As I prepare for a 4-hour social web workshop at OACUHO in Toronto this weekend, I find myself asking this question….
Should I be designing my slides more for the people who are there, or for the people who aren’t there?
Here’s where the thought came from. I was browsing through my old presentations on SlideShare and realized that I’m reaching a much wider audience post-presentation. We’ve all been in this stage of ‘Presentation Zen’ and ‘Slideology‘ for many months as everyone tries to make their slides more simplistic, but are they still able to tell the story to the casual viewer online, and do they still reflect the message enough? In other words, is there enough meat on the bones of your slides to transcend into the online world effectively?
The Recruitment Long Tail - Stamats 08 (Slidecast - Audio + Slides to tell the story)
Presentation: 150 people
Online: 1020 views in 6 months
After these presentations happened in real life, they reached an audience on average 15 x’s larger on the web. Surely not all visitors viewed the whole thing, not all of them stayed after the first 5 slides, but they all came across the content. And if was easier to follow, would they stick around longer?
Which leads me to think: How can I create engaging presentation slides that capture the needs of both my live audience and my online audience? The live audience ALWAYS comes first. Bottom line. But would a little more clarification on a slide hurt for when you post it online later? Will it ruin your presentation? If you’re engaging, lively and captivating, does it even matter?
I’ll talk for several minutes this weekend on this slide:
But I wouldn’t expect someone on Slideshare to spend more than several seconds on it. On the other hand, you don’t want your slides to end up on the other extreme:
Just something to think about as you prepare for your next presentation. Be remarkable, be rememberable, and be aware of your post-presentation audience. See you on the stage!
*Media: Please email me, bradjward (at the) gmail. Any phone # you find for me will likely lead you to a voicemail I won’t check until mid-January. ”
I really need you to listen up for this post. Please.
Something is going down on Facebook, and it has implications for your school.
Several weeks ago I was contacted by my friend and colleague Michelle at Winthrop about some questions pertaining to her Class of 2013 Facebook Group. The email read:
Since we are on rolling admissions I’ve been watching to see when a 2013 group would spring up. Interestingly we have no info on 18 of the 23 members. In fact, even though they are all out of state they all (include two 08 alum of Miami) seem to be connected. My only thought is that they could be a group of squatters? Would that even be beneficial to them? Have you see anything like this or have any thoughts?
I did some research for her, and looked through the friends of Patrick Kelly, the creator of the group. At first, I saw nothing out of the ordinary other than the two ‘08 alumni and the fact that this small group of 16-18 students were all interconnected with each other, like she said.
Yesterday, we sent out our admit packets. Today, I got on Facebook to see if a Class of 2013 group had popped up yet. I found 2. One has the exact logo that was used for last year’s group, a non-Butler bulldog image, so I click on that one. And I look at the Creator of the group. Patrick Kelly, Plano Senior High School. I check our system. No Patrick Kelly that has applied and been admitted to Butler.
I dig deeper into Facebook, searching for ‘Class of 2013′ groups. And here’s a list of what I find.
And guess what? This is only from the first 7 pages of a search that returns more than 500 results. Start looking at the names of the group creators and admins.
Justin Gaither.
Patrick Kelly.
Jasmine White.
James Gaither.
Josh Egan.
Ashley Thomas.
And more.
See how many times those names appear in admin for these groups, and look at their friends and see how many times those names pop up. A LOT. This isn’t just the Common App Effect, where students apply to every school under the sun. These people aren’t interested in going to every school they have started a group for. No, this is an inside ring with a common purpose. They don’t always create the group, but they do always get in, friend someone, and get control rights.
You might have the same thought I had at first. I responded to Megan, “That is very interesting. I don’t really see where squatting could be beneficial. After all, the students who join and participate will steer the group in whatever direction they take it. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
Sure, not for one school. Not for tiny little Butler, with 900 incoming students.
But for 500+ schools? Owning the admin rights to groups equaling easily 1,000,000+ freshman college students?
That’s huge.
Think of it: Sitting back for 8-10 months, (even a few years), maybe friending everyone and posing as an incoming student. Think of the data collection. The opportunities down the road to push affiliate links. The opportunity to appear to be an ‘Admin’ of Your School Class of 2013. The chance to message alumni down the road. The list of possibilities goes on and on and on.
I’ve said many times, step back and let the student group start on its own. Today, I change that position. It seems that we have been gamed, and we need to at least own the admin rights to the group in an effort to protect our incoming students. To end the possibility of them being pushed ads and “buy these sheets for college” stuff this summer. You know there is a motive behind all of this. And you know it has to do with money. And you KNOW you’re going to get calls about it when it happens.
Tomorrow I will set up the OFFICIAL Butler Class of 2013 group. Tomorrow we will promote it to our students, and explain to them why the other groups are potential spam. Tomorrow I will let them know we are not there to moderate them, but merely to provide the safe platform for them to interact and get to know each other. I encourage you to consider the same.
For most of us, tomorrow is too late already. Luckily my group has 2 students in it. Most schools are at 300+ students and growing every day. Make an effort now.
I can’t wrap my head around this all the way yet. I’ll be back around 9pm to write more. Please, join me and comment with your thoughts. What I have said above might not be the right solution. Maybe it involves Facebook’s help to take the ring down. For the first time, I truly believe we can’t sit back on this one. If you see more schools, add them to the list. Together we can figure out a solution for our incoming students.
And please, blog/tweet/email this out to others and link to this so we can have a common place to figure out the best steps.
*added 5:47pm
*added 10:28pm
I have created a Google Doc to start trying to tie the schools all together. Collab with me! http://bit.ly/W1Cg
It’s pretty neat to see everyone working together! Check it out. Thanks for your help!
*added 11:37pm
About 15 people have joined me on the Google Doc (THANK YOU!!) and we are approaching a list of 150 schools now. Click here to see the progress.
To keep an eye on the twitter backstream as well, click here.
*added 12:25am
We have over 200 schools and are starting to notice some patterns. Certain names are affiliated with bigger schools, and others are with smaller schools. Some people are usually ‘creator’ and others are always ‘admin’.
*added 1:03am
A lot of the names are linking back to College Prowler. More updates after we do some research. *HUGE SHOUTOUT to the 15+ people helping out in the Google Document and on Twitter. You’re all awesome. Be sure to leave a comment so I can recognize you properly.
*added 1:26am
We feel we can reasonably confirm that College Prowler is behind the mass creation of ‘Class of 2013′ groups on Facebook. More to come.
*added 1:40am
Out of the 243 ‘Class of 2013′ groups we listed on the Google Doc, these are the most frequent names (n=493) listed as Creator or Admin of the group:
Ron Tressler - 58
Justin Gaither - 55
Josh Egan - 42
Jasmine Smith - 20
Ashley Thomas - 20
Mark Tressler - 10
James Gaither - 10
Searching these names on Google, my colleagues found several direct connections to College Prowler via LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, and more. Perhaps the most disheartening tidbit we found was a post spread across the US on Craiglist. Here is an example of a local ad put out for a ‘Facebook Marketing Internship‘.
“Viral Marketing Internship (Spring Semester)
An internship that combines the addicting glory of facebook with viral marketing? It’s true. College Prowler Inc., the Pittsburgh-based publisher of the only complete series of college insiders’ guides written by students, is actively seeking an unpaid viral marketing intern who has a solid understanding of the web, social networking, and interactive marketing. Responsibilities
- Implement Facebook marketing campaigns that will engage high school and college students
[...]
Hours: 15 hours per week
Salary: Unpaid, internship credit
UNPAID to do the dirty work. What a shame.
I am not here to say that College Prowler is a bad company. There was obviously a business motive behind the decision to create 250+ Class of 2013 groups. Unfortunately, we may never know that decision now that this has been brought into the light by the higher ed community. Stories can quickly be changed. An incentive can be a service with one PR release. Truthfully, I hope we don’t find out what future plans were down the road for this massive infrastructure that has been laid across Facebook to unsuspecting high school seniors.
I do need some sleep. I’ll revisit this again in the morning. Please add your thoughts and reflections and ramifications as a comment below. And again, thanks for your help everyone.
One thing that concerns me, after sitting back and looking at this. Most (75+%) of the students who are joining these groups list themselves as ‘09 high school students. The position is for a college internship. I don’t know too many high school seniors looking to pick up an internship in the spring of their junior year. It reeks of inauthenticity. I also noticed several high school names popping up throughout as the networks that these people were a part of. Last I knew, to be a high school student and join a network you just had to have 3 people confirm you went there. Join a school, add random people as friends to confirm you (you’d be surprised at how many students would probably do this for someone they have never met or heard of), and you’re in. Also, I have noticed that the friend list of these ’students’ are often alphabetical. Start with an A search and friend students until you get what you need.
*added 9:45am, Friday
With recent talk on Twitter about what a school’s role should be on a Facebook group, I thought this research would be timely. (To see all of my Class of 2012 Facebook Group research from last year, please visit this page.) I surveyed our incoming class of 915 students, and about 315 responded. These questions relate to the Class of 2012 Facebook Group:
16. Did other universities and colleges use these type of sites to contact you?
Yes: 70 22.44%
No: 242 77.56%
17. Were you ever helped with a question about Butler through a social media site?
For example: Facebook, Butler Bloggers/Forums, Zinch, etc.
Yes: 195 62.50%
No: 117 37.50%
18. How helpful is it to ask questions about Butler on sites like the BUForums or Facebook?
1 being ‘Not helpful. I would rather call.’
5 being ‘Very helpful. I like using the internet to get info.’
1 - 23
2 - 17
3 - 80
4 - 93
5 - 94 Average: 3.71
21. Butler Admissions’ involvement in the Class of ‘12 Facebook group was:
1 being ‘Too much. Let us have our own area.’ 1 4
5 being ‘Perfect. Got questions answered when I needed help.’ 2 13
1 - 4
2 - 13
3 - 114
4 - 110
5 - 52 Average: 3.66
My research shows that it’s ok for us to be involved in a ‘Class of xxxx’ group.
*added 10:19am, Friday
Breaking News: @hollyrae may have found our list of intern students behind the creation. http://www.collegejolt.com
I have chatted with reporters at both The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed. Serious interest from them. Also emailed my contacts at Chicago Tribune and Campus Technology. Thanks to Sarah Evans at http://www.prsarahevans.com for her PR help. Might have a lead for a CNN story next week.
*added 7:51pm, Friday
I’m planning a small, free web-based roundtable next week for anyone who is completely lost and needs some help or clarification. More details to come. Thanks again for all your content creation and collaboration.
I’ve started Butler’s official group and drafted the email to all admitted students to notify them of the group and the tiny role we will play in it. I have asked in the email for students who wish to be the moderators/admins of the groups. That’s where we are at right now.
It was inevitable. Web 3.0 had to start rearing its name into the conversation at some point, right? Sorry to drop the bomb so early, but we need to always be looking ahead as well.
To do so I thought I’d start off by defining web 1.0 and 2.0.
Web 1.0 - Create content on my site for others to read.
Web 2.0 - Other people come to my website to contribute content, or between sites.
Web 3.0 - Use content on other websites to create content or collaborate on my site or between sites.
—–
Now, let’s look at Mike’s comment to Kyle this morning on the discussion of social media.
—–
@Kyle- I think the notion of “our content” and using sites like Facebook as a way to drive people to “our content” is a dying strategy. Universities are discussed in many places- collegeclicktv.com, unigo.com, etc.- that a university doesn’t control, can’t control, and, to my thinking, shouldn’t control. Link to these places and let visitors decide whether it’s valuable or not.
—–
Web 3.0 for Universities and Colleges
Web 3.0….. letting go? Ceding control? Pulling content in from sites like Unigo, YouTube, Twitter, all ‘that web 2.0 jazz’ and letting it tell your institution’s story? Creating your content from the content of other sites, and also pushing your content back to those sites?
Just something to think about today. It will be interesting to see how things evolve. The cool thing is that we, the user, can help define it.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about social media strategy in higher education and more specifically, a strategy/action plan. I’ve bounced back and forth on this topic quite a bit. I can see value in having a ’social media plan’, but I know that most plans would be outdated before most schools even get started on it. Colleagues across the states are short on resources to handle the emerging market and budgets are being cut at many schools, which is creating an interesting situation.
After chatting with several colleagues and administrators this week, I am seeing more and more that there is indeed a need for a plan, a roadmap, of where to go with social media at the 30,000 ft. level campus-wide, as well as how to integrate efforts.
I mentioned on Rachel’s recent post that I have never operated under a defined social media strategy. I have strategy and goals in my mind, I have papers pinned to my board outlining projects I want to do each 4-6 months, but I have never taken the time to put much on paper. But as more and more sites come up, as opportunities to engage and create community and conversation arise, and more importantly, when a job like mine will not be enough to handle all social media communication, there will need to be a strategy in place.
2009 is going to be a very exciting year as the realm of social media continues to develop and mature. If your institution hasn’t jumped on board yet, it’s probably a good idea to start coming up with a strategy before the decade ends. It doesn’t have to be comprehensive, it doesn’t have to detail every single action step, but it does need to start integrating efforts.
On the other hand, having a strategy in place might be good to keep projects on the radar. When I pitched Lifecasters in June 2007 I was told “let’s try bloggers first and go from there.” Now, 1.5 years later, I’m still ‘in beta’ and hoping for buy-in before August 2009, over 2 years after the concept was pitched. I can think of a few other projects on the table that might have benefited from a timeline that was put on paper and agreed upon.
What do you think? Are your schools still dabbling or are you ready to do some serious integrated stuff?
There is a place on all campuses that good projects go to die. Usually, a thing called a ‘committee’ swings in, 7-15 people deep, and picks it apart, retweaks it, postpones it, and eventually.. that good project crawls off into a corner to die a slow, painful, uncreative death.
I hate seeing that happen. I also hate sitting on committees. So when at all possible, I just do things myself.
——–
So here’s the precursor to this post: I previously posted about the Butler Blue II missing mascot costume video. Total time to make it: 1.5 hours of shooting on campus, 5 hours of editing, a few hours to process/upload to YouTube, and it was out of the door by 7am. [Read more about the video here.] [Oh, and for those who thought it was a PR hoax... 4 arrested.]
——–
Last week I was approached by a member of the campus community who had a video idea to promote a contest on campus. He wanted to use Blue II and for it to have a similar feel to the above video. I said I’d love to brainstorm with him, but time to shoot/edit would be more limited since it was an outside project. Then, I get a meeting request…. to the committee.
Truth be told, the meeting slipped my mind. I got busy (it was a late Friday afternoon meeting) and missed it. But it absolutely killed me when I got the email early this week about the ‘video update from the committee’.
NEXT YEAR?!??!?!?!??! I don’t know how the person who organized the meeting took that so well. I feel bad that I was not there to say “we can do this next week, no problem”. But, I don’t know if ‘the committee’ would have allowed it. Scripts to write, lighting to get set, sound checks, and more…. ridiculous.
Next Monday, Part 2 - Creating a video.. good, cheap and fast [pick 2].
I was in a comm team meeting last week, and we were reviewing a script of some finely-polished video that is being shot/edited/produced to be played at the beginning of campus visits.
My boss brought up a good point while we were discussing how off the mark and irrelevant the video is.
“Does it answer the four questions?”
Can I get in?
Will I fit in?
Can I pay the bill?
Do you have my major?
Nothing about app requirements. Not much about current students, just some (hand-picked) student interviews. Totally skipped around the financial aid/what’s it cost to attend Butler section. And nothing about majors.
Are you answering those four questions with your recruitment efforts?
Twingr.com might be to Twitter what Ning.com is to Facebook.
Niche communities. That’s what Ning has accomplished on the larger social media platform. Will Twingr accomplish this on a microblogging level? It’s sort of like Yammer.com, but more customizable.
Here’s the 3 minute demo. Bookmark this one and keep an eye on it. Already have many thoughts going through my head on how this could potentially be used for higher ed recruitment.
Directly above my main work computer is a bright yellow sheet of paper. A printed out slide from one of my presentations. It has been there for nearly 4 months now. It’s a paraphrased quote from page 110 of Seth Godin’s book, Meatball Sundae. And it reads:
It’s not about what you think the students want or want the students to want. It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools that captures the attention of people who truly care.
Let me break this down for you as you think of how to apply it to e-based recruiting.
1) It’s not about what you think the students want… I think I know what students want. A lot. This tool. That site. This email subject line. The only way to truly know what students want is through research and usability testing. Every school is different. Every funnel contains a different demographic. There is no longer a one size fits all solution.
2)… or want the students to want. I want students to use our tools and social media. But, they don’t always want it in return.
3) It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools… Again, there is no longer one way to reach all students. Think and, not or. Facebook AND Myspace, etc. For a visual learner, images on Flickr might be the best way to show your campus to that student. For an english major, blogs might be very effective. Maybe an unpolished YouTube video is what a student really needs to see. Create a set of tools, your swiss army knife of recruiting.
4) that captures the attention of people who truly care. Key words: truly care. Not every student is going to want to be your friend on Facebook. Or message you through Zinch. Or read about your newest RSS stories. But for those who TRULY CARE, the students who are really pouring time and energy into their relationship with your university….wow. Get their attention. Focus on them. Make sure they know you appreciate them having the conversation with you.
In order to keep things fresh, I’m replacing that quote this week. Because at this point, I could tell you what I just told you in my sleep. I’ve looked at it every day. I’ve engrained the thought in my mind and apply it.
And I’m asking you for help. What should my next quote be? What should hang above my work computer for inspiration? Leave a comment.
To wrap up Interview Week I wanted to highlight a couple of projects out there that I think are pretty cool. I hope you’ve found this week to be educational and has opened your eyes to some new ideas. I’ve got a boat load of content to blog about in the coming weeks, lots of thought and application to some new and old ideas.
TweetChicago - Aaron Rester at the University of Chicago is adding some Twitter API to their site to create this initiative. It’s a collection of Law School community members’ messages on Twitter. I love the clean layout, and always enjoy an integration of Twitter without the end user having to sign up or know what Twitter is.
CollegeSearch101.org - Mike at Allegheny tipped me to a venture into the online video world in which the school is helping students find the university that’s right for them, even if it’s not Allegheny. How did I know this concept was big? Listen to this. My co-worker’s Grandma saw the story in the local newspaper about CollegeSearch101.org and thought we at Butler would be interested. So she hopped on to her WebTV and typed the article from the newspaper into the internets and sent it to us via email. Transcending generations and going viral. Nice job, Allegheny.
We Are Oberlin - You heard Ben talk about this in the video yesterday, but I just wanted to link it up. The goal is to collect 1,000 personal stories from the Oberlin community to tell the story of the University through their site. Keep an eye on some of the stories at stories.oberlin.edu.
—-
Keep up the great work, everyone. You all motivate me to think harder and do better.
Today we’re talking with Dara Crowfoot from DePaul University about DePaulQuad.com, a social network exclusively for parents of current students. This hit my radar a while back and it was great to talk with Dara and learn more about the initiative, so I wanted to share it with you.
Dara is the Director of Marketing Strategy at DePaul, and comes from an impressive marketing background including time as the Director of Marketing of Verizon Avenue at Verizon and Assistant Brand Manager at Kraft General Foods.
SquaredPeg.com: When was DePaulQuad.com launched? Read it all..
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