Millennials ask “How green is your campus?”

The UC Santa Cruz campus didn't make the honor roll, but is famous for natural beauty

This year 15 colleges made The Princeton Review’s Green Honor Roll. Millennials look at things like this when choosing which institution to attend for undergrad or graduate school, and their interest isn’t just idealism.

A few days ago, an article in GreenBiz.com pointed out that the job market of the future is green. Becoming environmentally literate is not only in vogue, it’s becoming an essential skill for many career paths.

David Soto, Director of College Rankings for the Princeton Review, commented that Millennials are “very in tune to what’s going on.” As an example of what’s going on, he pointed out that the renewable energy sector is supposed to quadruple in size over the next 10 years. “Young people know this,” he added.

In many ways that can be obvious or very subtle, there are practical advantages to studying in a green environment. The opportunities for research, independent study and internships are greater. Socializing with environmentally-minded students, faculty and staff is a valuable experience for anyone who plans to go into energy, food-production, civil engineering or any number of other fields.

Chances are your institution is already green and greening in many ways. It’s worthwhile to point this out emphatically to today’s applicants.

A sucker’s guide to talking to Gen Y

In the article “Speaking to Generation Nexus”, the Washington Post recently reported on business coach Anne Loehr, who teaches a class called “Get Wise With Gen Ys: How to Effectively Sell to Each Generation in Today’s Workplace.”

From the article (quoting Loehr) :

“[Millenials] really value making a difference. If you can say you are ‘green,’ or politically correct or socially correct, whatever, that goes a long way with them. Nike, no way. Gen Y will not buy Nike — that big, ugly globalized company. This generation is very well-educated — both parents probably have MBAs…Y’s may be working in the local schools, teaching French to the poor elementary school kids. Okay? That kind of thing.”

In case you wanted some crib notes on how to lump generations made up of the entire spectrum of ethinicities, classes, educational levels, etc., you can download “Anne Loehr’s Generational Cheat Sheet” from the Washington Post’s website.

This is, to say the very least, an incredible oversimplification. Loehr mistakes an entire generation’s proclivity towards optimism and “other-orientation” and reduces it to a fashion statement. Not only is this dangerously cynical and stereotypical, but overreaches into the political/personal and socio-economic realities that this generation grew up with.

By making this kind of generalization about a group born over the course of a decade is exactly counter to the multi-faceted nature of the generation. There is a shared consciousness of global events that did shape the American Millennial generation’s experience. Rapid advances in technology sectors during the ‘90s — with cell phones, the Internet and personal computers, satellite and cable television — did exponentially increase entertainment and information outlets for *everyone*; Millennials are just more adjusted and comfortable in that environment.

oops…I forgot to ask

For some college bound students, the campus visit can result in a lot of missed opportunities. Students often wish that they had done more during their trip; more research on the school, talks with current students and general exploration on foot. A lot of students say they wish that they had gotten to know the admissions office better during their visit. Prospective students often have a lot more questions than answers after returning home.

Focused help web chats can get to those nagging questions that remain after a campus visit. Invite your last campus tour group to chat with an admissions expert. Get ahead of the students, anticipate their questions and concerns and be ready for them. They are now going to be ready to hear detailed information about filling out applications, applying for financial aid, etc.

When a rival university infiltrates your chat

I recently heard a troubling story about some unethical people in our profession. I hope this doesn’t happen very often, but here’s what to do if the situation comes up.

An admissions officer held a webchat for applicants who had been accepted but had not yet decided whether to enroll. Things were going smoothly, but apparently someone from a competing institution decided to crash the party.

Our friend got suspicious when one of the chat participants kept asking leading questions. She would give the chatter a reply, and chatter would say “But at UNIVERSITY XYZ they do it this way.”

It was clearly someone marketing for the other university, trying to steal these ideal prospects.

Fortunately UWC has an elegant “boot” tool to kick such disrupters out of the room. You can also set up a separate room for other chatters when booting isn’t appropriate, as in the case of helicopter parents. And our new WebChat 2.0 has a lot of great new features, free to all our users.

If you haven’t yet set up your own chat room with your institution’s branding and logo, you can create one in minutes with the permanent URL of your choice at https://www.universitywebchat.com/manage/signup/.

Did I mention there’s a free version? You can also upgrade to accommodate more chatters at any time.

Connect the dots from the virtual world to the real world

The college visit is make or break time. It’s really important that your marketing approach prepares potential students for the actual visit, so make sure that all your outreach materials are authentic to your school.

Common college visit turnoffs are issues with the campus atmosphere and the tour guide. Visitors won’t like if the campus feels like a ghost town or is too quiet. A bigger deal breaker is if the tour guide is not personable or worse, students complain of feeling judged or unworthy to be considering the school by their guide.

Students want a campus to feel vibrant and active. Posters and signs of student and political activity are two ways that students get a sense of an engaged campus. The campus visit can also benefit enormously from student guides and speakers that are currently a part of campus life. Students really want to listen to their peers to feel like they are getting the “real” story on the school.

A great way to get visitors prepared for the campus visit is to hold a webchat with your expected visitors a few days prior to the event. Not only will you be able to answer any final questions, you can gain insight on what kind of experience the students are expecting and this can help you prepare and adjust.

To learn about how to use University WebChat to market to Millennials, join us for a free, live webinar tomorrow, July 21st at 1pm PST. Register now!

Teen-written report disses Twitter, gives Millennial take on other media

When media mogul Rupert Murdoch was recently asked if he planned to buy Twitter, he said “no.” When asked if he planned to sell MySpace, he replied, “Hell, no!”

This simple formula of “social media-good, Twitter-bad” has been confirmed by 15-year-old Matthew Robson, who wrote a report for Morgan Stanley, “How Teenagers Consume Media.”

Click on the link above for the complete text of the report. Or read on, for some of the highlights:

• The two problems with Twitter are that complete strangers can follow you, and frequent texting can quickly become an unwanted expense that’s better spent on friends.
• Long-lasting batteries, touch screens, and devices that can connect with the internet are “in.”
• Black and white screens, or anything with wires, are “out.”
• Video games are highly popular,  and offer a lot of potential for marketers.

I don’t know exactly how you’ll apply this to recruiting Millennials in higher education, but it’s worth some thought. The type of information you produce and the ways you disseminate it should be determined by the devices young Millennials are using, and the media they enjoy.

Tests are stressful! Choosing a college is hard!

These are the concerns of prospective students, as expressed in a live chat conducted this week on Abby’s Road, a live webcast broadcast on Twit Live. College-bound seniors see choosing a college as a very difficult decision, and said that their choice is based on things like affordability, on-campus political activities, sports programs (where applicable) and other social factors.

And that recruiting pamphlet you sent out to prospective students? Chances are it didn’t get opened, say students. Mailed materials usually end up sitting on the shelf. Students also complained that letters “seem generic.” It would seem you’d be better off focusing on your web presence. And on that topic, they have a lot of input about what websites they find attractive and useful.

Once a student has narrowed down their choice of schools, the school website becomes an important factor in their decision. Schools websites that students liked included lots of photos of the campus, student life and the surrounding area. Having a visual idea of what their life would look like on campus ranked as a very important factor for out of state students considering schools.

These students are the target audience for prospective student web chats. The biggest questions these students have right at this point in their search are “Can I get in to this school?” and “How do I get in to this school?” Inviting inquiring prospects to an introductory webchat is a great time to answer these general questions and to show off the school by embedding photos in to the chat session.

Join me for a free webinar: How To Conduct a Web Chat

The webinar will cover topics including web chat best practices, how to market to millennials and a demo of our web chat product (University WebChat).

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT

Register Now!

Infrequently Asked Questions

College applicants share a lot of common concerns over the admissions process, such as deadlines, academic requirements, and how to apply for financial aid. These are easily handled in print. More difficult to address are the infrequently asked questions. “Who picks my roommate?” “Is there a fencing club on campus?” Live webchats can give you an opportunity to answer questions that applicants might otherwise feel are too too silly to ask in person.

Why not compile a list of the most unusual questions (with answers!) that you have fielded? This can create an ice breaker moment in the chat, and open up the field for the sort of off-the-wall questions that can end up making an applicant’s decision.

Still more reasons you should recruit Gen Y to help you recruit Gen Y

No, the title wasn’t a typo. In past blog posts I’ve strongly hinted that college admissions professionals should get help from student interns and other colleagues who are Millennials, to make the best use of technology as a recruiting tool.

Looks like I’m not the only one. Just four days ago, Sylvia Ann Hewlett wrote a post for the Harvard Business Review with the unambiguous title, “Let Gen Y Teach You Tech.” Among other things, she describes the way Time Warner recruited college students at “Gen Y Mentors.”

And it turns out, these mentors are just waiting for you to ask them for help.

Last week on the Why Gen Why blog, Crystal Olig offers advice to her fellow Millennials on how to cope with Gen Y stereotypes at work. Her first tip: “Educate your more seasoned (ie, old) coworkers.”

Other tips include volunteering to test new technology and applying social networking skills “to make your company look good.”

As she elaborates on these points, one of the first things she mentions is, “Gen Yers are all about teamwork.” In other words, you’ve got a resource of tech-savvy people who are willing–even eager–to help out.

Back in the days of dial-up when I went to college, we had student reps who visited high schools to recruit new applicants. You should give these enthusiastic students the freedom to make your institution’s social media efforts shine–if you’re not doing this already.

This idea seems to be catching on.