Karlyn Morissette

As I ramp up for my imminent departure from working for a college full time, I’m going to do a series of posts on the things I think colleges do wrong in their day-to-day operations in my last-ditch attempt to effect change.  Enjoy!

Meetings get a bad rap in higher education - there are too many of them, they are unproductive, too many people involved, a waste of time, etc.  All of these complaints are completely valid.  Even so, I don’t think meetings are inherently bad…but I think poorly run meetings are the enemy.

How many meetings do you attend actually have an agenda? Better yet, a stated purpose? I learned this technique from a lady much smarter than I, Dr. Pamela Skyrme.  Pamela is a brilliant organizational coach.  She also happens to be the Director of Professional Development in my office at Dartmouth, where I’ve had the privilege of being coached by her for the last several months.  The tactic goes like this: At the beginning of each meeting make sure the group as a whole knows what they are seeking to accomplish in that meeting (if you don’t have something you’re seeking to accomplish, then you probably shouldn’t be meeting in the first place). At the end of the meeting, assess whether or not you accomplished your initial stated goals. Do this consistently and it will keep people on track and focused, since there will be some level of accountability (however minor) for not accomplishing a stated goal.

Also, make sure that someone is “in charge” of the meeting, so that if the topics start going off track, that person can refocus the attention of the group on the task at land.  If issues come up that aren’t part of your stated agenda or goals for the meeting, acknowledge that they are important to discuss but then put them in a parking lot for next time.

You could also follow Brian Nile’s lead and remove the chairs from the conference room entirely.

Meetings are necessary.  By gosh, they can even be productive!  But you have to be smart about how you use your time. What are your suggestions for having better meetings? Leave a comment!

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Hire Karlyn: Karlyn is the President & Principal Consultant of DoJo Web Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to helping colleges and universities to utilize the web in their marketing efforts. Find out how she can help your institution by requesting a proposal today »

My employers and family have been notified, so now it’s time to share the big news with all of you: Beginning August 24, I will be leaving Dartmouth and joining the team at Fire Engine Red full time.  I’ll be working on their student search packages for admissions office.

I can’t begin to tell you guys how excited I am by this move.  For years, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I would love to work for Fire Engine Red some day…I just never thought it would actually happen.  Many of you have heard me talk about how much I love this company…stuff which I said freely before the prospect of a job with them ever came up.  I love everything about this opportunity - the type of work I’m going to be doing, the people I’m going to be working with and the fact that I can work from anywhere. But most of all, this is a company that I feel like I can be passionate about.

The first question I’ve been asked by people who already know the news is this: How does this impact my business/speaking/teaching/etc?  The easy answer is that it doesn’t.  The ladies at Fire Engine Red are extremely supportive and have encouraged me to keep pursuing things that I’m passionate about, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the company.

I am going to miss a lot of the people I’ve worked with at Dartmouth.  I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met.  These people are insanely good at what they do and I’ve learned so much. I spread the word about my leaving yesterday, and although it was a depressing process for me, the vast majority of my co-workers were very gracious in their congratulations and well-wishes.  You guys are just awesome!

So cheers to new beginnings and opportunities.  I can’t wait for this one to begin!

Well, it’s the last day of eduWeb, and this conference has been nothing if not memorable.  I’ve been mostly sticking to the Get It Done track, and haven’t been disappointed.  My goal with this track was to really give practical, applicable advice that people could take home with them and implement right away, and I think we’ve achieved that goal.  The presentations haven’t been about lofty theory. There’s really been a shift the last few years - we’ve gone from having to convince people that doing the web is a good idea, to saying “OK, you understand you NEED to do this….we’ll show you how.”  I’m sure that some people need to be convinced, but now I think the majority are there.  Now, we can focus on getting better.  

I think that one of my favorite sessions was “Twitter Me This” with Robin Smail and Nikki Massaro Kauffman.  This two ladies know how to put on a show.  It was a very laid back presentation that focused on giving real advice about Twitter in an entertaining way. But it was interesting to hear the reviews afterwards, because it seemed the crowd either loved it or hated it. I simply don’t understand people who expect presenters to start behind a podium in a shirt and tie, acting like they are god’s gift to the crowd.

Tom Williams of Innogage also absolutely KILLED his presentation on user generated content.  If you ever need a guy to show you how to create compelling content for next to nothing, Tom is your man.  

But all of the other presenters in the track have been great too - Stewart Foss, Aaron Rester, Matt Herzberger, Kyle James and Brad Ward.  Thanks to all of you for putting the time and the work in (for free no less).  I’ve been to eduWeb three out of the last four years, and this one has been the best yet thanks to all of you.

And, of course, the .eduGuru team took home the eduStyle award for best higher ed blog.  Thanks again to everyone who voted!  You guys make all this worthwhile.  

Today, I’m looking forward to Brian Niles’ keynote, learning about javascript for non coders with Christopher Schmitt and hearing about the practical uses of social media in recruitment with Anrienne Bartlett and Nikki Chun.  Then it’s back home to Vermont and the real world I go.  Off-topic: Big announcement coming next week.  Some of you will be surprised. Some of you, not so much. Stay tuned!

If you missed my presentation, Billy Adams was nice enough to uStream it for me.  Here’s the video!  

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Hire Karlyn: Karlyn is the President & Principal Consultant of DoJo Web Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to helping colleges and universities to utilize the web in their marketing efforts. Find out how she can help your institution by requesting a proposal today »

I just received word that some people I work with think that my blogging and tweeting is “weird”.  I’m not offended - in fact, I understand the perception.  They don’t use the technology, so they don’t “get it.”  They view it as all fun and games…Karlyn just playing around.  They don’t get that there’s more to it than that.

For all you non-believers, here’s a few of the things that I get from blogging and tweeting: 

• I’m nationally known in my field because of blogging and tweeting.
• I speak at most of the major higher ed web and marketing conferences - AMA Symposium, eduWeb, HigherEdExperts, Stamats, CASE conferences and (coming soon!) HighEdWeb - because of blogging and tweeting.  Because I speak at them, I also get to attend them (mostly for free) and learn from the other great speakers.
• 100% of the clients I have through DoJo can be traced either directly or indirectly back to blogging or tweeting. I don’t spend a dime on marketing and have had to turn business away because of the amount of interest that comes in.  And believe me when I tell you that the paycheck I’m collecting from that business isn’t too shabby (not to mention a lot of fun work!)
• When I interviewed for the adjunct faculty position for internet marketing at Champlain College, I talked mostly about blogging and tweeting and the benefits I’ve received from it.  I’ll be teaching my first class there this fall.   
• I have connections to some of the most brilliant people in my field because of blogging and tweeting.  I know I say this a lot, but I learn from them every single day and they make me better at what I do. 
• I don’t have to apply for jobs because of blogging and tweeting - I consistently have companies approach me because of the things I’ve written or the conferences I’ve spoken at or just generally the name I’ve built.
• I get to teach.  I get to have influence.  I get to work on tons of cool projects. I only hope that all of you can achieve the professional satisfaction that I have because of blogging and tweeting.  

None of this happened overnight, and I certainly never expected all of this to happen when I first started. But here we are. I’m not doing it because it makes me feel like the cool kid - there’s a reason behind it.  So you may think I’m weird, or that it’s all just a big waste of time and energy. But I have a vast professional network, am making more than a little bit of money and have more professional opportunities than I can take advantage of.  If all that is weird, then I wouldn’t want to be normal. 

Do you blog or tweet?  What do you get out of it? Leave a comment!

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Hire Karlyn: Karlyn is the President & Principal Consultant of DoJo Web Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to helping colleges and universities to utilize the web in their marketing efforts. Find out how she can help your institution by requesting a proposal today »

I’m a huge fan of MediaPost’s Email Insider, and yesterday David Baker wrote a great piece to illustrate why, by outlining some of the ways in which a company can mess up their email program. He outlines the following mistakes places make:

1. Continue to rotate through email vendors
2. Benchmarking from the industry
3. Mismanaging acquisition
4. Not understanding social media theory
5. Continuing to churn the resource pool

You can read his commentary for each over on MediaPost’s blog, but let me try to give each a higher education spin:

Continue to rotate through email vendors

When I first started doing email marketing way back in the day, I had no idea how different all of the email providers out there were and signed up with the first one that came along.  Big mistake.  The company didn’t really have a scalable product and way overcharged for it.  Within a year, I moved the school I was working at over to Fire Engine Red and never looked back.  Had I taken a more proactive approach to finding the right email service provider the first time around, I would not have had that problem.

Every time you switch email service providers, this costs you money.  You have to spend time demoing, evaluating and then training. Here’s a post I did about selecting an email service provider, so that you can avoid problems like this with your program.

Benchmarking from the industry

I’ve mentioned this several times in various posts but don’t ask what other schools are getting for core metrics like open and click rates!  There are too many unknowns to really make it a solid apples to apples comparison.  Instead of using outside benchmarks, start your own internal benchmarking program and use that to assess whether or not your email strategy is working.

Mismanaging acquisition

For higher ed, this usually isn’t as much of an issue because we have house lists, but simply put, don’t add people to your list unless they have requested to be, and if they ask to be unsubscribed, take them off. It’ll save you money from not having to pay for emails to communicate with people who don’t want to talk to you!

Not understanding social media theory

Email is not a magic bullet to dissemination of information, and adding “forward to a friend” in your message does not make you social media savvy.  Find your institution’s networks online and really make an effort to understand why (or why not!) your constituents are building relationships with you and each other on them.

Continuing to churn the resource pool

You don’t become an email marketing expert overnight, but a lot of places have people in these positions that have never done it before.  It’s just email, right? How hard could it be?  It’s a faulty assumption to think that anyone can walk right into it and understand the medium.

Then there are places at the other end of the spectrum - I’ve seen places who have established email marketing experts on staff, and treat them like dirt to the point where they quit!  Then the program gets handed off to the next person, who probably has little to no experience.  If you have internal people that are really good at this and have been doing it for a while, show them the respect and consideration that  you would want yourself.  You don’t want to lose them.

Bottom Line

For me, it really all comes down to discipline.  Don’t make snap decisions about things and really do your homework. Treat good employees well so they don’t leave you high and dry.  It’s not rocket science folks!

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Like what you read here? Subscribe to this blog through RSS or sign up to receive email updates when new content is posted.

Hire Karlyn: Karlyn is the President & Principal Consultant of DoJo Web Strategy, a consultancy dedicated to helping colleges and universities to utilize the web in their marketing efforts. Find out how she can help your institution by requesting a proposal today »