Tim Copeland's Blog on College & University Marketing and Enrollment Management

Get Ready for Social Spam

For every good communication channel, there is always someone ready to step forward and abuse it.

Spam is a negative connotation that has long been associated with email marketing practices. No more.

There is a group out there that are looking to take advantage of the popularity of social technologies such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. This is particularly troublesome for colleges and universities looking to leverage these channels in their marketing and recruitment efforts.

Cisco, the international technology networking company, projects a 30% to 40% increase in spam volume in 2010. Social networks represent a particular trouble spot because hackers can pose as ‘friends’ and people tend to trust communication from their supposed social network ‘friends’.

Consider the following email message I received earlier this morning.

Using Twitter in College Recruitment? On this One, Noel-Levitz Misses the Mark

Are you tweeting?

Seems like everyone’s doing it given the media hype. Even in higher education, there’s no shortage of ‘social’ experts proclaiming the virtues of social technologies (see my May 2009 post, OMG! If You Are Not ‘Tweeting’, You’re a Bad Enrollment Manager!). 

It’s easy to feel like you are not part of the ‘cool kids club’ if your institution has not joined Twitter-nation. Why even the enrollment management experts, Noel-Levitz, have jumped on the bandwagon.

Consider the following June 2009 excerpt - To Tweet or Not to Tweet? Is That the Right Question? – from the Noel-Levitz website:

Oops ... the King of Software Reveals a Secret - Tech Tools and Time

Over the weekend, Microsoft founder Bill Gates revealed that he recently left Facebook, after fielding too many 'friend' requests, this according to AFP. Gates, attending an event in New Delhi, told guests that he recently tried Facebook, but gave up after receiving over 10,000 requests.

Gates, who received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development from India's president for his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said technology has been "hugely beneficial" but, "All these tools of tech waste our time if we're not careful."

Given Microsoft's global brand appeal and dominance, did Mr. Gates expect less from his Facebook experience? Or, perhaps he had no expectations at all.

Social Insight for Colleges and Universities

Similarly, colleges and universities - encouraged by a rising number of higher education (ahem) social experts - too are rushing into social technologies with little idea of how their students participate, what objectives they will accomplish, and with no strategy ... well, other than 'everybody's doing it.'

I'm an unabashed advocate of social technologies within an interactive marketing framework. That is, we learn something from our prospective students during the recruitment marketing process, and act in ways that demonstrate we are listening. It's a dialogue, not the fire hose of communication most engage in today.

You Need a Social Plan

From our research at DemandEngine, many higher education institutions are applying the same enrollment marketing playbook of irrelevance to social channels with poor results.

Rather than signing up for the latest free internet tool, ask yourself the following questions:

• How you want to change your institutional relationship with students?
• What is your audience ready for?
• What are your objectives? Listening? Embracing? Supporting?
• What strategies will support it?
• Then and only then, ask what technology tools support your plan?

Note to higher education enrollment managers and marketers; social technologies are not a panacea.

Breaking News: YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to Merge

Higher education marketers and enrollment managers take note.

In a bold move to simplify social tools, it was recently announced that YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook will merge.

Watch the announcement below.

Credit to www.collegeinteractivemarketing.com for finding this one.

Too good to pass up.

Enrollment Marketing, Online and Social Channels: Questions from the Field

From time to time, I get questions from people who stumble across the blog. Well, stumble isn't exactly accurate as www.enrollmentmarketing.org has the number one natural search ranking in Google!

I received the following note from a new higher education practitioner in the world of enrollment marketing.  As I found her question and comments to be quite insightful,  I asked her permission to post her question and my response:

The Original Social Networking Site

I caught this interesting 'take' on social networking last evening during a commercial break.

Now we know where social networking really started ...

 

Watch the video

As you are thinking about adding 'social' to your enrollment marketing approach, it's a good tongue-in-cheek reminder of what it is all about.

OMG! If You Are Not ‘Tweeting’, You’re a Bad Enrollment Manager!

Twitter and Facebook … the future of enrollment marketing and management for prospective students … or as some would have you believe. 

Consider the following excerpts from higher education vendor email messages I’ve received in the last two weeks.

‘Tweeting’, ‘Friending’ and other Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

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?

The Long Arm of the NCAA - Recruitment and Facebook

North Carolina State freshman Taylor Moseley is an avid basketball fan.

So much so he recently pitched in to help the Wolfpack recruit the nation's number one prospect using Facebook. With over 700 members strong, Moseley pleaded his online case to N.C. State recruit, John Wall, by starting a group entitled, 'John Wall PLEASE come to NC STATE!!!!' National basketball signing day is this week.

Unfortunately, the NCAA does not support Moseley's zeal.

According to AP writer Justin Pope, the NCAA says such sites, and dozens more like them wooing Wall and other top recruits, violate its rules. More than just cheerleading boards, the NCAA says the sites are an attempt to influence the college choice of a recruit.

Moseley got a cease and desist letter from N.C. State's compliance director, Michelle Lee, warning of "further action" if he failed to comply.

Is the NCAA simply out of touch with the realities of online access and transfer of information control, or are they right to attempt to keep a level playing field in the high stakes game of college athletics?

Read the full article

More Millennial Myth Busting ...

As I posted back in December (Marketing the Millennial Myth), the millennial craze is finally facing tougher scrutiny. The research that led to the wildly popular book Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation was limited and used a broad brush to paint the nation's 'next great generation." At the time, I wrote there would be more contrarian views on this in 2008.

Blogger Carol Phillips recently reported on some additional research conducted by the College Board that indicates this generation is not unlike ones that proceeded.

Read Carol's post at http://millennialmarketing.blogspot.com/