Social Media, Ads, China, ARWU

All change in Edinburgh at the moment – the tourists have gone, the weather is almost back to being nice and the next wave of undergrads are almost upon us.  Why don’t you take a minute out to breathe in the familiar air of UoE Insights – episode III

The twist for the third edition is that I have had slightly less time to actively source material, so most of my news has come from WARC and therefore leans heavily towards digital marketing type updates.  I promise to try harder next time.

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SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS

Instagram are no longer all about the pictures…

Picture sharing social network, Instagram, has launched three new business analytics tools to help monitor how branded content is shared on the network. http://www.research-live.com/news/instagram-offers-ad-insight-tools/4012155.article

You gotta earn it

According to a survey by someone trying to buy exposure, Facebook is trusted by only 17% of US consumers.  This is about the same that Government Ministers and Politicians generally received in the Veracity index (i.e. not much).  Interestingly, Professors / Academics are one of the most trusted. http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Google_trusted_more_than_Facebook_.news?ID=33501

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/Veracity2011.pdf

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ADVERTISING NEWS

Amazon set to go toe to toe with Google.  Again.

Online retail giant Amazon could be preparing for a major expansion into the online advertising market, with tests of a new ad placement platform expected to commence later this year. http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Amazon_eyes_ad_market.news?ID=33473

Data on click-through rates for a variety of mobile tech

Click through rates differ by what is being used.  All the numbers are still under 1% though, which I find difficult to get too excited about …. http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Mobile_ads_work_well_in_apps_.news?ID=33503

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

China plans its own PC system

China plans to release a new operating system for PCs as early as October this year in a bid to end its reliance on imported software from Western companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft, a leading Chinese official has disclosed.

http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/China_plans_its_own_PC_system_.news?ID=33484

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THE UNIVERSITY NEWS

The Peter Higgs Effect

We are now 45^th in the global ARWU rankings (20% of their ranking is down to Nobel prizes / Fields Medals)http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html

Students who live at home

According to Santander 22% of students live at home, which surprised me so much I am not sure it is true.  I’ll explore more for next time (ooh, what a cliff-hanger).

 

Arrivederci

Media, Online Learning, NSS…

Well, this is the second email of UoE Insights.  2 weeks and an hour later than the last one, if that is important to any of you.

I have a section on Media, one on online learning and some (absolutely unrepresentative) sector views on NSS and the changing requirements of tertiary education.  Enjoy.

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Some ** MEDIA ** stuff: I have two bits of news from 2012, which I have only just stumbled upon (there is a lot of catching up to do…), a teeny fact on SEO, some app news and the promise of India:

Which? University Which? Have a website comparing UK universities http://university.which.co.uk/

Pay per gaze

Google has patented ‘pay per gaze’, whereby advertisers could be charged a fee based on whether a person looks directly at a real-world ad. http://mashable.com/2013/08/23/google-pay-per-gaze-advertising/

The importance of SEO

First position in organic google search results gets 33% of total traffic http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2276184/No.-1-Position-in-Google-Gets-33-of-Search-Traffic-Study
Losing their APPeal?

WARC are wondering whether we have met saturation point with apps: 90% of smartphone users claim to never spend money on any content for their phone, 31% of smartphone users now ‘never download apps’, with the average monthly download of apps has fallen from 2.32 to 1.82 this year. http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/UK_at_app_saturation.news?ID=33445

Connected India

Rajan Anandan, managing director, Google India, has said;  “By the end of this year, India will become larger than the US in terms of number of internet users. By 2018, India will have twice the number of internet users as the US does.”  Wow.

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Thoughts on ** ONLINE LEARNING **

Is the future of HE online?

Shai Reshef (Founder of University of the People): “UNESCO stated that in 2025 100 million students will be deprived of Higher Education simply because there will not be enough seats to accommodate them” see his TED Talk here http://www.ted.com/talks/shai_reshef_a_tuition_free_college_degree

Staying with online learning, Deloitte try and predict the future every year – along with the predictable wearables prediction (ha!), they predict MOOCS to reach 10% of all courses taken in tertiary education by 2020 (it currently stands at 0.2%) http://www.deloitte.co.uk/tmtpredictions/

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Next, Some (slightly jaded) views on the NSS which had its public embargo lifted this week:

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/aug/12/do-we-still-need-national-student-survey-university?CMP=new_1194

This, finally, links nicely to the primary and secondary education systems’ impact on tertiary education:

The Learning Curve – a review of primary and secondary education systems across the globe says the UK is doing ok, but skilling our students is the real challenge;  “Even in the richest countries, fewer than half of school students are career or college ready, with the result that higher education institutions and employers often find themselves re-skilling school leavers before they embark on the next phase of their lives.”

http://thelearningcurve.pearson.com/
THE END.