The Week in Links

Another Friday, another links round-up. Wait, what's that you say? It's Monday? Silly me...

• Tony Dobies of West Virginia University has a tremendous article on the CASE blog about creating a plan to help centralize social media efforts on campus. It's a terrific read, plus it has links to some great examples from other schools. 

• If you haven't checked out the great Andy Pawlowski's great Digital Hoops Blast blog, you're missing out. It highlights countless great examples from the world of college athletics. And I'm not just saying that because he gave me a very kind (and much needed - I'm inspired to challenge myself to come up with something truly great for next year) pep talk over breakfast a week or so ago. 

• I enjoyed this post by Robin Dricker of Southern Oregon University on her blog Mass Social about a graduation selfie project she recently implemented. I love reading post-mortems on social media projects that lay out what steps were taken, what worked, what didn't, etc. 

• Lots to ponder after reading this thoughtful essay about how social media can threaten open discourse between students and administration by Wheaton College dean Lee Burnedette Williams on InsideHigherEd. Thankfully I've never even come close to dealing with the things that she has, but I definitely feel like over the years I've seen the shrillness of the "internet outrage" machine - even at a sleepy little school like UP - sometimes reach a point where it's not even worth attempting to communicate with people, which is so disheartening when it happens.

• A social media survey of 7,000 high school graduates of the Class of 2014? I suppose I'm interested in such things. Thanks to Niche for putting this together. Also: You know how people say Facebook is dying among teens? Not so fast. I will say this though - from my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, Facebook is typically a passive platform for teens... they may log in every day, but it's highly unlikely that they post things with any sort of regularity.

• Great stuff, as always, from Ma'ayan Plaut on the Oberlin College web team blog about blogging strategy with her student blogging team. I particularly take note of what she says about the importance of listening... that's something I definitely need to work on when it comes to student-generated social media content. 

• My most popular post of the week: University of Kansas' great Instagram video ad campaign.

OK... that's it for today. And, sadly, it could be it for the week depending on how things go. I'm stuck putting together some videos for reunion this week (I am NOT a videographer or editor, but we're short-staffed at the moment and it has fallen on me), and since I don't know what the heck I'm doing, it's been slow going. Also, I've got company staying with me later this week, a ton of old college friends in town for the weekend, and then a trip to the coast with them planned for early next week.... might not be much time for blogging on the horizon. We'll see.

Anyway, it's officially summer and it's a Sunday, which means the perfect occasion to post Summertime by The Sundays!