Eric Stoller's blog

Social Media and the Senior Student Affairs Officer (SSAO)
Educate, Engage, and Energize Students

With the rapid growth of social media and accompanying surge in online activity, particularly among university and college students, student affairs staff are using the latest technologies to engage students and forge stronger ties to programs, services, and events. Increasingly, senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) are building their own communities and initiating important conversations through a variety of social media sites. This article provides an overview of social media and how it can help student affairs make and keep vital connections. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, Delicious doesn’t really have a taste per se…it’s a website. However, users of the site were pleased to find out this week that Yahoo! had sold Delicious:

“Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.”

If you’re wondering why the sale of Delicious is important, feel free to surf over to a blog post that I wrote for Inside Higher Ed. I currently have more than 3,800 bookmarks in Delicious. It is my brain’s external hard drive. I use Delicious to keep track of a variety of sites that I come across.

When it was announced last year that Yahoo! might be closing down Delicious, I was devastated. The news this week is terrific because it means that Delicious should be available for several more years. For users of Delicious, the utility of the site is tremendous. Long live Delicious!

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be giving the closing keynote at the NASPA Western Regional Conference in San Diego. The title of my talk is “Taking Strategies to Practice: Student Affairs and Social Media“:

We “get” Facebook. Some of us are even on Twitter. Do you YouTube? So what’s next? How do we create community and connections using social media? Student Affairs practitioners are developing amazing ways to use social media to enhance their practice and reach their strategic goals. Let’s tweet, update, and create!

Ryan Masin, a graduate student in the College Student Development program at OSU (Oklahoma State University), asked me to answer several question about higher education, student affairs, and social media. We spent 45 minutes chatting about everything from the ubiquity of Facebook to how social media will influence student development theory.

Ryan and I first met at the NASPA Annual Conference during my social media unsessions.

@EricStoller this should certainly be an interesting interview! The irony of using #satech for an interview surrounding the subject matter!

April 14, 2011 8:57 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@RyanCMasin

Ryan Masin

Leslie Dare, Director of Student Affairs Technology Services at NC State University, came on to chat about student affairs technology and higher education graduate programs. Leslie drank her very first Red Bull on the show in my honor! Once again, we had an amazing turnout on Twitter. The #SAlive comments and questions poured in for well over an hour. Leslie and I talked at length about how we can encourage our fellow student affairs practitioners to be bold when it comes to experimenting with technology.

I was tempted to call this post “Episode 4 – A new hope.”

Laura Pasquini came on the show to talk about Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and how she uses them to eliminate the “silo” mentality in higher education. Laura is a great friend/colleague. I always learn a lot whenever we chat.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a busy week for yours truly…I made an unscheduled appearance on the BreakDrink.com Student Affairs Podcast, broadcast the first ever live episode of Student Affairs Live, and was interviewed in a podcast on StudentAffairs.com. I’ll be at the 2011 NASPA Annual Conference from Saturday through next Wednesday. I’m excited that I get to put on two student affairs social media unsessions at the conference. I can’t wait to blog, tweet, and record as much of the event as I can.

At about the 12:25 mark, I called in to chat about the proposed NASPA + ACPA consolidation:

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I had a great time chatting with Stuart Brown of StudentAffairs.com about student affairs technology and social media:

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Yesterday’s first episode of Student Affairs Live with Ed Cabellon went amazingly well. Ed, as always, rocked with insightful commentary / answers and the #SAlive backchannel on Twitter was super active. According to the stats, we had 70 viewers of the live broadcast! More than 270 tweets were posted to the backchannel. Overall, an amazing debut for the show. Student Affairs Live is part of the Higher Ed Live network and is sponsored by Inigral.

The next live show will be on Wednesday, March 23rd at 1:00PM PT with Laura Pasquini. Laura will be talking about Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and the End of Silos in Higher Education.

Here are some of the top tweets from yesterday’s show:
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m excited to announce that I will be leading two “unsessions” at the 2011 NASPA Conference. I’ll be facilitating two separate conversations. The first unsession will focus primarily on Twitter best-practices for professional development as well as how to use Twitter to connect with students. The second unsession is for folks who are ready to have a conversation about advanced social media tactics, strategies, and implementations. See you in Philly!

Twitter 202: Beyond #hashtags, @lists, and RTweets

Tuesday, March 15
9:30 AM – 10:15 AM
115 – B – Convention Center

Although only recently picked up by the general population, Twitter is now commonplace for individuals wanting to get breaking news. But Twitter is more than finding out what people are eating or the latest gossip. Attendees of this unsession should come prepared to share how they utilize Twitter in their professional development, as well as best practices for connecting with students. Please note, attendees of this unsession will benefit most if they already have a basic understanding of Twitter.

Social Media: Advanced uses, tips, and strategies for SA Pros

Tuesday, March 15
2:00 PM – 2:45 PM
115 – B – Convention Center

Social Media sessions have been highlights of student affairs conferences for several years. It’s now time to talk about how we have been using the tools in strategic ways to communicate and create connections with our students. This unsession will be a facilitated conversation for members of the community to share their social media best practices and advanced techniques for using social media to enhance their professional “tech-deavors”. Be ready to chat, share, and learn about advanced uses of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube…a.k.a. “The Big 3.”

In addition to the two social media unsessions that I’m leading, there are two other must-attend sessions:

Social Media, Enriched Professional Development and the Future of Student Affairs

Coordinating Presenter: Mamta Accapadi
Monday, March 14
9:30 AM – 10:15 AM
115 – B – Convention Center
Social Media is not just a way to reconnect with friends from your past or share what’s going on in your day in less than 140 characters. Social media, especially with regards to professional development, is also a fantastic way to connect with colleagues and delve deeper into conversations. Attend this session, facilitated by author of the Leadership Exchange article Integrating Technology into your Daily Routine, to discuss ways to enhance your professional development capacity here in Philadelphia and beyond.

Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Film (YouTube): Facilitating familiarity through social media

Coordinating Presenter: Nathan Victoria
Monday, March 14
3:45 PM – 4:30 PM
115 – B – Convention Center
A little more than five years ago, all of the social media channels listed above did not exist. Now, these channels are used constantly to form connections and market to our student bodies. Attend this unsession to share your best practices around these social media channels, as well as have conversations about challenges you are facing.

The campus auxiliary services social media and marketing short course that I created and presented for NACAS is now available for sale.

Are you or your staff tasked with managing or leveraging your organization’s social media / marketing ventures?

Social media is no longer an add-on for campus auxiliary marketers. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are now part of the traditional marketing mix. This two-part short course will teach you how to successfully leverage social media tools, mobile apps, and location-based services for sustainable auxiliary services marketing.

You’ll learn the latest strategies for creating a social media listening station and will learn how to effectively utilize: Facebook Places, Twitter Fast Follow, Foursquare, YouTube, SCVNGR, and QR Codes.

There were 64 institutions that signed up for the live webinar and over 500 total attendees. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The questions that I received from participants were tremendous. The short course is 2 hours of strategy combined with auxiliary services specific social media and marketing information.