To Blog or not to Blog: Deciding What to do, When and Why in Your E-Recruitment Plan

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Notes on slide 1

Introductions: background, did web pages in undergrad Go around the room for introductions? Or at least poll group Evolution of position – who owns your website and e-comm plan? Disney example?

Yes, but not totally. That’s all the sexy stuff that comes later.

Of course I will talk about how I managed e-recruitment as an Assoc. Dir. In admissions, but those are details. But the one thing I would like you to take away is not about what we did – which is fascinating – but HOW you make the right choices for yourselves and your particular institution.

Joke about Martha and I doing our “speech”, who does it in which meeting – take turns

Give mug to anyone who guesses this or close to it

Does anyone have this problem? Once someone says that, I automatically challenge it

How many of these have you heard? How many times have you said it yourself?

Last question is the hardest and most important. Second one is easy – make a pretty website, make it interactive, put lots of pictures on it, make it blue, etc.

In my current position, I managed the overhaul of Temple’s homepage. Part of that process was user testing – virtual focus groups. Market intelligence and research is routine in the biz world, but we often overlook it in higher ed. Doesn’t have to be expensive. Simple thing like asking a student worker – Megan example and Gen Ed.

Nice cartoon about audience and how to reach them. Of course, we don’t want to put incessant barking out there, which is what most marketing copy is. Content is still KING! When you give people the information they need, you’ve marketed by providing useful content. They have a good feeling about you. In fact, as much time as we spend thinking about how something looks – an email, a website, etc., the package actually doesn’t matter that much.

One of the most successful sites out there – over 9 billion page views per month according to Alexa

Both Google and craigslist, as well as many other successful websites and email campaigns, are user-focused and think of them first. In our user-testing, people repeatedly told us that they wanted to grab and go, find their useful information quickly and easily. That made them respect an institution more.

Okay, now let’s get to what we did at Temple – our Journey, if you will

Remember these days? That ball actually spun around – very high tech for the time

Nice use of real estate with 18 lines of links and boilerplate

Current ugrad site, but the influx of emails started with the 2000 redesign, everything collided, more people using the net to investigate schools, etc. I was walking by one day and the director said, hey, you like this technology stuff, why don’t you start answering the emails? If it can come in, it can go out.

Should we have a larger presence on Facebook? What about a YouTube channel? MySpace page? Listservs are filled with this question. Things to ponder: Are there merits to being first in something? With user-created content, is that still as important? Avoiding the oooh factor (or bandwagon) How to be “real” and responsible, legal concerns, etc.

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To Blog or not to Blog: Deciding What to do, When and Why in Your E-Recruitment Plan - Presentation Transcript

To Blog or not to Blog: Deciding What to do, When and Why in Your E-Recruitment Plan Mary Beth Kurilko – Director of Web Communications [email_address] 215-204-4332
What is this session about? Technology? E-Recruitment? Blogs? Web 2.0?
NO!
It’s about… Your audience Your goals And most importantly…
“ I just need a brochure by next month” “ We heard about these e-newsletters and want to do one.” “ Penn State is doing it, so our Dean says we have to do it too.” “ An alumni told our VP we need a blog on our site.” “ Can’t we do something like {insert competitor school’s name] does?”
Are you Task-driven? OR Strategy-driven?
Think about your current marketing mix: What do you do now? What would you like to do? Why?
Who’s your audience? What do you know about them? How can you find out? Then, how do you reach them?
1997
1997 – Undergraduate Admissions’ site
2000
2000
Current
- What we did:
- Email campaigns
- Chat
- Student-created videos
- Ask an Owl query box
- Blogs
What we didn’t : -Viewbook on CD-ROM -Personalized websites -Virtual Tours -Web 2.0 stuff – yet!
What we’re still thinking about:
Time to share…everyone hold hands . Write down one e-strategy that worked and one that didn’t, and why. Share these with your table. Share with the room. (time permitting)
Thank you everyone!