Month: March 2007

Friday Five: Random Play

Five contextless links:

  • Some retailers in the UK are getting more traffic from social networking sites like MySpace than from search engines (Google being the 800-pound exception, of course). Hat tip: BeyondPR, who observes that marketers should “re-evaluate your online spend to include social networks.”
  • Just another crumby marketing ploy? Put your name on a piece of toast. Via Brand Infection.
  • If MySpace were a country it would be the 11th largest and other scary thoughts on globalization. YouTube presentation, via FlackLife.
  • Internet-based alumni relations is the latest entry in Michael Stoner‘s ongoing discussion with Andy Shaindlin, executive director of the Caltech Alumni Association (and blogger at Alumni Futures). The discussion gives new meaning to the idea of “high-tech, high-touch.” Says Shaindlin: “We estimate that on average we reach alumni with electronic ‘touches’ at least 15 times as frequently as we do face-to-face. And electronic contacts outnumber those via print by about 4:1.”
  • While YouTubing for references to our campus‘s annual St. Pat’s festivities, I discovered a fun 3-minute clip of the 1949 St. Pat’s Parade through downtown Rolla, Mo. The parade was shot with an 8-millimeter camera but is in color. The guy who posted it is a UMR graduate (history, 1970) and the film was taken by his father in law. This clip offers a glimpse into an unusual 99-year tradition of our campus. The weeklong celebration culminates with the parade downtown tomorrow.

    • Blogroll update

    It’s been a long time since I’ve updated the blogroll. Here are some new additions:

  • Higher Ed Photography for Recruitment, a well-done blog with a lot of pretty pictures.
  • New Communications Review. Something a co-worker brought back from last week’s New Communications Forum.
  • Bob Johnson’s blog on Internet marketing. Bob’s a veteran in the higher ed marketing game and provides terrific insight.
  • Diva Marketing.
  • Alumni Futures, Andy Shaindlin’s blog about alumni relations and technology. (Shaindlin is also the first guest blogger to contribute to Michael Stoner’s blog. Stoner explains the process in this Q-and-A with Shaindlin.)

    • Sadly, I’m removing Dan Forbush’s Future of PR Wiki from my blogroll. It seems to have gone away, and Forbush is now blogging over at the International Association of Online Communication (IAOC).