conferences – Page 16

I had a great time attending part of iModules‘ annual users’ conference, Summer Sizzler 2010, held earlier this week in Kansas City.

I was only there for one day and only sat in on a couple of sessions. But I met some great people, made some new Twitter connections and, during my short stay for a few sessions, picked up some good tidbits to pass along.

1. Tuesday Trivia. One of the morning sessions of opening day was a lightning round of sorts called “5 Ideas for Doing More with Less.” In that session, five iModules clients each had roughly five minutes to talk about something they’re doing to build engagement with their alumni. One of my favorites from that session was the “Tuesday Trivia” concept. Dana Howard (@DanaMSUAlum) of the Murray State University Alumni Association discussed how the association’s Tuesday Trivia game leverages social media to engage alumni and gather their contact information. Here’s now it works: Every Tuesday during the academic year, the alumni association posts a trivia question about Murray State on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (here’s a sample question), directing followers to submit their answers to an online form where the association also captures email addresses for their database. It’s a fun and simple, but not trivial, way to connect with alumni while collecting contact information.

2. Repurposing social media content. Also during that “More with Less” session, Doug Smith (@idougsmith) of the East Carolina Alumni Association presented a quick rundown of how that association integrates social media content on the PirateAlumni.com website. One tool they use for publishing photos on their site is PictoBrowser, a free web application that displays Flickr or Picasa photos on websites. I’ve made a note to check out PictoBrowser to see if we might be able to apply it somehow with our photos.

3. Archiving email newsletters to maximize readership seems like a no-brainer, but I bet a lot of alumni associations aren’t doing that. During another “More with Less” session, Tracy Stolz of Gannon University’s alumni association talked about how her office uses the archives to not only expand readership, but also to preserve history and make the content more accessible.

4. Split testing for email marketing. Sue Henry of Adelaide University in Australia presented an informative session cleverly titled “Email Marketing: From Woe to Go.” This past spring, Adelaide tested two versions of an email to determine what impact subject line length, design and number of links might have on encouraging college seniors to join the alumni association. What she ultimately discovered through this test, however, was an unexpected outcome: that the timing of both emails was off. Compared to a previous email campaign (in October 2009, closer to graduation time for that class of seniors), both test emails from May 2010 had significantly lower open rates (13 percent and 11 percent, compared to 28 percent in October 2009). The reason? Henry and her colleagues determined that the message timing was not close enough to graduation, which was seven months away at the time of the May 2010 email.

5. Post-conference goodness. If you want to catch up on the conversations from the event, check out the #Sizzler10 hashtag on Twitter or visit iModules’ YouTube channel.

Friday Five bonus link. More a shameless plug than a takeaway, but here’s the link to my presentation at the end of day 1.

Have a good weekend.

In many social media circles, danah boyd is a woman who needs no introduction. Next Thursday, I get to introduce her to attendees of danah’s social media practices master class, presented by HigherEdExperts.com.

This masterclass — officially titled “Embracing a Culture of Connectivity: Understanding the Social Media Practices of Young Adults” — offers a rare chance to hear from one of the leading social media researchers of our time. And from what I’ve heard and read, she’s also one of the most engaging presenters on social media.

(If you haven’t yet signed up for this master class, better hurry. Registration closes next Tuesday, July 12.)

danah (@zephoria on Twitter) is probably best known for her 2008 Ph.D. dissertation, Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics (PDF). That dissertation provides some revealing insights into how teens essentially lifehack via social networks to navigate their adolescence. I hope she shares some of those insights with us next Thursday.

I also hope danah delves into her latest project, a literature review on risky behavior and online safely. She recently released for public feedback a draft of that research, and Boing Boing followed up by posting an excerpt from the document:

Concerns about online predators are pervasive, but the image that most people hold doesn’t necessarily match with the data about sexual crimes against minors. For starters, the emphasis on what takes place online tends to obscure the fact that most cases of sex crimes against children do not involve the Internet at all. As we seek to help youth who are victims, we must continue our efforts to address victimization in the home and in the community; addressing Internet- initiated victimization alone will not help the vast majority of children who are victimized. When facing interventions to address Internet-initiated victimization, we must be attentive to research that highlights that some youth are more at-risk than others. Youth who have psychosocial issues, family and school problems, and those who are engaged in risky behaviors are far more likely to be victimized than the average youth using the Internet. Targeting those who are more at-risk will allow us to help more youth. Research also suggests that most youth who are victimized are not deceived about the abuser’s age, do discuss sex online before meeting up offline, and are aware of the abuser’s sexual intentions when they decide to meet them. These youth often believe that they are in love and have no mental model for understanding why statutory rape is a crime. In order to help these youth, we cannot focus solely on preventing adults from engaging with youth; we must also help youth recognize that these encounters are abusive before they occur.

While the Internet has affected the contours of bullying and harassment, research continues to emphasize the interplay between what occurs online and what takes place offline. Many of the same youth are susceptible to victimization and those who engage in online bullying are not wholly distinct from those who bully offline. While much research is still needed to stabilize definitions and measurements, there is little doubt that bullying is prevalent both online and offline, affecting all communities even if it doesn’t affect all individuals. We need interventions that get at the root of bullying, regardless of where it takes place. Because research consistently shows a connection between psychosocial troubles, family and school issues, and bullying, we cannot presume that parents are always equipped or present to intervene (and may in fact be part of the problem). Although countless programs have been developed to educate kids about bullying, far too little is known about the effectiveness of these programs. Finally, what happens online is more visible to adults, but we cannot assume that the most damaging acts of bullying are solely those that we are able to witness.

I’m looking forward to hearing what danah has to say next week. I’m also very honored that my friend Karine Joly asked me to introduce danah.

P.S. – My Caps Lock key is not broken. danah boyd intentionally writes her name in all-lowercase letters, so I’m sticking with her preference.