If you haven’t seen the wonderful little lo-fi videos (made with stop-motion paper cut-outs) from commoncraft, you should check them out below. They are among the best, simple explanations of web stuff like blogs, wikis, rss, I’ve found. Here are a few I recommend to all blog managers.

Blogs

Social Media

Social Networking

RSS

Melissa manages the bloggers for Reality Bytes, the BBA Career Services student life blogs. Here is a 20 min. interview I did with Melissa about how they attract, select, instruct, and manage their bloggers.

Click on this mp3 to play in your browser, or right-click to download: Melissa_on_managing_reality_bytes.mp3 (20 MB)

]]> http://mccombsblogs.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/interview-with-melissa-martinez/feed/ 0 msbwebeditor Melissa Martinex http://mccombsblogs.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/blog-strategy/ http://mccombsblogs.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/blog-strategy/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:12:30 +0000 msbwebeditor http://mccombsblogs.wordpress.com/?p=31 ]]>

Fill in the blanks of your strategy statement:

1. [Blog Name] covers [topics] for [audience].

2. Content will come from [bloggers] every [frequecy].

3. If applicable: We’ll be emulating sites like [site name/link] and drawing on content from [other sites/sources].

Example 1, the New McCombs Weekly: The McCombs Ticker covers internal news for Faculty, Staff, and Students. Content will come from around the school and be written, proofed, and/or posted by Rob Meyer and Tracey Mueller weekly. We’ll be emulating sites like the Queen’s School of Business Blog and drawing content from any other online McCombs news sources.

Example 2, Steward Central: Steward Central covers McCombs web news and ideas for web stewards. I’ll be managing the blog, but content will come from me and the account managers weekly. We’ll be emulating sites like collegewebeditor.com, and drawing on content from a dozen or so other higher-ed web-tech marketing blogs.

The Chronicle of Higher Education just published the statistics from a survey they did of 461 admissions offices from every state. They gathered lots of information; I was very interested to see how resources went to Web stuff, particularly blogs:

What percentage of your 2007 admissions-office budget was spent on the following student-recruitment methods?

24.1% – Printed materials (e.g., viewbooks, brochures, letters)
22.9% – In person (e.g., school visits, college fairs)
10.6% – Web site and other electronic formats (e.g., e-mail, text messaging)

The first thing that jumped out at me is the discrepancy between how heavily admissions offices employ their sites (98%), and how little they spend accordingly (10%). I know there are lots of factors, but it seems to confirm what I suspect: We’re learning to utilize electronic resources faster than we’re budgeting for them. One explanation is the “free” nature of a lot of in-house Web work, which, I think, helps keep it undervalued.

Which of the following electronic or Web-based tools does your office actively employ in recruitment and communications?
98.0% – Admissions-office Web site
56.2% – Virtual campus tour
43.6% – Blogs by current students
36.7% – Online chats
35.8% – Instant messaging
23.0% – Personalization of the college’s Web site according to prospect’s preferences
18.7% – Text messaging
17.1% – Live Webcam from one or more campus sites
15.4% – Podcasts
6.5% – Blogs by faculty members
5.0% – E-mail
3.9% – Social networking
3.5% – Interactive features on Web site
6.9% – Other
1.5% – Not reported

The second thing I noticed is the rate at which student blogs are being used: 43%. I knew some progressive sites had caught on, but not to that extent. This underscores the growing importance and ubiquity of student bloggers on an admissions site.

Finance Professor Michael Brandl has been blogging his Macroeconomic Updates since 2003. Recently he’s been getting major hits by posting YouTube videos of himself addressing current economic issues like this one on “Defining a Recession:”

As of this post, Brandl’s last five videos, all posted in the last month, have been viewed 4896 times! This is a perfect example of how to cross-promote a blog.

When one of BHP’s longtime student councilors went off to Paris to study abroad, they thought, “blog it!” So she did. And now they promote the blog on their Student Life page. Over and over, I’ve read other edu bloggers stress perhaps the central challenge of sponsoring a student blog: finding people you know and trust. By going with Katie, one of their well-known and trusted councilors, this blog has been a dream for BHP to oversee. Visit Katie’s blog: Good Directions are Needed.

Velma Arney and her BBA Career Services crew (with help from the Web Team) deserve the credit for getting blogging going at McCombs. Reality Bytes, launched in 200?, is the award-winning platform for undergraduates to tell their story of studying at McCombs and figuring out where it may lead them. From the Reality Bytes homepage:

Read, watch, listen, and learn how business students just like you are exploring career opportunities and making the tough decisions that will impact their future. The content provided on BBA {reality.bytes} is created for students by students.

Current Reality Bytes blogs include:

• Live. Life. Love. Longhorn.
• Faust, Midas, & Myself
• The Shadow Proves the Sunshine
• Blogs From Cansu’s Dorm
• Brendan’s Bizzy Blog
• The sky’s the limit!