Posts Tagged ‘getting it’
A Web team that “gets it”
The role of the Web site is constantly changing, and the pace is faster than ever. With social media being part of the new frontier, we are constantly searching for ways to leverage this new medium specifically for higher education.
Typically higher education is slow to evolve and adopt new technologies so it is refreshing to look at different industries to see what they are doing. Joe Gaylor from FJ Gaylor photography passed along this article from the Washington Post via twitter this morning about Barrack Obama’s new-media gurus. Putting aside political views, it is interesting to see how they are leveraging various technologies to build their campaign.
Why does this team “get it?”
Let’s start with video. They have shot more than 2,000 hours of video and uploaded 1,100 videos to their youTube site. Pretty impressive numbers, considering the campaign is a little over a year old. Using youTube to connect to the voters is unique in the fact that you can bypass mainstream media to get your message out.
Next is text-messaging. While the debate goes on as to how invasive this method of advertising is, I find it particulary fascinating that people are willing to pay $.10 to get a campaign message from Obama. While it might be invasive, it is a personal form of communication. The high school students that we are recruiting almost always have their cell phone with them. You know a message going to their cell phone is going to be read, especially if they are willing to pay $.10 to get it.
On top of these two pieces they are already leveraging many of the social media sites like twitter, facebook, flickr and more.
Obama’s online operation “gets it” by using all of these tools to support their cause. When will higher education “get it” that running a Web site is not enough? Developing a complete online presence is key. Mobile is a component of the new communcation landscape, but I have yet to hear of an institution using it interactively.
Who will be the first higher education Web team to “get it?”
