Yesterday afternoon, Darren Wacker, consultant at James Tower, presented a session titled “It’s a Blog Eat Blog World – How to Make your Student Recruitment Blogs Stand Out from the Rest.”
This is Jonathan Stephens’ first scheduled post.
A refreshing twist to the vendor-esque presenter, Darren was up front about “not” hocking any service or software and readily encouraging audience participation. Once dispensed with the pleasantries, Mr. Wacker unleashed a myriad of data and step by step efforts to get your instituion blogging.
Why Blog?
Informal first person perspective
“The easiest way and puriest form for web 2.0 communication.”
- Campus Life
- Admissions and Financial Aid
- Academic focus
Who’s Blogging
As Lisa from Cornell aptly put it, tell your administration “Cornell” is doing it and so are these guys!
- Current Students bsu.edu/reallife/
- Admin: oregonstate.edu/admissions/blog
- Fin Aid: mitadmissions.org/Danial.shtml
- Faculty: uchicago.typad.com
- Parents: blogs.oc.ee/?/momdad
Reinforce the Argument with Hard Numbers Technorati Data:
- Over 70 Million blogs in existence
- Over 1.4 million posts per day
- 511 million posts per year
2007 Horizon Report:
User Created content is one of two techs closest to full user adoption
E-Expectations Student Prospects Survey (2006)
- Read Student Blog Now 30%
- Would like to 63%
- Read Faculty Now 17%
- Would like to 83%
- 58% found online blogging valuable
- 46% would find it valuable
Selecting Bloggers
Darren covered a lot of ground on how to vet your bloggers and get qualified candidates. The key here is to ensure you get diverse cross-section of qualified Bloggers. So who’s qualified? The ones already representing your institution, look at student ambassador groups that are eccentric about their programs – that is key as Darren states “Don’t fear conviction” from your bloggers. While it is important to select good writers, the passion and enthusiasm needs to primary quality of your bloggers.
Once you have your team assembled, Dr. Wacker stresses to:
- Determine topics/define a purpose and stick to it.
- Define your approach, and coach your bloggers when they need help.
- Set expectations, review results, & improve on them.
(Paying?!) those Bloggers?
A touchy subject of the day was just how to appropriately compensate bloggers without lending the vision they were on your institution’s payroll and therefore – not authentic. Darren was able to illicit some crowd participation and expressed his own research finding many institutions use.
- Monthly Allowances ($25-50 Gift cards)
- Student Workers Salary (MIT $10/hr)
- Quarterly Gifts (IPods and Digital Cameras)
- Per Post (Ohio Omincan – $20 per post)
What to Blog About
Help your bloggers become a trusted resource by blogging on relevant topics – make sure they stay focused
- Timely Issues – What global/local issues have descended on the campus water cooler?
- Personal Experiences – Prod them anytime they have a 1st experience on campus, no matter how trival. It’s all new info to the reader.
- Admissions Process – How they interact with campus administration
- Niche Programs – Clubs, Organizations, and their day to day program of study
- Events – Encourage them by providing them access to campus events.
- For Faculty – Use class topics, student interactions, and love of teaching.
A good post has context and a topic and can be further enhanced with photos, web links, and video. Avoid “typing to be heard” and general ranting or defamation. The goal of the blog is to provide an “insider perspective” and as long accomplish that Darren encourages you to overlook less than perfect writing.
Blog Management
A hot topic among all the blogging sessions was about moderation, legal, and accountability. Cornell trusts thier bloggers and are uncensored, others moderate before posting, though the key here is trust in your bloggers if you selected the right canidates. Personally, I think your blog can go farther without the net – not to mention it’s easier to manage.
However, depending on your institution they do recommend some form of written contract/release is present between you and your bloggers. Try and stay away from “consequences” in form and keep it brief.
- Make a commitment not a check mark
- Have a vision. Share it and stick to it.
- Understand blogging takes effort
- Share responsibility where possible
- Discipline both for you and your bloggers