What Prospective Students Think About Your College Facebook Page
Last month I had the opportunity to hear from a variety of higher ed heavy hitters at the CASE Social Media and Community conference in Chicago. Although the presentation topics were varied, my biggest takeaway was that institutions love their Facebook Page like their first born child. The School-wide Facebook page was often described as “our [...]
Facebook Introduces New Preferred Marketing Developer Program
Facebook has announced they’ve merged two of their programs, the Preferred Developer Consultant (PDC) program and the Marketing API (MAP) program. The two have now become one – the Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) program. Since joining the PDC program in 2010, Inigral has had access to Facebook’s leadership and engineering teams with some knowledge of [...]
How Are You Welcoming the Class of 2016?
There’s nothing new about colleges and college students creating Class of 20XX Pages and Groups before school start. These groups offer an engaging medium for students to meet one another and discuss life before they arrive on campus. While this is a best practice for institutions looking to build community and improve yield, rarely do [...]
Facebook Announces Groups for Schools – Good, Bad, or ‘Meh’ for Higher Ed?
Facebook has released their newest feature – “Groups for Schools” – this week in an effort to increase their reach into university communities. While a handful of universities have already launched this year, the expansion of these “group networks” has rightfully caused a stir within the Higher Ed community. We’ve been in touch with Facebook’s product [...]
7 Ideas to Improve your New Facebook Timeline Page
When March 30th arrives, Facebook Pages will change forever. Well, knowing Facebook’s track record, things will probably change again. But, at the end of the month, Pages will have the new Timeline design. While some schools have taken the leap of faith, a few schools are still hanging on to their current pages. While you do have [...]
Facebook is a Serial “Feature Killer.”
We need to stay committed to the EdTech ecosystem, and shouldn’t let ourselves get lost in the hype of the next great iteration of Pinterest or whatever other consumer technology is raising eyebrows.
How Will Facebook’s New Page Changes Affect Higher Ed?
According to Ad Age, Facebook will bring Timeline to Brand Pages by the end of this month. These changes will mimic the profile change announced at the F8 conference and although Facebook won’t comment on specific details, a spokesperson confirmed they plan on making Pages more consistent with Timeline by the end of February.
5 Downsides to Facebook Pages and Groups
Since joining Inigral last summer, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with dozens of schools on how they prefer to engage with students on Facebook. Although there are many success stories, some folks in higher ed have expressed major complaints with Facebook’s current functionality. The general attitude towards them is still mostly positive, but some recent statistics [...]
Tufts University Social Admissions Tips
Last week I had the opportunity to conduct a design interview with Daniel Grayson from Tufts university. Tufts has received national coverage in the past for their innovative use of social media in their admissions process. USA Today named Tufts as one of 20 colleges making best use of social media and in 2010 the New York Times covered how [...]
Using Social Networking to Increase Student Retention
Selected Research on Social Networking from Emily Dalton Smith (Director of Student Engagement at ASU Online), and Michael Staton (CEO and Co-Founder of Inigral, Inc.). This was derived from a poster presentation that ASU and Inigral presented at Educause 2009.
10 Things to Ask Before Creating Another Facebook Page for Your University
Do you ever search for your school name on Facebook and get surprised at the number of search results that come back? I’m always amazed at the number of pages different universities have. From a Facebook Page for the Class of 2016 parents to a page for “parking and transportation offices” (who would like that?), [...]
Is Facebook Spam Ruining your School’s Page or Group?
Recently (as you may or may not have seen) the Facebook news feeds have become filled with pornographic images, dead animals, and other disturbing images. Although phishing spam (links that entice you with catchy headlines and photos) are nothing new, the rate at which they are increasing has been making headlines this week.
The Missing Link – Social Networks and Enrollment Modeling
Last week I attended the 21st annual ACCRAO SEM conference in San Diego, where I had the chance to mingle with the university administrators and higher education thought leaders who are part of the emerging field of enrollment management. My main goal was to learn more about predictive enrollment modeling, but I also had a colorful [...]
3 Social Media Lessons from San Jacinto College
“We live in a real-time world and social media takes real effort from real people.” Earlier this week I had the privilege of speaking with two real people on the San Jacinto marketing team, who recently launched our product, the Schools App, last month at their college. Alyssa Webb is the Social Media Coordinator and Amanda [...]
Facebook Developer Conference Three Key Takeaways
For the first time ever (last month) Facebook had 500 million users in one day. 1. Facebook is launching a redesigned profile called Timeline. The marketing is around “All your stories. All your apps. Express who you are.” The original profile focused on basic stats, but it was really only the first five minutes of [...]
Intentional Purgatory – the new place for Marketing and Communications
Marketers, you are now in “Intentional Purgatory.” I call it this because you’re now in a box just made for you – a box that people “intend” to get around to looking at, but most likely never will in any way that will command their attention for your message.
Facebook is Changing the Internet with Instant Personalization
Facebook is changing the way we interact with the internet by allowing websites to know who you are before you ever fill out any information on that site. It’s called Instant Personalization, and while it’s not taking the web by storm thanks to Facebook learning from previous poorly-planned product launches, it is surely a representation of the future of the web.
Facebook Announces “Places”
Facebook Places a “skunkworks” project last year. But last December, the team came together around a specific vision to allow Facebook users to share where they are with their friends. Places was built on three premises: Sharing where you are Seeing who’s around you Seeing what’s happening where you are
Anatomy of a Facebook Page
Over a third of the colleges in the United States have a Facebook Page to assist in their campus’ marketing efforts. For those who are just getting introduced to the concept of a Facebook Page, and the marketing goals it can help you achieve, here’s a look into the anatomy of a Facebook Page.
Higher Ed Increases Adoption of Social Media
Adopting social media and communicating with today’s youth has been a long-time challenge for everyone. But where does Higher Ed stand?
Calculating The Value of Facebook Fans in Higher Ed: Statistics
This article is part three of a larger series on Calculating the value of your Facebook fans as a college or university. To read the other articles in this series, scroll to the bottom of this article to navigate to them. Syncapse performed a survey on 20 top corporate brands on Facebook, collecting data from [...]
How Facebook Platform Works and Why We Like It
At Inigral, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to build an application that integrates with Facebook, perhaps the most advanced and interesting platform ever created.
Calculating The Value of Your Facebook Fans in Higher Ed: Deriving Fan Value
This article is part two of a larger series on Calculating the value of your Facebook fans as a college or university. Deriving Fan Value One of the most compelling statements Syncapse made regarding understanding fan value is, Identifying differences in behavior and motivation between fans and non-fans is significant in understanding the true value [...]
Calculating the Value of Your Facebook Fans in Higher Ed: An Introduction
This article is part one of a larger series on Calculating the value of your Facebook fans as a college or university. Introduction What are the people who “Like” your institution’s Facebook Page worth?
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