I stumbled on the UBC Admin Blog thanks to Martine Lafleur who shared its link on Twitter.

Yesterday, I took the time to explore this recently launched group blog aimed at enabling further dialogue between senior administration and students at the University of British Columbia.

While president blogs have been around for some time (President Michael Crow from ASU was one of the trailblazers, President John Meada at RISD has also been doing a great job at blogging), I hadn’t come across a blog by senior administrators that hold as many promises as the UBC Admin Blog (Well, Joe Hice’s Hice School is also a great blog, but I’ll put it in another category as Joe is a communicator by trade).

Frankly, what I found really surprising and interesting in the UBC Admin Blog was to find UBC VP of Finance, Resources, and Operations among the bloggers.

In those tough budget times in higher education, it’s pretty rare to see the people in charge of budget cuts get up front and personal to try to initiate open dialogue with students and other constituents.

The UBC Admin Blog — The administration connecting with students online.

Anyway, here are a few things UBC is doing right with this blog:

• A short video introduction from each blogger on the About page of the blog.
  It helps put a face on a name and can also help promote civility by reminding readers they are interacting with real human beings.

  Here’s the video introduction from Pierre Ouillet, the Finance VP.

• A great moderation policy highlighting in plain English what is ok and what is not when it comes to comments and available from one of the top navigation tabs of the blog.
  
• A conversational tone as shown in the first post written by Ouillet, From transparency to dialogue, and the direct reply to the comment of an international student about budget on his second post.

What do YOU think? Has your institution done something similar? Let us know by posting a comment!

Looking for a new web content management system? Interested in Drupal, WordPress or DotCMS?

Register for the “Open Source CMS Fair” Webinar Series scheduled on April 13-15 2010 ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/cmsfair

It’s “submit-your-proposal” season in higher ed with a few call for proposals recently launched or closing soon.

If you’ve never presented at a conference, why not try this year?

It would be nice to see new faces (nothing wrong with the regulars, of course) and hear new perspectives.

I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 speaking venues you should consider along with a few details (deadline, direct link to call for proposal online forms, etc.)

1. eduWeb Conference – Chicago, IL (July 26-28, 2010)
   Deadline: March 19, 2010
   You can submit a proposal for 4 different tracks via an online form.
2. Canadian Post-Secondary Web Conference – Brock University, ON (May 26-28, 2010)
   Deadline: I can’t find a deadline on the website, but don’t delay too much: it’s in May.
   You can submit a proposal for a presentation or a workshop via an online form.
3. High Ed Web Conference – Cincinnati, OH (October 10-13, 2010)
   Deadline: I can’t find a deadline on the website – maybe it’s a new trend ;-) April 1st, 2010 (no kidding – thanks to Colleen who let us know by posting a comment)
   You can submit a proposal for a presentation, a workshop or a poster session via an online form.
4. 2010 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education – San Diego , CA (Nov 7-10, 2010)
   Deadline: April 9, 2010
   You can submit a written or a video proposal for a presentation/paper via an online form.
5. Higher Ed Experts Webinars – online all year long.
   Deadline: on-going
   Got an idea for a webinar or a webinar series? Just send me a short note via email at karine@higheredexperts.com so we can connect and talk about it.

Have I forgotten another good option? Let us know by posting a comment!

Want to track and measure your social media, email and web marketing initiatives?

Register for the “Analytics 360″ Webinar Series scheduled on March 10 and 11, 2010 with an extra on-demand session ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

Even if you just have a mild interest in Web Analytics, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about Avinash Kaushik, the evangelist, guru and author who has taken this dark hard core discipline in the beautiful art of measuring results.

Avinash’s second book about the topic, Web Analytics 2.0, was published 4 months ago. I’ve recently gotten my copy, and as I’m currently working my way through this great book, I think it makes the perfect combo with our upcoming webinar series, Analytics 360.

This series including a pre-recorded session and 2 live webinars will be presented early next month by Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis, our higher ed Avinashes if you can forgive me the neologism :-)

If you register (or have already registered and paid) and pay by credit card for Analytics 360 before 7PM ET on Thursday February 25th Friday March 5th, 2010, you’ll get a FREE! copy of Web Analytics 2.0 mailed to the address you’ll provide us once we contact you. No questions asked.

What’s the fine print?
If you cancel your registration and ask for a refund after we mailed the book to you, you will receive a refund of your registration fee minus the cost of the book as well as shipping and handling.

So, register now (or before Thursday 25 Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 7PM) at www.higheredexperts.com/analytics360

Want to track and measure your social media, email and web marketing initiatives?

Register for the “Analytics 360″ Webinar Series scheduled on March 10 and 11, 2010 with an extra on-demand session ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

You might have already heard about this YouTube video as several higher ed bloggers (mstonerblog, The Old College Try and edustir among others) and twitterers have mentioned it this week.

President’s Day at Macalester College is a 5-minute online video featuring President Brian Rosenberg.

Not your traditional college president video at all.

This online video is a humorous insider’s tour of Macalester College where the president does all sort of things to showcase the school and its spirit.

Take the time to watch it now if you haven’t yet.

Released on President’s Day – just 4 days ago, the video has more than 15,000 views – it’s not a huge hit in YouTube terms, but it’s definitely a popular video that resonated with the MAC community as some of the comments on YouTube prove it.

Here are just a few among the 22 that were posted on YouTube at the time of this writing:

• I love this video! It makes me proud to be at Macalester. I think it takes courage and ability to look at things in a fun manner to do something like this. I am extremely proud to be a part of this community and I want to thank people whose creativity and hard work makes this college one of the most amazing academic environments in the country.
• That was great! ….. Makes me even prouder to be a “Mac Dad”! ;-)
• It’s this kind of self-aware humor that makes the Mac community awesome.

Since I know you are always interested in learning more about this kind of initiatives, I contacted Amy Phenix, director of Communications and PR at Macalester College, yesterday and asked her a few questions about this original video.

1) Can you tell us a bit more about this video? How did you get the idea? How did you convince your president to go for it?

The video was truly a collaborative effort with the president. We knew that we wanted to do more video as another way of engaging alumni. The communications team got together and brainstormed five concepts that we shared with the president and vice president for Advancement. I continued the brainstorm with them and we settled on President’s Day as the hook for a humorous look at campus and student life today, through the eyes of President Rosenberg. From the very first conversation, President Rosenberg was engaged. He came up with some of the funniest bits. No convincing was needed, which is a good thing because I don’t think it would have worked with a reluctant star.

2) How long did it take to create this video? How big was the team and how much did the video cost?

We shot all but one scene in a day (probably about 6 hours of shooting), and we turned it around edited in a week. It was a very fast production process and the shoot was well-orchestrated so we were able to stay on schedule.

The team included four people on our staff, plus an alum we hired to shoot and finalize the script.

It was very low-budget. Other than a freelance videographer, who spent about 40 hours on preparation, location scouting, script and shooting, we did all the work in house. Total cost was about $2,500.

3) How did you promote this video?

We sent it to our alumni (about half of whom we have email addresses for), friends, and current parents, promoted to the campus community, and posted on Facebook and Twitter. We also shared with reporters who cover higher education.

4) This video generated a lot of buzz (15,000 views and many mentions on blogs, etc.). Has it met its goals? Have you noticed a bump in donations or requests for information from prospective students yet?

We are extremely gratified with the response and have exceeded our goals. Because this is the first time we’ve done something like this we didn’t know what to expect. We have seen a bump in donors and donations. The impact on prospective students is a bit more difficult to gauge this early.

Want to track and measure your social media, email and web marketing initiatives?

Register for the “Analytics 360″ Webinar Series scheduled on March 10 and 11, 2010 with an extra on-demand session ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

A few weeks before the “That’s I chose Yale” video was released, two admissions officers from the University of Delaware launched another musical into the wild, Reading Season.

Their video struck a chord in admissions offices across the country even though it was just a side project for both admissions officers.

When I interviewed Avi Amon about his video back in December, he hinted that there might be other videos created as part of a recruitment push at the University of Delaware.

Avi contacted me a few days ago to let me know about his new project: creating a full-length admissions video including requests and even photos from students, a video that will be produced based on suggestions from prospective students.

What a great idea!

To get some interest in this project, the admissions office created another tongue-in-cheek video and included it in the email sent to 200,000 prospective students earlier this month.

Here’s this call-to-action video:

Students were asked to submit an online form including basic contact information as well as what they would like to see in the video. They can also challenge the admission office to include some unusual elements in the video.

So, how has been the response so far?

More than 1,400 views on YouTube and some good feedback from the target audience according to Avi Amon:

So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Students have been excited that we are reaching out to them! Responses vary from the basic (I’d like to see the engineering building) to the more thought-provoking. (how will I know that UD is a good fit for me?).

I’ll make sure to keep you updated about this project.
In the meantime, tell what you think by posting a comment!

Want to track and measure your social media, email and web marketing initiatives?

Register for the “Analytics 360″ Webinar Series scheduled on March 10 and 11, 2010 with an extra on-demand session ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

I know you are now all asked to do a lot more with less money, time and staff members.

I bet you are close to reaching the point where something got to give. You have probably realized that you cannot keep running to try to do everything – I did.

So, how do you decide which initiatives are worth your personal/staff time and your budget money?

With the help of a data-driven state of mind: you need to stop playing catch up, define your strategy for 3 to 12 months, take the time to set up proper tracking, measure the results of your marketing initiatives, evaluate what works and what doesn’t and made new choices. Rinse and repeat.

Believe me, it will help you find your focus back and stop spending your time on channels that just don’t work.

Don’t have the time to learn how to track and measure your different initiatives by yourself?

Just invest $350 to attend next month’s 3-webinar series: Analytics 360 and organize a viewing party at your institution (the registration fee will pay for a single connection, but you can book a big room and use an LCD projector with a screen).

While anybody can set up Google Analytics on a website, making sense of all the collected data is actually a science and an art at the same time. But, it doesn’t take a 4-year degree to make sense of this data IF you get a chance to listen to two of the most passionate analytics practitioners in higher ed: Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis, both working at Penn State University.

As they did last year, Shelby and Joshua will share their expertise and tips with the attendees of Analytics 360 Webinars on March 10 & 11, 2010 as well as in a pre-recorded session covering the basics and including a demo.

Prerecorded session you can watch on-demand
Web Analytics 101: How to plan, start and implement a comprehensive analytics program
Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis will tell you all you need to know to jump start and fine tune your analytics program. After introducing the basics of analytics (goals, KPI, etc.), they will walk you through a Google Analytics implementation and explain how to set up your account to get meaningful results in no time.

March 10, 2010 1PM-2PM ET – Rain date: March 17, 2010 1PM-2PM ET
Advanced Analytics Techniques: How to track data, measure ROI and improve your web initiatives
Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis will help you get the most of your web analytics program by sharing best practices and good tips. They will demonstrate through a few case studies advanced analytics techniques using filters, segmentations, dashboards and more.

March 11, 2010 1PM-2PM ET – Rain date: March 18, 2010 1PM-2PM ET
Advanced Analytics for Marketing: How to track data, measure ROI and improve your email, social media, brand, SEO initiatives
Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis will show you how to use analytics to inform your marketing strategy no matter which communication channels you use. They will demonstrate through a few case studies advanced analytics techniques to evaluate email, offline, social media and SEO campaigns. Last, they will introduce the Google Analytics API and show you how it can be used.

Here’s what a couple of last year’s attendees said about Shelby’s and Joshua’s presentations.

• We liked the combination of Shelby talking about the concepts/best practices of analytics before Josh showed our staff how to implement in GA. It forced them to think about what they were doing and why before the “how”.
• As a more technical and experienced user, the presentations overall moved at a fast enough pace to provide a refresher, while not overwhelming a less experienced, non-technical user. I was able to pick up quite a bit about Google Analytics on day 2.
  Steve Leclaire from Monmouth University in New Jersey

Register by March 1st, 2010 (sooner than later as there’s a big chance this series will sold out before the registration deadline) at www.higheredexperts.com/analytics360

Want to track and measure your social media, email and web marketing initiatives?

Register for the “Analytics 360″ Webinar Series scheduled on March 10 and 11, 2010 with an extra on-demand session ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

Can you believe it?

It’s been 5 years (here’s my first post), 5 years where I witnessed and chronicled amazing changes in web, marketing and PR in higher education.

So, here are 5 little known facts about collegewebeditor.com:

• It’s a millionaire with 1,010,801 spam comments caught by Akismet (BTW, would you be my Valentine, Dear Akismet? – I still remember the days where you didn’t exist, and I had to check every single little check box in front of spam comments. Took about 15 to 20 minutes per day).
• It has always been powered by WordPress – another love story of mine – and started with WP 1.2
• It has allowed me to make connections with great professionals working in higher education around the world.
  I will always remember the day when I noticed that Georgina Hibberd who worked at the University of Sydney at that time wrote about one of my posts. I couldn’t believe that my little musings could interest somebody half across the world.
• A few weeks after I started, my best friend told me it was “a big loss of my time that would never bring me anything”. Famous last words, I guess.
• It was named collegewebeditor.com because I was working as a Web editor for The College of Saint Elizabeth, the name of which I kept secret for many years. We’re talking about the early days of blogging in higher education, so I decided to play the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” card. I should say that my blogging was never seen as a problem by my boss.

I know that you are all busy as ever, but why not take 2 minutes to tell us if this blog has made any difference in your professional life? Post a comment!

Planning to redesign your website soon?

Register for the “Web Redesign Boot Camp” Webinar Series scheduled on February 16, 17 & 18, 2010 ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

My latest UB column is now available in the February issue as well as online: “Websites Gone Mobile: More institutions exploring—and succeeding with—mobile web”

In this column written last December (so many new mobile websites have been launched since then – I’ll post even more examples in the coming days), I provide a few examples of mobile websites developed by higher ed institutions – including West Virginia University’s mobile website developed in 19 days by Dave Olsen – along with some traffic data.

Websites Gone Mobile

BTW, if you are a University Business reader who has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.

Unless you’ve been really, really busy (and away from your computer, iPhone or iPad – wait that one isn’t out there yet ;-), you’ve already heard about Yale’s admissions video: “That’s why I chose Yale,” a 16-minute tongue-in-cheek musical, highly produced but all done by students or recent alums.

Picked up by the New York Times, the Washington Post and other big names in media, the video has gone viral on YouTube (more than 300,000 views at the time of this writing) – and has resulted in many high praises as well as angry comments on different blogs and listservs.

Here’s the video in case you didn’t get a chance to watch it yet:

Brian Niles from TargetX – who is very well connected in the admissions world – managed to contact Andrew Johnson, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions who was behind this production, and got him to sit in front of a web camera for a 20-minute discussion about the video.

No time to watch the interview now?
Here are my notes:

• The video wasn’t designed to be put online initially, but to be used as a fun introduction before the traditional information session and the campus tour. Johnson explained that it was meant to be used as one component of a campus visit and definitely not as part of a new branding campaign. However, it was decided at some point to put it online.
• They decided to do the video in-house with students after requesting some bids from video production companies. Johnson said it was done with a little amount of money – about 10% of what professional companies were asking for this type of video. When prompted to give a dollar amount for the video budget, Johnson explained that it had not been tallied up yet as the expenses were on several admissions officers’ credit cards (Really? Wow).
• The video took 10 days to film and several to edit. The video was then reviewed in house to make sure it was vetted.
• The musical format was chosen to showcase a more fun yet accurate side of Yale. The student film maker, Ethan Kuperberg, had just completed a musical when he was asked to do this project. Johnson managed the project, but also wrote the music.

Make sure you watch this great video interview by Target X to learn more as I’ve just highlighted the most important points. And, again kudos to Brian for getting us more info on this unusual video.

Care to tell us what YOU think about the Yale video? Post a comment!

Planning to redesign your website soon?

Register for the “Web Redesign Boot Camp” Webinar Series scheduled on February 16, 17 & 18, 2010 ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp

You might not know it, but I maintain a Google calendar of higher ed events and conferences where I keep track of anything interesting for web and marketing teams.

It’s a useful tool, but here’s a selection of the most interesting ones (as well as a recap of upcoming HEE webinars ;-) including highlights deadlines for registration, call for proposals and other interesting information like registration fees.

• Web Redesign Bootcamp -3-Webinar Series – February 16-18, 2010
  What you need to know before jumping into a redesign project
  This webinar series will feature 3 great higher ed web redesign experts: Stewart Foss (eduStyle), Ben Riseling (Duke University) and Chas Grundy (The University of Notre Dame).
  HEE Members: $350 per connection (HEE membership is open and free to people working in institutions)
  Register online by February 8, 2010 at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp.
• 2010 CUPRAP Annual Spring Professional Development Conference – March 10-12, 2010
  Mainly targeted to the higher ed PR and communications professionals of Pennsylvania, this conference takes place at the Hershey Hotel in Hershey, PA.
  Member: $250; Nonmember: $315; Student $65
• Analytics 360 3-Webinar Series – March 10-11, 2010
  How to track and measure (and show to your boss) the ROI of your marketing initiatives
  This webinar series will feature 2 great higher ed analytics experts: Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis, both from Penn State.
  HEE Members: $350 per connection (HEE membership is open and free to people working in institutions)
  Register online by March 1st at www.higheredexperts.com/analytics360.
• CASE Conference for Media Relations Professionals – March 18-19, 2010 in Washington, DC
  Members $580, Nonmember: $825
  Register online
• CASE Editors Forum – March 24-26, 2010 in Boston, MA
  Members $760, Nonmember: $1060
  Register online
• Open Source CMS Fair 3-Webinar Series – April 13-15, 2010
  Why Drupal, WordPress/MU or DotCMS could be your next Web CMS
  This webinar series will feature 3 great higher ed professionals: Shelley Keith (SAU), Michael Fienen (Pittsburg University) and Blyth Morrell (Duke University).
  HEE Members: $350 per connection (HEE membership is open and free to people working in institutions)
  Register online by April 5 at www.higheredexperts.com/cmsfair.
• CASE Social Media & Community Conference – April 14-16, 2010 in Chicago, IL
  Members $690, Nonmember: $975
  Register online
• EduComm 2010 – June 7-9, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV
  Organized by the magazine University Business, this conference has 5 different tracks including Social Media/Web Innovation and Marketing Your Institution with Digital Media. This year, I’m a presenter with a session titled “Measure Twice, Cut Once: 7-Step Plan to Your Measurement Strategy for Digital Marketing.” Brad Ward and Mike Richwalsky will also present at this conference.
  Early Bird: $495 for Members, $695 for others Advance: $545 for Members, $745 for others
  Register online by April 23 for the early bird pricing.
• EduWeb 2010 – July 26-28, 2010 in Chicago, IL
  This year, the opening keynote will be given by Terry Flannery, Executive Director for University Communications and Marketing at American University.
  You can submit your proposal before March 19.
  Early Bird: $595, Regular: $695
  Register online by June 21st to get the early bird pricing.
• HighEdWeb Conference – October 10-13, 2010, in Cincinnati, OH
  The call for proposal isn’t open yet and no information about conference fee and registration is available now is open.
  Early Bird: $525, Regular: $650
  Registration will open online on March 15, 2010

Have I missed any good conferences?
Please let us know by posting a comment.

Planning to redesign your website soon?

Register for the “Web Redesign Boot Camp” Webinar Series scheduled on February 16, 17 & 18, 2010 ($350 for 3 webinars) at www.higheredexperts.com/redesignbootcamp