doteduguru

The CASE V conference is in Chicago next week and I’ll be there, for part of the conference.  If you are attending I would love to meet you.  As I said I’ll only be in town for part of the conference but it promises to be an eventful first.  If you haven’t already planned out your schedule I have two events I would encourage you to attend, ok I admit I have personal reasons for wanting you to attend.  Both of these events are part of the Web Track of the conference.

Challenges for 2009: Dealing with New Issues or Struggling with Old Ones?

3:45-5:00 PM Monday Dec 15th

What are your major challenges as you prepare to enter 2009? The wide availability and use of technology has created more complicated issues for institutions to face each year. How do you maintain control of your message as FaceBook and YouTube attract growing audiences? How do you manage your institution’s public presence in the face of criticism from an alumni-run blog? Or maybe the major issues are still setting priorities and funding, just as they were in 1990. mStoner wanted to know what issues most concerned our colleagues, clients, and friends, so we and our partners Slover-Linett Strategies asked top communication, marketing, and new media professionals from colleges and universities around the country to share their top three challenges for 2009. Hear what they said-and talk with some of these thought leaders, who will join us to share our findings and discuss how to meet the challenges in the year ahead.

panel:

• Carlee Drummer, Executive Director for Communications and MarketingOakton Community College
• Founder, (soon to be former) Webmaster at Wofford College and founder/blogger at .eduGuru
• Debra Lukehart, Assistant Vice President, Communication and MarketingAugustana College
• Nancy Prater, Project Manager/Usability Analyst (formerly University Web Coordinator)Ball State University
• Cheryl Slover-Linett, PresidentSlover Linett Strategies
• Director of Web MarketingStoner, PresidentmStoner

We will be sharing some very recently gathered and currently unreleased data about the current challenges that Higher Education Marketers face.  All I will say is that the results are fairly consistent across institutions of all types and sizes.

Please help us out by Taking the Survey (Round 2).

If interested you can learn more information about this survey and it’s precursor on Michael’s blog postBudgetary Constraints Top the List of Marketing Challenges Facing Higher Education.

Please join us as we explore these challenges and discuss ways to tackle them even sharing battle stories.

Hello is Anyone Out There? Using Web Analytics to Understand Your Audience?

11AM-12:15PM Tuesday Dec 16th

Do you use Web analytics to track and monitor your institution’s Web presence?  This session will look at the need to monitor analytics on a regular basis. Solid analytics when interpreted correctly provide true information about site visitors and how they use a site. Analytics can be used for trend analysis, benchmark comparison, direction for future development, and justification for spending on certain areas. Analytical data, when presented correctly, is something that administrators and decision makers can grasp and act on instead of hunches and speculation. When you can show that X number of people viewed a page or submitted a form it is much easier to get funding for a project instead of a hunch feeling. Understanding what data is valuable and how to present it in a non-technical manner can be a challenge, but worth the effort.

This is the latest updated and revised edition of the track that was very well received at both HighEdWeb and Stamats Conferences.  Also based on user feedback and constant tweaking this final round of the presentation hopes to provide the most examples and technical tips yet. Remember…  If you aren’t utilizing your Analytics in your marketing strategy you are most assuredly wasting your time!

If your going to CASE V, I hope to see you next week!