Recently we launched a site for University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as part of a collaborative project with Neustadt Creative Marketing. The site and campaign behind it is called College.Be and the site lives here. The success of this project hinges on how the current students use it, but the project was born out of trust. UMBC had to trust its students and trust that they understood what this site was all about. You see, the site is a social media aggregator, meaning once a student creates an account and ties in their social media accounts (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) anything they post to those networks gets pulled into this site. And this site is being used to market UMBC to prospective students. The fact that UMBC liked this idea is a sign of a very healthy university and of great students.

I am often asked by admissions and communications folks working in higher ed, “How many Facebook Fan Pages should we set up? One for admissions? One for transfers? One for prospective athletes?” I always respond with a question, “Well, would you become a fan of something you had no idea about yet?” My point is - I doubt prospective students are scouring Facebook looking for schools they may or may not apply to or attend and becoming fans. I also seriously doubt they are giving as much weight to what an Admissions representative has to say as they are to what current students have to say. Thus creating the case for why the in person visits are so critical, as well as why student tour guides should be carefully selected by schools. Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook is a great resource for schools to use to keep in touch with alumni and current students. I just don’t see the tremendous value in relying on it to connect with prospects.

I do think that allowing prospects to connect with current students in social networks they are comfortable within is the ideal scenario, assuming the school trusts its students, and assuming these students understand what it is they are being trusted with. I was pleasantly surprised at how excited and positive the UMBC students were when they were told, “This is a site for you guys to use, but it’s also a site we plan on using to market the school to prospective students. We want to ensure that the right kind of kid knows about UMBC and applies because they see what you all are doing.” They totally got it, and not only did they get it, they have embraced it. Personally, I would have loved this idea back when I was in school. I remember flipping through the viewbook every year, hot off the press, and grumbling to myself about bad photo choices or pictures of students who had graduated 4 years ago. With a site like College.Be I could have jumped online and ensured that every kid looking at my school knew all about it from my perspective.

What do you think? This is a hotly debated subject and I welcome all opinions and thoughts! Also - you can read Mark Neustadt’s thoughts on the project on his blog - here.

As I attended my first NACAC conference last week (National Association for College Admissions Counselors) I was struck with all the tools for targeting prospective students. From direct mailers based on SAT scores to lead generating portals to new sites popping up that mimic a Match.com approach, colleges and universities are being bombarded with ways to reach out to prospective students. Then throw in social media - and one can easily begin to feel overwhelmed. These admissions teams are already some of the hardest working people in higher education!

I was particularly interested in one admissions counselor who discussed how simply redesigning an application led to more applicants. Amazing! A change in design affected the results? The old adage still holds true, it’s quality over quantity, and in many cases - good design and usability = better quality.

While the reach of these schools continues to be very important, the “way” they reach out is of equal if not more importance. As admissions staffs fight against a rising tide of tuition and travel adverse families, with students tossing viewbooks in the recycling bin with growing disdain, how will they make sure they connect?

It will still boil down to one basic element, marketing. It is the marketing (the “usability”, the tone, the feeling), that will make the lasting and compelling connection, and using the right media to send out these marketing messages must also be strategically approached. The NACAC keynote speaker Nancy Giles couldn’t have made a stronger case when she shared this quote from Maya Angelou. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

So my advice? Before you begin blasting out your materials, and watching your admissions counselors hit the road, take a good long look at your messages. What are you saying about your school? Are you making a compelling and unique case that will connect with the right students in the right ways? Do you know how you will be making these students feel? Because the way you make them feel is the thing they will remember.

Fastspot recently formalized a collaborative partnership with Neustadt Creative Marketing with the creation of a second company, Door No. 2. Over the past 18 months, Fastspot and Neustadt Creative Marketing have been working together on a series of exciting projects with higher education clients. Door No. 2 will deliver these integrated marketing solutions to a targeted client base of colleges, universities and schools who are seeking an agency to address strategy and research, print and Web, social media and mobile marketing solutions. Door No. 2 will provide the best of both worlds, previously divided between differing approaches and methodologies. Combining our efforts ensures continued focus and expertise in these unique areas of importance, with all the pieces becoming critical parts of an integrated strategy and execution.

Fastspot will continue doing what we have been doing over the past decade, creating and producing outstanding interactive work and delivering unparalleled client service, which is the foundation of our success. However, as the world of higher education marketing undergoes major shifts which require an integrated and progressive approach, we are fortunate to have formed a fruitful relationship with one of the leaders in the industry, Neustadt Creative Marketing. This partnership is generating exciting work for our current clients, and we look forward to Door No. 2 making it even easier for our friends out there in higher education to make the right choice, which as we all know, is always behind Door No. 2.

Fastspot works with a number of higher education clients and the topic of social media and marketing is a hot one. On one hand, many higher educational institutions are scared pantless of the notion that content might be getting created that they can’t control. They are very used to being tight-handed when it comes to their own marketing materials. But then, social media arrived. Obvious culprits like Facebook and YouTube made it very easy for students to post embarrassing or less-than-”academic” content to share with the world; or, worse yet, hijack what might appear to others as the “official” school Facebook page. Then even more sinister sites like StudentsReview.com and College Prowler came on the scene, promoting student reviews. All of a sudden, it didn’t really matter if colleges and universities thought social media was something beneath them—it was something they couldn’t ignore.

Here is what some schools are forgetting: Your brand, your reputation, the overall impression people have of you is comprised of many things. If I go to a party, get drunk, cause a scene, break expensive things, and offend people, then I will have tarnished my reputation, my personal brand. And, likewise, if I hear that a story is circulating about my antics at the party, I will know that I may meet people who have now formed an opinion about me based on that story. So, I manage my reputation by acting in a way that I feel best reflects who I am and how I want others to perceive me, even people I haven’t met yet. And here’s the real kicker: If I do go out and act inappropriately or embarrass myself, chances are that word will spread fast thanks to the social media networks that are becoming embedded in our daily realities. It’s not only words that are spreading; I should probably expect photos and videos to accompany the posts spreading like wildfire through my social networks about my less-than-optimal activities.

The above situation in corporate situations is called “crisis”. Many PR agencies sell “Crisis Management” services to help these companies deal with bad news in a proactive manner. This is very important for companies; they need to show their board, their stock owners, and the public that they are aware of the realities facing them, and are addressing them head on. However, higher education—especially top tier institutions—face an interesting dilemma. Since part of their appeal to those top-tier-seeking students is their selectivity, the last thing they want to do is advertise any bad news or address any unsavory situations. This creates a predicament: Do schools acknowledge difficult situations, or do they try to ignore them and keep up a good front? Regardless of the decision, schools need to recognize that others outside of their control will be speaking of it whether they like it or not. In my opinion, this makes the case for embracing all the realities—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Talking heads: Twitter avatars courtesy of fixoutlook.com, a Twitter-driven social site.

Now we arrive at the question: How do we embrace the realities being posted about us on these social media networks? Do we create a brochure talking about our Facebook page in hopes prospective students will become fans and get our take on things versus what they are finding elsewhere? Do we write long blog posts about things happening on campus with a positive slant? Do we hire a PR firm or advertising agency to help us spin things the right way?

None of those are the solution to the problem. The fact is, the people colleges and universities are seeking to communicate with are the very people who abhor direct marketing efforts, who can smell spam a mile away, who toss paper into the recycling bin with prickly disdain for the wastefulness of a mailer; all while juggling 20 text message conversations, checking their RSS feeds, commenting on a new video on YouTube, and posting to Facebook that they will not be applying to your school because you just ticked them off. Yes, the generation of the “entitled” and “self-righteous” may be one way to categorize this group. The other vantage point clearly shows a generation who places greater value on peer to peer networks, short blips of information, brands that put stories and reality in the forefront and embrace the “anti-marketing” approach. In the age of reality TV, social networks, blogger reporting, and instantaneous information sharing thanks to the newly-emerging real time sites like Twitter, a long winded page of copy about how great you are has a slim chance of getting any attention, let alone making a connection.

I was once given a very good bit of advice and some clever author made millions on this same tip when they published the book, The Secret. If you want something, ask for it. As a college or university, you undoubtedly have more fans than critics, especially if you consider not only current students, but also your faculty, staff and alumni. Chances are these fans are out there on campus right now, updating Flickr with some beautiful pictures they just took of their newly-decorated dorm room or of a speaker at commencement. Next, they are possibly shooting some video of friends at a party before they head off-campus for the summer. And most of them are probably posting their status, pictures or video to Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. With the exception of Facebook, you can see if my hypothesis is correct simply by going to these sites and searching for your institution’s name, then sorting the results by “most recent”. Amazing. All this great content is being poured out there on these networks, and most of it is probably benign, humorous or even flattering—it is, most importantly, real. Here lies the gold vein glittering in the mountain side. Now, how do you mine it?

Let me back up a bit and talk about Twitter. One of the reasons for Twitter’s meteoric rise to fame and popularity was due to the open platform on which it was developed. Any programmer can easily create their own app or Website, tweaking the way in which Twitter’s feeds are displayed and managed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of third party apps and Websites now jockey for a slice of this ever-expanding user group, and Twitter is happy to have so many dependents riding on its platform.

This idea isn’t new; it’s been a critical element in the success of earlier Websites like YouTube and Flickr. This concept of aggregation allows users to access, gather and arrange all this great content in any variety of ways which cut down on the need for redundant behaviors (like uploading videos to multiple sites; who has the time?), makes sharing content in multiple places easier (I update my status in Twitter and it feeds into my wall on Facebook), and helps users stay connected with an ever-expanding social network. I get comments on my video, my blog, my Facebook status, a new follower on Twitter and I know about them all thanks to my handy email alerts. I check my RSS reader to see if any new mention of my brand has appeared on Twitter, on a blog, anywhere on the internet. I review Google Analytics to see who was visiting my Website, what they were doing and how long they were doing it. Are you seeing the trend here? All this information, content, everything—its portable and malleable. And trust me, the companies who are winning the battle to have the most users on their sites are spending millions ensuring they keep them there—by giving them what they want.

So, the key is to ask your fans to keep doing what they are doing, but ask them to allow you access to certain parts and in certain ways. You are asking them to become ambassadors for you, empowering them to shape the future of the place they love so dearly by being their own “reality TV star”. Of course, you will be keeping a close eye as some ambassadors may get overzealous or misguided in their efforts, but you won’t tell them that. As you find the real gems in their mix, you will encourage them further by giving them a $100 Flip Cam to ensure they can make a video of graduation; highlighting their photos or blog posts; praising them for their witty status updates. And you use the power of these open networks to aggregate all this great content into your very own social media site. You’re saying to your prospective students, “Here, have an unfiltered, non-marketing, authentic and real look at who we are. If you like what you see, get in touch.”

They’re there browsing the photos being pulled in from Flickr and the newly-uploaded videos from YouTube, and considering following some of the students on Twitter who are posting interesting things. Guess what? You just tricked them into letting you market to them. Now you are speaking their language, giving them what they want, and staying out of the way. You are letting them decide to share a funny video within their own protected network of friends, comment on something they find interesting, or simply browse through the short, random, unmediated blips of data which form their opinion of you. You have the confidence of knowing you do in fact have some control over what has made it to the site, while also knowing these visitors are now less likely to seek that kind of user generated content out on their own. Why bother? It’s just been served up to them in one convenient location.

Note: Facebook is one gigantic exception to this scenario due to their limited accessibility to outside programmers. However, they are slowly moving towards a more open network as a necessity to stay as relevant as newly-emerging networks such as Twitter. We hope to be pulling in Facebook profile data, wall posts and photos in a matter of months.

So, we propose this to our higher education clients: Are you giving your prospectives what they want? If not, we suggest you get in touch, we have lots of ideas to share with you on how to go about doing this. And, make haste as you read this because another photo or tweet or video that may be painting your institution in a less than vibrant palette is probably making the rounds out there somewhere.

Here are two sites that are using user generated content to promote their own marketing agendas:
Sharpie
Baltimore City
We expect to be adding to this list soon, and if you have any great examples please let us know!

Baltimore, Md (March 4, 2009)—Fastspot, a national interactive agency headquartered in Baltimore, has been selected by Dickinson College and the University of Puget Sound to redesign each institution’s Web sites, according to Tracey Halvorsen, creative director and co-founder of the firm.

“The critical role that Web sites have in the overall communications activities of colleges and universities has changed dramatically since most of them created their initial sites,” commented Halvorsen. “For example, potential applicants to colleges and universities now typically first experience a school through its Web site. Therefore, it’s really important that the site engages, excites and informs these applicants as well as establishes a foundation of trust.”

Fastspot is creating each site in collaboration with other marketing and communications efforts currently underway by each institution. “This team approach will ensure that their brand attributes are integrated through visual and message consistency,” emphasized Halvorsen.
Dickinson College, a four-year liberal arts institution founded in 1783 in Carlisle, Pa , has an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. “We’ve been quite pleased in our work with Fastspot,” said Paul Dempsey, director of electronic communication at Dickinson. “They’ve provided a number of strong design options and have been very flexible with making things fit our unique needs. It’s been a very effective collaboration.”

“We’ve been pleased in our work with Fastspot,” said Paul Dempsey, director of electronic communication at Dickinson. “They’ve provided a number of strong design options and have been flexible with making things fit our unique needs. It’s been an effective collaboration.”
The University of Puget Sound, with an enrollment of about 2,600 students, was founded in 1888 in Tacoma, Wa.
Fastspot, with a recognized expertise in interactive communications for higher education institutions, recently completed a comprehensive interactive project for Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa.

About Fastspot
Fastspot is a premiere interactive agency, widely recognized for its strategic award-winning work, collaborative approach with its clients and its ability to deliver successful, long-lasting solutions. Headquartered in Baltimore, the firm works with clients across the country who seek to develop highly creative and complex marketing, advertising or business solutions. The firm has a particular expertise working with associations, colleges and universities, museums and cultural organizations, architectural and technology firms. For more information, visit http://www.fastspot.com.

BALTIMORE, Md. (October 9, 2008) — Fastspot, an interactive design agency, has created a new Web site for Bucknell University, according to Tracey Halvorsen, creative director and principal of the firm. The new site is a key element of the university’s communications strategy to increase national awareness of its academic and intellectual stature.

Bucknell University Home Page

The Web site, www.bucknell.edu, targets primarily prospective students and their parents using a creative approach highlighting the Lewisburg, Pa. school’s strong academic programs and resources, its Division I athletic programs, small class size and intimate and classic campus environment.

“Our conceptual approach for the site focused on accurately conveying these key attributes of the Bucknell brand: intellectual and academic achievement and creating world leaders. For example, we developed ‘Pathways’ as an editorial and creative vehicle to tell specific ‘big picture’ stories about the university,” Halvorsen explained. “Overall, we believe the site now conveys a more sophisticated, worldlier impression of Bucknell,” she added.

“Among our favorite features of the site is ‘Pathways’ located on the landing page where we’ve integrated video, compelling photography and content to tell stories that have become ‘pathways’ for students during their time at Bucknell. We’re also proud of the clean and crisp layout of the interior pages as well as the site’s overall intuitive and easy-to-use navigation,” she added.

Fastspot was selected for the re-design following a national search of interactive design agencies, and the re-design process began more than a year ago involving all sectors of the campus community, according to Roberta Sims, associate director of digital communications for Bucknell.

The new site is the culmination of focus groups, an analysis of peer school Web sites, a review of the site’s architecture, usability testing as well as testing the overall impression of the final design with prospective students and parents, a content audit and technical and programming work to implement the design into Bucknell’s content management system.

Last year, the Web site, one of the University’s primary communications tools, received more than 21 million hits from visitors located around the globe, or more than an average of 404,000 page views each week.

Fastspot has a growing national reputation for its expertise in interactive design with colleges and universities, such as its work for the Maryland Institute College of Art, Albany Law School and the Cleveland Institute of Art. The firm is currently working with Indiana University and Dickinson College.

About Fastspot
Fastspot is a premiere interactive design agency, widely recognized for its strategic award-winning work, collaborative approach with its clients and its ability to deliver successful, long-lasting solutions. Headquartered in Baltimore, the firm works with clients across the country who seek to develop highly creative and complex marketing, advertising or business solutions. The firm has a particular expertise working with associations, colleges and universities, museums and cultural organizations, architectural and technology firms. For more information, visit http://www.fastspot.com.

At Fastspot, we work with our higher ed clients to typically do one thing - help them attract more applications (and eventually acceptances) from more highly qualified students. Now there is a very complex process that happens in higher ed Admissions offices, with words like “yield” and “conversion” thrown around with fervor the closer they get to their internal deadlines. Mix this very complex and competitive process with a notoriously fickle audience (16-18 year olds), not to mention these kids’ parents who are looking at taking out second mortgages just to pay for the first semester, and it’s no wonder our clients take long summer vacations.

This year is posing a particularly sticky dilemma for higher ed Admissions departments, and the name behind this dilemma is “Recession”. Parents are much less likely to fork over little Johnny’s 40k tuition fees when things are this rocky, and the kids feel it too. They are less likely to clamor for the high price tag of a big name school when they see their parents cutting coupons, and they start to all do one thing - they look at what is “in state”. Yet, while they are doing this, they are still firing off those brilliant application essays to schools that may be across the country and carry the heavy hitting names like Yale or Harvard or Pepperdine, cause face it, that only costs them one baby sitting pay out. Of course they still dream of getting into these schools, and certainly want the privilege of saying “yeah - I got in there”, but then the other end drops out, because, they won’t pay to go visit!

We have learned that the campus visit is one of the most pivotal moments in a potential student’s decision making process, and same goes for their parents. But with gas and fuel prices topping record highs, and the uncertainty that has seeped into our general consciousness, the act of visiting, and the price tag, create a road block. They also create a big problem for those schools who depend on attracting “more / better” students from outside their states.

Here is what happens. Little Suzy decides she will apply to 6 schools, 4 of them Ivy league (or comprable) and located very far away from where she lives, and then 2 state schools that are much less appealing, but right down the street or state line, and much much less expensive. Suzy breezes through the applications and gets accepted to 3 of her Ivies, but she opts to accept at the state school because they are a good solid school and her parents can afford to send her (she probably didn’t qualify for a full ride at the Ivies - where those packages are limited). So what are these non big-state schools to do? They have one option - pack the “wait list” as full as it can go. And what is wrong with this? Well nothing really, except it makes a “highly selective” school appear much less selective, and “highly selective” is a big thing these kids are looking for in the first place. The Washington Post recently covered the topic in this article, and it seems to be the case that this situation won’t be ending any time soon. The Washington Post article stated:
“Georgetown had a surge of nearly 30 percent in early applications this fall, followed by a record total of applicants — and little idea of how many students, if admitted, would say yes.”

It’s no wonder we are seeing an increase of interest from higher ed institutions who realize its a race to raise the bar, and in the right places. There are a few things these schools have to do, including offering incentives for early acceptances. We have seen a surge of schools offering everything from coupons to iPhones to accepted students, and its bound to start happening even before the student accepts. Call it bribery, call it desperation, there is no denying the competitive landscape for this market is getting significantly rockier.

Other less “seedier” options include taking a good long look at the marketing. After all, it’s marketing that got them thinking about where to apply in the first place. “Word of Mouth” is something these schools should start paying more attention to, and not just what comes out of their mouths. How about what other students and alum are saying on Websites like StudentsReview? If they aren’t paying attention, they need to be. Of course, the other obvious culprits are marketing materials, branding and messaging, Websites, virtual tours, and all that juicy stuff.

Since we eat breathe sleep Websites, that is where we focus our attention, and from the looks of things, we should be getting lots of calls as things heat up. College and University Websites are in a sorry state for the most part, and what they do have is typically so geared in the wrong direction (towards an internal audience), that they might as well password protect the whole thing, no prospective student is going to be sold by that experience. And then there is the issue of getting these prospects to visit. If there is a promise of an amazing experience at these schools - they need to convey that through their marketing, and then deliver on that during the actual visits.

In conclusion, as the “wait lists” start to get longer and longer, and schools have to rely on new strategies and approaches to reach this new type of kid, while they can’t control the economy or how many plane tickets a family will splurge for, they can control one thing - their marketing.

A few other articles of interest:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMRZeRiiVKHk&refer=home
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/education/09admissions.html
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2008/5/9/harvard-and-yale-yield-rates-remain-unchanged.html