Category: higher education

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.

    • Limited-time offer: Karine Joly’s ‘Currents’ article is online through April 15

    Kudos to CASE for offering Karine Joly‘s primer about social media and the web, User Generation, for free until April 15. The article appears in the March 2007 issue of CASE’s magazine, Currents. Usually, the mag’s online contents are accessible only to CASE members. (If you aren’t a member, you should consider joining, as CASE is the world’s largest professional organization for institutional advancement people — not just those in the communications and marketing field, but also those working in alumni relations and development.)

    Karine’s article includes some steps to “You 2.0” — i.e., ways to get digitally connected. Good advice.

    An aside: I also discovered that my February 2006 Currents article, Changing Lanes, is also accessible. For how long? I don’t know. But it’s a brilliant albeit now-dated analysis of social media’s impact on education. How dated is it? I mention Amanda Congdon and Rocketboom in the same sentence. How brilliant? For me, not bad. But not as brilliant as Karine’s. You should read her story first.