Content and Community
There’s so much talk in higher ed circles about social networks, and whether or not to build your own, or use Facebook, or use a vendor and it’s not just the admissions side but the alumni side as well. Every platform and vendor solution has their bells and whistles, feature sets, RSS, friending, badges and all that.
Sometimes, I think it’s important to step back and remember that you can have the best built, most feature-rich social network but without the compelling, interesting content, the site is useless. People will stop coming and your project will be a failure. I’m guilty of this - focusing on the materials used to create content, like blogs, the cloud, HD cameras, and forgetting that without great content, it doesn’t matter how great it looks. If the content stinks, no one will care.
I’ve blogged here about Gary Vaynerchuk. He has nothing to do with higher ed at all - in fact, he has a video podcast about wine. But his thoughts on social networks and communities make total sense for us in higher ed.
Forward this along to your director of admissions or alumni. Not to say “you’re doing it wrong,” but to get them to remember that in the end, our jobs are about selling our institutions and our programs and all the ways our schools are special, and not about the fancy website feature.
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
4 Responses to “Content and Community”
Leave a Reply
http://garyvaynerchuk.com/2008/08/12/better-than-zero/
Another great one from Gary today.
Awesome post. I have nothing more to say
You are so right about the content. I love your 5 days a week and promote it 7 line.
Great post. Thanks for this!