Higher Ed: How to Protect Your Online Reputation

University Business recently hosted a popular and free webinar on "How to Protect your School's Online Reputation." Some good, meaty stuff was served in this presentation, with nearly 300 listeners logged in. It was so popular that UB not only is making it available in its archives to listen to for free, but UB will also be hosting future webinars on the topic.

Some immediate take-aways I gleaned from Karli Grant's and Fritz McDonald's presentations include:

• Make it a practice to be checking those places your audience openly comment about their experiences with you. Several free monitoring sites are suggested with the presenters showing which ones provide richer information than others.
• Be present and online.
• Be prepared.
• Involve your audience, in this case students, in being part of your social media voice and using social networks authentically.
• Listen for the positive, the negative, for good news, for bad news, for branding, for new friends and markets. Listen consistently. Develop a listening schedule and include it in PDs.
• Remember, the next step to listening is interpreting and watching for trends.

There are loads more nuggets. Take the time to listen to the hour webinar; it's accessible here. The second webinar is scheduled for Feb. 2 and will cover policy and procedures. Perhaps I'll see you there?