Author Archives: Chris Tyburski

About Chris Tyburski

Chris Tyburski is a Senior Marketing Consultant at TWG Plus. Read his bio.

YouTube Best Practices – Q&A with University of Huddersfield Part 2

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In this post, I continue my interview with Jill Gainer BSc, DipM, DipDigM a the University of Huddersfield about “Aliens in the Hud.” In Part 2, Jill covers how she distributed the video and the impact that it had on her school.

5. How and when did you release the video to the public? What did you do to generate awareness upon release?

We launched the film clip just 5 days ago with a number of coordinated distribution activities to encourage University stakeholders to share the clip if they liked it. We were keen for all our students and staff to share this clip – we figured if we had a number of students sharing it with their facebook and twitter friends, this would immediately help with spreading the word about the film clip. Our focus was to raise the profile of the clip within the Uni amongst staff and students, and then carry out a number of distribution activities outside the University to raise its profile. Our tactics seem to be working so far which is great.

6. With over 16,000 views already on YouTube, has reaction to the clip met your expectations?

Yes it has, however we hope to have greater online coverage over the coming weeks and months.

7. Have you seen any impact beyond the YouTube plays?

We have received an overwhelming number of comments form staff, students and from the online community (within the UK and further afield in the States). We have also had great UK press coverage which is fantastic.

8. What advice would you offer to colleagues who are considering a more creative use of viral video to promote their institution?

Be brave and innovative! Get internal buy-in from the senior management team and encourage all your stakeholders to be part of the production (where possible) and the distribution.

Many thanks to Jill for sharing her insights and for bringing such a bold video into the higher ed landscape.  What do you think? How can you incorporate KPI’s into your YouTube channel? What examples have you seen that are worth noting?

Check back in a few weeks as I take a look at another university who has fully embraced YouTube as an integrated student recruitment and PR tool!

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YouTube Best Practices – Q&A with University of Huddersfield Part 1

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Having been a Director of Admission and now working at a higher education marketing firm, I always keep my eyes open for new and creative ways of adding social media into the undergraduate and overall marketing mix. Creative possibilities abound, and keeping an open mind helps me get beyond the “we already have a Facebook page” mentality.

Recently, I interviewed Jill Gainer,BSc, DipM, DipDigM, the Senior E-Marketing Officer at the University of Huddersfield about “Aliens in the Hud,” an intelligent YouTube video that explores what happens when aliens visit the University. At twenty-two thousand views, it’s picked up quite a bit of traction in the social web.

1. How would you briefly describe the University of Huddersfield?

The University of Huddersfield is an inspiring, innovative University with 24,000 students from over 130 countries. We are based in West Yorkshire, in the North of England.

2. Where did the idea for ‘Aliens in the Hud’ originate? What was its ultimate goal?

Within the UK, there is a rapidly changing environment in Higher Education with competition between Universities becoming fierce, and as a result our marketing efforts have to become smarter – we have to do more with less.

We recognise that video can appeal more quickly to the emotions than print and photographs, and we wanted to develop film content which would capture the emotional appeal of Huddersfield. There are a number of Universities who have created ‘viral’ film clips but we wanted to create something a little bit different which reflected the University’s personality. Our goal was to create an online film campaign which would attract attention to the University whilst subtlety reinforcing our key messages to the Undergraduate target audience. The ultimate goal was to increase the undergraduate applications for September 2012 entry.

The E-Marketing Team worked alongside a film production company called Mocha.tv. The film company came up with the film concept which was inspired by Huddersfield being a UFO hot spot in the UK.

We identified our KPIs such as number of views, likes, retweets, sentiment, comments etc and set targets for each for a given time period. This activity will help to assess whether the project is a success or not.

3. When the idea was initially proposed, was there resistance from University administration? If so, how did you convince them to move it forward?

We are lucky in that we have a great senior management team who are confident in the University marketing team’s activities. The University ethos is to inspire others and that involves being brave with our marketing efforts.

4. Who was involved in production? How long did it take to produce?

The E-Marketing Team worked alongside a film production company called Mocha.tv on the production of the film clip.

We were keen to have staff and students acting in the film clip to give it a certain level of authenticity so we had our budding actors and actresses audition for roles in the film. Once our key actors/actresses and extras were chosen, filming commenced. Filming took less than 5 days and the film company completed post production work in less than 3 weeks which was fantastic – we were able to launch the clip whilst the filming was still fresh in staff and students minds.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my interview with Jill on Tuesday, February 7. What do you think? How can you incorporate KPI’s into your YouTube channel. What examples have you seen that are worth noting?

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Happy Birthday, Kaitlin!

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Happy birthday to Kaitlin Novak, daughter of TWG Plus’s Executive Vice President, Scott Novak.  Yesterday, was a particularly unique birthday as Kaitlin turned 11 on 11/11/11!  (That’s so many elevens, I almost need a second hand to count them.)

Check out this great little piece on the big day from WBTV in North Carolina.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/16020547/2011/11/11/girl-turns-11-on-11-11-11#.Tr6Jx3lBAl8.mailto

 

Incorporating Social Media With Your Campus Tour

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In our last post, we talked about utilizing QR codes to create a self-guided campus tour. Not ready to make that leap into the QR realm? Here is a stopgap measure that might be a less expensive and more immediate way to turn any visitor carrying a smartphone into his/her own tour guide!

Many social media outlets now incorporate geo-tagging into their applications. Don’t let the term sound fancier than it is. Geo-tagging is the ability to use a smartphone’s GPS feature to help attach the user’s location to a post on a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter.

This is a perfect new tool for your enrollment marketing toolbox.  There is one popular geo-tagging app that is encouraging businesses to utilize it for the purpose of promoting their locations or products: Foursquare. This is the app we will focus on for the purpose of creating a social media-driven campus tour.

The Set-up:

  1. Log onto Foursquare and claim your campus. Chances are there are multiple entries out there already. The one you claim will be the one you can edit and access analytics about.
  2. Take it beyond macro. Claim every building on campus. This may not be ideal for a vertical urban campus, but should be relatively easy for any campus with multiple buildings spread slightly apart.
  3. Create content for each location you’ve claimed. This is not your college website. Foursquare is a social media and geo-tag driven game. Remember to keep the content light. You can add links to drive students to your own website to add depth.
  4. Encourage your tour guides to use it immediately. Your tour guides or ambassadors are current students with credibility in the eyes of prospects. Encourage them to check-in often and to post honest, yet positive thoughts on their experiences in each building.
  5. Assign someone to monitor the comments on the locations. Foursquare can be a conversation generator. You want to know what’s being said about the different locations. This can be done by an Admission Counselor, a student intern, a tour guide, etc.

The Advantages:

  1. It’s free. At the moment, Foursquare is not charging businesses for the ability to claim their venue, edit the content there or access web analytics.
  2. It’s easy. Almost anyone can get the ball rolling, you don’t necessarily need someone from IT. As a matter of fact, this might be a great project for your new hires or your new tour guides. Have them do some research on each building and then put together your brief copy for each venue. They will get more familiar with campus as they put together their first big project for you!
  3. It’s fun. Foursquare is a game. Users are encouraged to check-in often, comment, etc.
  4. It’s social. Foursquare ties into social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. By checking in on your campus, not only are your visitors learning more about you, they are telling all of their friends about it simultaneously! This takes word-of-mouth to a whole new level.

Engaging someone in conversation doesn’t mean walking up to them and shaking their hand anymore. Conversations occur when you are not even there. If you are not ready to engage visitors to your campus at any moment, you risk losing potential students.

Mark Twain once said, “I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.” Self-guided tours of your campus powered by either QR technology, Foursquare or both can help ensure that you never miss the opportunity to engage a campus visitor again.

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5 Advantages To Using QR Codes On Campus Tours

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Uh, oh. We’re using techy acronyms. That sounds intimidating and expensive, right? Honestly, it doesn’t need to be either. QR code technology has come a long way over the past few years both in terms of user-friendliness on the creator’s side and availability of use on the consumer side.  It is quickly also becoming a standard tool for enrollment marketing in higher education.

Ok, so what is a QR code? If the name doesn’t ring an immediate bell, I think I can safely say that you are familiar with them, even if you didn’t know what to call them. You know those square, typically black-and-white bar codes you see on billboards, posters and other advertisements?

Those are quick response (QR) codes. Each is unique and links the scanner’s mobile-phone to some form of content residing on the internet. This might be a landing page, video, picture or some other item. Let’s talk about how these funny looking little boxes can help you engage campus visitors more effectively.

The Set-up:

  1. Set up a unique QR code for each building on campus and incorporate into signage at the entrance to each building.
  2. Establish a brief mobile-enhanced landing page for each building on campus.
  3. Update the landing pages annually to ensure all information is up to date.

The Advantages:

  1. Accessibility. Anytime someone visits campus, they can show themselves around and learn more about your institution. 24/7/365. No more missing opportunities.
  2. Self-contained and institutionally controlled. You create the landing sites which can be as simple or complex as you wish. All of the content is yours. You don’t need to worry about commentary, ratings, etc. unless you want to add a social component to them.
  3. Training. The self-guided tour becomes a training tool for your campus ambassadors and tour guides. They can scan the codes, review the content and refresh their patter at any time.
  4. Assists on-campus populations. No more brand new freshmen checking their schedules nervously to see if they are in the right place. Your new students will walk around like they own the place from day one.
  5. Consensus building. Solicit input from faculty who teach in the buildings, students who take classes there, etc. Incorporating short videos make the sites more personal, build campus-wide support for the project and give visitors information straight from the horse’s mouth. Involvement breeds support.

If you’re still a little intimidated by QR codes, there is another way to allow visitors to explore your campus in a more interactive and engaged way using their smartphones. In our next blog entry, we’ll explore one way to use social media to bring your campus to life.

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