Goodbyes aren’t always easy, but they are often necessary.

Even the best projects will come to an end. It’s OK to let go. It’s not failure. Enjoy the moments that happen along the way. Be proud of what was accomplished.

Realize every project you create someday will die.

4/16

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” -Benjamin Franklin

I’ve heard the above quote hundreds of times in my adult life. I’ve believed it. It makes sense. It has taken a residence in my mind. Forced me to give up when projects seemed pointless. An excuse to stop trying, to abandon the so-called broken.

Today I’m thinking this quote no longer rings true.

What if we’re just early to the party? What if the thing we’re doing isn’t broken, we’re just waiting for others to show up to make it work? What if doing the same thing over and over isn’t about getting results, but instead about preparing for when the crowd arrives?

The University was on twitter well before our students. In 2008 we were tweeting, but the messages weren’t yet reaching our intended audience. Instead of thinking the early efforts were insane, we added to it by setting up accounts for @admissions, @financialaid, @studentlife, @advising, @studentaffairs and many more. We played, we made mistakes, we learned from them, we prepared so that when the students finally arrived we’d be ready. Five years later, we’re doing the same thing, but getting much different results.

I think insanity on the social web is not exploring the possibilities of the new and shiny simply because it’s lacking an audience. Playing, learning and understanding before the arrival of the audience is preparing.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” -Benjamin Franklin

Well said, Ben.

3/16

I love facebook ads. Super targeted, cost-effective and very easy to use and understand… until this happened.

“Your Page wasn’t promoted because your profile picture, which is used as the image in your ad, violates our guidelines.”

Red boxes on social networks can be scary. A violation of a guideline, yikes, that sounds wicked serious and not something I want to do.

So, what did I do wrong?

“Ads and sponsored stories in news feed may not include images made up of more than 20% text, including logos and slogans.” (Text in Images guideline)

The profile picture has more than 20% text on it? Really? Did I make a text heavy graphic. My bad. That’s not good for any of us. Let me fix that. But first, shall we count some pixels?

Let’s don’t count just the pixels of the text that is covering the image, let’s put a box around the words and measure that. It’s not only easier, but also works in favor of facebook since it’s a larger area.

Image is 418×418 (174,724 pixels), and the boxes around the text are 388×27 (10,476 pixels) and 388×47 (18,236 pixels). That works out to 16.43% (28,712 pixels) of the profile picture being text, well below the 20% that triggers a violation.

Maybe facebook considers the entire area the wordmark takes up in its calculation. Let’s draw a bigger box.

While 388×89 (34,532 pixels) is much closer to 20% coming in at 19.76%, it still isn’t more than 20% and shouldn’t be a foul.

Voice of reason: So why are you so upset, it only cancels your ad for sponsored stories in the news feed, all other ad types are available? Sounds like you’re just hating on facebook because you weren’t invited to the Graph Search beta party.

Good question, and here’s an easy answer: Sponsored stories in the news feed are GOLD. When promoting a post, I almost always pause the other ad types and just run with the sponsored stories. Sponsored stories generate clicks, they prompt interactions on the page, they give brands a human representative. People trusting people FTW!

I totally understand facebook’s reasoning behind the “less than 20″ rule, nobody likes spammy content. But if I’m running an ad promoting my page, why would the profile picture be subjected to this rule? Cover photos, YES. Photos in promoted posts, YES. Images in ads, YES. Ads using the profile picture to increase likes of the page, NO.

I’ve been using the same profile picture layout for a year. A photo of campus with an overlay of the wordmark. I don’t find it spammy. I think the campus scene is less spammy than a logo with a smaller workmark.

It’s not brand spam, it’s the brand. The brand the ad is asking them to like. If facebook wants brands to be less spammy on facebook, they should build an algorithm that prevents brand pages from playing edgerank with hack posts. The “like if you’re hungry, share if you’re really hungry” posts are more offensive than an ad that has an image composed of 20% text.

Now back to that Graph Search party invite…

2/16

From the Drafts: 11/23/2011

On the eve of Thanksgiving, the best harvest festival EVER, let’s think about how it works. Grow things, collect things, share things, enjoy things… together.

Not very complex, but we often get it wrong online.

Instead of asking our social web communities for trivial things (likes/follows/RTs), why not ask them for real things that could help strengthen the community. Instead of giving them what we think they want — on our own; let’s help them build what they want — together.

This –> The Advising page on facebook asked students to share their favorite study spots. On twitter they asked students to complete a tweet that revealed a secret to successful studying. They harvested the results, mashed it up and made a tasty photo album. A 100% student-generated take on how and where to study.

Grow. Collect. Share. Enjoy… together.

THIS –> This post isn’t about Thanksgiving, it’s about hacking into the idea of Thanksgiving… to make the social web more relatable. Stop thinking of the social web as an online world, start thinking of it as the world. Steal the ideas that make the world so awesome… celebrating events, holding the door open, creating laughter, sharing hope, smiling at a stranger.

It’s simple. Be human. Even if the landscape is digital.

1/16

I have lots of ideas on higher ed and the social web. Most of the time they are buried in conversations on twitter, left as replies to blog posts someone else has penned, hidden in a super secret facebook group of super awesome secret people, or bounced around my skull until the energy of the idea is exhausted.

I’d like to capture those ideas.
I’d like to share those ideas.
I’d like to blog.

If you were to look at this blog, you’d think I only have 3 thoughts a year. That is not true. I shower and drive just about everyday, and everyone knows that ideas live in the air of bathrooms (non-public ones) and automobiles (especially fancy ones). I have lots of time to breathe and think. Now I’d like to make time to document those thoughts.

Challenge: 4 “quality” blog posts about higher ed and the social web a month for the next 4 months (Jan-April 2013)

Feel free to call me out on this. Especially the quality part. Serious.

To the new year! #oddyears

To start out my internship with Todd Sanders, social media specialist for UW-Green Bay, I was given the responsibility to populate the UWGB Foursquare account and get more students and staff to use it. I began by identifying different lists that users could participate in, including study spaces, campus art and dining locations. I then walked around campus taking photos of all these locations. From there, I had to create each location I was identifying on Foursquare so that our followers could “check-in” to the locations. In addition I took photos of all campus buildings to ensure there were identifying factors attached to each location. I also began leaving tips about locations for followers to add to or participate in. Throughout the semester, we continuously were adding “friends.”

In addition to the Foursquare project, I also assisted with producing videos for Academic Advising with Diploma. We used an actual UWGB diploma and attached eyes to it. It then had conversations with Darrel Renier from Advising in short videos that the office used to connect with students.

I was then a part of a zombie video for Academic Advising. Both students and staff played zombies, which represented students confused about the general education requirements at the University. I played the student running from the zombies, but eventually was caught and turned into a zombie. I met with an academic advisor, and transformed back into a human when I realized the requirements weren’t as difficult as I thought. The final video was put out on the UWGB webpage and Facebook page.

I then began a question and answer video campaign. Through this, I took a video camera out to talk to students. Topics I covered included what do you use social media for, and Thanksgiving plans, traditions, etc. Through this process, I found it was much harder to get students to talk to you than I anticipated. Many students proved to be camera shy and would decline the request to be taped. Some students would be willing to answer questions, but would soon change their mind when they found out I was going to video tape them. I discovered it was easier to find students to talk to in social settings like the Cloud Commons rather than in a high traffic area like the Garden Café. Students on their way to class do not want to be stopped to answer a couple questions. Students who are simply eating, or just hanging out tend to be more perceptive to participating as well, rather than ones that are studying. After finally completely interviews, I got to play around with Premiere Pro, a video editing software, to produce the final project.

I was tasked with the project of creating a video for the Admissions Office to use on Admitted Students Day. After brainstorming ideas, we came up with producing a Student ID video, highlighting the many uses the ID serves on campus. Todd and I identified which uses to highlight, and then I created a large version of a Student ID card, with a box cut out where the headshot should be. Todd and I worked on shooting segments that I would act as the ID. I then rounded up other students to be in the video. After shooting about a dozen locations, Todd and I worked on editing and putting together the video. The final project was included in a welcome email from me to more than 50 prospective students. The video has also been on the UWGB Current Students webpage for more than a month.
I final project for the semester that Todd and I worked on together was a One Day on Campus event. This event included getting photos of different aspects of campus for 24 hours. The idea was to get at least one photo of something on campus every hour for the full 24 hours. We reached out to the campus community for help in order to get more people involved and have a better turnout of photos. We created both a Facebook page for the event, as well as a Twitter hashtag titled #gb1day. Todd and I were awake and on campus for 24 hours straight. We created challenges along the way to get students involved. By the end of the 24 hours we had taken and/or received about 230 photos. The photos were then all compiled into a flickr album for people to view.

In addition to these projects, I was invited to participate in social web meetings throughout the semester, involving various departments around campus who are involved and using social media. Through these meetings, I have gotten to know some extraordinary people and learned so much about the uses of social media.

Many days included a brainstorming session to come up with ideas of how to better incorporate social tools to reach out and connect with the campus community. I enjoyed the experience very much, and learned something new each day from Todd and others involved with social media.

I look forward to continuing the internship for the spring 2012 semester. We have many projects already that will come including a welcome video for Admissions, working with the Weidner Center to use social media, and Commencement. I plan to continue to work with Foursquare and get the campus community more involved with these types of tools.