Monthly Archives: May 2012

Are you communicating with your students via chat or instant message?

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On Tuesday we looked at the use of telecounseling in admissions, today let’s talk about its companion, or perhaps its replacement, chat rooms and instant messaging. I have been a director of admissions at a couple of institutions where we made great use of chat rooms and instant messaging with our prospective students. I believe both of these methods can, and should take place in structured recruitment campaigns or as ad-hoc discussions.

In a formal structure, an admissions office may announce to prospective students, via their website or emails, that staff, faculty, parents, and/or even current students will be available for a “chat” session or “instant messaging” with prospective students during specified days and times. During those sessions the staff log into specific accounts and then respond to conversations and topics brought up by prospective students or their parents.  I have had great success in scheduled chats by faculty members and financial aid officers. One very helpful hint is to have your chat or instant message sessions record back into your CRM, by doing so your admissions staff can easily follow-up with the prospective student. Not all CRM will allow this automatically, so you may need to work with your IT/IS office to set this feature up.

Are you using chat rooms or instant messaging? If so how do you structure your sessions?

I have been finding a few schools moving from a formal chat session to the use of Twitter. These schools are setting up specific twitter chat hashtags for prospective students to use 24/7 and I have also noticed some colleges and universities setting up a specific time to tweet using their twitter hashtag.  Have any of you had success using a chat session on Twitter?

I want to hear about your use of chatting in any form, comment here or send me a tweet at @tammylyoung or @twgplus.

Do you use a telecounseling program?

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Not too long ago I had a client ask me my thoughts on using a telecounseling program to supplement the efforts of their recruiters. All sorts of memories started to flood back; you see I started my career in higher education as a student telecounselor. Over my years as a director of admissions I have set up many telecounseling and phonathon programs. So today, I thought, let’s take a look at each of these and discuss. I would really like your feedback, so please comment.

Let’s start with phonathons. How many of you have actually done a phonathon for your admissions efforts? Over the last 12-15 years I have seen phonathons move from the Alumni/Foundation office to the Admissions office. There is no denying the value of a representative calling prospective students and providing that one on one contact. Most phonathons are sporadic events focused on a specific event or opportunity. I have found one of the best events to focus on is a scholarship deadline. What have been your experiences with phonathons?

Many institutions today use some form of a telecounseling program to assist with contacting prospective students via campaigns with specific objectives. These teams are usually staffed with well training callers who may be outsourced professional or paid student employees. The most effective calling teams will make use of computerized systems, hopefully your admissions office CRM, so that the caller has access to the prospects history as well as the admissions staff knowing the telecounseling contact history. Callers generally follow a script to guide the caller in different directions depending upon the responder’s answers. I have always recommended also using a parent script should a parent answer the call.

Specific audiences should be targeted and scheduled for calls based upon your demographics. Targeted audiences may be invited to specific programs that may be of interest to that particular population. Most calling campaigns cover topics such as invitations to an open-house, honor’s program, or my favorite, a follow-up to an incomplete application. What has been your most successful telecounseling campaign?

The biggest take-away I could offer you, don’t forget about the parents of your prospective students. Calls where a parent answers or calls directed specifically to the parent can be very productive, as it is often the parents who contribute substantially to the student’s decision as to which institution to attend.

I mentioned outsourcing at the beginning of our telecounseling discussion; some institutions choose to outsource their telephone campaigns. The advantage to outsourcing are that many investments are eliminated; not investment in software, calling equipment, staff training, office space, etc. On the other hand, the benefits of having current staff or students calling include the fact that the callers are more likely to be able to establish relationships and to share their experiences on campus with prospective students. Have any of you outsourced your telecounseling program?

I am curious as to what your experiences have been with telecounseling programs. Please leave your comments so we can continue to discuss or tweet me at @tammylyoung or @twgplus.

How Successful will Your Summer be?

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As you start to think about your well-deserved summer vacation, where “melt” is what is happening to your ice and “discount rate” is the good deal you got on the flight, you can avoid some of the stress from the past year if you take time now to plan for a productive summer.

We have just passed the most significant milestone in the traditional enrollment cycle, May 1. However frustrating, anti-climactic or exciting your May 1st was, we at TWGPlus extend our congratulations on your efforts to build your class! But now, how can we make next year even better? Don’t let summer get away!

We all talk about summer coming around and finally getting time to plan and think strategically. The reality is that the summer months tend to get away from us. However, there is this brief time between now and Memorial Day where you can begin to lay the groundwork for an effective summer:

  1. Focus on learning from the challenges you faced this year. Set a schedule to evaluate and improve those areas that were not as successful as you (or your institution) would have liked.
  2. Reward your staff and colleagues. Make sure your hardworking staff and colleagues know they are appreciated and the work they do is valuable.

Your time is limited, but not short. If you determine your priorities early, and understand what you really want to do, take the steps now to set the activities in motion.

Here are a few suggestions for a productive summer that still allows you and your staff to take some well-deserved time off.

  1. You can’t do it all! Most chief enrollment officers struggle with not having enough time to plan and not having sufficient time to do the work they really love because of management responsibilities. Use this summer to address both of these concerns. Choose one thing that needs to be done that excites you and allows you to re-energize by doing at least one part of the work you love.
  2. Follow the 4A Strategy.
    1. Analyze – where were the changes in enrollment yield this cycle? How much money are you spending on name buys and marketing campaigns? Are you getting the results you want from all of your specific recruitment efforts?
    2.   Attempt – after analyzing you are bound to find evidence to support making some adjustments in your admissions and financial aid strategies. You may also find that you need to modify your name purchases, mailers, etc. But WAIT! Don’t try and make a complete overhaul of your effort, try testing new methods on a small number of markets.
    3. Assess – make sure you are capturing the data you need to know if your test worked!
    4. Adjust – don’t repeat your recruiting or financial aid awarding strategies unless you are sure they are giving you the results you want.

Too often, we see well intentioned initiatives added to operational workloads in such a manner that either the goals are not defined or the data is not being captured. The 4A Strategy allows you to define success and craft practices and that can be objectively evaluated.

  1. Be realistic but don’t lose your ambition – find the right balance for your team. Craft an agenda that is somewhat aggressive, but not so aggressive your team won’t buy in. Of course to do this, you have to set priorities. Not everything can be top priority this year! Plan some early wins to help you and your staff see the potential of an active and engaged summer.
  2. Mix it up – Stir it up this summer! Encourage people who rarely collaborate to work together. You might be amazed by the productivity and creativity that can be fostered when different perspectives are shared in ways that people don’t normally experience.

We all want the upcoming summer to be rejuvenating and rewarding. The systematic and intentional approaches outlined here can be both when fostered with a real sense of involvement, ownership and the prospect of change for the better. Using these approaches with a little hard work and campus wide support are what will lead your institution to healthy enrollment of passionate students that are likely to thrive and most importantly, persist!

There is no better time than right now to start planning for an effective summer.

Do You Still Need a Printed Viewbook? 10 Rules for Designing Viewbooks Part 2

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In part one of this series, I covered five suggestions for getting the most out of your printed viewbook. This week, I’ll tackle the top five things that will help you with your viewbook experience.

5. Have a flow

Viewbooks that don’t have some type of defined flow to it typically are difficult to absorb.  Consider the viewbook as a guided tour much like on campus.  Walk the reader through a defined story about your institution.  What comes first and what comes last is not as important as putting together a flow that makes sense and does not confuse the reader.

4. Use QR codes

We have tracked the traffic of QR codes and they are ever increasing.  Students are using them.  This is an opportunity to drive them to videos on YouTube or anything that will show them the true essence of your institution beyond the printed piece.  If you are looking for ways to integrate technology….this is your opportunity.

3. Accompany it with a letter that engages and entices

The standard, “Hello Joe Student, thank you for your interest in College X” is not going to cut it.  If you want them to read the letter at all beyond the first sentence….capture them with something.  A call to action, an event on campus, a unique fact or just about anything beyond the standard letter salutation would be good.

2. Run it by your students!

I once worked with a school that used the term “Show me the money” when talking about financial aid.  (this was before we got involved!)  First of all….that is horrendous.  Second of all, when we asked students about what they thought about that they said: “what does that even mean?”.  Jerry Maguire came out when these students were probably 2 -years old.  While it may be funny to you……it probably is not to them.  You have access to your current students so use them as a resource!

 

OK, so I have listed 9 very important rules in the development of a great viewbook.  While they are all important, none of them compare to the next one.  If you leave with ANYTHING after reading this post, leave with the following rule!

  1. 1.   No “kitchen sink” mentality!!!!

What I mean here is that the viewbook is NOT a course catalog nor is the viewbook a website. It is simply a visual representation (with some words) of who you are and why you are worth the investment (aka a “view”  “book”).  Every program, every department and every student life event does not need to be discussed or even listed in this publication.  Students and parents have the web for these types of things.  Once you start feeling the need to keep adding and adding and adding and adding….you have developed a boring, useless viewbook.  If there is push back on campus about not “equally” representing the academic programs then develop an academic piece with spreads that “equally” represent each program and send that under separate cover.  Trust me….students and parents are not opening up the viewbook in hopes of finding that you offer “Psychology 101” as a course.

So, that is it!  If you any further questions I would LOVE to discuss the development of a great viewbook. (one of my favorite discussion topics beyond sports!)  Have fun, good luck and remember……less is more!

Reach—Your Audience and What it Means, Key Higher Ed Social Metrics Part 2

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Please, click here to see Part 1.                                                          

What is it?

Odds are you have heard of this metric before only under a different name such as Facebook Page “Likes”, Twitter “Followers”, or YouTube and blog “Subscribers”. This metric is often used to measure a channel’s success; however, using this metric alone is a bit like using one screenshot to determine the story of an entire movie. Your Reach consists of the people a message will directly touch, but not necessarily the number of people who will actively engage and interact with you. It is important to remember that Engagement will show how well you are communicating with your audience.

It is also important to note that your Reach is not a limit. Highly engaging content will spread through your audience to new people and hopefully prospective students!

Why is it important?

You must know your audience to engage them. Reach is more than simply the number of people, but also the type of audience your channel has. It is important to know who you are talking to. Is it alumni, parents, current students, prospective students? This can be determined by analyzing the demographic data available to you. For example, if you see that your Admissions Facebook Page consists primarily of 18-24 year olds in and around your institution your audience is mostly current students and possibly recent alumni.

What can you do about it?

There is no one-size-fits-all for schools but broadly you can tailor your message to your key audience. Solicit current students to show off your institution by posting pictures and sharing their experience. Ask your alumni to post advice to students and share memories of campus or iconic places. Encourage prospective students to post questions and meet other students. And introduce parents to the campus learning environment and faculty members. Tailoring your message provides your audience with the content they want and are more likely to respond or react to.

Be wary of “buying” your audience. In other words using Facebook Ads to increase page Likes. This will increase your Reach but not Engagement. Find out why that’s important here. There are some special cases where Facebook Ads can be used effectively as a small part of an overall strategy, but this does not supplement for true interaction as a foundation for Social Media.