Ologie: Social Media & Higher Education

RM blog having a mind meld with Dartmouth College

“Great minds…”

I recently wrote about the importance of addressing, “infrequently asked questions,” here on Recruiting Millennials. I saw today that Dartmouth College has launched their own Uncommonly Asked Questions blog this summer.

How is your school addressing improbable, unusual and unexpected questions? Tell us!

The Not So Welcome…Welcome

TargetX experience evaluator, Trent Gilbert, video blogs about the “The Not So Welcome…Welcome”

Shared via AddThis

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.

What could happen when you give up a bit of control to Millennials?

Earlier this month Doritos finished up an 11-week campaign in Canada for a new tortilla chip flavor. This wasn’t your usual string of “professional” ads, either. Not only did they target Millennials in the campaign, they gave it to the Millennials.

The campaign essentially was a contest for a new flavor and a 30-second advertisement. What’s really cool is that participants submitted their entries through a special interactive website. More than 30,000 people became “fans” of the Doritos Guru FaceBook page, and sales went up 22% during the campaign.

The most impressive part of the story, however, was an observation made by Calvin Leung in an article in Canadian Business Magazine.  He pointed out that the contest “handed control of its image over to kids — a dare that doesn’t always have pleasant results.”

This is probably a big concern for marketers in any industry, including that of higher learning, where a certain image must be maintained.  Any time you give that kind of control over to a younger generation, there’s a risk that some of them will mock you or insult you.

But consider the end result. In the Doritos case, they had a dramatic upsurge in sales and brand recognition, while the downside was a perhaps a few off-color comments on their FaceBook wall. Wouldn’t you like to make a comparable trade-off for your institution?

How many institutions of higher learning are really listening?

I was a bit troubled by Carol Phillips’ post the other day, “What Millennials want at work.”

Phillips talks about yet more research showing that Millennials are different, that they’re more concerned about relationships and making positive change in the world than they are about money and careers. She cites research from Deloitte, and even makes a reference to the question on their home page, “Will the business change you, or will you change the business.”

I followed her link to the Deloitte site, and since they’re supposed to be savvy recruiters, I clicked through as if I were interested in applying for a job.

They seemed to act upon their research. Their recruitment pages were packed with headlines offering “a well-rounded experience,”  “turn two years of business school into a lasting contribution to the world” and their Italian page promised recruits would “learn something new every day.”

I was so impressed I almost lied about my age and submitted an application.

Instead, I did an admittedly unscientific study, and went to Google to see what kind of image college and university recruiters are giving. I did a search for “University of” and clicked through the links on the first few pages.

The most common thing I found was a menu or laundry list of programs, faculty, and buildings “located in the historically diverse heart of the city of…”

Another frequent item was news about the campus and the latest research. This might be interesting to alumnae, and maybe even prospective graduate students, but it’s probably not going to be the first thing a Millennial wants to know.

One institution had a headline about their new, chopped up budget front and center on their home page. I’ll give them points for honesty, but the  first thing you show a prospective student shouldn’t be the cuts to programs and services. Is that really a good idea?

Another common theme was a “Message From The President,” nearly always an empty speech about “our committment to excellence.” This type of thing is probably a turn-off to most Millennials.

Some of the business schools seemed to do a little better. Right up front there were photos of thoughtful-looking people in far away exotic places, with headlines such as “Educating leaders to make a difference in the world,” and “personal experiences interacting with local people and entrepreneurs.”

Business-minded professionals pay attention to the relevant research, just as medical practitioners, engineers, and even some economists typically do. But somehow, institutions of higher learning are failing to act on the data.

This whole thing troubles me, because I don’t think admissions officers are at fault.

The sense I got from looking at college and university websites is that admissions professionals aren’t given enough of a role in determining the marketing plans of their institutions.

How can the voice of admissions, arguably the the most important element in keeping a campus dynamic and alive, make itself heard?

Millennials will tell you how to recruite Millennials

I just saw a press release about a contest that Project Noah is holding to recruit Millennials to their cause.

They’re having a t-shirt design contest, but they’ve raised the stakes–The winners get to share 100% of the profits on the sale of the shirts they design for the first six months. This really clever, because they’ll have a cool design that will sell long after the six-month period is over. The contest element means more Millennials will pay attention, buy the t-shirt, and learn about Project Noah.

This really is relevant for admissions professionals, so bear with me.

This is the latest example of saavy marketers inviting Millennials to collaborate with them. In our white paper, we talk about having students create recruitment videos, blog for you, and otherwise create content to recruit new students.

What if you invited your applicants to participate in a t-shirt design contest, and then gave the shirts to next fall’s incoming freshmen? What if you let them create the next college catalog (in a digital format, of course)? Could you give ownership of any other high-visibility projects to your students and applicants?

To the extent that you harness this energy, your institution will gain a lot of street cred, Millennials will appreciate the authentic content, and you may even be able to remove some costs from your budget.

The only thing you really have to give up is a little bit of control.

Learning from Ford Fiesta’s millennial marketing gambit

Alison H, a Ford Fiesta Social Network "Agent"

As Jacob wrote a few weeks ago on Recruiting Millennials (he’s always beating me to the punch!), Ford is betting big on Social Networking to sell it’s new Fiesta, a car which has turned out to be highly popular in Europe.

Ford recently awarded 100 Fiestas to 100 millennials (Ford calls them “agents”) selected from over 4,000 applicants. The agents get to use the cars free for six months in exchange for completing monthly “missions” ad sharing their experiences through popular social networks, such as YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

For example, Alison H, pictured here, is one of the Fiesta agents, and you can read about her experiences with the Fiesta on her personalized website, which links to her Twitter (7,650 followers), YouTube (22 videos) and website.

Ford’s website, FiestaMovement.com pulls in content from all of their “agents” across the web to let visitors “follow the Movement in one convenient place.”

So what’s the connection? Imagine empowering and organizing 5 students from your incoming class to use social networking tools to tell your school’s story to the next cohort of applicants. Is it risky? Yes. But based on Ford’s gambit, they are expecting the payoff to be worth the risk.

Make an appearance at NAGAP through Web Chat!

National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals 2009 Conference, New York

Kathy Hua-Di, Recruitment Coordinator for the University of Southern California School of Social Work, and I will be presenting on Thursday (4/23) at the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP) annual conference in New York. If you won’t be there in person, read on to find out how you can make an appearance also, via web chat!

At our session, Technology 101: Recruiting Millennials Using Web Chat, we’ll be discussing how and why to use Web Chat to recruit millennials.

The generation of students entering college this year have never known a world without the Internet. Graduate schools that don’t communicate using newer technologies run the risk of missing out on some of today’s top students.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to reach Millennials, or Generation Y. Web-based chat is an example of how new Internet technologies can be adopted at a low cost and with little training. Kathy Hua-Di will provide an overview of the electronic communication tools that are natural for this year’s incoming freshman and suggests ways that these tools can become an integral part of the admissions process based on her experience using Web Chat at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work.

I’ll be providing a demo, and discussing some research findings about how recruitment professionals are using webchat, who they are inviting to chats, and who is participating in web chats.

If you won’t be able to attend, but would like to make an appearance at the conference, join the following web chat room at the specified time and date, and you’ll be able to participate in a live web chat during our conference session! If you plan to participate, please send me an email, so I can acknowledge you in the Web Chat during the session.

Join the NAGAP Web Chat Conference Session Live
Thursday, April 23, 2009
8am PDT / 9am MDT / 10am CDT / 11am EDT
http://nagap.universitywebchat.com/chat6843/

I hope to see you there!

It’s the brand, stupid

Mission Statements — and generally large blocks of text — tend not to resonate with this millennial. And it seems your correspondent isn’t alone. A neat post over at BrettHummel.com explores the effect of these in employing Millennials:

To understand an employer brand, a person must first understand what an employer brand is not. Human resource executives often make the mistake of defining an employer brand through a slogan. Many of the management and entrepreneurial books suggest that creating a slogan energizes and focuses employees on a company’s goals. While that may have worked in the 90’s, we have become a society completely over stimulated with slogans. According to Nike we should “Just Do It”; Canon seeks to “Beat Xerox”, but much like advertising messages, Millennials have tuned these catch phrases out of their conscience.

The key word for me at the end of that post is “tuned these catch phrases out of their conscience”. We know Millennials are inundated with marketing messages every minute or every hour of every day, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that generic, “mission-statementy” language just doesn’t resonate with this group.

The lesson? Drop the slogan and manage your school or program like a brand. Engage in the online discussion happening right now about your school, in typical Millennial haunts like Facebook and MySpace. Join the conversation, offer your opinion, and provide the instant information and customer support access this group needs.

Brett’s advice for building better marketing language is relevant for higher-ed:

The normal corporate jargon of achieving synergy, strong partnerships, and value for the shareholder serves no purpose defining a company or the creation of its employer brand. Instead of vague mission and vision statements, corporations should define themselves with a series of short, powerful statements that can be easily transmitted throughout the community and workplace.