The fallacy of the worthless degree

The New York Times has a story on students who attend trade schools to give themselves a boost on a possible career, only to find themselves in a worst spot than they started due to lack of opportunities and now saddled with debt from their practical education.

None of this is really new, nor is it a surprise and it’s not likely to change anytime in the near future. One of the readers selection comments had other ideas though:

Agreed, it can be a rip-off. But, er…how about those expensive university degrees in Feminism Studies that cost upward of $100,000 and more? How about all those Journalism degrees awarded to students years ago who still haven’t paid off their loans because delivering mail is not such a high-paying job? You guys at the Times need to dig a little further and explain exactly what a young person does after he gets that Environmental Studies degree. I imagine that impoverishing yourself by going to a regular university is far more devastating than doing the same with a trade school.

It’s going to be increasingly important as time goes on to use all of the tools at our disposal to educate people on what colleges and universities — specifically the non-profit ones — are actually selling.

Social media & The independent school

Independent schools have a bit of a different thing to consider when deciding on ways to leverage social media. While they’re not colleges, many of them are very different than traditional parochial or private schools in local communities due to their recruiting and alumni considerations. 

It’s for all of these reasons that social media is just one more tool in a wide arsenal of communications mediums aimed at reaching audiences, expanding brand possibilities and so much more. 

The question that prompted this post is basically a question of why. Why would an independent school use social media and what are the benefits? 

Brand awareness and exposure are about more than brochures and advertising in traditional media. Social media is an invitation to discovering what an institution is about. There’s no better way to create a low-key introduction to your school than using social media tools.

For instance, using YouTube as a venue for videos about your school; whether it’s events held there, a look into a classroom experience or just life on campus, it can be a way to provide insight. It’s also a great way to demonstrate your values without writing a lot of words. It’s visual and appeals to both parents and prospective students.

The goal is to increase awareness and this is just one way to do that.

On freebies and “work” on the web

So how would I get a web site for a non-profit that has no budget?

We’ve surely heard this question before, no? I’ve spent nearly an entire term in the classroom talking about the value of work and how, if people don’t understand what goes into something it’s hard for them to value it.

For too many people, work on the computer is still voodoo magic that gets done by people who haven’t found serious jobs yet. Sure, some of them get rich doing it, but they’re completely off the mental radar for the purposes of these conversations.

Consider that people are more willing to pay someone to shovel their snow, cut their lawn, provide them with processed foods or any number of other things. But when it comes to building a web site as a promotional vehicle for their own projects, they never want to pay. I realize that for some organizations that rely almost entirely on donations this is not a new thing. And they target companies that might be more willing to offer up this kind of work because they can handle it. But the larger the firm, the more significant the request seems to be.

We have a responsibility if we’re working on the web to no longer dismiss how hard something is. It’s alluring to see like the smartest person in the room when you can or to make things seem easy and not like a bother. But the difference between the paperboy on his bike and the graphic designer on her iMac, is people can watch the paperboy and if he were to fall could probably help him complete his route. If the lady on the computer needs something, her client would be a creek.

Since I’ve never worked strictly as a web person, but rather, a strategist I can understand the need to have quality portfolio work. It’s also important to be able to eat and I can think of few industries where investing significant amounts of time and energy working for free, will yield you the sorts of results you want.

Paid gigs are harder to find, but come with many of the same constraints and demands as the free ones. Using your own discretion is the best way to decide when to choose to do free work and when not to. But if we don’t take the work we do seriously, it’s going to be universally hard to convince other people of the same things.

In response to the question the person asked about a site for a non-profit with no money, I hesitated, before finally explaining a breakdown of the various free solutions online that might serve the purpose he was describing and mentioning how cheap a domain would cost, much to his surprise.

Education trumps misinformation, but if no one provides the information, people will continue to remain ignorant about the work that goes into what they perceive as whiz-bang magic.

Friday Links

Here are some random links that I felt like sharing:

Nomenclature: Product Hierarchies (brandsinger)
First Twitter sample clearance? (Mashable)
Twitter as a teaching tool (Tim Nekritz)
1920s proposal to ban women drivers (Sociological Images)

The album of the week is Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Interview with Joe Favorito

I’ve been reading Joe Favorito’s blog for a while now and I especially enjoy when he dovetails into talking about college athletic branding and marketing.

Joe has been in the business for over decades and he’s worked for two NBA teams, the US Tennis Association, the WTA Tour and other sports organizations during his time in the business.

He was gracious enough to agree to answer a few questions for me for edustir:

Me: Working across different sports leagues over the years, was there a consistent thing that allowed you to integrate well into each of them?

Joe: The ability to find and then tell good stories is key. Everyone has a story, you just have to be able to listen and help good people figure out what their story is.

Me: Some people might look at different sports and think, while the communications issues might be similar that each would require a particular acute awareness to the nuances. Was this something you studied prior to joining a new organization?

Joe: It’s all the education process. I can safely say that when I went to tennis I was not a huge fan, I was not a NBA fan when I went to the Sixers and I had no clue about mixed martial arts (MMA) when I first started at the International Fight League. You learn very quickly by listening to the experts, no matter what the business is.

Me: I focus on higher education and one of the things that’s become apparent, is despite the big business of some revenue sports, there still seems to be a lack of deftness with colleges and universities leveraging the web as effectively as the pros, despite the differences in their customer bases. What do you think it will take for them to begin reallocating their print dollars into new media? Is there a pro parallel that you noticed over your years on that side of sports?

Joe: I think that it is the still the old adage, “the shoemakers kids are worst shod.” College athletics still tend to be very insular for whatever reason, and the fear of investing when there is such turnover slows the growth. Those that invest as brand will grow, it just takes time.

Me: It seems we read stories constantly about a college athlete who gets suspend kicked off a team for something they write on Twitter or Facebook. We see it with pro athletes less, but as a senior communicator, do you think there are ways organizations could get in front of these types of issues or are they just part of the evolving mediums of communication that exist today?

Joe: All evolving. Years ago, sports radio was going to be the death of sports…then blogs, then college sports, at one point it was television. At the end of the day, the medium evolves and adjusts and the level of professionalism seeks its spot.

Me: Do you think smaller, non-revenue generating athletic departments (NCAA Division 2 & 3, NAIA) have as much of an interest in (athletic) brand strategy as much as larger, better known schools?

Joe: They certainly should. It is all about drawing students and finding new streams of revenue and there is no reason why smaller schools should not invest in their brand as well. Mom and pop stores do it, minor league sports team do it…why wouldn’t local colleges who are especially connected to the local community?

Thanks to Joe for doing this, I appreciate it and I hope you do too! Be sure to check out his blog, as it’s a really great resource.