The blogosphere is ginormous. Tons of new blogs are born daily and lots drop dead, too. So why waste space here talking about yet another new blog from someone?

Well, this one, launched today, is from the leading provider of online college courses in Massachusetts and one of the biggest in the nation. Called UMassOnline, this online education consortium co-exists and operates in conjunction with all the traditional campuses within the University of Massachusetts system. A first of its kind for UMassOnline, this blog, unlike all the others Dave and I have been associated with, will  likely be more widely, actively, and vocally scrutinized by people who make their living scrutinizing things and offering their critique. Contemplating this at the start of this project gave Dave and me the heebie geebies. Dave and I aggravated our fair share of professors while in college. Dave terrorized Amherst and I led a life of academic depravity on Commonwealth Avenue.

We were wrong to feel that way. Unlike all the many blogs and bloggers we've been associated with for corporate clients, the UMassOnline faculty and staff were more interested, more receptive, more participatory, and more comfortable with the presumed risks than anyone we worked with previously. For the first time this blog effort not only had a tremendous champion in the marketing department, but it had the strong endorsement of the institution's CEO as well… and the CTO… and… it's a long list of important people.

Here's what they understand at UMassOnline that isn't that well understood in the corporate world yet: It is better to give your constituencies a place to voice their issues than to block them, go deaf, pretend no issues exist whatsoever and that everything is perfect, and to maintain total control as the authority figure in charge of everything. While a lot of companies today still fear the implications of an open conversation outside of their control and moderation, UMassOnline more easily welcomes it, wants it. Sure, there are some rules of behavior. But this is by any standard a big, bold, wide-open, global, online community. And I think we can all learn something from that.

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The simplicity and the power of the new online social media opportunity is astonishing. Students that are currently enrolled in higher education are a generation raised with much skill in regard to using, navigating and sometimes completely relying on the Internet. What’s even more astonishing? The fact that more academic institutions are not taking the necessary steps needed to evolve to this new medium and solidify their establishment’s name. Here at AgencyNext we’ve just uploaded a new whitepaper entitled Social Media Opportunities for Colleges and Universities: The Untapped Power of the New Media Era, in an attempt to help clarify some common questions.

The piece touches on the following subjects:

When is it time to consider an online community?

Defining the online relationship.

How social media can distinguish your reputation.

Getting involved in the current conversation.

Who can help?

[Download PDF]

Conversation? Yes, because today’s online generation has little interest in a highly-polished institutional website broadcast sanctioned after much review by lawyers and public relations people. They prefer interactivity, fresh and timely content, a chance to hear from their peers whom they trust most (even when they don’t know the people in the peer group personally). Would be students seeking answers online are looking for online communities where they can dialogue… ask questions, leave comments, read and respond to online impressions offered by peers and others.

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If you lead, manage or teach at a major university and you're still not blogging, either just as yourself or on behalf of the institution, you're missing out on some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Not to mention it is the cheapest, fastest, and most effective means of communicating with an audience you crave… people who are looking for you online.

Look, for example, at what I found. This link takes you to a blog offered by the Randolph Community College Library. Library? As in hard copy books and periodicals? Yep. Scroll down the page and to the right in the sidebar you'll see they have enlisted seven staff contributors. Examine for a second some of the recent posts such as the one entitled, "Top Ten Web Tools for College Students."  Do you think this sort of thing means anything to current and would be students in North Carolina where Randolph Community College is located? Do you think that this sort of online interactive conversational "community" effort might distinguish and differentiate an institution like Randolph Community College over competitive schools in that region? Absolutely.

Here's their standard website, by the way.

I suppose f you're with a prestigious Ivy League college or at a university with a national reputation, it's tempting to dismiss this sort of thing. You might think, "That may be fine for a small regional community college about which few people are aware, but it's not for us." As noted earlier this week, however, organizations within Harvard University offer blogs.

Do you know, for example, that a fully-functioning, customized blog template can be built in about a week… all using OpenSource software that is free?  Do you know that a blog embedded in your static, traditional website can deliver Search Engine Optimization benefits that will significantly boost overall traffic better than almost anything else you can do?

Blogs are also a 24×7x52 platform for instantaneous communication. Information about, and rapid reaction to, major events or a crisis can get out as fast as it is written. If you are being ignored or criticized by the local establishment press, a blog is your own newspaper… your own viewspaper.

Randolph Community College at 629 Industrial Park Avenue in Asheboro, North Carolina, may be just a small, regional school. But a lot of people could take a lesson from how this 'community' college is living up to its name in more ways than one.

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