Patrick Powers

There are URL naming structures to consider, keywords to be be added to page titles and the proper prioritization of heading tags in copy. Yet there’s one piece of data that doesn’t factor into most search engine results — the meta description.

In an effort to engage more fans on Facebook, reap more retweets and pin every pretty picture we see, are we in higher education ignoring the digital tactic with the greatest potential for all of us? Meta descriptions, keyword analysis, and inbound links are not sexy phrases often uttered in higher education circles, but perhaps [...]

If the choice falls between shoring up established social properties or jumping on board the fastest growing platform, the decision for higher education may be an easy one. Don’t waste time on Pinterest when Facebook fans are already at the party. Earlier last month Michael Stoner wrote a piece on why Pinterest is “the last [...]

We already had an idea of what we wanted to accomplish on the web, we just needed the right partner, or partners, to help get us there. Webster University last year reached out to OmniUpdate and mStoner who assisted the university as it reworked content management, realigned navigation and re-envisioned what the web at Webster [...]

Creating custom college content on Facebook soon could become little easier. Facebook on Tuesday offered select page administrators a new “Page Post Targeting Enhanced” feature that would allow administrators to target posts based on user-provided information, according a TechCrunch. The new feature increases the post parameters to include age, gender, education, college name, graduation status, [...]

When Facebook earlier this year unveiled its Timeline design for pages, the most visual change was the addition of the cover picture. The large photo space quickly became an opportunity for a brand to make a visual first impression. It was an opportunity not lost on higher education. Colleges and universities have done a great [...]

How do you handle the tough ones — the comments made in anger, the posting that doesn’t quite violate terms of service or the diatribe littered with poor punctuation and no clear direction? As with anything else in social media, it helps to have a plan. Too often people get excited about the possibilities of [...]

It may go against social media convention, but I think Field of Dreams was right. I’ve listened to scores of seminars, sat through just as many webinars and enjoyed many conversations around social media that encourage one to disregard the most memorable line in the movie: “If you build it, he will come.” The line [...]

There is no shortage of available tools aimed at making the life of a social media manager a little bit easier, but are they hurting more than they’re helping? Building a social community takes resources — namely, people and time — and any effort to minimize the role of these resources seems to cause nothing but [...]

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 [...]