The post got quite a bit of traffic and I have had a number of institutions contact me in the last year about our efforts. I thought it would be appropriate to give an update on our efforts.

Today we are approaching almost 3,000 members of the Gettysburg College Professional Network on LinkedIn. Our collaborative efforts from last spring have proved to be well worth the time and effort we put in. One of the keys to our success was the group that assembled to work on the project. We had members of the alumni office, parent relations area, career development, and marketing and web teams. These groups continue to be engaged in the project.

Our goal for the project was quite simple, to connect alumni, parents, students, faculty, and staff with each other professionally.

During the last year we have seen our membership grow, the conversations on LinkedIn develop, and the Professional Network become a part of the career development business process. While we were pleased with the number of people who had joined the group we were even more pleased with the number of jobs posted, questions asked, and discussions started among our members. The network has value to all involved.

One of the success stories from this year was when a prospective parent posted a question, “Hello, Gettysburg is at the top of my daughter’s short list of colleges. Two questions: How liberal is Gettysburg? And how safe is Gettysburg College for a young lady? Thanks!” 21 comments later the question was answered from all angles, from alumni and parents of various generations, and a variety of perspectives. The value of the network was never more evident than that day.

Career Development routinely works with students and actively works to help them join and use LinkedIn as a key networking tool. Building our base on LinkedIn has also helped to fuel a new initiative at the College. Gettysburg will conduct an intensive five-year campaign to create 1,832 (the year the college was founded) new career-related opportunities for students by 2014, and we’re depending upon alumni, parents, and friends of the College to make these opportunities a reality. LinkedIn will play a role in helping us meet and exceed this goal.

Facebook provides campus organizations with a great chance to reach their audience in a really easy way. Users have to actually visit our website to see your promotion on http://www.gettysburg.edu but on Facebook it gets delivered right to our fans newsfeed. We know that our current students and young alumni are on Facebook each day – how often to they read the stories on the homepage?

Our average news story gets about 500 unique clicks. An average Facebook post can get up to 10,000 impressions.With the number of people who like Gettysburg College increasing each semester (Fall to Spring we saw over 1,000 people like the Facebook Page) it is only a matter of time until a Facebook post is more coveted then the homepage.

Take a look at Missouri State’s website. http://www.missouristate.edu/ The middle section on news and events is actually a pull from various Facebook accounts. Is this the future of higher education sites?

Josanne DeNatale who is Vice President and co founder at Cognitive Marketing begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting and I did a joint presentation titled: Synergy, Enthusiasm, and a Great Opening Line are the Keys to a Successful Integrated Plan. Here is a copy of the powerpoint for anyone interested.

Why is it that in higher education (and maybe other industries too) we so often align marketing with only the last “P” promotion. When was the last time that you as a marketing professional was brought in at the front end to talk about the product? So often we are given a final product and asked to promote it or told that “we need some PR help.”

Over the last 6-8 months my team has had the chance to have several “product” conversations with clients and have started to gain some momentum and success. It is still challenging to have product conversations - they take time. You have to really get to know your client, their goals, their organization and how your can help enhance their product.

In 2011 I hope to get involved in more than just promotion make sure we are we thinking about product, price, and place as well.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 6,700 times in 2010. That’s about 16 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 13 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 169 posts.

The busiest day of the year was May 26th with 138 views. The most popular post that day was LinkedIn as an alumni connection tool.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were bloghighed.org, Google Reader, twitter.com, insidehighered.com, and google.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for social media logo, academic websites, beloit mindset list, alumni magazines, and higher ed web.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

LinkedIn as an alumni connection tool May 2010
14 comments

What makes a good academic department website? February 2009
4 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

Sustaining a social media program March 2009
4 comments

Social media icons on the homepage September 2009
9 comments

About Paul Redfern April 2008
1 comment

I came up with a quick list of why in 2011 we should work in teams and why we should not….see what you think and see you on the flip side:

Why work in teams?

Better coordination across all areas of the institution

Better ideas (2 heads are better than 1)

The more ideas the more people involved the better the product (maybe)

The more people from across the organization on the team the more complete product can be delivered

Why not to work in teams?

My schedule is already busy and I have too many meetings working in teams takes too much time

Working in teams is hard

When you work as part of team you never get everything you want – you almost always have to compromise

This spring we had two retirements in the Office of Communications & Public Relations, and saw an opportunity to restructure the office in a way that would support increased national visibility.  As part of that restructure in addition to my role with web communications I have also taken on the coordination of the College’s marketing efforts.

With any new position a person takes on a new focus and new goals. From July to now I have been working on what that new focus and those new goals should be. The last 6 months has been an amazing experience for me and I am looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. It has been interesting for me to begin to more fully integrate with the communications team. The word marketing has so many meanings on a college campus. I have had conversations with staff and faculty that range from the color of the fire hydrants to the name and direction of programs and buildings.

The one thing that has been truly energizing in my new role is the opportunity to have an impact on the product. Product of course is one of the 4 P’s of marketing – and in many ways it is the hardest. Building collaborative team oriented relationships with programs is not an easy endeavor. Making recommendations to change the name of a program or tweak the way the program is offered to better meet the needs of the institution and the program is tough and offers a unique challenge. But, it is a challenge that is interesting and makes certain no two days are ever the same.

So what is the future of this blog?

I hope to continue to offer insights and a perspective that adds to the conversation around marketing in higher education. Hopefully I will be able to find the time to do so on a more regular basis as we approach 2011.

http://www.gettysburg.edu/about/offices/president/hr/employment/admin_positionannounce/admin_detail_page.dot?id=2753804

Gettysburg College, founded in 1832, is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition that includes Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate and other distinguished scholars among its alumni. The College enrolls 2,600 undergraduate students and is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.  Gettysburg College is currently seeking qualified candidates for a full-time Assistant Director of Web Communications and Electronic Media within the Division of Enrollment and Educational Services.

This newly-created position will be responsible for developing content (web, video, photo, etc.) for academic and key administrative departments and coordinating institutional social media. Additional responsibilities include providing support for the college e-communications plan as well as assisting with college-wide video efforts. This work involves hands-on researching, writing, and editing content. This position reports directly to the Director of Web Communications and Electronic Media.

A Bachelor’s Degree is required and 2 years experience preferred.  Higher education experience in a liberal arts environment is a plus. Experience with the use of web tools and software for the creation of Web-based materials as well as an understanding of information architecture and web usability principles is desired.  The successful candidate will have the ability to communicate orally and in writing with a variety of individuals, develop positive working relationships, successfully organize and prioritize work tasks, cooperatively work as a team member, collaborate with individuals on projects, and display creativity and imagination.  Solid analytical and problem-solving skills; excellent interviewing and reporting skills; the ability to work well under pressure, meet deadlines, and handle multiple projects; excellent news judgment; excellent enterprise in finding and following up on stories; digital photographic and video skills.

The salary is competitive and is complemented with a highly attractive benefits package.  The College assures equal employment opportunity and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability. Gettysburg College is committed to creating a more diverse community; as part of that process, the College encourages candidates from historically underrepresented groups to apply.  Address all requests for information, letters of application and resumes, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of three professional references to; Jennifer Lucas, Co-Director of Human Resources, Gettysburg College, 300 North Washington Street, Campus Box 2443, Gettysburg, PA 17325.  Email: jlucas@gettysburg.edu

For full consideration, application materials should be received by July16, 2010. Position will remain open until filled.

We pulled together a collaborative group from my office, Career Development, Alumni, and Parent relations. After spending an hour putting LinkedIn to the test we decided that it was the tool for Gettysburg to use to connect our audiences professionally. We had about 1150 people in the Gettysburg College group on Feb 1. We renamed the group the Gettysburg College Professional Network and had a goal to increase the number of people in the group to 1,832 (the year the college was founded) by April 7 (founders day).

Our campaign was a huge success and we ended with over 1,900 users. As of today we have close to 2,100 users and have created an active community. Users have posted questions ranging from networking in a new city to what kind of events our regional alumni clubs should be hosting. Alumni are posting jobs available in their companies and younger alumni have reported finding jobs and contacts through the network.

One of the most interesting things that we have seen are the number of new Class of 2014 parents who not only want to join but already are asking to host internships on behalf of the College.

As a free tool that gives us the ability to connect all of our audiences we could not have designed a better system. Career Development and Alumni Relations have taken clear ownership over the network as well and have begun weaving it into their yearly communication plans.

The web is not a project and we shouldn’t talk about maintaining it.
When organizations redesign the website there is a high level of energy and enthusiasm across all levels during the planning and implementation stages. But that drops off significantly after the launch and as we get into “maintenance mode.”  As web professionals we need to remove the word maintenance from our vocabulary and start talking about growth. The web is not a project that has a defined start and end point. But rather a critical piece of your organization that needs to be constantly improving and growing.

ROI vs. RAKAWS
Should we worry about the ROI of web projects? We have to be conscious of how we spend our time and resources but web professionals should start to think about the value of Running A Kick Ass Web Site. What is the value of having key information like how to make a gift or how to get more information easy to find on the site for your large revenue generators.

Organization doesn’t matter
No matter how many people you have, or if you report to marketing or IT a really good web team does the following three things well:

• Web Operations – Ensures that the tactics of Web site development align with overall organizational mission.
• Web Execution – Day to day execution by the Web Team; the Web Team carries out plans developed by Web Ops.
• Web Performance Measurement – Web analytics that are connected to business goals

There is nothing revolutionary here but some good thoughts to keep in mind as we wrap up one academic year and get ready for summer projects.