,000 a year, which means you will get your own 5 digit number to be texted.

For $1200 a month you can purchase a custom vanity code, which allows you to chose a short code so it is easier to remember.

 

Mobile Campus

Offers a free service, but will spam you with text message advertisements which will burn out the medium very quickly, and may result in negative effect on text message alerts from your students.

 

Jyngle

Offers two services.  The Standard "Free" service is designed for smaller groups.  The standard service does have a banner at the bottom of the text which says"Powered by Jyngle".  This banner is designed to spread the word of the service, but a representative at Jyngle informs me that it may be used for ad space in the future.  Still for being free I would not complain about the tiny ad at the bottom of the message.

The second service Jyngle offers is the Enterprise service.  This is a pay per message service, and does not contain the banner at the bottom of the message.  The rates for this service are $0.03 per voice message and $0.06 per SMS.  Jyngle offers the Enterprise Service to schools for free for emergency use.

Pricing Comparison

This chart compares pricing of the four services.

This chart compares each service prices based on the size of a student population.  Note Informz block pricing is based upon 10 texts per student.

There are other services available which I was unable to acquire the pricing for.  Some of these include

Rave

clearTXT

PromoTXT

If you have any experiences dealing with any of the vendors mentioned, or any vendor not listed above please share them.

The 'how' and 'why' of FREE HUGS

The Free Hugs Campaign gained international fame in 2006 when an australian man, Juan Mann, created a video and posted it on Youtube. The video has over 16 millions hits and has sparked an annual international Free Hugs Day.

We picked up on the activity as a nice compliment to our Dance Floor Theory Leadership Training and helped spread the idea to the college market. To better understand the link, think about it in terms of a dance floor:

 

- If you go to a dance where no one knows each other, the DJ could put on the hottest song and chances are very few people will dance.

 

- On the other hand, if you go to a dance where every knows each other and are friends, the DJ could put on The Barney Song and chances are people will have a fun time dancing.

- The difference between the two dance floors isn't the amount of marketing, or one has better music, or one has better lights etc. The difference is one has a network of relationships and the other doesn't.

- If you are having trouble getting people to come to your events, think about your campus in terms of a dance floor. How many networks do your student leaders link to? Does your campus look like this?

- More importantly, how can you get it to look like this?

- This is where FREE HUGS comes in.

- The goal is to increase the number of relationships on your campus. Blender Events are designed to engage the apathetic students in a non threating way and gradually, over time, increase their engagement to the campus community. FREE HUGS is one of thousands of examples of Blender Events.

- It doesn't matter what the event is as long as you have enough people with enough relationships.

- If you want to create your own Blender Event keep these 4 things in mind. 1) The apathetic students won't come to you, so you have to bring the event to them. 2) I can punch someone and get a reaction, but that is not the reaction I want. Focus on how you can get a positive reaction. 3) Blender Events won't replace your other campus entertainment such as a comedian or a musician, instead use Blender Events between each major entertainment as a way to connect the dots. 4) Most importantly, you don't have to spend a lot of money. Often the organic, home grown events are the best ones.

- Hosting a FREE HUGS day on your campus is a great way to try a Blender Event out and see how much fun and effective it can be. To get you started, you can download our original 8.5 x 11 FREE HUGS sign to print and use. All I ask is you email us to share your pictures, stories and videos.

1000s of students have hosted a FREE HUGS Blender Event on their campus. Here are some of the results posted on Facebook. I especially like the first one as it was the deciding factor for a new student to pick that school.

Alter Ego Productions

Lower your costs. Increase your hipness. Who can argue w/ that?

We've been running our Alter Ego Series for about the last six years. It all started w/ the idea of supporting local music. This is the setup. Each show is themed - pop punk, metal, alt, etc. We do four bands per show, and charge $5 at the door. Each band gets 15% of door sales, but we also give the bands tickets to sell in advance. That's where they can really make some money. For those tickets, we tell them we need to get $2 back for every ticket they sell. So they can keep up to 60% or they can discount the tickets (to motivate fans to buy in advance). We use a ticket consignment form, and settle up w/ them before the show starts. This setup works for us because the bands do a large share of the promotion, and we can't lose money on the show.

Another important piece is the name/branding of the series. In the beginning, we created "Alter Ego Productions" to downplay the fact that this is a student group. We wanted to give the impression that we were an independent group who is renting out space at the college. Over the years, that has pretty much gone by the wayside, but we still don't put "Student Activities Program Board" on any of the promotion. Alter Ego Productions maintains the reputation for being a cool place to play or see a show within the local music scene.

Our audience numbers range from 50 to 150, which we consider a sellout for that room. These shows also create a following for the Alter Ego brand, and really help when we do our bigger concerts which typically sell out at 600 people.

Another perk, especially for community colleges like us, is that we do get some high schoolers at our shows which is a great way to get them on your campus and leave them with a "cool" image of the school.

Making the Case for Collaboration

There’s a phrase floating around in the higher education profession right now that none of us professionals like hearing. It brings shivers to our spines and sometimes tears to our eyes.

 

OK, maybe it’s not quite that bad… but none of us like hearing the phrase “budget cuts.”

 

However, these so-called budget “cuts” (or what I call “shortages”) are a reality for many of us today, and those of us working on smaller campuses feel the pain more than anything. How do we as advisors and directors help our students battle these shortages?

 

This professional thinks collaboration is the key when it comes to battling budget shortcomings. Collaboration is becoming more and more accepted at institutions across the country. It is no longer a rarity to see an Admissions department and Student Activities office working together. The campuses who have embraced this approach will surely reap great benefits.

 

Personally, I’ve come to appreciate the value of collaboration between departments and student organizations. In fact, nothing makes me happier than to see two student organizations pull off an activity or event in which both groups played a significant role in making it a success.

 

There are so many benefits to collaboration – including higher attendance and response to your programs, less financial commitment from your office or organization, and a higher quality program or event, to name a few. Theoretically, when you co-sponsor or collaborate on a program, you have twice the people involved but only half of the finances from your department or office.

 

As a supervisor of Resident Assistants (RAs), I am constantly encouraging my staff members to consider the benefits of collaboration – both with other RAs and with other organizations, such as the Student Activities Board (SAB). When one of my RAs plans a typical program for his residents, he might reach an audience of 10 to 20 students, which seems just fine considering he only has $25-$30 to spend on this program. However, when he calls up the president of the SAB and gets this group on board, he has instantly multiplied his audience threefold simply by having the program discussed at the next SAB meeting.

 

From a residence life perspective, it can be especially beneficial for a campus programming board to partner with a representative (such as an RA) within a residential life office. One might argue – and some previous research would suggest – that students who live on campus are more invested and participate in campus events at a higher rate than commuters. Therefore, one might suggest that having someone from the residential life office involved would be a sure-fire way of reaching this population.

 

As the advisors to these various student organizations, we should be encouraging our student leaders to think about collaborating more often. I think we will find that our students will become less selfish and more apt to consider the “big picture”.  In addition, they will learn to appreciate collaboration as a concept long after earning their bachelor’s or associate’s degree.

 

Just as important are our own efforts to collaborate with other departments. Before we can encourage our students to embrace this concept of collaboration, we must embrace it. And why shouldn’t we?