Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

You'll find more than a hint of the future in "Imagining the Day when the WSJ Print Edition Folds" at adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=110685

A definite lesson for the traditional role of viewbooks is in this speculation.

There isn't a need for detailed news reports (read: detailed factual information) when that is easily available in a more up-to-date form on websites. If you think this is really silly speculation, note that WSJ now has 768,000 paying website customers.

What role for college "viewbooks" as we know them? The writer, Scott Donaton, notes a continued role for "glossy lifestyle monthlies because there's no better delivery system (yet) for their photos and stories." Yes, photos and stories. Plan now to turn your viewbooks into the equivalent of a "glossy lifestyle" publication that tells interesting and real stories about your students with the best photography possible. Do that well and your "viewbook" will have impact no matter how long the recipient has been prowling your website before it arrives.

What do you think? Life for the traditional viewbook? Or on to "lifestyle monthlies"? Add your comment.

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Arizona State is embarked on a program to be "A New American University" that will "redefine higher education in terms of excellence, inclusiveness and impact" and much of the discussion here (many comments on some posts) revolves around that goal.

The blog has been online since December 2005. Competitors will get good insight into the strategic direction planned for ASU if they review what's here.

A special touch... communication from the president's office includes podcast interviews with various ASU people and visitors to the campus about a wide variety of initiatves and accomplishments.

Michael Crow blogs at http://www.michaelcrow.net/

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Teen People magazine, plagued by declining revenue from advertisers withdrawing money from the print world, is closing shop with the September 2006 issue. That follows the closing of the print version of ElleGirl earlier in the year. ElleGirl also continued the Internet version of the magazine.

Read more about it in the AdAge article at http://adage.com/article?article_id=110736 and that's open for public reading for a few more days.

Teen People subscribers slipped from 1.6 million in 2003 to 1.5 million in late 2006 and ad pages had dropped by nearly 15 percent this year.

TeenPeople.com will continue because it shows "promise and growth" according to the Time, Inc. owner. That's the same path taken by ElleGirl.

You can visit Teen People at http://www.teenpeople.com/teenpeople/ and ElleGirl at http://www.ellegirl.com/ to see the future of online teen magazines.

The shift from print to web, of course, isn't limited to teen girls. Major newspapers like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal continue to review their future in print while they bolster their online versions as more people use websites to stay up to date with news events. WSJ has nearly 800,000 paid subscribers to the online version now. Expect that number to grow.

And that reminds me that my latest Newsweek print issue was very thin indeed. Same news, fewer ads.

No grand predictions here but the marketing message seems clear. The shift of resources from print to website communications will continue. We'll have to wait and see where it stops.

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The danger at the ClickZ website is simple... there's so much here that you can easily spend more hours than you planned following the discussions and debates you'll find here.

On my visit the day I typed this, the front page gave me four choices: thoughts by Sean Carton on how much marketers can expect to control the content of social blogs by paying people to post on them, followed by columns on Email Marketing and Online Branding... and then my favorite, "The Myths and Math of SEO" by Mike Grehan.

When you visit, you'll see the opportunity to subscribe to one or more of five newsletters from the front page...  Be sure to "Click for more Newsletters" and go to a page that lists far more choices than I'm willing to count. If you can't find something of interest here, then you probably can't find it anywhere. To be an Internet Marketing Champion on your campus, start reading a few that spark your interest and you'll stay miles ahead of anyone you know that isn't also a ClickZ fan.

If you like statistics, or just need a good supply to impress people, this is absolutely the place to start looking. You'll see the link in the left hand column.

Visit http://www.clickz.com/ and make your choices soon.

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The first entry from a two-year college is at Wenatchee Valley College in Washington, so that makes two presidential blogs for that state. The blog has been up since August of 2005.

Jim Richardson blogs at http://wvcpresident.blogspot.com/

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One on of the popular and important topics in my presentations over the past year has been "Writing for the Web," recently expanded to a new section on writing to improve visibility for search engines.

Start rewriting your text. 

What comes through as strongly as anything else is a growing awareness that improving a website doesn't always mean a comprehensive redesign that can easily cost $150,000 and more, depending on the size of the website. Add to that the time involved and it isn't hard to see why people are also interested in things they can get started on right away and make meaningful improvement.

Take this simple step.

Visit each important page of your website. See how many of those pages present the visitor with a large block of single spaced text, possibly without even space breaks between paragraphs. That's one of the most intimidating things you can use to confront a web visitor. All but the most highly motivated will turn away.

Pay special attention to press releases, messages from presidents and deans, and even the way students present blog entries.

Now do this.

Rank the pages in priority order. Then start breaking long paragraphs into short ones that are not more than about 5 lines long. Then make sure that your sentences are short. In most cases, break long, complex sentences into short ones. Then go back and add at least one subhead visible when the page opens. Craft that subhead so that it flows naturally from the lead topic on the page. Continue adding subheads every few paragraphs.

If you have really important points in that text that you want to make sure make an impression on the visitor, present them as bullet points so that they are almost impossible to miss by someone who is going to quickly scan the content on your page. And if those bullet point topics are likely to be of high interest, link them to more information on the same topic elsewhere on your website.

Continue that process one page at a time through your website. Not long from now you are going to have many more happy visitors than you do now.

Remember this. You can't force anyone to read. Especially on your website. You have just a couple of seconds to deliver a key point that will capture a person's interest.

A perfect page at Smith College?

To see a page that I think is just about perfect in the way it communicates one single point, visit http://www.smith.edu/about_howsmithfeels.php and find out "How Smith Feels" in one quick glance.

Web writing seminar on your campus?

We had a great time at the University of Missouri-Columbia. We can have a great time on your campus. Ask me about web writing seminars at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com

Or join me in August for an online webseminar sponsored by Academic Impressions. Details at https://www.academicimpressions.com/web_conferences/0806-web-writing.php

That's all for now. More soon.

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Dick Celeste blogs at http://www.coloradocollege.edu/welcome/presidentsoffice/blog/

Be sure to scroll down the postings until you find "Facebook Friends"... the president reports he was an early adopter, but adds that now more Colorado College people participate than the college has students... the result of alumni who keep their .edu addresses.

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Blogging isn't just for Millennials. That's the lesson learned from visits to blogs written by college and university presidents. If your president likes to get out in public and meet and mingle in an informal manner, these examples might spark a creative cord.

Remember this... blogs often fare well in search engine visibility... a blog with regular updates and comments is likely to win far more attention than the usual "President's Welcome" found on many websites.

Bill Brown blogs at Cedarville University at http://www.xanga.com/billbrown

Bob Caret blogs at Towson University at http://presidentcaret.org/blog/

Lou Anna K. Simon blogs at Michigan State University at http://president.msu.edu/

Mark Emmert blogs at University of Washington at http://depts.washington.edu/presblog/wordpress/

If you know of other presidents who blog, add them here as comments or send them to me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com

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If you only have time to visit one comprehensive marketing website each week, MarketingProfs.com is the one to pick. Not only will you stay up to date with diverse elements of Internet marketing, you'll also find articles and blog entries that cover branding, research, marketing metrics, advertising, public relations and much more.

Internet marketing topics include email and search engine marketing, website marketing elements, and regular explanations and explorations of podcasts and RSS and similar tools.

I find that the range of contributors here helps keep realistic expecations about what's possible and what's not. MarketingProfs readers are less likely to fall victim to excessive hype about new technology...  and more likely as a result to be effective campus marketing leaders.

Be a marketing champion on your campus. Visit http://www.marketingprofs.com/ 

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What makes law schools more amenable to adopting marketing techniques? From a lunch time conversation today, competition is a motivator. That what one person at today's LSAC meeting described as the motivation for Hamline University... the arrival of a fourth law school in the relatively small Minneapolis area. Makes sense to me... why invest in new communication plans and marketing capability when the marketplace isn't driving you to do it?

Website applications increasing

Most if not all of the law schools have had a rise in applications direct from the website with no previous record of the person making application. In other words, a confirmation that law school are experiencing the same trend as undergraduate admissions people... Millennials are using the websites to learn about possible law schools and getting enough information to at least decide on an initial application pool. And that seems a powerful reason for law school admissions folk to check websites of their competitors and plan how to gain competitive advantage. I'll ask the same question next week to the much larger group headed for the D.C. presentation.

Millennial parents come to law school

Are parents of Millennials involved in law school decisions? Indeed, from the comments of people here. Parents are often joining their children on campus visits and in at least one case, cast a veto for one child because the parent didn't like the location of the school. For the next several years, this involvement is will continue and create new challenges for law school admissions staffs.

Another person reported that parents are asking for information about students progress in law school that privacy law prevents them from revealing. Unless, as another person noted, the parent has a permission note from the student. People are reluctant to encourage this, but at least one felt the trend was inevitable.

Internet marketing not widespread

Overall, law schools measured by the ones present here have not yet added interactive marketing features like blogs, podcasts, and IM contacts to the marketing mix. We'll see if the larger sample next week brings more examples of this. Internet marketing has room to grow.

Bob Johnson

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At last... the first entry in my long planned and often delayed Internet Markting blog.

I'm here in Los Angeles to speak tomorrow to the Law School Admissions Council Summer Workshop on how to best communicate with the Millennial generation students who are now entering law schools. Brian Niles and I created this presentation... I'll do it again next week in Washington, D.C. and Brian will do the last of the sessions in Chicago the week after that.

Website marketing, podcasts, email communications... everything is coming to law school admissions. Can IM be far behind? I'll write more about the topics of highest interest after tomorrow's meeting.

And this question for anyone working with marketing programs for graduate and professional schools that recruit students right after they earn their undergrad degrees. What challenges have you faced in adapting your programs to the Millennial Generation? What experiences have you had with parents who are still helping their children?

How can podcasts can help law schools communicate on the web? Check the Hamline University School of Law "Meet the Experts" page at http://www.hamline.edu/law/admissions/experts

No doubt we'll be seeing many more interactive pages like this before 2006.

Bob Johnson

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