- June 15th: Marilyn Kail, Carnegie Mellon University

June 15thTwitterview with Marilyn Kail Assistant Vice President, Marketing Communications
Carnegie Mellon University (Twitter Name: MarleeRossa)

Here’s the transcript of the whole interview:

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: Hi! Marilyn Kail is a presenter at eduWeb2010. We’ll be tweeting about branding – what it means and its implications for higher ed.

MarleeRossa: can’t wait to start talking to Deb at Google#eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa Hi Marilyn! You lead marketing & communications at Carnegie Mellon… Tell us a bit about that.

MarleeRossa: marcom at CMU is only 8 years old. I’ve got 25 wonderful professionals on my team #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa How is it organized? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we live in 2 worlds -advancement and central marketing. organized into teams focused on key areas of university #eduweb

MarleeRossa: anybody out there with a question??? #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa Interesting. Tell me a bit about those teams. #eduweb

MarleeRossa: have teams in web, print, development com, multimedia, design, admissions and brand (which includes research) #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa Cool. How do you work with these team to generate brand awareness? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: brand awareness means everything to success of university -student recruitment, donor support, alumni satisfaction & research $ #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa Can you talk about your team’s multi-layered mrktg approach? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: multi-layered means leveraging every message & story across every communications channel for breath and depth of audience reach #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa Love it. Can you give an example? What was a big recent marketing success? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: syncronicity is the key so my staff and teams need to work closely together and with media relations #eduweb

MarleeRossa: examples include what we call the “pauch effect,” and opportunistic digital work #eduweb

MarleeRossa: the training of Spock let us show off our tech and arts side will piggybacking on audience for Star Trek premier….#eduweb

MarleeRossa: you can find that vid on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/cmu  #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa oops forgot the hash tag….let me ask again… #eduweb

MarleeRossa: latest stats on Pausch effect: Last Lecture had 12,683,729 views from 12/07 until today. that’s just a start #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa The Pausch effect is a great example of leveraging viral video and creating brand engagement. What are the latest stats #eduweb

MarleeRossa: you can find it on our You Tube channel, too (search for Last Lecture). other good stuff, too, like Keepon & Google search story #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa Love your Google Search story! What are some other new/different branding initiatives CMU has taken on? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we match our efforts to what our audiences want/need. example: our iPhone app launched 12/09 for our students at first…. #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we use student feedback and they wanted the app, but we found out it had bigger audience reach with alumni and prospective students #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we also built a virtual tour for the same audience set and VIP visitors. see it at http://www.cmu.edu/tour  #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa So would you say digital branding is a significant part of your overall marketing strategy? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: digital is critical - for students (and millenials, in general) but also for our alumni & media. drives traffic to events/web #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa So here’s a question we hear a lot. How do you manage your brand perception online? How do you “control” the message? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: you can’t control -only manage, monitor, respond. you can have Dell Hell instead of Pausch effect if you’re not on top of things #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa And what about measuring the success of your brand efforts? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we use people and technology to monitor our work. example: we focus group with students, alumni and faculty regularly….#eduweb

MarleeRossa: Google Analytics is key to monitor internal and external audiences….#eduweb

MarleeRossa: for example: w/ GA we found out that one of our student pages that we didn’t spend lots of time on is actually # 2 for internals… #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we will DEFINITELY be spending more time on that page #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa You also use student advisory groups, right? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we use students advisory groups for key projects beyond web like our mascot launch; main info board in university center…...#eduweb

MarleeRossa: our viral vids (like Keepon, done for admissions) and of course, when we launched our homepage and apps #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa Interesting you mention Apps. Mobile seems to be the hot new topic. What have you done in this space? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: just dipping toes in water in mobile. we did successful text to win contest during homecoming when we launched our mascot design… #eduweb

MarleeRossa: in Qatar our student are heavy mobile users and we’re looking at it for fundraising next year. #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @MarleeRossa What new tactics / online chnnls haven’t you tried yet that you’re excited about? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: next on the docket: our iPad app & Google map mash ups. We need to be where our audiences are, we can explain these 2 projects #eduweb

MarleeRossa: the iPad is a great way to get our content out there and Google map mashups allow us to engage our users in a variety of ways ... #eduweb

MarleeRossa: we’re looking at both of these tools to get to our audiences in new ways next year #eduweb

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa Can’t wait to see what CMU comes up with next. Any final thoughts before we wrap up? #eduweb

MarleeRossa: well my team is way ahead of me, i’ll be surprised, too. but in the meantime;heading to the eduweb conference in chicago, July 26-28th

eduWeb Conference eduwebconf: @marleerossa Thanks so much for your time. Look forward to learning more at your session in July! #eduweb

MarleeRossa: just did my first twitterview. a big thank you to Deb Powsner at Google- a great interviewer -Shelley Wentzel & @jsbrown #eduweb