Doing more with less: Creating an online community for accepted students
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The document discusses creating an online community called "Caf辿 New Paltz" on Ning for accepted students to the State University of New York at New Paltz. It describes setting up the community to build relationships and provide a space for conversation. The Caf辿 New Paltz community had over 600 members who posted photos and videos. It provided marketing research and engagement opportunities at low cost. The community helped increase enrollment of highly selective students and provided support through the transition to college.
Doing more with less: Creating an online community for accepted students
- 1. Doing More with Less: Creating an online community for accepted students Rachel Reuben Director of Web Communication & Strategic Projects, SUNY New Paltz rachelreuben.com doteduguru.com @rachelreuben
- 2. were all feeling the budget crunch travel/conference budgets slashed departmental budgets slashed programs cut endowments falling
- 3. were all feeling the budget crunch losing positions through attrition, retirements & non- renewals temp service budgets cut reducing print even more relying on Web and electronic media even more
- 4. what can you do? partner with other departments share/pool resources interns, existing student staff OLs, RAs, student ambassadors, greeters, etc. task variety beware of job enlargement / workload creep
- 5. how social media can help Personal attention One-on-one and one-to-many conversations Social proo鍖ng & viral marketing Comfort level in their environment
- 6. how social media can help Put personal face(s) to university Build relationships & trust listening - grow bigger ears http://is.gd/Nb8J some free, most relatively cheap reach more - targeted - with less
- 7. how social media *cant* help Not another bulletin board Not a place to blow your horn Not a place to jump up & down
- 8. another spoke in the wheel
- 9. online community for fall 2009 accepted students
- 10. what is Ning? like Facebook an online platform for users to create their own social Web sites and social networks forums, videos, events, groups, personal pro鍖les ning.com premium services / costs
- 11. admissions strategy Accept ~4,400 students Enroll ~1,100 students Accept ~1,400 early action students Maximize most highly selective students
- 12. admissions strategy sticker on accept packet invite students (upload 鍖le from Banner) early action accepts Jan 1 - Feb. 21 launched 1/2/09, invited 1,323 all accepted students Feb. 21 - May 1 invited 1,000 initially, then batches every 2 weeks all transfer students mid-April - on
- 13. Caf辿 New Paltz: content Baristas Regular updates (videos with custom jingle) Daily interaction, encouragement, conversation starters & joiners Caf辿-shaped conversations personal, intellectual
- 14. Caf辿 New Paltz: results Members: 690 Paid PED: 52% 70% from highest selectivity group Photos: 1,168 Videos: 22 Forums: 93
- 15. Caf辿 New Paltz: additional bene鍖ts free(-ish) marketing research no overhead account management - all done through Banner export / Ning import give them a place to talk & converse on our turf without intimidating them
- 16. Caf辿 New Paltz: costs $24.95/month to remove ads ($149.70 for 6 months) ~$50 for props existing resources 2 HD Sony video cameras Flip Mino video camera student interns
- 18. Caf辿 New Paltz: anecdotes I must be going. Im de鍖nitely going to login again though. This is an amazing resource. Yeah, this is a pretty great thing set up here. Yeah, Ive never run across a school with something this helpful & people this nice before! Its great! I am really liking Caf辿 New Paltz. It is making it a lot easier to adjust & I think between this & orientation we should be good. :)
- 19. Caf辿 New Paltz: after May 1 asked the community pitched to Student Affairs Orientation connection new baristas fall
- 20. what about Facebook? groups vs. Pages member management nightmare lack of design customization
- 21. our secrets answer questions promptly join in the conversation, encourage interaction show examples at group tours & general info sessions include links in e-mail correspondence bags interact postcards, Web site
- 22. things to consider loss of control time commitment information overload anyone can create an of鍖cial account for your university
- 23. measurement ROI --> return on in鍖uence long tail effect Caf辿 New Paltz yield more highly selective students think outside the box - Ning limitations & programming quality not quantity (# of fans/followers/subscribers)
- 24. ? ? questions Rachel Reuben reubenr@newpaltz.edu site: rachelreuben.com blog: doteduguru.com Twitter: @rachelreuben