Everyone loves a good top ten list (especially USA Today), so I hope you enjoy a few top ten lists of our app customers.

Out of our 50+ customer apps, below are the winners…

Most App Visits

Note: Not all large organizations made this list.

#1. Michigan State (Alumni Association)
#2. University of South Florida (Alumni Association)
#3. Delta Zeta
#4. Alpha Chi Omega
#5. Saint Joseph’s University (Alumni Association)
#6. Calvin College (Alumni Association)
#7. Otterbein University (Alumni Association)
#8. Pi Beta Phi Foundation
#9. Kelley School (Indiana University)
#10. Stony Brook University (Alumni Association)

Most App Engagement

Note: This list shows the number of visits per download,  so the size of an organization doesn’t matter.

#1. Calvin College (Alumni Association)
#2. Otterbein University (Alumni Association)
#3. Marian University (Alumni Association)
#4. Milton Hershey School
#5. CSU Channel Islands (Alumni & Friends Association)
#6. Michigan State (Alumni Association)
#7. Claremont McKenna (Alumni and Parent Relations)
#8. Ferris State (Alumni Association)
#9. Northern Colorado (Alumni Association)
#10. University of South Florida (Alumni Association)

Most Life 101 Topics Read

Note: Some folks love the life 101 content even more than the news feed. 

#1. Delta Zeta
#2. Michigan State (Alumni Association)
#3. Alpha Chi Omega
#4. Pi Beta Phi Foundation
#5. Calvin College (Alumni Association)
#6. Stony Brook University (Alumni Association)
#7. Magner Career Center (Brooklyn College)
#8. University of South Florida (Alumni Association)
#9. Saint Joseph’s University (Alumni Association)
#10. Otterbein University (Alumni Association)

The real winners of these lists are the marketing wizards who promote their apps so well. Kudos to you!

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

Now is the perfect time of year to order our book popular book, life after school. explained., due to our Annual Special.

Once a year, we send lots of orders to our printer all at the same time. Due to the large order size, we receive a printing discount which we pass onto our customers (Annual Special).

So place your order by January 25th for delivery around April 3rd and save.

We hope your seniors or new hires love the book!

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

The team at Cap & Compass is excited to announce an update to our popular Crib Sheet app.

For starters, we’ve added three new life 101 topics:

• Interviewing
• Mortality
• Watching Football

On the iPhone and iPad, we’ve updated a number of elements to give the app a more snazzy iOS 7 look:

For customers with a mobile website, we’ve also added an optional fourth tab (see the “MSU Web” tab).

To promote reading more life 101 topics, our app now offers easier topic navigation (previous/next buttons):

You’ll also find a variety of other subtle, valuable improvements.

We think graduates will love this app update. Enjoy!

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

Since 2001, we’ve sold over 750,000 copies of our popular book, life after school. explained. Today we’re excited to offer it as an eBook.

What is it? In short, our eBook is a digital version of our book. It’s easy to set up and can go “live” in minutes.

To help promote your eBook, we include fun invitations to share with graduates:

You can even promote your eBook from the custom cover of your physical book by purchasing both products:

To learn more, download “Life After School. Explained.” from the App Store or Google Play and select any customer. Or just visit our website.

We think graduates will love it and hope you do, too.

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

We’re excited to announce the biggest update of our book since we first wrote our book.

We’ve added three great new topics: Watching Football, Mortality, and Interviewing.

You’ll also notice a complete redesign of the pages. Compare our new pages (top) to old pages (bottom):

We think your readers will love the ‘minimal’ approach and focus on detail:

Request your free sample to see our book update. We think you and your readers will love it.

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

SEO is critical for the growth and success of your business. However, it can also be used in the wrong way and can sometimes hurt you. Be sure you don’t misunderstand what this role entails.

Key points to remember about SEO

• SEO is a critical and creative aspect of digital marketing.
• SEO activities should always be approached with an understanding of the importance of each individual stakeholder and the overall branding plan.
• SEO techniques are the result of consideration, thought and experimentation.
• SEO activities should be proactive in nature to reduce SEO harm.
• SEO tactics should be considered carefully because they have the potential to impact, damage or jeopardize your business.

To effectively master SEO, it’s important to explore and learn from others.

All things digital marketing have a “theme” or a “theme.” SEO focuses on key areas that relate to the “theme.”

What is SEO?

SEO is a strategy to promote or draw in brand awareness by organizing or categorizing content ( descriptions, canonical tags, keywords, URLs, etc.) for search engines.

In other words, it’s a way to “query” and find the content of a website or blog through keyword search.

SEO is not about the structure of your website or blog. SEO is about the content.

Key SEO Points

Building keyword rich content for search engines is a strategy that can produce very high impact

keyword rankings, although it may be time consuming and cost prohibitive

many people are unaware of SEO or even have little idea what it is

if your website or blog isn’t “seo optimized” it’s not helping your brand

the “theme” of your website or blog is key to successful SEO

keyword phrases are often the most effective in SEO

SEO tools should be considered an integral part of SEO strategy and constantly adjusted to meet the needs of clients

How SEO Affects Business

According to the Economic Data Exchange, marketers spend $79 billion per year on search marketing.

Studies show that 93% of U.S. business owners believe that search engine optimization is one of the top 3 most important strategies for boosting their bottom line.

One of the favorite parts of my job is creating new life 101 content for our book and app.

Our topics reach tens of thousands of readers annually, so we’re thoughtful when we add something new. Is the topic worth adding? Is it helpful?

After starting with an initial list of fifteen potential topics, we narrowed the list down to three. And the winners are…

Watching Football (sneak peek) – How can you enjoy watching “the big game” with friends when football doesn’t interest you?

Mortality (sneak peek) – What happens when a loved one passes away? And do I really want to be an “executor”?

Interviewing (sneak peek) – How do you get the big job after landing the big interview?

Look for these updates in our book and app soon. We think you and graduates will love them!

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

We’re excited as more and more schools and organizations join our “app family”.

Much like our book covers, we love to see the creativity of our customers in the design of their app icons. Below are just a few recent examples.

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

We’re excited to announce a update to our mobile app, Crib Sheet.

For starters, our app now takes advantage of the big screen of iPhone 5. You’ll see more news and more life 101 content in one glance.

Once you try it, you’ll immediately notice the difference.

In your news menu, we’ve added “# selected” next to each category name to better show which feeds you’re reading.

You’ll also find a few more minor improvements. Details matter.

The update is live for most of our customers today. We hope you love it!

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email

With our new crystal ball (kind of), we give you a window in the minds of your alumni to discover what they’re really thinking. Then take action with this data!

WHAT’S NEW

In your dashboard, we supply detailed statistics across four new categories. Learn what is read and shared most in your app by your collective alumni.

Life 101 Topics
Learn – Over the last 30 days, is homeowners insurance getting read?
Do – Send a timely mailing describing your insurance partnerships.

Feeds
Learn – Is news about your baseball team popular recently?
Do – Start a free ticket promotion in exchange for address updates.

Stories
Learn – Surprised in the interest for renovations to the student union?
Do – Consider a capital campaign linked to these renovations.

Features (example)
Learn – Are videos your most popular features?
Do – Add more videos to your website and email blasts.

TAKE AWAY

Our new stats provide unique, real-time insight into the minds of your alumni. Then use this treasure trove of data to cater your program to their needs.

We hope you love it!

Subscribe to the Cap & Compass Blog by Email