Mar 24th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Smashing Social Media Tips 2010: I

1. The Well is still a social network worth looking into, especially for slightly older folks who are looking for substance (might be good for nontraditional or graduate students). 2. blogscope.net is a fairly recent and very good tool for tracking blogs and visualizing results. 3. How many of you are using sharethis.com, a great way to empower community members in your social networks to share your... read more

Mar 23rd 10 Posted by Brenda Harms

Get “Up to Speed” for Institutional Planning

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with several folks who had attended our Adult Student Marketing conference in San Antonio. We discussed how they were using the information they gathered at that event. The common theme among them was the notion of “perfect timing” for both the conference and Stamats’ release of the book Up to Speed: Marketing to Today’s Adult Student. Many of our participants... read more

Mar 17th 10 Posted by Bob Sevier

Marketing Lesson: Korean BBQ & Twitter

I recently had lunch with a social media director from a large private college on the West Coast. He was waxing eloquent about how Twitter was responsible for the amazing success of Kogi Korean BBQ. In case you don’t know the story, Kogi Korean BBQ is a blend of Korean and Mexican flavors that is sold from trucks on the streets of LA. What makes the Kogi story so incredible, said my lunch mate, was... read more

Mar 16th 10 Posted by Becky Morehouse

The Five-Second Brand

Late last year, Gen Y financial expert Peter Dunn blogged on MediPost about engaging Gen Y (generally defined as the more than 70 million Americans born 1977 to 2002) consumers. The basic gist of his post was that holding the attention of this “elusive and tech savvy” generation is developing a “five-second brand.” They live their lives buried in a mobile device so the five-second brand must... read more

Mar 10th 10 Posted by Fritz McDonald

Design vs. UX: It’s the Wrong Argument: I

Let’s face it—we’ve been having this debate since the Web became the Web as we know it, way back when Nirvana was a cultural force. Graphic designers and creative types want Web sites to look beautiful (or striking or whatever). Web programmers and user experience folks want Web sites to be functional, content-driven things. The “look” is secondary to what kind of experience the site provides... read more

Mar 8th 10 Posted by Matt Arnold

Highly Considered Purchases & User Base Expectations

In Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (2010), Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender ask us to “look beyond our own borders” to discover ways to improve the products and services we deliver.  The authors encourage us to look to the periphery and then return focus to the tasks at hand. To that end, I believe that higher education sites could benefit from looking at the experiences and tools provided... read more

Mar 5th 10 Posted by Julie Staggs

Standing Out, Not Alone: Context for Differentiation

This year’s graduate school conference has a theme of differentiation. As we focus on this theme, we will be looking at its definition, its role in our marketing and recruitment, and sharing what it looks like through executions at various institutions. To start you thinking now about the topic, I wanted to share a refresher look at the topic with you. Additionally, over the past couple of weeks... read more

Mar 4th 10 Posted by Brenda Harms

Top Takeaways from the Conference!

Just back from Stamats’ Adult Student Marketing Conference and WOW—what a great group we had this year! The presentations were excellent, the participants were engaged, and the conversations were rich. I think it is fair to say everyone in attendance went home with a new idea or two to put into practice right away to benefit their program. I like to end events like this by asking participants to... read more

Mar 3rd 10 Posted by Bob Sevier

Brown M&Ms

In the March 2010 issue of Fast Company, Dan and Chip Heath (the authors of Made to Stick) make an interesting observation about Van Halen, brown M&Ms, and the importance of managing all the details. Most of us know the tale of the brown M&Ms, or at least thought we did. Heath and Heath write, “In its 1980s heyday, the band became notorious for a clause in its touring contract that demanded... read more