creative medEA

As someone who manages a .edu website, I love this creative spin on the March Madness bracket. The folks at edustyle.net (an awesome inspiration resource for campus web managers) have created a bracket that skips basketball and instead focuses on the athletic websites of the competing schools. (If you are excited about this, then you have definitely come to the right blog.)

Vote on the daily matchups, get some inspiration, and may the best design win!

We've all been there, scanning office resources trying to find the perfect eye-catching visual for an upcoming presentation. These fun options just might save the day!

Prezi put together a list of free graphics resources, and, simply put, they are pretty awesome. From vintage to vector, these graphics are bound to make your next study abroad pre-departure orientation that much more attention-grabbing.

Tip: Some of these resources email you a free packet of photos each week or month, sign up early to start building your graphics resources.

I recently had the opportunity to sit behind the scenes with the facilitators of a live Twitter chat, and I gained some great insight into coordinating a successful online discussion.

One neat tool they used was Haghtagify.me, a website that provides data on hashtag popularity, correlations, and usage patterns.

For example here is a chart of the related hashtags for #studyabroad:

Whether you are preparing a social media post or hosting a live Twitter chat, it helps to know what conversations are already happening around the topic. This information can help you identify common themes for Twitter users that tag #studyabroad in their posts, and can help you discover relevant hashtags for future posts. 

Hashtagify.me also identifies top influencers for each hashtag. Following these users on Twitter can give you a better idea of how they are effectively using these tags in their posts.

Quality visual content can transform even the simplest website. So I wanted to share one of my favorite websites for taking photos to the next level. PicMonkey.com is extremely user friendly, and offers a wide variety of photo editing tools. From simple cropping and resizing to the ability to add unique filters, pattern overlays, and text, a few clicks on PicMonkey can make a world of difference for your photos. They even have a tutorial for newbies to photo editing. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a graphic designer, but here is a sample of how you can have some fun with PicMonkey.

Before:

After:

As someone who always has an eye out for unique content, I was excited to come across this article on the career resource levo.com. The subject caught my attention as something that might be interesting for returned study abroad students, but I also liked that the author leveraged the relevancy of a popular television show, Homeland, to broaden the appeal of their content. Although it may seem challenging to stay ahead of the curve and pair your content with relevant social or cultural events, it can be a creative way to tap into mainstream social media trends and spark conversations with new audiences.

Since things are winding down for the holidays I thought I would just share something fun today. As many of you know, I manage the Twitter account for the Monterey Institute of International Studies (@MIIS). It is one of my favorite things about my job. Of course, I always double, triple, even quadruple check my content for typos before posting. Well, today I accidentally published a typo, but the resulting discovery was a fun surprise:

Meet Stealth Mountain: 

The first five minutes of this video could truly change how you structure the content you share online. Marie Forleo interviews social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk on the theories behind his social media strategy, and why the balance between giving and asking is so critical.

The main page of your website is your most important real estate. In addition to the design, content, and navigation, lots of thought needs to go into the layering and organization of the information you convey to visitors.

This infographic from hotcoursesabroad.com provides valuable insight into the criteria and factors students consider when researching and selecting programs. Using data like this is one way you can evaluate how well your website addresses the primary interests of your audience.

Some food for thought:

Using this data to evaluate your website, does the information you provide on your website match the information that your audience is seeking?

Does the structure of your landing page accommodate researchers with different priorities? (ie. program location, subject area, etc.)

Infographics are a great way to organize data in an engaging format. How are your study abroad students distributed around the world? What are the trends within your international student population? An infographic could be the perfect way to share this data, but building one may seem like a daunting task. That's why we were so excited to discover Easelly, a website that has all the tools to help you make a successful infographic. Watch their video for a better idea of what Easelly can do:

What international education data stories you can share through infographics? For some inspiration, check out this great infographic from GoAbroad.com!

We've probably all heard the phrase "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Well, in the social media world this phrase could be adapted to "a strategic piece of content is worth one hundred random ones." Maybe that phrase isn't as catchy, but the point is that taking the time to analyze which content gets the most engagement will help you learn how to better connect with your audience.

With everything going on in the world of International Education, finding the time to share any content at all may feel like a success. However, if we could give one piece of advice, it would be to take ten minutes at the beginning of each week and think about the content you shared that was most successful the week before. Challenge yourself to listen to your audience and share content that truly interests them.

Where to start? Here's a quick checklist from Twitter that shares some tips for taking stock of your account.

We've mentioned whiteboard animated videos before, and now we found a fun site lets you make one for free! Explee lets you use preloaded animations or upload your own pictures and text to animate a custom whiteboard video. You can even add music from their free library and record your own audio. Free videos are limited in length, but check out the quick Creative MedEA Explee we made!

We came across this helpful article on #GivingTuesday that shares four simple ideas for focusing your message and strengthening the impact of your communications. Make a four point checklist out of this article and see if your communications are effectively connecting your audience to your organization.

Do you host online predeparture orientation sessions? How about virtual advising hours? Google Hangouts can be a simple way to connect with your students when they aren't able to meet with you face to face. You can even host an "on-air" Google Hangout that can be broadcasted to an unlimited number or participants and automatically transformed into a YouTube video for students to reference afterwards. This format could be useful when you have students or presenters logging in from around the world.

This helpful article by Shelley Hitz, of Training Authors, gives an overview of using the "on-air" feature of Google Hangouts to host webinars.

I recently discovered Notegraphy, and have been having a lot of fun testing out this relatively new platform. The concept is simple, you take a bit of text, add a template, and quickly have a beautiful piece of content to share. This platform is great for making quotes more visual, and the final product can be easily shared to Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, and Tumblr. 

With everything going on in the world of international education, it's not always easy to find time for extra reading. However, reading up on broader strategies for your online content can save you time in the long run. For some perspective on creating online content that is worth sharing, consider Contagious by Jonah Berger. You can also subscribe to download a free workbook that walks you through the steps of defining and fortifying your message to maximize your social impact.

This week's Friday Feature is the IES Abroad Study Abroad Film Festival. It's a great idea and we wanted to highlight three unique aspects of this film festival: 

1) Deadline: At first glance it might seem surprising that the film festival has an August 2014 deadline. However, the neat thing about this far off deadline means that students studying abroad over the next year will have the opportunity to capture footage with the film festival in mind. Also, it gives plenty of time to spread the word and get students excited about the project.

2) Voting: After the initial finalists are selected by a jury, online voting will begin. This is a great way to involve the online community and encourage students to promote the films they submitted.

3) Prize: $1,000 is a great incentive for students to capture the best footage possible while abroad. Additionally, a strong video can be a great piece of content for their professional portfolio. However, and perhaps most importantly, videos can be a great way for students to reflect on their experience abroad and spread the message to future students.

What happens when big minds meet Google research? Think Insights. Meet the education researcher, or eduSearcher, and get to know the path they take when seeking your institution. This information can also inform us about the international education researcher, and give us insight into how they interact with our online presence.