Special UB column about admission-sponsored student blogs: Nancy Monnich Benedict, Vice President for Enrollment Services at Beloit College

Last May, I conducted several email interviews to prepare my column about admission blogging for the August 2006 issue of University Business: “License to Recruit? Admissions-sponsored student blogging can get real results for your institution.”

Nancy Monnich Benedict, Vice President for Enrollment Services at Beloit College, answered these questions at this time.

1) Your institution uses student blogs/journals as recruitment tools. Can you please describe the way you implemented them (When? How many bloggers? How were they recruited? Are they paid?)

Several years ago, we abandoned student telemarketing and developed a Student Outreach Intern program to replace it. We hire six students/academic year who IM, call, and email prospective students who have asked to “opt in” for student contact. Last summer at our annual admissions office retreat, we discussed the various uses of technology, and decided that blogging offered a unique opportunity to learn about Beloit through authentic, unedited student voices. Because the intern program was already in place, we decided to work blogging into their job descriptions and the “SOIs” were enthusiastic about this new dimension to their contact with prospective students. Each blogger is asked to post once a week; most post more frequently. One of our SOIs is on a study abroad term this semester, but has enjoyed the experience so much, she is blogging “for free” from France. We do not edit the content of the bloggers’ entries, nor do we suggest content.

The SOIs are interviewed and hired according to campus student employment policies. We pay them $6/hour, and each of the six SOIs work approximately 8 hours per week during the academic year. All of the students work evening hours, when prospective students are most likely to be on-line.

2) What were/are your marketing goals for these tools? Why did you choose to offer student blogs/journals on your admission website?

We wanted to reach students who had an interest in Beloit, who wanted the option of observing without committing to applying or being inundated with information they had not specifically requested. It is our sense that prospective students want more control in the admissions process. The evidence for this rests in the fact that nearly a third of our applications come to us without a documentable first contact. Blogs are a good way to invite the attention of students without asking them to make a commitment. Our marketing goal was to provide prospective students a way to observe Beloit in a comfortable, non-threatening environment.

3) How do you measure the results of this initiative? How many visitors/page views do your blogs get? How well do they perform compared to other recruitment tools? What kind of feedback do you get?

We do not measure hits and we don’t know who has visited the blogs. However, the SOIs have received feedback through Instant Messaging and emails. Prospective students have commented on the blogs and photos, “Great costume for the Halloween party,” to Monday requests for updates on the weekend Frisbee tournament. The feedback increased through this spring, when students received their admissions decisions and were approaching Candidates Reply Date.

4) Can you quantify the return on investment of this initiative? What is/was your budget (including any offline promotion efforts such as postcards, brochures, etc.)?

We incurred no additional expense to bring blogging into our e-communications plan. We had already committed to the student employment budget, we opened our blogs through blogger.com which is free. Anecdotally, the SOIs tell us that they are receiving the kind of feedback that suggests the project is successful and enjoyed by those who are reading/participating.

5) Would you recommend the use of blogs/journals to other institutions? Why?

We believe blogging provides an authentic voice of the Beloit College experience for prospective students who are immune to or somewhat distrustful of traditional marketing messages. We take pride in the unedited commentary of our students and we think this adds credibility to our goal of inviting students to think carefully about “fit.”