March 2010 Archives

My grad student career has finished, concluding my student job at the Leeds School communications office. Writing the job post to replace myself made me reflect on what I've learned since I've been here. When I applied, the job description asked for someone who was "creative and motivated" (check) with writing skills (check), Web 2.0 skills (check),interviewing skills (check), social media familiarity (check), and video production skills (hmmm...).

I spend at least 50 percent of my time on video production: interviewing, filming and editing video of faculty and students from our makeshift studio downstairs. I also spent a solid three weeks building an animated template using Actionscript 3.0 (in which I was practically illiterate). I may have embellished my software savvy on the job application, but several forces saved me from floundering in my role here: a willingness to jump in headfirst, and the team's willingness to give me a chance. When I pitched a Flash audio slideshow project that was well outside of my repertoire, they gave me the green light. When I wanted to edit movies in Final Cut, they threw footage into my outstretched novice hands. A week or two later, I could cut, chunk and transition confidently.

As a journalist, I wasn't sure I would like the world of communications, where everything needs to be approved up the chain of command and can be de-flavorized in the process.But this job actually made me a better journalist. And it provided me with the essentials I need to be satisfied: autonomy, the chance to grow my technical and communication skills, the ability to be creative every day, and an endless supply of stimulating content (fueled by lots of smart professors, students and co-workers).

Now I'm leaving my student job at CU for a real-life journalism job in Alaska. I consider some of my most marketable skills not just those I learned in J-school (objectivity, narrative style, ethics), but the multimedia and project-management skills I developed at work. Let's see how those serve me in journalism!

Posted by Molly Rettig.

By Sarah Grace Martens

Last Thursday I participated in a free Alumni Attitude Study webinar titled "What is an event and how do we measure its success?" I was intrigued by the topic because my job requires that I put on many events for the school and I was interested to learn more about how to quantify event success and how it is measured by other institutions.

The success of an event, like many facets of alumni relations, is difficult to measure. Sure, there are a lot of intangible ways such as:

• How many people came to the event?
• Did the guests appear to enjoy themselves?
• Was the speaker engaging?
• Did the event flow smoothly without any A/V problems or interruptions?

These questions are important but they certainly don't allow you to quantify anything, much less a ROI. So, 50 people came to your event - is that a success?

I was surprised when the webinar changed gears from discussing 'brick-and-mortar' events (like the questions above apply to) and began talking about 'events' in the realm of social media. For instance at typical brick-and-mortar events, like a career-enhancement seminar or a faculty presentation, valuable information is shared only once. Expert presenters, vivid slideshows, engaging question and answer sessions exist and are experienced only by the individuals in the room that day, at that time.  

However, with social media, these events can be broadcast live on the internet and watched from a desk at work; they can be recorded and shared via YouTube or your institution's website or even uploaded to your school's Facebook Fan Page. The options are truly limitless.

Suddenly it's a lot easier to quantify the reach of the content you created, or the virtual 'event' that you just hosted (see The Metric Messiah). How many people clicked on that particular link from the alumni e-newsletter? How many people have watched the YouTube clip of the faculty member discussing her research? How many people read the Dean's Blog last month? These numbers are big and they are getting bigger.

With dwindling higher education budgets, and growing alumni bases it's extremely rewarding to know that you can still engage alumni in places that you'll never be able to host a physical alumni event. In fact, an event featuring a popular faculty member presenting on a 'hot' topic might draw 50 individuals (like the one we hosted in Chicago last summer), or the same faculty member presenting on the same issue can draw 400+ views on YouTube. That's incredible stuff and it's worthy to note that it has and will forever change the field of alumni relations.

Some may say that nothing can replace a good handshake and face-to-face networking - and they would be right. But it's nice to know that there are vibrant alternatives when time, money and resources make 'brick-and-mortar' events unfeasible or at least few and far between. As the webinar presenter mentioned last week, we certainly want our alumni reading our e-newsletters, joining our LinkedIn groups, and watching our YouTube videos - and if they come out and attend an actual event, that is just icing on the cake!

During the winter break, Leeds School marketing professor Donnie Lichenstein asked me to help him set up a Facebook Page for a course he was to teach this spring semester. I was both pleased and clueless and totally game to try it. Sure, back in the day  I had created the official and all encompassing Facebook Page for the Leeds School of Business, but how would one be used in or for a class for undergraduate college students?

You can view the Page by clicking here.

Representing the ARC (Alumni Relations & Comm staff at the Leeds School), I sat down with Donnie recently to see how Facebook was faring: 

ARC: Tell us about the course you created the Facebook Page for.
Donnie:  It's a Principles of Marketing course with 250 students; a lecture hall class. It's a 75-minute class that meets twice a week. This is the first time I taught the class since the mid '90s; we had no technology then beyond PowerPoint and overheads.

ARC: What kinds of things are being posted on the Facebook Page?
D: Just today I posted something on a TV show Tom Brokaw is doing tonight on how Baby Boomers are affecting the marketplace. I wanted to give the class, which is about 250 kids, a heads up it was on tonight. I'm also a dog person so I'll share fun articles I've read about dogs. And students will email me articles they've read, like one student sent me something that we later discussed in class, such as opt in versus opt out strategies for things like organ donation and phone books. It's also been a great way to share things that we didn't get to in class, like Super Bowl ads.  

ARC: How many students actually use the page?
D: There are 250 students in the class, and 186 fans of the page. But I would say there is a core nine to 10 students who use and comment on the page regularly. I would say the page is less breadth and more depth.

ARC: What kinds of interactions have the students had with the page?
D: One neat thing I did was post something on kiva.org, an organization which does microlending which is something we had covered in one of the chapters, and I asked students to vote for 15 profiles that I would lend money to. We also had good discussions about ads that were turned down by the Super Bowl and a video about the photoshop effect. Basically anything with a social welfare implication has generated more feedback.

ARC: How have you used the insights of the Facebook Page?
D: You know, I never paid any attention to the insights. That wasn't my goal. I just wanted it to be organic. (FYI we then looked at the insights of the Facebook Page, which showed a high of 18 interactions on February 4, when Donnie said was the kiva.org voting took place, and Page Views range from a few dozen to a high of 152 views on January 12. Gender is split 50-50.)

ARC: Why did you decide to use a Facebook Page for your course?
D: I have to cover 21 chapters in class, and the struggle faculty are faced with is the limitations of time and what you can cover in class. I don't have the luxury to go off on a tangent on the things that students really want to talk a lot about, like Super Bowl ads. Facebook allows me to "go off on a tangent," so to speak. It has added some extra time to the classroom discussions because after class you can share it on the page, you can post a comment, it stays here online, and the students can bring it up at home later if they want. The cost-benefit is a positive.

ARC: Has there been any negatives to using a Facebook Page as a course discussion tool?
D: No, no negatives. When you build a course, you want to let the students have multiple touch points with you. This is a mass lecture hall with 250 students; this is one way to personalize it. There are a dozen students who like to use my office hours, others who like to sit in the first two front rows, and students who don't come to class and prefer to just watch the video recordings of my class. And there are those students who like the Facebook page. And it doesn't cost me anything. One woman shared something in a post on the page that she said she wouldn't have felt comfortable sharing in class.  

ARC: What were your concerns prior to the semester about using Facebook?
D: I did have a concern about how much time it would take. What I was not concerned about was setting up the page and my lack of knowledge (about Facebook) because the students know this stuff. It's been really organic. It was almost helpful because the students are instructing you on this, and you are instructing them on the coursework. It makes it almost reciprocal. I was not afraid of what I did not know. I didn't know how I would use it; I was just going to see where it went and play with it. You've got to crawl before you walk, you know? 

ARC: Do you think this is something you will use again for a course? And if so, how?
D: Oh yes. I'm open to suggestions. I definitely want to explore its potential as a teaching tool and community building tool.

ARC: What advice do you have for other higher ed instructors who are considering a form of social media within a course or for use with students?
D: Jump in. It costs nothing, it's manageable and low-effort. This is a large class and so by using Facebook it was creating an atmosphere that signaled to the students that I am approachable: He's talking to us. It's a conversation with the class. If it even marginally adds to the class, it's worth it because it costs even less to do it.   

In a strategy to create greater visibility for Leeds, we have launched a media campaign to showcase our talented and accomplished alumni and faculty. We chose alumni that exemplify the core strengths and values of the school: knowledge, the whole person, connection and the entrepreneurial spirit. Alumni include John Wood ('86) who founded the non-profit Room to Read, and authored Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, Sarah Siegel-Magness ('95) who founded So Low and also co-produced the Oscar- nominated movie "Precious". Also included is entrepreneur Laurie Vargas ('95) who recently founded her company Vargas Wealth Management, and Steve Lawrence, the academic director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship as well as professor and head of the management division.

With the help of our friends at Greenhouse Partners (where we have several alumni), we created the campaign and are currently running these images and content about the school in strategic media including Fast Company, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Colorado Biz. We have some special outdoor promotions including posters on alternative transportation in Denver.  Plus we have blanketed Denver with coffee sleeve promotions along with hosting a free coffee give-away as well.  Why Denver? We can't afford a national mass marketing campaign and Denver is a key market in terms of general perceptions of the school, especially with regard to the business community.   

Our hope and plan is that we will see positive spike in perceptions of the Leeds School in our annual awareness survey of key audiences we conduct in the early fall.