To my faithful readers – please disregard this interruption to your regular CheapScholar.org programming. 😉

Today I am doing a presentation for KASRO (Kentucky Association of Student Receivable Officers) highlighting how social media can be utilized in the Student Financial Services arena. I am going to attempt to cover the basics of Twitter, Facebook and Blogging in the span of about an hour. Blogging is the last topic on my presentation. So, if you are reading this, that means I successfully covered everything on my agenda and the Bursars know how to execute an official blog posting!

To My Bursar Friends- Below is some additional information for you to reference and utilize as you move forward in your individual social media projects on your campus. If you encounter any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to drop me a line. Enjoy!

Twitter Stats and Facts (2010)

• Over 106 million accounts
• 300,000 new Twitter accounts are opened each day
• Twitter’s website gets over 3 billion visits each day
• 55 million tweets are sent each day
• 61% of users are English (Portuguese take second place at 11%)
• Twitter ONLY has 175 employees
• Guide to setting up a Twitter Account (pdf)

Facebook Stats and Facts (2010)

• More than 400 million active users
• 35 million users update their status every day
• 60 million status updates are posted each day
• 3 billion photos are uploaded to the site each month
• More than 3 million (Fan) Pages
• More than 20 million people become “fans” of a Page each day
• Average user has 130 friends
• Average user spends 55 minutes on Facebook each day
• Facebook is most used in the United States followed by the United Kingdom and Indonesia
• Guide to setting up a Facebook Fan Page (jpg)

Blogging Stats and Facts (2010)

• There are over 133 million blogs on the internet
• 77% of internet users read blogs
• 80% of blogs are abandoned within the first month
• 68% of Bloggers have been blogging for over 2 years
• 20% of Bloggers update their blog daily
• Some popular blogging platforms include: WordPress & Blogger

Here is a cool video that displays the impact of social media on the world

The following is a guest article provided by Joseph Baker.

The iPad2 has taken the educational world by storm: since the iPad’s debut in 2010, the tablet has been used as an effective, fun tool for teaching and learning from kindergarten to graduate and professional degree programs. With its portability, its gentle learning curve, and its thousands of apps, the iPad2 is a device tailor-made for teaching and learning.

But there are some drawbacks to using the iPad2. While many colleges and universities have been eager to introduce it into their classrooms, the starting price of about $500 makes if difficult for many students to afford an iPad2 on their own. And not everyone is a Mac-ophile, which means that students using PC’s have to get used to a completely different operating system.

Those issues make Amazon’s new Kindle Fire a potential alternative to the iPad2: the price range, the simple user interface, and the selection of apps will make the Fire a competitive device in education. With a release date of November 15^th, the Kindle Fire will have a lot of catching up to do—but there’s a strong chance that the Kindle Fire can make its mark in educational history.

Hardware vs. software

It’s been said that Amazon isn’t a hardware company, and that’s true: Amazon is a content company. Apple’s strength is in their superior hardware, but Amazon’s collection of content, both free and paid, blows Apple away. For education, access to content—books, films, educational games—gives Amazon the edge. Amazon isn’t trying to make a device comparable to Apple, because they don’t have to; they have content to back them up.

Quality vs. price

Although Apple has partnerships in place to give educational discounts on their hardware, Amazon’s Kindle Fire costs just $199, a very attractive price for schools with ever-tightening budgets. The Kindle Fire appears to be well made—it’s based on Blackberry’s Playbook tablet—so it’s not a cut-rate device. But it’s still significantly cheaper than even the most affordable iPad2. When compelled to choose between a top-of-the-line, expensive tablet and a perfectly functional, inexpensive one, schools may choose the Kindle Fire. The fact that there hasn’t been an Android-based tablet at this price will make the choice even more appealing.

Individual learning vs. collaboration

Apple’s iPad2 is being advertised as an essential learning tool, but this commercial doesn’t really highlight the device being used as a tool for collaborative learning. iPads are often used for collaborative learning, but it’s difficult if not everyone can afford the device.

The Kindle Fire’s price puts it in reach for many college students, which means it could be easier to use in collaborative learning—if more students have access to a device, more students will use it with each other. And for distance learning, students could use it to communicate, to work on projects together, and to exchange assignments and other data. Students earning an online degree also have the added benefit of using Amazon’s Cloud Drive to store, exchange and access data no matter where they are.

For now—and perhaps for the foreseeable future—the iPad2 is the most popular tablet on the market. That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for another tablet. And if there’s any non-Apple tablet that has a shot at making inroads in the educational market, it’s Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

Great Lakes identifies the top five money mistakes that college students make as follows: running up credit card debt, ruining their credit score, not having a budget, using student loan money inappropriately, and overextending themselves to pay for college.

In an effort to help educate students on a broader scale about financial literacy (and to combat the money managing issues above), Great Lakes is providing a free webinar series in the months of October, November, and December.

The webinar series is open for ALL STUDENTS and not just those with an existing relationship with their organization (as you may know Great Lakes is a student loan servicer). Accredited Financial Counselors (AFC) will be presenting the webinars and providing helpful information for those attending.

Below is the information for each of the upcoming webinars. In addition, if you are looking for free Student Financial Literacy Resources on the web, you should definitely check out this list compiled by CheapScholar.org

October: Learn How to Avoid the Top Five Money Mistakes College Students Make

Join the Great Lakes webinar “Money 411” on October 21 at 1:00 p.m. Central time or October 28 at 1:00 p.m. Central time and discover the keys to managing your money and minimizing debt. When you leave this session you’ll know the difference between good and bad credit, how to develop a budget, and how your financial decisions can—and will—impact your lives.

November: The Average College Student Has $3,200 on Credit Cards—How Do You Stack Up?

Join the Great Lakes webinar “Credit Card Smarts” on November 4 at 1:00 p.m. Central time or November 11 at 1:00 p.m. Central time and learn how credit decisions can shadow you throughout your life—for better or worse. You’ll learn how to understand and successfully manage a credit card, which will help you minimize debt and make the most out of your money. When you leave this event you’ll know about the new credit card laws, learn key tips on how to manage and protect your credit, and understand how to evaluate credit card offers and statements.

December: The Average Student Loan Debt is $23,200—What’s Your Plan to Pay?

Join the Great Lakes webinar “Student Loan Repayment—Everything You Need to Know” on December 7 at 3:00 p.m. Central time or December 9 at 1:00 p.m. Central time . If your student loan payments are right around the corner, come to this event to learn what happens next, how to manage repayment, and who to call for help. When you leave this event you’ll learn how to keep track of your loans, how to choose a repayment plan that fits your situation and budget, and who to contact when you need assistance.

Going to college doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process… or a series of processes that ultimately result in a student ending up on the doorsteps of their favorite college or university. A good number of students have mentors to assist them along the way but many first generation college bound scholars are embarking down this path with little to no guidance.

Acceptly.com has recognized this area of need and has focused all of their efforts to help guide students through the college search and application process. Acceptly provides an online utility for families and students that allows them to tackle some of the more common topics in an interactive gaming type of atmosphere.

Matt Munson, founder of Acceptly, states, “While there are a few other sites out there, we have set ourselves apart by building a very modern, intuitive tool. A high school student who is comfortable on Facebook or FourSquare is going to feel very comfortable on Acceptly. We’ve gone to great lengths to make a usable, enjoyable product that is easy to use.”

Acceptly reaches out to families/students to provide assistance in the areas of academic preparation, college selection process, ACT & SAT testing, and the financial aid process. One uniqueness to Acceptly is that they use a calendar notification system to keep the most relative current information on the forefront for their users. Essentially, Acceptly becomes your virtual college prep counselor and helps to keep you on the right track as you move through the college search process.

Mr. Munson shares that “Not only will we keep you on track, but we will also teach you the tricks to maximizing your preparation for college in order to get into your dream school. Students who follow the Acceptly process are twice as likely to get accepted into their top choice schools.”

Back in the middle of summer, I had the opportunity to give Acceptly.com a test drive and provide feedback to better enhance the experience that students/families have on the site. It was nice to see them incorporate some of the changes and I am glad to see that they are still enlisting the assistance of their user group community to help make Acceptly.com a “must visit” resource for college bound students. I wish them well on their endeavor.

Today is the public launch for Acceptly.com. I encourage you to visit the site and check out all of the features for yourself. If you get time, please be sure to stop back and leave your feedback and/or impression of Acceptly.com below in the comment section. I am curious to hear what our readers think…

Do you need help paying for college? Do you have a compelling story to share? Do you like Dr. Pepper? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should definitely enter Dr. Pepper’s tuition giveaway contest. The winners have a chance of getting either a $100,000 or $2,500 award to put toward their tuition expenses. ***Important Feature*** The award is transferable and you can use the funds to pay off any student loans that you may have incurred.

In order to enter, all you have to do is submit a video sharing your reasons of why you would be an excellent recipient of  Dr. Pepper’s tuition prize.

Here are the requirements for your video:

All videos must be:
1.   in one of the following video types: .avi, .mov, .mpg, .mp4, mpeg or .wmv
2.   no more than one (1) minute in length and 50 megabytes in size
3.   your original creation
4.   suitable for publication
Videos will be judged on:
1.   appropriateness to theme of college football and tuition
2.   inclusion of Dr Pepper
3.   impact of tuition prize on your life
4.   overall presentation quality
Videos must not:
1.   have won previous awards
2.   have been previously published
3.   infringe on any third-party rights

Each tuition prize amount is payable as follows (official legal language):
(a) as tuition to cover up to four (4) consecutive years of college or postsecondary vocational institution tuition, fees, books, supplies, equipment, related educational expenses and room and board to be awarded in the form of a check distributed to the school (eligible under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended) and located in the United States on behalf of the Winner or Winner’s designee, who must be at least 16 years of age (“Designee”); or
(b)  to pay off student loans incurred by the runner up for eligible costs in (a) above in the form of a check distributed to the lending institution on behalf of the Winner or Winner’s Designee; or
(c)  a combination of (a) and (b) above in an amount not to exceed the prize amount.

So, do you think you have what it takes for a chance to win $2,500 to $100,000 toward your education expenses? If so, put your media skills to the test and upload your video today!

Contest Details Can Be Found Here!