December 2009 Archives

Our graphic designer Kristen Weber (who is amazing by the way), just dropped by today to drop off the cutest EOY gift for the office. That got me reflecting on all of the many people and businesses who have positively and generously helped our office and the Leeds School itself over the last year.

Certainly Kristin through her company SugarDesign (@Sugardesigninc on Twitter) has helped shape the look an feel of most all of the Leeds School's publications over the last several years. So, Kudos Kristin. I'd like to give a shout out to many of the others as well so here they are in no particular order:

• Kathryn Marshall, Mitchell Ashley, Elaine Schoch and Patrick Ward at (104West.com) for their assistance in helping us craft a Socal Media strategy as well as helping educate our faculty and staff about SM.
• Amber Hickory, MBA '05 and Pete Burridge and all of the folks at Greenhouse Partners for their expertise, creativity and surely patience in working on new branding and messaging for the school.
• Michael Warden, Associate Vice Chancellor at CU-Boulder for providing cover through this branding process.
• Patrick Walker at Goodbye Blue Monday for his excellent service with all of our special promotions over the year.
• The amazing Carol Ross who helped on two fronts with our alumni and current students through the Naturally Networking teleseminars and the our team through her coaching work a Carol Ross and Associates.
• Marley Hodgson, MBA '03 and founder of Mad Greens that catered our recent Tweetup.
• Gary Bennett at D & K Printing and Kim Warner of CU Communications for guiding our efforts and press checks with our biannual 36+ pager 4 color Portfolio magazine.
• Jeremy Tyson at NSO Press who also does amazing print work on many of our other publications.
• Leeds Alums Nora and Patrick and crew at Front Range Catering for their professionalism and flexibilty when our Homecoming event for 300+ suddenly had to move inside when we were visited by the proverbial 6-8 inches of "clear to partly cloudy" snow.
• Brady Foster and crew at Hip Gifts for saving our alumni awards and thus the alumni awards ceremony from less the perfect recognition items.
• Award-winning photogs Glenn Asakawa and Casey Cass and Andi Farber and Patrick from our photo department.
• Our media liasons, Bronson Hilliard, Greg Swenson, Peter Caughey and Malinda Miller-Huey.    
• Mark Detterick and Bryn Samuelson, our erstwhile budget people (some say bean counters, but these folks are non-trad accountants---hey, they love The Office).
• Christy Orris and Visda Carson for hanging in there with us as we crunched out a strategic plan.
• Finally, the Leeds Alumni Relations and Communications team, Dean Pajevic, Sarah Martens, Melanie Sidwell, and current and former students Tyler McAnelly, Molly Rettig and Gabrielle Makray who manage to get an incredible amount done and done well in '09.

Of course the problem with a list is that I might leave someone out here who really deserves our thanks. If I have done that, I am sorry. Again, my/our most sincere thanks to these folks for all of their support. Also, thanks to the many alumni, donors, friends, business people and businesses who have suppored the school in so many ways this past year. Have a great 2010 everyone!   

 

Last night I attended the Leeds School's December Recognition Ceremony in the beautiful Macky Auditorium on CU-Boulder's campus. I always find myself enjoying graduation ceremonies more than I expect to. Even though I'm not graduating, it's still a great feeling to be in a room filled with optimistic young adults, and overly-proud parents (a few with airhorns - seriously), and to hear inspirational speeches from those who taught these individuals, and others that have been successful in their lives. It's the ultimate 'feel-good' event.

However, as an alumni relations and communications staff member, I can't help but hope that these graduates' whole experience at Leeds was a 'feel-good' event. It's the students that loved their time at Leeds that will be more likely to keep in touch after graduation and let us know that they moved out-of-state or switched jobs. It's the students that participated in clubs and received scholarships that will care about the student experience of future Leeds students. And it's the individuals that got to know their professors or received assistance from our undergraduate advising or career offices that are most likely to come back and speak in classrooms or help future Leeds graduates find jobs.

There are some in the audience last night that may never return to campus nor be heard from again. However, on the other end of the spectrum are those that will remember Leeds and the education and the experience they had here. We'll see them in the future celebrating Homecoming, reviewing undergraduate resumes, serving as mentors and making donations to the school.

And of course there is everybody in between. 

The good news is, nowadays, with social media and instantaneous communication, we have a much better opportunity to stay in touch with the "everybody in between". And perhaps, just maybe, more of these in-betweens will appreciate the continued Leeds connection and find themselves being active and engaged alumni afterall. Well, that is our hope - and our job!

Like most of you, we track our social media, website, email, and PR metrics. And like many of you, all metrics are going up in terms of new users, unique users, robust views, etc. Our YouTube channel has been a standout in the last six months as we've seen a monthly doubling of viewers. It won't be that way forever, but it is great to see so much interest!

But a lot of people stop with the numbers. For example, we all see Twitter-ers with 10, 20, 50,000 thousand followers. That's great. But how many are really engaging their followers? Creating the level of connection with them that will turn them from a number on a website into an active participant in their story? I'd bet not too many. A lot of followers are just taking a quick look at their offerings, like scanning a menu, but not sitting down for the meal.

That's where we will continue to differentiate ourselves. We've got "more eyeballs" now, more menu viewing, but we want our constituents to sit down at the table with us and join us in a meal. And that meal is all the ways students, alumni, businesses, and our friends can engage with the school. For example, people engage by:

• Posting photos on our Facebook page.
• Updating their contact info on LeedsLink.com, our alumni networking site.
• Retweeting useful information on Twitter.
• Sending us their success stories via Class Notes.
• Attending events like Homecoming, or Networking Naturally, or alumni events in Denver, Chicago, San Francisco, or New York.
• Attending financial knowledge events like the Business Economic Outlook Forum, insight into the upcoming year of the Colorado economy.
• Sharing their knowledge via the Executive Insights events.
• Mentoring our students.
• Hiring our students.
• Growing their skills through our Executive Education classes.
• Giving via scholarships and other methods to help our students succeed.
• And more. Lots more.
  

This list is ordered a bit from easiest to more challenging, but like a menu, we offer everything from appetizers to four course meals. It's our job in communicators to make sure that we help all our wonderful constituents sit down at the table and enjoy all Leeds has to offer.

Contact us to learn more!