The Social Side of College Admissions

We want it to be easy. We want our first YouTube video to go viral. We want our blog to have hundreds if not thousands of followers within a couple months. We want our tweeps (and subsequently their tweeps) re-tweeting our Twitter posts, creating a giant echo chamber for our messages.

Unfortunately, for 99.999% of us, it just doesn't work like that. For every social media overnight success story, there are thousands of folks inching forward, building an online following for their social media presence a handful of users at a time. But maybe being the tortoise in this race isn't so bad. We may not all be able to catch lightning in a bottle like UQAM did with their LipDub video. But maybe we can build meaningful, ongoing relationships with our target audience (prospects, admits, current students alumni, sports fans, and more) through our social media efforts.

Keep the (Relevant) Content Coming

Focus less time trying to come up with a single Silver Bullet that you hope will knock the socks off users and more time providing them with a constant stream of good content. The more content you provide, the more opportunities your audience has to engage with your school.

This doesn't mean distributing the same content on every social media outlet to every audience. Also, don't feel like everything you post has to be an official news release. One of my favorite social media campaigns is the Ohio State O-H-I-O picture campaign. It literally involves them sharing the best pictures of people forming the letter O-H-I-O in fun, interesting, exotic, and unusual locations.

Create a Strategy for Maintaining Momentum

Trust me, I know this is not an easy task. I started this blog with hopes of producing a post every week or two. Unfortunately, they've become a little less frequent. I should've been more honest with myself up front setting up a more manageable timetable for posts.

Try and figure out what are realistic expectations up front. That means determining who will be responsible for creating and curating content, for responding to user comments, for actually posting the content, and for measuring the results of your social media efforts. It also means figuring out how many resources you can reasonably devote to these efforts, not just for the initial launch but on an ongoing basis.

If you have a small team with minimal time available, that may mean that being on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, while publishing your own blog is not really an option.

Again, be realistic about what you can achieve and what sort of effort you can maintain.

Let Your Audience Do Some of the Heavy Lifting

Effective social media efforts are two-way dialogues. Encourage your audience to participate. Make it easy for them to contribute content. You may openly solicit their feedback and opinions ("What's your favorite memory from college?" for alumni, "What's your favorite class?" for current students). You may create contests with prizes for the top submissions ("Take a picture of yourself in the college's sweatshirt. The most creative picture wins a $100 book scholarship" for admitted students).

First off, these efforts can help make your job easier since you won't have to be the one trying to generate all the content. Secondly, it'll provide you with some great feedback on what sorts of content your users may want more of.

The most effective social media efforts are able to harness the power of the audience and enlist their help in building an engaging community. Back to that that UQAM LipDub video I mentioned at the beginning of the post. This was not an official school video. It was shot, directed, and choreographed by students. While the school's marketing department did not have any hand in the video, it's probably one of the best social media campaigns they could have asked for.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Twitter, YouTube

We've given dozens of demonstrations of our Facebook Application for college admission and marketing offices. All but a handful have gotten great responses from colleges, most of whom are looking to do more with social networks, specifically Facebook. The biggest reason folks pass on the opportunity is budget concerns. We've heard some variation of "We just don't have the money for this. Our budget has been cut this year" more than any other reason. We've only heard "We just don't see the value" once.

This got me thinking, are social media efforts primarily considered an additional expense and new responsibility or can they be viewed as an alternative to an existing initiative? As I started to think about this question, I started to realize the implications of the answer.

Social Media Is an Additional Expense and a New Responsibility

If your school views social media as one more thing it needs to do or one more product it needs to buy, you're probably facing an uphill battle, especially in these economic times. There are unlikely additional funds for these "new, non-traditional" approaches. Not only that, many universities are paring down administrative staff, increasing everyone's workload. That likely means any new initiatives only add more to someone's plate, a plate that is already overflowing with responsibilities.

It's easy to see how a school that approached social media from this perspective is going to choose the path of least resistance, requiring the fewest resources, both financial and human. That probably means a Twitter account that pulls directly from the school's news feed, a Facebook Page that regurgitates press releases, and a YouTube account populated entirely with the school's 30-second TV commercials. All content that does very little to play to the strengths of social media and social networking.

Social Media as an Alternative to Existing Practices

Colleges and universities that view social media as a new way to interact with prospective students, current students, and alumni are much better able to take full advantage of the opportunity. This might mean admissions counselors spend more time crafting status updates for your Facebook Page, fun Tweets for your Twitter account, or intersting blog posts that give an insider's view of the admissions process. And less time each week sending off e-mails or manning a booth at a college fair. These schools may choose to invest money from their limited budget in a Facebook Application or private social network rather than in a beautifully designed brochure.

For these schools, a down economy does not mean that social media goes by the wayside. These schools may find that social media actually offers a way to more cost-effectively reach students. A Facebook Page and Twitter account are free to set up, as is a blog if you use a site like Google's Blogger. Expensive viewbooks could be replaced by a lively Facebook presence that helps prospective and admitted students interact with real people in a two-way dialogue. You may choose to create a series of fun 1-minute YouTube videos about life on your school's campus rather than buy an ad in a magazine.

How does your school view social media?

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks

Varsity Outreach will be hosting a webinar on September 15 at 2pm ET on how colleges can use Facebook to promote themselves. We will combine useful statistics and an overview of your options with practical, actionable advice regarding Facebook.

We plan on covering all the options you have for getting involved in Facebook, including Profiles, Groups, Pages, and Applications. We will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each. Additionally, we will provide tips on how to get the most out of your Facebook experience and a roadmap for a successful Facebook presence.

So come join us next Tuesday, September 15, at 2pm ET. You can watch the webinar from your computer. If you want to participate and ask questions, there will be a chat room (registration on UStream required). We will also be monitoring the Twitter hashtag #VOWebinar

The webinar will be on our UStream channel:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/facebook-tutorial-for-colleges

You will also be able to watch on the Varsity Outreach website at:
http://www.varsityoutreach.com/VideoPresentation.aspx

We hope you can make it!

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Strategy, Webinar

It's hard to miss all the hype about social media. Stories about Twitter and Facebook are in the news almost daily. Several schools have attracted headlines for launching iPhone applications. The New York Times' The Choice blog just had a story about a site that aggregates and categorizes college-related twitter accounts called GlobalQuad.

So you may be thinking, our school needs to have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel, and more. It almost feels like blogs are a thing of the past (they're not).

But wait, take a deep breath, and relax. Just throwing something up and forgetting about it on these sites is unlikely to produce the sorts of results that you would hope for given the hype.

Social Media Is an Avenue to Get Your Message Out, Not the Message Itself

I think people sometimes forget that social media is a tool. It's not the end goal. In many cases, it can be an extremely effective tool to build and foster relationships, but, in the end, it is just a tool. Just like the telephone, e-mail, postcards, and other marketing outlets are just tools at your disposal. It's the content and people that really make the difference. Social media offers an opportunity to accelerate the distribution process, to create stronger feedback loops so you can more quickly react to what's working and what's not, and to let your community (which may be current students, alumni, prospects, admits, staff, and more) have a voice.

Social Media Is Not Fairy Dust

Free Can Be a Hard Price to Pass Up

I think one of the biggest advantages of social media is that it can be an incredibly cost-effective way to reach an audience. You don't have to pay for postage or printing. If you post your video on YouTube, you don't have to foot the bill for bandwidth and video hosting. It's free to create a Facebook Page or a Twitter account. However, the $0 price tag may also be the siren's call of social media.

Just because it's free doesn't mean you should be doing it. Creating a Facebook page that has no pictures, no wall posts, and only an address may not do you any good. In fact, it may be harmful. If I were a prospective student and I posted a question your wall, but never got a response, that may not leave a good impression.

I am a huge advocate for the potential of social media. I would encourage colleges to engage prospective and admitted students using tools they embrace like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. I believe providing a more personal touchpoint for interested students is a powerful selling point.

Content Is Still King

But you have to remember it's the underlying message you are trying to sell... the value of a college education at your school, the richness of the experience on your campus. It's unlikely that a student is going to pick your school just because you have a Facebook page, but they may pick your school because of the relationship they developed through interactions on that Facebook page.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy

On the Mashable website, there was an interesting article about the friendly Facebook rivalry developing between Texas A&M and LSU for the top spot among college Facebook pages. In the article, there was a great quote that got at the heart of two of the biggest selling points of social media... access and convenience.

Kathryn Greenwade, VP of communications for the Texas A&M alumni association was quoted saying that the university's social media strategy is "to go where the people are rather than creating our own network."

Don't Re-Create the Wheel

Are you going to build a better social network than Facebook? Unlikely. Are you going to be able to keep up with the innovations that Facebook is making on a monthly basis? Also unlikely. Are 250 million people going to have easy access to your social network from day one? Pretty much impossible. Through tools like Groups, Pages, and Applications, Facebook gives colleges and universities a number of options to reach prospects, admits, current students, and alumni on one site. Is it worth devoting your scarce resources to building and maintaining your own Facebook-like site and to driving users to that site?

Minimize Barriers to Participation

If anything, the Internet has made people expect more information and functionality easier, faster, and more adapted to their specific preferences. You can get stock quotes streamed to your Yahoo or Google homepage. You can update your Twitter account and Facebook status at once. You can pay bills with the click of a mouse. Basically, we've been conditioned to expect more while doing less.

A large percentage of your target audience is already on Facebook. Why make them sign up for a completely new social network? Why make them maintain a whole new set of online relationships? Why make them log in to another website to participate?

Convenience is one of the most powerful tools you have to encourage engagement with your school. If it is easy to join and easy to participate, people will do just that... they'll become fans of your Facebook Pages, join your Facebook Groups, and add your Facebook Applications. They'll post on your walls, upload photos, and watch videos. Ultimately, they will build stronger relationships with your school.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Pages, Social Networks, Strategy

I was at a meeting the other day for folks working to improve access to college for New York City students. It was our annual wrap-up meeting before summer break and, as is tradition, we brought in a speaker to talk to us and provide a little motivation for the work we do.

He was fabulous. He captivated the audience, made us laugh, brought tears to some people's eyes, and left us all feeling good about the work we were doing. Just what we all needed.

How'd he do it? First, he didn't just try to hammer home the importance of college for low-income students or fire stats at us about the value of education. He told his story. He shared his own personal experience growing up in the projects, making his way to college, and eventually becoming a principal at a NYC middle school. But that's not all.

He did the unexpected. He grabbed our attention by sharing a wild story about how, as a third grader, he zipped up a little too quickly after going to the bathroom and ran out of the restroom to his teacher for help. If we weren't listening before, this story definitely got us all tuned in. Then, he told us another story about being in the Peace Corps and taking out his contacts in the home of a woman in a remote African village. She mistook the scene for him actually taking out his eye and ran around her hut screaming in terror. That's not all. He assumed she was running because she had just seen a lion approaching the hut and proceeded to run after her, figuring she knew the best way to escape. We were all conjuring in our minds how the whole scene would look.

At this point, we were all hooked. We wanted to hear what crazy tidbit he had to share next. We all knew it would be something wacky and, most likely, hilarious.

Share Your School's Wacky Quirks

Is your school sharing the same stories as every other school? Are you touting the strong academics and wonderful campus that every other school claims to have? Think about what makes your school unique, maybe even a little quirky, and share it. Pique a prospective student's curiosity with a story about a crazy tradition your school has. Grab their attention with a unique, unexpected opportunity your school offers. Maybe you have a course entirely devoted to The Beatles or to Star Trek. These are the attributes that are likely to stick out in a prospect's memory and make them curious to learn more about your school.

Labels: General, Marketing

Now I won't claim that jury duty holds a treasure trove of lessons about marketing to and recruiting prospective students, but I was definitely surprised by one aspect of the process: the Your Turn video, offering a brief outline of the roles and responsibilities of a jury.

As I sat in a giant windowless room at the Brooklyn court house, I looked around and saw the majority of people engaged by this video. Rather than blandly laying out what a jury is and how it fits into the judicial process, the video presented potential jurors with a brief narrative of the history of judicial systems, featuring appearances by Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes and Diane Sawyer. It wasn't just facts. The video was crafting a story.

We were educated about trial by ordeal, used in the Middle Ages, where a person's innocence was determined based on their buoyancy – the accused was bound and tossed into water... you float and you're guilty, you sink and you're innocent. They weaved in scenes from Perry Mason and portrayed the courtroom as a drama with a cast of characters including the judge, attorneys, clerk, stenographer, and more. As a juror, you were a central actor in this drama.

Sure, this wasn't an episode of Lost or American Idol, but most of the potential jurors had put down their newspapers and books or taken their eyes off their laptops. They even threw in some interviews from regular Joe's about their jury experience. And pitched jury duty as a "chance to serve", painting it as an opportunity rather than an obligation.

The video utilized several effective marketing tactics.

The video told a story

We were not bombarded with facts or simply told why jury duty was important. We were given a brief history of judicial systems, spanning from Aristotle to the Middle Ages to revolutionary America to today.

The video showed a human side

Testimonials from normal citizens provided a more personal feel. And it wasn't all roses. The video incorporated people complaining about having to serve on a jury duty ("I've got lots of work on my desk" or "I'm going to have to sit in a room all day"). We were offered some sympathy. But we were also presented with jurors commenting how much they learned about the judicial process. Some even claimed to have enjoyed it.

Don't forget that your prospective students are shopping for an experience. And numbers and facts are not the only ways to convey the quality of the experience your college is offering. Share your school's personality with a narrative. Give your prospects an opportunity to envision themselves on your campus. Highlight interesting stories that will stick in their memory. And make sure you are applying these lessons across all the media that you use, including social networking.

I know I won't soon forget the re-enactment of the trial by ordeal portrayed in the video. It was amusing, unexpected, and interesting. And if they can do that with jury duty, think of what you can do with all the great material you have to work with... distinguished faculty, historic buildings, quality academic programs, and a diverse and dynamic student body. Find the stories and share them with your audience.

Labels: Marketing, Strategy

While reading the book Predictably Irrational, I came across the concept of herding, where "we assume that something is good (or bad) on the basis of other people's previous behavior, and our actions follow suit." The author Dan Ariely uses the example of restaurants. If we walk by a restaurant with a line, we assume it's good. If the line is really long, we assume it's great. You have never eaten the food at the restaurant, but you already have a positive association with it.

Start with Your Most Passionate Fans

The book got me thinking about incorporating this concept of herding when establishing online communities for prospective and admitted students. Why not encourage the most passionate, most interested students to join first and let them set a positive tone for the community? Your admissions office could target students who have:

• Visited campus already
• Applied early
• Made a strong impression at college fairs
• Have parents / siblings that are alumni

Build a Line in Front of Your School

These students are likely to post positive comments on your walls, to share their excitement on your discussion boards, to actively engage in the community with specific questions and answers regarding your school's unique programs and opportunities. You may even consider letting them know that they are the first to be invited into the community, imbuing them with a sort of insider status. These students are the "first people in line for your restaurant."

Let These Users Create a Positive Herding Effect

Now, you start inviting the 2nd and 3rd wave of prospective and admitted students into the community. A prospect or admit that may have been lukewarm is now likely to see other students singing the praises of your school (see our previous post where we discuss authenticity). Perhaps their first thought will be "Wow, people really seem to love this school. Maybe I have been missing something and should take a closer look?" These students are now walking by a restaurant with a long line that a whole bunch of other people seem to really like.

Labels: Marketing, Social Networks

Nothing can fully replace face-to-face interactions. An exchange of instant messages will likely never have the same impact as an in-person conversation. An e-mail isn't the same as a phone call. However, with state governments slashing budgets and college endowments taking major hits, the search for cost-effective recruitment solutions is becoming more important than ever.

The slumping economy has had a major impact on admission offices and families of college-bound students. Many admission offices are now facing budget cuts, meaning less money for student recruitment efforts, including trips to high schools and college fairs. Additionally, families now have less money to invest in the college search process. According to a Longmire and Company survey of 1,030 parents of college-bound students, a quarter said they would be making fewer college visits as a result of the economy.

It's now time to be creative in how you cost-effectively reach out to prospective and admitted students. With fewer face-to-face interactions, using virtual solutions may be the way to build relationships with these students.

Virtual Interactions May Be the Next Best Option

For several years, hundreds of colleges and universities have been utilizing online chat rooms to interact with students. Having participated in several online chats, it is by no means a fast-paced back and forth between prospects and the admission office, but it does offer an opportunity for students to get some of their more pressing questions answered. And chances are that the admissions office's answers are relevant for a good portion of those on the chat.

Wake Forest has gone even further. Starting this past December, Wake Forest began using Skype to conduct "face-to-face" interviews for students who could not make it to campus. While they would likely be the first to admit in-person interviews are preferred over these virtual alternatives, this solution has allowed admission officers to have a personal interaction with applicants when it otherwise would not have been possible.

Building an Online Community Around Your School

Many schools are still figuring out what to make of Facebook and whether they want to engage with prospective and admitted students within social networks. I think schools that sit by and do nothing to engage candidates on social networks are missing a huge opportunity. If a prospect can't make it to your campus, social networks like Facebook give you an opportunity to bring your campus to them, or at least a taste of it.

The stats about your school (standardized test scores, size, location, and diversity) are important, but it's the personal connections that a prospect makes with your school that will stand out and tip the scales in your school's favor. You don't want to hijack the conversation on these social networks, but there is plenty of room between taking over the conversation and not participating at all. You can be a facilitator, helping prospects connect with people and resources on campus. When they have questions, you can point them toward answers. If done effectively, you can even help them build relationships with each other. My guess is that there is no better sales pitch for a college than an excited student (whether it is a current student on campus or a high school senior that has fallen in love with your school and is dying to get admitted).

Play within the "Rules"

Don't forget that Facebook is a social space. If you are going to participate, make sure you participate in a way that is in line with how Facebook is used. Don't just recreate your admissions website in Facebook. Start conversations, promote events, build a community around your school.

Virtual interactions are unlikely to ever supplant personal interactions as the best way to build relationships. However, they may be a good alternative when live, face-to-face interactions are not possible.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing, Skype, Social Networks, Technology

Yesterday, I tuned in to a live stream of a presentation from the folks over at .eduGurus, entitled Social Media Storytelling. My hats off to the six folks who collaborated on the presentation (and made great use of technology, video conferencing in five of the participants and live-streaming out the presentation).

They made a number of great points while sharing anecdotes from their own experiences with social media and higher ed marketing. The one that stuck out most for me, though, was the emphasis on authenticity. In theory, everyone wants their message to sound authentic and real, but, in practice, it involves ceding some control, especially within a social networking environment.

Don't Lose the Authenticity

Students who visit Facebook and other social networks to learn about your school are seeking out this authenticity. If they want the "official" information about your school, they'll go to your admissions website. On social networks, they're looking to build a dialogue with you, with other prospects, and with current students, and they can sniff out a canned, marketing message from a mile away.

Your Blemishes Make You Real

To get this authenticity, you may have to let these users see a few of your school's warts. You will have to resist the urge to delete every wall post or discussion thread that does not reflect the exact image you want to project. What you get in return for this restraint is greater trust. Greater trust that you are presenting an unfiltered view of your school. Greater trust that when someone posts a positive experience about your school, they really mean it.

Let Your Students Sell Your School

Chances are, admissions counselors are not going to be your best salespeople. It's going to be fellow prospective students and current students, who have already fallen in love with your school and want to share their experiences. And if you over-moderate, users may not believe the authenticity of these experiences.

Labels: Facebook, Marketing