Posts filed under 'Video'
In my final post as May guest blogger, I wanted to say “thanks” to all of you who work so hard on your websites, especially the web content managers. In an earlier post I said that your website is your institution’s most valuable asset. Well, I’d like to correct that and say that I believe it’s actually you who should be considered your institution’s most valuable asset. Why? Well, consider this…
According to the most recent statistic I can find on Google and Netcraft, there are approximately 43 billion web pages on the World Wide Web today. Those pages are served by about 158 million unique websites. That’s an average of about 272 web pages per website. Now, according to Google, there are about 758 million web pages representing approximately 5,000 higher educational websites (.edu sites). That’s an astonishing 152,000 web pages, on average, per college site, or approximately 56,000% more pages than the average site on the World Wide Web.
Using these facts and figures, and excluding only the largest e-commerce and media related websites, it’s clear that there are no harder working individuals on the planet than you!
Given the extraordinary effort you and your team make on a daily basis, I have yet to find a single one of you that wants to complicate their job further with burdensome technology. My work revolves around your web content management software (CMS) needs, and over the years I’ve seen a lot of web CMS technologies make a lot of promises. The biggest failing of most of these technologies is that they often make managing content more challenging than before — not something you need!
So, our goal at OmniUpdate has been to keep our web CMS extremely easy to use; yet powerful as a technical engine. We designed it in 2001 exclusively for higher education; consequently, we understand how different your problems are from business and e-commerce sites. Our design ensures WYSIWYG ease of use for everyone involved, plus complete separation of content from design, version control and roll-back, content repurposing, and all the specs even the most hardened techie would love.
Why is this CMS approach important? Consider the fact that:
- IT staff benefit from a standards based approach to web CMS. XML and XSL are the backbone of Web 2.0 and at the very core of OmniUpdate’s templating system.
- Administrators benefit from the ability to control permissions and manage actions at a department and/or individual level — it’s a powerful capability (and very important) to decide and implement “who can do what” on your website.
- Recruiting, admissions, public relations and marketing staff benefit from all the communication and messaging features previously described earlier in this series: blogs, RSS, video, online chat, etc. (Yes, one CMS can do all that!)
- Decision-making committees appreciate a user-based pricing model that is scalable with flexible terms, and would like to purchase one product that delivers all the previously described benefits and functionalities.
OmniUpdate is used today by website heroes just like you to update the content on over 450 college and university websites. And there’s no doubt in my mind that YOU are your institution’s most valuable asset.
I look forward to meeting you at the eduWeb Conference in July.
Lance Merker
May Guest Blogger
CEO
OmniUpdate, Inc.
lance@omniupdate.com
May 30th, 2008
As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s never been easier to shoot, and edit video. So, why is it so difficult to put video on our websites? Playback quality, browser compatibility, and other complexities make it so challenging that we end up doing something we really shouldn’t — putting videos on YouTube and using the embed code to display them. Go ahead and admit it, we’ve all done it! It might not even seem that bad of an idea, right? Not so!
Posting video to your campus website using YouTube can pose a problem. Your video production will be YouTube branded. Furthermore, if you click on the video while it’s playing, you’re redirected to the YouTube website. Allowing your visitor to be redirected to an external website is clearly not good marketing strategy. You may never get them back.
To keep in control of things, OmniUpdate is now offering a free service called Transcode-It. The idea is to make things really easy for you to take any video and play it right in your web page. Like this…
View the video playing in a fictional university web page.
Transcode-It is a free service that allows college web professionals to quickly convert any video, then upload and display it as a high quality Flash video embedded right in any web page. It’s as simple as inserting an image into a document. Feel free to try it right now at http://www.transcodeit.com/.
Transcode-It requires no software installation and creates a video file that plays on all modern browsers (Windows and Macintosh). Your resulting video will not be branded by Transcode-It, and will not redirect viewers away from your site.
In the spirit of community, we at OmniUpdate hope that colleges and universities will find Transcode-It a helpful service. We offer it as one more tool in your arsenal for reaching that often unreachable audience.
Lance Merker
Guest Blogger, May 2008
CEO
OmniUpdate, Inc.
lance@omniupdate.com
May 27th, 2008
George Bernard Shaw once said, “The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” Such is the case for traditional forms of advertising when it comes to prospecting a student population. High school students just aren’t getting the message because they are becoming unplugged from TV, radio, print, and even email. They TiVo or DVR past commercials, and get their news, sometimes inaccurately, through online social communities like MySpace and Facebook. Information, both good and bad, spreads like wildfire via blogs, RSS feeds, chat and private email sent through social networks.
What’s a college to do? Embrace the change!
Your website is still your most valuable marketing asset. And, when used in combination with some truly amazing Web 2.0 technologies, one of the most powerful as well. Consider for example:
1. RSS feeds are an extremely effective and easy-to-add form of communication. Feeds can be directed by students to their preferred medium, such as a cell phone (through text messaging) or to a Facebook account; these can even be used to communicate urgent messages in a crisis situation. I’ll expand further on the value of this feature later.
2. It’s never been cheaper and easier to record and post video to a college website. Rich media is engaging, commonly shared, and expected by your audience.
3. Online chat gives your staff the unique opportunity to speak one-on-one with a student, perhaps providing that nugget of information that might just be the key to influencing his or her enrollment decision.
A content-rich and well-managed higher education website will contain some, if not all, of these features. If your website has not progressed that far yet, you’re not alone–most sites aren’t there yet either. But, keep moving forward. Remember the old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Start a pilot today of just one new Web 2.0 technology!
Lance Merker
Guest Blogger, May 2008
CEO
OmniUpdate, Inc.
lance@omniupdate.com
May 20th, 2008
The phrase “Content is King” has been around for a while, but it still holds true. While website design is intrinsically valuable, visitors aren’t searching for design—they’re looking for information. They arrive by typing in a URL, choosing a bookmark, or clicking on a link. The aesthetics of the site has no bearing on their initial arrival. Once there, of course, imagery and graphics help. But, lacking the “right content,” a visitor will quickly leave, and perhaps never return.
For your college or university, the need to provide prospective students with quick access to current and relevant information is intensified. This generation moves fast, thinks fast, and wants their information fast. According to a recent study by Noel Levitz, James Tower and NRCUA on the E-Expectations of high school students, 66% and 61% of A and B students (respectively) rated website content more important than the multi-media experience, and 73% of all students wanted their desired information to be just a few clicks from the home page. These findings are significant when you consider that another 2006 Noel Levitz study on institutional E-recruiting practices found that according to 40% of campuses, 20% of their electronic applicants had made no prior known contact with the institution before applying.
So, what’s the takeaway here? When it comes to your website, content matters! And, when it comes to recruiting, you need to make sure that the really important stuff like academic programs, tuition tables and financial aid—the stuff that decisions are made from—can be found right up front. Good content, complemented by helpful navigation and attractive design and imagery is the foundation of a great website. Add to the site marketing mix some social networking tools, such as the previously discussed blogs, and you’ve competitively spiced up the offering.
Other tools such as RSS and rich-media add real content value too, but we’ll save that discussion for another day…
Lance Merker
Guest Blogger, May 2008
CEO
OmniUpdate, Inc.
lance@omniupdate.com
May 13th, 2008
Higher ed web pros aren’t shy when it comes to describing online innovations – a big factor that makes EduWeb so appealing. It’s a good place to trendspot, determine what’s gaining traction, and see where your school fits on the web innovation curve.
That said, I thought it’d be well worth sharing key observations from EduWeb 2007. While not a comprehensive list by any means, these examples should spark strategic thinking as you plan for 2008 – or validate your approach.
And while we’re at it, take two minutes to post a comment. Which of these ideas are current/intended priorities heading into 2008 and why/why not? What do you consider the top three priorities for your college/university site?
With that, a few findings from EduWeb ’07:
Blogs
A year or two ago, the question “To blog or not to blog?” was a hotly debated issue in higher ed. At the time, a few bold schools were dipping their toes into the water. Today, it seems as if everyone’s in the pool. Strategies are evolving, but the authentic voices of trusted students, professors or college leaders are worth their weight in gold on the web. Blog-related questions floating around EduWeb 2007: “How many students do you allow to blog?” and “Do you censor/review posts?” For a best-practices lesson in blogging, check out Johns Hopkins University’s “Hopkins Interactive” site run by Daniel Creasy, senior assistant director of admissions.
Web Video
More and more, it’s a YouTube kind of world. Online videos, user-generated content, ‘authentic’ video interaction on your site set the table for genuine online engagement. Schools are rapidly adapting to use video to convey their message. For the cost of a handheld video camera and some bandwidth, schools can easily deploy student ambassadors to film a day in the life, a dorm tour, or a professor interview that grabs visitors’ interest. For a great ideas around using online video, see EduWeb presenter Mars Hill College’s TVMHC.
(While you’re at it, see Furman U’s Engage Furman admissions site with videos and student journals, a highlight of EduWeb ’06).
Analytics
With a larger percentage of college marketing budgets moving online, the need for a solid website analytics and online measurement plan is growing. An increasing number of higher ed web pros are adopting an active measurement and optimization strategy to connect effort to result and be more accountable. The good news is analytics tools are becoming more attainable in higher ed circles (Google Analytics = free). The best news: web practitioners we spoke with say they are starting to actually do something with those hefty analytics reports they’ve been running, using the data to make positive changes to their websites.
Web Governance
Ownership of web continues to be a hot button. From what we’ve seen, it’s often a political hot potato that leaves your web strategy suffering on the sidelines. Based on our discussions with in-the-trenches web folks, colleges that have clearly identified roles and responsibilities and internal collaboration between departments are having more success online. Many participants highlighted effective partnerships between communications, admissions and information technology. Others who were struggling grumbled that it was simply getting in the way of getting things done.
Message control
One of the most compelling (and amazingly simple) ideas for improving your school’s online presence came during an opening keynote from Bob Johnson, higher ed marketing veteran. Johnson had one word for the crowd: Wikipedia. In a large percentage of cases, when you type a school name into Google, the first page of organic search results contains a link to the Wikipedia entry on said school. If the “you” is a 17-year-old high school student, this will be among the first things they read. So the message is: If your school does not have a Wikipedia page, create one – today. And if it does have one, edit it so it drives home the right message, the right links, and the right story about your school. If you don’t pay attention, someone will do it for you. But don’t expect to be the only one in control of your message online.
David Aponovich, CMS Strategist
ISITE Design
November Guest Blogger
November 8th, 2007
Watch this great TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson about how education drains creativity out of students. There are great ideas about a new concept of intelligence: an interactive intelligence that should really inform us as to how we design a total user experience for our campus communities. It is our job as educators (Robinson argues and I agree) to provide a space and time for the creative capacity of the student to flourish.
This video posted by a student from MICA demonstrates what I mean by the total user experience and creative capacity It also demonstrates how simple and childlike this pursuit can be. (Also check this post for a discussion of neoteny.) Note that Selina finds both the online experience of stars and the lack of stargazing at MICA inadequate. These are the only two aspects of her experience that we can in any way influence. What she does next is what we should always strive to provide: she creates her own stars, and recreates that experience via YouTube for the world to see. This is Selina’s creative capacity flourishing.
August 24th, 2007
