1. Reach a Fast-Growing Market
   As a greater number of high school students begin tweeting, Twitter will become an increasingly effective tool for making and maintaining connections.
2. Maintain Connections
   Twitter is built around the idea of “followers”. By following your tweets, students interested in your school can maintain a connection over a long period of time.
3. Promote Things Fast
   The speed with which Twitter can disseminate your latest news or announcement is one of its greatest strengths. Your information goes out, instantly, for your followers to read.
4. Build Your Brand
   With a stylish twitter background, your tweets can fit right in with your school’s brand image.

Not To Tweet:

1. Can Take A Lot of Time
   Although it doesn’t cost anything to join, it will take a significant time commitment in order to see returns. Posting your latest news and events is fine, but finding and connecting with other people takes persistent effort.
2. Is It Just a Fad?
   Some new reports say that over half of people who start twitter accounts end up quitting in the first month (mostly due to the time commitment issue). While Twitter’s not likely to see a drop off in activity any time soon, continue to monitor your account and make sure you are receiving returns on the time you invest.

1. Static FBML
   Normally, custom HTML code is difficult to add, but with the Static FBML app you can render FBML (Facebook Markup Language) or HTML in a customizable box. This gives you the freedom to add pictures, videos, and any other stylized content. Facebook created this app, so it’s entirely reliable.
2. Flash Player
   The Flash Player app allows you to add a box that plays any kind of Flash video. Many, if not all, of college and university virtual tours are Flash-based so this is a perfect solution.
3. Posted Items Pro
   Posted Items Pro enables you to embed multiple YouTube, Yahoo, and Google videos. It’s a great way to beef-up your media section.
4. Facebook Notes
   This application will automatically pull in the RSS feed from your blog plus share with your entire network when you’ve added something new!
5. Twitter App
   Assuming you have a Twitter account, this app will automatically stream your tweets into your Facebook status. This automation will help keep your profile info fresh.

Are you using one of your best resources to enhance your recruitment efforts? Current students can offer insight, advice and a valuable connection to prospective students. And the best part, these tips will enhance your recruitment efforts while costing you absolutely nothing - or close to it!

Benefits of Student to Student Recruitment:

• High school students love to get the perspective of a student who actually lives on campus and goes to class every day.
• It is easier for high school student to relate to college students
• High school students trust the advice they get from current students. Let’s face it, you work for the college and they know it. They want the input from someone who is not on the payroll.
• If your current students develop a relationship with prospects, those students will already feel like they have a friend on campus - a major benefit!

Student to Student Recruitment Ideas:

• BLOG-BLOG-BLOG! You must get your students blogging. Over half of all colleges currently run student blogs, and if you are not one of them, I encourage you to start as soon as possible. Pick a couple of enthusiastic, invovled students and ask them to write about their life at college. Put the blogs on your website for prospective students to read. You’ll be amazed by the impact they have.
• Have your current students participate in social networks. You know that your student admissions workers are spending a lot of time on popular social networking sites, so why not have them spread the word about your school? Ask them to set up Facebook pages or Twitter accounts to increase the exposure for your school.
• Ask a couple of your student admissions office workers to chat in live time with prospective students. High school students often feel more comfortable talking with a current student. They’ll have the opportunity to ask important questions that can really sway their decision to choose your school.
• Have students follow up with prospective students after visits to campus. One major missed opportunity that I found while in my college search was the follow-up after the campus tour. Many colleges use students to give these tours, but as soon as the prospective student leaves there is no further contact with the tour guide. Have your guide set up a twitter account or student blog to stay in touch with the students who visited. That connection can prove to be very important as decision time draws near.

These small adjustments to your recruitment strategy can go a long way. After students have a list of top schools, they will make their final decision based on the personal connections they make throughout the college search. So use your best resource - your current students. If they love their school, they’ll be happy to help you recruit!

For more information or ideas on how to use students in your college recruitment send me a message. I would be happy to help! Have a VirtualCollegeFairs account? Add your student blogs and more to your booth! ]]> http://collegerecruiting.virtualcollegefairs.com/wp/2009/03/22/college-students-make-great-recruiters/feed/ http://collegerecruiting.virtualcollegefairs.com/wp/2009/03/22/admissions-20-student-blogs/ http://collegerecruiting.virtualcollegefairs.com/wp/2009/03/22/admissions-20-student-blogs/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:01:09 +0000 admin http://collegerecruiting.virtualcollegefairs.com/wp/?p=9

It wasn’t long ago that the typical college-bound student filtered through dozens of mailings, attended college fairs, and walked many campus tours on his or her way to finding the perfect college. Today, attempting to reach techno-savvy teens, admissions offices have adopted many new recruiting efforts, including live chat sessions, campus videos, virtual walking tours, online college fairs and, even more recently, student blogs.

Students find the features that provide the a genuine look at campus life to be extremely helpful in making their decision. Prospective students can get an inside-look at what to expect when they attend by reading the blogs of current college students over the course of several months. This creates a feeling of connectedness that can begin before an application is submitted and extend through the decision to enroll.

That length of time is what makes student blogs such a strong recruitment tool. A video, website, or even a campus tour is likely to connect only one or two times, but a blog, with new content provided on a regular basis by current students, can grow connections throughout the admissions process. So, consider adding student blogs to your admissions website, or make sure the blogs you have are being utilized to their full potential.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has a wealth of information from a 2005 Admissions Trends Survey they conducted.

As we all know, colleges and universities spend a lot of money, time and resources on recruiting students. According to the NACAC, the average college admissions office spends a large chunk of change on recruitment. Look how much:

$442 on each student who applies
$714 on each student who is admitted
$1,753 on each student who enrolls

This money comes directly from the admissions budget, it is not added to the students tuition. So basically, recruitment is a major cost for a college. They spend almost $2,000 on each student who ends up coming to their school on recruitment alone! In fact it’s even more money if you are from a private college (2 to 3 times more to be exact) or a small school (4-5 times more) according to the association.

To use your money wisely, look for ways where you can expand your recruitment efforts for less cash. VirtualCollegeFairs.com offers a year long membership for about the same price as it would cost your school to encourage about two students to enroll. Your membership will grant you access to every fair we have throughout the year and there are tons of them! You’ll have the opportunity to market, advertise and have direct contact with thousands of soon to be college students for an entire year. Think about how many students you could recruit with that kind of exposure! That’s a pretty sweet deal!

Every college admission representative knows about the importance of attending college fairs. At a fair, you are able to meet a lot of potential students over just a few hours in one place. It is an essential part of any admission office’s recruitment efforts.

So why attend college fairs online? According to a Boston Globe Article from January 7, 2008, UMass-Dartmouth released findings from a study which showed that colleges are implementing new technologies like blogs and social networks faster than Fortune 500 companies to reach the next generation of students. This technology that is being utilized is revolutionizing the college admissions process.

Speaking of revolutionizing the college admissions process, VirtualCollegeFairs.com provides colleges with the opportunity to attend fairs and utilize the latest technology at the same time. Online fairs are accessible and appealing to all students, will eliminate travel time and will drastically reduce the costs associated with traditional fairs.

I am not encouraging schools to scrap the idea of traditional college fairs. There is still a need for that face-to-face connection. Just make sure that you stay current and appeal to prospective students who use the Internet more and more every day. Virtual college fairs are the future. Make sure you catch the wave!

I recently read up on some admission statistics from the National Association for college admission counseling. You understand the admissions process well, but do you really know how much time and resources colleges spend on recruiting students? Read on to see how your school compares to national averages.

Like I said above, the statistics I’m referring to were from a 2005 study done by the National Association of College Admission Counseling. According the the association, enrollment in colleges continues to be on the rise. Yes, that means more work for you as an admissions representative! In fact, in 2005 admissions employees reviewed approximately 395 applications each at the average university, with public schools reviewing twice as many as the private schools. Whew that’s a lot of work!

So pat yourselves on the back admission reps. Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate and you are handling it beautifully!

Check out my next post for more statistics from the National Association for College Admission Counseling.