Marketing your organization can be tricky if you have no prior training or experience in marketing.  So where do you start you ask? We have three steps to follow while creating your marketing plan. If you would like more information on the topic feel free to leave a comment!

1. CREATE A POSITIONING STATEMENT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

Clearly define your organization by assessing its benefits, target membership and competitors. This information and your promotional materials will go hand in hand and will enable you to have a clear and consistent message.

Positioning Statement – (Fill in the blank with your organization’s info)

_______(Your Organization Name)_______ is ______(List 3 of Your Most Unique and Most Important Claims)_____  among all ______(List Your Competitive Frame *example: Student Organizations)______  for ______(Your Target Membership)______   because ______(Include Support for your 3 Unique Claims)_____.

•    Define your expectations for organization growth; do you want to expand your organization or merely preserve your current member base?
•    Use this information when deciding which channels to use while distributing your message (Channels are stated below)

2. CREATE YOUR PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

•    Create a concise tag line using content from your positioning statement
•    Consider Your Audience When Choosing Benefits to Highlight
-Social organizations – Promote how your org will meet emotional needs
-Professional organizations -Promote facts and encourage “information gathering”

Promotional material should always include the following (but is not limited to):
•    Organization name
•    Message
•    Contact information
•    Website URL
•    Tag-line

Possible Communication Channels to Reach Your Qualified Audience:
•    Online: Organization website, School Organization directory and social media
•    Print: Flyers, Posters, Banners & Kiosks can create a consistent campus presence
•    Programs: Information included can educate prospective and current members
•    Broadcast: TV and Radio stations,  Campus monitor advertisements

3. CREATE A STRONG PRESENCE ON YOUR CAMPUS

•    Sign up to showcase your organization at the freshman orientation student org fair
•    Showcase your org along popular areas of your campus for the first few weeks of school
•    Create relationships with organizations that relate to your target members interest

CHECK OUT MY FUTURE BLOGS!  TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:
•    Marketing for Small Organizations – A Focused Approach
•    Creating a Marketing Plan for an Expanding Organization
•    Large Organizations and How to Keep a Consistent Message Across Campus

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”, declared President Kennedy.

Ghandi implored, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,” noted Margaret Mead.

These often used quotations are quite popular within the student affairs community because they can be interpreted and applied to the work that we do with students on a daily basis. It should then come as no surprise that a fair amount of institutions of higher education have developed or are currently developing programs solely dedicated to community service and service-learning, most especially when referencing the quotations above.

These programs are designed to target the issues affecting the communities in which the institutions are located. For example: 1) The Volunteer and Service Leadership Center at the University of Texas works with non-profit organizations in Austin, Texas  2) The Arizona Blue Chip Program at the University of Arizona works with individuals and groups in the Tucson, Arizona community

These two institutions are dedicated to not only serving their local communities, but instilling in the students an understanding about why service to others is important and invaluable. The faculty and staff of programs and centers similar to the two listed above are taking initiative to give back to their communities.

In light of President Obama’s “United We Serve” campaign coupled with Americorps, the idea and valuation of community service is garnering more attention. Educating students about the need for service should be commended and lauded, not devalued because it does not apply to ‘in-classroom’ experiences. As such, service to one’s community can be related to ‘in-classroom’ learning because depending on the class, it can always be asked, “where does the need for service originate?” – which relates to business, sociology, economics, and political science just to name a few. Hence, an influx in service-learning programs that not only allow students to perform community service, but ties in the academic component of evaluating the need and purpose for why the service was performed in the first place.

These are exciting times ahead in the field of higher education and student affairs due to the increase in service-learning and community service programs that address the needs of not only the surrounding institution’s community, but the state, country, and globe.

Before getting into the complexities of a college campus, it is best to step back and look at the big picture. People, in general, need a community to call their own, to live as a healthy individual. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs values this necessity to be in a community as number 3 of the 5 categories.  This proves even further that this necessity is even more crucial during one of the greatest growing phases in a person’s life, their time in college.

Maslow's Hiearchy of Needs

College students grow up with multiple cohesive communities such as their families, close group of friends, church, and other extra-curricular groups. They are nestled in these groups for so long, and most are unprepared for the dramatic shift from high school life to college life where they are forced to go out and find new communities. This is where the institution and the student affairs department come into play. Their role is to provide a gateway to the new opportunities for on campus involvement, so the student can choose from a variety of inviting communities.

The unfortunate part of the college transition is that most students fill their insecurities with even more seclusion. This can affect student academic performance. A study by the American College Health Association revealed several factors that affect performance including: stress, alcohol abuse, and depression/anxiety (American College Health Association, 2002).  Students can battle this by forming bonds and reaching out to other students which can be best developed on a “healthy” campus.

How can institutions make their campus “healthy?”
According to an article by Teanca Shepherd, assistant coordinator of Student Activities at The University of Memphis, four essential components must exist to maintain healthy campuses which are:
1.    Vibrant Student Organizations
2.    Co-Curricular Resources
3.    A Wide Variety of Academics
4.    Surrounding Community Involvement

What are the overall benefits of healthy campuses for both students and the institution?
Teanca Shepherd lists the following benefits:
•    An increase in student enrollment
•    Increases in funding for programs and organizations
•    Better recruitment of faculty
•    Increases in funding for programs and organizations
•    Better recruitment of faculty and staff
•    Students providing innovative ideas for better policy development
•    An increase in diversity
•    An increase in alumni support and involvement
•    Growth of the surrounding community as a whole

When a healthy campus has been achieved, the institution can combat those security walls that students put up and invite them to find the organization to foster development, experiences, and new friendships. In the end, these experiences are what truly set a part a successful college graduate from another graduate who missed out on them.

Tweet.

Tweet.

Tweet.

The sound of birds chirping or the sound of people talking?

These days, no matter what I’m watching or reading, Twitter seems to be a major topic.  But what exactly is twitter?

Twitter is similar to a lot of things, but unlike anything.  It is like blogging, but there is a 140 character limit.  It is like the Facebook status, but is not limited to just friends.  It is like instant messaging, but all your followers can read it. Simply put, it is a universal status message answering the question “What are you doing?”

Twitter has a strange name and a stranger vernacular surrounding it. People use words and phrases like: “twitterati,” “tweple,” or “I just tweeted.”  Before I decided to try Twitter, I was warned that initially it would seem completely stupid, and as a newbie, it did seem stupid.  I did not and could not see the point of the hype of it; however, now, it is my most used social network.

I first realized the power of Twitter and the power of an online community when a US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River.  Instantaneously, this message was tweeted with a photo of the plane in the Hudson.  It was then forwarded (or in Twitter terms, “retweeted”) throughout the twittersphere before traditional media outlets even heard about the event. 

Nielsen Online reported that at the end of 2008, social networking surpassed the popularity of email. For those of you still trying to communicate with listserves , there is still time.  If you want to effectively communicate with an audience then go to the audience.

Twitter’s capabilities are infinite!  I have a constant twitter search for OrgSync, so I always know what people are saying about us. Comcast and Dell, creatively use Twitter for customer service request.  At conferences, speakers take questions through Twitter and participants are then able to engage in discussion during the session.  Twitter enables you to send notifications, updates, and reminders out instantly.

What are other ways you are using Twitter on your campus?

If you have specific questions please leave a comment and we would love to address them.  It will help guide us in future posts.

Several years ago I noticed if you wanted to run for student government, there was a new requirement – a Facebook group.  After discovering this, I wondered if the number of members who joined the group was an indicator and predictor of success; and to my surprise, I found the results to be only a few percentage points off.

Recently, I saw a new Facebook group at my Alma Mater, Howard Payne University (HPU), rallying support for my former literature professor as the next university president. This is the first time I have ever seen a Facebook group used to rally support for a potential university president. (There are a lot of groups about university presidents, but not for positive reasons).  And as a person with ties to HPU, higher education, and social media, I am intrigued by this use of Facebook.

As I begin writing this post, I am a little nervous, especially since this is about someone who once graded my writing.  (I hope she doesn’t send me corrections or grade this!)  Dr. Romig is a great professor; she challenges and expects the most out of her students.  After finishing her PHD at Rice University in 1978, she started teaching at HPU and has been there ever since.  Audree Johnson, an HPU alumni, described Dr. Romig’s classes as “life changing.”  As Audree talked about her experience at HPU and Dr. Romig’s class, I thought she purposely giving me cliché answers, but the more she spoke, I realized that she genuinely enjoyed and had an amazing learning experience in Dr. Romig’s classes that really changed her life.  (Did I mention that Audree, or Ms. Johnson is a high school English teacher?) Dr. Romig literally changed Audree’s life, which is why when Audree heard her former professor was interested in applying for the vacant president position, Audree created a Facebook group to rally her support. Dr. Romig thought only a few people would join but it quickly grew to 447 members! Not bad for a school with a population of 1200 students!

As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I have come to the conclusion – communities matter.

Before coming to college, I never realized the importance of having a group of friends.  Not to say, I didn’t have friends before college, but from elementary to high school, I have been with basically the same people.  In high school, my classes were filled with the same 30 students.  Nobody in class was a stranger and we were all basically friends, if not acquaintances.  Everything was familiar and structured; I knew where I belonged and fit in.

However, everything changed after graduating high school.  We all went our separate ways – different colleges and different life paths.  From my class, only 3 people went to The University of Texas at Austin, and I was one of the 3.  When arrived at UT, things were certainly different.  I felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, I definitely was not “in Kansas anymore.”  And like most freshman, I had a difficult time adjusting to college.  Actually, that might be an understatement.  I had a really difficult time adjusting to college. Everything about it – the unfamiliarity, the people, the campus size, all the people in my way, all the idle time I had, and the absolute lack of freedom from not having my car in Austin.

As a freshman, I would have never thought I would have stayed long enough at UT to graduate, let alone miss UT. But here I am, about to start my last semester at UT, and sad that my college career is one semester away from being over and already missing it.

So, how did I manage to succeed at UT?

In hindsight, it was definitely the people I connected myself to through my FIG (not the fruit, it stands for Freshman Interest Group or a small group that meets once a week based on a interest and where we have the 2-3 classes together, so that we have familiar faces in classes that are 300+ students) and an organization I joined on campus – Christians On Campus.  Through these 2 main groups, I was able to meet and befriend people who shared my interests, and have a group of people that helped me succeed at UT.

According to a research article by the Office of Institutional Research on student extracurricular activity and academic performance, the graduation rate for students involved in extracurricular activities was almost doubled compared to students who were not involved in extracurricular activities and commuted to school.

I can say with absolute certainty that I would NOT have continued at UT if it weren’t for those groups.   With the encouragement from those friends, my sophomore year, I joined a business club, McCombs Diversity Council with a friend from Christians On Campus and was able to expand and become more involved in school.  Otherwise, I would probably be in Dallas right now, attending UTA, living at home, never leaving my comfort zone, and not growing as a person.

So, the two student organizations I joined my freshman year, which helped me form a group of friends and be a part of a community, were essential to my development as a student and may have even saved my college career.  I met peers that helped me enjoy my college experience, and who have probably influenced and impacted my life in ways I will never know.

Student organizations and communities on campus matter more than most people realize.  Connections keep people growing and developing, and I was certainly no exception.

Ann White

Today’s guest blogger, Ann White, works as the Web Content Coordinator at Oklahoma Christian University. She manages the content, navigation, and editing of the university’s public website, but in the past year her role has expanded to also manage the university’s social media presence.

I have been a follower of Ann and OCU on twitter for awhile, and I think she does a fabulous job of interacting with their community online.

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Institutional tweeting- now there’s a phrase the old school marketers never saw coming.  But now it’s a reality.

The beauty of this moment is that although you may be unsure in how to go about it, the fact is we all are. This is uncharted territory and we are all learning new lessons day by day.

Although there really is no one who can tell you exactly what to do, there are some fundamental guidelines that I believe will give you the framework to make your own way.

Here are my basic principles, a bit more fleshed out below:

• Have fun
• But don’t be annoying
• Interact
• Use it or lose it
• Make it up as you go along
• Be true to your school

Have fun

I work at a university I love, and because I am here 40+ hours a week, I see many of the stories and events that make this place great. Twitter gives me an outlet to share those little tidbits with others, so they can see the school through my eyes.

For example, whether it’s a video from an alumna of adorable Zambian babies wearing university apparel or a bizarre bathroom fixture that won a toilet contest, I can quickly and easily show people the little pictures that shape my point of view.

If you’re enthusiastic and sincere, it will come across and spread quickly.

Don’t be annoying

Ah yes, the annoying tweeters. Don’t be that guy (or gal).

Unless you explicitly state that you are a news source, don’t run an RSS feed through your Twitter account.

Don’t send mass or auto-direct messages.

Don’t spam tweets- multiple tweets in a row.

Don’t belabor calls to action.

Don’t re-tweet yourself word for word, multiple times in a day.

Don’t ignore basic customer service moments including replies and inquiries.

Twitter makes it very easy to dump you, and people can be fickle enough without you giving them a reason to bail.

Interact

I get a lot of great content from following those who follow the school. As a general principle, I re-follow the following categories.

1.      Real people (Sounds silly, but it’s obvious when they’re not)

2.      Other academic institutions (Great for seeing what other schools are doing)

3.      Local businesses (Good to build ties and relationships with them)

It’s always fun to re-tweet those who write about us, because it is a credible testimony to your school’s value and also is flattering to the person you re-tweet. It shows them that their opinion is important to you, and you build a positive bond.

Use it or lose it

I think this is a key difference in institutional tweeting and personal tweeting.

If you are putting time and energy (university resources) into creating quality tweets, you have to use them somewhere besides Twitter, or they will be by and large lost within an hour because of the volume of tweets.

Thankfully Twitter gives you the RSS feed, so you can run your feed through another website. Whereas a tweet may only last a short while with limited views in a follower’s tweet stream, it could last for days if run through another location.

Make it up as you go along

When I started tweeting for our university, I looked to other schools for ideas. However, there weren’t many doing it in a way that I felt would be authentically transferable to our university, so I had to improvise.

Granted, I started off rocky with infrequent tweets, boring content, little interaction. But once I decided to just dive in and try new things, the response has been great.

One example of this is OC Oldies. I have a lot of great, vintage photos from our university at my disposal, so I have started Twitpic-ing them with the hashtag #OColdies. People seem to get a kick out of it.

Don’t be afraid to try new things! Everything is a new thing right now. Embrace the freedom of it!

Be true to your school

This is the key point where Twitter is not just a hobby but becomes another outlet for your brand’s platform.

Your school has a personality, and Twitter is a place to let it shine.

Are you a large research institution? Then share stories of innovation and accomplishment.

Are you a business school? Then highlight your moguls who are rocking their industries and taking over the world.

Our school is a close knit community equipping people to serve the world in creative and powerful ways, and social media has given me a great platform to breathe live into our mission.

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Hopefully this will inspire you to take some chances and go try something new. Help us all figure out what works and what doesn’t, and share what you learn!

In today’s society, a college education is more important than ever, and there is no shortage of institutions for students to choose from. So, how do prospective students make up their mind? What draws them to one institution over another? More than anything else, they look for a place they can call home. They consider what the University has to offer them. Student involvement in the campus community is vital to a successful college life. Prospective students don’t want to attend an institution where they will be isolated, and have nothing to do but study. While it’s true that students are looking for a good education, without a comfortable environment, learning won’t be possible.

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE Studies) shows that student success is directly linked to student involvement. NSSE measures student involvement in academic and co-curricular programs and activities, and the effect they have on students. According to NSSE, the more involved students are in an institution, the more invested they will be. The higher the student involvement level the higher their grades are and the more likely they are to re-enroll for the next semester. Highly-engaged students are more likely to re-enroll than less-engaged students. An institution that offers inviting options for student involvement is also creating free, word-of-mouth marketing. The more a student likes an institution the more likely they are to promote and recommend it to others. Among institutions that scored appropriately in the NSSE student involvement and engagement study 93 percent of students reported having a favorable image of their college.

Because student involvement is so important, it is vital for an institution to create a culture, not just a campus. When students are involved and engaged, they feel like they are a part of something. This sense of belonging fosters loyalty and pride in their institution, as well as academic achievement, and community involvement. There are five benchmarks laid out by NSSE to gauge a successful student involvement environment.

These benchmarks are:
1. Sufficient level of academic challenge
2. Favorable amount of active and collaborative learning options
3. Quality faculty and student interaction
4. Abundant amount of enriching community interaction
5. Existence of a supportive campus environment.

Students who are involved devote more time and energy to academics, spend more time on campus, while participating actively in student organizations, and having more positive interactions with faculty and staff. All of this leads to a more productive educational environment that benefits every part of the institution. On the other hand, uninvolved students neglect their studies, abstain from extracurricular activities, spend little time on campus, and rarely contact faculty and staff. This lack of interest leads to a lack-luster college experience.

Students are not the only ones to benefit from an engaged environment. Student involvement is often the catalyst for other institutional and community improvements. Faculty, staff, and the surrounding community all benefit from student involvement. From volunteering, to relaxed and free flowing conversation, the benefits are endless. But, meaningful and worthwhile student involvement does not just happen overnight, it’s an investment process that takes time, effort, and money. But this is an investment that has been proven to be worth the effort. Student involvement on campus is one of the quickest ways for students to become part of an institution’s community and create a personalized college experience.

Kate Klingensmith

Today’s guest blogger, Kate Klingensmith, is Director of Research for Inigral, a San Francisco-based education startup company.  With a degree in Cognitive Science and four years experience with teaching high school biology and physics, Kate has a strong interest in college matriculation, technology integration in the classroom, and student engagement.  Her blog, Once a Teacher, is a record of her quest to research and collaborate with others to find ways of incorporating web 2.0 tools into both education and administration.

What is a PLN?

If I had to define what a ‘Personal Learning Network’ is, I would keep it simple and broad:

n. – the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online.

Personal Learning Networks, or PLNs, have been around forever. Originally, they were your family and friends, maybe people you worked with, but as the internet and web 2.0 tools have become nearly ubiquitous, PLNs can include tons of different communities – social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking tools, LinkedIn, and so many more. Basically, anyone that you interact with is apart of your PLN, whether they are social contacts, professional peers, or experts in their field. Most of the ‘learning’ takes place on-line now, because it is simple to find and connect with others with similar interests from around the world.

PLNs have immense value!

So, why bother thinking about your PLN? Whether you’re a full-time mom, a full-time administrator, or a full-time student, your PLN can be extremely interesting and helpful. The beauty of people communicating online is the ease of finding and sharing information and – if you ask for it – the group feedback that you get on ideas and projects.

Here are some ways that people are using their PLNs:
- Professional development – learn from experts in your field
- Locate free resources, such as websites and software
- Get event and marketing ideas
- Learn about new technology and how to integrate it into your role
- Find collaborative solutions
- Find interesting links to higher ed news

When you have a large group of people combing through vast amounts of information and collectively identifying the most useful, entertaining, or valuable parts, it makes a lot of sense to tap into this collective knowledge!

Build Your Own PLN

If you’re interested in expanding your PLN, here’s a directory of some of the best web 2.0 tools:

What to Expect – Stages of PLN Adoption

There are certain stages that most people seem to go through when building their PLN before settling into a comfortable niche. It may take a little time, but you’ll eventually find that a rich PLN can elevate both your personal and professional life to new heights.

If you’d like to connect with me, click here.

Student Organizations Find Co-Sponsorship Opportunities by Networking with Other Organizations Using OrgSync

This past semester, I, Jessica Reyes, attended a meeting at the McComb’s School of Business as a representative of Alpha Kappa Psi. The meeting was held to discuss the recent student org budget cut for the 2009-2010 school year due to the business schools exclusion from receiving any monetary sponsorship from the University Coop.

As students, we knew the University Coop’s budget cut would lead to the end of many of our organizations’ events due to inadequate funding.   At this meeting we broke up into several groups to brainstorm different ways we could work this problem out effectively.    We found that each organization created and funded its events without collaboration of other organizations.  We came to the conclusion that greater communication amongst all business organizations was needed and that it would be best if the organizations could co-sponsor events so that the funds could benefit more than one organization.  This not only would spread the student org funding evenly, it would also inspire greater event attendance among business organizations with the benefit of networking with others.

The next question to ask is how this communication could be implemented with such a large amount of students involved.  With the advent of OrgSync on campus, organization leaders could create a group to facilitate the planning of their events. Other organizations can view this information and respond if they are interested in co-sponsoring an event.  This new means of communication will reduce spending, and create more opportunities for great events to take place even with the absence of the external monetary sponsorships.