Recently in Social Media Marketing Category

Alumni magazines in the social media world: can they survive Facebook? 

Given the short attention span to most tweets (at least for mine... bit.ly tracking shows that most things get noticed in about 5 to 10 minutes or not at all), I always pay close attention to anything that breaks the norm and continues to draw interest over an extended time.

One of those this week has been a link to a report in the NY Times re the challenge for alumni magazines to retain interest in the social media era. In "College Alumni Magazines Struggle to Compete with Facebook," the NYT notes that young alumni have little patience with "password protected sites" that restrict the immediacy of posting information similar to what's in the popular class notes section of printed and online alumni magazines.

So far, 8 people have done RTs on the original tweet and 67 people have followed the link since June 15. That includes readers in Canada, Finland, Australia, the U.K. and four "other" countries besides the U.S.

Controlling the "privacy" of class notes at Colgate University

The reason most often given for restricting immediate posting of class notes is privacy. Without some form of screening, how can anyone know that an item about a particular person is indeed coming from that person? In the social media era, the answer is that you can't.

At Colgate University, for instance, a 2000 graduate who wants to submit a class note to the online magazine sends it by email to a member of the class who has, presumably, volunteered to do the screening. That step preserves the "walled garden" approach that keeps rabbits from eating the plants. But in the social media world, the rabbits have other places to play. Why worry about a wall when you can just hop to another garden without one?

Colgate alumni at the official FB site

Compare that to the Colgate University site on Facebook, where 6,216 people "like" what's happening. Visit soon and note the update from alumnus Andy Krulewitz that includes a link to a new YouTube video about his recent trip to Europe, comments re the last alumni reunion event, and an invite from a local restaurant to stop for breakfast. Colgate on FB is a lively place.

As the NYT notes, alumni magazines and their expensive budgets exist in no small part to maintain alumni engagement that leads to alumni donations. How much will this role change over the next 10 years?

That's all for now 

Persuasion Technology and Online Marketing

At the J.Boye Aarhus09 conference in Denmark earlier this month I attended a half-day tutorial by BJ Fogg, director of the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab.

A single blog entry can't do justice to the full presentation, but here are a few notes that seem relevant to those of us who focus on creating stronger marketing impact at higher education websites.

• The web as a "platform for persuasion" is an important concept for marketers building a new website or enhancing an existing one. Let's admit that a primary, if not the most important, purpose of the website is to generate new enrollment and to gain funding support from alumni and other "friends" of the university.
• Keep conversion expecations realistic. BJ suggests that 1/3 of website visitors will do what we want without much persuasion if it is easy to do it and 1/3 will never do it. That leaves about 1/3 in the middle open to persuasion points as they visit the site.
• It is important to remove as many barriers to task completion as possible for the middle 1/3 or they won't do what we want.  
• The more complex the website, the less persuasive it will be.

Remove task completion barriers

And so there is a need for constant attention to these persuasion barriers: 

• Navigation built around organizational rather than visitor preferences.
• Language that doesn't connect with visitors as Carewords do.
• Broken links and out-of-date content. Be ruthless about this.
• Long inquiry forms. The brevity of the Creighton University form is admirable. 

Every barrier means less conversion from that 1/3 in the middle cluster. Some barriers will even reduce conversion from the 1/3 that really want to do what you hope they will do.

Social media and online persuasion

BJ believes social media sites are strong persuasion tools.

• Social networks are "platforms for persuasion" and Facebook is the "#1 persuasion tool of all time."
• Amazon makes good use of social media techniques by empowering community comments and by recommending new items based on the preferences of the visitor.

Don't be afraid to experiment

One note stands out: don't be afraid to experiment with change. Victory, BJ believes, will go to those who are not afraid to take online initiatives without knowing in advance that every one will work. Discard initiatives that fail and expand those that succeed. Getting proof of success before trying anything new makes it likely that your more adventuresome competitors will leave you behind.

J.Boye Conference: Philadelphia 2010

Check the developing schedule for the J.Boye conference May 4-6 in Philadelphia. There is a higher education track, as well as 7 others, including "online communication" and "online strategy" where you can meet and mingle with people working outside higher education.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Social Media Marketing... the new Mass Marketing Platform?

At the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education earlier this week, social media marketing was the hot topic at presentation after presentation. And there was strong interest in how to demonstrate "ROI" from the financial and human investment needed in this area.

ROI is a worthy topic to explore if the goal of social media marketing is to increase conversion in enrollment campaigns or to increase alumni giving rates.

But what if social media marketing isn't about immediate conversion results but general brand awareness? A story in today's Detroit Free Press positions social media as the next mass marketing vehicle. Ford Motor Company is enthusiastic about the results of a 6-month social media campaign to create pre-launch awareness of the 2010 Ford Fiesta, ready for sale next year.

60% Brand Awareness from Integrated Social Media Campaign

Ford gave 100 cars for 6 months to "mostly young, hip drivers" who were "savvy" with Facebook and Twitter and counted on them to ignite a fire of awareness. Read more about the program at the "Fiesta Movement" website. The results:

• 4.3 million video views on YouTube
• 540,000 photo views on Flickr
• 3 million "impressions" on Twitter

As a result of that activity, Ford has measured brand awareness by the public at 60 percent, a level that it projects would have cost more than $50 million in traditional media spending.

Impressive result. But not a car has yet been sold. If you only define ROI by sales results (or students enrolled or dollars raised), there is no direct "ROI" from a campaign like this. 

Note that Ford did one thing that is too often left out of budget-tight higher education branding campaigns: traditional market research that measures results after a campaign is over.

Creative Risk-Taking Needed

If higher education moves forward into social media as fast as ROI measurement allows, that move will not happen very quickly. We need creative risk taking, along with an understanding that measuring the exact impact of individual marketing elements on a final decision to enroll or donate (or buy a car) is not an easy thing. Some would say it is not possible.

What is clear is that we can measure the swirl of activity that does take place around a social media campaign. And we can do that better now than we could for traditional public relations and brand awareness campaigns back in ancient times. We can see and feel and hear the activity taking place. And that just might be all the ROI needed.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Late summer greetings to everyone. From the chatter on Twitter, it seems that the arrival of new freshmen on campuses across the country has been a marvelous event. Special congratulations to everyone who helped carry freight from cars to dorm rooms.

Check at the end of the newsletter for new fall presentations, including a conference in Denmark, a December webinar for "Writing Right for the Web," and the continuation of the "Bob$100" discount for the October Aslanian adult student recruitment conference.

Plan to attend the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education and register for an updated and expanded "Marketing Communications in a World without Paper" Sunday tutorial. A highly rated summer version from eduWeb09 is the first one on SlideShare at www.slideshare.net/bestbob

Check my blog for notes on Heather Mansfield's "10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education" at bit.ly/12VoTl

Join me on Twitter at twitter.com/HighEdMarketing

For everyone here in the States, best wishes for a fine Labor Day weekend.

And now here are marketing news and notes for September.
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Forbes Magazine 2009 College Rankings

Forbes released 2009 rankings in early August, based on "the quality of the education, the experience of the students, and how much they achieve."

While most of the usual suspects fill out the top spots, Forbes calls attention to unexpected additions at the highest levels, including Centre College and Union College. At the top of the list: West Point.

My favorite criterion: 25 percent of the ranking is based on student evaluations at RateMyProfessors.com. That beats the "reputation" factor in another popular report.

Start the full report at www.forbes.com/2009/08/02/colleges-university-ratings-opinions-colleges-09-intro.html
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Evaluating Social Media Results

You should not worry if the people who sign on to your social media sites or read your blogs do not actively participate with comments and other contributions of new content. Most people just read,without joining or actively participating. And that, of course, has marketing value by itself.

By far the largest category for social media participation is from Spectators (79 percent), while Creators (24 percent) and Critics (37 percent) lag far behind. Indeed, only 51 percent will actually join a social media site where they are spectators.

What is the marketing lesson? Do not over promise active results when you start new social media ventures. For the details, check the latest research at the Groundswell blog site at
blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/08/social-technology-growth-marches-on-in-2009-led-by-social-network-sites.html
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Drexel Gets First Place: Top University Websites for Search Engine Optimization

Find methodology you can use to test your own school as you review "Top SEO College Websites 2009" at www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2009/09/01/top-seo-college-websites-2009

The writer gives most colleges and universities an "F" grade for SEO and includes four reasons why he thinks more schools do not do better. The first: over reliance on "brand recognition" to bring traffic to the website.

The increase in the importance of online education does seem to motivate some schools to do much better than others. The "Top Three" here: Drexel University, University of Phoenix, and Capella University.
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Google Analytics Basics

Just getting started in web analytics? Thinking of using Google Analytics?

"Google Analytics 101" by Ron Jones at Search Engine Watch is a good place to start. The link at searchenginewatch.com/3634842 will take you to Part 2 and you can track back from there to Part 1.

Better use of analytics is an essential step to getting higher impact from your website. Pay special attention to the "bounce rate" (percent of people who leave a page without going further) at your admissions entry page and at each important page after that. Be sure that you filter out results for first-time visitors from those who are returning visitors.

Google advises that a bounce rate between 20 and 35 percent is acceptable.
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Best Ad Sizes for Online Advertising

AdAge reviews what works best and why at adage.com/digital/article?article_id=138554

Special note: flash-based ads were the least effective of every type tested.
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Time Magazine Picks Top 50 Websites

No college or university websites made the Time list, but the academic world is represented by selection #9, Academic Earth. That is a website for free college courses and lectures from 7 "leading universities."

Browse the full 50 to learn more about the expectations that some of these sites will create for users of higher education websites. The Times list is at
www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1809858_1809957,00.html

And visit the clean and simple Academic Earth home page at www.academicearth.org/
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Mobile Web Help from MIT

Expect more and more people to access your website from iPhones and similar smartphone devices. And more and more schools are developing special mobile-friendly web content rather than forcing people to navigate and use their regular websites.

Review in detail the strong effort from MIT at mobi.mit.edu/about/ or access it from a mobile browser at m.mit.edu

Not only MIT can do this. For a smaller school alternative, visit the Azusa Pacific University example at www.apu.edu/m/

MIT will help you get started. Contact Information Services & Technology at mobiweb@mit.edu
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Old School Marketing: 5 Tips for Better Envelope Copy

Still using mail to prospect for potential new students? Then "mystique" and "relevance" are especially important first impression goals.

Learn more at www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/5-ways-upgrade-envelope-copy-410894_1.html
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7 High End Twitter Analysis Tools

If you are very interested in Twitter, take time to explore the tools profiled at mashable.com/2009/08/30/analyze-twitter-content/ and you will likely find something of interest.

Scroll down to the end of the report for more links to other Twitter tools.

If you are not that interested in Twitter, keep reading.
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National Merit Scholarships End at UT Austin

What is the future of merit scholarships in the present economy?

The move by University of Texas at Austin to stop funding over 200 National Merit full-tuition scholarships reflects new pressures to focus scare funds on need-based awards. That is the rationale given to explain why UT Austin is dropping out of the National Merit competition and rolling those funds over to students with financial need.

What is the marketing impact of fewer National Merit scholars? UT Austin does not believe it will be great. Current brand strength is sufficiently strong that the SAT and GPA components of the academic profile are not expected to suffer.

Read more at www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/01/merit
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Teens and Twitter: Age is Not the Problem

New research on how people use Twitter makes an important point. Yes, the "great majority" of teens do not use Twitter. But then, neither do the "great majority" of adults use Twitter.

A key finding: Teens use Twitter at a higher rate than people from 25 to 44 years of age.

Another key finding: the reason most adults and teens do not use Twitter is simple: they can do the same things elsewhere on other sites that they prefer. Not using Twitter, it seems, is not related to age.

See the in-depth details at www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/30/why-dont-teens-tweet-we-asked-over-10000-of-them/
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Distance Learning Gains Faculty Support

A detailed report from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities brings good news to marketers who recognize that student interest at every age level is shifting in favor of online learning.

Professors, both senior and junior, are more willing to entertain teaching online courses than ever before. That is an important message for the not-for-profit sector as for-profit competitors continue to expand their online offerings.

Of course there is a caveat. Faculty do not think they are receiving enough support for the effort it takes to develop and introduce new online courses. Read an outline of the report at www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1347 and see where senior enrollment and marketing professionals might give support and encouragement to people willing to expand product in this key area.
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Web Writer Position at Alma College

Alma College is taking applications for a web content writer position within the marketing and public relations office. Details for the position are at www.alma.edu/about/offices/personnel/jobs/archives/2009/08/28/web_writer
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My Upcoming Presentations in 2009

Share questions and answers with people like yourself who are building a competitive edge in higher education marketing. Join me for one or more of these events.

October 21-22, Chicago, IL: Aslanian Group Seminars: Competing for Adults Students, "Branding and the Web: The Value of Your Official Website in the Social Media Era." Download conference brochure at www.coburncreative.com/educationdynamics/f2009_seminar.pdf Save $100 when you enter "Bob$100" in the discount code box as you register.

October 26-27, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin System, Adult Student Recruitment & Retention Conference, "Key Website Features for Adult Student Recruitment." Conference information is at www.uwosh.edu/rrconference

November 3-5, Aarhus, Denmark: J. Boye Conference: Aarhus09, "Improving Higher Education Websites: Lessons from the Student Experience." Conference program and registration at www.jboye.com/conferences/aarhus09/higher-education

November 15-17, Boston, MA: AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, "Marketing in a World without Paper: Creating a Recruitment Communications Plan in an Online Future" (3.5 hour Sunday afternoon tutorial). Details at www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/marketingevent_highereducation_2009.aspx

December 8, Webinar: "Writing Right for the Web." Program details soon from Academic Impressions at www.academicimpressions.com/web_conferences.htm

Increase ROI from your online marketing. Expand the writing, editing, and search marketing skills of people on your campus. Host a campus workshop on online marketing.

Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com
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That's All for Now

Be a marketing champion on your campus.

Bob Johnson, Ph.D. (bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com)
President and Senior Consultant
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
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Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC

Increase your online marketing success with these 6 services.
• Customer Carewords Research with Gerry McGovern
• Writing Right for the Web On-Campus Workshops
• Marketing Communications Website Review
• Competitive Website Reviews
• Content Copywriting Services
• Usability Analysis

Start now at www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/whatwedo.html

Twitter Tips for Higher Education... Notes on DIOSA Recommendations

Earlier on Monday this week I posted a Twitter update to a list of "10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education" from Heather Mansfield at DIOSA.

At the start of the post I asked a simple question: How many do you agree with? And added the note that I was fine with all of them except #5.

The post prompted several RTs and  responses and it was quickly obvious that the 144 character limitation of Twitter inhibited anything resembling serious comment. The result? A promise to Brad Ward to elaborate on the list in a blog post. Brad, by the way, disagreed with #'s 2,5,7, and 10.

Never, I've no doubt, shall everyone agree on everything on this list or any other.

Without further ado, some notes on Heather's 10 tips. Read her reasons for each point at the DIOSA website.

1. Authenticity before marketing. Have personality. Build community. 

• Just about everyone will agree with this one. "Reality marketing" still prevails and that's especially true at any social media site. People will resist a traditional marketing and public relations approach. Convey events and experiences and real stories and people who are interested in you will follow along. 

2. Don't use Twitter for RSS or publish "News" unless you call your Twitter profile "News".

• I don't have a strong feeling about this one. Do agree that Twitter sites set up just to publish news events should make that clear in the name just to make it easier to sort things out.

3. Have many Twitter accounts!

• Not sure about the definition of "many," but for large institutions this is esssential and even small schools can benefit from specialized Twitter accounts for athletics and admissions. It makes good marketing sense to plan for specialized Twitter accounts even if initial staffing only allows one at the start, especially as the frequency of tweets increases. 

4. Be nice. Be thankful. Reply and Retweet!

• Here's another that should get unanimous support. Pay attention to who RTs your material and take time to thank them. Send a personal "thank you" to most new followers. (And if they seem like spammers, don't hesitate to block them.) RT when someone posts something of interest, remembering that the life of a typical tweet is brief and an RT a bit later gives more people the chance to see the original item.  

5. Follow everyone who follows you.

• Heather and I have disagreed about this one before. For my own professional Twitter account, I feel no obligation to follow every follower. Instead, I review a person's tweets and follow those that interest me. When they are primarily personal, I don't follow. Similarly, I don't expect everyone I follow to follow me. If they aren't interested in higher education marketing, why should they?
• Things might be a bit different with some higher education accounts. A Twitter site for alumni, for instance, might well want to follow all or most people who join and are obviously alumni. Still, I've trouble making this a hard and fast rule. Review each new follower and make an individual decision. 

6. Use "Favorites" to organize the chaos and feature your most important Tweets!

• Indeed, this is a necessity if you are following many people. And whether or not you decide to follow everyone, your list is likely to grow and therefore the daily tweets received is going to grow. Best to take special note of those that are most important to you. 

7. Don't tweet about your coffee (unless it is fair trade), the weather, or how tired you are. Provide value to your followers, not chit-chat!

• For "official" sites, I agree with this. While personal comments related to professional subjects are fine, I'd err on the side of caution about blending comments that are OK for "personal" Twitter sites with your official admissions or athletics or alumni site.
• Yes, there is a "social" in social media but Twitter still suffers among many people from the early (and often accurate) impression that it was a place for people to post way too much information about trivial daily events. Even when the events don't seem trivial to you, stop and think about how much your readers want to know about your personal life.  

8. Don't only Tweet your own content.

• Another good suggestion. On an admissions site, for instance, include links to content at other locations about financial aid, career opportunities, admission tips, or just about anything else that you know will interest your followers. Strive for a reputation as a source for valuable information that benefits people who follow you.
• This also increases the chances that your followers will RT your tweets. That will help you gain more followers who value what you do.

9. Send messages, but not via auto-responders.

• Absolutely. This links right back to #1. 'Nuff said.  

10. Limit your Tweets to 5 per day, and no more than 6!

• Heather has interesting survey results to support this one. While I don't tend to be a fan of absolutes, I do think that you should be careful of sending too many messages just for the sake of sending them.
• Most days, strive for a minimum of about 4 to 5 posts. And if you scatter them throughout the day, more people are likely to see at least one of them.
• Track the popularity of posts with links by using a service like Bit.ly that lets you easily see how many followers are clicking on the links you include. Watch trends and think seriously about not posting often on items that receive less than normal attention from your readers. Easy marketing research.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

RateMyProfessors.com: blending social media and reality marketing

RateMyProfessors.com is a place that most, if not all, colleges and universites appear to wish simply didn't exist.

• Yes, it is a form of social media where college students can share their experiences about their faculty with anyone who wants to read them. The site makes it easy to add new faculty evaluations and to share content with friends.
• And yes, it helps define the world of "reality marketing" by noting that not every professor at every college is a super-star dedicated to student success in the classroom.

At two recent conference presentations, I've asked the audience if any of their schools link from the official website to RateMyProfessors. I get the sense that people are shocked that the question is even asked. That's no surprise. One response summed up the feeling: "I'd get fired for doing that!"

Few Faculty Rated as "Poor Quality"

Here's what's funny about the prevailing attitude. In every case where I've visited RateMyProfessors, there have been very few faculty who receive "poor quality" ratings. Most have either "average quality" or "good quality" ratings.

Consider my most recent venture to Boston University as an example to use in an upcoming webinar. The site makes it easy find faculty from an academic area of special interest. In this case, I checked the political science faculty at BU. Here's what I found for 48 faculty members listed:

• 33 had "good quality" ratings
• 11 had "average quality" ratings
• 3 were listed as "below average"
• 1 had no ratings at all

That seems a pretty good peformance to me, maybe even higher than expected. All in all, these are professors held in high esteem by their students.

Students, especially those with high academic profiles, are keenly interested in academic majors. Imagine that the BU admissions page included a link to RateMyProfessors.com so that visitors could easily see the overall ratings as well as the comments available on individual faculty. That, it seems, would buy credibility in a world skeptical of the usual marketing language used in higher education and elsewhere.

The reality, of course, is that not all faculty are great. Personally, I'd be quite comfortable enrolling as a political science major at BU based on the RateMyProfessors reviews.

And yes, I understand that linking to RateMyProfessors.com from official websites isn't going to sweep the land. But take some time today to check how your faculty are viewed at this site by your students. You just might find people that you'd like to highlight in some other way in your marketing efforts.

If by any chance your college or university indeed links to RateMyProfessor, let me know. That would make a great Link of the Week selection.

That's all for now.

• Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Social media and student recruitment: Expanding Interest Among For-Profit Schools

Back last night from the Career College Association conference in Orlando, where I was part of a panel discussion hosted by Google on "Building Your Online Student Community" about the potential and the pitfalls of integrating social media into overall marketing activities.

At breakfast before the session we briefly discussed differences in marketing and recruitment approaches between the "for profit" and the "not-for-profit" sectors of higher education. We covered the usual points... including a more sales oriented approach on the "for profit" side in which admissions representatives play a different role than what is customary according to NACAC guidelines that most "not-for-profits" follow.

Fear of negative comments

At the actual session, one element was evident that overlapped boundaries:

• People are not yet comfortable with creating a social media site and opening themselves up to possible negative comments re the experiences of their students.

Interest was high... people were standing along the back wall of the room. And my sense was that many and maybe most in the room sense the inevitability of social media conversations. They will take place whether sanctioned or not. Might as well have them occur where it is easiest to monitor them and where satisfied students are more likely to contribute positive responses. Might as well build sponsored sites.

Staffing and ROI Concerns

Two other points of interest surfaced:

• What are the new requirements for staffing social media marketing activities?
• How do we measure the ROI?

All in all, an interesting morning and for me personally, a introduction to a segment of the market that I don't often visit.

Thanks to fellow panelists Clay Gillespie of Career Education Corporation and Joe Charlson of Education Management Corporation who reviewed what was already happening among their schools. And thanks to Google moderator Sam Sebastian (a very major Ohio State fan!) and Deb Powsner who admirably herded the cats and managed the details.

University of Phoenix has a strong social media presence, although few can match the resources of that goliath. Nevertheless, expect to see more CCA members moving more strongly in this direction as social media in the marketing mix continues to expand. 

That's all for now.

• Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Phoenix Adds "Bio" to Twitter Site After Launch

The University of Phoenix effort had only been underway since May 12 when I checked the Phoenix Twitter site for my May 21 blog entry on how several schools were using Twitter for adult student recruitment.

In what otherwise seemed a robust effort based on initial frequency of updates (far more often than the other schools), there was no "bio" included. That's a marketing opportunity lost, as the right bio message can repeat and reinforce the primary brand message.

When revisiting the site today, a bio has now appeared. And here it is:

• Bio: "We provide a quality higher education for working students and offer associates, bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in small class sizes." The emphasis on "working students" and the degree levels offered is good. A future version might well include the number of degrees offered in each category as the total array is high and sets Phoenix apart from most competitors.

So, late is indeed better than never in this case.

And since my last blog post, updates increased from 44 to 54 and followers from 179 to 224. Several of those updates seem directed to potential students, an example of "talking with" rather than just "talking at."

Phoenix is often considered the goliath of higher education marketing, with an annual marketing budget of more than $15 million and an online ad presence just about everywhere. That makes it a prime candidate to follow on Twitter over the next few months to watch the growth in followers and the way that Phoenix engages them on that site.

 That's all for now.

• Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ to receive my monthly newsletter and Link of the Week selections.
  

Twitter: A Tool to Recruit Adult Students?

One of several priority items this week is finishing a social media marketing presentation for Carol Aslanian's upcoming June 2-4 conference on adult student recruitment. (If you might still register, use "Bob100" in the discount box on the registration page and save $100.)

How important is Twitter to the marketing communications mix in this sector?

Results are mixed, based on a limited sample of 3 not-for-profit schools and 4 from the for-profit sector. (We searched the "following" list at DIOSA and the "Universities" section of the Twitter Fan Wiki for obvious titles that indicated attention to adults or continuing education or distance learning. Few were found. We did find Twitter sites for not-for-profit schools whose overall orientation is strongly toward adults students and may include these later.)

The measure of "importance" for recruiting is based primarily on three points:

• The number of followers. If followers are low, few are hearing the tree fall in the forest. 
• The branding strength of the "bio" used.
• Frequency of updates. Neglect in updating indicates that staff resources aren't focused on Twitter. Infrequent updates don't give followers much reason to pay attention after they sign on.

Sites that have been around for a long time, like the one at Penn State, might be updating more frequently now than the data indicates. Didn't have time to check for that.

We did not try to estimate one important element: how many followers are actually potential or current students? From quick scans, certainly not everyone. 

The Not-for-Profit Sector: UMass, Penn State, Harvard

University of Massachusetts Continuing and Professional Education

• http://twitter.com/UMassContinEd 413 following, 235 followers, 12 updates
• Started: March 26, 2009
• Bio: Continuing & Professional Educ Programs, Summer/Winter Sessions at UMass Amherst. Maintained by Sue Cassidy, Outreach Mktg (scassidy).

Notes: Not very active, with just 12 updates over 56 days. Always a nice touch to include the name of the person who does the updates. The "following" number is high in comparison to the number of "followers."  

Penn State University World Campus

• http://twitter.com/PSUWorldCampus 252 following, 246 followers, 213 updates
• Started: January 8, 2008
• Bio: Penn State Online and Distance Education

By far the earliest site on Twitter for this group, updates have been relatively infrequent and followers are low for the 505 days operating. The bio is simple and to the point about what's offered by the World Campus.

Harvard University Extension School

• http://twitter.com/HarvardEXT 20 following, 472 followers, 18 updates
• Started: January 9
• Bio: Harvard's primary resource for continuing education. Offering over 600 evening and online courses and part-time degree programs to the public.

Notes: Harvard doesn't follow nearly as many people as Penn State or UMass but still has far more followers. Might that just be the power of the brand? Bio adds a nice point by listing the number of courses offered and a subtle touch that they are open "to the public." As with the others, few upates over the 131 days the site has been operating. 

For-profit Sector: Phoenix, Capella, Kaplan, Walden  

University of Phoenix

• http://twitter.com/UOPX 9 following, 179 followers, 44 updates,
• Started: May 12
• Bio: none

Notes: Phoenix came quite late to Twitter. For some inexplicable reason, the marketing imperative here doesn't include any "bio" information at all. Nobody's perfect. Followers are developing nicely over the last 9 days. Updates are extremely frequent. Will they keep up that pace of nearly 5 per day?

Capella University

• http://twitter.com/CapellaU 0 following, 911 followers, 38 updates,
• Started: February 2
• Bio: "Capella University is an accredited, fully online university that has built its reputation by providing quality education for working adults."

Notes: Capella sets the pace for followers, as well as for those it follows. I think this is the first time that I've found a Twitter site that isn't following anyone. The bio makes key points about accreditation, online programs, and the orientation to adults. Updates are not frequent at about 1 every 3 days.

Kaplan University

• http://twitter.com/KaplanUniv 21 following, 39 followers, 1 update
• Started: 27 April
• Bio: Building futures online and at eight Kaplan University campuses across the nation. Career-focused education tweets from Kaplan Higher Education home office.

Notes: Did Kaplan note the update activity at Phoenix and decide to take the opposite tack? A single update over 24 days is about as low as it can get. Someone at the "home office" did have time to add a bio, but things must have been really busy since then. 

Walden University  

• http://twitter.com/waldenu 63 following, 166 followers, 141 updates
• Started: March 6 
• Bio: An accredited online university founded in 1970 and dedicated to enabling the success of working professionals around the world. 

Notes: Walden makes a solid effort that hasn't yet paid off with many followers. Over 75 days since starting, the 2 updates each day is the best pace other than Phoenix. The bio lets us know Walden has been around for 29 years, or far longer than the other for-profit institutions and pre-dating "online" universities by a wide margin.

Overall Conclusion: Twitter Not a Priority 

For marketers at most of these schools, Twitter is not a priority. Phoenix will be an interesting "follow" over the next few months to track how rapidly followers build and interact with the university. Phoenix includes a link to Twitter and 4 other social media sites on the website but hasn't yet updated the graphic to include the Twitter symbol. 

Not long ago I reviewed how 9 professional and graduate schools are using Twitter. Barb Chamberlain at Washington State University Spokane then outlined in detail her experiences in setting up and operating a Twitter account in the midst of other ongoing communications responsibilities.

Barb's contribution is valuable for anyone trying to balance exploration of the new with maintenance of the old. In this post I've edited her comments, made them more visible as an individual post, and added links to the Twitter tools she uses to help measure impact and manage workflow.

Very many thanks to Barb for taking time to help others with these details. Follow her on Twitter.

From the Trenches at Washington State University

"Bob, I manage the @WSUSpokane account. We're an upper-division/graduate/professional campus of the multi-campus Washington State University system, headquarters for our health sciences research and teaching, and home to our Interdisciplinary Design Institute and selected professional programs such as educational leadership."

• Started tweeting in early November 2008, have 452 followers, are following 407, and have provided 668 updates (updated for this posting). Our Twitter "Bio": Health sci, educ, & design programs @ a beautiful new downtown campus on river.
• Our tweets are a mix of links to news releases, event announcements, campus happenings (such as our record snowfalls in December/January), retweets of resources relevant to our followers in health sciences, health care, and design disciplines, recognition of students and alumni who have done something great, live tweeting from selected campus events, and occasional links to the blog maintained by one of the campus librarians and others as they get established.
• My goal is to be "professional with a personality" in managing the account. I use search results to identify people tweeting about us so I can respond and follow.

Evaluating the Twitter Investment 

• WSU systemwide is taking to Twitter in a big way. See our full account list.
• For a longer list of higher education Twitter accounts, look at this wiki. I use this as one of our measurement resources, although it's not comprehensive. Twitter outcome measures certainly are nowhere a science. I use the wiki list to measure us against comparable schools for # of followers (which isn't at all a measure of engagement).
• I also look at retweets, twittergrader rankings, and twinfluence, just to have some sense of whether we're improving in our reach and value. I also track clickthroughs for all links I tweet, so I know how many eyeballs I've drawn and which content is the most popular.

Investment in Time and Energy

• It isn't a full-time effort. At this point, I couldn't justify doing that for social media given everything else we need to produce in a small shop, although we're shifting priorities.
• It took more time in the beginning to get going, which is true of any social space. For Twitter, that's time to find accounts to follow, and effort to build good value in our tweets so they would see why they might want to follow back. A more sophisticated result-tracking package might make it easier. It is a bit time-consuming to do my low-end copy/paste/spreadsheet analysis, and I only do that about once a month now. I did it more often in the beginning to get a sense of trend lines.

Workflow... and a Helpful Twitter Tool 

• I use tweetlater to make it easier to have something going out every day whether I have much time to check or not. I tee up tweets on future events and basic items (like a periodic reminder to faculty/staff/students to update their emergency contact info). That way, on a daily basis I pop in, check the last couple of pages of tweets of people I'm following, maybe RT a couple of items, check our @s & DMs (still very light on the latter), and set up tweets on the day's news items.

Ongoing Challenge: Building Engagement 

• The other piece I continue to work on is building a following among local people (as community relations work), students (on-campus communications), media (both traditional/mainstream and online), and alumni (although Facebook is the bigger priority there). It's not enough to have the account--to make it worth using as a communications tool, someone has to be listening.

That's all for now.

• Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
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