Céad míle fáilte: While the Irish greeting for “100,000 Welcomes” hasn’t translated exactly to  that number of new client relationships in 2010, we have had quite the busy first two quarters at Lipman Hearne establishing new partnerships. We are proud of, and excited by, the collaborations that are underway and would like to take a moment to properly welcome the following nonprofit organizations:

Advocate Health Care
Alverno College
American Medical Association
California State University, Northridge
Council for a Strong America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
George Washington University
National Defense University
Northwest Area Foundation
Rhodes College
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Schoolnet
Seton Hall University
Society of Actuaries
University at Buffalo
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

New legislation being considered by the U.S. Department of Education is squarely aimed at for-profit colleges, with the intent of linking a student’s debt with their post-graduate earnings.  Their concern is that students—lured by advertising—are investing in credentials or degrees that don’t actually deliver the earning power that the student expects, generating flotillas of “underwater” degrees that are as much a burden on American households as those unsupportable mortgages. (A recent New York Times article made waves around this issue—sourcing their critique primarily from a handful of disaffected students and former administrators of for-profit institutions.)

While one might argue about the philosophical underpinnings of this argument (is college really all about making more money?), my question is bigger: why stop with the nonprofit institutions? Make all higher ed institutions earmark their cost with the earning potential of their graduates.  I mean, the Ph.D. philosopher cab driver is a cliché because it actually happens, and next time you have a heavily-tattooed barista steam you a mocha skim latte, you could amuse yourself by asking if their MFA is in fine, performing, or written arts.

My point is simple: while there are, indeed, some suspicious players in the for-profit education sphere, the underlying tax status of an education provider does not predict whether or not a student derives value from the investment he or she makes.  Plenty of folks have walked out of nonprofit colleges and universities with a costly degree that doesn’t actually gain them much in the marketplace, and plenty of folks have walked out of for-profit providers and gotten decent jobs afterwards.  The issues that Congress should concern themselves with have to do with quality of programs, retention/graduation, accreditation, and the like.  We all know there are a lot of nonprofit institutions out there that generate income in excess of cost—it simply becomes a reserve fund or quasi endowment, rather than being paid out to shareholders.

And the bigger point may be that nonprofit education providers should perhaps spend their time developing more competitive offerings rather than worrying about the perceived advantages of the for-profit providers.  All of our research shows that students have a very strong brand preference for the nonprofits as opposed to the for-profits—so make the most of it.

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

•    University of North Texas
•    Arcadia University
•    East Carolina University
•    Texas A&M (three pages worth! And they’ve been doing it for months.)

On top of that, this issue includes smaller ads by San Francisco State University, Western New England College, University of Houston, University of Scranton, University of South Florida, Vanderbilt (Peabody College), Metropolitan State College of Denver, and others.

What gives?

I know that the Chronicle is the paper of record in academe—no dispute there.  But the great majority of eyeballs that these institutions are buying with these image ads have nothing to do with the products or services that the ads purport to be selling.  What difference does it make that the academics who make up the bulk of Chronicle readership know the touching life story of a Bolivian student at UNT?  Why would these readers care about the new accelerated three-year baccalaureate program at Arcadia?  What new service would these readers be expected to buy from Texas A&M based on three pages of ads extolling their research contributions?

Even more puzzling is that some of the ads seem to be geared to the student recruitment market, and if I know anything about the teen reader, I know that they are not reading the Chronicle, unless it’s available by text and IM.

The only rationale I can gin up for these ads is that they are an attempt to influence the voters in the U.S. News and other rankings—but at nearly $16,000 a pop for a full-page, four-color ad, I’m not sure it’s money well spent.  Quick calculations suggest that Texas A&M has spent somewhere between $250,000-$300,000 this year alone on these ads, and we’re not even to the end of the first quarter.  Now, as a marketing guy, I am of course in favor of advertising: it’s one of the only ways you can get your message out in a way that you completely control.  But good advertising is about targeting—configuring your buy in such a fashion as to make sure that you’re able to reach your target audience with a message that will cause them to do what you want them to do.  But some of these ads just seem to me to miss the mark—or at least to aim at a mark that I don’t understand.

If I’m missing something, fill me in.

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

The technique was created by a group of students at Hochshule Furtwangen University in Germany, who wanted to “show the whole world that studying does not have to be boring.” They shot a video in which students lip sync to a song, while the camera follows them through campus, resulting in a highly-choreographed musical university tour. This spurred the creation of the “University LipDub Project,” which challenges students of other colleges to produce their own videos and show what their campus has to offer (and to see if their creation is worthy of “going viral”).

What started as a European phenomenon gradually moved over to Canada, where the Université du Québec à Montréal’s “LipDub” video made quite an impression – it became so popular that it was featured on CNN and, to date, has received over 4 million hits on YouTube. Now, U.S. universities have begun to catch on, with Texas State University and Suffolk University being some of the first to embrace the trend.

A prime example that this phenomenon has the chance to transition from a grassroots amusement to a legitimate communications department marketing tool is Johns Hopkins University’s end-of-the-year “LipDub” video. Created to thank their donors for their continued support, it shows how the whole university community can collaborate and lend their voice to promote their community and showcase the spirit behind the brand.

The key to not killing this concept before it leaves the ground is to remain inclusive when it comes to who is primarily representing the university. It is ok for the university staff to have a stake in the video, but don’t lose the student-run feel. As with the popular strategy of featuring student blogs on admissions websites, like MIT does, it is the sense that it is providing an unfiltered, first-hand account of campus life that is the spark behind these videos.

Have other examples of social media trends storming your campus? Share them in the comments section.

-Erin Kelly, Marketing Intern

This :30 spot is being shown in over 300 luxury suites and on 2,800 HD TVs throughout the stadium.  We also drew upon the creative from these spots to develop a 2000 linear foot LED ribbon that circles the stadium interior – on the longest LED board in the world. Initial reports from Texas are that the ads are generating a lot of excitement and that the quality of these spots from a nonprofit entity are causing the Cowboys to run them more frequently than anticipated.

The project is a close collaboration between Muhlenberg’s internal web team and Lipman Hearne.

There’s often a long silence — the kind that makes presenters wince — and then someone raises a hand and asks, “How?” Not how to do it, not how to figure out what to say, but how can we possibly do that, too? In other words, how can we staff this?

That’s pretty much what happened during the Innovation session at the  Greater DC Care’s 2009 Business and Nonprofit Philanthropy Summit and Awards conference. The question came from a small nonprofit, and everyone in the room started nodding.

There isn’t a single, easy, comfortable answer. So, I offered three uncomfortable ones.

Once you’ve decided that channels such as blogs, Twitter, or Facebook really could be important components of your marketing, you may have to court that special staff member who has an incredible and personable voice and is willing to take on the extra responsibility. That staff member could be anyone, including the executive director. That’s the case for a small Chicago nonprofit called Sit, Stay, Read, which uses dogs to help kids learn to read. The executive director is very much the voice of the organization on Facebook and other tools. Mary Ellen Schneider’s style is so distinctive; you can literally hear her voice when you read her entries.

Or you may want to ask a volunteer with a similarly distinctive voice and a passion for the organization. This is controversial. Some fear that activating volunteers means a dangerous loss of control. Others, such as New Tactics in Human Rights, have forged ahead with multiple volunteer bloggers.

In higher ed and larger organizations, the answer may be an uncomfortable four-letter word: hire. Of course that’s tough to do in these economic times. As a result, the answer may be reallocating staff duties, so that real time is available to the person tasked with tracking and participating in online conversations, writing and recruiting others to write for blogs and other channels, and lending social media strategies to the communications mix.

But one thing is clear: a long, deadening silence probably isn’t the solution.

- Lee Reilly, Vice President, Interactive

Remarkable work is taking place at the Rosenstiel School – one of the signature research and education programs of the University of Miami. They are looking at climate change, coastal ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture, hurricane prediction and tracking, and other “hot button” issues. And as we talked with the new Dean – Roni Avissar – and his colleagues about the role of social media in creating awareness of and understanding about the remarkable contributions that the School is making in these critical research areas, I had a flash of insight.

It struck me that the ocean contains a perfect metaphor for the complex environment of user-generated content and social media. It’s been described in the past as a rainbow or a flower or a garden – all useful descriptions but somehow incomplete. What the blogosphere and social networking sites resemble more than anything else is a coral reef – a remarkable and glorious construction made up of billions of individual units (polyps, in the case of the reef, and posts and comments in the case of the social network) that collect and fuse together into structures of remarkable size, complexity, diversity, and outright beauty. What is Wikipedia if not a vibrant, living, and growing “reef” of evolving content? What is Alltop if not a field guide to a constantly evolving ecosystem of ideas? And who hasn’t felt the need to take a deep breath before diving into the dense and fascinating world of social media?

Just take the plunge.

- Rob Moore, Ph.D., Managing Partner

I did evaluate all the submissions, though, and gave my recommendations to the committee.  And what struck me most about the proposals we reviewed – nearly 100 in all – was that more than a third of them focused around web 2.0, social media, and related topics.

The word “tweet” hasn’t been tossed around this much since the last Looney Tunes cartoon fest.  But for any smart marketer – as for Sylvester – the issue not just sighting that elusive prey, but figuring out how to wrap our claws around it.  Thufferin’ Thuccotash! 

The key is to discern not just what can we do – because the options are truly staggering – but what we must do.  Resources – both cash and time – are scarce.  So how do we determine which of the many social media opportunities we should invest in and which are just a passing fancy?  My answer, for now, is straight Machiavelli:  “I must see where my followers are going so I can lead them.”

In which formats are your target audiences engaged?  And is this all unadulterated UGC or are they receptive to – clicking or tagging or digging – a more “institutional” voice in their desired format?  Are they involved in serious exploration of content – as relates to critical decision-making – or are they surfing the ripples?

On a site I spent some time on recently – www.mynextcollege.com – “The Dean” balances comments between snarky and solid, all grounded by his signature “does it look like I work here?”  And then there are all the sites that are pure UGC – www.ratemyprofessors.com, www.collegeconfidential.com, www.studentsreview.com, www.myusearchblog.com, and their ilk – and the 900-pound gorillas of Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, and (a baby gorilla) Ning.

Any “final” resolution now would be absurd to project; new platforms crop up almost daily.  There are some that are nearly the “price of admission” to be considered in the game at all – notably, the upland gorillas mentioned above.  But there are some things to keep in mind as you develop content for these venues:

•    Focus: Your audience will tell you.

•    Voice: All research shows that today’s prospective students are very aware of when they’re being “marketed.”  And the research also shows that they don’t necessarily mind being the target, if the outreach is funny, relevant, and fits their interests.

•    WOM and viral: The ultimate goal is to be so in the middle of the conversation that people digg you forward – as happened with the University of Minnesota with their “science of Watchmen” video on YouTube that got more than 1.5 million hits.  And was this successful because people wanted to know about the University of Minnesota? Of course not – it’s because they’re geeks for Watchmen.  Give them something that they’re interested in, and they’ll center it in the discourse.

•    ‘Tude: You gotta have ‘tude, dude.  Whether you’re talking with prospective or current students, alumni, or web wanderers, you have to put forward some sort of characteristic energy and stance that make people sit up and take notice, laugh, get mildly offended – or just notice you.

•    Integration: Your social media presence has to connect to everything else you’re doing – as in any brand communications initiative.  If you create a presence in social media, or establish a personality, you have to “pay off” that presence and personality in your website, direct marketing materials, publications, and the like.  Otherwise, you’re just confusing the market, and nobody can afford to do that.

So, I’m not tweeting yet – having been intimidated by the Chicago tweetmaster who has posted 20,000 times since the first of the year (once every six minutes, 18 hours a day, seven days a week) – but if you want me to I’ll start.  Just let me know and I’ll try to figure out what to say.  (Hey, it’s six minutes later and I don’t have any new thoughts!  Uh-oh…)

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

eMarketer - eMarketer lives up to their tagline: “The first place to look.”  It’s the premier resource for trends in consumer behavior online and how businesses react to those trends. When you need to check on emerging market segments and the advertising spend that is being directed toward them, this is the place.

iMedia Connection – This is a good daily read. iMedia serves as a portal to the latest marketing industry headlines as well as a repository where leading digital marketing experts can share their best practices and opinions.

Two sites to “geek out to” and stay on top of technology trends:

CNet – A reliable resource for product news, reviews, and downloads of the latest gadgets and software that will change the way you communicate in the office and at home. The site focuses on technologies that are cutting edge, yet are ready for use now.

Wired – If you need to be several years ahead of the technology trends that makes the consumer world function, then this is the site for you. It fosters conversations about today’s technologies as well as what industry insiders are aspiring to create.

- Minesh Parikh, Associate Media Director