Higher Ed Content and Tasty Cookies

Can it be? One month ago, Rick Allen and I launched Meet Content, hoping to stir up an active dialogue about creating and sustaining effective web content in higher ed. We’ve been humbled and excited by the great feedback, comments, questions and discussions since launch (not just on our site, but also on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn). So we want to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than by… talking about web content in higher ed! (Come on, you must have seen that coming.)

If you’re near Boston, we hope you’ll join us next Tuesday, May 3, at 6:15 p.m. at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD) in Cambridge, Mass., for our launch event, co-hosted with Content Strategy New England. (Please RSVP on our Meetup page.) We’ve pulled together a great panel of local higher ed web content professionals from different corners of the field to share their perspectives on the content challenges and solutions we all face. Say hello to:

Nathaniel Boyle, Web Producer, Boston University
@nathaniel

Having spent a year producing web content for Boston University, Nathaniel encouraged the school to expand its reach into the social space by launching a branded social media presence for the University and its marketing channels. Fortunate to operate in an environment that encourages experimentation, Nathaniel now works with @bostonia, @butoday, and PR to develop relevant and shareable web content. He argues for socializing content to make community more accessible both on and beyond the campus. He sees higher ed institutions having a wellspring for brand enthusiasm and believes the best content has yet to be tapped.

Mike Petroff, Web Manager, Enrollment Management, Emerson College
@mikepetroff

Mike Petroff is the Web Manager for Enrollment at Emerson College in Boston, MA. He leads web marketing and online recruitment efforts for undergraduate and graduate admission. He also chaired the Social Media Group at Emerson, working with about 20 other staff members from a broad range of campus departments to share ideas, implement marketing initiatives, and help people at the college “get” social media. Petroff writes for the award-winning .eduGuru (Internet Marketing and Web Development in Higher Education) blog, covering topics in marketing, social media, admissions and online communities.

Samantha Snitow, Assistant Director, Alumni Relations, Tufts University
@ssnitow

Samantha Snitow is the Assistant Director of Young Alumni and Student Programming at Tufts University. She is responsible for strategically managing the relationships between her constituencies of young alumni, current students and Boston alumni and the University and the Tufts University Alumni Association.

Charna Westervelt, Director of Internal Communications, Wellesley College
@charna

Charna Mamlok Westervelt is a writer and an editor. Since January, she has been the director of internal communications at Wellesley College. Prior to Wellesley, Charna was the director of publications at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and her higher education marketing and communications experience spans the last nine years. A former newspaper reporter, Charna holds a BA in journalism from Ithaca College and an MS in communications management from Simmons College. She freely admits to having a lifelong love affair with the written word.

The hashtag for the event is #meetcontent – if you’re not able to attend, please use this hashtag to submit questions for the panel. Or, if you prefer, submit your questions in the comments below. We’ll try to select a good range for the panelists to address. And of course, we’ll have a wrap-up on the blog as soon as we can (though it may be after Confab, which we’re both attending May 9-11).

Thanks again for reading Meet Content, and if you have any suggestions or feedback for us, just let us know. Sincerely, we’d love your feedback!

Photo by kimberlykv / Flickr Creative Commons