How visible are universities on social networks?
With UK universities allowed to charge up to £9,000 for fees from this autumn, many institutions are likely to have ramped up their marketing in order to engage and attract students.
So how successful have they been in creating a presence on the main social networks?
10 new specialist qualifications for the digital industry
There’s a whiff of triumph in the air: ten new specialist qualifications for the digital industry, each seeking to provide the skills needed to become a confident practitioner in disciplines as diverse as Analytics, SEO, UX, and Social Commerce.
Econsultancy's new Graduate Certificates offer an accredited route to mastering the implementation of a range of core digital skills and offer supported learning on the job.
Created in direct response to client demand (and our own findings in the recent Skills and Structures report), these new qualifications are an important development for us.
MTV’s Facebook app helps US students tap $70b in aid
Today MTV, in partnership with Get Schooled and the College Board,
launched "My College Dollars," a new Facebook app that matches US
students with financial aid opportunities. Once you sign up, you are
targeted with scholarships based on information collected by
Facebook such as your age, gender and state.
For the next 6 weeks, students can also take part in the "My College Dollars Sweepstakes." If they connect to the app and save a scholarship deadline to their calendar, or, as it usually is with socially driven contests, share the app with a friend, they can enter to win. Prizes include tickets to the "2012 MTV Music Awards" or gift cards to cover school supplies. They suggest books and fees, though knowing college students, some of it will go on beer.
So why is this app so important?
Apple wants to reinvent the textbook, but is it destined to fail?
A few hours ago Apple held its much-anticipated education event in New York City, and as expected, announced a new offering that seeks to reinvent the textbook around the iPad.
Seeking to make textbooks more interactive, more durable, more searchable and more easily refreshable, iBooks 2 offers a "new textbook experience for the iPad." And boy is it pretty.
11 of the best social media campaigns of 2011 (and what we can learn from them)
There are so many different metrics we can use to judge the success of a social media campaign: views, sales figures, donations, likes, even mentions, but perhaps the most important is the intangible.
Was it memorable? Did it resonate with the audience? I asked around the office for the team’s favourite social media campaigns of 2011.
Our favourites don’t necessarily represent the campaigns that have had the highest impact, or the biggest budgets spent on them. They were just good, different, or downright odd.
Anyway, here are our favourites. We’d be interested to read yours …
Five videos of five actions clients can take with Google Analytics
There is a lot to communicate in modern marketing and our methods haven't kept up with the times. I often find myself giving trying to solve problems by phone and email; methods which turn out to be unnecessarily time consuming and open to miscommunication
I want to show a different way to communicate analytics actions to a client. I use a tool called Screenr. It is a simple desktop video capture service, like a Flip camera for your desktop.
Using Screenr I find I can very quickly communicate and educate around specific topics. It is perfect for clearly showing clients how to take control of analytics.
I have put together five videos of five actions clients often need to do with their own analytics, to show you how powerful a quick video communication tool can be and provide inspiration for making your own.
Using social media at live events: best practice tips
Social media has become an important part of a conference or event. Streaming feeds from Twitter and Facebook or providing text-to-screen commentary lets audiences participate in events and allows brands to collect feedback.
However, the risks to a brand’s reputation are enhanced by the sheer number of people who might view inappropriate material.
Technology powers display growth, but people power its adoption
According to the recent IAB and PwC study, in 2010 display grew by 27% and search by 8%. If you have been following the growth of display and the rise of DSPs (demand-side platforms) you are no doubt aware that growth has been fuelled by RTB (real-time bidding).
Its growth and similarities are closely aligned to ‘traditional’ search bid management techniques. This is great news for the display industry and highlights great opportunities for the search marketer.
However, are search marketers grasping this opportunity, and do marketers and agencies really understand the new display environment?
Community management: are we all talking about the same thing?
Something interesting has started happening when we go and talk to prospective clients about online community management services.
There are various companies which specialise in community management and moderation, and have done for a number of years, but agencies (mostly PR and communications agencies, rather than digital ad agencies) are starting to claim expertise in community management, and to be honest, I don’t think they’re talking about the same thing as we are.
It’s causing real confusion client-side. While we both work with online communities, I think we need to be clear about the definitions of what we each do, so we can work together more effectively.
Lessons in social media for universities
Despite Facebook having its roots in universities, the education sector has an uneasy relationship with social media.
