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Posted by Elise Daniel on June 29, 2009 at 10:38 am 

As of midnight Eastern Time today, Facebook began allowing admins of fan pages with 100 or more fans to register for vanity URLs or “usernames,” as Facebook calls them. So, if you’re an admin for a Facebook page, make sure to register your page soon at http://www.facebook.com/usernames to ensure that you get the one you want before it gets taken. There’s a link to “learn more” on that page if you need additional information about this feature.

Usernames have to be at least five characters long and can only contain alphanumeric characters. FYI, they don’t say there’s an upper limit on characters but I was unable to register “UniversityofWashington” so I had to go with “UofWA”—kind of annoying.

While you’re at it, be sure to register your personal Facebook profile too, if you haven’t already.

Posted by Elise Daniel on June 22, 2009 at 10:15 am 

This article on Mashable.com cites the following five companies as examples of how to run a successful Facebook fan page:

1. Pringles
2. Coca-Cola
3. Starbucks
4. Adidas
5. Red Bull

The author concludes: “The key takeaways are that you have to know your audience, you have to provide quality, regular content, you need to encourage discussion and engagement, and you must not take yourself too seriously.”

Posted by Carla Spaccarotelli on June 18, 2009 at 4:17 pm  Posted by Carla Spaccarotelli on June 18, 2009 at 4:15 pm  Posted by Carla Spaccarotelli on June 18, 2009 at 2:57 pm  Posted by Carla Spaccarotelli on June 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm  Posted by Carla Spaccarotelli on June 18, 2009 at 2:47 pm  Posted by Carla Spaccarotelli on June 18, 2009 at 2:44 pm  Posted by Elise Daniel on June 17, 2009 at 12:29 pm 

In case you didn’t see this come through on the CASE Communications listserv, HigherEdExperts.com published the results of a survey it conducted earlier this year about the state of print and electronic publications in higher education. Here’s a caveat of sorts: I participated in this survey, however I found it a bit challenging because it presumed a fairly detailed knowledge by participants of marketing and communications decisions being made in multiple departments: alumni, media relations, admissions, etc. So I ended up giving speculative answers in some cases.

Still, I thought y’all might be interested in their findings. Here are a couple:

• “82% of survey respondents (vs 77% in 2007) state that their institutions are relying more on electronic publications (Web, blog, email, PDF, RSS, etc) to reduce the budget of print publications”
• “There is a significant trend across most publications to have them in electronic format only. The main publication types showing this trend are: Newsletter (43% vs 29% in 2007), Press Kits (21% vs 10%), Financial Aid Handbook (19% vs 8%) and Student Handbook (25% vs 18%).”

Posted by Elise Daniel on June 17, 2009 at 12:13 pm 

For those of you who work with deans, VPs or other “VIPs” who are considering hopping on the Twitter bandwagon, you and they should check out this Mashable.com article. It’s written by the CEO of a “brand engineering” company, whatever that is. In short, the habits he cites are:

1. They are their brand’s conscience
2. They don’t sell – They share
3. They are real human beings (Elise chiming in: This is my personal favorite.)
4. They write well
5. They commit

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