At Gettysburg College today we were pleased to announce the launch of a free iPhone application for the  iPhone or iPod Touch. The app can be downloaded at www.gettysburg.edu/app and is part of a broader mobile strategy for the college

The project started in May and was coordinated by web communications. We worked collaboratively with admissions, public relations, and IT and used a vendor GeoNova Publishing, they are historically a mapping company but are branching out into mobile devices.

We targeted the iphone/itouch for a number of reasons. We saw it as an opportunity to start working in the mobile world and thought that there was a good base of apps already for the iphone. In the future we may have to develop across several devices but we will wait and see if one emerges as most popular.

The app was designed specifically for the external audiences of the College including prospective students and their families, alumni and parents. It provides mobile access to an interactive campus map, information, photos, videos, and campus directories

Wow has it been an incredibly busy start to the school year. It seems like we never let our foot off the gas from commencement to convocation and we are speeding right through the first semester.

My last post on adding social media icons to the homepage received a number of comments asking me to elaborate on the negative comments I heard.  So I thought I would provide the community with some insight.

I think at lots of places there is probably  a reluctant acceptance of social media. What is this reluctant acceptance? The understanding that it is important to some audience but it can’t really be here to stay and it can’t really be worth the time that web guy puts into it. Of course maybe they said the same thing about that world wide web thing in the 90’s.

I think Nick was correct in his comment that the  introduction of new colors called attention to the icons instead of other elements on the page. Most of the comments had to do with the “look and feel” and I think people reacted to the blunt promotion of these sites. Every once in a while I still have to answer the question on campus – why are we spending time in facebook?

I did get some links showing me how other schools handle social media icons and a few people wanted us to move them to the bottom. But I think Travis makes a really good point in his comment that if we are going to put time, effort, money, and resources into social media we better be ready to promote them. But that promotion doesn’t just happen on the web. If you have a collaborative integrated marketing team cross promotion in the alumni magazine and other venues are equally important.

A few weeks ago we moved 5 social media icons onto the homepage and the site tools on the website.

This was part of a broad effort to increase the visabilty of our social media efforts on campus. Why put effort into projects if you don’t promote them right?

I was surprised by the reaction that we got across campus in a couple of ways

• I didn’t get much of a response just a couple of emails or verbal comments as I crossed campus
• The emails that I did get were very negative

Adding social media to the homepage is a growing trend in higher ed. If you check out Brad Ward’s blog @bluefuego you can find a post he did in august comparing the use of social media on a homepage over the course of 6 months. Well worth your read.

Good luck as we continue to fight the good fight with social media in higher ed.

Princeton has a pretty unique job opening if anyone is interested

Social Media Coordinator, Office of Communications

Responsibilities

The Office of Communications seeks a talented and versatile professional to edit, create, organize and update content for the University’s core website, social media sites and for other priority Web projects. The Social Media Coordinator will focus on written content, primarily from a journalistic perspective, and must be able to convey intended messages accurately and succinctly both through editorial and visual mechanisms. The successful candidate will have expertise in research and strategy implementation and will possess skills and interests in Web technology, including social media strategy, information architecture, design and other content. The coordinator must understand the role of the Web team as a support team for Communications and University priorities. He or she must be an organized communicator who can set priorities, multitask, problem solve, project track, meet deadlines, collaborate and contribute to overall team objectives. Prior experience working with news and media issues in a public relations capacity is required.

This position reports to the Director of Web Communications and the coordinator must exhibit a strong desire to serve the specific needs of a fast-paced communications office within a higher-education setting. He or she will have experience understanding the needs of and working comfortably with communications experts. He or she must have experience working comfortably with technology experts and must be able to contribute to a successful Web partnership between Communications and the Office of Information Technology.

Requirements

Requirements are: a minimum of 7 years experience in a high-pressure, professional Web and/or Communications environment in a capacity that assists and supports senior team members; a minimum of 7 years of editing and writing experience, preferably in a professional capacity, and a minimum of 3 years of Web experience in a coordination role; familiarity with Web technology, and ability to work in both Macintosh and PC environments; demonstrated ability to work well, both independently and on teams; and excellent organizational skills, must be able to multitask, must be able to work with creative teams and must be able to work well with diverse colleagues and audiences.

Candidates also should be able to demonstrate: understanding of how Web strategy, particularly social media, can improve communications efforts; good trouble-shooting capability; the ability to react well to crisis; and good organization skills, including the ability to prioritize and set standards.

Education

A master’s degree or higher or equivalent professional experience is required.

https://jobs.princeton.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1251308301827 – search open positions for application online…

Last week I wrote about a new school year equaling new opportunities. In the post one of the things I encouraged web professionals to do was tweet convocation. Susan Evans from William & Mary commented on the post,

“Guess what? We tweeted our convocation today. It was fun and successful. You can read our stream for this afternoon at http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23wrenyard”

At Gettysburg we did as well and saw some good results. Move-in day and convocation were Wednesday with Field day and our traditional first-year walk on Thursday.

We used the twitter search widget to pull the hashcode #gbc2013 onto our site and as of Sunday evening 88 posts used the hashtag. 31 of those were not using the college account but rather, students, alumni, parents, and staff who were excited about the events and used the hashcode. The live pull to our site also gave our orientation coverage an up to the minute feel. I got numerous comments during the end of last week about how great it was to see everything up to date so quickly.

Reflecting on the experience there are a couple of thoughts I had:

• collaboration was important (we had numerous people from web communications, public relations, and the admissions office helping with the effort
• information needed to be relevant to mater to our audience
• despite many people not having a twitter account we made the best use of the technology by using the pull to our site
• it was fun and I would do it again!

Like many institutions we are gearing up this week to welcome the Class of 2013. The new school year brings with it lots of new opportunities. Many schools are trying to figure out how to use social media and new technology to enhance their communications efforts. I encourage you to use the new school year as a way to try something new in your coverage of opening activities. Dive-in and give it a shot.

Are you wondering what to do with that institutional twitter account that just has your RSS feed? Tweet move in day. Use a hashtag and pull the search results to your site. Maybe some of your followers will be engaged and contribute to the hashtag with their own memories and recollections.

Are you wondering how in the world you can provide videos on your site? Go out and buy a flip video camera (they start at about $150). Go out and ask the incoming student and their parents why they chose your school? With Microsoft movie maker (which comes on our machines at my institution) you can quickly edit the video and load it right to YouTube.

Move-in day and convocation along with other opening day traditions schools have is a great opportunity to engage visitors to your website. You have a captive audience who will love to see photos, videos, and anything else you have to offer. This year make sure that you are not having a conversation with your boss after the fact about how “we’ll have to try those things next year.”

Last week I was spending some time getting through the hundreds of items in my Google reader. One of the posts I came across wason a blog called  The Old College Try: Marketing Higher Ed. The University of Toledo had done a video (in-house) designed to pump up the incoming students and get them excited about starting at the school.

I thought the video was really well done but did more than just pump up students. It did a really nice job of getting a group of salespeople (new students and parents) excited about the institution. What is the top question parents of new students are going to answer in their communities, at dinners, and other events back at home in September.

Where is Johnny headed to school again? How does he like it?

What better way to get a group of your best brand advocates to be excited and engaged about the institution. Well done -

In March 2009 in preparation for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Communications, Communications, Marketing & Technology Conference, Cognitive Marketing, a brand development firm, developed a survey to gauge the level at which Internet‐based technologies are incorporated into the marketing practices of educational institutions. The range of technologies, from basic websites through to fully integrated social networking programs, was explored.

For those interested the full report from the survey can be downloaded.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. The list gives us an interesting look at the class of 2013 from a cultural perspective. Well worth the read.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

For those of you lucky enough to still have campus construction projects going on this year how do you plan on highlighting the new building. Video gives you a great opportunity to both show off and get people excited about the new project.

We have done 2 of these types of videos with the new Center for Athletics, Recreation, and Fitness at Gettysburg. Our Athletic Director takes viewers on a tour of the construction site. We did the first one in Feb, 2009 with an update in June. We will film another one in September as we prepare to open the building. Each video has over 1,000 views on YouTube.

The other day I was on the Calvin College website and noticed they had done something similar with The Fine Arts Center construction which has been underway since June 2009. They are promoting a video that goes inside the construction fences on a tour narrated by the director of Calvin’s physical plant.