3 questions to a higher ed blogger: Deanna Woolf, Senior Marketing Specialist at a public university in the Midwest from “The Old College Try: Marketing Higher Ed”

“The Old College Try: Marketing Higher Ed” showed up on my technorati radar a few weeks ago. Since her first post, I’ve been enjoying Deanna Woolf’s funny and witty blogging style. Senior Marketing Specialist at a public university in the Midwest, Deanna didn’t only catch the blogging bug — but also a severe case of Simpsonesque Yellow Fever — as you can see on this headshot used on her blog ;-)

1) Why did you decide to blog about higher ed marketing in the first place? Can you tell us a bit more about your experience with blogging?

I read a handful of marketing blogs for professional inspiration and a few others unrelated to marketing or higher ed just for fun. I think the former group has made me feel there are others out there who understand my trials and tribulations, and they make me laugh at the things we take so seriously in our profession every day. I’ve also gotten some great ideas from them relative to branding and new marketing strategies.

I had never done a blog before, but I am a person who likes to think, comment on and question aspects of my job and my industry. I needed a place to explore my ideas, share cool thoughts or news stories with others, have a creative writing outlet, and just have fun. The title stemmed from some of this type of thinking. As marketers in higher ed, we try to take things from other fields and apply them to our field. But do they work? That’s where the title, “The Old College Try” was born.

2) Do you use blogs or other new media in your daily job at your university?

I do read blogs of other marketing professionals to get ideas, but we haven’t significantly delved into the new media area. I think like a lot of higher education institutions, there is some hesitancy to start blogs, join social networking sites, and get into the whole streaming video thing. But we do have nifty live Web casts of our president’s monthly town hall meetings we can watch from our desktop.

Oh, and my coworkers and I use a lot of instant messaging software to save on phone calls and e-mails. I’m not sure how “new” media that is, but it’s a big help for getting a quick question answered, a fact verified or even to page someone for an impromptu meeting. Plus, we get to use a ton of emoticons :)

2) As a marketer yourself, do you think higher ed institutions should use blogs as part of their marketing mix?

Some coworkers of mine came back from a conference and cited a study that showed official university blogs by students were most often read by … drum roll please … prospective students’ parents! While the kids are on mySpace and Facebook, the ‘rents appear to be seeking out official college blogs to learn about what their son or daughter can expect at school.

So for me, I think blogs are an effective tool for communicating with parents on an institution’s Web site. But the prospective students we’re trying to reach are elsewhere. They’re savvy — they’re don’t buy into the testimonials; they want the raw and honest view on things from kids who aren’t hosted on a U’s servers.

Plus, I think to officially market and maintain a blog takes away from the energy of blogs. To me, you should blog because you want to — not to meet some quota. And I think any readers can pick up on that quickly — things can feel forced.

I think the best thing schools can do (and any business in this economy) is to give students great service and create good word of mouth. Chances are if your school is living up to and exceeding expectations, caring about and helping students, and giving them a fun time and great education while they’re at school, that will show up in blogs and in conversations. It will be natural for them to rave about a school when they hear someone say, “I’m thinking about going to XX.” On the flip side, though, bad experiences can lead to some major dissing and venting online and offline.

So, put your marketing focus on creating those great experiences for prospective students. Get them to campus, where they’ll take a tour, meet some students, and make sure they connect with a professor in their area of interest. We’ve found that once students at our school go through our campus visit program and meet with actual faculty and students, they are almost certain to apply. Sometimes the best marketing isn’t a billboard or a blog — it’s a one-on-one conversation.