Speaker: Adrienne Bartlett, Director of Marketing, TargetX

Packed house for Adrienne!  

Video: The Break Up

She set expectations about what she’s going to cover - brilliant.

  • The Groundswell
  • Authenticity
  • Listening
  • Participating
  • Examples

1970s: Application and Catalog

1980s: Marketing and Direct Mail

1990s: Branding and more Direct Mail

2000s: Authenticity and Social Media

Web 2.0 is about making connections and sharing. Web 1.0 was passive, whereas Web 2.0 was active.  A lot of companies in teh sphere, because the barrier to entry is low.  

“Prosumer” combination of producer and consumer (Amazon as an example)

Talk the Web 2.0 talk: create, animate, share, profile, tag, comment, vote, ratings, photo gallery, etc…

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff - a book about the permanent shift in the way the world works.  Its just referring to the online conversation going on about your institution/product/brand.

It’s about people’s desire to connect with each other. It depends on interaction.  You can’t just push messages out anymore - you no longer have control over the message.  It’s about the users and is built around their discussion and participation.  It uses technology as a conduit.

76% of US college marketers say they plan to use SM strategies.

The number of high school graduates is declining, so you can’t just keep piling more kids into the top of the funnel and expect it to trickle down.

Quality is no long a differentiating factor - Authenticity is the only real unique message you have about your school.

We all get 3000-5000 messages daily - a clutter-crisis of messages.  As a result 64% think that advertising is dishonest.   Building a brand message has never been harder. 

Authenticity by Jim Gilmore and Joseph Pine

If prospective students can’t get the real story from you, they’ll go to websites where they can like college confidential.

Tell better stories - they render authenticity.  Stories, not stats. People, not programs.  Must be real, unique and recent.  Let “them” tell the story.  Can’t be authentic and have editorial control. 

Example: Wharton MBA site (”more on the Wharton MBA difference”)

Example: Warren Wilson College (”Not for everyone, but you’re not everyone”)

Ask yourself if you were a car, what kind of car would you be?  More importantly, how would your students answer this question?

Your tag line: Is it real?

What are you doing to facilitate the process of people getting what they want from each other? 

Example: Joie de vivre hotels 

Today the most important conversation is the dialogue that you’re having, not the monologue that you’re pushing out.

What happens when you’re competitors harness the power of social media but you don’t?

How do you start?

Cautiously - social media can start a firestorm of criticism.  If you have enthusiastic supporters they will rally to your defense. Better to have your message reflected, than be silent (in most cases). 

Are you listening?  They’re all talking about you.  Make listening your first step.  

Set up Google Alerts for the name of your school.  Go on Technorati and type the name of your school.  Go on del.ic.ious and do a search for your school name.  Search for your school on YouTube.  You might find great student-created content.

Facebook Lexicon - a tool that allows you to see the buzz surrounding a different words.

Blogs: entries should be short; more than just text - add pictures; the best bloggers have interesting things to tell; set expectations - don’t censor; encourage interaction through comments; offer RSS feed options. Examples - Stanfords School of Medicine, U of Oregon, MIT Admissions

Social Networks: teens spend an average of 9 hours on social networks a week. 

Warning: Social networks are a private space.  It’s not about you.  

Think about setting up a free network using www.ning.com

Video: The YouTube Revolution

Examples: 

  • Will It Blend
  • U of Richmond site
  • Dartmouth Admissions videos :-)
  • Northeastern Admissions on YouTube
  • Roanoke College did a video contest for a new mascot and featured all the people that entered, even if they didn’t get picked

Podcasting: Do other things first (if your website sucks you should not be worrying about doing podcasts).  Consider time to record, produce, and host. Determine frequency you can commit to .  Make it real (ums and ah’s are ok). Promote it on iTunes.  Example: Indiana University at Perdue

RSS Examples: Lehigh University has an RSS feed for every sports team. Some ideas: feed to release emergency information for parents, feed to relay updates on policies, programs or events. 

Great social media campaigns are supported by great email campaigns. 

Wofford Sites and Sounds page brought up as an example!  Go Kyle James!!!!!!!!

Steps to embracing social media

  1. tell real stories
  2. listen
  3. offer opportunies to share/comment/interact/upload
  4. invite participation
  5. include viral components
  6. provide value
  7. give up some control

Why Social Marketing?

  • more visitors
  • more engaged
  • more time spent on your site
  • more viral components
  • more returners
  • more loyalty
  • more likely to enroll

Look for examples outside higher ed for new marketing!