Information Design, Edu and You

I'm so excited to introduce a new blog team member and brand new blogger, Josh Isaak, web designer and much-esteemed (although he'd probably say much-maligned) colleague. Please welcome him. (And follow him on Twitter too!)

In his seminal work, Information Anxiety, Richard Saul Wurman lays out the basic principles of information architecture. As is often the case with such groundbreaking texts, the challenge lays not in understanding the authors theories and concepts, but in applying them in a practical manner to ones own work. Over the next few months, I will attempt to find that practical application with the field of higher ed and web site architecture.

The basis of of Wurman's work is the LATCH principle. All information can be organized in 5 different ways ...

L - Location
A - Alphabetical
T - Time
C - Category
H - Hierarchical

Let's explore these organization schemes in the context of high ed. This is in no way a comprehensive study of all possibilities, but more of skimming of the surface, to show examples of application. Next post is our first stop on LATCH .... location.

Twitter musings from 'back in the day'

I wrote the following post on my blog Coit Avenue back in April 2007 - about a month after I got my Twitter account. (Ok, yes, there is yet another blog o' mine, mostly used to blog during the 2006 Michigan gubernatorial campaign, but also trying to be a more 'serious' counter to Things I've Seen ... I really need to become more focused in my blogging life.)

Anyhow, at the time I wrote this, far fewer people "got" Twitter. Now that its use is so much more widespread - well, at least your friends, bosses and coworkers have heard of it, right? - it seems fitting to haul this post out and dust it off ...

Why Twitter is about more than telling you what I had for lunch

Stowe Boyd points to this article from USA Today’s Andrew Kantor on the subject of Twitter. I’m struck by Kantor’s willful ignorance of what’s at the core of this social presence app:

Twitter is a bad, bad thing — not just because of what it does, but because of what it says about all of us and our need to be connected. Twitter's whole existence is based on the premise that we aren't yet in touch with one another quite enough.

According to Twitter, you see, we should be in touch every second — every moment. This is madness …

What is madness, I think, is Kantor's oversight of the fact that we already are all connected. It is the nature our world in which everything by design is connected to everything else. It is something our ancient ancestors instinctively knew – and instinctively acted upon, in order to live and continue the species. And, as we’ve gained in knowledge of the world that surrounds us, something we’ve sought after always to understand and express.

We’ve always looked for connection

Speech, songs, stories. Written language that begat books, letters. Printing that sparked the spread of ideas via books and newspapers. And with them the migration of people, both outward across the globe and inward to enclaves of villages, towns, cities. Widespread travel, telegraph, telephone, radio, television – a succession of means for making sense of our center, our connectedness. And then the internet, cellular phones, wireless communication – technology-enabled means for understanding the connections that are.

Don’t you see it? We don't impact the flow that is the universe. These all are just our own small means for tapping it, trying to understand it, living in what already is and always has been.

I’ve been watching a lot of old movies lately – those made in the 30s, 40s and 50s where making a long-distance call was worth a raised eyebrow, a second thought, even among those with means. Even I remember when long distance was reserved for Grandma, and only on a Sunday, when the rates were cheaper, and you hadn’t just seen her the weekend before.

But what is long distance today? A rarer and rarer consideration as I call my friend who is 600 miles away at any time of the day or night. And I fully expect that soon it won’t matter if I’m using “anytime minutes” or not. It certainly shouldn’t. It’s a primitive, holdover construct from what’s fast becoming history.

These are the people we live with

Critics of connection enablers like Twitter seem short-sighted to me. Twitter is just one in a succession of acknowledgements of the connectedness of the universe and everything in it. Of the flow that creates and sustains us all. A claiming of our own existence within that flow.

Overblown? Maybe, with regard to Twitter per se. But just ask yourself: What can you learn and know of the world and your fellow humans from even a short time spent with Twittervision (see how it’s evolving already)? That someone has too many choices for lunch (which is some kind of learning in itself)? Sure. But you can also see there’s an ice storm raging in Northern Europe. That it’s tomorrow in Australia. That someone in Italy, right now, is listening to an American rock song. That many many people speak in languages you don’t understand. That there is life beyond your street that you’ve otherwise had little glimpse of before now, that it’s always been there and it continues, whether you’re asleep, awake, indifferent.

These are the people we live with on this earth, and what they do and think and feel has effects beyond you, and vice versa. Yes, these are early adopters, yes they’re technology-enabled themselves, while most of the world isn’t yet. But the implications are further reaching than we can probably imagine right now. And it’s only the smallest beginning.

The (Recruitment) Long Tail

Late-blogging (not live-blogging) the Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
The (Recruitment) Long Tail
Brad J Ward
Butler University

The conversation is in the Long Tail

If the conversation - the answers, the dynamic content - isn't there, users (prospects) go elsewhere. (This is why we need blogging at DU)

Having this all on your website makes your job a lot easier-because ...

As participation increases, content increases and engagement increases. The more you can engage, the more likely they are to start/stay

Question on how to find bloggers:
Facebook ad: Do you want the coolest job on campus? Email me. Got 76 responses for 9 spots. Butler pays bloggers $8/hour for 3 hours a week

Cautionary to bloggers: Parents, peers, professors are reading.

Twitter is between the blog posts. It's not the tool for recruiting, but by embedding in the blogs, it enhances

Getting buy-in from the admissions reps has been a struggle (I can bet)

We are in the middle of a huge shift in how we communicate. You need a whole set of tools - not just one-way sell

Social media is people having conversations online

Return on conversation:

monitor the conversation - opportunity to make sure the information out there about you is correct

information in those conversations is ongoing and accurate; authentic, what prospects want to know

Seth Godin - It's not about what you think the (students) want ... it's about creating and assembling a collection of tools that captures the attention of people who truly care

Are you listening? (Get the RSS from Twitter on Davenport University; expand on my Google alerts - DU Panthers, etc.)

The train is coming - What would it look like if you could spend 20% of your time each week on new stuff? Four hours?( that would be so sa-weet I can't imagine. But I need to! )

Secrets:

• Think niche - where can you really connect with certain kids? target. Become as good at narrowcasting as you are at broadcasting
• One size does not fit all - no one strategy is the be-all
• Lose control - you no longer control the conversation
• Crowd source - example: give video cameras to your bloggers and tell them to go out and have fun
• Think 'and' not 'or' - think bigger. Facebook AND MySpace
• Understand 'free' - Most of these tools are; don't pay if you don't need to.
• It's about relationships not technologies
  

Check out Class of 2012 research etc. on SquaredPeg.com

****How many apps did you get out of it? It's about the connection (YESSSS)

IM conversation with a colleague after I got home from #stamats08*

*slightly edited

M: How was the trip?

Me: Great. Met a whole slew of my Twitter friends

M: Were they feathery looking?

Me: Not so much ;-)

M: Any big revelations or ideas?

Me: Yes. I think I want to blog for .eduguru :-D

M: uh huh. Cool. And that helps us or gives you a place to network?

Me: See, here's the thing. The people who presented at this conference are part of my network. And the fact that everyone got to meet each other off Twitter and off the blogs means that network is strengthened. For me the entire conference (well, almost) was in the conversation and dinner and drinks that happened outside the sessions.

This conference produced a whole other conference outside of the presentations - streaming video, videos of presentations, photos, blogging, a #stamats08 Twitter Search (where everyone's tweets are aggregated in real time, even people who weren't there), a Ning group.

THIS is social media - the networking, but most important, the relationship building. Plus it gives us a chance to see and understand what others are doing and what we might do with social media for recruitment, retention, alumni ...

Are you getting this all down?

M signed off
M signed on
M is idle

Hmmm. Did I bore her? (just kidding, M!)

Top Tips for Conversion Optimization

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
Online Marketing:Top Tips for Conversion Optimization
Kati Davis

Conversion is a desired action a user can take when they come to your website
Indicates how often your visitors felt compelled to give you some information in return for something of value you offer

Important:

• relationship building
• helps you get the most from your budget
• helps eliminate internal debates - site visitors decide what works
• 85% of traditional students use the web as their main or only source of information
  

Conversion examples:

• request program packet
• schedule a visit - key
• sign up for information session
• transcript evaluation
  
• determine scholarship award
• subscribe to newletter or other feed
• apply

Goal is to optimize your pages so fewer bail from your site before performing a desired action. Constant tweaking and testing of landing pages will see an average 40% lift in conversions

Essential elements affecting landing pages:

Friction- any kind of problem reduces conversions
Incentives - special offers
Visitor motivation - if they really want to do the action, they will
Value proposition - how quickly the page conveys value increases convrsions


Conversion optimization tips

• create targeted landing page for each purpose with one call to action - don't send them to the home page
• identify top entry and most visited pages - why do visitors value them
• keep pages simple - remove nav from landing pages; use white space
  
• use keyword(s) on the page - increases relevance to user. increases google quality score - could reduce your cpc
  
• strategic use of photos provides clarity, trust
• don't ask unnecessary questions
• make forms seem physically shorter - heck, make them shorter.
• clearly state what user is getting for filling out form/taking action
• be clear which fields are required
• test forms for usability
• make the thank you page work for you - add additional compelling content. 40% people who make one conversion on your site are willing to make another one
• be graphically appealing (i.e., what does 'submit' mean?)
• send followup confirmation email (confirms email address)
• find other ways to connect - online chat on the page, online-only 800 number
• tell them how you'll use infor they're giving you, i.e., not selling it
• allow opt-ins to newsletters or contact from admissions rep (rather than automatic sending or contact)
• focus on effective copy - 'you and your' not 'we, us, our'; bullet points, avoid jargon
• state most important ideas at beginning and end of page
• track everything - assign a source code to leads
• test everything
• look at examples outside higher ed

tools:
Google Website Optimizer
Free online survey services (Survey Monkey, Google Apps has one too)

What the Heck Do All These Numbers Mean?

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
What the Heck Do All These Numbers Mean? Web Analytics in Higher Education
Kyle James, Wofford College

Are you listening to what your website visitors tell you?
How are you making web decisions? If you're not using analytics, you are wasting your time.

What is the purpose of our website?? Recruitment
#1 most important audience is prospective students

Intuition is good, but you need the data

Key Performance Indicators - 4 areas

• Sources (campaigns and traffic)
• Success (conversions)
• Users (segmentation)
• Content (sites, groups, pages)
  

What is important? For uDU - schedule a visit, apply

Benchmarking - look once a month or so
(traffic comparisons, demographics)

Alexa, compete, quountcast
edurank.nucloud.com
Website grader
Google analytics (need to check this comparison capability out in G analytics)

Nothing is exact - enables you to make educated decisions

10/90 rule - spend 10% of budget on tool and 90% on people who use the tool. (use the free solution like Google. We need to get way better at using it)

sitescan or wasp will tell you if analytics is on your page - and working

What do you do with this data overload?

Filters - like an all lowercase filter, www and no wwww - cleans up your analytic data

Destination url tagging - set up for print, email, facebook campaigns, etc.
more info: doteduguru.com/stamats/urlbuilder

tracking links - you can also track pdfs, etc with some extra code.
more info: doteduguru.com/stamats/tagging

helps you make decisions over time about where to make changes

Reports

Site search report - gives you good keyword info, who can't find what they want
Keyword report -
Content by title report - enhance content on pages acc. to what people are looking for
Referring sites report -
404 error page report - use info to customize your 404 pages where fails happen

Goals and conversions - most important to helping you make decisions

Measurement from offline campaigns - TV, radio, print, email

All RSS feeds should go through FeedBurner for analytics purposes and for clean feed

Web analytics 2.0 - qualitative data measurement

• customer surveys 4Q, Survey Monkey - ask people what they care about, what they think
• monitor social media growth - put links to watch vids, read blogs, subscribe to email - link back to your site rather than try to control or keep up social sites too much. Keep spreadsheets on each social site. Video analytics from You Tube
• monitor your own identity

Take aways for web analytics

1. Set goals - business goals
2. Test test test (test? what tests? :-) )
3. Look at the trends - don't get buried in numbers
4. Set up a reporting schedule and track key metrics

Some specific goals:

• x visits scheduled per month
• x viewbooks downloaded
• lower bounce rate on a specific page by x%
• generate x$$ among donors with email campaign
• promote and increase presence on a social network by x%
  

Here are Kyle's slides and a video of the presentation.

Press Release 2.0

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
Press Release 2.0: Generating Buzz in the Social Media Era
Matt Herzberger

Transition from old press room:

• move to blogging platform (Word press - why not? we have blogs set up there, ready to use. Check out news themes)
  
• add multimedia
• easier to digest (scannable, the web way)
  
• easy to link to social media
• easy for writers
  

Research

Check out NY Times
Look at socialmediarelease.org - see the template. Yeah - why ARE we writing in that same old way?

What you're trying to do - Make something people actually want to look at/read

Measure

Where - newspaper,msg boards, word of mouth, industry journals
How - Google Alerts, Technorati, Blog Pulse, del.icio.us

Check it for multimedia presentation - soundslides.com

Your web presence is everything out there about you whether you put it there or not.

Here are Matt's slides and a video of his presentation.

Implementing Technology with an Eye on ROI

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
Eye on the Prize: Implementing Technology with an Eye on ROI

Karlyn Morissette Dartmouth

"Communications makes marketing tactics tangible"

Marketing steps

1. Set goals

• What's success
• Make sure they relate to business goals
• Goals must be measurable
  

2. Plan communications - consider costs; inside or outsource?

• Which medium?
• What is strategy for each?
  

3. Execute
4. Assess

• What happened? did you meet your goal?
• Did that result in a return? (Conversion)
  
• How can you improve for the next time.
  
• Share your success - make it tangible, give it context, offer recomendations
  

emarketing is not different from marketing in other media - above 4 steps apply

Use email marketing to -

• increase applications
• register online for event
• online gifts (online OR by phone)
• start a conversation?
  

Facebook ads - they're all pay per click. Inexpensive , successful

Blogs are good for -

• Real stories of student experience
• Interaction with current students
• Make announcements, calls to action
• Insight into your audience
  

Social Networks are good for -

• Having fans, friends, followers is valuable
• Engaging students over the summer (would have been great for that TouchNet rollout, hey)
• Allow alum a way to interact and share with each other

social roi
what would it cost to disseminate infor
how much did you save in 'sugar off'

Key takeaways

• Goals first, not technology
• Measure everything
• Dollarize your results to calculate roi
• Ask what you can do better next time
  

Digital Strategy for Higher Education

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
21st Century Marketing: Digital Strategy for Higher Education
Fritz McDonald

Update Nov. 8: I don't know why I didn't publish this earlier. Here it is

The web is becoming the tool of choice for prospective students searching out colleges.

Content is the #1 issue with college websites. Are we focusing on the prospective students audience to the detriment of our other audiences?

Colleges and U's adopting social media at twice the rate corporations are - Dartmouth research

How do you make it work?

1. Start with strategy - connect with vision and values ... um, yes
2. People first, then technology
3. Start small, focus, grow
4. Dialogue not monologue
5. Coordinate digital tools
6. Focus on content
7. Work for viral
8. Message control - we aren't entirely in control anymore. We are now managers of conversations rather than senders of messages
9. Audience driven
10. Build trust
11. Demand Metrics
12. Provide a deeper level of engagement- users have expectations
13. Build sustained relationships with your audiences

What to Do

1. Rethink your marketing
2. Be authentic See Colgate University for use of social media
3. Be multidimensional
4. Be web centric
5. Worry about usability - usability is part of your brand
6. Integrated marketing. SEO = contact, - soc media = relationships, print = emotion (allows for a fun viewbook!), web = experience, Traditional Marketing = support
7. Let them make content
8. Content must be portable, human
9. Include everyone, including Alum
10. Optimize your site
11. Decide by data
12. Develop a listening strategy
13. Be creative and usable
14. Collaborate
15. Don't intrude - prospects not willing to be contacted by text or IM

All social media builds community. That is the point

Understanding Generation Y

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference
Fully Wired and Fully Mobile: Understanding Generation Y
Jennifer Corriero, TakingITGlobal

Net Generation Attributes of Technology Use (Net gen: b. 1978-1999 - 79.8 mil.)

1. Influential - 50% of the world's population is under 25. 20% between 10 and 17. High spending

2. Connected - Social media is like air to them. They're participating, sharing, creating, living it.

• They're digital natives, enthused by technology.
  
• Use the internet to make many decisions: college, car purchase, medical, job, financial, where to live, etc.
  
• 55% of US teens use social networks like Facebook or MySpace.
  
• Less distinction among work, learning, play - multi-tasking is pervasive
  

3. Diverse - Personalization, customization are key

• Current US teen market is most multicultural ever.

4. Enabled - There's a shift away from the hierarchy to the network

• People expect to be able to participate, whether up front or in the back channel. Expect involvement in decision making
• 57% if teens on the internet can be considered content producers. "Anyone can be a producer, publisher ..."

5. Aware - they're socially conscious and more activist

Building Bridges to the Next Gen

1. How relevant is your brand?
2. Is your recruting engaging, exciting, inspiring? See Cirque Du Soleil jobs site
3. Do you showcase your innovative practices
4. Do your students and alumni stay connected?
5. How are you using the social web?
6. Are you communicating your current thinking? News, current events, faculty interviews, ask an expert, blogs, etc.
7. Have you explored virtual worlds?
8. How open are you? iTunesU postings
9. Do you listen to your customers Dell Ideastorm
10. Is technology integrated across the curriculum

See Rachel Reuben's report - I think I've seen this ... I'll report back.

#Stamats08 - the back channel, etc.

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference

Some of the best information sharing and networking happens on the back channel and in the halls, the bar - someone's suite - after hours. (Thanks to @bradjward, @kylejames, @MHerzber, @KarlynM, @JeremyWilburn @jesskry and others - great to meet you all!)

Twitter - #stamats08

UStream

Flickr group

Secrets to Online Recruiting Success

Ok, here I am at the Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference:Technology, Collaboration, Results after not having blogged here almost since my last Stamats conference in Chicago last July.

Sorry about that. I just feel like I have little to say in this world where there are so many universities doing so many cool things ... We have some good ideas that hopefully we'll be able to start implementing, but we have some catching up to do, to say the least.

Secrets to Online Recruiting Success
Paul Zastrow
Brenda Harms

Paul took the lead with Brenda chiming in until we got to the Adult Recruiting portion of the session, where she took the floor on her area of expertise. This was almost too much information for a single two-hour presentation. They did a great job though and finished on almost a breathless, "There! we got through it all!" note at 3:00. No other sessions followed, however, so there was plenty of time for questions and answers.

"Visiting the college's website" is ranked by 43% of prospective students as "very helpful" in their college searches. This puts the website as #5 among the top information sources - behind the #4 financial aid brochure, #3 talking with an admissions representative, #2 the catalog and, always #1, the campus visit.

I've noted this before, but it bears repeating in the face of that stat: Fully 25% of applications come from students we never knew about until they applied. Being positioned to serve these "stealth applicants" makes it more important than ever that the website is everything it needs to be.

(Note: That "financial aid brochure" is something we should look at as well - is it complete and easy to understand? Could we enhance it in any way?)

Further, according to the latest TeensTALK survey (2006, Statmats), a full 84% of teens say that the web is one of the most important tools in their college search. What I'm blogging here is my biggest takeaway from this presentation.

Five components of online college recruiting

1. Website

• Be easy to navigate
• Be relevant
• Be clear – it's all about scanning. Various entry points.
• Be current – use CMS for quick easy updates
• Make quality content available- make sure it’s worth it. Delivers the experience. Interesting, relevant
• Find a singular voice – esp. in top three tiers. Should be written by one person or small group
• Refresh regularly - We are going to push this with our next redesign
• Be interactive – ex.: tuition calculator
  

2. Push technologies

• Email- allow prospects to email current students in addition to admissions reps, etc. They consider email to be an appropriate medium to use with older people or for sending complex messages.
• IM – 72% would IM somebody if they could. 21%have IM’d a recruiter or student worker. But can you do it on their time? If not, don't try it.
• Text – interesting – put this at the bottom of the list for recruiting
  

3. Search engine marketing

• 85% of traffic is originated in a search What are they searching for? Desired major/career, location attributes, college information sites, type of school, ranking
• Optimize – two kinds of search: organic and paid. 85%of users click on unpaid results. Must be in positions 7-10 in organic listings to be clicked on.
• Determine keywords for a page – program or brand relevant. 5-7% of words in text should be keywords. Copy, headlines, page title, metadata. Need to keep on top of this though - search algorithms are constantly changing. This is a continuous job - my best source (VP of IT) says that these days metadata isn't what it once was as a determiner of where your site will fall in organic search.
• Pay per click – Best suited for different or iconic programs. Less effective than organic search over time. Proprietary keywords like MBA can be cost prohibitive. People who respond to pay per click are looking for immediate response. If you can’t get back to people in 24 hours, don’tbother. MUST track this and prove ROI. We need to take a fresh look at this - it may be much more cost effective for us to target a few choice programs with AdWords.
  

4. Web 2.0

• It’s the way millenials view the web. Radical shift in marketing.
• Participatory culture. Content creates community.
• 64% of teens are content creators.
• 700+ institutional Facebook pages have been created (as of Dec. 2007)
• 33% of colleges do admissions blogging. Fuhrman University has made a serious investment in blogging. Pay their students, give video cameras to them for their posts. Caveat - If you are going to engage in these efforts, you MUST be authentic. No marketing speak. Millenials see through all that.
• 73% of teems upload photos. More people want to see photos than video. DU has a Flickr page, here. How about a photo contest? GVSU does this to get photos for the front page of their site.
• And how about video? YouTube's market share is 74 million viewers (Dec. 2007). See Roanoke College's YouTube page (check it out - it is fun!) Can we brand our YouTube page?
• On the flip side - Universities are beginning to search web 2.0 (Facebook pages, etc.) to research potential students.
• Con – You will have to cede your brand control somewhat to students and users.
  

5. Third party sites

• We don’t always contol these. But we need to know what others are saying. People are looking for the ‘real’ story by searching blogs, other sites, etc. Examples: The Princeton Review, College Confidential. Monitor this stuff, but you can’t impact it directly.