Patrick Powers

Mention Google+ in a room filled with people managing and monitoring social media in higher education and wait for the snickers to start. They laugh because, while they all have accounts and occasionally login to update them, they are keenly aware of the perception that no one actually uses it. Their target audiences — namely [...]

The social media landscape is littered with casualties, deserted Facebook pages and abandoned Twitter accounts set up to be the savior of a brand. Walls without posts. Albums without photos. Brands without a fan. Most often these accounts fail for one reason: They failed to set a goal in the first place. Goals focus attention, [...]

It took a while but it appears Google+ is open for business. Google on Monday unveiled its pages feature that allows organizations — including institutions of higher learning — to create brand personas and engage with the more than 40 million people already using Google+. It’s about time. The Google+ platform is a slick one, [...]

There’s a scene in the 1983 classic “Mr. Mom” when new stay-at-home dad Jack Butler attempts to drop off his kids at school. It’s a simple task, really, but as his kids and others are quick to point out, he’s doing it wrong. When it comes to location-based services and how we employ them in [...]

It’s all about the A-B-C’s in education, why should resources for higher education professionals be any different?

If I’ve learned anything from two weeks spent playing around in Google+, it’s that when it becomes available, this service can work for higher education.

It may be just another web-based e-mail application, but when it’s a web-based application coming from Facebook it can’t be ignored. Facebook later today is expected to unveil its latest application. The development could effectively change higher education and the way students and faculty share information, providing a rich exchange of communication that blurs the [...]

When I was in college I know I didn’t call nearly enough to appease my mother. I had friends to meet and parties to attend. Who had time to answer or return phone calls. But don’t worry, moms, you now have the power of Google Voice on your side. Google’s new Google Voice gives users [...]

When Google started to slowly parse out invitations to become a Google Wave user, I was hooked. I absolutely NEEDED an invite. So I spent weeks spamming friends and pleading on Twitter: “Please, please, please invite me to use this product.” I felt like I was begging to sit at the cool table in a [...]