Is it worth it?
Even as the economy starts to look up, individuals and companies alike are retaining their newfound frugality. This doesn’t just apply to small businesses or state-funded institutions, but large global companies as well. One expenditure that a select few companies are forgoing this year is Super Bowl ads. Even though this year’s audience is supposed to top 100 million, the $2.5 million dollar expense is a huge gamble that the 30-second spot it buys will be memorable enough for the company to recoup the loss.
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The Facebook Edge
Regardless of how you feel about the outcome of this week’s special election in Massachusetts, it’s interesting to note that social media may have contributed to the boost that ultimately gave Scott Brown the advantage over Martha Coakley. The Emerging Media Research Council cites Brown’s social media strategy as a major factor that helped him overcome his lack of finances and low name recognition. The low cost of entry and ease of maintaining a presence on these networks probably made social media an easy choice for the campaign.
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Enrollment Marketing Channel Preferences
Very interesting post today by Tim Copeland at Demand Engine on Enrollment Marketing Channel Preferences from a student’s point of view.
In his post, Copeland highlights one high school student’s preferences when it comes to receiving marketing materials from colleges. Coincidentally, the student’s observations are consistent with the results we’ve seen from a recent poll we conducted regarding channel preferences amongst college students. Almost unanimously, as Copeland’s subject also points out, our poll found that permission and relevance were key regardless of the channel.
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Move Faster In the Cloud
We’ve posted a few times on this blog about Software-as-a-Service and the advantages of Cloud Computing (for example: here and here), but we’re always asked about some of the advantages of using a cloud-based solution over an on premise or traditional hosted application. One of the greatest advantages is that you benefit from rapid innovation and continuous enhancements to your products (usually at no additional cost). That’s right, no waiting months or even years for bug fixes or new features.
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Can You Afford Students?
It’s no secret that powerful economic forces are having a profound impact on colleges, on families, and on the process of students gaining admission to institutions of higher education.
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From the Bottom up
As businesses begin to see the economy turning around, many people are wondering how long our new recession-era habits are going to last. People have cut down on credit card spending, Starbucks and Facebook friends over the past year. Most are thinking it will last- at least in the short term. Technology has changed so much within the past decade, that we need to take a deep breath and reevaluate all of our “stuff.” Listening to NPR a few months ago, one of the commentators remarked humorously that, in contrast with this decade, the only thing that changed in the 70’s was that phones went from rotary to buttons.
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Student Experience Resolutions
Some good food for thought posted today by Forrester Analyst, Bruce Temkin on his blog. He offers up his annual top-ten list of resolutions that companies should consider this New Year. Surprisingly, there’s no mention of losing weight, quitting smoking or better managing their budgets (though that would be a good one).
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