Posts in May 2009
Recently, the New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative released the Horizon Report. The purpose of the report was to identify six technologies that will become important in teaching and learning in the coming years. Two of the technologies are expected to be adopted within on year or less, two of them within two to three years, and two of them within four to five years.
The choices of the technologies – cloud computing, mobile, geo everything, personal web, semantic aware applications, and smart objects – are not that remarkable. Going over the threshold into academic and popular use for any of these isn’t too surprising. Each one has been around for a while and are used relatively frequently. What is surprising, however, is that not very many of these technologies show up in marketing plans, especially for colleges and universities.
Many institutions are struggling with re-working their website or debating whether or not to start a Facebook page. While these projects are important, the broader picture is that creating an online presence involves much more than just having something online. It’s a matter of having the right form for your content and speaking to your target audience through the channels they are expected to be able to navigate once they arrive on campus. If a technology is widespread enough in its use to warrant use in the classroom, why can’t it be used as a viable marketing tool as well?
In addition to the college version, the Horizon Report comes in a K-12 version. The technologies listed here are very similar: collaborative environments and online communication tools in under a year, mobiles and cloud computer in two to three years, and smart objects and the personal web in four to five years. This report is probably even more important than the collegiate version for marketers since it outlines the technologies through which prospects will expect to receive your message. That means in two years, the issue won’t be whether or not to open comments on a Facebook page, it’ll be how to improve the iPhone app. Likewise, in five years the issue won’t be whether or not the website has all the right information on it, it’ll be whether or not the information shifts enough with each user.
Again, that’s not to say that getting a good website or email campaign isn’t important, but that’s not all you should be planning. Looking several years out and building the infrastructure for some of the Horizon Report’s technologies would be a smart move now so that when the technologies are commonplace, you’re already prepared.
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Posted by Todd Woodlan on May 19, 2009 at 9:13 am
Filed under: Ramblings
One of the great things about new technologies is that an answer to a question can be read by a lot of people. You don’t have to repeat the same answer more than once and distance isn’t really an issue for anyone wanting to get information about your institution. As always, however, there’s a danger in putting too much stock into answering questions en mass.
Answering a question in front of a group rather than in a one-on-one situation gets the information across just fine, but it doesn’t make the personal connection that is going to make a prospect connect with your institution. Showing that extra bit of attention is important to convey the idea that you’re working with your students and not treating them just as numbers.
The less apparent side-effect of mass answering is the problem of answering a question that is similar to what someone wants to ask, but not quite the same question. Sure, there are the general questions that are the same for everyone like “What’s your average SAT score?” or “How many students do you have on campus?” but there are also a lot of questions that appear to be the same but really aren’t. Financial aid is a good example. An institution may have a general package for financial aid opportunities, but individual departments and programs may also have funding opportunities that aren’t part of the stock financial aid answer. Without a customized, personal answer a prospect might not find out about these opportunities and end up looking elsewhere.
Granted, customized answers are becoming easier to generate with newer technologies. However, overlooking the importance of an actual human delivering that answer could be the difference between a real connection and a passing interest.
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Posted by Todd Woodlan on May 18, 2009 at 9:15 am
Filed under: Ramblings
Ohio State University recently stopped censoring comments on its Facebook page. This is a big step to take for any institution (higher ed or not) and social media commentators would generally agree that this is a pretty good thing, but it’s a step that isn’t taken often enough and in enough different places.
One of the problems that Ohio State and other institutions run into when they’re removing dissenting opinions from something like Facebook is that it’s really obvious that they’re doing it. Facebook relies on user-generated content to function as a “social network” and, really the whole point of having a Facebook page is to get into a dialogue with fans. If there’s no ability to have a dialogue, then the page just doesn’t function well and users know something’s up. At the moment, a lot of people will tolerate blocked comments because everyone’s just feeling out how to use these technologies, but as technology progresses these sorts of actions won’t be so acceptable to users.
It may be obvious that some part of an institution’s story is getting shut down when comments aren’t allowed on a Facebook page, there are other subtler areas where the same process is going on. Any area of a website that tells only the best, more impressive parts of an institution’s story is creating an absence that may not be noticeable immediately, but target audiences know that something else isn’t quite there.
This doesn’t mean go out and tell everyone about your university president’s position on an energy board, but it does mean to not be afraid of the unique aspects of your story. It also means to try and open up as much of your marketing to outside opinion and commentary as possible, creating an organic campaign that is a reflection of how your institution truly is.
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Posted by Todd Woodlan on May 15, 2009 at 9:15 am
Filed under: Ramblings
While a lot of companies have been making mobile-specific websites for years, many institutions are just now starting to plan out a miniature version of their site. Simmons College, for example, is getting ready to work on a mobile version for their site and Bob Johnson is encouraging other institutions to follow Simmons’ lead. However, before you start putting a lot of effort into re-creating your site it’s worthwhile to look at what exactly “mobile marketing” means.
I’ve written about possibilities for emerging technologies in higher ed and agree that mobile marketing is one of the top technologies to target, but it will probably look a lot different in a few years. Mobile-specific sites are a temporary solution to the issue that cellphones were initially developed off of the telephone model, computers were developed off of a book/typewriter model, and technology designers are trying to reconcile the two in a haphazard manner. With touchscreens (iPhone, Blackberry Storm) and movement sensors (like the iPod shuffle, the Wii controllers, etc.) that old model is breaking away and “websites” are going to be much more immersive and fluid. It’s good to have a mobile version of a site, but (a) this shouldn’t be that different than the main site (mobile devices are running scaled down browsers rather than mobile browsers) and (b) it will be almost completely obsolete in 2-3 years.
The terminology shouldn’t be “mobile website” so much as “mobile marketing,” an indication of the importance of apps and more purpose-driven ways of accessing information. When mapping out your new mobile website development plan, take a look at the shifts in technology and make the information able to be repurposed in any number of forms, from HTML pages to apps. Also, don’t look at any mobile endeavors in terms of the technologies that preceded them. Instead try to make them as device-specific as possible.
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Posted by Todd Woodlan on May 14, 2009 at 9:15 am
Filed under: Ramblings
One of the questions that pops up a good bit is whether or not Facebook ads are a good idea for institutions. Mike McCready recounts a recent experience where Facebook ads drove up traffic, but didn’t result in any new applications. Attempting to explain this problem, a couple colleagues comment that:
When people come to Facebook they are there to share and communicate with family and friends, they are not there to buy a product or look for a school to apply to. This discussion was furthered after talking with one of our web producers later today who made a good observation. When you go into your Facebook account, you are often there for a purpose – read status updates, play your favorite game, look at photos, etc. You likely block out the ads and superfluous content on the page – like a horse with blinders.
By all accounts I’d have to agree with McCready’s colleagues. One of the main issues with using Facebook – and social media in general – for marketing purposes is that you’re invading a private space that users expect to keep private. Any sort of non-user-generated content is foreign to the whole concept of social media and meets with user resistance.
Beyond ads, however, this resistance also occurs against any sort of institutional presence on social media sites. That can include Facebook pages, groups, or events with aggressive marketing tactics. Users go to Facebook and social media sites to make connections with things that they already identify with, not to be convinced to be a part of something. Social media marketing should not be centered around a campaign to create new converts, but to foster people’s identification with your brand. Instead of pushing your institution or product on social media users, you should be targeting and encouraging your existing fans to develop a stronger bond with your product.
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Posted by Todd Woodlan on May 13, 2009 at 10:15 am
Filed under: Ramblings
It seems like all of a sudden a lot of colleges and universities are thinking about starting up a Twitter feed as part of their admissions marketing plan. On the surface that seems like a pretty good idea. Twitter is a new technology and has a face-paced, abbreviated way of working. A perfect medium for teenage prospective students, right? Apparently, that’s not really the case.
There’s a Reuters article that’s just been published about a comscore study that says most Twitter users aren’t in the 18-24 year old range that usually picks up on new technology. Even the 12-17 year olds aren’t at the top of the list. Instead, it’s the 45-54 year olds that are most likely to tweet. This has two main effects on any good Twitter marketing plan.
The first effect is that you need to be sure that you’re targeting the right audience. If you’re going after prospective students, be sure to tap into the large (but not dominant) under 18 segment of Twitter users. Don’t just assume that all of your followers are going to be the right age.
The second effect is more broad than just Twitter and carries over to almost any new technology that pops up: don’t assume that only younger generations are early adapters. As the study points out, the Internet has been around for a while and a lot of people in their 20’s and 30’s have grown up with digital technology. Picking up something like Twitter or Facebook is almost second nature. This means that you shouldn’t use technology with the assumption that it will automatically reach people under 18. Likewise, you shouldn’t not use technology because you’re worried that it will be too complicated for your target audience. Instead, do your research. Make sure that you are using the right technology for what you need.
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Posted by Todd Woodlan on May 12, 2009 at 8:42 am
Filed under: Ramblings
