Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with our other web guy.  We recently underwent a fairly large redesign of our web site, which included the addition of new features and tools (read: more work for everyone).  One of these is the addition of a home page centerpiece linked to stories about the people of the college: students, faculty, and alumni.  The thing is, it’s not our job to write the stories, and it’s not necessarily PR’s problem that it was determined we need lots of these.  And so the two groups talked yesterday about the scenario.

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One week from today, the 2008 Presidential election will finally come to a close.  No matter who you vote for, it’s been a campaign of milestones.  As an e-marketer, the most fascinating to me has been watching all of the emails coming out from either side.  Comparing the two makes it clear why Obama has raised an unprecedented amount of money utilizing an aggressive strategy, while the McCain campaign has floundered by not really “getting” the medium.  

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So did you know that there are different ways that analytical data about your website is collected?  Of course you did you just might not have really thought about it before.  I mean who stays up thinking about this sort of stuff besides Shelby Thayer, myself and a few other people that I will leave unnamed to protect their identity?  So instead of staying up all night to see if you can come up with four different types I’ll just write them out here.  You can think me for the extra sleep later.

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Did you miss me?  It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted a Links of the Week…  I’ve been busy.  Honestly I’m finding it harder and harder to identify unique and outstanding mind stimulating reading material.  Maybe that’s because I’ve been reading so much especially over the last ten months?  Maybe it’s because I’m not reading as much?  Or maybe it’s because I’m being pickier about what is worth sharing with you guys? Read the rest of this entry »

So a few weeks ago I promised a .eduGuru shirt was coming soon and even tossed out a few lines for potential shirt quotes to let people vote on them.  I’ve had a lot of fun building .eduGuru.  I’m always trying to think of new ways to build this blog that is starting to becoming a little more than just a blog.  Can I be so bold as to call .eduGuru a mindset? Higher Education Web Developers and Marketers are a community who experience unique and challenging experiences on the web.  Marketing to our audience is different from a normal business and our product is much different.  Selling someone on the education your institution provides is a tricky matter.  Designing sites for our variety of audiences isn’t straight forward. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I was going through eduStyle.net looking for site ideas and one thing that instantly stood out and annoyed me was sites that are left aligned.  I realize this is a personal opinion and I totally respect other individuals who believe in a left aligned site, but I am still going to present my case.  So I hope that you are ready for a little rant? Read the rest of this entry »

The web definitely isn’t as simple as it used to be.  Back in the ‘90s you could get away with one person who kept up with a website and everything that went into it.  This one Webmaster could handle everything.  I have the job title of Webmaster at Wofford and I have a hard time grasp exactly what that means and what I’m supposed to do and what I’m not.  Michael Fienen wrote a recent post, How Safe Is Your Job?, that got me thinking about what exactly does my job title mean.

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Why do email marketing? Mark Brownlow’s post on of that title on Email Marketing Reports presents an excellent argument about why email marketing is still relevant, despite all the claims of its death.  Here are the highlights:  Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a guest post by Paul Prewitt the Electronic Communications Coordinator at the University of Arkansas Alumni Association.  Paul was kind enough to share the inside scoop on their Social Marketing efforts. You can contact Paul online at (www.draftmotif.org) or connect through twitter.

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What an absolutely incredible, all consuming, information packed, community ran, communication filled conference.  The crew in charge of HighEdWeb put together an absolutely incredible conference with a wonderful group of people and you can tell in the atmosphere that it’s kind of like a gigantic family.  Winning “Best in Track” honors for my Hello is anyone out there? presentation was an incredible humbling experience.  I’m so glad that this topic is so important to everyone and they are ready to use it to help drive their marketing efforts online.

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