This document provides an annual progress report on online engagement at Bates College from 2008. It discusses the context and motivation for improving online engagement, including feedback from various campus groups. Common themes from discussions included making the online presence more dependable, intuitive, helpful, interesting, and personalizable. The report outlines a strategy and blueprint to deepen engagement through universal ideas and personalized interactions. It also discusses activities undertaken in 2008 to enhance the social media presence and support for online media from various departments on campus.

1. Online Engagement at Bates
ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT — 2008
Jay Collier• www.batesmedia.net
January 24, 2009

2. TODAY
Agenda
• Context and motivation — 5 minutes
• Collective vision — 5 minutes
• Strategy and blueprint — 5 minutes
• Current activities — 5 minutes

3. Context and motivation

4. Collective vision

5. WINTER-SPRING 2008
Listening sessions
• Advancement staff • Media relations staff
• Alumni Council • Parents (Maine)
(San Francisco)
• Parents (NYC)
• Academic Affairs
• Students (open session)
• Academic area
coordinators • Students (residential
staff)
• Arts steering
committee • Web oversight group
• Academic Affairs • Web roundtable
(campus editors)
• Admissions

6. SPRING 2008
Common themes
• Be dependable – anywhere, any time, any device
• Be intuitive – simple publishing, searching, finding
• Be helpful – helpful information and instructions
• Be interesting – appealing, personal, immersive
• Be personalizable – up to date feeds on personal interests
• Be welcoming – online spaces for collaboration
• Be meaningful – insight into what matters to you

8. Strategy and blueprint

9. SUMMER 2008
Process: sustainable success
1. READY
Determine executive sponsor. Define
success. Confirm staff and budget.
Brainstorm possible paths.
2. STEADY
Build strategy. Create plan of action.
3. GO
Commit to the plan of action. Do the
work. Have fun. Evaluate the work
against the definition of success.
4. REPEAT
Return & improve. Have fun.

10. SUMMER 2008
Vision: online engagement
• Help Bates people connect with each other,
across roles — student, faculty, staff, alumni —
on campus or off.
• Help people connect with the ideas that
interest them the most: scholarship, research,
narratives, events, places, groups, and service.
• Draw constituents and friends into a satisfying
and deepening lifelong experience of Bates
that reflects and expresses core values.
• Make online Bates ultimately portable, so that
people can participate from anywhere,
anytime.

11. SUMMER 2008
Blueprint: toward connection
• Start with powerful
FROM
universal ideas.
Powerful, universal
• Deepen involvement ideas
toward greater Ambivalence to
commitment: Awareness to
ambivalence and Interest to
Participation to
awareness toward
Commitment
participation and
commitment. TOWARD
Personalized
• Ultimately: build interactions
relationships.

12. SUMMER 2008
Blueprint: depth The most universal messaging
• Start with universal, persuasive TELLING THE BATES STORY
Publishing to global audiences
messaging.
• Learn what’s happening in areas NEWS, EVENTS, UPDATES
of interest to you. Informing interested people
• Visit public collaboration spaces
and participate in the creation of LEARNING COLLABORATIONS
Creating knowledge together
new knowledge.
• Make exchanges of value SERVICES & TRANSACTIONS
through online transactions. Exchanging value
and commitment
• Build personal relationships.
The most
personalized
interactions

13. SUMMER
Blueprint: shift perspective
• Functional perspective • Engagement perspective
Powerful, universal ideas Powerful, universal ideas
TELLING THE BATES STORY TELLING THE BATES STORY
NEWS, EVENTS, UPDATES NEWS, EVENTS, UPDATES
LEARNING LEARNING
COLLABORATIONS COLLABORATIONS
SERVICES &
SERVICES & TRANSACTIONS
TRANSACTIONS
Personalized Personalized
interactions
interactions

14. SUMMER 2008
Blueprint: continuity
• This deepening of General
engagement continues Public
from recruitment for life.
Prospective Prospective Corporations,
• Each time a Bates person Students
Faculty & Foundations
or partner enters a new Staff & Families
role, they begin a new
phase of engagement. Current Current Philanthropic
Faculty & Students, Partners
• Continuity is important at Staff & Families
those potential “speed
bumps.”
Alumni &
Friends

15. SPRING–WINTER 2008
Support for online media
• Career Services committed a
full-time permanent position;
recruiting in final stages
• Student team in Online Media
Group helped develop
prototypes to demonstrate
what can be
• Advancement funded a
“surgical” overhaul of the
home site, to improve first
impressions

16. Current activities

17. ALL YEAR
Social media presence
• Facebook fan page & groups (3/07)
• Flickr group pool (6/07)
• WordPress and Feedburner (4/07)
• YouTube channel and videos (6/07)
• GoogleMaps and Docs (4/08)

24. Build connections
Share knowledge
Sustain for a lifetime

25. Thank you
Thank you for your continuing partnership.
More information: www.batesmedia.net