Beth Keserauskis

Building relationships and making connections

Event Quality as a Reflection of Leadership

I recently participated in the a conference for commencement planning officers, the North American Association of Commencement Officers (NAACO). A session that particularly stood out for me was “building an emotional connection: the influence of high touch event communication on donor support.”

At the beginning of the session, the discussion revolved around how a poorly run event can lead the donor to assume the institutional leadership is not strong. Wow! I am pretty sure that most leaders of an institution must either not understand this, or underestimate the amount of time and attention a high end event can require. Otherwise more time and resources would surely be put towards events! Research was displayed showing there is a direct correlation between the donors perceived quality of the event and the perceived quality of the institutional leadership. Powerful stuff! And a new way to think about events and the way I position them to the leadership of an organization.

We also discussed event branding, things like using the same typeface for ALL events and event pieces down to the name tags. Makes complete sense–we have such a challenge convincing folks why consistent font usage is important in general; I can’t wait to start rolling that out with all campus events!

And I know I had not yet thought to brand the dessert! It’s one of the last things consumed that evening/event, take advantage of the opportunity to reinforce the message!

Great stuff- I am so glad that I found a worthwhile session.

February 7, 2012 Posted by | communication, connecting, events, leadership, resources | , , , , | Leave a comment

I Have Seen It All…Facebook Credits for Sale at Target!

You could have picked my jaw up off the floor in the checkout line at Target. I don’t know why I allow myself to be surprised by things like this anymore, but I am. Right next to the gift cards you could purchase from Applebees, Target, iTunes, etc., was a gift card to purchase Facebook credits. Yep, you could give as a gift more reasons to waste time on the most popular social networking site. Amazing isn’t it that folks now actually spend money on Facebook for their additions to Farmville and other games/applications I routinely block.

So if you were still skeptical that people were spending inordinate amounts of time on Facebook being lured into the games and third-party applications out there, are you convinced now? Are you going to take advantage of their ad-serving platform (remarkably similar to the Google Adwords platform) or perhaps build a third-party application for folks to get addicted to?

October 15, 2010 Posted by | marketing, resources, sales, social media | , , , | Leave a comment

What I’m Reading: 8/13-20

The AP Style Guide has recently updated a few things, including “website” versus “Web site”…is Yahoo paving the way for digital communication styles?

Awareness is heightened about crisis communications…here’s an article: The PR Crisis Playbook

More efforts by Facebook to improve image? Facebook Launching Official Live Streaming Channel: Facebook Live

As we design websites for clients, it is always interesting to see how color impacts customer behavior

And ’tis the season: U.S.News and World Report rankings are out. Here are a few articles:

There is a lot of controversy surrounding these and other college rankings. My next post will talk a bit about ways it can help or hurt an institution.

August 20, 2010 Posted by | marketing, public relations, resources | , , , | Leave a comment

How *NOT* to Ruin Your Reputation Online

I work with the student athletes here on campus to improve their skills in working with the media, but also to help them develop their reputation online. Or more immediately- how not to ruin their reputation online. I am always looking for articles, stories and examples of how social media can negatively impact a career, education or reputation to pass on to them. These are the most recent ones I have added to the list.

Do you have any articles that would be good for me to share with our students?

August 18, 2010 Posted by | higher education, reputation management, resources, social media | , , , , , | Leave a comment

What I’m Reading: 8/2-13

A case study on higher education doubling organic traffic and growing lead conversions.

Three ways Facebook is killing your website.

LOVE the 10 BlackBerry Commandments from PINK Magazine!

And a discussion on the death of Google Wave.

August 7, 2010 Posted by | marketing, public relations, resources | , , , | Leave a comment

What I’m Reading

I like to see the Standing Partnership “What We are Reading” list, so I thought I’d borrow that idea, and put my higher education lens on it!

  • We are in the process of hiring graduate assistants in our unit, so I was on the hunt for writing tests! PRSA had a few tips on how to select the best writer for a job.
  • Obviously, we are dealing with the millenials, Gen Y, whatever you wish to call them today. Many of us are hiring them at our workplaces. The Wall Street Journal published a very interesting article examining what a disservice social networking is doing for them as they enter the corporate world: Why Gen-Y Johnny Can’t Read Nonverbal Cues.
  • Is blogging really good for your business? Hubspot quantifies an aspect of the ROI of blogging for you! Hint: small businesses that blog have 55% more website visitors!

July 30, 2010 Posted by | higher education, marketing, resources | , , , | Leave a comment