Subscribe to RSS feed

Content Strategy and Location-Based Marketing

Tuesday night, the inimitable SchneiderMike, senior VP of the digital incubator at Allen & Gerritsen, held court at Meadhall for a meeting of Content Strategy New England, talking location-based marketing as it relates to content strategy. He literally co-wrote the book on location-based marketing, and his passion for the topic is infectious.

Despite the noise and the distraction of about a thousand beers on draft, Mike dropped a ton of valuable insights, some of which I have captured below:

  • The biggest opportunities for content strategy beyond the checkin come from the semantic web. How can LBS leverage data — history, tips, friends, etc. — to enhance context and create more informed user experiences?
  • People expect an experience around a place. What are the content types within an experience? Is place a content type? A place has structure — how do we define that?
  • A huge challenge for content strategy around location is fragmentation. A place can exist in multiple databases. As much as possible, we need to own the standardization of our venue data across all platforms and enable our content to be served across all of them.
  • Food for thought: there’s no W3C standard for location. Relatedly, we need to expand our editorial style to account for location.
  • We need to start thinking of the web as a giant database.
  • Context, context, context!
  • Some services of note:
    • Ditto – An app that addresses your intent, most relevant at or before the decision point for what you want to do, semantically leveraging structured content and metadata to make recommendations.
    • Forecast – Another app centered around intent, sharing your upcoming plans with friends.
    • Über – Request a car direct to your location
    • Where
  • “Media organizations have a shit ton of content,” and they’re adapting it for LBS.
  • Apps should be smarter by looking at checkin history, friends, etc to make recommendations. Draw conclusions. Leverage rating data against location to make real time recommendations.
  • Can content enter the Uncanny Valley and be too participatory? There are good and bad uses. Be relevant and useful. Don’t overreach beyond reason.
  • “We’re all layered.” As content strategists, we need to understand these layers and how individuals want to use those layers. What channels make sense for which content/engagement? Use the right channel.
    • We need to wrangle these data streams in a social CRM.
  • Re: daily deals, these will continue. But we need to make deals feel like content
    • We need to push smarter, more relevant deals — things we know they want. Groupon is a Ponzi scheme. Apps like Level Up type stuff will grow, integrate into point of sale system.
  • Foursquare does not look at itself as a media channel, and it needs to. Brands need to know impressions and “dones” (for tips). That’s how we’ll get to effectiveness. How effective is History Channel? Who knows?
  • Checking in to TV shows is gaining in popularity, as a means to find others who share your passion.
    • There is multiple screen convergence happening while watching television.
    • Hashtags add context and community to the viewing experience.
  • Checkins are an unnatural behavior; there must be a great motivation to do so.

A lot of food for thought. Thanks, SchneiderMike! Want more? Check out this cheat sheet excerpted from “Location-Based Marketing for Dummies,” including the five rules of location-based marketing.

1 Comment

Georgy, November 10th 2011 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Business, Content, Social Media

A New Route

If you know me, you know that I am a public transit nerd, and a particular fan of buses. In principle, I find bus travel much more fascinating than subway travel. Why?

  • You can connect to significantly more places, sometimes more easily and more directly than the subway.
  • You have a clear view of the world around you, giving you a sense of both where you are and where you’re going.
  • By virtue of both of these characteristics, the bus more easily enables discovery and inspiration. This comes both from the sights you encounter on the streets and sidewalks as you pass by and the yet-untold stories of your fellow passengers.

With these reasons in mind, I have been known to set aside a day to go on a bus adventure, taking a new route to explore a place that is not yet to known to me. Today is one of those days.

I will be leaving Tufts University after more than seven years to start my own business, a consultancy I have named Crosstown Digital Communications. My goal with Crosstown is to help organizations, primarily in higher education, communicate more effectively on the web.

Some of the details and logistics are still being sorted out (such as a new website), but you know how it is — when the bus comes, it’s time to hop on.

This is not a decision I’ve come to easily. Tufts has been an extraordinary place, not only to work, but also simply to be. The community, ethos and spirit at the university are second to none. It has been my pride and honor to help tell Tufts’ story on the web, because it is a story in which I feel deeply invested. But now, I look forward to the chance to do the same for other institutions, learning more and sharing what I can in the process.

Meet Content, which I co-founded with Rick Allen of ePublishMedia earlier this year, will continue to exist — and grow — as a blog and resource about web content in higher education. We are excited to expand the dialogue about content, bringing some of the smart voices in the higher ed community into the conversation and finding new ways to share knowledge.

Crosstown is, of course, on Twitter (@crosstowncomm), and I’ve also set up a Tumblr called “In Transit” to share the articles and links that are informing and inspiring me.

If you’d like to learn a little bit more about Crosstown or you are interested in working together, please visit the Crosstown website to read about my services and drop a note to say hello.

Thanks for reading this. I’m really excited about this new journey, and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

A big thanks to Jeff Stevens of Union Photo & Design for developing the Crosstown logo.

13 Comments

Georgy, November 7th 2011 | Tags:
Posted in Business

Exploring Music 2.0 in Boston

On Apr. 20, I made my way to the Microsoft NERD for the second annual Music 2.0 showcase of tools and tech for musicians, marketers and managers.

As event organizer Charlie McInerney said in his introduction, Boston has two tremendous scenes in music and technology, and the more they can come together, the better off both will be. He couldn’t be more right. Frankly, my mind was blown by how many cool innovations are taking root right here in Boston to advance the music industry, for fans and bands alike. Here’s an overview of the presentations I saw at the event.

  • Put Your Brand Out to Stand Out: Mic Control is a consulting firm that helps bands execute successful social media strategies. Their three core actions for execution are 1) networking 2) engagement and 3) relationship building. The goal, according to Jonathan Ostrow and Chris Taylor, is to find a way to help your brand stand out from the social media clutter. “You need to brand yourself or no one can relate to you.” Rapper Wiz Khalifa was cited as an example for the way he has branded himself in relation to hip hop, pot and Pittsburgh. Well, okay.
  • Git’r Done: Ryan Spaulding of Ryan’s Smashing Life urged self-starters in the crowd to think about their objective and to find who they are and what makes them happy. “You only have 30 to 35 functional years of adulthood to get this done,” he said. “If you find your answer immediately, you didn’t look hard enough.” Another good blurb from Ryan: “You opportunity is found where others failed.”
  • Empowering City Kids with Music: Gary Eichorn talked about his awsome program, the Music + Youth Initiative, which he founded seven years ago in response to cutbacks in music education in public schools — in Boston, he said, only 20 percent of high school students have the opportunity of receiving music education. So his program works sort of like a franchisor with existing nonprofit “bricks and mortar” organizations with a proven record in youth development to create “music clubhouses” for underserved urban youth. The program helps build self-esteem, self-confidence, social skills and an appreciation of music by letting kids learn and play on professional grade equipment. Partners include organizations like the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club, Berklee and Northeastern, and corporate sponsors such as Avid, Zildjian and Harmonix. There are eight clubhouses total, six in Boston, that serve 1600 kids a week.
  • Helping Bands Rock: Ben Maitland-Lewis, a presenter from last year, gave a quick update on his company Indie Ambassador, which helps music entrepreneurs manage their careers.
  • Better Fandom Through Frictionless Commerce: Marcus Whitney of Moontoast discussed his company’s goal of “monetizing social”. His three key points: 1) Authenticity wins in social 2) You can own your fans through commerce 3) Place buying opportunities where the fan wants to be (e.g. Facebook news feed), not where you want them to go — remove the friction from the commerce experience.
  • Bringing Sheet Music Into the 21st Century: ZMX is working to revolutionize the sheet music industry, a part of the music business that has a high barrier to entry for artists, high prices, low quality and poor selection for fans but yet is very profitable for the print companies. If you want to buy sheet music, you typically have to buy a whole book for $12 or more and not a single song. If you do buy online, it may be $5, but that’s not even for a download, just an opportunity to print once. Composer royalties are paltry, as well. ZMX allows for affordable, downloadable, embeddable and trackable sales of digital sheet music.
  • Aspiring to ‘Chaotic Cohesion’: Mike King, director of marketing for berkleemusic.com and author of Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution and Retail, cited the “chaotic cohesion” of Wu-Tang Clan as a model musicians should aspire to. He cited the case study of the British band Tigers That Talked who made the most of DIY web marketing. The four horsement of successful music marketing, says King, are awareness, acquisition, engagement and monetization, and the best way to execute these is in an integrated fashion that works online and offline.
  • Portland Rocks: Patrick May of Skyline Music and Portland Music Foundation, talked about the latter organization as one dedicated to help showcase Portland musicians.
  • ‘Make It Easy’: Nimbit gave an update on their service, which provides direct to fan marketing and sales. What works, according to them? Knowing your fan, selling directly, updating merch frequently, constant innovation, rewarding fans for good behavior in order to drive sales. In summary: Make it easy.
  • Blog in Boston, Beers in Berlin: Matt Dyson, who blogs at Dysonsound, talked about how awesome it was that “one guy with a domain name” can connect with musicians all over the world. “All it takes is my small voice that has now penetrated worldwide,” he said. “If I go to Berlin, I’ve got beers waiting for me.” Though the highlight of his talk, for me, was when he disclosed how much he cares about his bounce rate. Heh.
  • Saturday Night in Your Inbox: Chris Marstall of Tourfilter showed off updates to the interface of his website, which allows fans to easily set up e-mail alerts notifying them when select bands are coming to town. Tourfilter now works for 60 cities. Tourfilter also recommends bands based on shared fans and shared concert bills.
  • Google Docs for Music: Joe Berkovitz talked about Noteflight, which he called “Google Docs of music.” The service allows users to create, share and embed sheet music. The service, which works on a freemium model, has tripled its user base in the past year and is being used for interactive music composition in some K-12 settings. The company’s next goal is to shift from Flash to HTML5 in order to branch into mobile.
  • Going Digital: Steve Theo of Pirate! talked about how, with help from Paul Kamp of Backbone Networks, his promotion firm is shifting to a digital model for the music they provide to radio stations, in order to save money.
  • Five Alive: Alastair McDonald of Bocoup talked about HTML5 audio, the W3C audio working group and more.

No Comments

Georgy, April 21st 2011 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Brands, Business, marketing

Three Anti-Strategies to Avoid

In the past, I’ve heard people question what it means to be “strategic” — and rightly so. It is easy for “strategy” to become just another misused buzzword that we throw around to sound important. For me, being strategic means being purposeful and putting the structure in place to pursue that purpose.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in recent years is the value of structure. Whether it’s an editorial calendar, a project plan or simply establishing a set of goals and metrics for a project of any size, structure is critical to not only getting things done, but getting things done the right way.

As this lesson has baked itself into everything I do (and trust me, it’s a work in progress), I’ve become more attuned to what I call “anti-strategies” — structureless approaches that detract from successful pursuit of your purpose. The tricky thing about anti-strategies is that 1) they sound awesome and 2) they are valuable components of a strategy.  But on their own, they fall short.

Serendipity

Especially on the web and in social media, where so much seems to happen at random and you never know what gem the real-time stream will cough up next, serendipity seems like an appropriate strategy, on its face. The internet is magical, right? But while serendipity is an important slice of a content strategy or a social media editorial calendar, it cannot comprise the whole. Serendipity can yield treasures, sure, but you have no control over what those treasures are or when they will manifest. Why would you stake a strategy on elements you can’t control?

As Louis Pasteur said, “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” We should always leave room for the unforeseen opportunity (or challenge), but we’re only going be able to take advantage of (let alone notice) those opportunities if we’re prepared to do so. How do we prepare? By laying out the welcome mat — listening, learning, building relationships, asking questions — and listening for the doorbell while we attend to the other tasks at hand.

Irreverence

Be authentic. Be open. Be human. These are the dime-store adages of communication on the web. The extreme end of the spectrum is irreverence — the belief that if you let it all hang out, your devil-may-care attitude will win fans and followers. But there is a difference between speaking in a voice that is not stiff and institutional and communicating in a way that is irrelevant or even disrespectful to your audience and/or the entity you represent. The right kind of irreverence means not caring about convention or formality; it doesn’t mean going completely off the reservation in a bid to avoid seeming “official.”

Like it or not, being part of an organization means tying what you do back to a larger set of goals and expectations. Also, think about your audience – what is their tolerance for irreverence? Do your messages meet their needs? Balance your human voice with the need to stay true to both your audience and your organization.

Passion

Most any blog post on social media will tout passion as an essential ingredient for success, with good reason. If you hate what you’re selling, you’ll likely do a crappy job of selling it. Folks like Gary Vaynerchuk are renowned for being powered by passion. It can drive innovation and be the hallmark of good business. But you can’t always “just dive in.” Passion cannot always overcome the limits of time, talent or budget. Passion is not magic. It can provide a spark and keep the fire burning, but it can’t gather the twigs, maintain the campsite or teach you how to manage the flames.

To make the most of passion, you need to give it a framework in which to flourish. If passion comes from the heart, that framework comes from the brain. It means knowing when to ask for help, when to outsource certain tasks, when to educate yourself about something new, when to say no and when to say yes. Passion moves you forward, but you’re in the driver’s seat. Empower your passion with focus, wisdom and a structure for getting things done.

Your Turn

What do you think? Do you know of other anti-strategies? Or do you think these approaches can, on their own, be successful strategies? Share your thoughts in the comments.

3 Comments

Georgy, January 11th 2011 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Business

Marketing Lessons from Rock Shop

In recent months, I’ve had the pleasure of attending several events in the local series called Rock Shop. Organized by music promoter Steve Theo of Pirate! and hosted at The Middle East, Rock Shop aims to inform aspiring bands about various aspects of the music business, whether it’s getting accepted to play at a music festival or how to get booked on a club bill. I’ve written up recaps of several of the marketing-oriented Rock Shop events on my other blog, Safe Digression, for my weekly Take Five music column, but I thought it would be relevant to share them here as well.

For the most part, my life as a music fan and my life as a communications professional are separate, but Rock Shop has provided a great opportunity to bring them together. It has also been heartening to hear the DJs, writers and musicians who have spoken at Rock Shop echo many of the same principles and recommendations I have gleaned from colleagues and bloggers in my field.

Music bloggers (June 30)

Jay Breitling (Clicky Clicky), Brad Searles (Bradley’s Almanac) and Ryan Spaulding (Ryan’s Smashing Life)

Main takeaways: Be human and personal. Be direct but not annoying. Build relationships. Content creators are overtaking labels as tastemakers.

Local music radio show DJs (Aug. 23)

Tim Kelly, WMBR, Hidden Capital; Dave Duncan, WFNX, Boston Accents; Anngelle Wood, WZLX, Boston Emissions; Carmelita, WAAF, Bay State Rock; Mark Hamilton, formerly of WZBC and WBCN and host of past iterations of New England Product and Boston Emissions, now in LA; Angie C, a ten-year veteran of WFNX, now in LA

Main takeaways: Make sure you are submitting a high quality product accompanied by all the info the DJ needs, and make it easy for DJs to find out additional information. Work hard and that commitment will be recognized and acknowledged.

Social media (Oct. 6)

Aaron Perrino of The Sheila Divine/Dear Leader, Keith Freund of RIBS, Michael J. Epstein of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and Jake of Lagoon shared a stage with organizers/sponsors Charles McEnerney (Well-Rounded Radio), Clay N. Ferno (Middle East), Steve Theo (Pirate!) and Marty Watts (JitterJam)

Main takeaways: Mobilize your fans into ambassadors. Publish content that is meaningful. The scene thrives on collaboration, not competition. Find a way to balance the creative and the business sides of your enterprise.

Web and graphic design (Nov. 22)

Aaron Belyea (Alphabet Arm), Gary Hedrick (ElefhantWorks), Liz Linder (Liz Linder Photography), Marc Beaupre (Beagle Printing), Marcus Ohanesian (Perfect Evolution)

Main takeaways: Do it right the first time, which means doing your homework in order to best work with a designer.  Manage time and resources as efficiently as possible. Understand that your band is a brand and you need to treat it as such.

Less Talk, More Rock

In addition to the Rock Shops, here are some other music-oriented events I have covered for Take Five that explore innovations in communication.

Photo by greggoconnell/Flickr Creative Commons

No Comments

Georgy, December 14th 2010 | Posted in Business, Events, marketing

Comcast Falls Through the Customer Service Gap

Two of my biggest pet peeves — as evidenced by my recent commentary on the MBTA and past account of an experience with Greyhound — are 1) the lack of alignment between online customer service and real-life customer service and 2) the failure to understand the power of information. If you win at Twitter but fail at the service window, you simply fail overall. And if you undershare, you underperform.

The latest entity to fall through the customer service gap is Comcast. On Sunday night, Nov. 28, large swaths of the East Coast subscribing to internet service via Comcast experienced outages due to a DNS problem. Crankiness ensued. As an RCN customer, I sat back and observed.

My main window of observation was Twitter. People began tweeting and retweeting about the issue (using their smartphones, of course), and soon, a workaround emerged — switching to Google DNS. If you knew how to do this, you could get your internet access back lickety-split. The information quickly spread and people reported being back online.

The other function of Twitter was as Comcast’s main mouthpiece, through its vaunted @ComcastCares account, as well as @ComcastWill. The updates were, if not very informative or specific, frequent and somewhat reassuring that the company was working to fix the problem.

But what about those who weren’t on Twitter to read @ComcastCares, or to see the workaround retweeted?

The article in yesterday’s Boston Globe recapping the outage exposes Comcast’s problem. The people interviewed who were on Twitter (or were otherwise technically savvy) were able to find a resolution (and background on the cause) of their problem. Those who weren’t (read: most customers) encountered busy signals or, if they were lucky, recorded recommendations to check the Comcast website for information (uhhh…). Talk about a digital divide.

Why does Comcast hate its customers? They did not explain what the problem was, either via Twitter or their phone message. They did not offer alternatives. They added insult to injury by asking customers experiencing internet problems to find more information on the internet. They were modestly responsive and informative to one audience, but not at all helpful to a (much larger) one.

Comcast could have done a lot of things better to handle this crisis, such as:

  • Directing its customers (via phone, Twitter, web, etc.) to the Google DNS 8.8.8.8 solution, or some other workaround. When your customers are in need, meet their needs — even if it is by directing them to a competitor or a third-party, they will still be grateful to you for solving their immediate problems (plus, they’re still paying you a bill each month).
  • Communicating as much as they knew via phone, Twitter, web, etc. — what the problem is, the scope of the affected area, what is being done, any info on ETA for a fix. Even if the customer doesn’t know what DNS means, specific information has more value and earns more respect than vague information. I guess I’ll never understand why companies feel that withholding helpful information is a viable communications strategy.
  • Aligning their message to customers across all platforms, and cross-promoting all the platforms where information was available. Comcast has a diverse customer base that seeks and consumes information in myriad ways. As a company, Comcast needs to be attentive to that and account for it.

Comcast is often vilified as a horrible, unfeeling, ineffectual company, but they do get good press around their responsive @ComcastCares presence on Twitter — and by the looks of it, they are pretty darned responsive to inquiries about service, billing and the like. But I’d be curious to know what percentage of their customer base is on Twitter, or following @ComcastCares. What about the rest? Where can they turn when the internet goes down, or the TV blinks out? And even if Comcast gave equal attention and resources to all of its customer interfaces, would they be communicating as fully and consistently as they should be?( That said, I am not a Comcast customer, and I would love to read comments from people who have evidence of Comcast being responsive and forthcoming across other interfaces.)

It’s amazing how far a little information and some openness can go — and it’s amazing how difficult this is for some companies to grasp.

2 Comments

Georgy, December 1st 2010 | Tags: ,
Posted in Business, marketing, Social Media

Next Stop for the MBTA: Alignment of Online and Offline Service

Last week, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation celebrated its one-year anniversary. Yes, what is a longstanding department in many states is a new creation here in Massachusetts, which previously housed various fractured and distinct transit agencies, with little strategic planning aligning them all. On their blog, MassDOT outlined some of the accomplishments of the past year, including “used our website and social media to better serve our customers in unprecedented ways.”

And this is true. With the open data initiative spurring the release of real-time schedule data for buses and now some subway lines — coupled with their outreach to the developer community to create apps around the data — the MBTA is now a leader in real-time transit scheduling. MassDOT was even featured in a short film about open data in transit.

In addition, recently appointed MBTA GM Richard Davey is tweeting — and responding — creating a listening and conversation platform to field rider feedback. MassDOT Secretary Mullan is also a consistent presence on Twitter, and the MassDOT blog has provided a steady stream of informative and engaging content about the department’s priorities and projects. MassDOT also has outposts and content on Flickr and YouTube. And all of this is accompanied by a set of well thought out social media usage guidelines.

I applaud the MassDOT and the MBTA for these accomplishments (after all, I am a huge fan of public transit). In a short span of time, they have laid their ear to the track, so to speak, to become more accessible to customers, responsive to their needs and anticipatory of where they need to go.

But the current level of listening and engagement is only the first step. The next phase is the close alignment of the experiences that customers have both on the web and in real-life.

Is This Real Life?

This has always been a bugaboo of mine (read about a negative experience I had with Greyhound in 2009). Companies do amazing things on Twitter or Facebook, but at the customer service window when you’re standing there tapping your foot, a representative is nowhere to be found. To truly succeed, you need alignment in both spheres. If an organization thinks they can win on Twitter, fail in real life and somehow get by — or vice versa — they are sorely mistaken. I’d almost rather a company have crappy customer service across the board than have a disparity between its online and offline efforts — at least then I’d know they assign the same level of importance to service across the board.

The most important area where the online and offline transit experiences need to align is basic customer service, and I’ll speak in the context of the MBTA since that is the agency I am most familiar with.

For all of the great real-time bus data and tweeting they do, the MBTA still often falls down when it comes to sharing information about a service disruption or outage. Passengers wait an eternity at platforms as trains roll by without stopping, or don’t come at all. Passengers sit on Red Line trains stopped for what feels like hours, with little to no information provided by the operators. When bus replacement service is in place for a train line, there are often insufficient personnel or signage to guide passengers to their appropriate bus. With the new automated fare systems, fare takers were supposed to be replaced by customer service reps, but often I see train stations — even busy hubs like Sullivan Station — that appear unattended for significant blocks of time. And what do you know? Most of the #mbta complaints on Twitter are from these stranded, misdirected, delayed and confused passengers.

But the MBTA doesn’t know that because they’re not listening to the #mbta hashtag on Twitter. On Nov. 3, @mbtagm (Richard Davey) tweeted at @kgilnack:

I follow this religiously, mbta# not so much. This is the official twitter spot for the T. RAD

What? This shows that MBTA still does not understand the medium. It is great that Davey reads, responds and acts upon tweets he gets via the @mbtagm account. But someone in the agency needs to be reading and potentially responding and/or acting upon tweets referencing the MBTA. It can’t all be up to Marc Ebuna, as good of a watchdog as he is. Davey and the MBTA can control their official agency channel (which has nearly 1,500 followers — good, but not critical mass), but they do not get to pick what is the “official twitter spot for the T.” The users pick that, and they’ve picked #mbta. You have to go to where your customers are to connect them with the information they need. That’s the last mile the MBTA needs to bridge. Information allows your customers to make decisions, which gives them a sense of control over a situation. A lack of information renders them powerless — and thus cranky.

qrcode

The other area that is ripe for alignment is in the more effective contextualization of this valuable digital information in the real-life environment — augmented reality. The person standing at the bus stop in Belmont waiting for a late bus may not know that she can download an app, visit a website or even send a text in order to get real-time bus info. (Of course, in order to send a text, you need an obscure bit of information — your stop number — which is not on your bus stop sign). Likewise, bus stops have no signage directing people to a mobile site or app — just mbta.com, which automatically redirects to a mobile site that (oddly) does not link to the real-time schedules.

Some transit agencies — such as those in Raleigh and Washington D.C. — are using quick response (QR) bar codes to connect riders in the real world with real-time scheduling information. This is a commendable effort, one the MBTA would do well to imitate. Real-time information is great, but it’s only as great as the number of people who are connected to it and deriving value from it.

Back in mid-August, during an MBTA outage or delay of some variety, I tweeted that “In customer service, lack of information is a crisis.” It astounds me how consistently organizations undervalue the power of information. Even if people are in an undesirable situation, their tolerance is directly proportional to the amount of information they have and the trust they have that they are being with all the information that is reasonably available. Anytime you leave room for imagination to take hold and suspect the worst, trust evaporates and resentment grows. Real-time schedule information goes a long way toward addressing this; now the rest of the agency needs to elevate its efforts accordingly.

No Comments

Georgy, November 10th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Brands, Business, marketing, Social Media

HighEdWeb 2010 Recap Part 1: The Big Picture

Last week, I spent a fun and fulfilling three days in Cincinnati, Ohio, learning from some of the smartest people in my field. This was my third HighEdWeb, the previous two coming in 2008 and 2006, and it was the best yet. While the content was outstanding, it may have also been the best because I was ready for it to be the best.

During the conference, I marked my six-year jobaversary of working in higher ed. I’m long past hopping from task to task, from tool to tool. I’m in it to make an impact, to make progress — some days, to simply make sense of it all. Luckily, alongside the great sessions that made me think about ways to improve the work I do on a daily basis, there were a couple of great opportunities to reflect on the context of that work.

The Spice Must Flow

The first opportunity came with Dylan Wilbanks‘ best-of-conference session, “10 Years In The Hole: A Possibly Cautionary Tale About Being A Higher Ed Web Geek.” Wilbanks acknowledges that higher ed can be a tough place to work — between politics, bureaucracies, legacy structures/processes and simply being overworked and under-resourced, it is sometimes a wonder anything gets done at all. He talked about ways to find sanity amid the madness, like secret projects that allow you to GTD while maybe learning something new, and finding champions and allies who can knock sense into senseless processes.

But the main takeaway that most people kept coming back to after the presentation was Wilbanks’ exhortation to “love the web, love higher ed, and love people.” It’s our choice, he reminded us, to be bitter or not. The opportunity to build the future is in our hands — will we take it?

At an earlier point in the presentation, Wilbanks evoked Don Quixote’s windmills and said that windmills are good as long as we are “crazy and relentless about making the web better, and the world better, because it all interconnects.” What I think is special about higher ed web professionals is that we are crazy and relentless about making the web better (especially the crazy part :-) ), and I think it is largely because we appreciate that the decisions we make affect a very real community of educators, students and employees in our midst. Particularly in the case of students, these are some of the most formative years of their lives. College, I’ve said before, is an incubator of futures. We may not be the biggest part of the machinery, but we’re there. And maybe, just maybe, we can make it move along more smoothly — clean code and effective content won’t win Fulbrights, but it will help our students find out how they they can. Our bottom line is not measured in dollars and cents. It’s measured in experiences and memories.

Wicked Game

Karlyn Morissette, who recently jumped from the higher ed to the vendor side of things, discussed the transition in her presentation, “Confessions From a Wicked Vendor (or What I Learned in My First Year on the Other Side of Higher Ed).” But rather than focusing on the differences between a university web department and a vendor shop, she honestly appraised the lessons she has learned about managing projects and processes, managing people and managing her own expectations, both in the higher ed context and working for a vendor.

While Wilbanks provided the ideals and motivation to drive the work we do, Morissette provided some practical advice on how to get that work done effectively. The simple statement that “every decision is a series of questions” provides a great framework for thinking through the choices we make every day. (She cited Dr. Marilee Adams’ book “Change Your Questions, Change Your Life” – affiliate link.) The questions we ask will shape the outcome of the decisions we make. From what perspective are we asking these questions? A negative one or a positive one? Are we setting ourselves up for defeat — or for a fight — without even realizing it? It may sound trite — “turn a frown upside down!” — but Morissette made the point that you get as much out of something as you put into it. The same goes for considering the personality type(s) you are dealing with and tailoring your communications and behavior accordingly.

While work can pile up and seem out of control, Morissette explained that there are things we can do to put order around chaos, whether it’s something as simple as creating a standard form to process project requests, making sure meetings are framed by a set of goals or ensuring that projects are prioritized accordingly. The overall message from her talk was that we have more control than we think we do, and if we’re smart about exercising it, progress can be made.

—

Thanks to Dylan and Karlyn for their insightful presentations. Stay tuned for a second HighEdWeb wrap-up blog post on Thursday where I share some of the most practical and actionable nuggets I got out of the conference. See you in Austin in 2011!

5 Comments

Georgy, October 19th 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business