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NACAC — A gathering of 4,000 extroverts

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This year’s NACAC conference was all about the conversation. At the TargetX booth, in the hotel lobby, over drinks and meals, in the streets of Denver, I learned one thing for certain:

Admissions people like to talk.

Pattie Skrha, Director of Admissions at Baldwin Wallace University, summed it up best when she said, “It’s a gathering of 4,000 extroverts who like to talk!”

Most conversations were about admissions and recruitment. Even better most were optimistic and gave the conference an upbeat tone. Maybe it was Denver’s elevation, maybe it’s that everyone is accepting that things have really changed in the past five years and we’re in a new ...

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Categories: Change, College Recruiting, Conferences, Free on Friday Webcasts, NACAC, Professional Development

It’s all about the experience

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As I was flying home from TargetX’s annual Xpert Summit last week, a light went off above me. I wish I could say it was some great idea; however, it was our plane getting hit by lightning. Many of us have been through some pretty strong turbulence, but that was the first time I experienced rolling side-to-side.

My mind flashed to my kids, but I was quickly brought back to the moment when the young man next to me jerked his head to look at me with fear in his eyes, that I’m pretty sure read, “Help me, Mommy!” Now you may think I was shot back to reality by his fear…it was actually the fact that he looked ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Experience, Free on Friday Webcasts, Professional Development, Xpert Summit

Admissions’ Wish List

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During our holiday Free on Friday webcast last week — “Admissions’ Wish List for Santa” — admissions professionals were asked to submit their “wishes” for the industry. Many of our colleagues submitted a letter to Santa (TargetX’s very own Trent Gilbert) and the content did not disappoint. From the basic needs of an admissions office to campus-wide strategic planning, here are just a few requests we wanted to share.

Office and campus essentials included items like iPads for admissions staff (and a strategy for their use), and an additional staff member on the “social media” team. Taryn from Lynn University had a larger request, “A new student center that highlights campus life.” But she wasn’t the only one; many admissions officers ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Free on Friday Webcasts

The pulse of NACAC

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Common themes surfaced as 3,000 plus admissions professionals gathered last week in New Orleans for the annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The mood among the crowd was filled with excitement and ideas for change in higher education.

In the midst of the conference action, admissions officers from across the country shared their thoughts with us at the annual iThink event which was held on the exhibit hall floor. We asked our friends and colleagues to complete this phrase — “I think admissions…” — and here’s what attendees had to say:

“Admissions is at a crossroads.” Many factors contributed to this widely used phrase, like the higher ed balance between being market driven and education-oriented, branding versus authenticity ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Change, Free on Friday Webcasts, Misc., NACAC, Webcast

Helicopter Grandparents

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If you’re still hosting an event called “Parents Weekend,” you’re behind the times. The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson suggests you recognize a growing force in the college-choice process: Grandparents.

Increasingly, admissions staff at Marymount University are finding themselves entertaining grandparents who aren’t up for the walking tours of campus, writes Johnson in her higher ed blog.

“I have never seen so many grandmothers,” said Michael Canfield, director of admissions at the Virginia school. “In many families, higher education has become a core value, so the families are congregating around it.”

What’s happening at Marymount reflects a trend that is prompting many campuses to change “Parents Weekend” to “Family Weekend,” writes Johnson, whose coverage of higher education for the Post includes frequent contributions to ...

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Categories: Campus Visit, College Recruiting, Free on Friday Webcasts, Generations, Parents

Building better tour guides

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Be careful, warns U.S. News reporter Jackie Mantey to college-bound students, your campus tours may be led by guides who “decided pointing at landmarks would be a better job than flipping burgers for food services” and who rely on “a word-for-word recitation of the school’s brochure.”

As news media have increasingly focused on the critical role of campus visits in the college selection process, student guides who lead the tours have gotten a lot of press — and not all of it good.

“There seems to be this assumption that tour guides are paid to say exactly what the schools want,” says campus visit expert Emily Welsh. “Parents especially seem surprised that many student guides are volunteers and their schools are not ...

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Categories: Campus Visit Experiences, College Recruiting, Free on Friday Webcasts, Storytelling

Forget Facebook, if you want to yield students you should be on YouTube

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Any dyed-in-the-wool Gen Xer can tell you that the first video MTV played when it launched on August 8, 1981 was Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. Not as many can tell you the second video played on MTV. Do you know?

Video facts you need to know:
-43% of current prime time internet traffic is real time entertainment ( 12.2.2010)
-Netflix streaming accounts for 20% of internet traffic on any given evening (BusinessWeek 12.2.2010)
-Cisco predicts that by 2013 video will be 90% of consumer internet traffic (TechCrunch 7.9.2009)
-YouTube is a top “search engine” accounting for 28% of Google searches (Google 1.31.2011)
-There are 500 million monthly YouTube ...

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Categories: Authenticity, Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, College Recruiting, Communication, Communication Plans, Did You Know?, Facebook, Free on Friday Webcasts, Social Media, Social Networking, Storytelling, Student Yield, Videos, Web Traffic, Webcast, Your Website

Dashing toward mobility

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As the world continues its mad dash toward Mobility, colleges and universities once again find themselves challenged to stay ahead of the curve. With the mobile web just a tap away, today’s students expect instant access to you and information about your institution.

Like the proverbial town crier, recruiting expert Bob Johnson, of Bob Johnson Consulting, is spearheading the conversation. He points out, “The number of people using a mobile device (mostly smartphones with small screens) to access the web will grow constantly over the next few years and is projected to pass the number of people using desk top computers by 2015. People will expect to have a mobile-friendly experience or they will not think kindly of your ...

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Categories: College Recruiting, Free on Friday Webcasts, Mobile, Websites

XpertTip No. 171: 2 reminders

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Here at TargetX, we’re buzzing around completing final preparations for this year’s NACAC Conference in St. Louis.

As a result, I’ve opted to offer two reminders in lieu of an XpertTip today.  The first is for those of you attending the conference, so just skip ahead if it’s not in the cards for you this year;)

1.  If you’ll be attending NACAC, don’t forget to reach out to us and plan some time to visit our booth.  We’ll have some famous faces from our crew on hand to chat with you about your account, our services or anything else that’s on your mind.

Not sure how to contact the “X-er” you’re looking for?  Just contact me at bartlett@targetx.com and I’ll be sure ...

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Categories: Free on Friday Webcasts, NACAC, Webcast

“One Thing” to Improve Your Campus Visit

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During today’s Free on Friday Webcast, our Experience Evaluator, Emily Welsh and I discussed the basics of the campus visit.  As we enter the fall semester, now is a great time to take a close look at how the most important recruitment activity stacks up. We gave viewers 10 “R” words to reinforce the basics of the campus visit.  They are:

  • Registration
  • Roads – Signage, parking, getting to Admissions.
  • R-Aesthetic – (Ok, we couldn’t come up with an R) Aesthetic is ground zero of the campus visit.
  • Reception – How does the Admissions space make your visitors feel?
  • Restrooms – They are one of the first and last places your visitors experience.
  • Reiterate – How are you delivering information to your visitor?
  • Route – What are you ...
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Categories: Campus Visit, Campus Visit Experiences, Change, Free on Friday Webcasts

Monitor your social media presence

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Talk to anyone in college admissions and they would say social media is important to any recruitment strategy. Ask them how much time they are spending monitoring their social media tools and they may not be as confident with their answer. You know social media is important and you should dedicate more time to it, but it’s difficult to find the time and staff to assess and monitor your social media strategy. Find the time to review your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other tools now.

Hubspot.com offers up five ways to monitor your social media presence in 10 minutes a day. Most people find social media monitoring a burden, and cannot find an easy way to tackle the job, especially leaving ...

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Categories: Facebook, Free on Friday Webcasts, Social Media, Twitter

The data doesn't lie

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Demographics are the foundation of student recruitment and enrollment strategies. Understanding your prospective students requires a sense of what they want and who they are. In one of the most difficult recruitment cycles, colleges and universities must work smarter not harder to find best-fit students.

Last week’s Free on Friday Webcast was hosted by our very own Jeff Kallay, vice president of consulting and Paul Hamborg, president of Enrollment Research Associates and national authority on demographic data. Jeff and Paul talked about why demographics are important and ways to use them when building your enrollment strategy. Student, parent and adult/graduate demographics were discussed, and both Kallay and Hamborg provided sound advice during a hectic enrollment climate.

Shifts in the number of minority ...

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Categories: Data, Free on Friday Webcasts, Research, Webcast

XpertTip No. 158: "Flip the Funnel"

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I spent last evening at my niece’s dance recital brainstorming what I’d like to share with all of you today (shh…don’t tell her;)

My thoughts kept drifting to a presentation I’m currently working on called “Flip the Funnel:  Communications Strategies that Work from Branding Through Yield.”

Now, those of you who know me will know this is quite a departure from my usual last-minute style of developing presentations (I won’t be giving this particular one until the EduWeb Conference at the end of July;)

But I can’t stop thinking about it because, more than any other presentation I’ve given, this one represents much more of my own thoughts and philosophies on recruiting today.

It’s one of those “keep me up at night” ...

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Categories: Branding/Marketing/Recruiting, Free on Friday Webcasts

XpertTip No. 153: Post May 1 — let's dish

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Today I’d like to ask a favor.

Our next Free on Friday webcast is scheduled to take place on May 21st at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

It’s going to be a “round-table” format, with my colleagues Brian Niles, Jeff Kallay and Trent Gilbert joining me to look back on this year in recruiting and share the biggest lessons we’ve learned on campuses across the country.

We’ll also take a few minutes to “futurecast” what’s likely coming down the pike based on what we’ve been seeing and hearing as well.

Here’s where you come in.

We’re looking for your questions, thoughts, stories and any topic suggestions you’d like us to address (or fight about, as we’ve been known to do;)

So, if you would, please take a ...

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Categories: Free on Friday Webcasts

Our apologies

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Apologies are a part of life. We offer them, we accept them. Some people are better than others at doing both, but almost everyone appreciates a sincere apology.

Mistakes are also a part of life. If you’re a marketer or recruiter who has sent a mass email or posted a blog entry or hosted an online event, you have undoubtedly made mistakes that caused you — and maybe your institution — some embarrassment.

The question is, did you follow those mistakes with an apology? A mass apology is a tricky thing, but when done right, it can disarm your audience and make your school more human and approachable.

A good example of a great apology followed TargetX’s latest “Free on Friday” webcast, which ...

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Categories: Email, Free on Friday Webcasts, Online Experiences, Word of Mouth

Taming the social media beast

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Marketers in all industries — including higher education — feel overwhelmed by the looming presence of social media. They know they have to use the tools of the social web, but struggle with how to do so effectively.

Some still aren’t sure where to begin, concerned that they’ll make mistakes and alienate the very people they’re trying to cultivate. “Almost every marketer I meet asks me how does social media marketing work,” says Mary Henderson, CEO of an online technology firm.

A recent gathering of executives from businesses and colleges in the Raleigh-Durham area looked at the promise and pitfalls of social media and offered the following observations:

  • Social media is a beast that cannot be avoided.
  • Listen, observe, crawl before you jump into ...
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Categories: Communication, Free on Friday Webcasts, Social Media