Things I've Seen

An avatar, a contest and the web: Is there a cooler way to build awareness?

eduWeb Conference 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
July 22-24 

Abu Noaman, Elliance

Is this interactive media working or not?

College Prowler -- What's emerged is the voice of the student. Where is the best place for me to become what I want to be? What is the true essence of this place?  Academic, Town, campus life, amenities. Rated by students who are enrolled.  Importance -- The community is contributing to the content.

The new world order is 'me in control.'

Example: Carnegie Mellon opening a campus in the Middle East. (Carnegie Mellon Qatar Campus)

• Millenials are millenials everywhere. Technology savvy. They want best place for themselves. They take control of information.

• CMU created  a scholarship contest to appeal to competitiveness. Competitive. Interactive. Community contribution. (Common space peer production)  Contest : In no more than 1500 words, how would you push the limits of business and technology to alleviate a major crisis facing the world today.

• Create avatar self.

• Image goes on a map with contestant's name. (Map showed how many entered and from where. After contest deadline, could go to site and read ideas.) 

• Fill out profile with it. Proceed to essay contest.

• Win and get scholarship. One of 5 awarded.

Could have done without avatar/map features,  but CMU brand is technology. Also the subject is a serious one, in keeping with CMU brand. What starts to happen is sense of community among people  participating in contest. Goal was 1000 participants. 12 00 or 1300 did enter.

Example: Built a new site for CMU

• Asked new students: how did you find us? Google was overwhelming response.

• What students are looking for: Jobs and reputation (grad school).

• So build a website dominant on google and emphasizing those two things. Goals was to
  
  • attract more visitors, reverse decline in enrollments, improve student quality.
  • Results: 46% increase in visitors, 118% increase in applicants. More and better students.

• Thinking for designing the site:
  
  • Brand promise on the home page.:"Preparing IT leaders."
  • Next page -- information on prospects grads have. vis a vis salries/hiring. Job placement.
  • High placement on google -- made sure they went after 100 top key words.

The point: Listen to your audience. Observe their habits. Keep in mind the spirit of community; the voice of the student.

How do you deepen the brand and how do you involve the voice of the students?

• Engagement is key, especially  if your brand is technology.

• Podcasts, blogs may not necessarily boost you to numbers you want, but are becoming essential. YET everyone is doing it. If you can do nothing else, do projects that are new, different. don't just follow -- lead.

• Anything that's interesting or creates buzz will be the stuff that gets attention. They're in control and looking for exciting things. Not boring, tired stuff. You need to give them value, something that engages them, and deepens the brand.

***********************

This presenter was one of the most passi0nate here. Though his presentation was not as organized (he admitted he changed it last minute), his passion for the subject more than made up for it.

Drills point home for DU Online -- we need to appeal to technology savvy prospects with technology on our microsite. Which we know. But it's good to see examples; have the point driven home.

The Tragedy at Virginia Tech: Crisis communications on the web

eduWeb Conference 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
July 22-24 

Michael Dame, Director of Web Communications
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

... an insider's viewpoint of his institution'€s online communications effort after the tragic events of April 16 ... Mike will provide an overview of Virginia Tech's response ...

April 16, 2007 Thirty-two students and faculty lost. Campus closed 2 days. Classes cancelled for a week. 715 media members checked in, representing 280 news organizations including international. 140 sattellite trucks in Blacksburg.

9:26 a.m: Email blast: Shooting on campus.

9:31:  Posted same message on site.

9:44:  Overhead police scanner chatter about gunshots in Norris Hall. Went into crisis mode. Prepared for increase in web traffic. Team had developed web plan for crisis in August of previous year when an escaped convict had been in the area and shot a prison official.

9:58:  Alert on home page that gunman was loose on campus.

Goals for day

• Communicate essential information. Brevity on home page. Click deeper for more information. Reduced left navigation to pertinent sections: About, Administration, maps, buildings. Information only pertinent to students, faculty, parents, media.

• Expanded server load balancing. Normally 1 server. Expanded to a second server online to support site. Second server was online in one hour.

• University created Joint Information Center (JIC): university, gov't agencies, police, FBI, mental health agencies, etc. All could make sure accurate, correct information was getting out.

9:59: Began preparing "lite" version of home page to move to production. Design for lite home page had been prepared ahead of time, ready to go in case of crisis.

10:03: Pulled down heavy elements, flash

11:17: Launched home page lite

12:40: Posted home page statement from president. Webcast, podcast.

Communications workflow

• Campus public informaton officers (PIOs) assigned beats in JIC.  Provided information about victims, statements from university and law enforcement, updates about counseling resources.

• PIOs emailed and called in reports.

• Broadcast team recorded all conferences, edited, put MP3s online quickly.

• News updates posted as bloglike entries on front page. Details on interior pages.

• Dealing with distractions: emails, phone calls from family & friends; inundated with calls from vendors; requests for "local angle" from former media colleagues.

Late 4/16 and early on 4/17: Strategized on design and content ideas for website going forward: decided to create Memorial site.  Over next two days, mapped out new site architecture, discussed hardware/ software/server needs. Deadline to launch In Memoriam design for home page by convocation planned for 2 p.m. the next day. Direction: clear, concise, austere.  Multimedia/ web 2.0

10:33: Shut down VT news database to reduce server load.

Other things we thought about

• Use as much multimedia as possible. Web 2.0

• Students and their families first

• Choose words carefully to promote healing

• Engage the community

• Condolences blog
• Post messages received from other universities
• Live streaming Convocation

• Suspended daily VT News email

4/17 noon: New home page launched. Included information for media
2 p.m.: Launched the In Memoriam design

Virtual participation in grieving

• 35,000 messages of condolence in 72 hours. Shut this down by end of the week because of bandwidth usage.

In Memoriam website
4/19: Launched third version of website when able to release names of victims.

• Photo team was collecting many poignant photos. Put on site to randomly display.  Many photos sent from all over the world were included in photo galleries.

• Spoke not only to the grieving but also used to communicate information.  Students coming back to campus on the 23rd needed to know procedures.

• Message to the media: Please respect our students and faculty as they return to campus.

Traffic spike

• April 16: Between noon and 1 p.m., more than 160,000 visits and 35,000 page views.

• 15GB of data transferred on a normal day vs. 432GB in one day. A tremendous load on the servers, but the site never went down.

Transition back to "normal"

• University needed to provide strength and leadership in returning to normal. Determined not to let the tragedy define VT.

• Questions thought about:
  • Is the timing right to return to "normal"?
  • How do we continue to honor the victims and their families? How can the website be a catalyst for this?
  • What do the families think?
  • What do we do about the "normal" everyday news that needs to be communicated?

• How can a website help the transition?
  • Help begin the healing
  • Offer remembrance
  • Suggest rebirth -- springtime photos of the campus
  • Continue putting out our tagline: "Inventing the future"
  • This meant yet another page design

Next iteration of home  page

• Incorporated quote from Nikki Giovanni: "We are the Hokies. We will prevail."

• Combined memorial and crisis communications content

• Restarted regular news and events reporting

• Springtime photos

• Resumed daily email

• Response: New site resonated well with the community. Comments let them know they were on the right path.

• Deemed a "reliable, untainted source of accurate information"

Lessons learned

• Surround yourself with (staff) who care.

• Students and families always come first 

• Offer multiple options for people to access news

• Keep it simple. Let facts and the audience tell the story (NO branding messages!)

Get started

• Be joined at the hip with IT

• Define possible scenarios and match them with the tools you have available

• Develop a lite version of your home page and test it

• Define roles and responsibilities in advance and practice them

• Have ability to leave politics at the door. No time for silos in a crisis

• Plan for your own family/situation. What if you can't leave work for 24 hours or more?

• Surround yourself with cool, calm, collected do-ers. Proactive people.

• Expect to get very little sleep

• Don't forget about you. Take a break when you need it.

PR rules broken

• Did not speak with "one voice" starting on the second day. Made many experts available for commentary. This aided in transparency (led to comment above that site was "reliable, untainted source for accurate information.")

• We were 100% transparent. Released information as soon as we heard it. Very open about everything.

***********************

This has been the best presentation so far. In fact, it was scheduled as the only one in its time slot so that everyone could attend. When he finished, we got to our feet, applauding; Michael Dame had tears in his eyes.

Lunch followed and when I finished I saw him sitting on the patio outside the convention area talking with a couple of the event organizers. I talked to him for just a minute. "I'm from Michigan," I  told him, and I related the story of the coverup of a student rape and murder at EMU (which news is all over the country), the subsequent firings and what a stark contrast it's been to how (a much larger) crisis was handled at VT. He was realistic in his assessment: These are two ends of the spectrum, he said. Hopefully most colleges will fall in the middle in their preparedness and willingness to respond.

I think you'd have to be really put to the test to know.

Analyze this! Use site measurement data to improve your college website

eduWeb Conference 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
July 22-24 

Jeff Cram
iSite Design

This is about site analytics in the context of developing the user experience. How to decide where to invest money in initiatives. How to evalutate whether marketing campaigns are successful.

Web analytics ecosystem
Website as marketing hub. Edu is a little behind the curve. The idea that your website is the hub -- everything you're doing comes off web strategy has been slow to take hold. Types of data:

• Click stream or behavioral data. Use Google Analytics. WebTrends.

• Attitudinal data, for example gathered through surveys.

• Competitive data. (More used in commerce)
  

• AND don't forget search analytics, email analytics, CRM analytics, SEM (search engine marketing) analytics ...

What can you measure?

Traffic, content usage, usability, nav & path analysis, sales, lead generation, campaigns, search, blog traffic, user engagement (focused on are we providing the experience that keeps people on our site and converting), public relations, brand awareness, SEO (search engine optimization).

Observations about Colleges

• Website governance is shifting -- It started in IT; has moved to MarComm. Needs to be a partnership between the two. You need to develop a standard framework for what are key metrics that matter and how are we using them.

• Old: Log files -- output from servers. analyzed, get reports. New: Client side data collection -- Done at the browser level. Send to central server, data is analyzed from that. Industry has moved torward client side tagging. (java script tag on all sites)
  

• Web 2.0 explosion -- the distributed web. We're putting content on You Tube, MySpace; we're  blogging, etc. This increases the need for measurement to see what's going on across the distributed content. Client side tagging helps analyze data from all. Key is finding the metrics that matter and tying them back to your tactics.

Analytics is a process

• Measurement strategy. Needs alignment with your organizational strategy. What are your key performance indicators?

• Website implementation. How does this get deployed across the sites(s)?

• Report configuraton. What reports do you want? Consider distilling key metrics for a wider audience.

• Analysis & Optimizaton. Create a score card. Do monthly analysis, optimizing site based on findings.

Continuous improvement process (cycle). Reporting > analysis  > decision  > action - results. This takes takes the best advantage of analytics.

#1 analytics challenge is acting on findings. Some ways to continuous improvement:

Segmentation

Example: Analyzing conversion rates. Use segmentation to identify characteristics of a successful user (one who converts). Correlate behaviors to activities. Look for pockets of segments of people: what behaviors do they exhibit;  where are they coming from? Look at reports by segments vs. in aggregate. Hone your content to what you find.

Example: Analyzing geographic segmentation. How are international users using your site?

Scorecards

Extract key metrics and share as a report. A spreadsheet is easy and readily understood. Benchmark month to month, etc. What's the trend line? Any red flags? Refine your site accordingly

Optimzation

There's no shortage of reports. But don't just report: analyze, then optimize your site.

A/B testing

Put two versions out there. Compare data. This is a quick way to get a win for the value of analytics. See Google Optimizing -- a new tool. plus get into Adwords, Google Analytics.

Analytics low hanging fruit

• Content vs. Visit distribution. Show what the usage is for each section of content. This can be eye opening.

• Report on top entry pages/top landing pages.  How Search is unlocking deep content vs. home page hist. Over half of site traffic is starting at a page other than your home page. What's the bounce rate -- percentage of people who view one page then leave. This is important when looking at deeper entry pages. Tailor pages to keep people there (enable them to use the site).

• Path analysis. Look at just the next click. How are people moving from where they land to the next thing? (Are your register now buttons working or would a text line work?). Look at reverse path analysis: how did people get there?

• Key word analysis. Track what people are looking for; how they get to your site. Paid ad vs. non paid search -- analyze so you can align your keyword spend with what people are looking for.  Also look at what people are searching for internally on your site. Internal search is one of top ways people find information.

• Look at conversion  paths. (Google funnels) Configure reports to look at these. Where do people enter, where do they leave, why are they leaving, how can you optimize their entire experience?
  

Building a site for analytics resources

Website Analytics the “Next Frontier” for Higher Education Web Strategies

Isite Insight -- Newsletter delivered "every full moon" (Above article appears in this newsletter)

Eric Peterson: Web Analytics Demystified

Avinash Kaushik: "Web Analytics An Hour a Day." Occam's Razor blog.

Web analyst as hero

Take the intiative. Drive the continuous improvement cycle. Tie it always to your bottom line. Good stuff!

Implementing RSS as a marketing tool

eduWeb Conference 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
July 22-24 

Ross Kramer
Listrak

With RSS -- Really Simple Sydication -- you can reach the audience that wants to hear your message.Users susbscribe to what they care about. RSS is Tivo for the web.

The internet is evolving to be usercentric. (I'd say it is usercentric. And the pool of users who are taking advantage is what's evolving, growing)

What you can do to take advantage of this

• Create content. Who is your new user? What are they demanding?  Blogs. Notes from depts. Open forums for students to talk about different.subjects.
  

• Make it searchable. Make sure you have a robust search on your site.  (We do -- Google) Tag clouds are one new way. When someone searches, give them option to save their search.

• Enable RSS. With RSS you don't have to know their name. They gave you the key word they care about. Now you can generate content that's geared to what they care about. This should direct your publishing efforts. feed it constantly. No other technology gives you this. and it's free. But if you don't have the content it's useless.

• Listen. Adapt your content according to what users want. It's key to success.

Tool sets to use to track  usage/interest

• Feedburner. Collects data for you.

• Google Analytics will analyze anything, and I'm barely kidding. More reports than you can use! (It's free, too.)

• Server log files on what key words people are subscribing to.

People use RSS even though they don't know it: Social networks. My Yahoo, etc.

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Nothing here that I'm not aware of. I do feel that Ross might have spent a little more time on collecting and reading RSS feeds, other than to give the example of My Yahoo (which enables users to configure their home page with whatever content interests them.) Afterall, if you're going to collect content, you need a place to aggregate it for you for consumption and I got the feeling that the folks asking questions had little or no knowledge of  RSS.  A lot of people nowadays capture feeds using Google Reader. I use NewsGator. Etc....

 

Getting real recruiting results with interactive technologies

eduWeb Conference 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
July 22-24 

Getting real recruiting results with interactive technologies
Karlyn Morissette
Norwich University

Not only do we need an Admissions strategy, we need a written communications strategy for Admissions. I'm glad to know we'll be getting a new one soon. Dovetailing from that would be an interactive recruitment strategy. Most important elements of this for Norwich:

• Comprehensive website

• Strategic email strategy that is targeted, segmented, customized (Note to self: need to get familiar with how our Hobsons product can slice and dice our lists)

• Student blogs (with open comments)

• Message board

Email has been the biggest driver to Norwich's website.

Best quote: "Real is good, even if it's bad."  This goes back to the keynote speech and Bob's tenet that message control is dead. Great example in the video made by Norwich students of their "UP 500." It's an annual winter rite in which underclassmen run a course -- at night, essentially naked -- past the upperclassmen, who douse the runners with buckets of  water. 

The president's office might think this is bad. But here's how it's good  -- it lets people see a real side of the university. And real is a powerful tool in recruiting today's student. "They love this stuff!" Morissette says.

There's so much to do in the arena of interactive recruiting. Morissette says, "Do one thing at a time." Also, don't be afraid to try new things. And of course, evaluate and adjust as you go.

Live blogging (sorta) from eduWeb

eduWeb Conference 2007
Baltimore, Maryland
July 22-24 

Yeah, I know. It's Monday night and I'm just now posting from yesterday afternoon. Lame.

I didn't really plan on live blogging -- I can't type fast enough or summarize that well on the fly ... plus I was (avoidably and undeniably) late for the conference start and I'd left my laptop in my room ... Anyhow enough excuses. Let's dive in.

Sunday Keynote
Marketing and the Web: Trends and Tribulations in Communication
Bob Johnson, Bob Johnson Consulting

"Tomorrow is emerging today as Wikipedia, blogs and social networks transform online marketing communications ... We'll review innovative examples of what's already happening today at colleges and universities ...

• You can't control the message that gets out there about your institution. Message control is dead. Amen! I learned that big time at  my last job and they've learned it the hard way. Try as you might to control the messaging that's out there, students and others are putting real content out there for the world to see. You can't stop it, so embrace it; deal with it.  Example: Check out MSU on Wikipedia. Michigan State University Student Riot. You can bet the PR department didn't put that out there. But it's available for all to read.

• Gerry McGovern says "The best websites are useful and ugly." Hmmm. Something to think about there. Look at Wikipedia, one of the top 10 site in the US today. Practically no design. Pure content. Easy to use. And full of the information you're looking for.

• Content trumps design. YEAH! Of course, in your heart you know this. Everyone does. But does anyone act as if this is so?  I've been hearing for the last 3 years that content people are going to have the most secure jobs in the world ... anytime now ... c'mon, people -- wake up!  You know it's true!

• Blogging is where it's at. WTF! I've been on that bandwagon for 5 years now. Lots of folks here are blogging at their institutions, yet they're saying that only about 25% of universities are doing it. Presidents blogging? Bob Johnson says only about 15 in the country are doing it. SO -- what I want to learn here over the next 3 days is this: What practical steps do we need to take to get this rolling at DU? (And of course, you know, at the edge, where I read, Flow is the new buzz word. And that's something beyond bloggging, beyond RSS, beyond social networking apps -- it's what brings all that together. But save me! Let's get a couple of these things working for us first!)

She wrecked the car

A little over two weeks ago, Suze called me and said, "Mom? I had an accident."

I couldn't believe I was hearing this ... again. My mind rushed back to the hysterical call we'd had from her in January of the previous year when she'd been in a real accident (she wasn't driving) and was hurt and we had to rush to the hospital where we were met (eventually) by paramedics wheeling our daughter into the emergency room stapped to a backboard, head restrained and crying that she couldn't move and everything hurt. She was pretty banged up and needed a few weeks to recover from bruises and stiffness (the facial abrasions took a little longer), but in all she turned out to be OK. So for this recent phone call, her lack of panic led me to think this was maybe a parking lot fender bender at most. Still, I knew, she wouldn't be calling me for something so minor - at the very least, the car must not be operational, or she'd have kept on her way.

Well. Not operational. I guess not. It seems she was driving out to Cascade via Grand River Road, that lovely, winding country-road route to the south end of town that beats driving the expressway or the East Beltline anytime. It was early evening, after the dinner hours but well before dusk, and she was on her way to Barnes & Noble to use a gift card she'd received for graduation. She also had an assignment from Meg to pick up a father's day card. Probably driving a little faster than she should have been, because she does that, she heard - or felt - something on the right side of the car pop, or bump, and she found herself careening off the shoulder and mowing down someone's mail box before the car returned to the road, crossed the opposite lane and plunged into a wooded area on the other side. The airbags had deployed and she could no longer see where she was going, as if that would have helped, since she'd lost control of the car anyhow. She says she let go of the steering wheel and thought she was done for as the car kept slamming through the woods. It came to rest, I'm told, between two large trees, just short of ramming another.

Neighbors on both sides of the road were out in their yards and they rushed to help. Someone called the sherriff, and she borrowed a cell phone to call us (hers had no service). She wasn't hurt, she assured us - she was uncharacteristically calm - but the car would need to be towed. Clay drove out to the scene, arranged for the tow truck and brought her home. I stayed back, obviously not realizing the seriousness of the what-could-have-been details of the incident. When they finally returned and I heard the whole story - complete with a description from Clay about the condition of the car and how far into the woods it had barreled and how close she'd come to colliding with large trees - I was shaken and amazed. Since she's had her license, Suze has had "incidents" with every one of our three cars, some because of carelessness, but most not. How many "lucky scrapes" does she get? I keep wondering and it's not a comforting thing to ponder.

I did not see the car until yesterday, when a tow truck from the repair shop we frequent (and I do mean frequent) backed into our driveway and eased it off the truck bed to a spot behind the evergreen in the front yard. (At least it's somewhat hidden from the road.) We'd used up their storage hospitality (Clay was embarrassed about leaving it there as long as we did.), although they didn't charge us their usual storage fee - we've been good customers and they're decent people. Looking at the car I feel like a gawker at an accident, both amazed and repelled. A reminder of what could have been and what is, narrowly and but for the grace of god, I don't think we'd want it even if it was worth repairing. Suze is fine. She wrecked the car, is all. We can deal with that.