Tuesday 24 January 2012

How to export your LinkedIn contacts to an Excel list

The buzzword these days is "Databases". Whenever somebody uses this word a multitude of meaning flushes through my head and leave me wondering what Data Journalists have to say about pig farmers like me. The capital letters are intended to convey the idea that it's important and the low capital letters mean to indicate that bullshitting is part of ones profession.
For those who have been turned down by their trusted Social Media Expert or Communication Adviser I have a free tip. Watch this video and follow its instruction.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Refresh your web content management skills today!


Are you afraid of GX? Do you have issues in publishing news items? Do you feel uncomfortable when you think about updating your department website?

For those of you who's answer is YES you have now the opportunity to refresh your skills and get rid of your fears. Check out the proposed dates and contact me via email:

  • 31 January
  • 13 March
  • 24 April

All take place in room GL 17; 1.229 (1e Floor Front office UB inner city library).

Wednesday 11 January 2012

GX issue 13 10.01.2011


Problem: The breadcrumb title of the subpage “Professionals” of the main page “TARGET GROUP” is not visible in the dutch language version. I checked the settings of the Metadata or any other page related settings I could think of. Neither is the Status of the parent- nor the child page unsound nor are the “Sub Pages” or “Do not Show in Navigation” Settings wrong. Since the page “Professionals” is the only one that is available in two languages there might be a problem. Can you help?

Tuesday 10 January 2012

New Postgraduate Education Website Launched

Its the second week in January and right in the middle of the storm arises this sexy new website. From the first meeting in august 2010 until its launch yesterday much water flow down the Maas. Many meetings and re-dos where needed to make it look like it is now. In addition to an inferior web content management system that masters even the "not so grim" minded person it was a challenge that was faced by brave men and woman from the postgraduate education unit.
As for the website there are few things to remark. I already spoke about it at a webco meeting and for the most part of it nothing has changed so far. The word "website" is misleading because it is in fact an online product and service catalog with no interactive features nor engaging design. Its rather slim and focuses on the basics. It features an clickable graphic on the front, a google calendar and some webforms used as contact or simple data-mining systems. In addition with the core website a weblog, twitter, facebook and linkedIn channel are also part of this enterprise. It was by far the most incomprehensible and plainly ugly part of SBE's web performance. So it was more than necessary to update it by redoing the whole thing.
But lets move to the important part. I am now redirecting purchased URL's for all Executive Master, MBA, Management courses and whatever PGE concerns. If you have purchased a URL for your program please let me know so I can redirect it to the new website! Here is a quick list of things that have been done:

This are just some of the specifics. More will come in the days to come. So please let me know if you have any URL's that need to be redirected. Currently I use a trick to redirect visitors of the old PGE pages automatically to the new version of the pages. But this trick will not do it forever since I will delete the old files in the months to come. So please help!

Monday 9 January 2012

GX Problem #12 09.01.2012


This is series of requests that I am going to issue the weeks to come. As remarked earlier I will write one email each. It concerns problems or challenges while in GX if not stated otherwise.


Problem: The page that lists members of a department looks quiet different depending on the browser one uses – in the Back- and Frontend. Please see the two screenshots attached of the Front- and Backend respectively.

Monday 2 January 2012

2012 starts with Sharing Success

The exclusive social network for chosen ones opend in May this year. Until September selected bachelor students could meet up online upfront in a customized service from NING. The success was partly due to the flexibility of the software employed and user friendly interface. The so created online environment allowed for sharing of practically anything from questions about housing to party pictures. The aim was to increase the loyalty of these students after they where selected by the faculty. And the result:


IB
2010:     63% of decentrally selected IB applicants became students at SBE  
2011:     77% of decentrally selected IB applicants became students at SBE
(of decentrally selected IB applicants 72% were Sharing Success, and 85% of these became students)

EBE
2010:     63% of decentrally selected EBB applicants became students at SBE  
2011:     70% of decentrally selected EBB applicants became students at SBE  
                (of decentrally selected EBE applicants 76% were Sharing Success members, and 88% of these became students)

More detailed information about the project see here.

Another project finished in the old year is this website. A hosted version of worpress and a template customized to the need of the Master program did the trick. The online admission form is realized in Wufoo and the pretty pictures are harnessed from photostocks secret chamber. The result is a convincing stand alone site featuring important information, contact details and online registration. Its indexed and Search Engine Optimized. The price: Ufff... Thats the magic! Let me know how much you think it costs and the winner will get a change to meet me for a coffee.

Are you ready?