#Love the Challenge

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#lovethechallenge, Alverno College, college, communications, faculty, influencers, information, Libby Morse, Lipman Hearne, marketing, online presence, Sebastian Thackenkary, social media, staff, strategies, students

How is your online presence evolving to meet the needs of your target audiences? Here is an article I wrote on how Alverno College is reaching students and the community.

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As Alverno rolls out its newest marketing campaign, Sebastian Thachenkary, director of Marketing Communications, wants to be sure audiences are receiving the right messages in the right medium. When developing Alverno’s plan, Marketing conducted research with both current and prospective (high school) students, faculty, and staff to help define the messaging and approach perspective audiences find appealing.

Three key terms emerged: history, tradition and innovation. “People want to see a more complete picture of what Alverno really is, and what makes the College unique,” says Thachenkary.

Alverno brought in Lipman Hearne (LH), a Chicago-based agency known for its work with educational institutions including women’s colleges like Smith, Bryn Mawr and St. Catherine. Using the research and marketing history, LH recommended the media buy move away from traditional print and billboard media.

“We put a greater focus on digital advertising because that’s what our audiences are using,” says Libby Morse, LH’s senior VP and creative director. “We’re seeing strong growth in this area, and it’s a great way to engage with students.”

In addition to broadcast and outdoor media, Alverno has a greater digital and online presence than before, including tablet and mobile websites, and paid and earned social media.

A new element is the #LoveTheChallenge hashtag campaign, giving the Alverno community a chance to share information. Students, faculty and staff use it to talk about events, programs and experiences. “A successful hashtag campaign will generate more social media views and conversations about Alverno than anything we could buy,” explains Morse.

The new marketing focus will help the College raise awareness and grow enrollment. While targeting enrolling students is a primary focus, the program will also reach influencers such as parents, employers and school counselors. Other components of the marketing mix will target prospective graduate, transfer, adult and returning students.

“We have additional targeted strategies in place to communicate with all audiences,” notes Thachenkary. “We’re also incorporating video, which provides a great avenue for people to talk about Alverno from various perspectives.”

Written for Alverno College Magazine Fall 2015
See more at: http://www.alverno.edu/magazine/our-college/lovethechallenge/#sthash.OSi18mHv.dpuf

 

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Visine Will Get The Red Out

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college, comma splice, communications, freshman, reality, red eyes, research papers, students, thesis, topics, UNCC, university, visine, writing

My eyes are bleeding. Not quite in the vampire-crying sense of bleeding, but they are tired and red.

It’s been quite the week. Have you ever been immersed in a long-term, intensive project that’s consumed almost every hour of your workday? And as you near the completion, you find yourself gasping for air, giddy with anticipated relief that the assignment will be over?

After grading and assessing 45 research papers this week, that’s where I am. My brain is ready for a vacation from comma splices, incorrect citations and formatting, and awkward sentence structures. Overall, the papers were better than worse. With a freshman writing class, that is success.

The highlight of the papers is the topics the students chose. At the beginning of the course, we discussed reality as a general, overarching theme. Then we dug down into what is each student’s individual reality. What is most important to them and what is shaping their lives? Some chose their academic majors, others chose a future career, some chose relationships, and others chose topics important to them. They wrote about their reality topic for the entire semester in essays, a daybook, blogs, letters and a research paper, which will culminate in an ePortfolio presentation in two weeks.

My reality at this point? It is to finish my writing projects for the week and then use the weekend to refresh and renew. And to buy a new bottle of Visine.

Breaking Up Is NOT the Hardest Thing To Do

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Breaking Up, Business Communications, conferences, distractions, dogs, emails, Ivan Pavlov, junkies, laptops, meetings, neil sedaka, Smartphones, students, technology, text messages, trained

At the time Neil Sedaka sang about breaking up, it was the hardest thing to do. But not anymore.

Today, the hardest thing to do is not check your Smartphone/email/textmessage/social media every five minutes. Or less.

I start each class with a request my students put away their phones and close their laptops. In each session, there is inevitably someone who tries to hide that he/she is using. Typical of junkies, right? They think they’re being sly or pulling the wool over my eyes. But I’ve been around this block a few times and those tricks aren’t new anymore. Heck, I’m even guilty of sneaking a peek in meetings when the information doesn’t apply to me or I think I’ve heard it before.

Then there are the people who don’t even try to hide it. You’ve probably seen it as well – a blatant and continual checking of phones, tablets and computers in conferences and meetings rooms across the world. Presenters no longer only have the challenge of room, AV and sound distractions, but now they compete with email, Candy Crush and every other available app.

Why is the information received from someone who isn’t there more interesting than the people in the room?

This technology has only been around for a relatively short time, but with the swipe of a finger, we’ve trained ourselves very well. It’s a continual and non-stop check of all information sources.

Ding! The text message indicator sounds and there is a scramble to see who is the sender.

Pavlov would be proud.  Or would he?

I Have 24 Hours Left to Live

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24 hours, beach, Charlotte's Web, college, cupcakes, harry connick jr., ice cream, journal, Last day on earth, life, life choices, music, musings, reality, Scrabble, somersault, students, writing, writing course

What would you do if you only had 24 hours remaining on this earth?

Yesterday, I posed this question to my writing students and asked them to write on it for six minutes. The catch was they had to focus their responses around their chosen topic for the semester. One student called out, “If I had 24 hours left, I wouldn’t waste it on my Topic!” Cue laughter.

This semester, my students’ writings focus on one Topic of their choosing. The Topic has to do with their “reality.” Reality is a broad concept, so we assessed and discussed what it is and what might be the reality in each individual life. After thoughtful and critical analysis, some chose topics relating to their college majors (nursing, medicine, engineering), other chose themes around religion or science, several chose sports, a few chose relationships (healthy, abuse, love) and one even picked a tangible item (a diesel truck).

I begin each of my writing classes with a free writing component, intended to give students more insight on their Topic of reality. What color represents your Topic? If your Topic were an animal, what would it be? How different is your Topic today than 25 years ago? While they responded to yesterday’s question, it gave me time to reflect on what I might do with one final day.

Since I don’t have a Topic, I had freedom to wander in my thoughts. I stayed away from the more depressing options (saying goodbyes, final hugs and all that). These were my first 10 initial ideas for my final 24 hours:

1. Reread Charlotte’s Web.
2. Dance to my favorite song list.
3. Send a tweet to Harry Connick, Jr., letting him know we could have been great together.
4. Eat ice cream and several cupcakes.
5. Turn a somersault on the grass in the backyard.
6. Drive to the beach and put my toes in the sand and water.
7. Ceremoniously burn all my “skinny” clothes I was never going to fit again into anyway.
8. Drink a really good bottle of Italian red wine.
9. Play a game of Scrabble (on the board, not my phone).
10. Add a final entry to my journal.

What would you do if you had 24 hours left to live?

Sharing Life’s Accomplishments

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college, first day of school, happiness, learning, life, Old World Wisconsin, photos, school, social media, students

Many K-12 schools began classes this week. What followed was a myriad of photos depicting children off to their first day posted all over social media outlets. Kids with backpacks so huge they’re destined to have severe spinal problems in a few years. Kids with such stylish new outfits and hairdos they could be catalog models. Kids with so much unbridled enthusiasm it looks like they were just told they were going to Disney World.

There was even one couple who got into the spirit of the day. A husband posted a photo of his wife standing on their front stoop. The description read: “She’s not going to school. She’s going to work. And it’s not her first day. And her lunchbag doesn’t have her name on it.” The wife gamely posed for the photo, smiling goofily.

It was absolutely refreshing to see this different level of accord hit my computer screen. The previous week had been overwhelmed with posts about the Harley-Davidson 110^th anniversary party. So, now there are all these images of kids, from preschoolers to high schoolers, looking like they are actually happy to cross the threshold of education. Could it be possible that maybe we are just truly geeks at heart? That the thought of a new start, of learning an original concept and understanding something previously unknown is exciting? Maybe we really do like to learn, but who’s going to admit to that?

Remember that one moment in whatever grade, in a subject you didn’t particularly like, when you suddenly ‘got’ it and the light bulb went off? You happily thought to yourself, “I am not as stupid as I think I am!”

There’s no need to surrender that feeling or need after receiving that final diploma. Life is full of lessons, of beautiful ideas and concepts just waiting to be discovered, understood and discussed. And when that happens, it should be celebrated.

Raspberry School at Old World Wisconsin

A few weeks ago on a visit to Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor history museum, we passed through the one-room schoolhouse. Sitting inside the Raspberry School it was easy to see what had changed in 100 years. Gone was the wood-burning stove, the inkwell in each desktop and the original version of the National Anthem. It was a stark contrast to where I teach college courses, in what is called a “smart” classroom including computers, the Internet, whiteboards, projectors, video communications, etc.

However, it’s not the classroom that’s smart; it’s the students. That is the one element that has remained the same since the Raspberry School days. Enthusiasm is still elevated. There’s a desire to learn more, to discuss and advance. Wouldn’t it be nice if people starting posting photos that celebrated more of the small—but great—things in life, like lessons learned, accomplishments at work or even acts of kindness? Just like children looking forward to the first day of school, that’s the best kind of news to share on social networks.