In the mid-1600’s, the newly introduced Dutch tulip bulb skyrocketed to twice the price of gold. It was said that one of the rarest of the bulbs could be traded for 12 acres of land!
In his 1824 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, author Charles Mackay proposed that crowds of people often behave irrationally, and he buttressed his argument with examples of crowds pursuing ‘get rich quick schemes’ including tulip mania, the South Seas and Mississippi company bubbles. Add the recent real estate collapse and the Internet bubble of the late 1990’s, and you get the idea.
According to MacKay, why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action?
‘Everybody’s Doing It’
It’s hard to surf the Internet or turn on the television and not find an invitation to keep with your favorite celebrity via Twitter or to ‘friend’ a national news cast through a social network such as Facebook. As an example: actor Ashton Kutcher recently ‘tweeted’ to his 1 million + followers that he was hanging out one evening in a popular Atlanta night spot.
New social technologies and the corresponding hype is causing college and university presidents and deans to run to the admission, marketing, or outreach offices to ask, “What are we doing on Facebook?”
The Communications Landscape has Changed
The message is clear: you no longer have the same message control you are used to. Within the context of higher education, the days of neatly, parceling out enrollment marketing communications, polished, in sequential fashion is yielding diminishing returns.
Yet, enrollment managers across the country continue with the same recruitment and outreach playbook that goes something like this: letter, letter, and email. The question – and pressure – for many is how to jump to galactic light speed?
The More Things Change…
Do you know the number one way, 12-17 year-olds communicate with their friends? Let me give you some choices:
a. Text messaging
b. In-person
c. Instant messaging
d. Social networks
Think about it …
Do you have your answer …
Are you sure … (scroll down for the answer)
According to a 2008 Forrester study, if you answered choice b, In-person, your answer is correct. Surprised?
Changing the ‘Marketing’ Paradigm … Insight from Interactive Marketers
At a recent marketing leadership board meeting, I had the opportunity to speak with and learn from corporate interactive marketers. It’s was interesting to learn how leading companies are changing the marketing paradigm and their relationship with their customers.
After a day full of case studies, research, and discussion, participants were asked the following: given what we have discussed today, what will you start doing, stop doing, and continue to do as it relates to your interactive marketing efforts?
Here’s what participants said:
What will we start doing?
“Define clear success measures”
“Look for best practices outside our own industry”
“Increase internal communication and education on our interactive marketing efforts”
“Start our planning efforts using customer personas and think about how social initiatives can support and delight our customers”
What will we stop doing?
“Feeling like every ‘buzz word’ project is a priority”
“Pushing an interactive marketing agenda without a significant narrative and business case”
“Trying to convert ‘horse and buggy’ drivers of traditional marketing”
“Disseminating analytics at too granular of a level”
“Stop listening to colleagues pushing Twitter for Twitters-sake and stick to a well-defined strategy”
What will we continue to do?
"Drive greater collaboration among our various communication agencies”
“Coming back to our strategy and business goals”
“Developing key performance indicators to define success”
“Learning what our customers want out of ‘relationship’ and how social technologies can support it”
“Basing strategies around the integration of traditional media and social”
Are you Delusional?… What this Means
On the heels of some recently released NACAC research on social networking use, enrollment managers and marketers are no doubt madly scrambling to join the crowd ... often with little understanding, objectives, or strategies of how doing so will move the enrollment needle.
Does this mean you ignore the realities of communication today? Absolutely not.
Should you toss out your brochures, postcards, and polished viewbooks in favor of MySpace? I wouldn’t unless you are interested in changing careers.
Do you avoid technology like the Luddites? Hardly.
I invite you to use the lessons above from the corporate world to drive your efforts. Instead of a 'get-enrollment-quick' scheme:
Start with your business goals, define clear objectives, identify success metrics, and then select your strategies and technologies.
Comments