A Short Case Study in Brand Strategy, Web Design and Social Media Dan Forbush, Executive Director of Communications Daniella Nordin, Online Community Manager

1. A Short Case Study in Brand Strategy, Web Design and Social Media cIcu Communications and PR Workshop November 30, 2011 Dan Forbush Executive Director of Communications Daniella Nordin Online Community Manager

4. Four ‘Levers’

5. 1 Connect CTM to consequence (jobs, careers, start ups, cultural impact, happiness) in Math, Science and Business particularly.

6. 2 Make the website and online presence the CTM 2.0 poster child.

7. 3 Shift from static “copy” to dynamic content through the voices and stories of the student, the alum, and the professor.

8. 4 Turn up the volume on CTM from Admissions through Year One.

9. CTM 1.0 versus CTM 2.0 awareness interest application acceptance attendance graduation CTM CTM 2.0

10. Project Plan Abbreviated

11. Key Question How can we best invest $150,000 in our Creative Thought Matters messaging so as to improve our ability to attract high-quality (AQR 8, 9, and 10) students?

12. 1) Create a Great Web Site 2) Creatively Employ Social and Mobile Media 3) Other Strategic Admissions Initiatives 4) Other Strategic Branding Initiatives Our ‘Four Levers’

13. 1 Create a Great Web Site

15. A New Approach to Home-Page Navigation

16. Another Home-Page Approach

17. A Fresher Look

18. Let ’s Expand This Idea

20. CTW profiles will soon be exported to departmental pages

25. Research November : Conduct focus groups with first-year students February - April : Test new top-level page designs in focus groups March - April : Refine top-level designs and build them out to rest of site May : Launch new top-level pages including Admissions microsite, online viewbook, and Creative Thought Works September – October: Conduct second round of surveys and focus groups. Modify site as needed.

26. Two Helpful Research Tools

27. iTracks

28. iPerceptions

29. 2 Creatively Deploy Social and Mobile Media

30. "It's great that I get to be a part of something that is already having a successful impact on prospective students," said Emmeline Taylor '14 , one of the student social media assistants. “ If we can encourage more incredible young minds to look at Skidmore simply because they saw us on a social media site then that is excellent!"

32. First-Year Students Really Like the ‘App’

35. Rachel Cooper, a high school junior, posts request to connect with Skidmore science majors. Daniella refers Rachel to ‘Student-to-Student’ and Emmeline in particular A neuroscience major and tour guide, Emmeline connects with Rachel A Typical Interaction In Facebook

37. Emmeline ’s Blog She writes a brief review of Lee Jenkin ’s Pilgrims of the Night , performed this week in the Black Box Theater.

38. Emmeline ’s Twitter Page She tweets her blog post.

39. Emmeline ’s Formspring Page She answers a prospective student ’s question about how she deals with homesickness

40. Emmeline ’s answer is posted automatically to her blog

41. Emmeline also connects with prospective students in Zinch What is Zinch?

42. Admissions-specific Networks Lead generator enables us to target students by geography,ethnicity, GPA and SAT. In two years Cappex has generated 16,402 leads. For Class of ‘ 15 it generated 239 applications. Lead generator works like a social network. Our counselors and student reps directly message prospective students as in Facebook. Since June: 933 leads on prospective students. Fifteen have said they ’ ll apply. Features student-written reviews of collges that are shared on U.S. News ’ Best Colleges site. We enlist students to write about their Skidmore experience and pay Unigo to run a video on the Skidmore profile page. High school database predicts attendance probability based on profiles of past acceptees. Between Sept 2008 andSept 2011: 102,710 viewed Skidmore page and 324 added Skidmore to their consideration lists. Offers school-specific pages with key facts and link to request information. Between 2008 and 2011, Skidmore pages generated 133,135 views and 255 applications.

43. Our Communications Are Going Mobile as Well Our Soon-to-Be-Launched Platform for Mobile Devices (Our platform is Boopsie)

44. Events & News Facebook Page Twitter Feed