Category: Friday Five

Friday Five: 5 golden posts

In the spirit of Christmas and stealing borrowing an idea from Chris Syme (her 12 Blogs of Christmas post), today I want to sing that “five golden rings” refrain, only in blogspeak. So here I give to you — or rather regift to you, since none of these are my creation, but gifts from others — my picks for the five golden blog posts from fellow higher ed bloggers. Each of these were posted earlier in 2010, but they’re worth revisiting any time of year.

1. IMHO 7 Reasons Why Higher Ed Is the Best Gig in All the Web, by Michael Fienen of the .eduGuru gang. Fienen was responding to a couple of posts (by Mark Greenfield and co-.eduGuru contributor Nikki Massaro Kauffman) on why higher ed is the toughest gig in web work. But Fienen flipped the topic to remind us why higher ed web work may not be so bad after all.

2. In The Silly Season: No Connections to Branding, Educational Marketing Group CEO Bob Brock weighs in some of 2010’s most talked-about higher ed branding campaigns and suggests that “It’s not possible to brand an organization by simply launching a new creative campaign. Especially if the campaign is a unilateral advertising effort of the Admissions unit!” Some common-sense brand management perspective from a seasoned pro.

3. mStoner’s First Law of Branding, by another seasoned pro, Michael Stoner, should be required reading in every Branding 101 class, up there with Trout and Reis’s 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

4. Why Lady Gaga Matters, by Jessica Krywosa. I can’t stand Lady Gaga. But damn, Jessica nailed this long before the meat dress incident. Good examples on how to build a brand.

5. Message From Your President, by John Warner of InsideHigherEd.com. Is this the future of public higher education? It cut pretty close to the bone in 2010, and I suspect it might be prophetic for 2011.

Friday Five: Best of the “best ofs” edition

It’s that time of year again. Time for the bloggers of the world to unite and create their annual “best of 2010” post.

I’m not one to completely miss out on a trend (although I do tend to chase after them just as they disappear over the horizon). But I do tend to get lazy about blogging by the time Friday rolls around. So, rather than creating an original list, I give you a rehash. Here it is:

The Higher Ed Marketing Blog 2010 list of the five best “best of” lists of 2010

1. Mashable’s 10 most innovative viral videos of 2010 tops my list because it shows that even ad agencies sometimes get it right. Thanks to Eduardo Merille (@emerille) for sharing.

2. Ad Age’s compilation of 10 campaigns creativity loved gets my pick because they thought to include Arcade Fire’s wonderful multi-window video experience for The Wilderness Downtown (best viewed in Chrome). A hat tip to @create20, a.k.a. Fritz McDonald, for sharing this one.

3. ReadWriteWeb’s top 10 Internet of things developments for the year is a great look at how ubiquitous our connectedness is becoming, from the smart grid to running shoes.

4. In a nod to old media, I give props to The New York Times Magazine for putting together a stellar web interface for their year’s best ideas feature. My faves: A guitar that stays in tune, emotional spell-check and of course, the mega-lobster, which measures more than half a meter in length.

5. The Onion 20: The People Who Mattered in 2010 is pretty darn funny, as you would expect. My favorite entry is Glenn Beck – The Lone Voice Of Reason In An Age Of Hysteria.

Happy weekend, all, and congratulations to those college students who will graduate tomorrow. Welcome to the working world. Please don’t steal my job.