I always joked when introducing myself as “Director of Digital Marketing” at William & Mary that my role “wasn’t that kind of digital marketing, just the organic internet-based stuff of web, email and social media.”

As part of my office’s transition from a focus on advancement to a university-wide marketing lens, we hired our first Executive Director of Marketing and Branding in 2023. She led our team through taking our first meaningful steps into paid digital marketing and SEO.

Paid marketing was a realm I had stayed on the periphery of, boosting social posts for our annual giving day to try and get our message in front of alumni in a 27-hour period, but that was about it. (Now, knowing more about how paid marketing works, those single day campaigns were definitely not the most effective or cost-efficient way to get the message out, and I’ve adjusted our approach significantly the last few years.)

Lawful good vs. digital reality

I have never liked the idea of digitally “stalking” a desired audience or paying for their attention. I was always a bit suspicious of “sponsored” results and I’d written off SEO as little more than keyword stuffing and snake oil offered by consultants to get money from unsuspecting clients. I thought that as long as you wrote good, well structured content that was of interest to your audience, you’d be ok. I’m lawful good and always want to believe that if you follow the rules you’ll win the day. That may have been true 20 years ago, but you can’t rely on good content alone anymore. You are competing for folks’ ever-diminishing attention span and the competitive landscape has exponentially increased thanks to social media and the ability for anyone to be a content creator.

In a fictional land where we didn’t rely on “free” services (search, social media) who make their money via ad revenue, perhaps great content would always win the day. But since many of the services and platforms that have become integrated into our everyday lives and workflows follow that ad revenue-based model, the vast majority of companies are going to prioritize making money.

A spot in the toolkit

I’ve only spent two-ish years really exploring this “paid digital marketing” realm, but I will now acknowledge its place in the toolkit of any marketer. I don’t love that you have to pay for the attention of your audience, but because (in general) you are a small fish in a very large pond (and everyone else is doing it), you need to throw your hat into the paid marketing ring to even come onto the radar of the audience you’re looking to engage. Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be highly selective and targeted with your audiences that you’re trying to reach, and create great content that truthfully and accurately provides them the information that they’re looking for, but there are now more tools you can use to successfully get that content in front of those audiences.

After “retiring” as president of CCA in 2023 I enjoyed my “immediate past president” role through January of this year and now am part of an illustrious group of “emeritus” CCA presidents. This year I’ve tried to step back just a bit and let a new round of leadership move the organization forward (while continuing to be a source of institutional knowledge and a helping hand at conferences).

I have been the Institutional Representative (IR) for the ACE Virginia Women’s Network since June 2018. This past year the co-chair of the W&M Women’s Network, who had been part of the most recent Senior Leadership Seminar cohort, expressed interest in becoming more involved with the Network and being a co-IR with me, so as of this year W&M now has two reps which has worked out great. She is able to attend events that I cannot and bring in experience and insight from being in active leadership with the W&M Women’s Network (I had been a W&M Women’s Network co-chair for three years but rolled off when I became IR back in 2018). As with CCA, the VA Network is a group that I love being a part of and want to continue to play an active role, but also don’t want to take up all the space so that someone else doesn’t have the opportunity to experience and get the benefits of being an IR.

A Higher (Digi)Col-ing

So with somewhat stepping back from two volunteer roles in the last year, and acknowledging that I’d said back in 2023 that I was going to get reengaged with the higher ed community, I toyed with the idea of dedicating time with another professional association, and wanted to elevate the level of organization I was volunteering with to higher than the state level, so I decided to apply to be a member of the board of directors for Digital Collegium (formerly HighEdWeb).

As a “community dedicated to advancing digital innovation in higher education,” I have been involved with DigiCol from my first days at W&M in 2010 (known then as HighEdWeb). I attended my first annual conference in Austin in 2011 where I presented (for the first time ever at a proper conference) with co-presenter Doug Gapinski (then with mStoner) on mobile websites and apps in higher ed. In 2013, I presented a poster session about deciphering Facebook Insights (after Facebook had promptly changed their interface days before the conference). In 2015 I presented a session about how to create and manage a social media users group (it was squirrel themed, and still one of my favorite presentations I’ve ever done). In 2016 I co-presented with my then-W&M colleague Sarah Juliano about how to utilize social media to promote campus events (this also evolved into an article in the Spring 2018 issue of the Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing).

After I moved to my position in Advancement in 2017, learning the ropes of a new area of campus and being a new manager meant that I didn’t have the bandwidth (and did have more schedule conflicts) to attend the HighEdWeb annual conference for a few years. 2020 became a reset moment for me, I was a newly elected president of CCA and had to figure out how to make our biannual conference virtual. Organizing two virtual conferences, plus going through pandemic at a university and all its associated chaos, and relying on the higher ed comms community for support, reemphasized the value and impact of professional conferences and the associated networks and amazing people that are a part of them.

Back in the community

Somewhat serendipitously, I was contacted in the spring of 2022 by Brian Piper about becoming a leader of the HighEdWeb Management and Leadership Community Group. Of course the imposter syndrome immediately set in. I had been a manager for only three years, how could I lead a group focused on the topic? But darn if I did know how to organize an event, and I’d wanted to be more engaged with the community, so this was the perfect opportunity to get plugged back in with HighEdWeb. This volunteer role brought me back into the orbit of the annual conference, as each community group holds a discussion session for conference attendees facilitated by the group leader(s). In the last few years I’ve had the privilege to engage with awesome and smart folks from across the higher ed, both as part of the online discussions throughout the year and at the conference.

After the 2023 conference, Jackie Vetrano asked if I would join her and Rachel Underhill to help plan a HighEdWeb regional conference in North Carolina. As the attendee relations lead for the 2024 North Carolina regional conference, I was able to rely on my CCA experience planning conferences, and worked closely with the other volunteers and HighEdWeb staff to execute a great conference.

During the conference planning process Jackie was on the HighEdWeb board of directors and I became curious as to what was involved. After moving to my emeritus president role in CCA and having a co-IR for the Virginia Network, I felt I had bandwidth for another volunteer opportunity and could build on what I’d learned in my previous roles. So in February I applied to be on the Digital Collegium Board of Directors. In April I received a request for an interview, followed by an email a few weeks later letting me know that I’d been elected for a three year term.

As of now I’ve completed all the necessary trainings as well as my new director orientation. I’ll attend (virtually) my first board retreat in July (I somehow managed to have three organizations with retreats the first two weeks of July so there were some inevitable scheduling conflicts).

Room to grow

When asked during the board interview and onboarding about why I’d applied and what I hoped to learn, I realized a lot of it boiled down to getting experience with being more strategic and less tactical. I’ve always been the person folks go to in order to get things done. When discussing a project my brain often immediately jumps into the tactics to execute (or why it wouldn’t work) rather than higher level strategy and I’m hoping that being part of a governing, rather than a working, board, dedicated to a cause and a community that I care so much about, will help me strengthen those “high level” thinking skills. I’ve elected to be a part of the educational events committee so I’ll still get an opportunity to flex my organizing and planning skills and on the budget committee to get more experience in that administrative area. I’m excited to see what this three year term brings, and how I, and DigiCol as a whole, grows and evolves.

UMAC to UMark

A lot has changed in the five years since I last opined about a work anniversary. In July 2021 my office transitioned from one focused solely on marketing and communications for Advancement to one that is responsible for marketing for the whole university, adding in responsibilities for enrollment, institutional reputation and branding.

While I had dabbled in enrollment-related things helping admission make updates to their website when I was a web developer with University Communications, this new charge brought things to a whole new level. We are partnering with our enrollment colleagues and other communicators throughout campus to develop and implement a comprehensive and integrated marketing strategy for enrollment, incorporating paid marketing, email, web, social media, events and more (which has not existed at such a level before)…and we’re still responsible for advancement and institutional reputation too. ::phew::

A sequence of musings

This work anniversary has prompted a lot of thoughts, so rather than one gigantic blog post I’ve broken things up into two additional posts:

• I’m on Board(s)
• Evolving Thoughts on “Digital” Marketing

Some things change…but not the root of it all

Despite evolving technologies, responsibilities and audiences, my work in higher ed marcomm still boils down to clearly and effectively providing the information that our audiences are looking for and making sure that it can be found where they’re looking for it. 15 years ago, the new hotness in the marketing technology world was SEO and mobile devices; 10 years ago, it was social media, then paid ads on those same platforms; now, it’s AI. The tools change, but the goals are the same, and I’m very curious to see what the next five years will bring.

Delegate. No really, you don’t have to do everything and you’re not doing folks a favor by not asking for their help. The board and volunteers of your organization are amazing people who have raised their hand or agreed to serve because they want to help, not because they’re just being nice to you. By not sharing responsibilities and tasks with those on your team, you’re depriving them of the opportunity to learn and grow.

Document everything you’re doing. Make notes of questions you find yourself asking for each event, keep a running list of things to get folks’ thoughts on at the next meeting. Trying to keep it all in your head just results in your brain spinning and trying to remember to do something after you wake up in the middle of the night. Plus, having those notes provides a guide for you to be better prepared the next time that event comes around.

Don’t take feedback personally. Just because someone did not like the veggie wraps at lunch does not mean you’ve failed as a leader or they are personally attacking you for your choice of sandwiches. Look for the root of the criticism, see if it is a common thread in others’ feedback or an outlier, and adjust your approach accordingly.

Set aside time each week, blocked on your calendar, to devote to the organization. It serves as a reminder and gives you the space to focus on one thing amongst what is inevitably 10,000 other items on your to-do list. This same idea applies to scheduling meetings. For the first year and change of my presidency, board meetings were scheduled ad-hoc and trying to find a common time on calendars with folks who are very busy is nigh impossible. At last summer’s board retreat we picked a time to meet every other month via Zoom and now folks can plan around that meeting, rather than trying to squeeze it in.

Seeing these written out, I’m realizing what I learned are things that I’ve heard for years are part of being a good leader and teammate: delegate, listen to feedback, be precious with your time, stay organized. Becoming a board member for CCA and transitioning to a manager role happened within months of each other in 2017; and for the last six years I’ve focused on keeping all the plates spinning, absorbing new information, and taking on additional projects and responsibilities. With this newfound “free” time as an emeritus president, I’m committing here to getting back to being an active member of the higher ed community, maybe even less behind the scenes, sharing what I’ve learned, and facilitating opportunities for others to share as well. In my first seven years in higher ed I prioritized making the time to present at conferences, post thoughts to a blog and engage with the community on Twitter. I plan to get back to that starting in 2023 (although substitute Mastodon for Twitter).

An aside: I will fully admit, the imposter syndrome is real. An internship while getting my masters in computer science led to web development work; my interest in new technology led me to be social media curious when Twitter and Facebook came around, how does doing those things for 15 years make me qualified for folks to listen to me share some seemingly random observations? But after 15 years I’ve also learned, everyone in higher ed is in the same boat, we have similar goals and audiences, and we are all flying the plane as we’re building it, getting handed new parts we’ve got to incorporate when we weren’t planning for them. And that common experience means one new efficient practice, one small takeaway, one nuance you learned, will almost certainly help someone else. It may not seem revolutionary to you, but someone else may just not have had the bandwidth to ponder that same problem — even if they’d have come up with the same solution — but since you did, and you have, share it. If someone already knows it, great! It confirms that they’re not alone in doing that thing. If it’s new to them, even better! They can take that piece of knowledge and build on it, and maybe even share the next evolution of it back with the community.

So here I am, sharing my random tidbits of possibly common knowledge with the world, and I hope to continue doing it, on a more consistent basis, for years to come.

P.S. Kudos and thank you to the whole CCA Board, past and present (Stevalynn Adams, Marian Anderfuren, Amanda Broome, Virginia E. Carter, Maralee Csellar, Holli Gardner Drewry, Eric Gorton, Malcolm Holmes, Megan Donald Hughes, Christopher Katella, Teresa Mannix, Amy Ostroth, Rob Pongsajapan, Cynthia Price, J. Scott Parker, Melissa Farmer Richards, MPA, APR, Megan Shearin, M. Ed., Scott Spriggs, Steven Vehorn, and Sally Voth), for sharing their time, talents and wisdom over the years, I (and CCA) would not be able to do this without you!

The higher education communications industry truly amazes me sometimes. We may be competitors in athletics or for prospective students, but in the end we’re all here to support and encourage students and help them make a difference in the world. And that common goal helps create one of the most supportive professional communities I’ve ever been a part of. And for that I’m truly grateful. I want to take this space to offer an ear to any of you who may need someone to listen. I’m here for you too.

One of the things I love about cooking is there’s always something new to learn, a new technique, a new ingredient to try, or seeking the “best” recipe for a favorite dish. I’ve tried to push myself culinarily to tackle some of the foods that I typically would just buy at the store or that I found intimidating to make. This started pre-pandemic with making our own sourdough bread. We used to regularly buy sourdough from a local bakery but one month they changed their recipe and used a different starter, and it completely changed the flavor and texture of the bread. So something that we had been buying every two weeks for the past few years we now didn’t love.

Jeremy had dabbled in making bread but it wasn’t something I’d ventured into more than foccacia for a pasta dinner. But with this new void in our carbohydrate life I chatted with a friend who bakes regularly and he provided me with a bit of his sourdough starter…that was in January 2019. Now I’ve forgotten to feed the starter every once in a while, and typically only bring it out of the fridge on weekends, but it’s seen me through 18+ months of bread making and still going strong. I tried to be very scientific in my first few batches, carefully following (and still do) the gram measurements of flour, water and salt, being very precise with oven temperature and when things didn’t turn out as expected, trying to change only one variable to see how that affected the final product. I’d like to say I’ve gotten pretty good at it so far, aided by two banneton proofing baskets and a lame (aka razor blade on a handle).

Since the pandemic has started I’ve ventured into other starch-based foods I’ve only ever bought like bagels, hamburger buns and dumplings. The thing I’ve found the most interesting (and I’m sure this can expand into a larger life lesson) is that I had a preconception about these foods that they were difficult to make, and admittedly many are quite time consuming and/or labor-intensive, but if you just take your time and carefully follow the recipe (and if you’re me, read it through multiple times as you inevitably miss a step or ingredient otherwise), you can end up with some pretty delicious results (even if they don’t look quite like you get at a restaurant).

At the end of a cooking spurt, I end up both having a tasty result as well as a great feeling of accomplishment. It may not be the prettiest ever, but hearing that satisfied "mmmm" from someone you care about, and knowing you've made something for them that they are enjoying and that will nourish them, really fills you up, even when (and especially when) the rest of the world feels kind of empty and chaotic.

For the last month though, I’ve been quieter than normal. Since the death of George Floyd became the last straw for so many facing racial and social injustice in this country, sparking nationwide protests against racism in America, I just haven’t known what to say. As someone coming from a place of privilege (white, straight, cisgender, wealthy woman working in technology and higher education) I couldn’t think of anything to contribute that hadn’t already been said more articulately by someone else with more and better experience, so I’ve stayed silent. And I shouldn’t have.

What’s going on in the world right now is not ok, it never has been. What’s happening right now is not new. The racial injustice that has permeated this country for over 400 years was not “fixed” by the election of our first Black president. Just because we cannot see how systems that have been in place for dozens or hundreds of years have been systematically biased against non-white people doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Black lives matter. And that doesn’t mean that Black lives matter more than anyone else’s, it means that right now, Black lives are in more danger, under more threat. This comic helps explain this point.

My father was a state police officer for 25 years and I am so proud of him and the work he did to keep people safe. I have an immense respect for police officers, firefighters and other first responders who come to the aid of people in need. They put their safety on the line every day to protect others. But that’s the key - protect. Kneeling on someone’s neck while ignoring their pleas for air, for simply using a counterfeit $20 bill is not protecting anyone. It’s taking advantage of power that was entrusted to them in order to protect and serve the community and using it as a vehicle of racism and hatred. And no, not all police officers are bad, but it’s not just “a few bad apples” either, there are parts of our justice system that are fundamentally flawed. Statistics show that Black people are disproportionately arrested and killed by law enforcement relative to their portion of the U.S. population. So unless you’re saying someone’s skin color makes them more predisposed to delinquence (and if you are, gotta break it to you, you’re being racist), you need to look at the system itself.

When I first heard “defund the police” I thought, “that’s ridiculous, how would we enforce the law?” and maybe that catchphrase could be worded more clearly. But instead of just reading the headline and dismissing it, I took the time to learn what is actually meant by the phrase: to reevaluate the current law enforcement system and start fresh utilizing a wider breadth of services already offered by other public agencies like social services. This framework still involves having police officers, but it starts to break down and address the system where someone who falls asleep in a McDonald’s drive through is not met with the same person who would respond to a robbery call at that same McDonald’s. It also looks to address the root causes of crime, such as poverty, addiction and homelessness.

I’ve always been one who loves tradition and history, but there comes a point when you have to acknowledge that the current environment is not working, and is not equitable, and “that’s the way it’s always been” is not a reason for it to stay that way. For as much as we’d like to believe that in America everyone has the same opportunities if they just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and work hard, that’s just not the case. The deck is stacked in favor of those in power, for hundreds of years that has been white folks, and white men more specifically. Steps have been made to even out that playing field but we are not there yet, and we have a long way to go.

W&M President Katherine A. Rowe has said that “we change to advance what we value most” and right now that change may not be comfortable (in fact, it should be uncomfortable), and will necessitate intense self-reflection and evaluation (and sometimes what you see makes you realize, even subconsciously and unintentionally, you are helping perpetuate racism). But if we value every person equally the way that we say we do, the way that Christianity and many other religions teach us to, then something has to change - and now is the best time to start.

So whether it’s donating money (I started with giving to charities whose missions I believe can help enact this change), volunteering, protesting, writing your politial representatives, voting in every election at every level, running for office yourself…let’s be the change we want to see.

Everyone has found ways to not go stir crazy, whether it’s expanding their culinary repoitoire (I’ve learned to make bagels, hamburger buns, dumplings, tortillas…), learning a new skill or binge-watching movies and tv shows (we just finished re-watching all eleven Star Wars movies, in release order). We’ve started having socially-distanced hangouts with friends on our deck, everyone is at least six feet apart and we bring our own food and drinks. That little bit of “in person” interaction is never something I though I would miss so much, I figured a video call worked just as well to catch up with someone but it really is not the same. That human connection can’t be completely replicated on a screen, but for now, for many, that’s the best we can do.

I desperately want to visit my parents, I haven’t seen them in person in six months. But I also don’t want to risk getting them sick if I’m unknowingly carrying the virus. So I will stay home, I will socially distance, I will forgo that hug that I so desperately want right now, so that I can have it for years to come.

I’m still at W&M today, but now three years (as of April 2017) into my role as Director of Digital Marketing for University Advancement, a role that brought new responsibilities of management into the picture as well as combining my interests in both web development and social media into one position. I was not sure I was ready or fully prepared when I started, but with support from friends and colleagues it’s a role I have grown into.

I’ve learned management is hard, which is of course no surprise to anyone that’s ever been a manager I’m sure. To be honest, I knew it was going to be difficult, but just not how much it would make me stretch and grow personally as well as professionally. That extra responsibility of always looking out for your team, making sure when something great happens, they get the credit and when something goes awry that it’s your responsibility and you protect them, while also helping them learn from that mistake and grow themselves, is a goal that I came into the position with and, thanks to great mentors and understanding colleagues and teammates, I’d like to think I’m getting better at every day.

When I first heard about this position opening in late 2016 I spent a good portion of my reading time on our cruise vacation at the end of that year reading “Managing Humans” by Michael Lopp. That, along with long discussions with my husband who had been in management for over 10 years, really helped shape my philosophy on things. Michael’s blog Rands in Repose is great and I’d highly recommend following him on Twitter or reading the blog if you’re new to management or just looking to improve your management skills.

In the interest of simplicity my old blog is still around, frozen from a snapshot taken in mid-July 2018 (so those “latest tweets” are not the latest, for those you can follow me on Twitter at tb623).

Ironically, it was exactly four years ago today that I wrote my last post on the old blog, so maybe today was the perfect day to revive things. I can’t promise regular updates, but I will make more of an effort to share and document the things I’m learning, whether that’s professionally, personally, or otherwise…that’s the point of these things, right? And hopefully something I share here can help someone else.