Balance Virtual with Reality

There is so much emphasis these days on using social media for recruiting international students.  I do believe that it is a necessity to leverage social media but in order to leverage it successfully we must understand what it is.

Social media is merely a toolset for developing relationships.  It’s great that we are able to connect instantly with people from around the world to deliberate on topics of common interest but I still believe a relationship is not complete until the face to face meeting.

I’m sitting in the Abu Dhabi Airport on my way to the EducationUSA conference in Dehli, India realizing how great it will be to finally meet face to face with people I have been corresponding with for months.  Yes we effectively speak via the internet and develop a rapport but the relationship in my mind will be much more meaningful after meeting in person.

The same goes for developing relationships with students.  If there are students that are interested in your school and have corresponded with you via the internet in some capcity, try to manage a face to face meeting with them if you happen to be recruiting in their city.  Nothing in my mind is more meaningful both for the admissions counselor or the prospective student.

Technology & International Student Recruiting – Boston Meet Up

Technology & International Student Recruiting is an open group forum for anyone interested in discussing web based technology, tools and techniques for recruiting international students.

We will be addressing questions such as:

What new web 2.0/social media technology is out there for us to use?

What new media initiatives are we currently pursuing? Blogging? Podcasting? Video? Twitter? Facebook? Orkut?

What do people want to learn how to use?

WHEN:

6:00-8:30p Monday, February 2, 2009

WHERE:

Suffolk University
73 Tremont St.- 1st Floor
Amenities Conference Center
Boston, Massachusetts
View Map

The event is open to the public!

FORMAT:

6:00p-6:30p
Mix & Mingle (with refreshments!!)

6:30p – 8:00
Open Discussion (topics determined by group)

8:00p – 8:30p
Wrap-up Mix & Mingle

Please RSVP through our facebook event or by e-mailing jake@goswoop.com if you plan to attend

The Importance of Being Focused

How many international recruiting initiatives are you using?  Have you been able to devote enough time to those initiatives to be extremely effective?

Time and resources are always our greatest enemies.  There are so many great services to utilize but unfortunately for most of us we just don’t have the time or man power to employ them effectively.  So rather than using a new service or social media initiative because it is new and popular, first realize if you are going to be able to devote enough time and energy to make it worth your school’s while.

There was a great blog post from the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur about being ‘The Master of Too‘.   He asks, ‘…Name the athlete who won gold medals in swimming, fencing, gymnastics, and basketball – in the same Olympics. Stumped? That’s because no one has done it, and no one ever will.’

The idea that someone could spend enough time and energy to be the best at such a wide variety of sports is unrealistic.  The same goes for the international student recruiting industry.  If we don’t have a focus on which type of students we would like to recruit or which initiatives we can be the best at, we will continue to see mediocre results from all of our efforts.

The secret is to be focused.  Cut out all the fat so to speak.  Eliminate the services that sound great in theory but that are not given the attention necessary to make them successful.

We just embarked on a new year.  This is a great time to reassess which services we are using and eliminate the ones that we don’t have the time or energy to be the best at.  It is important to see results with any initiative we utilize so make sure when you do say, ‘This is so cool, I want to use this service’, you can devote the time and energy necessary to use it effectively.

New Year, New Goals for Social Media in International Student Recruiting

Well, it’s 2009 and another opportunity to make new goals.  So what’s it going to be?  Here are 3 ideas for you to take advantage of social media in 2009.

Create a strategy for using social media

The reason social media might seem so overwhelming is because there are so many options.  Well make your life simple, create a plan for using social media by realizing your resources (time, finances, manpower) and recruiting objectives.

With your plan created, research which social media options will best help you in recruiting international students.  Choose one or two of those options and begin using them.  Become an avid user, read about how others are successfully using those services and emulate them.

Take more time to learn about social media

The best way to effectively use social media is to invest the time to learn from others.  Yes, the learning curve to utilizing all these different web services can be overwhelming but the longer you resist to learn the more overwhelming it will become.

There are plenty of individuals within the admissions recruiting, international admissions and higher education fields who write blogs, are on twitter, podcast and so much more.  Find the people who are the most helpful to you and keep up with what they say.

A couple of blogs that I find really interesting are:

UtechTips

SquaredPeg

InternationalCounselor

HigherEdWebTech

HigherEdMarketing

.eduGuru

If you are interested in following these bloggers on twitter you will be able to find their usernames on each of their blogs.

Get social

A majority of your prospective students are digital natives growing up with digital technology.  They are all using some sort of social media whether it is Facebook, Orkut or YouTube.  So it is time to get on these websites and start getting social.

Check out this video from Inigral on how admissions offices can effectively engage prospective students using Facebook…

Facebook for Admissions Marketing from Inigral Inc. on Vimeo.