Online engagement: A vision and blueprint

September 17, 2008

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Presentation outline

Blueprint for engagement

• Start with powerful universal ideas.
• Deepen involvement toward greater commitment: ambivalence and awareness toward participation and commitment.
• Ultimately: build personal relationships.

Spectrum of engagement

• This deepening of engagement obviously continues after recruitment.
• Each time a Bates person or partner enters a new role, they begin a new phase of engagement.
• Continuity is important at those potential “speed bumps.”

Goals of online engagement

• Help Bates people connect with each other, across roles — student, faculty, staff, alumni — on campus or off.
• Help people connect with the ideas that interest them the most: scholarship, research, narratives, events, places, groups, and service.
• Draw constituents and friends into a satisfying and deepening lifelong experience of Bates that reflects and expresses core values.
• Make online Bates ultimately portable, so that people can participate from anywhere, anytime.

Online engagement

• Start with universal, persuasive messaging.
• Learn what’s happening in areas of interest to you.
• Visit public collaboration spaces and participate in the creation of new knowledge.
• Make exchanges of value through online transactions.
• Build personal relationships.

Shift in perspective

• Functional perspective
• Engagement perspective

Opportunities for improvement

• Simplify publishing, usability, exchange, and findability
• Integrate updates from community members
• Provide formal and informal collaboration spaces, connect to larger social networks
• Integrate transaction services into a consistent, intuitive interface

Principles of an effective online experience

• Be dependable – anywhere, any time, any device
• Be intuitive – simple publishing, searching, finding
• Be useful – helpful information and instructions
• Be engaging – appealing, personal, immersive
• Be personalizable – up to date feeds on personal interests
• Be sociable – online spaces for intellectual collaboration
• Be meaningful – insight into what matters to you