Making the Case for New Media in Your Communications Program

Making the Case for New MediaIn Your Communications Program

Matt Howard

Renee Basick

Introductions• Matt Howard

– Director, Chicago Media Initiatives Group, University of Chicago

– Background in academic publishing, online learning, web production, blogging, podcasting

• Renee Basick– Senior Producer, Chicago Media Initiatives Group– Background in broadcast and new media journalism;

design, web development, video production• CMIG

– Initiative of our Provost’s Office– Consult on new media and communications strategy

OverviewI. The Communications Divide in Higher EdII. Exploiting Web 2.0 for Communications

A. BlogsB. RSS FeedsC. PodcastsD. Social MediaE. HTML Email

III. Integrating New Media in Communications Plans

I. The Communications Divide

The Communications Divide

• How do students communicate today?

• “Social Media”– Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn– Blogs– Instant messaging– Mobile device / text messaging– YouTube, Ziddio

The Communications Divide

YET• < 8% of higher ed marketers use such innovative

channels to reach prospective students• e-mail remains medium of choice

– (despite the fact students ignore them)

• Survey* of 120 higher education marketers:– 95% use e-mail marketing– 62% use it to target alumni– < 50% use e-marketing to reach current students, faculty

community, etc.

*recent survey by marketing firm Media Logic Inc.

The Communications Divide

The Communications Divide

II. Exploiting Web 2.0 for Communications

What Is Web 2.0?

• Web 2.0* refers to a perceived second-generation of Web-based services that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. – social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace,

LinkedIn)– Wikis (Wikipedia)– communication tools (blogs, podcasts, YouTube,

Ziddio)– Folksonomies (tag clouds)

*Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blogs

• What is a blog?

• How big is blogging?

• Blogging in Higher Education– Case Study: Law School Faculty Blog

• Updating your blog

• Blog functionality

What Is a Blog?

• A blog (short for Web Log) is a user-generated Web journal

• Blogs provide commentary on a particular subject• Blogging services, such as TypePad and WordPress,

use a WYSIWYG platform so you do not need to code• A typical blog combines text, images, and links • Readers can add comments• The network of blogs is called the Blogosphere • In November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was

tracking more than 57 million blogs.

How Big is Blogging?

• 39% of American adults (57 million) are blog readers (July 2006)

• 11 million people (1 out of every 17 Americans) have created a blog

• Every 7.4 seconds a new blog is created

*From “Building Your Business with Video Blogging” April 2007, Event DV magazine

Blogging in Higher Ed

• Admissions blogs– Informational, give taste of University– Ex: MIT Admissions Blog– http://www.mitadmissions.org/

• Academic / public intellectual– Ex: Becker-Posner Blog – http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

• Campus blogs– Ex: UChiBlogo– http://uchiblogo.uchicago.edu

• Alumni blogs• Course blogs• Student blogs

Case Study: Law School Blog

• started in 10/1/05• academic content

– Op Ed– Current ideas– Academic draft of article

• First law faculty to collectively blog• Audiences

– Prospective students– Students, faculty, staff– Legal academy– General public

Case Study:Law School Faculty Blog

Case Study: Law School Blog

• Cost: $150 per year• Benefits

– Branding / raising profile– Self-selection for prospective students– Commentary on works in progress

• Visits– Total ...................... 426,968 – Average per Day ................ 667 – Average Visit Length .......... 1:28 – Current Week .................... 4,671

Case Study:Law School Blog

Updating Your Blog

Updating Your Blog

Updating Your Blog

Blog Functionality

• Post scheduling• Edit templates• Categories• Multiple authors• Photo galleries• Image uploading• File uploading• Comments

• Pings• Trackbacks• Search• Blogroll/Lists• Moblogging• Social Bookmarks• Widgets• RSS / Atom

Widgets

• a portable snippet of code, from a third party, that can be added any web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation

• Common examples include:– Search box– Online poll– Calendar– Subscriptions

• Adds functionality to your blog

RSS Feeds

• What is RSS?

• Who Produces RSS Feeds?

• User Benefits

• RSS Feed Services

• Content and Technical Issues

• Distribution Issues

What is RSS?

• RSS is Really Simple Syndication• RSS is an XML-based format for content

distribution. • Many news organizations and blogs offer RSS

feeds for use in news aggregators, often called "feed readers."

• Browsers such as FireFox, IE7, Safari allow for subscribing to feeds

• Feeds typically include headlines, summaries, and links back to the original article online.

Who Produces RSS Feeds?

• Major media organizations• University news offices• Bloggers

User Benefits

• News content is "pulled" to the subscriber, as opposed to "pushed" out.

• Automatically checks for and retrieves new content at user-determined intervals.

• Eliminates user need to regularly check websites of interest for updates.

• User has control (e.g., can subscribe or unsubscribe)

RSS Feed Services

• FeedforAll.com– Helps you create and manage feeds– create RSS feeds & podcasts– edit RSS feeds & podcasts– manage and publish RSS feeds – create iTunes compatible podcasts

• FeedBurner.com– Adds desirable functionality to your feed, such as integration

with “social bookmarks” and “email this” ability– Provides “click through” statistics, number of subscribers, and

your reach– Inexpensive at $5 per month

Content and Technical Issues

• Consistency of University brand

• Managing headlines• Publishing issues • Copyright information• Contact information

• Standardization of formats (RSS 1.0, 2.0, ATOM)

• Standardization of iconography

• Software available to create RSS

Distribution Issues

• Internal– Central University location for

organizing campus feeds and podcasts

– Example: http://feeds.uchicago.edu

– Add metadata in html to enable “live bookmarks”

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

<title>University of Chicago News Feed</title>

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="University of Chicago News Feed" href="http://www-news.uchicago.edu/rss/index.xml">

</head>

• External– Consistency of University

brand– Submissions to RSS

directories• Moreover• Syndic8• Technorati• Feedster

Podcasts

• What Is a Podcast?• Podcasting in Higher Ed• Creating a Podcast / Vodcast• Setting Up Your Podcast• RSS 2.0 Media Enclosures• User Benefits• Content Issues• Distribution Issues• Value for Your College

– Case Study: CHIASMOS

What Is a Podcast?

• An RSS feed that includes direct links (called “enclosures”) to audio and video files.

• Uses RSS subscription model to distribute audio and video programs via the Internet, playable on computers or handheld devices (iPod, mp3 player)

• Video podcasts are often called vodcasts.• iTunes is podcast enabled, technology leader• Examples: http://feeds.uchicago.edu

Podcasting in Higher Ed• Course Delivery

– Recordings of class discussions / lectures

– Language (e.g., French) practice• Storytelling and Public Relations

– Faculty interviews, university news• Public events / lectures in a series• Conference/Symposium Resources

– Recordings from a symposium

User Benefits

• Users who subscribe to a podcast are able to listen or view the content using free audio / video software--such as iTunes as well as through many feed readers.

• As new content is made available, software automatically – downloads new content to your computer – “synchs” to mobile MP3 and video players,

such as the video iPod.

Content Issues

• Consistency of University brand

• Managing headlines

• Publishing issues – Fixity of errors– Enclosing media files

• Copyright information

• Contact information

Distribution Issues

• Internal– Central University location for organizing campus feeds

• (e.g., http://feeds.uchicago.edu)• Links to RSS subscription page (e.g., in copyright footer)

• External– Consistency of University brand– Submissions to RSS directories, such as:– Podcast Directory

• Podcast Alley• Odeo• iPodder• Podcast Pickle• Yahoo!• iTunes

– Video iPod

Value for Your College

Questions for your college to consider:

• Is there value in creating standards-and-use protocols?

• Is there value in a centralized location for RSS and podcast feeds?

• Is there value in creating (or investing in) a more robust feed generator?

Case Study: CHIASMOS

• 2003, Center for International Studies (CIS) – began audio recording lectures – other area studies centers followed– CAN TV (public access) occasionally recorded events for

broadcast, also providing audio and video files for the Web• Spring / Summer 2006

– Volume of recordings created opportunity for outreach – Outreach mandated by the Centers’ Title VI grants from the U.S.

Department of Education. – CIS communications / outreach staff made plan for CHIASMOS– Asked CMIG to provide recording and postproduction services

(10-15 events per quarter)• Fall 2006

– Names

Case Study: Chiasmos

Case Study: Chiasmos

Case Study: CHIASMOS• World Beyond the Headlines

– launched on iTunes January 2006 – Began tracking subscriptions via FeedBurner July 28, 2006– Averaged between 200-300 subscribers until late November 2006, when it was featured as one Wired’s five

favorite higher ed podcasts; subscriptions grew to over 1000 by January 2007.– Now 1690 subscribers, 281 reach – 88,013 downloads of 32 enclosures since July 18, 2006

• CHIASMOS audio (master podcast of all audio files archived on CHIASMOS)– 149 Subscribers, 28 reach– 15,129 downloads of 111 enclosures since September 27, 2006

• CHIASMOS video (master podcast of all video files archived on CHIASMOS)– 35 subscribers, 9 reach– 2,731 downloads of 49 enclosures since September 27, 2006

• Human Rights Distinguished Lecturer Series (Sponsored by Human Rights Program)– 284 subscribers, 41 reach– 5,035 downloads of 14 enclosures since July 19, 2006

• Latin American Briefing Series (sponsored by Center for Latin American Studies)– 517 subscribers, 77 reach– 12,298 downloads of 34 enclosures since July 19, 2006

Total downloads via podcast since July 18, 2006: 123,206

Case Study: CHIASMOS

• Project Costs– contracting with CMIG for their services, at between

$185 - $250 (depending upon the complexity of editing, etc.) per event

– estimate the total cost of recording and post-production at approximately $5k through the first two quarters of the project

– additional costs include approximately 7.5 hours per week of CIS staff time for the construction and maintenance of the CHIASMOS website and podcasts (approx $14k annually)

Social Media: MySpace

• 124 million profiles in 2.5 years (10/06)*• Web pages that serve as

– Diary– E-mail program– Photo album

• Content shared with friends (whose pictures appear)

* From Washington Post “In Teen’s Web World, MySpace Is So Last Year”

Social Media: MySpace

Social Media: MySpace

Social Media: Facebook

Social Media: Facebook

• 7.5 Million users

• 2100 colleges

• 22,000 high schools

• 1000+ companies

• 90+% utilization*

• Does Facebook own your campus?*From study at University of NC

Social Media: YouTube

• YouTube (GoogleVideo) now offers college pages

• Videos vary in topic, student and college produced

• Ziddio also has a “Facebook Diaries” program that integrates with Facebook

Social Media: YouTube

Social Media: YouTube

HTML Email

• Strategic Communications

• Identifying Unmet Needs

• Creating Your HTML Email Campaign– Case Study: Participate Campaign

Strategic Communication

• Use email campaigns as a means to change behavior– E.g., to give back to the University, to drive traffic to a

Web offering

• Use wisely (and not too often)– How often do you (and your staff) communicate with

this constituent group?

• Track the success of your campaign– Click throughs– Gifts

Creating Your HTML Email Campaign

• Don’t do it yourself; use an industry vendor– Vertical Response– Topica

• Both Vertical Response and Topica can work with your data

• Provides tracking• Offers personalized print campaign collateral

(e.g., postcards)• HTML campaign can include other types of new

media– Audio and Video files, links to blogs, slideshows, etc.

III. Integrating New Media in Communications Plans

Integrating New Media in Communications Plans

• Understanding your stakeholders• Identifying unmet communications needs

• Understanding your organization• What is your communications mix?

• Target and position

• Communication process and vehicles

• Recommendations

Understanding your stakeholders• Identify primary and secondary stakeholders

– Alumni, donors, prospective students, current students, parents, community

– Journalists; local, state, federal government; industry, prospective faculty

• Demographics and psychographics – location, socio-economic variables, lifestyles, media

use patterns, behaviors, benefits sought• Develop profiles

Identifying unmet needs

• How well do stakeholders feel needs are being met?

– Annual survey of random samples from constituents to identify strengths and weaknesses in your communications mix; track progress

• How well coordinated are you in communicating to stakeholders to achieve organizational goals?

– Infrastructure (centralized, decentralized), success measures, consistency across communication channels (look and feel)

• How do you currently reach stakeholders?

– Face to face, print, email, audio/video (DVDs, Web video)

Understanding your organization

“Brand” value and perception

• What is your mission?

• Who do we serve? What benefits do we provide?

• Sources of competitive advantage– Core competencies of the organization

– Physical assets, intangible assets, capabilities, human capital

• SWOT Analysis– Internal: Strengths Weaknesses

– External: Opportunities Threats

SWOT Analysis of CMIG

Target and position

Perceptual Mapping• How do stakeholders

perceive you?• How do stakeholders

perceive your competitors?

• Differentiation: Where do you want to be?

Creating Your Message

• Message flows from– Target and Position

• Desire to change your position

– SWOT Analysis• Strengths, Opportunities

– Survey Data• What resonates with your constituents?

Case Study: Participate Campaign

• Development Office campaign for young alumni– FY06 received under $4M primarily through

phone– Instituted print, email, and new media (video)

“Participate” campaign based on profiles of young alumni

– By March 2007 already reached 85% of target $6M

Case Study: Participate Campaign

Case Study: Participate Campaign

• November 2006, aggressive email campaign to young alumni

• Giving in November increased

Communication Process & Vehicle Selection

• Awareness– Press releases, Web site

• Credibility– Faculty press mentions,

quotes, rankings • Interest

– White papers, press articles, conference presentations, advertising, blogs, event recordings

• Preference– Information sheets,

collateral, brochures, promotional videos, podcasts, blogs

• Selection– Maintenance

communications, RSS feeds, podcasts

• Loyalty– Thank you emails, regular

mail, phone

What is your communication mix?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Prospective Students

Current Students

Staff

Donors

Alumni

Face-to-face Print Electronic Audiovisual

How do you currently communicate / interact? Are these communications “strategic”? Are they aligned to user needs?

Budget, Staffing, Schedule• Budget

– Investment not a cost– Specific costs of types of projects– Invoicing: Freshbooks.com

• Staffing– Need one dedicated production professional (senior

producer, producer, assistant producer)– Interns, students

• Schedule – Calendaring system: Oracle, Google Calendar– FreedBack.com, Wafoo.com (web form apps)

Recommendations

• Establish task force of communicators / leaders for each stakeholder

• Establish list of key messages, broken out by stakeholder group

• Develop standard survey of stakeholders needs• Include measurement in every communication

plan• Focus on the value of behavioral changes that

can result from successful communication

Thanks!

Matt [email protected]

773-702-5071

Renee [email protected]

773-834-7955

http://cmig.uchicago.eduhttp://research.uchicago.edu/highlights