Tag Archives: Digital Marketing

Why are universities so bad at marketing?

It’s Welcome Week at my university. Also known as ‘Freshers’ Week’ in some parts of the world, this is the week in which we welcome new students onto campus, to register for their course and take part in events that introduce them to university life.

As I arrive on campus ready to start a day of teaching, I expect to find walls plastered with posters for student societies and events for our new students. After all, this is Welcome Week – the most exciting and vibrant time of the year.

But instead of posters for our students, instead I find campus overflowing with advertisements for… a postgraduate open day.

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A sector in crisis: a systematic analysis of care home websites in Lancashire, UK

Back in 2022 I conducted some research into the digital marketing practices of care homes in Lancashire, UK. Such is the slow pace of academic publishing, I have decided to publish what I found here on my website (July 2024), in the hope that authorities might use this report as a motivator for change. While some of the examples I found in 2022 have been updated, I notice that many still have not changed some two years later. This is incredibly worrying, especially given the legal ramifications, and impact on patient choice.

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The perils of academic conference accounts

It’s quite the trend in academia these days to set up a series of ‘conference accounts’ on social media to promote said conference and bring together all related materials. However, these accounts are rarely (if ever) worthwhile and can actually detract from what should be your primary marketing goal; namely to promote the work of the wider organisation to which your conference is attached. Continue reading »