Marketing to those who hate marketing: Why?

I think I may have put the cart before the horse on my last post by diving straight into tactics before strategy. So let's answer the bigger question: What's the point of marketing to groups who hate marketing?

First, let me better define marketing in this context. The first reference to marketing is what we do: developing and communicating programs that provide value to our defined markets. The second reference to marketing refers to advertising tactics meant to persuade individuals to buy a product or service.

There are two major audiences in graduate and professional schools who usually have disdain for traditional advertising: Gen Y students who value authenticity and academics who value substance over style. Notice any similarities?

Thankfully, the strategic approach for addressing both of these groups is the same. Be straightforward. Don't let form get in the way of function. And if you work for a great institution with solid academic programs, the best thing we can do is share its story without diluting the impact with tactics that could backfire (which is what the rest of this series will cover).

Related posts:

• Marketing to those who hate marketing: Gloss

Marketing to those who hate marketing: Gloss

It's no secret that graduate and professional schools are full of savvy, smart consumers. High-achieving students and scholarly professors are, almost by definition, independent thinkers, and most hate to be marketed to.

So how can a professional communicator best reach these marketing-cynical audiences? By re-thinking typical marketing practices for a potentially skeptical audiences, small choices can make a big difference. For my next few posts, I'll hit on some simple ways your marketing communications can be more effective with academic audiences.

Tip #1: Watch the gloss. Nothing says "slick marketing piece" like a high-gloss design. While many--if not most--color designs look best on a coated sheet, there can be such thing as too much of a good thing. I once heard a professor mock a brochure from another institution as portraying its faculty as "god-like creatures" due to the super-shiny gloss spot varnish on its cover portraits. If you're going for a highly formal or serious academic message, consider skipping the shine entirely and print on an uncoated sheet.

Résumé advice from a hiring manager

We're in the process of hiring a communications coordinator for our office, which will be a hybrid position that's part administrative support and part graphic designer. We've received hundreds of applications from all ranges of experience levels, and it's fascinating to examine how people present their professional abilities.

Here are some quick tips for putting your best foot forward when applying for a higher ed communications job:

• Remember your audience. Read the job description carefully and adapt your cover letter accordingly. Don't make the hiring individuals work to find how your skills and experience fit this particular position. If the job requires specific software expertise, make sure you mention that software somewhere in your résumé or cover letter. If you're vastly overqualified or live outside the region, explain why you're interested in the specific position. Double-check that your boilerplate language makes sense; stating that you're goal is to work for a Fortune 500 company or manage staff when you're applying for an entry-level position at a non-profit organization will send your application straight to the circular file.
  
• Be confident, not cocky. It's one thing to say that your many years of experience may be a good match for an institution. It's another thing to openly state that you're so overqualified that the only reason you would apply for a low-level job would be for the tuition benefit. There are much more tasteful ways to explain your interest without the condescension. Also, if you have different versions of your résumé, make sure the file names on your attachments don't give away your omissions (e.g., "JaneDoe_withoutCEO.doc.").
• Details, details, details. Review your application package many times in many ways. Spell-check it. Grammar-check it. Get your spouse/parent/child/friend to proofread it. Read it out loud to yourself. Put it away, and then read it again an hour later. (And for crying out loud, please don't misspell "detail-oriented.")
• Distinguish yourself professionally. If you want a job communicating for an institution, make sure that your individual communications present a highly professional image. Send your attachments as PDFs so that fonts and formatting aren't lost. Keep your writing clear and concise, and use bullets and subheadings so your documents can be easily scanned. Adding light artistic touches to your application can be helpful for design-related positions, but don't let form get in the way of the function.
  

Higher ed marketing lessons from my Disney vacation

Note: Sorry for the temporary hiatus in blogging. I'll be catching up on some posts over the next few weeks and returning to my weekly schedule in the new year.

After surviving an intense blitz of fall publication production, I spent a week in November with my family at Walt Disney World in Orlando. While I did manage to set aside all things internet, it was hard to turn off the marketer inside—especially when you're immersed in an experience designed by some of the most creative minds in a generation. Here are a few tidbits:

• Have you hugged your physical plant today? If you're charging a premium for your services (private universities, I'm talking to you), your visitors expect your campus to be attractive and well-maintained. A dedicated grounds/maintenance staff, with the funds to do their job well, can make an important difference in recruitment during the all-important campus visit.
• Every employee represents the brand. From the first security officer to the switchboard operator to your campus CEO, each employee plays an important role in representing your brand. How each staffer treats others is immediately noticed by those who visit. It doesn't matter what your marketing materials say about being a friendly, accessible campus if your front-line staff don't live it out through their daily interactions.
• Measure for continuous improvement. Even if you're at the top of your game, how do you stay there? Research. Disney systematically places researchers at their entrance/exit to survey visitors. While it's tough to afford high-end professional research on a regular basis, there are low-cost options for measuring opinions if we make it a priority.

Has social media killed empathy?

Last week, a colleague sent me a USA today article that raised the question of whether social media has killed empathy. My answer: it hasn't.

Through online discussion forums and social networks, I have made new friends, connected with our profession's thought leaders, and kept in touch with classmates, neighbors and family with more frequency than my schedule would otherwise allow. Sure, there are those who live online to the exclusion of connecting with people in real life, but that's hardly a new phenomenon. (Raise your hand if know any video game addicts or workaholics.)

I view social media as an amazing means for enriching real-life relationships, particularly in higher education. Our audiences invest some of the best years of their lives on our campuses, and social networks now make it easier to maintain those relationships—both with the institution and among classmates—for a lifetime. And for those who are preparing to join our community, accepted student groups and networks can engage students long before the official orientation process begins.

The blurring of professional and personal spheres online can also increase empathy in ways we could never expect. Over the past two months, I have watched a colleague's story unfold on Twitter as her two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer and started experimental treatments. I have been deeply touched by her tale, and I know many others have as well. Our higher ed marketing peers have supported her through prayer and fundraising. Ironic how one can feel such empathy for someone only known through social media. (Read Andrew Careaga's blog post to read little Sydney's story and find out how you can help.)

Speaking of Andrew, the Educational Marketing Group is looking for his replacement as International Brand Master. If you want to nominate a current higher educational branding professional, EMG is accepting nominations through Dec. 15, 2010.

Got water?

In honor of Blog Action Day's theme of water* today, I thought I'd share a (barely) relevant anecdote. My employer gave up its bottled water contract a few months ago for both financial and environmental reasons. While I completely agree with this in principal (and have switched my home water consumption from bottled to filtered), the tap water in my building tastes awful.

But thankfully, I work with creative problem solvers.

Thanks to the miracle of the interwebs (pump courtesy of eBay) and Sam's Club, my Web developer assembled the contraption pictured here so that we can all now drink filtered water from his house.

Now, we can go green without the water tasting green.

*Disclaimer: Blog Action Day is really focusing on global access to clean, potable water. Since I have no real insights on that issue (and certainly nothing related to marketing or working in higher ed), this post would probably be more appropriate for the 2009 Action Day theme of environmental protection. If you can think of a good way that higher ed communicators can help get clean water to remote areas of developing countries, please include your suggestions in the comment section below.

Everyday adventures in managing Facebook pages

Much has been written on how to set up university Facebook pages, how to handle crises (both literal and virtual) on Facebook, and why we should have all have a presence on Facebook in the first place. However on most days, the management of an institutional Facebook page is much less dramatic.

Here are a few tips about the more routine issues that have come across my desk(top) in the past week:

• Plan for the grey area. Decide in advance, if possible, where you want to draw the lines for spam, negative posts and other related issues, then post guidelines in your Notes section to inform your fan community. You might want to allow local businesses to offer special discounts to your students, or you might choose to bar all advertising. Some negative comments are inevitable in social media, but when will you stop someone who is hijacking your page? Posting guidelines can set ground rules for the entire community and make future decisions much easier. Take a look at other higher ed Fan pages for examples; we really liked the University of Kansas comments policy when developing ours. If possible, get your legal counsel's buy-in before you post.
• Differentiate your voice from your institution's. While the common wisdom is to use a personal tone on institutional social media channels, never forget that you're still representing the institution. When our parent university asked a question about a legal term, I first feared that my answer would appear as the Voice of The Law School speaking on The Law. Since I'm not a lawyer, this could have been a dangerous role for me to fill. Thankfully, answering this question on the university's Facebook page with my regular profile identity worked out well—I could explain the answer, my source, and my role in an appropriate context.
• Be clever. While I wouldn't advise posting jokes when speaking for your institution, showing a little wit every now and then can be fun. A news item about a best-selling author lecturing on how lawyers could pursue writing careers prompted another recent speaker (Craig, also an author and journalist, but not a lawyer) to respond with the following exchange:
  
  I would have let the first statement go had it been from any random fan. But since this person's identity wasn't clear to the other fans, I chose to help the conversation along. In this instance, speaking as a straight-laced institution (with a dose of marketing language) showed some personality in a way that shouldn't offend even the most nervous college administrator. (Note: I don't advise using a marketing tone in most social media interactions.)
  
• Monitor others' use of Facebook in crisis communications. God-willing, none of us will never have to use our social media channels to communicate the threat of an active shooter on our campuses. But it's always wise to follow the Boy Scouts mantra and be prepared. Following the actions of other institutions in crisis via Facebook or Twitter can be valuable training. Check out Jessica Krywosa's .eduGuru post on "Does Your Campus Security Have a Place in Social Media?" about how the University of Texas at Austin handled their emergency communications on Facebook last week.
  
• Added 10/5: Keep your eyes open for opportunities in unexpected places. Thanks to Andrew Careaga's post on a Facebook fundraising effort to help one of his staff (Mary Helen Stoltz, whose two-year-old daughter is fighting brain cancer), I discovered FundRazr, a low-cost fundraising app on Facebook that processes PayPal donations. At a glance, it looks like it should work well for individuals as well as universities and other nonprofits. (And if you want to support a fellow higher ed communicator and her beautiful kid through a rough time, donate and test out via FundRazr here.)