Mike McCready

Mike McCready

Thanks for stopping by my blog. The focus of this blog is on higher education, marketing, the social web and various other topics related to these three topics.

My name is Mike McCready and I’ve been involved in web development for over eleven years. With the last year being focused in higher education with my new role as Web Services Manager. Over that past few years I’ve become increasingly interested in the impacts of the social web and the phenomenon that it has become.

I believe that social media and the power of the web are an untapped power in higher education. I hope that some of my thoughts and information I find from others in the industry will provide some insight, clarity and excitement into social media and marketing for higher education.

Higher Education and Social Media ROI

Higher Education and Social Media ROI

If you work in marketing, communications or admissions in higher education, you’ve probably been using social media tools (at least I hope you have been).  You’ve also probably had questions about the value and Return on Investment of your social media activities.  As institutions continue to face tighter and tighter budgets, it becomes even more [...]

ShortStack: An Amazing Tool for Facebook Pages

ShortStack: An Amazing Tool for Facebook Pages

In September, I wrote a post about Facebook Contests. In that post I promised a tutorial / review of a tool that can help you create promotions and other amazing pages on Facebook. I’ve used ShortStack for over a year and I would never want to manage a Facebook page without it.  The team at [...]

Social Media: You can lead a horse to water, but…

Social Media: You can lead a horse to water, but…

We’ve all heard the saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” This saying can be applied to any concept – including social media. I’ve come to this realization in my role as a Web & Social Media Strategist.  In this role, I’m responsible for identifying opportunities to leverage [...]

Don’t Cast Your Google Adwords Net Too Wide

Don’t Cast Your Google Adwords Net Too Wide

Google Adwords is a great cost-effective way to market your business locally, nationally and around the world. One of the aspects of Google Adwords is selecting what search keywords to target that will trigger your ad to appear.  Some consultants may suggest to cast your keywords net wide to ensure maximum exposure and get the [...]

The Uselessness of a Facebook Like

The Uselessness of a Facebook Like

More and more I’m seeing companies asking people to help get their Facebook page get to a certain fan count. This is an utter waste of time! While I believe the the number of fans a Facebook page has affects the possibility of messages being seen, it is not the ultimate measurement of success. If [...]