Our campus contacts are starting to go radio silent. The streets are eerily quiet. For everyone, but particularly our friends in academia, the last several weeks in December are an excellent time to reflect and look forward to 2013. With this in mind, we’ve pulled a few recent articles that take that mentality to heart.

Why ISN’T Higher Ed Inspired by Social Media?

Good question – one we sigh over at Verge Pipe Media, although we understand many of the limiting factors at play. Southwestern College President Jim Nolan calls many of these roadblocks out – points of resistance that the business world does not have to worry about. He writes, “business people make or lose fortunes, reputations and future opportunities by the quality of their marketing decisions and business strategies. People in the academy, the public sector, and the not-for-profit sector, do not. They make their salary if the school or company does well, and they also make their salary if the school or company does not do so well”. Check out the full op-ed, published on the Huffington Post.

High-Tech Headaches

Computerworld correspondent Robert Mitchell summarizes some of his key takeaways from the American Marketing Association’s November Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. Mitchell highlights some fantastic insight from Google, including the following stats:

• “90%+ of all media interactions come across screens”. And multiple screens, at that. [Italics are mine].
  
• “According to a Google-commissioned survey of prospective students, most say they want to know about the features of the school, it’s culture and environment, and see testimonials”. So why do most websites bury this information under formalities and industry-standard design that draws equal attention to curriculum handbooks, various services and departmental news + updates?

As an IT professional, Mitchell also notes the information silos that are becoming an increasing problem because schools are not investing in IT, business analytics and intelligent mobile networks. For a quick read, this one is packed with good information for 2013.

Funny Things Non-Academics Say

Well, this doesn’t all have to be serious… we know many of our friends in academia are ready for a little fun. Check out this forum for a few chuckles. I’m sure some of you may have your own contributions to make, especially after talking with us for any period of time!
###
Author: Meredith Singer is Head of Ops & Co-Creative at Verge Pipe Media. Verge Pipe Media assists public institutions, enterprises and the non-profit sector with Imaginative Inbound Marketing strategies + campaigns. We also have a development team chock full of Marvelous Mobile Migrators, poised to help transition our clients into a mobile + social world with custom software, iOS and Android mobile apps.