March 2011

Posted by Carlyn Foshee Chatfield on March 11, 2011

March 2011 Virtual Coffee Shop

Professional Development IdeasEducause Events! both regional and annualEducause wiki

• • http://www.educause.edu/wiki/Readings+and+Resources

  • http://www.educause.edu/wiki/Campus+Tools

Online:

• • Lynda.com

  • HP training on Adobe products: www.hp.com/go/learningcenter

Webinars

• • Pay $250 or $500 for an annual subscription, get all the Communications Track training you can handle!

  • http://www.execsense.com/subcategoriesdetails.asp?id=92

  • Their topic next week is one I will tune into or download to watch later: March 18 - Best Practices: How Leading Communications Executives Are Using Internal Communications to Benefit All Aspects of Their Business

Local (probably something similar is available at your university)

• • AP Style Guide Boot Camp (led by Public Affairs writers)

  • Audit a communications course (at Rice, I'm taking Comm 300, Communications in the Digital Age)

  • Executive MBA classes (conflict management, communications, marketing, design for customer experience, etc.)

  • Meet with local customer groups to spread knowledge and learn from your customers (share IT comms knowledge, learn purchasing, HR)

  • HR sponsored professional development

Blogs to follow

• • Mashable

More stuff to read:

• • Steve Krug "Don't Make Me Think"

Customize professional development for what you need most (customer focus, writing, layout design and so on)

Creating an annual plan for your communications team

• • Lay out annual events, constituent groups, communication channels (Case)

  • Get on other event/communication mailing lists (UTEP)

  • Each binder chapter includes what target group reached and notes on the communication or event (Case)

  • Wiki site with IT events/comms (Miami University - Ohio)

  • Track for future plans, ROI, anecdotal summaries

  • Annual Report

  • Web Site

  • Admit Packets

  • Community reports

  • Tech or Vendor Fair (take advantage of high traffic areas)

  • Tools to use for various messages

Social Media

• • Who is using at your campus, form a user group?

  • University Relations/Public Affairs may have policy

  • Social network policy, rules? (photo used on Facebook)

  • Set it up even if you aren't ready to jump in so if/when your IT systems go off-grid, you can still get on Facebook and Twitter