Talking Stick - September/October 2008 - 25

There are a number of experienced marketing professionals who maintain online blogs. These feature news and advice and allow marketers to network and share ideas about the changing world of marketing. Here is just a sample of higher education marketing blogs online: collegewebeditor.com l Karine Joly’s site for Web maintenance, marketing, and public relations in higher education doteduguru.com l Kyle James’ site about Internet marketing and Web development for higher education higheredmarketing.blogspot.com l D.W. Simpson’s site about developments in higher education marketing squaredpeg.com l Brad Ward’s site about higher education social media and networking, technology, marketing, and data highered.prblogs.org l Andrew Careaga’s site about marketing and public relations in higher education be unfiltered. This is a challenge for these marketing and communication people. They have to go to video because it’s unstoppable, and Web sites need to be interactive.” Colorado State University in Fort Collins has entered the realm of online video with their housing marketing and has incorporated 20 flash videos showing residence hall life from the perspectives of the residents. “It’s our most visited feature,” says Tonie Miyamoto, director of communications for housing and dining services at CSU. “They hear from fellow students about what their experience is like, so there is so much value.” Another Web site feature that is particularly useful to students who cannot visit campus directly is a “virtual dorm room” where roommates can see the layout and arrange their furniture. This technology is currently being used on the housing Web site for Northern Michigan University in Marquette and is being included on a future Web site for Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville. “One of the biggest questions we get is about furniture and where everything will fit in the room, so this saves us time as well,” explains Cindy McClanahan, housing marketing coordinator for GCSU. McClanahan finds that an additional low-cost and effective way to reach out to students is through the ever popular social networking sites, such as Facebook. Each GCSU hall director manages a Facebook site for their building, and other staff members often manage sites for their wings or living-learning communities. “Future residents use these groups as a virtual floor and a way to learn about who will be living with them,” says McClanahan. “Our tactic is to use what they’re familiar with for marketing and community building. We can use Facebook not only as a networking tool, but a marketing tool.” This plan also works successfully for Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where the marketing department advertised their newest residence hall on Flickr, a popular photo and video sharing Web site. Despite technology’s powerful ability to show off the quality details of residence life, Web 2.0 marketing can help only so much if the residence hall lacks the amenities deemed necessary by today’s college students. Karine Joly, founder of two sites about online marketing and public relations in higher education – collegewebeditor.com and higheredexperts. com – believes that advertising the average or lessthan-average residence hall room is becoming a challenge. “What I’ve seen in communications and marketing, the main thing seems to be fighting the image that the dorms are small and crowded. For this generation, checking into the dorms is like checking into a hotel. Students are a lot more demanding. Schools need to show what they can provide.” Miyamoto also is faced with finding creative ways to market older residence halls that lack the latest features college students crave. “We have to provide amenities to make these older dorms appealing. We might have a living-learning community that’s appealing or a reserved hall for upperclass September + October 2008 25

http://collegewebeditor.com http://doteduguru.com http://higheredmarketing.blogspot.com http://squaredpeg.com http://highered.prblogs.org http://collegewebeditor.com

Talking Stick - September/October 2008

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