Highlights From the Higher Education Panel

To those who were able to make our Nov. 6 meeting, thanks for joining “Let’s Talk Higher Education.” We’ve provided a couple of highlights from the panel discussion below.

First, a big thanks to our panel members who represented Olympia’s three higher education institutions: Jennifer Fellinger, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Saint Martin’s University; Kellie Braseth, Dean of College Relations at South Sound Community College; and Todd Sprague, Executive Director for Marketing, Communications and College Relations at The Evergreen State College.

Sam Cagle (far left) mediates the higher education panel: Jennifer Fellinger, Todd Sprague and Kellie Braseth.

What are some of the challenges you face and what are your solutions? The panel agreed that getting media attention is increasingly difficult — especially local media attention, which is already quite small. To spread the news:

• St. Martin’s has a student-led “Social Squad” that represents the student voice on the university’s social media channels.
• Evergreen uses systematic email that is delivered to segmented lists and is tracked accordingly. In addition, they use Twitter to reach 2,200 followers, many of whom are members of media.
• SPSCC has experimented with Facebook advertisements with successful outcomes. For as little as $250, an ad campaign can target your audience. You only pay when someone actually clicks through on the ad.

What new thing are you trying now or in the coming months? Social media continues to be the trend:

• St. Martin’s intends to focus on tracking social media engagement and reach.
• Evergreen will further explore online advertising and learn which tools are working best to reach their audience.
• Internally, SPSCC will expand its new Yammer network, which lets colleagues collaborate online without clogging up email.

OCG thanks  Washington Association of Washington School Principals for donating the meeting space.

Please join us next month, Dec. 4 at noon, to discuss “Google Analytics for the Rest of Us” with Niquette Kelcher, web and content strategy manager for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. A meeting to discuss the future of the OCG website will follow the general meeting and last until 2:00. All are welcome.