Consulting, Speaking, and Writing in the United Kingdom

Eric Stoller speaking to 1200 people at the NODA Annual Conference

Thrilled to be able to announce that I am now able to work in the United Kingdom as a higher education consultant. My wife and I relocated to London and are loving life in a new country/city. Looking forward to continuing to work with clients in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Higher education in the United Kingdom is in an interesting place when it comes to social media / digital identity and I hope to continue building upon the work that I’ve been doing in North America for the past decade.

Family Weekend at the University of Miami

Eric Stoller speaking at the University of Miami

People often ask me what I do for a living. Realizing that I probably don’t tell that part of my story very well, I’ve decided to post every now and then about what I’m up to as it relates to my work. Most of my speaking and consulting endeavors are the result of grass roots “promotion.” Whenever I speak in front of a large group of students, staff, faculty, family members (not my family, however, that would be pretty interesting), and/or industry leaders, I’m effectively showcasing my ability to educate and inform. This usually leads to future invitations to speak at events/schools/businesses.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at Family Weekend at the University of Miami as their keynote speaker. With a room full of parents and family members (and a few students), I gave a talk on social media, digital identity, career development, and thinking before you post/share/tweet/snap/etc.

My talk at the University of Miami included references to / examples of items from Twitter, reddit, Snapchat, Yik Yak, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Plus, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

My next gigs include consulting visits to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and a keynote address at the NODA Annual Conference.

Webinar: Yik Yak on Campus – What You Need to Know About the Latest Anonymous Social Scene

Yik Yak on Campus: What You Need to Know About the Latest Anonymous Social Scene

Update: I’m giving a webinar on Wednesday, February 18th, at 2PM Eastern Time on Yik Yak on Campus: What You Need to Know About the Latest Anonymous Social Scene.

I’ll show you how Yik Yak works, provide examples of cyber-bullying AND positivity in actual mobile posts, and outline a strategy for anonymous-mobile discourse at your campus.

Students are quickly flocking to this application, posting anonymous “yaks” and engaging in good, bad, and ugly communication. A number of institutions have seen high-profile incidents involving the app in recent weeks including sharing of sex tapes, hate speech and harassment and threatening to commit a violent crime on campus.

Colleges and universities from across the United States are struggling with how to respond and whether or not there is value in being present on the platform.

What you will learn:

  • The history of Yik Yak and why it was geo-fenced at high schools.
  • Strategies for engaging your students via Yik Yak in a positive way to encourage positive change on campus.
  • Examples of troubling, real campus crises triggered by “Yaks” across North America and discover the practical ways to respond if similar “Yaks” appear on your campus.
  • Social media guidelines — for applications even beyond Yik Yak — that you can successfully adapt, construct and engage the campus community through your own social media standards.
  • How you can use Yik Yak as a social listening channel to explore your own campus themes and learning opportunities.

Once again, I’ll be partnering with PaperClip Communications for this webinar. Check out their site for more information and to register.

More info about Yik Yak: A recent post that I wrote about Yik Yak and why it is causing so many issues at campuses in the United States.

On “Side Hustles” and Being Your Own Boss

podcast with Eric Stoller

Every time I make it “around the horn” to celebrate another successful year of consulting, speaking, and writing, I get a bit reflective about the journey. As if on cue, Dustin Ramsdell from the The Student Affairs Spectacular Podcast, invited me to do an interview about my endeavors.

Here’s the full audio interview where I go into detail about my journey as a student affairs professional / higher education consultant. I manage to throw in some thoughts on work/life balance as well as some insight into what my typical day is all about.


Spoiler alert: life is great, work and life aren’t a dichotomy, and it’s been 4 years since I started doing this work full-time. Thanks Dustin for giving me some time on your show.

[image credit]

Some thoughts about college students and Yik Yak

My latest post for Inside Higher Ed gives you a bit of info about the “hot mess” that is the anonymous app – Yik Yak.

9 Years on Facebook

According to Facebook, I joined “The Facebook” on December 4th, 2004. Who knows…it’s probably just a fad…right? I wonder if Facebook will still exist in 10 more years?

Update: Kind of ironic that a change in my privacy settings on Facebook made the embedded video no longer accessible.

Digital Identity Keynote at Curry College

Eric Stoller - Digital Identity Development keynote

I started 2013 off with a digital identity talk at Curry College for their Career Services Conference for Seniors. They were an awesome group! I’ve included the video of my talk and a Storify from the event:

Continue reading Digital Identity Keynote at Curry College

Digital Identity, Social Media, Privacy, and Balance

Digital Identity and Social Media

Part of the experience of being a keynote speaker at the Jon C. Dalton Institute on College Student Values is that you get to do an interview with the Character Clearinghouse at Florida State University. The questions from Pamela Crosby, the editor of the site (as well as the Journal of College and Character), were stellar. Here’s an excerpt:

Why should students care about their digital identity?
Students should care about their digital identity for a variety of reasons. As members of a campus community, it is important for students to know that their online actions can have impact. Student Conduct offices are no longer just concerned with what happens in the brick-and-mortar campus spaces. Additionally, most students are pursuing future careers, and higher education is their launch pad. Social media posts can show up in search engine queries. Companies are no longer just looking at your resume. They want to know what you are doing (and saying) online too. Now, that’s more of the punitive side of things. Digital identity is about much more than just worrying about its effects on future employment or conduct violations. Students with a fluent grasp of social media can accelerate their learning, develop meaningful connections with peers, and grow their professional network. What we do online can affect our face-to-face interactions…and vice versa.

Why should higher education be concerned about students’ digital identity?
I think that when the original work on “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” first became popular, it caused an educational disconnect. Administrators and staff at institutions seemingly (without a lot of critical discourse) bought the rhetoric that students were digitally savvy. In fact, students are no better at creating and cultivating their digital identity than anyone else. We’re all digital students in the sense that we are constantly learning how to use the social tools while they are constantly evolving. Schools need to be intentional about how they incorporate digital identity development into their educational constructs. Social media are not a trend or a fad that are going to someday evaporate. We need to be proactive with teaching our students how to build their digital identity versus being reactive whenever they post something that we wish hadn’t made it onto the web. Like anything in education, critical conversations about digital identity are essential. It’s like that movie, “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” we have to jump in, create our own digital identity, and educate our students too.

Read the rest of the interview at the Character Clearinghouse site.

University of Phoenix, A Facebook Like, and a Sponsored Ad

The University of Phoenix is using my Like on Facebook

In my attempt to be connected to all things related to higher education, I did something that has had interesting ramifications. One day while perusing Facebook, I liked the University of Phoenix page. I figured that it would nice to see what they were up to and didn’t think twice about it.

Well, always remember that what you do on Facebook can come back to you. Seth Odell, a good friend and interactive marketer for Southern New Hampshire University, sent me a text message today. He asked why I was supporting “team Phoenix.” Little did I know that Phoenix has been running a sponsored ad campaign that shows my “like” of their Facebook page on my friend’s feed. Now, it could just be as simple as Phoenix showing my Facebook connections that I liked their page, or I wonder if Phoenix is using my brand without my permission. I write for Inside Higher Ed and do a fair amount of speaking and consulting within higher education. If that’s the case, I’m not a fan of how that looks or feels. It’s a good reminder that liking something on Facebook can be used by advertisers to promote their brand. While this certainly isn’t a new phenomenon, it is the first time that I’ve had to think about my personal brand in this particular context.

Growing Twitter

If you’re ever in need of a quick and easy way to visualize the growth of your followers on Twitter, look no further than the Wildfire Social Media Monitor. While your total number of followers on Twitter is really more of a vanity metric, the Wildfire tool is a great way to see if certain accounts have been artificially increasing their following.

According to the graph, on April 28th, 2010, I had 1,586 followers on Twitter. Whenever a client asks me to help them grow their followers on Twitter, I usually talk about providing quality content and engaging with their audience…over time, your follower count will grow on its own.