Well that’s just silly of them LOL

Often, however, the college admissions offices offering a personalized site present no option to “request info” or “join the mailing list” but they do present an option to “personalize this site.”

So there is the hurdle I was talking about, but I didn’t make my point clearly. I want info. I’m not concerned about personalizing the site, and don’t care to do so. I see no way to request info…

I could link to many specific examples, but prefer not to single out schools in a negative way.

So, if anyone thinks personalizing a site is worthwhile, be aware of the options you present to join the mailing list. Perhaps two links: “1. Personalize this Site” 2. “Join Our Mailing List” or “Request Info” – perhaps even toss in a checkbox on the second option where they can opt-in to personalizing the site from the “regular” inquiry form.

You could even track to see which approach is more effective. No matter how vertical your recruitment funnel is, it is likely still a funnel. Capturing names is beneficial, especially if the lead is warm as it is when a prospective student went so far as to visit your site.

“For a more pointed example, visit a college’s Web site where you have to fill out a form to even get on the mailing list, all in the name of “personalizing” the site. Prospective students might be uncomfortable with that (from a perceived privacy standpoint? the hassle involved? the unlikelihood of returning to the site?) when they simply want some information in the mail.”

Many of the fields a student is required to fill out on forms like this are the same fields they have been required to fill out to request information from any college for years. I don’t think it’s something they view as that out of the ordinary or a hassle. At my last job, I ran a split test on the request information form – one was a very sparse, simple form. The other asked for more information. There was no significant difference in the completion rate of one form over the other.

“Given limited time, I tend to push the boundaries where I think it will have the best ROI (or, more accurately, ROE: return on effort).”

You totally read my mind! It’s not that I won’t constantly be THINKING about areas that I could innovate in or new tactics I could try but after having been at this for a bit over 4 years now, it’s just impossible to implement them all given the environment we’re in. You just get burnt out and tired of the frustration.

Karlyn has a great point there. I’d further add that innovation/technology can step out of a tech-savvy prospective student’s comfort zone, too.

Facebook is a great example of this. Facebook class of 2012 groups pop up on their own and attract a noteworthy number of students. And if you proactively send out invites to admitted students to join such a group, you will receive the occasional reply back that “I don’t have a Facebook account” and also some people joining who are finally setting up a Facebook account for the first time.

From my experience during this recruiting cycle, this number is dwarfed by those who already have Facebook accounts and join such a group without thinking twice about it. Joining isn’t a huge leap out of many prospective student’s comfort zone (though you aren’t likely to get even the majority of admitted students to join until the withdrawn apps go up and the pool whittles down to who is actually attending). I would say Facebook is one of the technologies of the moment in this regard.

On the other hand, a very small number of those same students likely have an account set up on Ning. Ning is cool, it is social, and it doesn’t have nearly the adoption rate. Mention Ning to a high school student, and they more often than not have no idea what you are talking about.

That may change in a few years, and in the future an invite to an admitted student group on Ning would pose few hurdles in terms of getting people to join. Even getting a prospective student to create an account on an older technology like a Web forum/bulletin board is a greater hurdle than getting them to join a Facebook group, at least from my experience.

That’s not to say a Facebook admitted student group isn’t without pitfalls in terms of customization and administration, but a person may decide that is worth the compromise for the other reasons stated.

For a more pointed example, visit a college’s Web site where you have to fill out a form to even get on the mailing list, all in the name of “personalizing” the site. Prospective students might be uncomfortable with that (from a perceived privacy standpoint? the hassle involved? the unlikelihood of returning to the site?) when they simply want some information in the mail. This is innovation executed badly, imho, but a common approach the vendor will insist on implementing to keep numbers of students creating a personalized site high, thus making their product *seem* useful.

I try to keep up with what is happening in the tech world, particularly if it may be useful for recruiting. I made a mental note that AOL bought out Bebo. That could be huge, or it might not be. I didn’t rush out to build a presence on Bebo for my college admissions office. Given limited time, I tend to push the boundaries where I think it will have the best ROI (or, more accurately, ROE: return on effort).

Also, and I don’t think this can be understate, people who’s sole desire is to innovate are often WAY ahead of the curve when it comes to adaptation of technology. The next big thing at SXSW may not make its way into the mainstream until a year or two after the event. I’m not saying that innovation is a bad thing – I’m a huge fan of it. But we work in higher education and need to look at innovation in that context. What seems to be a very simple baby-step towards innovation to people like you and me could seem like a huge leap out of their comfort zone to the people we work for. I had this experience the other day – I made a simple flash photo gallery that I thought was cool but not that big a deal and people here practically fell off their chair over it. I guess what I’m trying to say that it’s great to be innovative in thought (and on our respective blogs) but when it comes to actual implementation, we have to practically manage our expectations about what is achievable or else we’ll go out of our minds in frustration.

Karlyn