Save the Date: 2012 UMCF Annual Conference

When: Thursday, July 26, 2012, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Where: St. Paul Continuing Education and Conference Center

An official save the date will be emailed to all members during fall 2011.

Registration will open early 2012. RSVP on Facebook to view ongoing updates about the conference.

• RSVP on Facebook

Expert Insight Event: Amy Phenix on Thurs., Sept. 15!

Amy Phenix, President Kaler's new chief of
staff, and Diana Harvey, our new chief communications officer, will be
speaking to the Communicators Forum on Thursday, September 15 at 3pm in
STSS
230. Amy's topic will be "Communications as Strategic Partner: Best
Practices." The program will begin promptly at 3 with an opportunity
for socializing afterward. Light appetizers will be from Kafe 421. Please register for this program on the UMCF website.

This program and all other Expert Insight events will be available by UMConnect.

Robert Sevier's Presentation at "Making Our Case"

For those of you who wish to revisit Robert Sevier's breakout session on "Developing an Experience Marketing Strategy," please download this attachment.

2011 - Experience Marketing - Final SG.pdf

2011 Maroon & Gold Awards Recipients

Maroon & Gold awards are presented annually to UMCF members whose work
best embodies the University's core values: excellence,
innovation, integrity, diversity, academic freedom, collaboration,
sharing of knowledge, accountability, stewardship, and
service.

 Congratulations to the 2011 winners, listed below!

CATEGORY: WRITING

• GOLD
  Rebuilding Faces, Rebuilding Lives: Reconstructive Surgeons Give People Another Chance For a Normal Life
  Minnesota Medical Foundation
• MAROON - Short Feature
  
  Alumni Spotlight: Janis Amatuzio M.D.-Adding Compassion to Forensic Pathology
  Minnesota Medical Foundation
• MAROON - Long Feature
  Second Hand: Art That Speaks to Our Relationship to Stuff
  Institute on the Environment
• MAROON - Instructional
  
  Extension Website Governance Guidelines
  Extension Center for Food, Agriculture & Natural Resource Sciences
• MAROON - Script
  About University of Minnesota Extension presentation slides
  Extension Center for Food, Agriculture & Natural Resource Sciences

CATEGORY: MULTIMEDIA

• GOLD
  Promise of the Prairie Documentary
  Morris University Relations
• MAROON - Website
  Student Unions & Activities Website Redesign
  Student Unions & Activities
• MAROON - Video/DVD
  Water for Mulobere
  Institute on the Environment
• MAROON - Coordinated Social Media
  Institute on the Environment
  Facebook, Blog, Twitter, YouTube

CATEGORY: PRINT

• GOLD
  Momentum Magazine, Summer 2010
  
  Institute on the Environment
• MAROON - Multi Sheet
  Enhancing Minnesota
  College of Food, Agriculture & Natural Resource Sciences
• MAROON - Single Sheet
  
  Spring Events Calendar
  Student Unions & Activities
• MAROON - Card
  Kerlan Award Postcard
  University Libraries
• MAROON - Specialty
  University of Minnesota, Morris Vision for Sustainability
  Morris University Relations
• MAROON - Magazine
  Reach Magazine, Spring 2010
  College of Liberal Arts Media & Public Relations

CATEGORY: CAMPAIGN

• GOLD
  Discovery Showcase
  Minnesota Medical Foundation
• MAROON - Informational
  
  25 Years of MnTAP Success
  Minnesota Technical Assistance Program
• MAROON - Promotional
  
  Andersen Horticultural Library Promotional Campaign
  
  University Libraries

CATEGORY: GREEN

• EFANS Connects: A Quarterly Webinar For Employees
  Extension Center for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences

CATEGORY: MARGO

• Extension Program Website Pilot Project
  
  Extension Center for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences

CATEGORY: MIKE

• Andersen Horticultural Library Promotional Campaign
  University Libraries

Volunteer at UROC in North Minneapolis. They need your help.

Not sure if you've been following it, but there's a big effort going on among U of M staffers to help out North Minneapolis in the wake of the tornado. Much of the word has been driven by social media. Find out more on the Brief Facebook page. Here are a few of the most recent updates, viewable in the notes section of Facebook:

May 27 update, 10 a.m.:
Over 100 volunteers again at UROC this a.m.

--City-led long-term recovery committee met at UROC this morning: 45-50 city/county officials and community leaders in attendance (including UROC exec director Heidi Lasley Barajas)

--Outreach team now on the ground on the North Side; Senior VP Jones and Dr. Barajas part of the group.

--One outreach shift tomorrow, May 28 (Saturday)--9 a.m.-1 p.m. Volunteers needed. No van from campus.

--UROC will continue to be involved in tornado recovery efforts next week in a variety of ways. No on-the-ground outreach is planned out of UROC, but UROC staff will refer volunteers wherever they might be needed on the North Side.

May 26, noon update: Reports are coming in that volunteers are running out of food to meet community needs on the north side. Teams are coming across homes and apartment buildings where cupboards are empty and refrigerators full of spoiled food.

Nonperishable food can be dropped off at the UROC building, 2001 Plymouth.

The 2011 Communicators Forum conference is THIS Thursday--don't miss it!

Still haven't registered? Register right now (Yes, right now!) for the conference. Our fantastic keynote this year is John Moe, host of Marketplace Tech Report and the Wits series at the Fitzgerald Theater. We also have an array of fabulous sessions, including Wing Young Huie's session on the University Avenue Project, a session with the Geek Girls, a Burlesque-related session, and much more! The day ends with our much anticipated Maroon and Gold Awards and a reception at the Campus Club.

Hope you all join us at Coffman Union on Thursday, May 12!

Tweet late, email early, and don't forget about Saturday: Using data to develop a social media strategy

At this point in the social media game, there's a lot of pontification being pitched about and not whole lot of the Dragnet ethic. It's hard to say what's what about social media at this point, but this analysis gives a few great pointers. Try them out and see for yourself. A few I'm going to try to ride with:

• Tweet a lot to accumulate as many followers as possible, but if your goal is to drive more traffic to your site, you should show a little more restraint; accounts that share two or more links an hour show a dramatically lower clickthrough rate than those who share no more than one.

• Reach people when the noise of the crowd has died down. It turns out that time is often the afternoons, when blogs and news sites are slower, and the weekend, when they're all but asleep.

• Retweet activity is highest late in the work day, between 2 and 5 p.m., and the sweet spot (tweet spot?) is 4 p.m. Late in the week is most retweetable, too.

Use TweetWhen to analyze your Twitter account to see what time days and times yield the most retweets.

Read the full story at Nieman Journalism Lab.