Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
Last October on SquaredPeg I posted an interview with Dara Crowfoot from DePaul University, who heads up DePaulQuad.com. (You can see screenshots of the community on the original post.) The DePaulQuad.com website is geared for the parents of current students, a niche that should not be overlooked.
BlueFuego had the opportunity to meet with DePaul last month for an audit/site visit of current social media offerings, including the DePaulQuad and KellstadtLink.com, a new community for business students and alumni. Dara has done a fantastic job with building this community.
If you want to learn more about Dara’s great work, you definitely don’t want to miss this free webinar tomorrow:
“How To Keep Members Coming Back To Your Online Community. When “Build It And They Will Come” Isn’t Working“
Free WOMMA Webinar for members and nonmembers
April 1st, 12pm EST
The DePaul Quad is an online community for parents of DePaul University students. Since its launch in August 2007, the DePaul Quad has grown to over 2,000 members and begun to change how the University approaches customer service from a one-way model to a model built on a multi-dimensional conversation.
This session will:
1. outline why we launched an online community
2. review the results we have seen
3. outline what it takes to keep members coming back
4. show how the conversations in the online community have started to change the overall way we do business.
Register or Learn More here!
I’ve previously talked about how you can use Twitter as your text messaging system, but there’s a new entrant in this game.
Dave at BuzzMarketingDaily explains:
We just discovered an incredible new option (presumably in beta) for select administrators and promoters of Facebook Public Profiles – you can text to become a fan of select businesses, organizations, politicians, or official entities on Facebook! Go ahead, try this out by fanning our firm – Text fan theKbuzz to FBOOK (32665) to become a fan of ours on Facebook. (Replace “thekbuzz” with the name of another vanity url on a Facebook Fan Page / Public Profile such as Barack Obama to ask people to become fans of that public profile or business!)
Now what’s the hitch in this plan for right now? You have to have a vanity url to do it. (Dave – any tips for us?)
Facebook is definitely making some moves in the mobile arena and is no doubt trying to compete with Twitter’s growth (1392% over the past year). This will be a powerful tool for your university down the road, but here are my 5 Tips to do it well.
- Offer quality content. With this coming down the road, re-think your ‘update’ strategy. Before you post it think to yourself – “Would my fans want this on their mobile phone?”
- Have a presence. Without a Facebook Public Profile, you can’t do this.
- Integrate into traditional methods. You’ve got 25 kids sitting in your presentation for the visit. Tell them to pull out their phones and text ‘Fan YourU’ to FBOOK. Be unique, ask them to use their cell phones when they normally aren’t supposed to.
- Ask them what they want. Start a discussion thread or post on the wall to see what kind of content you should provide them.
- Be original!! Don’t follow what other Universities and Colleges are doing. Try something new with Facebook Fan Texts.
Sadly, BlueFuego does not have a vanity URL yet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t friend us!
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
I recently got back from SXSW Interactive, which was in Austin TX from March 13-17. More than 10,000 people attended the conference, which was full of great content and networking. I had the opportunity to present with Dylan Wilbanks from the University of Washington on the topic ‘The Web in Higher Education: What’s Different?’. We had a packed audience for the panel, which is called a core conversation. The presenters get no more than 10 minutes to speak, and then the audience takes it from there and the presenters facilitate discussion. It was a great way to hear many perspectives and issues in higher education web.
My big takeaway from SXSW was the continuing growth of location-based social networks. For example, I drive by a Starbucks and it tells me that my friend is there. The latest release in this area is FourSquare (http://playfoursquare.com), which joins other services like Loopt. FourSquare was actually created by the developers of Dodgeball, a similar service that was acquired by Google and later canned. Not quite sure how this will tie into higher ed down the road, but be aware of the trend!
To see ‘The Web in Higher Education: What’s Different?’, just click play below. [The audio isn't the best because we did not have a mic for the audience.]
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
March Madness is upon us, and it’s time to decide which office or campus bracket you want to dominate. Well, here’s another one to put your bracket in… The Fuego Four.
Enter your bracket for a chance to win some pretty sweet prizes. Here’s what you can win:
1st place: $200 Professional Development Money, a BlueFuego t-shirt, and a free seat in the Twitter for Higher Education webinar.
2nd-4th place: BlueFuego t-shirt, and a free seat in the Twitter for Higher Education webinar.
If you’ve already registered for the webinar and win, we can give you a future webinar for free or turn it into $100 Professional Development Money.. you choose.
We have some other prizes up our sleeves for the contest, but you’ll have to be a part of it to find out.
May the best bracket win!
Brad
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
Nielsen recently released a new report titled ‘Global Faces and Networked Places‘, which speaks of online social networking trends and advertising. You can get the full 15-page PDF at that link, but I just wanted to share some tidbits and thoughts from the report with you.
- Facebook has replaced MySpace as the world’s most popular social network. This was not a matter of if, but when. MySpace continues to lose market share to other social networks ( a -3% growth in 2008 compared to 168% growth for Facebook). MySpace continues to generate ad revenue, however.
- If you’re dealing with any web-based efforts or social media, you need to know these three things.
- Advertising must be a conversation rather than a push model.
- The tone of advertising must be more authentic.
- Advertising should be about adding value.
- Think about the mutual relationships with social networks and other media. I frequently present about integrating social media into your recruitment strategy, and this is one of the main points. Integrate technologies into existing media. These methods are very complementary and can be used to meet your goals. There’s no need to drop everything you’re doing and shift all resources to the web. And it’s actually a really bad idea.
- “The social networking phenomenon is dramatically changing the way people behave and, consequently, offers new challenges and opportunities to the global media and advertising industry alike.” Apply this thought to higher education as well. Alumni, Admissions, Marketing/PR, Athletics, Fundraising, you name it. Things have changed, and it’s time to revisit your strategies.
Let BlueFuego know if you’re ready to take a look at how you can meet your goals and objectives in this changing landscape. Contact us today.
