Karine Joly’s blog is Collegewebeditor.com, a leading resource on higher education marketing in the age of new media. As part of a presentation I’m giving on Wednesday at HigherEd BlogCon about learning the new media, I asked Karine to share a few tips on the subject.

DK: What are some of the ways you stay informed about the latest developments in new media? Which tools or resources do you think might be helpful for those who want to learn about new media, but aren’t sure where to begin?

KJ: I live in my RSS reader. I’ve chosen Bloglines because it’s web-based and I can check my feeds on any of the three computers I use. I’m subscribed to about 150 news feeds (higher education, web design, marketing, search engine optimization, etc.) as well as a few keyword searches on Topix.net. When I have a bit more time, I also do keyword searches on Technorati.com or del.icio.us. If you want to learn more about new media, you should start to use RSS. Get a Bloglines account or download the RSS reader of your choice and start to subscribe to feeds and blogs. Don’t limit yourself to higher education, but check out what’s done in Corporate PR as well.

DK: Let’s say I have ten or fifteen minutes to spare, and I’m eager to learn more. What are two things I could do today that would help accelerate my understanding of the role of new media in Higher Education?

KJ: From the shameless self-promotion department, I would say that you should read my latest column in University Business: “The Brand (Brave?) New World Of Online Public Relations“. In this article, I tried to explain why it’s so important to learn more about the new media and provide a few good examples of what’s already done by some institutions. With the five minutes left, take the next step toward a better understanding of the role of new media in Higher Education: email me a quick note at karine@collegewebeditor.com to request a free Bloglines account already set up with a selection of the best higher ed RSS feeds available. If you already have an RSS reader, I’ll share the corresponding OPML file, so you can import these feeds at once.

DK: You publish both a blog (Collegewebeditor.com) and a column in a traditional a publication (University Business), and your work has helped inform many in Higher Education about the role of new media in PR and marketing. Now that many have been introduced, what do you believe are the keys to more widespread adoption of some of the tools of new media among Higher Ed PR and marketing professionals?

KJ: I think higher ed PR and marketing professionals need to get their hands dirty. They need to offer their press releases in RSS, set up Technorati watches to monitor conversations about their institutions and set up blogs to share their clips with their campus community. They need to understand that Web 2.0 doesn’t present the same technological barriers to access that Web 1.0 did. You don’t need to be an IT pro to publish a blog. That doesn’t mean you should do it solo without asking for help to set up or customize your blog. But, this means that you don’t need to invest dozens of hours to start posting. The beauty of Web 2.0 applications is that they are all created with the end-user in mind, a user who is supposed to read but also write the Web. In other words, you don’t need to be a geek, because new media is all about media, not technology. Last, I think PR and marketing professionals really need to embrace change, adapt their messages and add these new communication channels to their tool box.