UM-Flint University Relations

I have never cared much about cars. It’s an odd dichotomy. I owe so much of my comfortable middle-class life to the automotive industry, where so many of my family members spent long hours on an assembly line, and yet, I barely notice anything about cars. As Alanis Morrissette might say, “Isn’t it ironic?” The […]

How many meetings have we all been in when someone talks about promoting an initiative, an event, a program, etc., and the first thing people usually talk about is print materials?  Website marketing is usually mentioned much farther down the list. In University Relations, we have flipped the paradigm.  Web is first.  Web is foremost. […]

I am helping my husband plan his family reunion.  We have immersed ourselves in nostalgia, going through old photo albums, connecting with Aunt Hazel’s kids on Facebook, and remembering the unique family history that only members in that exclusive club can appreciate. As part of the fun, we are trying to create a feeling of […]

Having recently returned from the 2010 eduWeb Conference in Chicago, I’m feeling energized! I was sure that I would come back with great ideas for search engine optimization (SEO) or tips for website redesign projects. And I did. There were great presentations about brand messaging online, SEO, social media, web development, and more. The biggest take-away […]

Social Media Facts and Figures Below, a summary of our social media efforts in the month of July. Our Audience: The UM-Flint Twitter page (@umflint) has grown to 473 followers. In June, UM-Flint’s Facebook fan page gained 124 fans (up to 3,791 from 3,667). The UM-Flint YouTube channel’s videos had now been viewed over 38,598 […]

If you walk by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, you will notice the new furniture, and all of the people sitting on the new furniture.  The reason is simple:  August is the season for transfer students at UM-Flint. In celebration of the season of people transferring to the fastest-growing public university in the state, we […]

Last time we outlined the form and function of the homepage slider feature, shared some examples of the type of stories we aim to tell, and suggested some ways in which individuals and departments can assist in identifying and creatively gathering content for such stories. This time we will discuss the game plan for additional […]

If you are not measuring ROI, you may want to consider a marketing lifestyle makeover.

The most powerful communication, marketing, and customer service tool within all of higher education is the university website. Before they set foot on campus, receive recruitment material in the mail, or talk to an admissions counselor, perspective students first visit the websites of the schools they are considering. Online, the university website is the university.

I’ll be the first to say that I’m not an illustrator, nor am I a classically trained designer, however that does not mean that I can’t draw.  Humans by nature are visual thinkers, which historically can be shown by the cave paintings in Lascaux in France.  Drawing allows us to present the ideas in our head to […]