Comments on: 2009 Digital Readiness Report

By: CBS Bibliotek Blog - Innovation & Ny Viden » Blog Archive » Er værktøjet i orden…

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:27:33 +0000

[...] Hvis man skal kunne håndværket digital markedsføring og PR, skal man kunne beherske flere forskellige typer af værktøjer. Det er temaet i SquaredPeg – What skills do you need in higher ed?. [...]

By: links for 2009-08-10 « innovations in higher education

links for 2009-08-10 « innovations in higher education — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:12:00 +0000

[...] Digital Skills Rank for Academic Institutions (tags: marketing blogging skills career managing seo socialmedia email content contentstrategy) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)links for 2009-07-29links for 2009-07-15links for 2009-07-28Diigo Update (weekly) Twitter Updates [...]

By: What I’m Reading Today – 2009/08/10 | Adam Stahr

What I’m Reading Today – 2009/08/10 | Adam Stahr — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:19:59 +0000

[...] New and Social Media Communication Skills in Higher Education [...]

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:27:14 +0000

Hats off to Andrew’s comment. Writing/editing is extremely foundational. I mentioned that content management seemed like it was ranked too low, but the content itself needs to written well and written appropriate to the medium (which is part of writing well that is too often overlooked, imho).

By: DeWayne Purdy

DeWayne Purdy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:41:46 +0000

I agree with Rob. If e-mail is so important, but not a skilled that’s valued, they don’t understand the problems like blacklisting, ticked off constituents, violating federal law, little stuff like that which can come from e-mail marketing done poorly.

By: Andrew Careaga

Andrew Careaga — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:13:48 +0000

Interesting. While this is from a PR perspective, it indicates a merging of new media with old media (“media relations” is skill No. 3). I would take a step back and put “writing/editing” No. 1 because you can’t be a decent communicator (whether that’s blogging, email marketing, media relations or some other digital skill set listed) without a strong grasp of good writing/editing skills. Maybe that’s too basic, and maybe the study’s authors assumed that good writing/editing is a given.

Also, as someone who manages graphic designers and videographers along with PR/media relations and web/emarcomm folks, I’d be interested in seeing how much blending/merging of the design side will occur.

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:10:42 +0000

“…but I certainly didn’t expect email marketing to fall slightly above Del.icio.us.”

Did you expect it to be higher, or lower?

Here is what intrigued me. E-mail marketing ranked 6 of 7 for digital skills rank – academic institutions, as your screenshot indicates.

In contrast, e-mail marketing ranked at the top (diagram 4), at nearly 80%, for this question: “Which of the following activities does your organization currently employ as part of its web-based comunications?” Note that this was overall including all institution types, not specific to academic institutions.

A number of conclusions could be drawn from that. These might or might not be correct conclusions, but are food for thought:

1. Academic institutions undervalue the usefulness of e-mail marketing vs. the overall PR industry.

2. Academic institutions underestimate the complexity of e-mail marketing done well. It is just e-mail. It is simple and anyone can do it, right?

3. Academic institutions/execs are drawn to what is shiny/trendy vs. what performs.

4. Academic institutions have already dedicated significant staffing and training to e-mail marketing.

Some of those are intentionally loaded conclusions reflecting my bias that higher ed underestimates the value of e-mail marketing in PR/institutional marketing.

Content management is also too lowly ranked, in my opinion. It can be foundational to the other efforts.