2015 eduWeb Digital Summit Session Highlights

As I think about my experience at eduWeb last week, I think about all of the amazing sessions I attended, speakers I listened to and industry professionals I was able to meet.

Since eduWeb was the first conference I experienced as a professional, my goal was to attend as many sessions as possible and take in all that the conference had to offer. I was excited to learn as much as I could and interact with new people each day.

I achieved that goal and highlighted three of my favorite sessions below:

Oh Snap! Using Snapchat for Fun and Engagement

By Lindsay Nyquist, Social Media & Video Coordinator at Fort Lewis College

Institutions can no longer ignore Snapchat as a way to interact with prospective and current students. In her session, Nyquist explained how Snapchat is different. What makes Snapchat different is that it’s authentic. It is authentic in that it’s urgent, temporary, and anonymous(ish). Oh Snap! Using Snapchat for Fun and Engagement, outlined the top 10 uses of Snapchat in higher education.

A few of my favorite uses of Snapchat that Nyquist mentioned:

• Show off campus. Use Snapchat as a way to show off all that your campus has to offer. One good way to show off your campus is through residence hall tours. Prospective students love to picture what it will be like to live in a residence hall and get a glimpse into what college living is all about.
• Run a contest. Contests are ideal for getting your current students to engage with your institution’s Snapchat account. One idea is to take a picture of a close-up somewhere on campus. The first person to meet you at this location wins the contest.
• Broadcast an event. There is always so much happening on college campuses, and Snapchat is a great way to show current and prospective students the different events that take place. This will encourage current students to attend more events, as well as show prospective students the many fun activities they can attend at your institution.

With Snapchat, it is important to take note of your story interactions through views and screenshots. This helps you get a better idea of what students would like to see more of. Take note of the stories with the most screenshots – it’s a good opportunity to create stories with similar content and achieve increased engagement.

Panel: The Most Important Digital Lead Generation Strategies for Online & On-Campus Programs?

By Ken Bohman, Michelle Lauer and Alex Rudd of Lucid Agency, Steve Townsend, Director of Marketing and Communications at Wayne State University and Julie Kent, Director of Digital Marketing at Arizona State University, W.P. Carey School of Business

In terms of digital marketing, lead generation can be defined as the process of interacting with prospective students on the web and encouraging them to provide information.

The lead generation panel answered many important questions higher education marketers face each day. A few key questions are highlighted below:

• What digital lead strategies are best in higher education? In terms of awareness, the strategies differ depending on the school. This means that not all lead generation strategies are going to be the same from institution to institution or even across different programs at the same institution. To have the best strategy, it is important to first understand your target audience.
• How do you maximize the ROI of PPC campaigns? Institutions should give a value offer when completing a form or to implement seasonal budgeting. A good example of a value offer is allowing prospective students to view a class profile. When implemented properly, seasonal budgeting can attribute to an increased number of conversions and a decreased cost per lead.
• What platforms generate high quality leads? In terms of graduate programs, such as MBA programs, LinkedIn provides many high quality leads.
• What students should I retarget? The average student takes two months before contacting an institution. Users that visit a custom landing page or started to fill out a request for information form should be retargeted. When retargeting these users, it is important to keep in mind that each group should be served a different ad.

Education Marketing in a Connected World

By Closing Keynote Speaker Lee McCabe, Global Vertical Market/Strategy Lead, Facebook

As we continue to become more connected by technology every day, it is important to note the opportunity for education marketing.

McCabe explained that text in social media posts is declining 10 percent each year, photos are increasing 35 percent and video is increasing more than 100 percent. These statistics make it obvious that video cannot be ignored. Users want to feel more engaged with the social media posts they are viewing, and video satisfies that desire.

Another key point of McCabe’s keynote session is that everything competes. For example, 60 percent of people use two or more devices per day while 40 percent of people use three devices per day.

Since so many people are using multiple devices per day, it is important to remember that “the thumb is in charge.” To connect with your target audience, it’s about people, not cookies. Targeting ads to specific individuals across multiple devices makes for a much more successful campaign than simply installing cookies on just one device.

When it comes to lead generation, big data allows companies to understand people, target them and work with them based on specific information. In lead generation, it’s important to be globally consistent, but locally relevant. As marketers, we should use the same key tactics across multiple campaigns, but also make sure to target specific users based on what we know about them, keeping our targeting locally relevant.

Lee McCabe closed his keynote speech by reminding his audience that social marketing is just marketing. It is important that we are using real business metrics, not just social metrics, to measure the effectiveness of our efforts.

I had an incredible time at eduWeb, where I learned many useful tips on higher education marketing. I encourage you to attend next year.

Save the date for another great higher ed conference, Converge 2015, on October 21-22 in New Orleans, Louisiana. You’ll hear from some of the best minds in higher education and discover new ways to revolutionize your marketing.

Register today!