This article discusses how good faculty blogs can help institutions facilitate communication with some of the audiences they most want to reach. The blogs can be a resource for prospective students and parents and an easy way for alumni and friends to keep up with or reconnect with an institution. They're popular among those who write for them,…

Broaching the subject of student-athletes on social media is liable to cause many institutional leaders, communications officers, and athletics directors to reach for the antacid. The speed and reach of social media, particularly Twitter, combined with the youth and bravado of student-athletes can damage reputations and tarnish university brands…

By the time Superstorm Sandy struck New Jersey in late October 2012, Kathy Corbalis, executive director of communications and college relations at Atlantic Cape Community College, and her team were battle-tested. In the 15 months before the hurricane, the college experienced two bomb threats via Twitter, a lockdown due to gunfire, an on-campus…

Engaging with stakeholders on social media channels can burnish a brand's reputation, according to an early 2012 survey conducted by BRANDfog, a social media branding firm that caters to CEOs. The study found that 82 percent of respondents "were more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team engage in social media." In addition, 94…

When a website has become a virtual storage closet rather than a place where useful, usable content is created, published, and organized, there is a problem. If audiences cannot quickly and easily find what they are looking for when they visit a website--and are not interested in what they find when they get there--they will get frustrated and…

The importance of communication during a school crisis has not changed in the 21st century. What has changed--and quite dramatically since 1999--is the way people communicate. Social media tools are now used in some form by 100 percent of all four-year universities in the United States as a way to reach students, according to a 2011 University of…

The online survey is a popular tool for taking the pulse of an alumni body. However, response rates for these surveys have been declining over the years, making them potentially less useful. Are there easy ways to increase these rates? The author has conducted a number of experiments to try to find that out. He discusses surveys that explored…

As one of the top U.S. choices for international students, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a solid reputation in China and a history of educating Chinese students that goes back more than a century. But the university did not realize until last June that its nickname in China is the "Cornfield Ivy" and that Chinese…

As a new year begins, higher education professionals who manage social media are getting to know the latest social network, Google+, and how they can best use Google+ Pages to advance their institutions. When Google+ first came on the scene in late June 2011, several institutions signed up and began using the service. Given the popularity of other…

In fundraising today, a wealth of communications tools makes it increasingly easier to contact prospective donors--but is it getting harder to really connect with them? Do the new tools work as well as the old ones? In the second decade of online marketing, all the tools of the trade are subject to scrutiny. Direct mail has been a mainstay of the…

Alumni relations professionals need a method of measuring alumni engagement, including giving, that goes beyond counting event attendees and the number of Twitter followers. Social media are changing the way things have been done within the alumni relations profession, but that does not mean that people throw out everything they have done in the…

Transient populations, cultural diversity, language barriers, competing loyalties, and geographic separation are just some of the challenges international schools face in communicating and connecting with their alumni. And these issues are not going to get any easier as the sector grows. Communicating effectively with large, diverse groups of…

Bit by byte, a new day is dawning in educational advancement. Fading fast is the era dominated by viewbooks, alumni magazines, and campaign brochures. Technology is reshaping the way colleges and universities teach students, communicate with constituents, relate to alumni, and appeal to donors. The way constituents communicate with each other is…

A few short years ago, as Facebook made the leap from dorm room to, well, every room, some alumni leaders wondered if Facebook's growing popularity would mean the end of reunion. Time has passed, and most alumni professionals have come to know and love Facebook--truly or out of necessity. On the whole, Facebook has proven itself friend not foe,…

On September 24, 2010, a group of about 20 women from across Europe have gathered at the University Women's Club. All eyes are on a large screen projecting streaming video from the Mount Holyoke College website. Photos of the Massachusetts campus flash by as the sound of an a capella group singing "Bread and Roses" fills the room. Soon,…