UMSL Marketers – Social Media Conference opportunity

Brand-new to UMSL, but hot out-of-the-gate, COBA Assistant Professor Perry Drake has put together an outstanding line-up for an upcoming conference “The State of Digital Media Marketing.”  It’s on-campus the afternoon of April 2 and free, but reservations are required.

Spring UMSL Marketers’ Forum Scheduled

Save the date:  Thursday, March 21st for the Spring 2013 UMSL Marketers’ Forum.  Conveniently scheduled from 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., your UMSL Marketing & Communications team will furnish the beverages, cookies and stimulating conversation and insight.  All you need to bring is your bag lunch and unit “show and tell” pieces.

Lots has happened since the last Marketers’ Forum, like the Jubilee, expansion of “I Chose UMSL” (which just was awarded two National Higher Education Advertising Silver Medals), full utilization of the undergraduate CRM (and expansion into the graduate schools), really innovative use of social media, and UMSL’s first foray into television and video ads.    And, don’t tell anyone, but we’re working on the UMSL Web 3.0.

Tell your fellow UMSL marketers, designers, webmasters, recruiters, writers, professors, deans  and anyone interested in UMSL marketing and communications programs to save the date!.

Infographics – Efficacy in Communications

Infographics are coming to the forefront as effective and efficient communications tools.  Say/show a lot, in an interesting way – that’s what good infographics offer.  Quite often, they are embedded in a story, adding depth and richness.  Other times, they are stand-alone.

While waves of good infographics are hitting the shores, the best I’ve seen are found in a New York Times multi-media story “Snow Fall.  The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek.”  Check it out for a fascinating story with the most sophisticated media tools yet.

The University of Missouri System’s Jennifer Hollingshead has produced an excellent piece.  It’s a great example of presenting substantial information in an engaging manner.  Kudos to the group for their good work.

UMSL is exploring infographics as a means to effectively communicate prospective student pages.  Look for them coming to our website soon.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,600 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

There’s strategy in that email blast’s timing

Used to be gospel that the best time to launch an email blast was early in the morning.  I know, personally, that our friends at Groupon certainly believe it.  A new article in The Content Strategist says 8-9 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. turn-out equally good.  They point-out that one should avoid, shun, blasts during afternoon drive-time.   Above all, test, test, test.  Find what works for you.   Check-out their complete article for great advice.

Students and Social Media

How important are social media channels in college recruitment?  Is it absolutely necessary to integrate (or include) Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pintrest, Instagram, yada, yada, yada?

Research we did of our campus audiences last year showed that, among students, Facebook was the far-and-away primary social media platform.  About 87% of those surveyed indicated Facebook primacy.  Though things have changed over the time since that survey, Twitter was an extreme afterthought, with less than 3% using it as a primary platform.

An exhaustive study by Zinch, a collegiate research firm, both affirms and disputes our findings.  Yes, Facebook is the primary platform, but others do count.  Should you try and accomodate several channels?  Yes, but don’t worry if you lack the resources.  Studying Zinch’s research shows a great fall-off of frequency-of-activity from frequent users to others.  Integrating Twitter with Facebook through links is simple, easy and effective.

Check out Zinch’s study linked in the previous paragraph.

UMSL Marketeers: You’re invited.