Want to find schools doing this? With a creative Google query, you can find many, many schools using the Hobson’s product:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=site%3Aaskadmissions.net+personalize&btnG=Search

I honestly don’t buy into the concept as useful for a variety of reasons. And, as it is frequently implemented, I think it even deters prospect inquiries. Yikes!

Instead of paying annual fees to a vendor for this type of service, or spending the time/money to develop it yourself, focus those efforts on improving your Web site (make info easier to find, don’t bury your inquiry form, etc.) instead of plugging in some sort of off-the-shelf product that might sound good in theory but is not heavily utilized by most prospects and doesn’t do a whole lot to accomplish the end goal – enrolling students!

For anyone that can back up with some facts/figures that personalized sites do improve their recruiting, I’d love to hear it.

Can anyone share an example of a school that has done this?

With the budget… I mean, this is no surprise. In terms of new web projects, I try to work with a budget close to about $0. We’re looking at Meebo for our “Chat now” features, hitting Facebook for social networking next year, and like somebody else said — it’s all a time committment, not necessarily a pecuniary commitment.

The Chronical’s numbers are likely misleading. As someone else mentioned, somebody may have video or a few sound clips on their site that somebody at the Institution calls a “podcast” or a vlog, or what have you, but it really isn’t either — at least properly understood. I struggle with referring to our blog program as a blog, because it really isn’t one… these are focused messages that we have our students and faculty work on, but they are going out through Admissions and with the approval of Admissions. They aren’t a Potempkin program, but … certainly not blogs properly understood.

The note about e-mail being 5%… I, like the author, doubt that number. E-mail is one of our strongest suits of regular communication.

I heard that a few universities publish certain hours and an IM address that potential applicants can use to IM the admissions office and ask questions.

I know a couple admissions people at my school have been able to use University WebChat http://www.universitywebchat.com/ which is an inexpensive hosted webchat focused on admissions and recruitment.

The last school I worked at invested in a University-wide chat server called Hobsons WebChat http://www.hobsons-us.com/chat/ . They had also looked at using Volano Chat Server http://www.volano.com/ .

I think that using social media and IM tools to interact with potential applicants and convert admitted students to enrollees is the wave of the future.

Thanks for the great article!

Mike S

Read blogs during work hours? Comment on them? How many are really “essential” to your job. After 5 work, as was mentioned, is often personal/professional development, resume builders, and fun projects you simply want to work on but have questionable ROI. Work-related? Sure. But justifiable ROI for daytime?

Re: the survey, the fact that it skipped e-mail is ridiculous. It is far from dead. IMHO colleges/admissions offices should spend more time/resources to fully understand e-mail marketing, it is still so useful. Jump into the industry blogs – move beyond what the higher ed vendors are saying.

Interactive recruiting positions seem to finally be gaining some momentum in admissions offices, and that itself is a money and mindset commitment.

But it is not as though little money is being spent, and this survey almost certainly underestimates the amount.

As someone said, time is money. Using an e-mail service provider costs money. Is your college paying for a CMS? That costs money, and much of a school’s Web site ties into recruiting. Paying for an extended profile on Peterson’s, Princeton Review, etc? That costs money (and probably a waste of money, imho). Athletic Web page updates? For many schools, a direct relationship with recruiting, and a money commitment. Web offices often don’t chargeback, so no budget item for admissions in a survey like this.

@Todd, your dead on that admissions needs to make more of a commitment to the Web – they are the content experts not only for the Admissions portion of the Web site, but also have a great handle on what students are interested in outside of applying and visiting. If info on majors is hard to find or weak, for instance, it hurts recruiting…

[Side rant Re: podcasts, there is life outside of iTunes. To the extent that the recruiting demographic even listens to podcasts, it is probably not uncommon to search for podcasts directly or stumble upon them, not search for them in iTunes. I personally do Web searches for specific/topic-related podcasts, and I tend to listen to them in Netvibes, where I can also download them if I want to toss them on my iPod.

It cracks me up when companies or consultants that are supposed technology experts only link to iTunes for listening to a podcast. Let me listen to it embedded on the page. And if you're going to offer a subscription, give me some options. Even NPR offers iTunes, MyYahoo, and Zune as options, as well as the subscription URL itself. Go to a music site or music blog offering podcasts and you can easily find a dozen or more clickable podcast subscription options offered in addition to the subscription url.]

Maybe you should get a job like mine ;) Still, your first sentence rings true. Most of my work is after 5 too. After all, that’s when the kids are online. Chats/Answering questions in the forums/interacting on Facebook. I just can’t do that during the 9-5, but I still have to be there.

@Brian – another issue of all of this is what happens when an employee leaves. When I left my last university, my podcast and other projects (myspace, virtual tour) died with it.

But podcasts at 15% – my guess is that if they have audio clips on their website, some may call that a “podcast” – if you do a search on iTunes you don’t find that many for recruiting purposes.

@Karen- In my case, time isn’t money (for the university). Most of the fun/creative stuff I do is off the clock at home or well past 5pm at work — hours my salary doesn’t touch. If I were to “stop trying to rescue the day” with the Web, then I wouldn’t be fulfilling my job description’s assigned duties – plus, it makes the job more fun and doesn’t hurt the resume.

The time that is money is that of the other staff members who aren’t responsible for the Web, ex. Admissions Counselor. There are lots of things to monitor and nurture, that takes time. They are the subject experts, so it is their time that must be dedicated to making sure the online conversation is working. And their time is real money for the university. They need to budget their time (not their money) for the Web.

Here’s a post that better explains my problem:
http://utodd.com/2008/04/18/the-new-web-quickercheaper-yet-more-time-consuming/