Dueling University TV Ads

A couple of weeks ago I introduced the SMUG Super Bowl TV ad:    

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_WIBoEf730] 

This morning I saw a commercial that captures some of the same rationale behind SMUG:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e50YBu14j3U]

But I’ll bet Kaplan actually charges tuition!

I know they paid a lot more both for production and distribution.

Education needs to be more about learning what you need, when you need it. That’s the SMUG (and apparently Kaplan) philosophy.

Florida Hospital Association SMUG Extension Course

I’m delighted to be in Orlando today for a SMUG extension class, presenting a workshop for the Florida Hospital Association’s Florida Society for Healthcare Public Relations & Marketing (FSHPRM) at their Winter professional development workshop. My presentation runs from 12:30-2 EST.

The slides I’m using are embedded below. I’m told there will be wifi in the room, so I’m hoping many of the participants can take the opportunity to add their comments and questions even during the presentation, either in the comment section on this post or by tweeting using the #fhasmug hashtag.

We’ll see if we can address some of the questions and comments at the end of the presentation, but if any SMUGgles are following along remotely and want to chime in with your observations, you’re most welcome to participate.

A Few Resource Links:

Homework

Understanding that we likely have a wide range of social media familiarity among the workshop participants, I’ve outlined some options for your concrete action steps to make your the learning practical for you. I’m starting with basics and moving to more complicated or involved steps. Just go down the list and pick at least one thing you haven’t yet tried.

  1. Join Facebook. Facebook 102 would be a great place to start. You can request to join the FSHPRM group so you can all network and learn together. And of course I hope you’ll join the SMUG group, too.
  2. Get a Twitter account. Twitter 102 will take you through the process step-by-step. I have a bunch of courses yet to be added in the Twitter curriculum, but there are a few there to get you started, and you can follow me (@LeeAase) and/or @SMUG_U to keep up to date.
  3. Start a personal blog. Blogging 108 gives you the guidance you need.
  4. Try Yammer. Yammer is like Twitter for the workplace, and is limited to people who share your email domain. The Yammer curriculum has more background, but Yammer 101 gets you started.

If you’re one of those really risk-averse types who needs to completely scope out a situation before joining, you have two additional options:

  1. Begin the Core Courses, which are kind of the SMUG appetizer sampler platter. They’ll give you a hands-on taste of social media. Or, you can…
  2. Start the Podcasting curriculum, which takes you in 10 steps from an introduction to the podcast to having your own personal podcast listed in the iTunes store, all without spending any money. You can complete the first two courses without having to take any concrete action.

Finally, I hope you’ll enroll in SMUG so you can continue your social media exploration as a SMUGgle.

And if you’re on LinkedIn and would like to connect in that way (or perhaps leave a recommendation for me), that would be great, too. Here’s my public profile on LinkedIn.

SMUGgle Testimonials

It’s immensely satisfying for me when SMUGgles take the plunge and start a blog or a podcast, or launch a Facebook page for their organizations. Makes it all worthwhile.

And when they decide to say nice things about SMUG in one of their first posts, it’s even better!

In My Social Media Communications Compendium, which she started on Saturday, Nancy Pricer says she’s “feeling SMUG,” and here’s an excerpt.

For years I have been an active participant in several listservs relating to my job. Last fall an e-mail sent out by Roger Johnson of Newswise mentioned Lee Aase, the manager for Syndications and Social Media at Mayo Clinic.

In the e-mail, he promoted a place for PR folks to learn the social media landscape. Lee had created his own university, Social Media University, Global (SMUG), and named himself the chancellor. Students are called SMUGgles.

For months I had been trying to get a handle of the social media landscape, but was overwhelmed by various outlets, technologies, my full time job (and commute), two teenagers (they are really very good though), a loving husband, housework–you get the idea. I could not seem to take a chunk of time all at once and break the learning down piece by piece.

When I went to the SMUG Web site, I was impressed with the organization. Lee breaks it down in to categories like, Blogging 101, Blogging 102, Twitter 101, etc.

It was just what I needed to get going.

I’m  not exactly fishing for compliments, but I certainly appreciate them. If you, like Nancy, would like to help spread the word about SMUG, you could:

  1. Write a blog post about your experience (and maybe even start a blog so you have a place to do it!)
  2. Pass along some of your favorite courses to your friends using the ShareThis button at the bottom of each post. You may, for instance, decide to send the SMUG Super Bowl ad to your friends or Tweet about it.
  3. Write a recommendation on LinkedIn.
  4. Tell your SMUG story in the comments on this post.

OK, so maybe I am fishing for compliments.

But I’ll at least rationalize it somewhat by pointing out that Nancy is happily blogging today and has established a Facebook fan page for the university where she works (a real-life one, not a virtual university like SMUG) because Roger Johnson took the time to recommend SMUG to those on his email listserv.

If you know people who might appreciate the opportunity to systematically learn about social media tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, podcasting, YouTube and whatever comes next, I hope you’ll do like Roger (and now Nancy) and turn them on to SMUG.

SMUG Super Bowl Ad and Social Media ROI

Here’s the Super Bowl Ad you didn’t see on NBC:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_WIBoEf730]

Among the reasons for this omission:

  • The ad 34 seconds long, instead of the customary 30;
  • I was about $2.6 million short of the cash required to pay for the airtime; and
  • I created it during the Super Bowl today.

One of the ironies of social media is that everyone asks about the ROI, or return on investment. It’s an understandable question, but one of the points I make in presentations is that as I (investment) approaches zero, ROI approaches infinity, because it is calculated as follows:

ROI = benefits/costs

My cost of producing this stellar Super Bowl ad wasn’t exactly zero, but it was zero out-of-pocket. I already had invested $150 in the Flip video camera used to record it, and the production took a bit of my time and attention as I enjoyed the game .

I expect the benefits to be non-monetary as well, measured mainly in the satisfaction of getting more people involved in exploring social media. I hope you will use the ShareThis tool below to pass this post (with its embedded ad) along to your friends and co-workers who might benefit from becoming a SMUGgle, and invite them to enroll. I think it captures the essence of SMUG in a brief video snippet (but how did I manage to leave Blogging out?!)

Then we’ll see what happens to the SMUG enrollment, currently at 261 members of our Facebook group.

Updated: I originally had embedded the ad in the Facebook player, but I’m wondering whether that might be responsible for a SMUG slowdown, so I took that version down, at least for now. But you can see the higher-resolution Facebook version in the SMUG Facebook group.

Updated 2/3/09: Here’s the same video in a Blip.TV player. Another post coming on the topic of video players soon: