Great stuff!

I’m reading David Meerman Scott’s “World Wide Rave” right now, and one of the things Scoot asserts you have to do to create a world wide rave is to loose control of your message. I know a lot of people in higher ed are going to be completely lost on that point, but its true.

I graduated from Texas A&M about two years ago. What got me interested in A&M and retained my interest was the Fish Drill Team (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrl5Gn2Dje4), not the academics, not the location, and not the potential for advancement. Having said all that, I have graduated, my peers consider me to be one of the hardest working most dedicated members of the team, and I’m sure a few believe that I am an asset to my alma matter and my community.

If the university bureaucracy had been controlling “the message”. If I hadn’t gone to “Spend a Day with the Corps”, I probably wouldn’t have come to Texas A&M at all. But that wasn’t the case.

So I am wondering why don’t universities (especially A&M with around 800 odd student groups), make these student leaders their emmisaries? Why not provide the leaders of student groups funding for travel to go try to recruit their new members (and the university’s new students) straight from the high school campuses? Why not get students who worked on their projects to go show them off at high schools the university is targeting instead of creating a brochure to tell you about student work, and recoup some of the money spent on printed materials? Funnel that money into human to human outreach.

Having said all that, I’m sure the author of this blog gets it. I’m sure he’s aware that Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter allow you enough rope to lose control of your message so as to make old-school administrators extremely nervous. I hope some of the administration in various institutions start to get it.

But there is still no substitute for face time.

You list what I consider to be one of the key points in the post: “This chart is meant to be thought about, modified to fit, and executed as resources are available.” And modified to fit the recruiting needs/goals of the particular institution/office.

As resources are available is the tricky part, since resources are inevitably limited.

Where is the greatest return on effort?

What social media efforts can be recycled and promoted across different approaches (Web, e-mail, etc.) to make the effort more worthwhile? i.e. don’t just have a YouTube page, be sure to use those videos elsewhere.

Further, how can the efforts be recycled across campus offices? Admissions, alumni relations, etc.

Where will an institution be most conspicuous and/or at risk in absence (such as Facebook “Class of…” groups)?

Zinch, Cappex, etc. are innovative and a potential resource for enrolling students. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the resources (time and/or money) can’t get greater returns elsewhere. Some schools have success using sites like these, to be sure, and other schools have success by putting their limited resources elsewhere.