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Your Higher Education Marketing Link of the Week... Boston University

By Bob on July 22, 2012 8:06 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Video & News Content to Engage Professional School Visitors: Boston University School of Public Health

Today's Link of the Week selection replaces the common top-of-the-page rotating collection of photo or video presentations with introductory images of 2 video and 4 news options when the page opens. Run your cursor over each one for a short summary of what's behind each image and pick your favorite to watch.

Using the rotating image approach has always seemed like a bit of a crap shoot to me. Yes, a new visitor might see something of interest. On the other hand, maybe not. That's a risky game to play for such an important first impression opportunity.

This alternative passes the critical 5-second scan rule. You'll see each image in less than 5 seconds and it won't take you much longer than that to see what each one is about if you don't go immediately to a single selection.

The presentation behind the links might be better. One video is more than 6 minutes long. A news story would benefit from subheads to scan when the page opens. 

For an unusual opening to a professional school home page, visit the Boston University School of Public Health.

Bob Johnson

P.S. This Link of the Week is on the blog rather than the usual website page. Connections to edit my website have been broken for over a week and I've yet to have a response from the firm that operates my web editing software. Less than impressive service, for sure.





Forecasting the online future... notes from J.BoyePhiladelphia2011

By Bob on May 9, 2011 11:54 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Forecasting online tools and policies: J.Boye conference delegates speak

Forecasting the future is the theme of the closing Town Hall event each year at a J.Boye conference, a session that's both fun and informative. Two volunteer experts offer their respective "yes" or "no" opinions on possible future trends on the online world. And then the delegates vote on which possibility they think is most likely to happen.

Here, with a few notes about the discussions from yours truly, are the questions and answers from last Thursday at J.BoyePhiladelphia2011. 

Do you say "Yes" or "No" to these predictions of the future?

QR codes will be huge.
    • No. Several things are holding them back. Most people, at least in the U.S., don't know what they are. The apps to read them don't come installed on smartphones. Here is the U.S. you don't see them often on ads. For those who have the apps now (I have Bakodo), they simply don't always work on every QR code on every device.
Just pick the "cool tool" for social media or undertake a procurement process to decide what an organization should use?
    • Pick the cool tool. Many people cannot stand formal procurement processes and don't feel that a procurement review would result in better decisions about the most appropriate social media tools.
Websites are "sooo dead."
    • An emphatic "no" on this one. Present websites will adapt but some tasks that people expect to do online are best done on a regular website, now and forever.
Keyboards and a mouse will vanish.
    • No. Lots of division on this one, with some taking note that today's 5 year old child may not ever use a traditional keyboard or mouse. But for many in the room, keyboards allow much faster writing than smartphones and tablets and are not going away anytime soon.
"Governance" of websites is a waste of time.
    • No. Although few felt that present "governance" or "management" schemes were especially effective, even fewer could imagine letting anarchy reign.
Forgo text, video is the new thing.
    • No. Video is important, but almost nobody felt it was going to replace text.
Facebook is the next Google.
    • No. I couldn't sense how much of the sentiment here was a wee bit of latent hostility re Facebook but the best comments suggested that Google was a much broader enterprise than Facebook and was not about to lose its current position as had IBM and Microsoft.
Steve killed Flash.
    • No. Some discussion here of the HTML5 impact on web development, but Adobe remains vigorous in defense of flash and Adroid tablets use it. A majority felt it would continue to exist in the future.
How far away is the future?

At least one person asked just how far away everyone felt the "future" was. From the discussion, I'd say it was at least as far away as the working lifespan of everyone in the room. Safe to assume that's about 25 years old and up. Only a brave few were trying to imagine the future for today's youngest children.

J.Boye Future Conferences

Plan now to explore the future this year or next at a J.Boye Conference
New "Writing Right for the Web" Event

My first 2-day "Writing Right for the Web" Conference is set for San Diego on July 26 - 27. Check the detailed outline and register to improve your website content.

That's all for now.




Social media as mass marketing... Learning from the Ford example

By Bob on November 19, 2009 12:35 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Social Media Marketing... the new Mass Marketing Platform?

At the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education earlier this week, social media marketing was the hot topic at presentation after presentation. And there was strong interest in how to demonstrate "ROI" from the financial and human investment needed in this area.

ROI is a worthy topic to explore if the goal of social media marketing is to increase conversion in enrollment campaigns or to increase alumni giving rates.

But what if social media marketing isn't about immediate conversion results but general brand awareness? A story in today's Detroit Free Press positions social media as the next mass marketing vehicle. Ford Motor Company is enthusiastic about the results of a 6-month social media campaign to create pre-launch awareness of the 2010 Ford Fiesta, ready for sale next year.

60% Brand Awareness from Integrated Social Media Campaign

Ford gave 100 cars for 6 months to "mostly young, hip drivers" who were "savvy" with Facebook and Twitter and counted on them to ignite a fire of awareness. Read more about the program at the "Fiesta Movement" website. The results:

As a result of that activity, Ford has measured brand awareness by the public at 60 percent, a level that it projects would have cost more than $50 million in traditional media spending.

Impressive result. But not a car has yet been sold. If you only define ROI by sales results (or students enrolled or dollars raised), there is no direct "ROI" from a campaign like this. 

Note that Ford did one thing that is too often left out of budget-tight higher education branding campaigns: traditional market research that measures results after a campaign is over.

Creative Risk-Taking Needed

If higher education moves forward into social media as fast as ROI measurement allows, that move will not happen very quickly. We need creative risk taking, along with an understanding that measuring the exact impact of individual marketing elements on a final decision to enroll or donate (or buy a car) is not an easy thing. Some would say it is not possible.

What is clear is that we can measure the swirl of activity that does take place around a social media campaign. And we can do that better now than we could for traditional public relations and brand awareness campaigns back in ancient times. We can see and feel and hear the activity taking place. And that just might be all the ROI needed.

That's all for now.

 

 

Video continues to expand in online student recruitment...

By Bob on July 10, 2008 9:55 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Ono of the themes that emerged during questions and discussions at yesterday's ACT pre-conference workshop was the increasing use of video at college websites to introduce the real people who live and learn at these places. In other words, to humanize them by using the web in a way that goes beyond what student profiles in print can do.

Like anything else, these can be done well and not-quite-so well. These 4 examples stand out i my personal web searching among the many that are available.

More examples stand out among my Link of the Week selections at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/linkoftheweek.html 

And of course I'd certainly like to hear of more that you might know about. Send me a note at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com or leave a comment.

YouTube and more... best video for online marketing

By Bob on September 14, 2007 9:59 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Nancy Schwartz has posted a blog entry with summaries and links to the thoughts of several people involved in online marketing, including yours truly. You'll find an interesting and valuable variety of thought here that will result in stronger video marketing in your communications mix.

The links are in her report on "How to Use Online Video to Strengthen Your Nonprofit Marketing Impact -- Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants" 

Visit http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2007/09/how-to-strength.html for the review.

Nancy notes that part of the discussion is about the value of amateur vs. professional videos in the marketing effort. I agree 100 percent with her assessment of this:

  • "There is an active debate what quality means, and adds, in online video. Some Carnival bloggers hold out for the authenticity of amateur video. My take -- that amateur video will soon become tedious as the novelty of the medium erodes. Expectations for higher-end production values will begin to increase very quickly. I've watched this cycle before, most recently with blogging."

When you visit the blog, be sure to sign for Nancy's "Getting Attention" email newsletter.

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