Posted by Howard Kang, Ignition Officer
KISS – The usability mantra, the creed of the web designer, the secret of marketing…we’ve already heard it all before.
It’s one of those messages that gets drilled home so much to the point that it becomes noise and we forget about it; …not so fast.
These tools available on the social web…have you remembered to K-I-S-S? Have you gotten lost in the buzz and forgotten the simple things? I know I have.
We do get lost in the “coolness” of it all don’t we? Looking around at what others have accomplished, what we think is possible, and though we don’t admit it…we really do care more about the numbers when we lead on.
When’s the last time we heard somebody say something like, “Oh, the web is great for amplifying a message via word of mouth.” Probably last year because that’s when there were a bunch of buzzwords about word of mouth floating around. Now that message has been stripped down to, “Oh, the web is great for amplifying a message.”
On the most basic level, we love the social web because it helps us connect with other humans (people behind brands/universities/etc. included). That human connection helps us build relationships, along with buzz, and connects us in a community. It doesn’t exist solely to help amplify your message, just to make your brand more popular, or anything along those lines. Having a Facebook Fan Page, does not give you the “license to spam” as Joe puts it.
When we remember our roots, remember what enchanted us so much about communicating on the web, we have the greatest success. People miss the simple things. So here’s your friendly reminder…
Keep it simple, stupid. 
Posted by Howard, Ignition Officer
“In 2014 we’re adding a new science building with the newest in digital innovation.”
“There are plans right now of adding a student union to campus soon.”
“We will add a collection of 1st Edition Dr. Seuss books to our library in the future.”
In higher ed we encounter this kind of language all the time. For some reason there seems to be an overemphasis on what’s happening in the future and what we’re hoping or planning to get instead of appreciating and embracing what we have. I’m not saying that looking to the future or looking forward to the next step is bad, but I do think that you could be missing out on appreciating some of your hidden strengths.
Your prospective students notice these future oriented statements. It often makes your institution seem inadequate. Imagine meeting a new person you were trying to judge. Let’s call him Guy. Guy says to you statements like, “In 2011, I’m going to lose 30 pounds!” or “I’m hoping to have a perfect lawn someday.” What Guy says about his future is interesting in the sense that you get a feel for what he’s striving for, but you’re also left thinking…and? What about now? An overemphasis on future plans leaves a perception that what you currently have isn’t enough. If you don’t think it is, do you think the prospective students will?
An innumerable amount of other institutions students are looking at have similar future goals and have things like “small class sizes where you’re not another number.” Still, given those facts, no two universities are exactly alike are they? Those are your “hidden strengths.”
Last fall I visited Winthrop University and I saw a student with a shirt that said, “Winthrop Football…still undefeated.” The joke? They don’t have a football team. Students have actually come to embrace the fact they don’t have football. There are passionate students like Eagle Man who cheer on the Eagles with pride. It speaks to the culture of their university. Will Winthrop embrace football if they get it? Probably, but the students don’t seem to mind not having it.
These hidden strengths often may be hinted at or mentioned in passing during preview days, but I think they’re often glazed over as nothing more than ancillary details, when really those small details are what some potential students fall in love with. I can name several students that immediately knew my alma mater was the right fit for them when they learned that our library architect designed it with no right angles so that students could think differently and creatively.
I think it’s time to shift “in the future we’ll have…” thinking to “this what we have and this is why we rock.” The small things, that when you consider it really help contribute to your institution’s identity.
Own it, be proud of it, and spread the word. Your future students will notice.
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
I’m leaving for a few hours to go present BlueFuego’s Independent Colleges of Washington Workshop with Howard. It’s a 4.5 hour session tomorrow, and we’re doing 3.5 hours of Q&A! I love Q&A, I wish more of my presentations were strictly Q&A. There are so many questions out there about all of these tools, practical strategies for moving forward, how to measure, and so much more.
This is the 6th workshop that BlueFuego has done, and we already have 8 more scheduled for 2010. It’s apparent that people are hungry for more, and have lots of questions on their mind about web marketing.
I was finishing up my slidedeck and decided to post the pre-workshop survey questions we received on a slide to magnify the fact that if you have questions during the workshop, you’re not alone. I then bolded words or questions or statements that stood out to me. When I finished it, it became a strong representation of where I think higher ed currently is in dealing with web marketing.
It’s been interesting to watch our workshops evolve over the past 8-10 months. Last spring and summer, we were constantly answering questions like “What IS Twitter?”, “What is a Facebook Page?”, “How do I start?”, etc. Now that schools have moved past that initial first step, the questions have become like the ones in the image above.
“How do I sustain?” - Ensuring that efforts are manageable and scalable.
“Foursquare is awesome, but should we play?” - Recognizing that not every new tool is worth the time.
“Tools to help manage multiple accounts” – Now we’re not dealing with one Twitter account, we’re dealing with 12.
“How do I show my managers the importance of devoting time and money to these new techniques?” - “New media is a synonym for no budget”, Seth Godin once said.
“How can we customize?” – Recognizing the need to stand out, and that simply being on a site isn’t a sustainable competitive advantage.
“I probably have a zillion other questions floating around in my head.” - Again, you’re not alone.
We look forward to tomorrow’s session and spending the large portion of the day with people from universities across Washington, answering questions like these and more!
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Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
Happy 2010 everyone!
We’re excited to kick off 2010 by introducing you to the newest member of the BlueFuego team, Howard Kang.
I’ve known Howard for several years, and it’s still hard to sum him up. He’s a unique blend of business and right-brain thinking. He’s extremely smart, contagiously passionate, imaginative, devoted, driven and detailed. He continues to amaze us each week with his fresh thoughts and ideas for higher ed marketing. Recently, while reading The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership I came across a great quote, which I think can best describe what excites us about Howard:
“It’s well known among engineers that the most important inventions in a particular field are often made by people who are new to the field [...], people who aren’t held back by all the reasons why something can’t be done, and who are therefore able to think more freely about seemingly intractable problems.”
Howard brings a strong marketing background, but being new to this specific arena we’re already impressed with how Howard is continually challenging us with his vision, as he consistently looks beyond what is possible. We’re excited for him to share these ideas with both clients and colleagues. Look for him to be presenting some of these ideas at conferences in 2010 and beyond. He’ll also be a frequent blogger on here, and we know you’ll learn a lot from his unique perspective.
Outside of work, Howard comes from Portland, OR and is a huge Trailblazers fan. He cares about world issues, sustainability (he always seems to be reminding me of my carbon footprint from flying so much!), sports, cooking, photography… pretty much everything. You’ll often find him reading The Economist and listening to NPR. We love his thirst for knowledge as we share in his curiosity to learn all we can.
Howard’s already jumped in full-speed and fits right into the BlueFuego culture, bringing his passion and drive daily and never accepting to do any work he’s not proud of. His work with clients has already shown everyone involved that he’s a strong asset to BlueFuego.
Without further ado, please join us in welcoming Howard to the BlueFuego team by leaving a comment below!
Be sure to get to know Howard better and follow him at:
http://twitter.com/howardkang
http://www.howardkang.com
Posted by Howard, Ignition Officer
With Tinychat.tv recently entering the live video streaming space, I thought it would be a great time to chime in with some thoughts on Tinychat.com and how it can be leveraged effectively to connect with students. We’ve been testing Tinychat for a while with clients and believe it can be a great tool to build relationship with prospective students.
Tinychat is an extremely simple video chat platform that allows up to 400 people to chat and 12 people to broadcast audio and video at once. The part that makes it truly “simple” is the login process. Users do not need to sign up for an account and can simply enter with a nickname or login with Twitter or Facebook Connect.
(Tinychat interface – Recent chat with some teammates from summer trip)
After Tinychat’s relaunch in May 2009, TinyChat has seen steady growth and has begun edging out Tokbox in unique traffic. Tinychat has been beating out Tokbox for one reason: the ease of use.
Now onto the fun part, how Tinychat can be used to reach students on the web. One way is to use student bloggers (or just students) and host a student panel through Tinychat. All they would need to do is login from their respective rooms and broadcast! A quick fan page post letting fans know it is going on can drive traffic to the session. The chat will be very organic compared to a regular, scheduled chat. The “impromptu” chats should prove to still be successful, as we’ve seen Facebook Fan Pages drive traffic well in the past. With Tinychat premium you can control who broadcasts, so that only your bloggers can broadcast while prospective students ask questions via text in chat. Another way is to have an admissions counselor do the exact same thing. Imagine being a prospective student with a question and having an e-mail back that says, “Do you just want to video chat? Talk with my at tinychat.com/(name).” Not only is it an opportunity to build relationship, but it gives a great human side to an admissions process that can seem very hostile to prospective students.
Another great perk of using Tinychat is that the users pretty much spread the word for you. When prospective students logon using Facebook Connect (as many do), Tinychat will publish to their Live Feed that they are currently chatting at X room. It looks like this:
Hope these ideas have helped start a good conversation on how Tinychat can be leveraged to connect with students; these are only the start of great ways Tinychat can be used. What do you think? Do you have any other ideas?
Notes:
Premium Membership details (may not be available with recent update):
Tinychat occasionally has audio problems and at times users have trouble getting their wecams connected. Make sure to plan ahead! If you have problems, Tinychat has great customer service:
