Alec

McNayr

I don’t think I’ve stumbled upon Loyola Marymount’s site in quite some time, because I haven’t seen this new design.

The home page, like every other university web site out there, has a large photo-centric center section that corresponds with a recent news-ish story.

There’s a tiny bit of interactivity with the mouse on LMU’s page, however, and despite how subtle it is, it really works. It got me to stick around the page minutes longer than I otherwise would, and it just makes it more fun.

Quantifiable? No. It’s a surprise a little feature like this made it through the various discussions that I know happen at institutions of higher learning (“Will people get it?” “Is it too flashy?” “Will this make us look too hip/trendy/fun?”).

Way to go, LMU. It almost makes up for your crazy, almost unreadable URL-naming system:

• Admissions = http://www.lmu.edu/page76.aspx
• Contact Us = http://www.lmu.edu/page70.aspx
• Quick Facts = http://www.lmu.edu/pagefactory.aspx?PageID=110

Give bloggers a chance, will ya?

Sam Lawrence said it best via twitter: “This blows my mind.”

The Boston Globe’s Boston.com has a three-month old blog column called “The Big Picture” and yes, it does blow your mind.

It’s a collection of amazing photography presented in a large format.  Very little commentary and captioning.  Not to get nerdy, but all the photos are all 990 pixels wide and around 600 pixels tall.  Much larger than your average web site photos.

Artistry comes both from the quality and presentation of your work, and as I think about engaging people, I can’t help but think that most web content creators are missing the boat by limiting viewership of their most important digital assets.

Example 1: Photos
Looking at two examples from my own university, the Pepperdine school of law posted tiny photos from an alumni event.  No context; just hundreds lined up in a row.  Conversely, Pepperdine’s president just went on a highly-publicized tour of Route 66, and, along the way, his team posted photos to flickr, where people can view full-sized images, as well as download and comment.

Example 2: Video
I wrote a column for TubeFilter about TNT’s new interstitial series, Lucky Chance, and not only is the series lame, but they only allow you to embed a super-small window (260 px wide) in which to post the video on your site.  Not an engaging viewing experience, even if you’re watching your favorite show.

Apply this to your own site.  Your own blog.  Your own experience.  Are you trying to “wow” clients?  Trying to make web surfers “feel” your brand?  Big presentations and crisp photography can do that.

• David Hasselhoff
• Ask A Ninja
• Good Charlotte
• Spill.com Movie Reviews
• Independent Comedy Network

What do they have in common?

They all use Ning.com to host a private social network on their sites.  They give their fans an opportunity to upload photos, make comments, and engage as a part of the brand experience.

The best part?  Ning is free.

Why wouldn’t you create a ning social network?  Barack Obama and my University want to keep their social networks close, so as to tie data back to their main databases, which makes sense.

In any case, shouldn’t you be creating a social experience for your customers or prospects?  Aren’t they expecting it?  I mean, if The ‘Hoff is doing it…

It’s super cheesy, but laser-focused online content. I love it.

I have to respect The Bauer School of Business at the University of Houston for choosing a spokes-student and going with it.

Their “online series” That Bauer Girl may not be a viral hit (the first video has about 3,000 views), but they only need it to serve as one piece of media among the hundreds any potential will be looking at. It feels fresh, honest, and authentic. Rather than another boring fluff piece, it gives prospects something to talk about.

PS — the millions of searches for Jack Bauer can only help this project…

I’ve been using Twitter off and on for about four months now, and have found it a good tool to keep in touch with my peers and writers I like. I don’t use it to keep people updated on every little thing I do (I’m not that narcissistic), but I have found it effective to keep tabs on what people in my circle (and industry) are talking about. Then, when I meet them in person, I have something to talk about. That’s cool.

It’s a nice, personal service and allows for fast-spreading messages.

But is it really a marketing tool? I think not. I hate it when spammers try to “follow you.” They’re fishing for followers. Then again, if you have a ready stream of content to share (@cnnbrk) or you are constantly moving around the country (@BarackObama), it seems to be tailor made for you.

In thinking about Twitter and the Pepperdine community, I’ve had quite a few conversations about using it to reach out to the few Pepperdine alumni who are active on Twitter. Honestly, the numbers probably aren’t there to make it worth anyone’s time. I’m not going to post tweets 10 times a day to reach 10 people. That doesn’t scale.

I found a few links dealing with universities and Twitter; great ideas here and good discussion on the comments. I won’t replicate it. Go check these out:

• Using Twitter for Higher Ed
• Twitter as Alert System?
• Social Survey: Twitter for Higher Ed Marketing (.eduGuru)
• Do You Twitter? (uwebd)

An Experiment

What these links don’t cover is using Twitter simply as an RSS aggregator. Using Twitterfeed, which renders RSS entries into a twitter account’s status updates, I created a Twitter account called PepperdineFeeds.

I set up six RSS feeds to push content to the account:

(more…)

Double Your Video Exposure With Social Media:
UNICEF did it and now so can YOU

Stephen Cassidy began posting the videos to UNICEF’s own MySpace page and then to other video-sharing websites — all for free. In less than a year, the number of views on the video-sharing sites exceeded views on UNICEF’s homepage — doubling the exposure at no additional cost. more

Financial News Sites Bank on Video
Big financial news sites cue up Web-beats-cable sell

Yahoo Finance recently launched Tech Ticker, a tech-stock-centric blog that produces daily, bicoastal video segments. Yahoo claims TechTicker is pulling in 150,000 to 230,000 unique viewers per day, and sometimes close to 500,000 when featuring a big, news-making guest. Forbes.com took a major plunge into video in 2002 and now averages 2.5 million total viewers per week, per internal data. more

Colleges Putting Their Own Spin on YouTube

Frostburg, like a growing number of schools, is trying to elbow its own messages onto such sites as YouTube to promote themselves, create a virtual community and drown out embarrassing clips. more

My alma mater Pepperdine (who uses “alma mater” in real life, anyway?) finally nabbed a proper YouTube account and started putting videos online.

My favorite? The video of last month’s graduation in Malibu, where the seniors were given custom Dodgers hats to put on when longtime announcer Vin Scully took the stage.

Totally unfair, if you ask me. When I graduated in 2000, Tom Selleck gave us his advice, but we didn’t get little Magnum PI moustaches!

EduStyle is hosting its first annual web design awards contest, judged by public ballot.

The nominees across the categories seem heavy in the Boston, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, and Biola areas, so I wonder if the results are skewed because those schools employ the heaviest users of the site. It could also be that their designs are truly original and compelling.

According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Bachelor’s Degree is overrated.

A great read for anyone looking at college admissions. From the summary: “College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it.”

My take: “[Your school] is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it.” What does that say about your marketing strategy?

Ran across yet another company trying to leverage the online video market for college recruiting.

Live Video U (http://lvutv.com/) boasts 50,000 videos in their library, and seems to get permission to come on campus and stick a camera in students’ faces for quick, authentic takes on their own lives there on campus. Did a quick search for Pepperdine and didn’t find any videos. They must not be looking for UGC or else they’d have a lot more.

Looking specifically at LMU’s page, they seem to have 64 videos of individual interviews. That’s a ton of footage, but not unreasonable for one or two days of shooting. The videos are simple, short, and have nice color correction. They are all tagged (e.g., student athlete, environment, or school spirit).

The site also does a nice, quick link to all the YouTube videos tagged with LMU.

Combined with some simple “fast facts” and a link to Google Maps, Live Video U actually provides a nice template for a “one stop shop” for media for Universities.

For University marketers, your school should take a lesson from this site and embrace all the external media being created outside of your control. Flickr images, YouTube videos, and student blogs are all playing a part in the conversation around your school’s merits (and dirty little secrets).

What part does online video play in your marketing strategy? Is it a primary draw for your prospects, or does it take a backseat to other types of media? By putting video front and center, Live Video U is using it as strategic tool to bring traffic and then, interest.