Why Academics Must Use Social Media

Closing out the year with a clip of an interview that I did with David Webster at the University of Gloucestershire. After giving a keynote lecture at their annual Faculty Learning & Teaching Symposium, David and I sat down for a chat about higher education, teaching, learning, and social media.

A bit of an exaggerated title on this deck, but the content/context is what matters. Presented at the University of Gloucestershire’s Faculty Learning & Teaching Symposium.

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Reflections on the ANZSSA Conference in Auckland, New Zealand

The Australian New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA) Annual Conference in Auckland, New Zealand was one of my favorite events of 2016. It took almost a year’s worth of planning and prep for me to make it to the Southern Hemisphere, but in the end, it was an epic conference in a wonderful city.

Special thanks to Alison Dow, Andrew Tui, and Jordi Austin for the opportunity to give multiple talks including a keynote at the event, a pre-conference workshop, and a special presentation for staff at the Unitec Institute of Technology.

I’ve included my slide decks for all three presentations at the end of this post.

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Crafting a consultancy

What I’ve been up to…

Blogging, tweeting, learning, running, writing, reading, listening, cooking, speaking, volunteering, traveling, consulting, and sleeping.

It’s been 8’ish months since I last gave an update on the blog. Once again, I’ve been quite busy (in a good way). In fact, being busy as a consultant is always a good thing. I’ve spoken at events all over the UK, gave a keynote to an international audience in Mallorca, Spain, and traveled back to the United States to consult with two of my favorite higher education clients.

By the way, as I am constantly crafting my consultancy, here’s my latest description on what I do for a living:

I teach individuals and organizations (usually universities and colleges, but sometimes businesses too) how to communicate more effectively using digital channels. Effective communication via social media includes all things related to marketing, recruitment, student engagement/experience, career development, alumni relations, identity development, “customer” service, teaching/learning, and organizational change.

[Complete list of consulting/speaking engagements thus far for 2016]

Lastly, I have to give a huge shout-out to Jisc for inviting me to speak at their annual DigiFest conference in Birmingham. Definitely one of the neatest events that I’ve ever been to…so much technology!

Getting Connected to UK Higher Education

Eric Stoller is learning about UK higher education using social media

My latest post for Inside Higher Ed tells the story about how I’ve been using social media to learn about UK higher education.

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.

8 Speaking/Consulting Engagements in February

This month has been jam-packed with speaking and consulting engagements. One of my favorite moments on this month-long set of trips was when the Chancellor of Indiana University Southeast took a picture of one of my slides during my social media / digital identity presentation.

Chancellor taking a photograph of my slide

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:

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Getting Radical at the Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference

Eric Stoller - Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference

The most-commented, most-discussed post that I’ve ever written for Inside Higher Ed was last year’s “Where Are the Radical Practitioners” entry. It quickly collected far more comments than I had expected, and I made the decision not to answer any of them due to the epic amount of time that it would’ve taken to constructively engage with all of them. Out of frustration and needing to vent, I did write up a quick “pseudo addendum” and posted it to this blog as “Radical and Student Affairs.”

What happened after that was an intriguing journey as I was asked to talk about being radical in student affairs at the Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference. In hindsight, I don’t think I really needed the social media aspect of my Big Ideas talk. Next time!

Unlike any other conference that I spoke at last year, 99% of Big Ideas featured speakers weren’t employed in higher education. It made for a fascinating event. My favorite part of the Big Ideas experience was meeting so many cool speakers. Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere and I had a great chat about our appreciation for retro Saucony sneakers. Amber Rose Johnson gave a slam poetry reading that gave me chills. And then there was Dayna Steele…well, she’s a legit rockstar! The full slide deck and video of my talk is after the jump. Continue reading Getting Radical at the Big Ideas in Higher Education Conference

Mashable – Social Media Day Boston

Mashable Social Media Day - Boston - Eric Stoller

So this post is amazingly late. However, here it is… Last summer, I was asked to be on a social media panel for Mashable’s Social Media Day in Boston. The topic for the panel was on building brands with social media. Taking place at Boston University, the panel was moderated by BU’s Steve Quigley. It was my first time working with Steve and I was thoroughly impressed. He’s a PR professor at BU and I hope his students soak up as much of his wisdom as they possibly can. Joining me on the panel were Tamsen Webster and Tyler Cyr. Tamsen knows everything about social media. I’m serious. Tyler does social media for Dunkin’ Donuts…I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’m a Starbucks guy. I was thrilled to be representing higher education and to just listen to all of the knowledge that Steve, Tamsen, and Tyler dropped at Social Media Day Boston. Remember, if you go to a party, engage in a conversation..the same thing goes with social media. The full video from our conversation is after the jump. Continue reading Mashable – Social Media Day Boston