The Week in Links

Well, I managed to survive my first week with a Twitter account in my own name - @joekuffner - without getting fired, so I guess that's a good thing, right? Right! A huge thanks to everyone who stopped by the blog this week... I really can't say enough times how much I appreciate you all spending a bit of time here. Now onto the links!

• If you don't have Robert Bochnak's Social Media Matters blog bookmarked, you are really missing out. His work with metrics and taking a scientific, considered approach to tracking the effectiveness of social media work is staggeringly good. Case in point - this article that compares different Twitter strategies and measures traffic.

• Educational Marketing Group is encouraging everyone in higher ed to share holiday messages by using the hashtag #EDUholidays. (For some inspiration, last year EMG put together a great list of 75 holiday greetings from colleges.)

• I've touched on it a few times on the blog, but I have a pretty low opinion of "news jacking" as a social media tactic. Sure, it may get some likes and RTs, but it doesn't really offer much in the way of meaningful engagement. (At least, from my point of view.) Augie Ray discusses another reason why I'm leery of news jacking on Experience: The Blog - the growing prevalence of hoaxes.

• Interested in using Twitter chats to connect with students? Abby Pratt has a great article about it on Uversity.

• Noelle Visani has a nice rundown on Higher Education Marketing of some recent changes on Facebook and LinkedIn. I'm very interested to see how the Facebook changes in particular will play out. My guess is that the average reach of pages will continue to be ratcheted down, which is super frustrating. 

• As if you need any more convincing after all my rah-rahing on this blog, Carl Straumsheim has a great article about colleges having success with Instagram on Inside Higher Ed.

• A really neat article by Laura D'Amelio on Meet Content, explaining how she organized and hosted a content strategy conference at York University. The catch? The participants were staff and faculty members. Such a cool idea to bring together people from across divisions and tap into the creative energy and relationships with students that exist outside the PR/marketing bubble.

That's it for this week. Take it away, Arcade Fire!