Brain Waves Blog

Brain Waves Blog: The Medium Is the Message

The Medium Is the Message

February 26, 2020

If we asked you to define authenticity, could you do it? When we tried this ourselves, we ended up settling on a definition that was something like, “content that is authentic.” Realizing that the word authentic is also subjective, we tried defining that, only to rely on the word original. But what is original? With each attempted definition, we went  deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole.

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Brain Waves Blog: 5 Tips for Making the Most of Yield Season

5 Tips for Making the Most of Yield Season

February 19, 2020

February is a month of valentines, galentines, and if you’re in admissions, yieldentines! Yield is the stretch of time between students receiving their admissions decisions and choosing where they will deposit and, ultimately, enroll. While decision day on May 1 once signaled the end of yield, at many institutions this is no longer the case. Some students will deposit at multiple schools, and summer melt with ongoing offers is a new reality for many admissions teams.

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Brain Waves Blog: A Presidential Presence: Building Executive Social Media Strategy

A Presidential Presence: Building Executive Social Media Strategy

February 12, 2020

In​ ​an​ ​era​ ​driven​ ​by​ ​24/7​ ​coverage​ ​of​ ​everything, college​ ​presidents​ ​must​ ​be​ ​accessible​ ​and responsive ​while also taking a ​careful​ ​and​ ​measured​ ​approach​ ​to​ ​their social​ ​media presence.​​ The​ ​president owns​ ​the​ ​brand​ ​and​ ​the​ ​messaging​ ​of​ ​the​ ​institution​ ​and​ ​can​ ​quickly​ ​and​ ​effectively​ ​convey​ ​the mission​ ​through​ ​social​ ​media​ ​posts​ ​and​ ​interactions.​

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Brain Waves Blog: Evaluating Alumni Conversation

Evaluating Alumni Conversation

January 29, 2020

As higher ed insiders, we have a vested interest in understanding the individual and collective beliefs, attitudes, and relationships that alumni have with their alma maters. This knowledge provides valuable insight into their future actions and behaviors. As social media data analysts, we decided to conduct social listening analysis of alumni conversations to evaluate how they discuss their alma maters across various social platforms. We examined alumni conversation as a whole, then used multiple ways to segment the conversation to see how different characteristics revealed distinct types of conversation among alumni. 

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Blog image for New Year, New You: Setting Goals

New Year, New You: Setting Goals

December 18, 2019

There’s something about a good goal that really helps focus your behavior over a period of time—both consciously and unconsciously. In fact, studies on behavioral priming, (which is defined as “the incidental activation of knowledge structures … by the current situational context”), indicate that attitudes and other affective reactions can be triggered automatically by the mere presence of relevant objects and events (Bargh, Chen, Burrows, 1996). Set goals for the new year and keep your list handy, allowing the goals to seep into your day-to-day decision making. But on to the main act—how do you set goals anyway?

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Blog-Post

The Iceberg Effect

November 20, 2019

It’s a hot July day in Florida when Bella—we won’t use her last name—uploads a 17-minute video to her YouTube page. Bella has uploaded one video per month since July 2018, but this video, a year later, is her first video since February. It’s a point she doesn’t hide from her 171 subscribers.

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