Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

After my earlier posting on YouTube videos featuring college presidents, Rita Abent at Slippery Rock University sent an email to let me know that Bob Smith was featured in a video introducing prospective students to the school.

You'll find the video a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPbYHXNWMI and I've added it to the original list at the August 23 posting for a new total of 9 YouTube presidents.

One immediate difference that strikes me between blogs written by presidents and most of the vidoes I've watched so far: the vidoes are much more formal and in the "public relations marketing" mode while most of the blogs feel much less scripted. No surprise in that. Both forms of communication have a place in the online world, although there's still an imperative to have even the more formal videos present a "real" picture of the president and the campus.

The Slippery Rock video, for example, does just that. The message is pretty clear: this isn't your father's or mother's Slippery Rock University any more. Lots of new buildings. Higher academic standards for entry, More demanding academic work while you're enrolled. And greater rewards for graduates in the workplace after earning a degree.

How effective are presidential messages like these as part of the marketing mix? Too early to say. But it is good to see that people are experimenting and learning more about how to best use video as a valuable Web 2.0 practice.

Posted by Bob at 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Our newest addition to the list of college and university presidents who blog is from The College of Westchester in New York. President Karen Smith made 5 entries between March and July 2007.

Nothing controvesial in this blog, although she does admit to not reading new books as fast as she might. In this case, she didn't get to Tom Friedman's The World is Flat until after he'd added a new forward to the original edition. I can relate to that as I haven't yet quite finished my own copy.

You'll find this blog at http://www.cw.edu/presidentsblog/

And you can find the list of 18 presidents who blog at the July 1, 2007 entry.

Posted by Bob at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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In blog postings and presentations, I've noted that the "traditional" viewbook (the big, beautiful, expensive publication often planned as a first inquiry response piece) is much less effective today than just a few years ago. Lots of reasons for that, but one of the most important is the reluctance of colleges to send that piece to early sophomore inquiries. In most cases, the response to people who inquire early in the recruitment cycle is still pretty weak.

Does that mean that print publications don't have a role in recruitment? Not at all.

Colgate University continues to impress me with their adaptation of print in an extended recruitment cycle. One of the things waiting for me this week when I returned from my Customer Carewords meetings in Ireland was yet another large and impressive publication from Colgate. And that made me recap what's come along from Colgate since my inquiry in May of 2006 as a high school sophomore.

Here the sequence since then:

• A 32-page photo book highligting life at Colgate over a single week, sent soon after the inquiry as the first response piece. Almost entirely photos, almost no facts.
• Early in June of 2006, the first of 14 monthly email newsletters that arrive in the first few days of each month.
• At least 12 email invitations to chat sessions have been included between early summer of 2006 and August of 2007.
• No later than September of 2006, the first of at least 9 large postcards. I suspect two or three more have escaped from my folder. The most recent was just a couple of weeks ago.
• A 64-page "viewbook" sent in September of 2006. Yes, it walks like a duck and looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. This is a viewbook, although obviously larger than most.
• A 32-page book on "Multicultural Life at Colgate" arrived early in November.
• And in early August, 2007, Colgate sent a clever twinned publication: a 40-page "This is Colgate" publication featuring the connecting "webs" that students build and the available activities with a 20-page reverse attachment at the rear featuring "Just the Facts" about the school.

Is this expensive? Of course. Is it effective marketing? Only Colgate knows the conversion rates, but I suspect that in this competitive arena it is. Colgate certainly has solved the dilemma of how to stay in touch with possible students over a three year or longer recruitment cycle and it obviously took a major investment in time and money to do that.

Not everyone needs or can afford something as elaborate as this. But everyone receiving inquries two or three years before the intended enrollment date needs to invest in an integrated print and online communication plan that says "We're glad you're interested in us" and "We really do want you to enroll here."

Note the relatively inexpensive elements here... the postcards, email newsletters, and chat invitations. Use your "traditional" viewbook money to create a strong first response piece and use that whenever a student first makes an inquiry. After that, postcards and email on a regular basis, IM for individual contact with the most serious prospects, and a really strong campus visit experience will go far to win competitive advantage for residential students in a challenging recruitment environment.

Posted by Bob at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Brian Niles at TargetX a few days ago sent along a link to a YouTube video... the president of Dickinson College talking about his leadership of a campaign to develop a new (and, of course, better) college evaluation system in contrast to the US News and World Report version.

That made me wonder... just how many college presidents are appearing on YouTube these days? For now, I haven't included interviews or speeches, just videos of the presidents at the schools listed here talking on the topics below.

Dig deeper and you'll also find commencement addresses and interviews with presidents in a variety of formats. Meantime, if you always wanted clear instructions on how to tie a bowtie, give thanks to the president at Dickinson. I actually think I might be able to do it now.

From what I found, Dickinson College is the only example of a planned effort to present the president to his YouTube audience on a regular basis, with at least three videos to date. Overall, YouTube lists 84 videos about Dickinson.

Visit and decide for yourseelf. Are these interesting? Inspirational? Brand building? A help to student recruitment?

Agnes Scott College... Why I came to Agnes Scott College at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Nhr_3kI4c

Carleton College... Carleton Class of 2004 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BidpAaKtnc

Dickinson College... How to tie a bowtie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unmiqRbEIUc

Dickinson College... The importance of volunteering at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twD8NdXpEvM

Fort Lewis College... President's Welcome at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwu7qGNKY10

Lehigh Valley College... August Video Update (on the impending sale of the college) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_3X10kYzqg

McDaniel College... Welcome to McDaniel College at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXSMUcUHxk

Saint Francis University... Students in Free Enterprise welcome at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqlstQKyh7Q

Slippery Rock University... "Overview" of the university at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPbYHXNWMI

Sonoma State University... Welcome by University President at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-DOLaX39o

And not to forget Brian's original email... at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0-FFO_Inak the Dickinson College president rallies the faithful against the US News rankings.

Posted by Bob at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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The list of college and university positions dedicated to improving the presentation of website content continues to expand... with today's addition, there are now 42 spots listed in my August 8, 2006 "Writing Right for the Web" posting.

Ed Sevilla, executive director of marketing at Stonehill College, sent along news of the latest addition while I was traveling in Ireland these last two weeks. Back in June, Shannon McDonough joined Stonehill with the tile of Web Editor. The added good news is that she'll work in Ed's marketing department, a nice recognition of the website's value to the marketing effort.

The press release that Ed sent includes this note on the responsibilities of the postion:

• "As Web Editor, McDonough creates, writes, and edits the content for Stonehill’s Web site, www.stonehill.edu. Working in collaboration with the Web Steering Committee and all departments on campus, she reviews and refines processes for creating, approving, and publishing content to the Stonehill Web site..."

I know from earlier comments from people trying to fill positions like this that qualified candidates aren't easy to find. Here's a little information about Shannon's background:

• "A 1996 graduate of Stonehill College with a B.A. in English Literature, McKonough was recently the internal communications manager at Conde Nast Publicantion... Prior to that, she was editor-in-chief of ddbconnect.com, the intranet for DDB Worldwide Communications Group..."

Creating new positions like this should be a priority for every school that doesn't yet have one. Without them, the path to improved websites isn't going to be built nearly as quicly as it should be. Congratulations to Stonehill for helping to move things along in the right direction.

Posted by Bob at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario, Canada, is the lastest addition to my list of colleges and universities with presidents who blog. This brings to 17 the list of presidents at my July 1 entry.

At Mohawk, President MaryLynn West-Moynes started her blog in October 2006, although this is the first time a Google search has found it for me. In her latest entry from July 25 she's writing about a new, condensed two-year business program that will run classes from Tuesday through Thursday "to help make life a little easier for our students, especially those with work and family commitments outside the classroom."

She makes it sound much nicer in her blog than what you'd expect to find in a formal press release.

You can review her posts at http://blogs.mohawkcollege.ca/blog/president/

The list should continue to grow. From what I heard at the ACT Enrollment Planners Conference and the eduWeb 2007 conference, at least a few more presidents have serious plans to start blogging soon. Friends have promised to let me know when they debut their new contribution to the mix of marketing messages.

Posted by Bob at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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