Author Archive

HomeAuthor: Brian Wm. Niles

Focus.

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Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that if I try to do more than one thing at the same time, none of those efforts are done well. I’m probably not too different from most of you. So for me to be effective as a manager or a partner or a father, it’s important that I stay focused on one thing at a time. Multitasking isn’t the ability to do multiple things at the same time. It’s a rapid shifting between multiple things without dedicating quality time to any one thing. The key here is “quality.”

For the first five years of TargetX, we provided our email broadcast tool (now called eXpress) to many industries — higher education, ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, CRM

Strengths. Space. Success.

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As promised, I am providing you with an update from our staff retreat regarding our Strengths Finder exercise (see the Recruitment Minute “Hide not your talents” from December 14, 2012). We met at JG Domestic in Philadelphia for our annual day-long retreat (next time you’re in the City of Brotherly Love, be certain to pay this Jose Garces restaurant a visit). We began the day with this exercise to kick things off.

As you may recall, the point of Strengths Finder is to determine your natural talents and work to prioritize those, rather than improve weaknesses that will most likely never become your strengths. We first made everyone scramble around the room interviewing co-workers to get ...

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Categories: Change, Professional Development

Hide not your talents

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“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”
-Benjamin Franklin

As we come to the end of what seems like a fast year, many of us take stock in what has been and what could be. We’ll celebrate the successes we’ve achieved, and for some, mourn the losses hoping for a better new year.

New Year’s Eve has become a special holiday to me — excited about the potential that lies ahead and what I could do to improve my life going forward.

Many people will do the same, but will focus on their weaknesses, trying to improve through starting a weight-loss program or joining a gym, cutting out the swearing, drinking less, being more ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Marketing, Professional Development, Student Recruiting

Don’t hate on us

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In September 2000, I walked into the exhibit hall at the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) conference in Washington DC for the first time as a vendor. For many years I had attended this event as an admissions counselor, director of admissions or marketing coordinator.

But this was the first time I was on the other side. And I was overwhelmed.

Not because it was my first time as a business owner and exhibitor, but because I couldn’t imagine how anyone in admissions could enter the hall and know where to begin, who to speak with, what to look for.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that this overwhelming feeling has gradually turned to a sour distaste for the exhibit ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Conferences

Professional development is not your employer’s responsibility

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Whoa!  If you’re an employer reading this, I can already hear your exhales of relief.  But we’ll get back to you in a moment.  If you’re an employee, I feel your anger directed toward me right now.  So, let’s focus on you first.

Let me repeat.  ”Professional development is not your employer’s responsibility.”  If you have decided that the job you are in is the basis of your career, then why on earth would you put the ownership of your growth in the hands of someone that might not care or might not give it the priority it deserves?  It is your responsibility to manage and pursue your professional (and yes, personal — they are in fact connected) goals.

But it’s not ...

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Categories: Leadership, Professional Development, Uncategorized, Workshops and Events

Sometimes the answers are simple

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This year marked my 18th NAGAP conference. For my acronym-challenged friends, this is the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals. My first presentation, in 1994 in San Francisco, was entitled “What is WWW?” Oh how the times have changed.

Over my career in higher education, I’ve attempted to bridge the divide between the undergraduate and graduate recruiting efforts — bringing the lessons learned recruiting an 18-year-old to the world of recruiting adults. However, I received pushback on a regular basis from the graduate professionals with claims of “we’re different” or “we don’t have the resources they have” or “we don’t have the same issues.”

Then came those pesky Millennials to their graduate program interview and campus tour with ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Graduate Recruiting, Student Recruiting

Unless.

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“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss

I’ve been doing some research for an upcoming set of conference presentations called “If I ran the zoo (and your admissions office too)” based on the lessons we can learn from the wonderful Dr. Seuss books. My timing couldn’t have been better with the recent release of “The Lorax” in theaters. We had a free Sunday night with my daughter and so it was time to grab some overpriced popcorn and snacks and nestle into our seats for the show.

I left the theater an hour and a half later with my mind racing with ideas to share. ...

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Categories: Change, Leadership, Overthrowing Dead Culture

In my free time

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I’m back!  After a long pause in blogging, I’m back and geared up to continue our discussions online.  What have I been doing in my “free time” you ask?  Would you believe writing a book?

We started TargetX in 1998 on the idea that there is a growing disconnect between how students search for and select the right college and how colleges communicate with them.  Over the past twelve years, the TargetX team has challenged the status quo of college admissions and recruiting through regular speaking engagements, blogging, tweeting, podcasts and webcasting in an endless pursuit to reduce this disconnect and help our clients succeed and prosper in the new ...

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Categories: Overthrowing Dead Culture

Crap App

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Reading an article by Eric Hoover this morning in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “The Curious Case of ‘Catnip’ and the Common Application” where a director of a school in Massachusetts calls these VIP applications “crap apps”.

Reminded me of a meeting a couple of years ago at a tuition-dependent, fairly expensive, moderately-competitive institution in one of the most densely populated college regions in the US.  In the room were the admissions director and his staff, the institution’s CFO, the vendor who provided a VIP app service to the college – and me.

The conversation centered around how successful the addition of the VIP service was to the college in bringing in a record number ...

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Categories: Applicants, College Recruiting, Student Yield

Better? Worse? Different.

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During the free-on-friday’s webcast last week, a question was posed to the group, “what will next year’s admissions world be like – better or worse?”  I answered, “different” and was subsequently mocked for copping out.  But I stand firm by my answer.  As we go beyond the tipping point of change in college recruiting from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market, the environment is going to be different – better for some (state schools, community colleges) and worse for others (expensive, less well-known small private colleges and perhaps some name-brand, yet expensive universities.

A couple of years ago the NY Times posted a letter from a father to Northeastern University sharing his son’s decision to attend the ...

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Categories: General

Technology Gremlins in the House

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“[The road to] hell is paved with good intentions.” - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

At the end of 2009 I was sitting with Adrienne Bartlett to plan our free-on-friday webcasts for the following year.  I have been overwhelmed at the success of these events both in terms of attendance as well as the content we’ve been able to provide in a short, live and interactive session once a month.  I explained the next plan for me was to improve the quality of the broadcast – the video and audio – to make it more enjoyable for our audience all while keeping the casual nature that is so TargetX.

So we went about purchasing some new equipment – a dedicated computer, some new ...

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Categories: Webcast

Interview/Discussion: That's Why I Chose Yale

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Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview Andrew Johnson, a senior assistant director of admissions at Yale University and director, producer and writer of the now-popular and viral video, “That’s Why I Chose Yale.”  I was joined by two of my friends, Jeff Kallay (TargetX’s VP for Consulting) and Abby Laporte (high school senior and host of Abby’s Road).

(If you have not seen the Yale “admissions musical”, I’ve included it below our discussion video)

Interview with Andrew Johnson, Jeff Kallay, Abby Laporte and Brian Niles

“That’s Why I Chose Yale” Video via YouTube HD

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Categories: Videos

An air of desperation

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For years we’ve followed the communication from colleges to prospective students both online and in print.  But recently the TargetX team has noted an interesting trend – an air of desperation in the messages. For example, take the following subject lines received by one prospective student:

  • We’re still interested in you ______
  • Able to accept more applications
  • Notice for _____: Today is the deadline!
  • Urgent notice: Today’s deadline!
  • I’ve put you first, _____
  • Your deadline is almost here
  • _____: Your response is needed …
  • Time’s running out!
  • We’re invested in you
  • _____, there’s still time!
  • Is this your email address?
  • Is this email reaching _____?
  • _____, I’m looking for your application …
  • My records show that …
  • I’m sorry ____ …

Perhaps more surprising are the schools sending these messages – name brand schools that one ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Communication, Millennial Generation, Student Yield

Web 3.0: It's not you, it's me

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For a few years I’ve made a joke when asked what I think will succeed the so-called Web 2.0 revolution – that which is basically defined as an interactive, sharing (sometimes overly so) period of time online.  With popular social networks, photo sharing sites, blogs and microblogging services like Twitter, it’s become common place for many folks to share their deepest and all-too-often shallow thoughts online for anyone to read.

If in a 2.0 world we’re sharing a lot (some good, some not so good – doesn’t matter), I’ve predicted with a laugh that in a 3.0 world we’ll realize we’ve shared too much and will go back to our own corners and keep this stuff to ourselves.

Well, the first sign ...

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Categories: Social Networking

Tipping Point: Trim the Fat

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1101090921_400A recent story in Time (September 21, 2009) shares ways colleges are cutting costs. Unfortunately, many colleges suffering from dramatic endowment declines (on average 23%) have taken to across-the-board budget cuts to deal with the situation.  Others have taken a much more strategic approach (applause, applause). And some have gotten very creative.

  • Bryn Mawr College saved $900 by holding a virtual swim meet and thus cutting travel costs
  • Dickinson College dropped it’s free laundry service (really, are colleges in the business to do laundry?) saving $150,000
  • Carleton College saved $3,800 by not serving shrimp and wine and their annual faculty parties (wonder how much of a ...
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Categories: Budget, College Recruiting, General

Chapter 10: Help us write the future

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odc_coverAs you may have heard, we’ve been busy writing a book titled “Overthrowing Dead Culture: The Vision to Change the World of College Admissions.”  We published Chapter 2: “The Change” in time for NACAC in Baltimore last month (that you can now download for free).  We’re on target to publish the entire book in February 2010.

But now we need your help. Chapter 10 is going to be called “The Future” and we thought instead of us pontificating on what we think the future will hold, we would ask the admissions community to provide their thoughts on what recruiting will be like in the future. This is where you ...

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Categories: Uncategorized

It's the little things

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Just back from NACAC in Baltimore with lots of thoughts on the brain to share with you. But before I get back to work, I took a detour to a hospital to be with a family member as they go through surgery today. During the first hour I realized how important the little things are to an anxious customer and how much is applicable to higher education.

wirelessaccess

I thought I’d share one with you. Free and open wireless. You’ve heard us talk about it before but I’m still amazed that most colleges don’t provide this to their prospective students during the visit.  This one hospital not only provides free ...

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Categories: Uncategorized

Selling the Value

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If you stayed at a hotel last night (like Jeff Kallay did), you were greeted with this headline under your door in this morning’s USA Today.

001For decades the argument for the real or perceived high price of a college education was balanced by the increase in earnings in one’s career.  However, we may be at a tipping point in that argument making it more difficult to win the battle on ROI during a recession.

I’m sure this will be brought up at this year’s iThink event at NACAC (if you’re a VP, Dean or Director of admissions or enrollment, be sure to sign up for ...

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Categories: Cost, Financial Aid, Tuition

Webcast: College Admissions in the Clouds

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Curious about cloud computing and missed today’s live webcast, “College Admissions in the Clouds”? Don’t worry – we recorded it for you.

Click here to watch the video and view the slides shown.

TargetX has teamed with Salesforce.com to offer this live one-hour webcast that was broadcast on Monday, July 20th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

I was joined by Tucker MacLean, VP of Customer Success for the Salesforce Foundation, to discuss cloud computing in college recruiting, technology that is revolutionizing the way companies buy and manage hardware and software applications that can also give admissions professionals on-demand, real-time and secure access to the data they need most.

If you have any questions about the information presented, please post a comment on ...

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Categories: Cloud, Webcast

July 13th – Mark Your Calendars

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On Monday, July 13th at 1:00pm ET, we’ll be on air with Abby Laporte’s show, “Abby’s Road” – a live webcast and podcast chronicling Abby’s search for the right college and her life as a high school senior. We’ll be joined by other high school seniors to talk about their college search process as well. I encourage college admissions officers to listen in live at http://live.twit.tv

About Abby’s Road
Abby Laporte is a rising high school senior who lives in Petaluma, California (about 45 minutes north of San Francisco). I met Abby through her dad, Leo Laporte (see below). This summer he’s giving Abby the “keys” to his recording studio to develop her own ...

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Categories: Millennial Generation, Podcasts, Student Search

If you could tell your college president …

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For many years now I’ve been told that we should write a book. If you know the team at TargetX, we’re big on pushing the envelope and getting colleges to see things differently (heck, our company motto is “Overthrowing Dead Culture”, so we have an opinion or two on something).

The idea of sitting down to write a book on this stuff seems daunting to me, at the very least. Who would read it and how would it be different, practical, forward-thinking and timely?

Despite these lingering questions, a couple of months ago we got the process started and we’re hoping to publish the book later this year. But I thought I’d take some time to solicit some help from ...

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Categories: General

TWIT, Don Tapscott and a 17 year old's Perspective

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Sunday night, my friend Leo Laporte had a wonderful panel of experts discuss the media, social media and colleges on his popular This Week in Tech podcast. I highly recommend you listen to it. The panel included Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital and Grown Up Digital, the father-son duo or Jeff and Jake Jarvis and social media expert, Gina Trapani. During the show they share a lot of opinions on social media, the future of colleges and the generation rising into the the college scene.

I highly recommend college administrators and faculty listen to this show. In the middle they discuss Google Wave – for those interested, ...

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Categories: Generations, Millennial Generation, Social Media

The Tipping Point (from a parent)

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For as long as I can remember (as far back as my senior thesis for my undergraduate degree on the costs and pricing of higher education), I’ve always had a nagging question about how colleges and universities price themselves.

In my last position at a university, I was “at the table” for discussions of pricing at all levels. I remember researching costs at competing schools, reviewing CPI trends, helping to generate profit-loss statements for the three major areas of the university (undergraduate, graduate and continuing studies) and making recommendations. In the end, a bottom up pricing model peppered with what I like to call “pulled from your butt” market-based increases in tuition was the ultimate decision, mirroring trends in ...

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Categories: Change, Financial Aid, Tuition

EduWeb Conference Twitter Q&A on Monday

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Join me on Twitter this Monday at 10:00am ET for a Q&A session with Rich Vallaster. We’ll be discussing the current situation in higher education and provide a preview of my closing keynote address at the Edu Web Conference coming up in July.

To participate in this free event, ask questions or just hang out and lurk, click here to follow along using the #eduwebconf tag on Twitter.

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Categories: Twitter

I was a big fan …

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Drexel University mourns the loss of President Constantine Papadakis.  He didn’t know it, but I was a big fan.  He epitomized the type of leadership higher educational institutions need and presents a model for others to follow.

During the 13 years as Drexel’s President, Dr. Papadakis transformed the University into one of Philadelphia-area’s great institutions.  Not everyone agreed with his decisions, but he was decisive, bold and had the vision higher education needs, expecially in today’s challenging economic climate.

papadakis“This university is not laying off faculty, we’re not freezing salaries, we’re not asking faculty to take salary cuts,” Richard A. Greenawalt, the head trustee, said in an interview Monday. “It ...

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Categories: Uncategorized

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