Category: media

Big media’s crush on social networking

The New York Times examines the burgeoning “big media” courtship with social networking sites.

Social networking is a close cousin of the other obsession of the moment: user-generated content. Of course, there is a difference. User-generated content is basically anything someone puts on the Web that is not created for overtly commercial purposes; it is often in response to something professionally created, or is derivative of it. So, it could be a blog, a message board, a homemade video on YouTube, or a customer’s book review on Amazon.com.

Social networking, on the other hand, is something potentially deeper — it represents a way to live one’s life online. In many ways, it is the two-dimensional version of what sites like Second Life aspire to be in 3-D: the digital you. And that ties to another earnestly overused term of art at the moment: engagement.

Via Micro Persuasion.

Ideas, anyone?

Looks like I’m going to be a panelist at next week’s CASE District VI Conference in sunny Kansas City, Mo. The subject: “Horizon Issues Being Explored by CASE.” I and two of my district VI colleagues — John Amato of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Michael Johnson of the University of Northern Colorado Alumni Association — will discuss big issues alongside CASE President John Lippincott. Lippincott is as astute as anyone when it comes to assessing where higher education is going, but Amato, Johnson and I need to come up with some ideas of our own — Amato for trends in fundraising, Johnson for the same in alumni relations, and I for trends in communications and marketing.

And that’s where you come in. I’m exercising blogger’s prerogative here and seeing the wisdom of crowds.

What do you see as the big issues facing higher ed marketing and communications? Help me out here, readers. Throw me a bone. The session is Monday. I’m not panicked or anything. But I’d love to hear your thoughts about trends in marketing, branding, PR, communications, new media, old media, graphic design — any and all of it.