After Christmas, the Pinterest invite came my way and I set up a few boards. While in-person chatting with @melissamckelvey a few weekends ago, I admitted that I hadn’t quite figured out what to do with Pinterest. Once Melissa made it clear that there is an organizational aspect to her own boards—I started to get some ideas. If I can use Pinterest for organizing and archiving, I can quickly get behind it for personal use.

I love my new board for tracking all of my visits to college campuses. (Note: more than 50 of these campus visits happened before I took a job at mStoner.) This board combines a personal and professional interest in colleges and universities. I realized I’ve had a lifelong love story with higher education: I went to college, supported my husband during grad school, moved with him to start his career as a professor, spent 22 years working at William & Mary, planned trips with my two children as they were applying to colleges, and travel to campuses around the country in my job with mStoner. It only made sense to start tracking these visits!

I’ve recently started boards for my favorite restaurants in cities I visit. I’m no Yelp or Urban Spoon, but I have some recommendations for great food in cities like Baltimore, Richmond, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

A couple of weeks ago, Ma’ayan Plaut wrote an informative and clear post. “How Pinteresting” is a super summary that makes the case for Pinterest. I’ll be watching Oberlin’s use of Pinterest in the coming months. As Ma’ayan points out, the Pinterest platform is a shift away from self-promotion. I, for one, am excited about the focus on content that ties to values, ideas, and collaboration. And, with individuals like @plautmaayan (Ma’ayan) at the helm on Pinterest boards, it’s sure to be interesting.

Within the next few days, we’ll be publishing the program with detail about session titles and descriptions of topics. Here is what I’m planning for the two presentations I’ll do at #casesmc in Chicago in April (I’m very excited about the chance to co-present with Nyleva Corley at UT Austin):

What do I say? Some content ideas for your social media channels.
It bears repeating, content is king. If you are just getting started with a social media channel, it can be daunting to figure out what to say. Even those of us who have been doing this for a while experience an occasional dry spell or suffer through good, old-fashioned writer’s block. Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned pro, coming up with good stuff to use on your institution’s social media channels is sometimes challenging. This session will present a few (many!) suggestions.

Connect Your Own Dots: Social Media Integration as a Best Practice for Marketing and Communications
(co-presenting with Nyleva Corley)
Your audiences experience your brand and hear from you through a long list of social media and non-social media channels and you shouldn’t expect them to connect the dots. You need to develop an institutional plan that will allow you to stay on message across multiple communication channels using everything from social media aggregators to editorial calendars to social media campaigns. Not only that, a social media strategy isolated from your broader communication strategy is a risk. We’ll share specifics and demonstrate best practices through case studies from educational institutions.

For years, I’ve been talking about the idea that people will begin to “use a computer” when they are presented with a concrete benefit. What’s surprising is that we’ll even do work in order to get the benefit. Think about it: for many technologies, the work is actually transferred to the user. Consider the ATM. We’re willing to do the work of the bank teller because there’s something in it for us. Namely, the convenience of getting cash or depositing a check when the bank isn’t open.

Other examples include our willingness to work as:

• travel agents or airline customer service reps when we spend time on sites like kayak.com or purchase airline tickets on line because we get a better price, we see all the flight options, and we’re not stuck in a queue listening to “your call is important to us”
• office assistants when we print and complete forms needed by a physician in advance because it means we don’t have to get to medical appointments 15 minutes early
• cashiers when we shop online because the range of products and services is not limited to the businesses near where we live and the store hours are 24/7

Watching my mom learn to use email and Facebook has reinforced my attitude. As soon as the benefits and advantages were clear, she was all over it. She wanted to use email because my brothers, sisters, and I use it to share photos of her 11 grandchildren. I think she was open to Facebook because so many in our family were talking about it. Now, she can see what we’re up to (and we’re all old enough not to mind that) and she can pursue personal interests. She recently mentioned a knitting discussion board. During the holidays, my jaw dropped when I heard her say, “Just YouTube it and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

Tuck this advice under your hat and keep it in mind. If you want me to adopt a new technology, make the advantages clear. You want me to use a campus-wide events calendar? Show me the stats to demonstrate how visible the central calendar will be and mention the larger number of people who will find out about my event. You want me to use a new CMS? Convince me that new features I’ve been asking for are there and will make web editing easier and more convenient.

If you can’t come up with benefits to persuade your end users, you’ll have an uphill battle. And, perhaps, you’re implementing the wrong technology.

Tuesday: Baltimore Penn Station >> New York Penn Station
Thursday: New York Penn Station >> Baltimore Penn Station
Friday: Baltimore Penn Station >> New York Penn Station
Monday: New York Penn Station >> Baltimore Penn Station

I’ll be in Manhattan for a campus visit with an mStoner client. But, the rinse/repeat itinerary is mostly personal. On Thursday, my daughter, who is a junior at Peabody Conservatory of Music (Baltimore) will perform in her first solo voice recital.  I’ve never accepted a position that didn’t allow me to put family first. And my new job at mStoner is no different. Thanks to two amazing colleagues (shout out to Michael Stoner and Doug Gapinski), I’ll slip away early from the client visit to make it back to Baltimore. I’m not denying it; I’m super proud of my daughter and can’t wait to join my parents, my husband and my son and his girlfriend for what we view as the vocal event of the season.

So why the second trip back to Manhattan? Also, music- and daughter-related. Rebecca has two auditions for summer opera music festivals and we’re celebrating her upcoming 21st birthday with tickets to Follies on Broadway. I didn’t expect to learn so much from my children. Among other things, my daughter taught me to love Bernadette Peters.

So bring on the train travel. I’m ready.

P.S. She even used social media to market the event. If you love and/or are interested in classical music and opera, join us!

I’m super thrilled to announce that, this year, I’m serving as the conference chair for the 2012 #casesmc

For the past several weeks, I’ve been working with Jen Lichty at CASE to identify faculty and speakers for this event. I’m pretty excited about the program we’ve put together. It starts with a Social Media 101 pre-conference session designed to orient social media newbies just in time for the the conference that follows. The conference sessions and keynotes will be varied, on point, and useful. (I promise to do my best on that commitment!)

It’s not too early to register for this Chicago event to be held on April 18 – 20. While you’re looking at the 2012 #casesmc website, check out the list of faculty and speakers. I think we’ve pulled together some of the most experienced and expert thought leaders within the social media discipline. I hope you agree.

Just in case you’re not convinced, here are the official benefits of attending:

• For the social media novice, you’ll receive a practical orientation to the most widely used social media platforms. Get comfortable getting started.
• For the more experienced social media professional, you’ll engage (face-to-face) with respected educational leaders and be inspired by some of our advanced sessions.
• We’ll discuss the results of the third CASE/mStoner/Slover-Linnett survey on the use of social media in advancement.
• You’ll discover how educational institutions are tracking, assessing, and evaluating the effectiveness of social media channels.

Did you plan to get more social in 2012? Then join me in Chicago. Counting down. Just 13 weeks to go.

In a nutshell, I think the book is about creating spectacular brands. During my first glance at the summary on the (purple!) book jacket, I was reminded of Good to Great, a book about the characteristics of organizations that move from good to great. We’ll see if the parallels continue.

Frankly, books like this one always appeal to me. For me, principles of marketing, communications, leadership and organizational development are foundational. After all, particular technologies come and go. Don’t get me wrong, I rely on technology. I’m seldom without it. But I’m grounded by ideas like those I think I’ll find in Purple Cow.

What are you reading as we begin 2012?

All elements of a website should be carefully woven together to inspire and tell a compelling story about the institution. Easier said than done, right? Your .edu website works hard and serves many audiences. Most would agree that:

• The ideal reaction when an alum looks at the site is, “Yes, that reminds me of the school I knew and loved.”
• The ideal reaction when a 16-year-old visits the site is, “Oh, that feels like the kind of place where I’d fit in.”

So how do you get to the essence of an institution? How do you discover what’s unique and special about a school or campus so that you can use what you find out in the visual design, features, and copy of a website?

My best advice? Don’t make assumptions. Don’t assume you already know the story.

All of our client engagements at mStoner begin with a strategy phase and we have a process for the discovery work that becomes the foundation for a web relaunch project. During strategy, we do a deep dive—we take a number of steps to uncover the detail and discover the gems we’ll need to build an incredible web presence. One of the steps we take is referred to as “intake.”

Intake is a series of small group meetings that we host onsite. We come to campus and talk face-to-face with a range of individuals including current students, faculty, senior leadership, and staff in offices like admissions, marketing, communications, and IT. Sometimes, we include groups of alumni, prospective students, and parents. What we hear during these sessions gives us a sense of the campus community—the collective vision and values—and helps us understand the substance. We hear versions of the institutional story.

But listening to the people who show up for the onsite group meetings we facilitate is just the beginning of the discovery work. Here are some additional recommendations to go along with intake:

• review social media sites
• audit the current website
• analyze the sites of peer or competitor institutions
• read strategic plans, communication plans, recent news, admissions materials, and alumni publications
• consider brand and visual identity guidelines

If your goal is translating the ethos of your community into a vibrant web design with just the right tone for the content, do some discovery. Listen up!

Here’s the focus for the 2012 UCDA Design Summit:

Many of us have found our roles at our institutions to be completely different than the ones we were hired to do. How we manage to grow and change in those roles is the difference between success and frustration. But how to make that change when you’ve got a stack of projects, endless approvals and emails waiting for your attention? How can you use design thinking to help your institution rise above?

UCDA can help. Come to the Mission Inn in California for renewal and rediscovery. Learn how to harness the power of collaboration, design and inspiration to create happier teams, smarter workflows and a better future for you at your institution.

Renewal and rediscovery speak to me. First, because my background is organizational and team development and I believe strongly in the professional development that comes from work teams. The best motivation for enhancing your skills is an environment where there are shared goals, a commitment to excellence, and work to be done. For years, I’ve watched as the power of cross functional teams provides an opportunity for an individual to learn by doing. It just works. As for me, I choose potential.

If you’re interested, here are the summaries of the two presentations I’ll offer at the upcoming UCDA Design Summit:

1. Making the case for a creative services department on your campus.
   The communication paradigm continues to shift. Essentially we’re all trying to figure out a way to get a bunch of great people with different skills on the same team doing exceptional work telling the story of our college or university. So how do you take separate organizations and merge them into one high-performance engine of creativity? What steps do you take to blend web and publications into a creative services team? We’ll talk about an approach where you forget the past, ignore the present, and imagine the future. And, we’ll walk through a case study of a prospective student mailing project that demonstrates how a medium-agnostic team can come together to accomplish incredible creative.
2. Changing roles in communication departments: what’s social media got to do with it?
   For the best results: everything is connected to everything else. Social media is most effective when it is a part of an integrated brand strategy and tightly linked to other communication initiatives. And these days, Twitter and Facebook are not just the purview of social media strategists. More case study discussion will demonstrate how you incorporate social media channels into key communication projects. And, while you’re at it, you might as well use social media for your own renewal and rejuvenation as you meet the challenges of new roles and responsibilities on your campus.

If you plan to attend, you can early bird until February 13, 2012. But the best deal available is registration before 2011 ends. If you register by December 31, the fee is reduced by $100. Pass this on to any “designers” you know, or to your boss!

I also remember feeling a bit surprised. I guess I had expected him to say something along the lines of “Susan and I were talking about this in preparation for the meeting to today and she has some good thoughts about how we might proceed.” This wasn’t a big deal really – I was over it almost immediately. At the time, I chalked it up to he’s the boss and part of my job is to make him look good. (I still believe that by the way).

Years later, I realize that the circumstance I described was actually positive for me. When your boss repeats your words and ideas, it is a clear acceptance of your expertise. Besides, keeping score on credit for suggestions and opinions is tricky business and I don’t recommend it. Instead, I recommend that you understand that educating your boss is part of your responsibility as an effective colleague.

Knowing how well this technique worked, I began to systematically offer to my bosses the language necessary to support goals and plans. Usually, I was overt about it. I’d suggest a quick meeting or phone call any time I knew my boss was going to be representing the interests of my team. I wanted to make sure he or she was prepared to make the case on our behalf.

I recent years, I made it a practice to repeat what I’d heard from members of my own team. In fact, before senior leadership meetings, I purposefully sought out individuals and even rehearsed my spiel for them. I wanted to have my facts straight, I wanted a better understanding of the issues, and I didn’t want to promise something we couldn’t deliver.

Please don’t misunderstand the point of this post. There’s no one on the planet who believes more strongly than I do about recognition and appreciation for individuals who work with me. It is my regular practice to defer any credit I get to the team I work with. The point is this: maybe you’re currently hearing your own words repeated by your boss and you’re taking it the wrong way. Embrace the repeat after me. It means you done good.

As we plan web redesign projects with mStoner clients, I am often asked to recommend a structure for the internal team project team. After all, we’re starting a partnership and there is complex and important work to be done. The campus leadership in place for a web relaunch project matters and we have some advice to offer. Ideally, you need everything from an informed web advisory committee to a committed and talented web team to an engaged executive sponsor.

At the start, there is enthusiasm and momentum, so why not capitalize on that by putting together the best internal team possible? During the pre-kickoff planning, we usually ask clients, “Who will be the primary contact for mStoner, the person who will serve as the campus project manager?” Besides working with us, this project manager will usually be a link between the core project team (they do the work of the website relaunch) and a project advisory committee (they review and approve the plan and recommendations). Who would you choose on your campus?

Use this rule of thumb: the individual in the project manager role needs to be positioned high enough on the organizational chart to have the credibility and respect of the campus but junior enough that he/she will dig in and help get the work done. But what else?

The project team, led by the PM, will oversee a broad range of tasks. They will review strategy recommendations. They will figure out how to gather design feedback. They will migrate content from the old site to the new one. Because of this mix of responsibilities, the ideal background for the project manager is certainly a consideration. Clients ask, “Should the PM have an editorial/content background or a technical background?” The simple answer is, “Yes. I’ve seen both work.”

I recommend that the campus choice for a PM focus on leadership ability, not a particular type of background. What matters is the people skills and the personal qualities that the individual brings to the role. So, without mincing words, here are the issues project managers wrestle with lined up with the talents needed to be effective.

The political savvy needed for:

• handling push back and resistance to change
• facilitating discussions and achieving consensus
• knowing when is the right time to involve the executive sponsor
• responding to opinions about design concepts (usually colors, fonts, photos) that are not grounded in expertise and research
• articulating web standards and best practices to persuade naysayers
• explaining why the website is not primarily for internal audiences and not structured like the university org chart
• controlling scope

A love for detail in order to:

• review information architecture and recommend adjustments
• oversee quality assurance on all pages of the new website (e.g., all links work, all formats/styles consistent, editorial style enforced, etc.)
• manage discrete tasks in a project plan so that you can meet your target dates

A passion for the institution that translates into:

• hours reviewing photography and copy decks
• time spent gathering and synthesizing opinions, preferences, and responses during design, usability testing, and soft launch
• a commitment to building a website that meets the needs of target audiences, not internal audiences
• action (you need a can-do kind of person) to do whatever it takes until the bitter(sweet) end

The confidence and take-charge attitude needed for:

• assessing what needs to be done and determining how much time is available
• assigning and monitoring work for a team of people that he/she does not formally supervise
• reevaluating and reassigning as things change
• reminding people about what they are supposed to be doing (with a supportive, but we’re counting on you kind of approach)

Do you agree with this rumination about managing a web project? What other characteristics come to mind for you? What would you add?

For more on my own perspective as I finished out my time as the PM for the William & Mary web redesign project, read this blast from the past: a 2008 post from the mStoner blog written during my client days. Three years have passed since this interview and I stand by nearly all I said.