Avid readers of this blog know that Michael, Susan, and I attended the CASE Social Media Conference in Chicago last month. It was a great conference and recaps and resource lists have been compiled to share key take-aways with the rest of higher education.
But, what is next? Everyone at #casesmc felt the energy and excitement around using social media in higher education. The faculty helped us think about evaluating our efforts in new ways and backchannel conversations carried on for at least a week after the conference ended. I know I’m not the only one who has a #casesmc search still running in TweetDeck!
This post is for the attendees who are looking to further their professional development with other conferences, want to add new blogs to their Google Reader, and hope to keep the conversation alive. I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite #highered resources and linked to a number of thought-leader’s twitter accounts. And please feel free to add your favorite resource by leaving a comment below!
The four higher ed resources I couldn’t live without:
- Higher Ed Live is a weekly web show network focused exclusively on higher education. Currently there are three shows: Student Affairs Live, Admissions Live, and Higher Ed Live. The guests are top-notch and the hosts do a great job leading the conversation. Bonus? The blog is just as informative as the weekly shows.
- EDUniverse is a hub where education professionals can find inspiration, share solutions, and build their networks. Some of the featured topics include social media, video, marketing, and design. And anyone can create a profile and upload content to the site. Full disclosure: mStoner designed, built and maintains the site. But since launching in February, EDUniverse has quickly become the first place I check when I’m looking for new ideas.
- LINK is the journal of higher education web professionals maintained by the HighEdWeb association. (More on them later.) LINK has multiple content contributors from institutions across the nation and Canada, which means you’ll often hear two different sides. In fact, their newest feature ALL CAPS focuses on bringing differing opinions together on various topics.
- followEDU is a searchable directory of Twitter users in the education community dreamed up by Mike Petroff. This is a great resource for #casesmc attendees who are looking to grow their list on twitter and connect with other education professionals. For example, if you’re looking to discuss admission-related topics, you can find a list of 310 professionals interested in admissions under the “Department” category. Bonus? Mike is also behind the twitter account @EDUtweetups. This account serves as a directory of events and chats on Twitter in higher education and is an excellent resource.
My favorite conference presentations from the last year:
Other conferences you’ll want to check out:
- HighEdWeb is an organization of web professionals working at institutions of (mostly) higher education. This conference is roughly 3 times larger than #casesmc with over 500 attendees and 5 or 6 tracks to select from at any given time. The national conference is in October and I highly recommend checking it out.
- 140cuse promises attendees that they’ll “leave with a fresh outlook on how the real time web can be used in your business and/or personal life to do something meaningful.” Unfortunately it overlapped with #casesmc this year, but check out the backchannel and see for yourself!
- Confab: The Content Strategy Conference focuses on talking and thinking about content strategy. What opportunities exist? How does content impact user experience on your site? And mStoner is hosting the conference’s first higher ed lounge! Confab is sold out for 2012, but keep it on your radar for next year.
Three higher ed blogs I have to read:
- EDUCheckup is a video review of higher education websites hosted by Nick DeNardis. Nick scores sites on visual, information, and code.
- Meet Content, co-authored by Rick Allen and Georgy Cohen, aims to “empower higher education to create and sustain web content that works by providing a resource for sharing and learning.”
Some non-higher ed links to check out:
- Seth Godin’s blog tops this list. Simply put, he is insightful and thought-provoking.
- Six Pixels of Separation is Mitch Joel’s blog on the Twist Image site. There is a wealth of information and links to other resources here.
- Comscore is a great resource if you are looking for surveys and data to support your work. I find their monthly U.S. Online Video Rankings to be particularly helpful.
- Dribbble is an excellent resource for design inspiration. Designers from all industries contribute snippets of what they’re working on to the site. And it was recently pointed out to me that a quick search on responsive design brings up a number of interesting results.
If I think of any more resources I’ll be sure to update this post.
Update: CASE will be hosting the first #casesmc twitter chat on May 8 from 2:00–3:00 PM ET. See you there.