Posts filed under 'Millenials/Gen-Y'
What do you do when someone else walks their dog on your yard? Twice in just the last week, I’ve been presented with situations where a competitor school is promoting themselves on another school’s web/social media. They were both very different situations, and both took a bit of sitting back to figure out - and as always there’s no “right” thing to do.
Traditionally, community colleges have a history of serving their local areas and the relationships between colleges were collegial and in many systems the territory of each school was even strictly defined. However, these boundaries are fading in today’s post-secondary sector and we are seeing more and more schools cross the lines to market aggressively in communities that had been traditionally owned by their competitors.
Even though social media is global and wonderful and laughs in the face of geography and distance, competitors are still finding ways to sneak onto your lawn. The new social Internet opens all kinds of doors for students, staff and prospects to air their opinions loudly, and publicly. This is scary enough for some traditional marketers to grasp, so add in the fact that your competitors can just as easily use all the same doors to push their own programs and it becomes terrifying.
About 2 weeks ago we had a school come to us because one of their key competitors had posted a list of their own equivalent programs on their SkoolPool profile. (School A said that School B was promoting School B’s programs on School A’s page). Maybe this is sharp thinking by School B - I mean after all, it’s free right? School B’s strategies hopefully considered how cross-posting like this would make them look, because I would be a little concerned about that…
School A has so much more to worry about, all thanks to one quick little post that took School B all of 30 seconds to submit. First, SkoolPool runs on Facebook which puts all user content live without the option for moderation before hand (although there are many new features designed for PSE marketing in the Fall 2008 SkoolPool v2, hint hint). School A has to decide if it will ever delete any of the user-submitted comments on its page - and it is best if this decision is made before a controversial post presents itself. If you are going social any time soon, make sure you pencil in time to decide your comments/moderation policies. And make sure these policies are available to users before they submit posts.
Most conversations about content control and moderation tend to focus on content submitted by the audience. Some say that both positive and negative content should be allowed to stand, as long as they are respectively said and are constructive to the ongoing dialogue. Outrageous slander, as well as socially unacceptable content such as promotion of crime, racism, etc, should be deleted without hesitation. But where does competitor content fit into this equation?
The majority of the happy, ethical blogosphere isn’t worried about competitors. They are issue blogs, knowledge blogs, life blogs, news blogs. Blogs and other social media platforms owned by schools, companies and brands cannot just as easily throw caution to the wind. We have competitors and consequently our moderation approach just got a lot more complicated.
The gut instinct is to delete competitor comments. Get them out of there. Be gone. Before you hit delete, stop and ask yourself on what grounds are you deleting this comment? Refer to your comments policy. Did it include a statement on competitors? (If it doesn’t, you’ll probably want to go add one because this trend is not going to go away anytime soon). If it includes a statement on competitors, then you’re gravy. You obviously thought about this before hand and you already have your answer. Congratulations.
For those of us who didn’t see this coming, we’ve got to figure it out and fast. Your website, blogs and social media profiles are your marketing pieces. You can’t control the message the way you can in a broadcast campaign, but it’s still marketing. It would be unacceptable for your competitors to paint over your signage with their own logos. And it is frowned on to slam a competitor’s product outright in a television ad. Taking this approach, your competitor was out of line and you are welcome to go ahead with delete. Just make sure your new decision is added to the comments policy.
Normally I recommend that you contact a user before deleting their comment. In this situation, I’ll leave it up to you whether you let them know that you nixed their post.
I’ll just throw this out there for spice - depending on what your competitor posted, you might actually be able to redirect the negative light on them for poor behavior - by leaving their little attempt at attacking you up for the world to see. Your community might also put this person in their place before you even get a chance to see the comment. This depends on how much traffic your page gets - and how active its visitors are - and whether your visitors are supporters, critics or undecided. If you’ve got fanatics, I’d say leave the comment live and let them start shredding it to bits.
The other situation we looked at this week was when a competitor advertised one of its grad programs on a community that was related to your school, but run by a private individual rather than yourself. This is where leaving it live gets a little more likely. First, you can’t delete it. If the comment is going to come down, you’ll have to ask the page’s owner to do it for you - and they might say no. Second, whether or not the owner goes along with the whole deleting thing, your request says that you feel threatened by the post and that possibly you are making requests like this on how many other websites as well? You may not be threatened, you may just be offended, but the page owner doesn’t know that. All they know is that you want that content out of there.
Do you even have the right to request a delete? In my first case (School A/B), one school was promoting its undergrad programs on the page of another undergrad institution. In this second situation, School B is promoting related graduate programs on a community of undergrad alumni. Obviously you want your grads to continue their education with you, if you have grad programming available, but students don’t always do what you want and a lot of alumni choose to experience another campus for their graduate degrees - whether for change, or just because the program happens to be more attractive than your equivalent. Your alumni may actually find your competitor’s post interesting. All they are concerned about is making yet another decision between schools, and knowing the available options is definitely part of that. Also, your school might not even have an equivalent grad program for them to consider - so is the competitor even actually “competing” with you?
After sitting on this for a few days, I can tell you what I would do - but I won’t say it’s the right answer, because the social media rulebook has yet to be printed. If your school has an equivalent program, consider adding your own post to the community - and even contacting the community administrator privately and seeing if they will consider adding their own voice to your school’s information (it looks so much better from a peer …). If you have no equivalent program, and your competitor’s post was respectfully written - and possibly actually helpful to the community members - then I’d say bite your tongue.
The spice approach is to go one step further and even submit a post that says very graciously that yes, School B has this program and that your grads tend to do well in it (if that is the case). Then add relevant information about your own graduate programs and encourage the community members to talk to you about the possibilities. Confident, polite, open, professional.
How is your school handling these types of situations? We’re all learning as we go here, and the rules are changing every day - it would be great to hear about your experiences.
Thanks for staying with me through the long read!
Melissa Cheater
eStrategy Consultant, Education Marketing
Academica Group Inc.
Full Cycle Marketing for Higher EducationTM
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Academica provides market intelligence and marketing expertise to institutions of higher education, particularly in the areas of student recruitment and alumni relationship management. Our annual University and College Applicant Surveys, the UAS and CAS, are the largest and most comprehensive in North America.
June 20th, 2008
As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s never been easier to shoot, and edit video. So, why is it so difficult to put video on our websites? Playback quality, browser compatibility, and other complexities make it so challenging that we end up doing something we really shouldn’t — putting videos on YouTube and using the embed code to display them. Go ahead and admit it, we’ve all done it! It might not even seem that bad of an idea, right? Not so!
Posting video to your campus website using YouTube can pose a problem. Your video production will be YouTube branded. Furthermore, if you click on the video while it’s playing, you’re redirected to the YouTube website. Allowing your visitor to be redirected to an external website is clearly not good marketing strategy. You may never get them back.
To keep in control of things, OmniUpdate is now offering a free service called Transcode-It. The idea is to make things really easy for you to take any video and play it right in your web page. Like this…
View the video playing in a fictional university web page.
Transcode-It is a free service that allows college web professionals to quickly convert any video, then upload and display it as a high quality Flash video embedded right in any web page. It’s as simple as inserting an image into a document. Feel free to try it right now at http://www.transcodeit.com/.
Transcode-It requires no software installation and creates a video file that plays on all modern browsers (Windows and Macintosh). Your resulting video will not be branded by Transcode-It, and will not redirect viewers away from your site.
In the spirit of community, we at OmniUpdate hope that colleges and universities will find Transcode-It a helpful service. We offer it as one more tool in your arsenal for reaching that often unreachable audience.
Lance Merker
Guest Blogger, May 2008
CEO
OmniUpdate, Inc.
lance@omniupdate.com
May 27th, 2008
George Bernard Shaw once said, “The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” Such is the case for traditional forms of advertising when it comes to prospecting a student population. High school students just aren’t getting the message because they are becoming unplugged from TV, radio, print, and even email. They TiVo or DVR past commercials, and get their news, sometimes inaccurately, through online social communities like MySpace and Facebook. Information, both good and bad, spreads like wildfire via blogs, RSS feeds, chat and private email sent through social networks.
What’s a college to do? Embrace the change!
Your website is still your most valuable marketing asset. And, when used in combination with some truly amazing Web 2.0 technologies, one of the most powerful as well. Consider for example:
1. RSS feeds are an extremely effective and easy-to-add form of communication. Feeds can be directed by students to their preferred medium, such as a cell phone (through text messaging) or to a Facebook account; these can even be used to communicate urgent messages in a crisis situation. I’ll expand further on the value of this feature later.
2. It’s never been cheaper and easier to record and post video to a college website. Rich media is engaging, commonly shared, and expected by your audience.
3. Online chat gives your staff the unique opportunity to speak one-on-one with a student, perhaps providing that nugget of information that might just be the key to influencing his or her enrollment decision.
A content-rich and well-managed higher education website will contain some, if not all, of these features. If your website has not progressed that far yet, you’re not alone–most sites aren’t there yet either. But, keep moving forward. Remember the old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Start a pilot today of just one new Web 2.0 technology!
Lance Merker
Guest Blogger, May 2008
CEO
OmniUpdate, Inc.
lance@omniupdate.com
May 20th, 2008
Higher ed web pros aren’t shy when it comes to describing online innovations – a big factor that makes EduWeb so appealing. It’s a good place to trendspot, determine what’s gaining traction, and see where your school fits on the web innovation curve.
That said, I thought it’d be well worth sharing key observations from EduWeb 2007. While not a comprehensive list by any means, these examples should spark strategic thinking as you plan for 2008 – or validate your approach.
And while we’re at it, take two minutes to post a comment. Which of these ideas are current/intended priorities heading into 2008 and why/why not? What do you consider the top three priorities for your college/university site?
With that, a few findings from EduWeb ’07:
Blogs
A year or two ago, the question “To blog or not to blog?” was a hotly debated issue in higher ed. At the time, a few bold schools were dipping their toes into the water. Today, it seems as if everyone’s in the pool. Strategies are evolving, but the authentic voices of trusted students, professors or college leaders are worth their weight in gold on the web. Blog-related questions floating around EduWeb 2007: “How many students do you allow to blog?” and “Do you censor/review posts?” For a best-practices lesson in blogging, check out Johns Hopkins University’s “Hopkins Interactive” site run by Daniel Creasy, senior assistant director of admissions.
Web Video
More and more, it’s a YouTube kind of world. Online videos, user-generated content, ‘authentic’ video interaction on your site set the table for genuine online engagement. Schools are rapidly adapting to use video to convey their message. For the cost of a handheld video camera and some bandwidth, schools can easily deploy student ambassadors to film a day in the life, a dorm tour, or a professor interview that grabs visitors’ interest. For a great ideas around using online video, see EduWeb presenter Mars Hill College’s TVMHC.
(While you’re at it, see Furman U’s Engage Furman admissions site with videos and student journals, a highlight of EduWeb ’06).
Analytics
With a larger percentage of college marketing budgets moving online, the need for a solid website analytics and online measurement plan is growing. An increasing number of higher ed web pros are adopting an active measurement and optimization strategy to connect effort to result and be more accountable. The good news is analytics tools are becoming more attainable in higher ed circles (Google Analytics = free). The best news: web practitioners we spoke with say they are starting to actually do something with those hefty analytics reports they’ve been running, using the data to make positive changes to their websites.
Web Governance
Ownership of web continues to be a hot button. From what we’ve seen, it’s often a political hot potato that leaves your web strategy suffering on the sidelines. Based on our discussions with in-the-trenches web folks, colleges that have clearly identified roles and responsibilities and internal collaboration between departments are having more success online. Many participants highlighted effective partnerships between communications, admissions and information technology. Others who were struggling grumbled that it was simply getting in the way of getting things done.
Message control
One of the most compelling (and amazingly simple) ideas for improving your school’s online presence came during an opening keynote from Bob Johnson, higher ed marketing veteran. Johnson had one word for the crowd: Wikipedia. In a large percentage of cases, when you type a school name into Google, the first page of organic search results contains a link to the Wikipedia entry on said school. If the “you” is a 17-year-old high school student, this will be among the first things they read. So the message is: If your school does not have a Wikipedia page, create one – today. And if it does have one, edit it so it drives home the right message, the right links, and the right story about your school. If you don’t pay attention, someone will do it for you. But don’t expect to be the only one in control of your message online.
David Aponovich, CMS Strategist
ISITE Design
November Guest Blogger
November 8th, 2007
The author revolution is amongst us. Content management systems, blogs, and social sites make it almost impossible for anybody not to tell their story. The problem is not necessarily selecting the right authors across campus to tell the institution’s stories. The problem is lessening the restrictions that may be imposed.
I have mentioned that your .edu is slowly becoming only part of how your key audiences gather information on you. Social network participation and blog feeds now complete the story…and you may not have any control over the message being put out. Instead of fighting these forums, let’s roll up our sleeves.
First, how easy can authoring be. All blogging systems, CMSs, and page development tools like Dreamweaver/Contribute and FrontPage have push-button HTML. If not, a service like Texty provides it for you. Content contributors can now add content to the site without many hurdles. If there still are hurdles, eliminate them.
Next, if everyone can tell a story, why not encourage faculty, staff, and students to tell the amazing sides of your institution through social sites. Although the percentage differs for every institution, it is safe to say that your College’s Facebook network may get more time online and visitors than your .edu. Many institutions have created Facebook and MySpace Groups by department to make friends, host events, and post messages. YouTube and Flickr have become media repositories for photos and videos online, categorized and feed-ready.
Use these…encourage your authors to use these. In fact, publicize these across campus, at alumni functions, and in high schools so your site visitors can see the full story without an author ever having to hear, “Our system doesn’t allow you to do that.”
Before you say it, I understand brand consistency, data ownership, and central control. For the .edu, you are right on the money. I also know you have somebody that you don’t want representing your institution online. The truth is that if they want to create a story on the Web, they are merely clicks away. And if what they create is inappropriate, that sounds like a direct conversation with that individual, as the Web is mostly a reflection of personality.
Let authors author. The content that can come from freedom will amaze. Train them, put your faith in them, and build a community of authors that want to move the institution forward.
September 10th, 2007
I know all of you are doing a great job at testing your site visitors on a regular basis through one-on-one usability tests, focus groups, and open feedback. But it is always nice to compare your site visitors with the general population. Pew has been providing great statistics for the past five years, but there are two higher education studies that have come out that need a quick peek.
- E-expectations. This ongoing study, by Noel-Levitz, James Tower, and NRCCUA, touches on the effectiveness of social networking, text and IM use, and online activities. A couple statistics of note: only 33% of prospects have used Facebook or MySpace to connect with current students; 27% have read a current student blog; and 44-49% would accept a text message from a college. This study focuses on how your prospective students want to be communicated with. It is important to remember that their entire online experience with you is not at your .edu.
- The Game Has Changed. This study, by UMass-Dartmouth and Eric Mattson, centers around the comfort level of online communication in admissions offices across the country. Their theory is that colleges and universities are adapting to social networks and online communication more quickly than corporations. I think this has to do with audience focus (of course), but let’s pat ourselves on the back for a second. Some interesting notes: 51% of admissions offices see online tools (blogs, message boards, social networking, online video, podcasting, and wikis) as “very important”; and individual student research is starting to sprinkle into admissions (26% use search engines and 21% use social networks to review a student…scary).
The rule, as always, is to take this research and compare it to your own information, but these two studies give a glimpse into both sides of the table: prospective students’ communication preferences and admission departments’ ability to adapt.
Happy reading.
Eric Hodgson
Content Management Consultant
hodgson.eric@gmail.com
September 3rd, 2007
One of my earlier posts as the June Guest Blogger asked you to weigh in on a survey about terms Millennials vs. Gen-Y. I promised results at the end of the month so here goes:
We had a whopping 39 respondees complete the four question survey;
1. What do you call the current youth generation?
Millennials - 76.9%
Gen-Y - 14.5%
Boomer Babies - 2.6%
Other - 2.6% (it depends on birth year, it changes between 1978 and 1980)
2. What is the best real/real description of this generation?
(real/real = is what it says it is and is true to itself)
Millennials - 76.9%
Gen-Y - 18%
Other - 5.1% (The Raddest Generation Ever and ME-llennials)
3. Which in your opinion is the reason mainstream media uses Gen-Y instead of Millennials?
Millennials is to hard to spell - 5.1%
Millennials reminds us of Millennium (and Y2K) - 10.3%
Gen-Y just comes naturally after Gen-X - 56.4%
Millennials haven’t adopted the name - 15.4%
Other - 12.8% (Gen-Y was used first, Gen-Y is in wikipedia, the pun on y/why is more descriptive, and Millennials has to many context/Gen-Y gets picked up easier on search engines)
4. Until Douglas Coupland wrote the book Generation-X, this generation was referred to as “Boomer Busters” or “13th Generation.” In time and history, which name do you think the current youth generation will be known as?
Millennials - 56.4%
Gen-Y - 35.9%
Other - 7.7% (Cyborgs, both, The Connected Generation)
Click this link to download results Millennials_vs_GenY_SurveySummary.pdf
Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate in this survey.
Jeff Kallay
June Guest Blogger
Experience Evangelist
TargetX
kallay@targetx.com
June 29th, 2007
I always heard writers say, “write what you know!” That’s why I love “Paper Cuts” the University of the Arts (UArts) student produced “soap opera.” Found on both the Philadelphia school’s website and YouTube it’s about as real as it gets, even though its fiction.
From their site:
Sex. Drugs. Watercolor. It’s a new semester for the students on the 11th floor of Furness Hall, and Ryan Jefferies is especially excited because after years of applying, he’s finally secured a position as RA. Now he’ll be able to live for free and blackmail freshmen into doing anything he wants. When he meets the bubbly Amanda, he decides his semester is set - she’ll become his girlfriend. But then Jack arrives. He’s a slightly older student who has returned to art school to pursue painting. Ryan and Jack have an immediate antipathy. Soon Amanda falls hard for Jack but Jack only has eyes for Susan. Throw into the mix the sex-crazed Vanessa and Jack’s stoner roommate and and in short order sparks fly.
This past fall I did a campus visit consult with UArts and fell in love with the place. It’s a unique, bold place. I’m not all surprised to see the school support this creative endeavor.
Take a moment to watch the first season of “Paper Cuts” and then share your review by “clicking comments”
Jeff Kallay
June Guest Blogger
Experience Evangelist
TargetX
kallay@targetx.com
June 29th, 2007
Brandweek recently published an article Research: Teens Schizophrenic About Their Brands
The report, created in conjunction with Open Mind Research, New York, and OTX Research, Los Angeles—and based on interviews with 1,000-plus kids 13-19 online, via cell phones and in focus groups in March reports these highlights:
“Nearly half (46%) of teens surveyed said they tend to stick with a few of the brands they really like. But, 52% felt, “Brands are created by marketers just to get more money.”
“…a third of those polled agreed, “If there were no brands, the world would be better.” Yet 29% claim “having cool brands makes me feel cool” and that they are “obsessed with brand names.”
“Of the 47 brands tested, Apple’s hugely successful iPod digital music player emerged as the brand that is “absolutely essential to teens.”
Along with Apple’s iPod; American Eagle, Axe, Baby Phat, Hollister Co, MTV and Vans are joined by technology brands Google, Facebook and MySpace as teen favorites.
The article also talks about how today’s Millennials and Gen-Y (it calls them by both names - see post about survey below) are savvy, know they are being marketed to, are a moving target for marketers and their best friend relationship with parents leads to co-purchasing decisions on major ticket items.
I think all of us in higher education web/marketing have known this for many years!
Click here to read the article
Jeff Kallay
June Guest Blogger
Experience Evangelist
TargetX
kallay@targetx.com
June 27th, 2007
…to sign up for this year’s eduWeb Conference … honest! And I want to thank our June Guest Blog Author — Jeff Kallay, the Experience Evangelist at TargetX — for some great posts so far this June! So keep reading them at this blog, eduWeb BUZZ.
There is a great schedule of presentations, including some recent newsmakers, such as:
… we have two presentations and 1 workshop, of which the presenters have been recently featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN for their success in their undergraduate admissions campaign, admissions blogs and a community-noticed website.
Daniel Creasy, Senior Asst. Dir. of Admissions, of Johns Hopkins University, was featured in The Washington Post in March 2007. He will speak on “The Blog Revolution: Admissions Office Blogs” on Monday, July 23rd from 9:45 - 10:45 am.
Jack Chielli, Exec. Dir. of Marketing Communications, at Wilkes University, whose institution was featured in The New York Times about their successful undergraduate advertising campaign. Jack’s presentation is titled A Majority of One and scheduled for Monday, July 23rd, from 4 - 5 pm.
For the workshop on Tuesday afternoon, from 2- 5 pm, there is Jeff Keeton and Deborah Lucas, from The University of Alabama Birmingham, whose site on the biennial journey to Antartica was featured on CNN. The workshop is titled “Architecting a Hit: How UAB Built a Site the Community Noticed.”
Besides Daniel, Jack, Jeff & Deborah, we have plenty of great presenters speaking on wide range of topics … Second Life, RSS, Web Re-designs, Recruitment, Viewbooks, Microformats and Semantic HTML, Crisis Communications and lots MORE! Check out our program schedule
Come and join us soon for a great learning experience … not only from the presenters but from your peers as well. Look who’s coming!
Sign up NOW!
Shelley Wetzel
Dir. of Marketing Communications &
Conference Director
eduWeb Conference
June 15th, 2007
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