SquaredPegBrad J Ward’s Thoughts on Higher Education Recruitment

Want an easy way to keep track of what your school’s ‘customers’ are saying about you? Check out Google Alerts, and monitor the Alerts as they come in. You can choose to get Alerts as they happen, or a comprehensive email at the end of each day. You can also get text or HTML emails. I have Alerts set up for “Butler University”, “Butler Bulldogs”, “Butler U.”, and “Butler Bloggers”.

Here’s a good example: I get an Alert of “Butler University” coming from a Livejournal. It goes like this:

Dear Butler University,
Your campus is like a dream to me, you are in a big city with a pretty good music scene, and you accepted me (surprisingly). I fear, though, that you are much too expensive for an undergraduate degree. I’m sorry and thank you for the generous offer. I will probably always wonder “What if…?”
- Accepted But Not Attending Student

What a bummer! A student who really wants to attend, but money is an issue. Is she aware of our scholarships and upcoming Scholars Forum? Now here’s the fine line: Leave a message and 1) hopefully help, or 2) look creepy. It’s a risk, and it can pay to take it though.

So I respond with a general ” Did you check out our scholarships? We’d sure love to have you at Butler. — Brad, BU Admission”. She re-comments with:

“Whoa! What are the odds that someone from Butler (specifically someone from Butler Admissions) should stumble upon my letter? I checked out the scholarships and the few I haven’t missed deadlines for…I don’t exactly fit the criteria. But I’m not totally forgetting about Butler. I still kind of hope to go there.”

And her friend comes in with:

thats a total sign, man, talk to this guy, i’m sure he can help you find the money you need. Don’t go on with the What if?. See what Brad has to offer. I’ve learned now, too late, that there was money out there, but I was young and my parents weren’t willing to help.

So it has now been decided that ‘Brad’ is not creepy, but has a genuine interest in helping. At that point I send the final contact, with invitation to reach me either via email or the BUForums:

Hop over to http://go.butler.edu/cs/forums and we’ll try to get your questions answered, or shoot me an email at bjward(at)butler(dot)edu.

Done! And we’ll see what/if any follow-up happens. Regardless, the student now likely feels that Butler cares about her (we do!) and might be more intrigued to look around a little more for those scholarships.

Next question: “Brad, how do I keep track of all of these comments?” Easy.   co.mments.com. I used to be really bad about leaving a comment on a blog and never responding to get the answer or continue to conversation.  No more!  Keep this open in a separate tab, and as you comment, just post the URL into your co.mments and check once a day or so.  Boom!  You’re web 2.0′d.  Now get to work.

Bonus Points Opportunity: Set up Google Alerts for your competition. Can you imagine the student getting this: “Dear Butler Accepted Student: We cost less and are still in your big city. Come check us out. Sincerely, IUPUI”. I’d say that would be a good start to a potential student.  And if you’re from IUPUI, keep your hands off. I got dibs on this one.