ISITE INSIGHT

EduWeb 2007 Highlights Game-Changing Web Initiatives in Higher Education

By David Aponovich, ISITE Design
July 30, 2007

ISITE Design has just returned from the 2007 EduWeb Conference in Baltimore where serious, innovative, and game-changing web initiatives are thriving among U.S. colleges and universities.

Website analytics? Web content management? Student blogs? Online video? Web governance? All these topics and more were hot for the 300 or so attendees comprised of college webmasters, marcomm staff, admissions directors, designers, developers and others over three days. In these areas and more, schools are in the throes of a sea change in how they’re communicating with recruits, their parents, campus stakeholders, alumni, donors and others.

But it’s the pace of change now occurring that’s really impressive – and lessons, available in abundance, took center stage at EduWeb.

Blogs

Last year, the question “To blog or not to blog?” was a hotly debated issue. Just a few bold schools were dipping their toes into the water. Since then, the intermingled realities of web communication and higher ed competition have answered that question in a resounding “Yes!” to blogging, and schools are trying to respond with a strategic plan. The current questions are “How many students do you allow to blog?” and “Do you censor?” (or, since authenticity is paramount, do you “review” posts before they go live?) For a lesson in doing admissions blogs right, check out Johns Hopkins University’s “Hopkins Interactive” site run by Daniel Creasy, senior assistant director of admissions.

Web Video

More and more, it’s a YouTube kind of world out there – online videos, user-generated content, ‘authentic’ online interaction – and colleges are quickly adapting their online strategies to use video to convey their message. Furman U (a notable 2006 EduWeb presenter) has been driving this change for a couple of years with its Engage Furman admissions site with videos and student blogs.

For the cost of a handheld video camera and some bandwidth, schools can easily deploy student ambassadors to film a day in the life, provide a real-life dorm tour, interview a professor, or deliver some other video assets that complement the overall college story. For a great ideas for using online videos in higher education, see 2007 EduWeb presenter Mars Hill College’s TVMHC.

Web Budgets

The year 2007 is shaping up to be a tipping point in the use of the web among colleges. Many folks we spoke with said online now consumes more than 50% of their online marketing, and in some cases the figure is near-100%. This is a case where “paradigm shift” is not hyperbole. Among the areas of rapid investment: aforementioned online videos. Campus tours, professor interviews and student talking-heads all support the more personal, interactive web that colleges and universities are striving to achieve (and which they’re now willing to fund). Another area of new investment is in the staffing necessary to manage these new initiatives. Case in point: Norwich University has hired a full-time interactive recruitment management in Karlyn Morisette to exclusively focus on recruiting students leveraging new technology and media.

Analytics

ISITE Design’s own Jeff Cram, a web strategist with a keen focus on website analytics and site measurement and optimization (See related article Website Analytics the “Next Frontier” for Higher Education Web Strategies), presented on why and how analytics can be a college marketer’s best friend. He advocated for using analytics data as part of a continual feedback and improvement loop, always seeking to find out what’s working, what’s not, and how to make it better. Among several “low-hanging fruit” tips for quick wins on your campus, Jeff noted:

  • Go beyond reporting and develop internal processes around optimizing your website. If you aren’t prepared to act on the data, there is no reason measuring it in the first place.
  • Think beyond the home page. Search is unlocking deeper content, and any page can be an entry page these days. “Half your traffic starts someplace other than your home page,” Cram says.
  • With the “sprawl” of pages on most college websites, pay close attention to bounce rates of visitors entering on deeper pages. These visitors that leave after looking at only one page usually points to user experience problems on your site.
  • Review your internal serach engine use closely to see what visitors are looking for and how to better align your site content to visitor needs. As an added bonus, you can often look at adjusting your paid search strategy from what you see happening on your own site.

Web Governance

Ownership of web is a hot topic among colleges and universities. It’s often a political hot potato that leaves your web strategy suffering on the sidelines. Colleges that have clearly identified roles and responsibilities and internal collaboration between departments are having more success online. Many participants highlighted effective partnerships between communications, admissions and information technology. Others who were struggling grumbled that it was simply getting in the way of getting things done.

Message control

One of the most compelling (and amazingly simple) ideas for improving your school’s online presence came during an opening keynote from Bob Johnson, higher ed marketing veteran. Johnson had one word for the crowd: Wikipedia. In a large percentage of cases, when you type a school name into Google, the first page of organic search results contains a link to the Wikipedia entry on said school. If the “you” is a 17-year-old student researching your school, this will be among the first things that they read. So the message is: If your school does not have a Wikipedia page, create one – today. And if it does have one, edit it so it drives home the right message, the right links, and the right story about your school. If you don’t pay attention, someone will do it for you. But don’t expect to be the only one in control of your message online. As Johnson told the crowd, they need to adjust to the new reality: “Message control is dead!”

David Aponovich is based in ISITE Design’s Cambridge, MA, office. Contact him at or 617-401-2296.