Today I had the pleasure of attending a few sessions of the 17th Annual University Continuing Education Association Marketing Seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona.

I am here to give a presentation tomorrow on Social Media Strategies for Higher Education, but had some time today in between working the booth that PlattForm has in the exhibition hall and prepping for my presentation.

Here are a few highlights of the sessions I attended:

Innovation All Stars - Research-Driven Best Practices for Increasing Lead Volume and Quality
* Stefan Tornquist, Research Director, MarketingSherpa

I came into this session midway through, but one key takeaway that I wrote down in my notes was that clicks increased by 92% on paid ads when organic listings were present compared to when organic listings were not present. iCrossing completed this Search Synergy Study in March 2007.

MarketingSherpa is definitely a great resource on online marketing industry news/research, and Stefan made this clear through all of the examples and case studies he went through.

Evolution of a Brand II
* Sarna Marcus, President and Creative Director of the Page Group, Inc.
* Connie Mokey, Assistant Dean for Student Success GWU College of Professional Studies
* Tony Harvin, Assistant Dean for Marketing and Communication GWU College of Professional Studies

This presentation focused on the stuggles and successes George Washington University had over the last 13 years to rebrand the College of Professional Studies in the eyes of the people in the DC area.

Key Takeaway - Tony Harvin said it best when he stated the "brand" is in the hands of the target audience and influencers. We hope to guide and influence the perception of a company or school by delivering the promise, but it's really up to the target audience to accept the message.

Marketing in the Cloud: Building Community through Engaging Online Presence
* Trina Gabriel, Marketing Assistant, UNC Greensboro Div of Continual Learning
* Erin Heston, Project Manager, UNC Greensboro Div of Continual Learning
* David Rivera, Instructional Technology Consultant, UNC Greensboro Div of Continual Learning

This presentation was about the social networking activities UNC Greensboro DCL has participated in internally (in the office) and externally (with students/prospects).

Key Takeaways - Yammer is just like Twitter, but in a protected environment. Hash Tags (#) followed by letters or words act as search keywords in Twitter. You can find all Tweets using a particular hash tag throughout the Twitterverse. Salesforce.com is a CRM that can combine facebook profile informaiton with other data input for leads assuming the facebook profile is open to the public or a friend. All you need is FaceForce to get this set up. Facebook Connect is an API that will allow you to login to a school website with your facebook credentials. That's something new.

All in all, today went well. I was able to network with a few colleges in the exhibit hall as well as attend a few marketing sessions. Getting up a bit after 4am this morning proved to be worthwhile!