We are very excited to have Dr. Josie Ahlquist back on the show to discuss her new book, Digital Leadership in Higher Education. We talk about the book and what leadership looks like during global pandemic and ongoing struggles for racial justice. 

No matter what’s going in the world, Josie stresses that higher education leaders need to show up authentically to their interactions with students. With so much misinformation out there, students need to know that they can trust their institution and its leaders before they will believe what they’re reading in an email or seeing in a video.

Josie also reminds us about the importance of taking time to recognize the difficulty of the work we’re doing right now and the fact that we can’t vent to colleagues or celebrate achievements in the normal ways right now. That’s where the digital hug comes in. Josie talks about how she uses them and the power of building mastermind cohorts that are on part strategy session and one part therapy session.

Links to cool stuff:

• Josie’s first appearance on the show – way back in 2017!
• Josie’s website
• Josie on Twitter
• Josie on LinkedIn

Dr. Liz Gross returns to the show to talk with Jenna about what’s happening at Campus Sonar, the company she founded to help organizations throughout higher ed harness the power of social listening. We talk about how social listening has changed during the pandemic, how going to conferences outside higher ed helped Liz see what our industry was lacking, how to run a growing organization that’s entirely remote, and much more.

Liz is a recognized expert, data-driven marketer, and higher education researcher. She specializes in creating entrepreneurial social media strategies in higher education and has a passion for teaching, which she brings to colleges and universities as the founder and CEO of Campus Sonai. She’s also an award-winning speaker; you might have seen her at SXSW, SXSW EDU, the American Marketing Association Symposium, the Carnegie Conference, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, or one of many other conferences inside and outside of higher ed. 

She received a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service in Higher Education at Cardinal Stritch University, a master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from Marquette University, and a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Links to cool stuff

• Campus Sonar
• Liz Gross on Twitter
• Book: Fundamentals of Social Media Strategy
• Campus Sonar job opening: Social Media Data Analyst
• Download the episode transcript

By day, Jessica DePaul is the Associate Director for Recruitment Marketing at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She previously worked at Rutgers as the Assistant Director of Marketing. She is a passionate marketer that is an expert in the latest education technology and trends, including virtual reality for campus tours and open houses. 

By night, she’s a makeup artist who has done everything from zombie makeup to more traditional styles. In this conversation, we talk about both sides of her personality and how COVID-19 has impacted her work in recruitment and in makeup. 

Jessica will be presenting at the eduWeb Digital Summit on Monday, August 3 at 4:00 p.m. ET. Learn more about her session at: https://www.accelevents.com/e/eduweb2020

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jessica on Twitter

• Jesscia on LinkedIn

If you can believe it, it’s the FIVE YEAR anniversary of Higher Ed Social! To celebrate, host emerita Jackie Vetrano is back on the show this week. It’s been a semester of change for her as she recently graduated with a Master of Professional Studies in Integrated Marketing Communications from Georgetown University. AND she started her new position as assistant director of marketing & prospect management at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. Jackie and Lougan talk about the ins and outs of generating and nurturing leads and reminisce about the last five years of the podcast. 

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jackie on Twitter
• Jackie on LinkedIn
• Jackie’s Website

Jason Miller is the digital specialist at York University in Toronto, Canada. As part of the central communications office, Jason’s has his hands in a lot of digital work, but his primary job is to develop the university-wide social media strategy and assist various areas across campus with their digital strategies. Lougan and Jason talk about the quirks of being in charge of social media, and why we love doing what we do. We also talk about the fun little things he does outside his role, and how doing those types of things are important.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jason on Twitter
• Jason on Linkedin

Eric Stoller is the vice president of digital strategy at GeckoEngage. You may know him from his articles on Inside Higher Ed, his speaking engagements and his consulting work around digital engagement. He’s always loved doing marketing and public relations, but never wanted to work for an agency. Eric’s experiences in student development services at University of Illinois Chicago and enrollment management at Oregon State University really cemented interest in the intersection of technology and student success. He’s had an incredible and unique journey through the world of higher education. 

Links to cool stuff

• Eric on Twitter
• Eric on LinkedIn
• GeckoEngage

What’s better than actually going to the HighEdWeb Conference? Recording an episode with your friends that actually went! At least that’s what Lougan is telling himself this week as he welcomes Jackie and Jon-Stephen back to the show along with new guest Alaina Wiens. We chat about what it’s like running social media for the conference, and the various presentations they gave. We also talk about the “golden nuggets” they are taking back home this year. 

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jackie: Twitter | Linkedin
• Jon-Stephen: Twitter | Linkedin
• Alaina: Twitter | Linkedin
• 2019 HighEdWeb Conference Website
• HighEdWeb’s Recorded Live Streams
• HighEdWeb Association Website

Amber Owens is the social media manager for Indiana Institute of Technology. Amber graduated in 2016 and like many new graduates drifted around from job to job when someone connected her with the position at Indiana Tech. Her passion is for putting stuff online and watching people’s reactions. We chat about the challenges of social media burn out and growing up and watching social media evolve over the years. When Amber isn’t on social media, she builds Star Wars Droids and travels to conventions with her husband.

Links to cool stuff:

• Amber on Twitter
• Amber on LinkedIn
• Amber and her BB-8

Ravi Jain from Boston College joins us on the show this week! Ravi serves as the Senior Associate Director of Digital Media & Web at Boston College. We talk with Ravi about being selected as an inaugural INBOUND2019 Fellow and his upcoming talk at INBOUND 2019. Ravi tells us more about why he’s become a short form video evangelist and how he uses micro-storytelling to tell the story of the different “cities” at BC. We also discuss why vinyl sounds better and the fun and agony of designing email templates.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Ravi on Twitter
• Ravi on LinkedIn
• INBOUND19

For our second international episode, we sat down with Melissa Mae Cheater, the digital content manager at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Melissa is also the founder of #PSEWEB (Post Secondary Education Web), a Canadian offshoot of the Higher Education Web Professionals Association here in the US. During the show, we chat about the differences between student life in the US and Canada. Melissa also shares her thoughts on how departments across campus can better work with their communications teams to celebrate success. 

Links to cool stuff: 

• Melissa on Twitter
• Melissa on LinkedIn
• Melissa’s website
• #PSEWEB
• Link Journal article on Melissa’s #heweb18 presentation