Web Works

Yesterday evening, I logged into the recently-created @TexasInnovation twitter account I run and received a startling, but fun, discovery–this message:

“New! Lists. A great way to organize the people you follow and discover new and interesting accounts. (BETA)

Lists are timelines you build yourself, consisting of friends, family, co-workers, sports teams, you name it. You’re part of a small group receiving this feature, so don’t tweet about it yet.”

Notice they didn’t say not to blog about it. And, um, notice they didn’t tell you all not to tweet about it. Ahem. I mean, if you wanted.

I am actually excited about this new feature, but am not sure how it might change things. Wanting to try it out, though, I went with my first instinct, which was to create a “McCombs” Twitter subscription list, so that people could subscribe to all of the school’s official tweets with the click of a button.

Here’s how the beta version seems to work (series of screen shots follows - click on any image for a bigger view):

The Announcement I received upon logging in. Hello, TwitList!

Creating the new list...you can make the list public or private.

Searching for a user to add to the list...

Adding the user to my list (you can select which list to add them to from a drop down menu).

My new list shows up highlighted in the right-hand side...

You can see how things look from the subscriber-side by going to @TexasInnovation and poking around.

The tech side of things seems basic enough. Now what to use the lists for? Ideas? Let us know in the comments what you plan to do with yours.

Tracy Mueller, with whom I published the Texas Magazine, gathered a brown-bag lunch recently for people around campus interested in how we put a magazine online using Wordpress. We had at least a dozen people and a bunch of questions so she followed it up with some blog posts of her own elaborating on the process.

Thanks to Tracy for all of this information sharing and community support. I’ll publish some tech FAQs next week. Here are two excerpts from Tracy’s articles with links to the full posts at her blog.

Mashable published three great social media policies to steal from.

Kodak on transparency:

Even when you are talking as an individual, people may perceive you to be talking on behalf of Kodak. If you blog or discuss photography, printing or other topics related to a Kodak business, be upfront and explain that you work for Kodak; however, if you aren’t an official company spokesperson, add a disclaimer to the effect: “The opinions and positions expressed are my own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Eastman Kodak Company.”

Intel on moderation:

The Good, the Bad, but not the Ugly. If the content is positive or negative and in context to the conversation, then we approve the content, regardless of whether it’s favorable or unfavorable to Intel. However if the content is ugly, offensive, denigrating and completely out of context, then we reject the content.

IBM on Social Media Value:

If it helps you, your coworkers, our clients or our partners to do their jobs and solve problems; if it helps to improve knowledge or skills; if it contributes directly or indirectly to the improvement of IBM’s products, processes and policies; if it builds a sense of community; or if it helps to promote IBM’s Values, then it is adding value. Though not directly business-related, background information you choose to share about yourself, such as information about your family or personal interests, may be useful in helping establish a relationship between you and your readers, but it is entirely your choice whether to share this information.

I hope to use (and cite) these for McCombs’s purposes. Any thoughts on how/if they need to be modified for the McCombs School?

The following borrows heavily from Chip & Dan Heath’s Made to Stick (specifically pages 89–93). The concept itself is nothing new, however, the idea and its implications are unique to McCombs and its website.

In the 1960s, ABC signed a contract to televise college football games nationally. This was a previously unheard of notion, as college football was a parochial game. Why would Longhorn fans care about an Ohio State game? And why would an Alabama fan ever watch a game from Corvallis, Oregon? Roone Arledge, a young up-and-comer at ABC, had an answer, and he wrote it in a memo:

“Heretofore, television has done a remarkable job of bringing the game to the viewer—now we are going to take the viewer to the game!”

He goes on to explain that the problem is context. You have to give the viewer a sense of space, history, and perspective. Only when they understand the game in its context will they care about who actually wins it. In short, you have to fill in the gaps between what they know and what they don’t know.

Applied to McCombs, we have done a decent enough job bringing McCombs to our users. We have failed to bring our users to McCombs. In terms of imagery and language, we don’t give our users enough context to show them how they will fit into the school. We miss the opportunity to let them see themselves in our environment and explore it, and in turn become comfortable in it. This is an important psychological opportunity missed as they decide which school to go to.

Take for example, the first time you visit a restaurant or bar. You walk in the door and immediately look around, trying to orient yourself. Is there a host? How are the tables arranged? Is it quiet? Loud? What’s the decor like? You begin to make some choices that affect whether or not you like the place. Over time, you become familiar, and you don’t even bother looking around. The place has become familiar and comfortable.

I argue that we have an opportunity to make people familiar and comfortable with McCombs before they get here, while they are deciding which college to attend. To do that we have to give them some context. Certainly, the school visit gives a prospective student some context, but could the visit be enhanced if the student were already familiar with the surroundings and people, allowing them to spend less time acquainting themselves with McCombs, and more time asking questions relevant specifically to them, and in turn becoming more and more comfortable with the school.

Going back to Made to Stick, we have to fill in the gaps between what they know and what they don’t know. We do a good job of talking about our rankings and our programs and departments. That’s the stuff most students can learn with a minimal amount of research. It’s also not a tremendous differentiator. We need to give our prospective students all that info up front and be honest about it: “Here’s what you know, but now let us show you what you don’t know.” That’s when we knock their socks off.