Month: August 2010

CASE joins the social media blogosphere

The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has launched a new blog devoted to “exploring trends and best practices in the use of social media in educational advancement,” according to the blog’s inaugural post.

The CASE Social Media Blog is the outcome of a CASE task force led by two CASE commission members — Kim Manning, who chairs the CASE Commission on Communications and Marketing, and Andy Shaindlin (he of Alumni Futures fame), chair of the CASE Commission on Alumni Relations. Those two have handed off the task force work to Charlie Melichar of Vanderbilt University and Andrew Gossen of Cornell. Charlie and Andrew have already loaded up a few good posts on the nascent blog.

I’m not sure the world really needs yet another blog about social media in educational marketing (or, more broadly, institutional advancement), but I’m glad to see CASE getting into this realm. CASE is a well-established organization, and with this blog, combined with the social media task force’s other work (articles for CASE Currents magazine, white papers, etc.), the organization may be able to reach a different segment of the higher ed community than current higher ed blogs. I hope they devote to this initiative the resources and energy it will need to become a success.

Ending the hiatus

I hereby proclaim the end of my blogging hiatus.

Two weeks is a long enough break, I guess. It was needed — helped clear my head, gave me more time and energy to focus on a few work-related projects that had pressing deadlines. But I’m ready to get back into the blogging habit. Had I extended this hiatus much beyond two weeks, my slothful nature would probably take over, and that could be the end of this venture. And how could the Internet go on without my blog?

Anyway, stay tuned for regular posts — two or three a week, as was my custom, pre-hiatus. The topics will be many and varied, touching on marketing, branding, higher ed and the occasional diversion into music or pop culture.

In the coming weeks, look for a couple of book reviews planned — first, of The Real U, a CASE book about branding in higher ed, by Lipman Hearne‘s Robert M. Moore, then one on Education Nation, by Milton Chen, which I’ve yet to read. A few other blogging ideas have been marinating during the hiatus, and they’ll be tossed onto the metaphorical grill when the time is right.

The time off was good. But it’s good to be back.