If you use our online chat tool, you should have received an announcement last Friday about this week’s upgrade to our system.

But aside from an updated tool — what else should you be doing to increase the effectiveness of your chat programs?

In conjunction with an enhanced version of our product, I thought it would be a good time to review some basic chat practices so you can be sure you’re making the most of your online events.

When you hold a chat, do you:

• promote it on your website, via email and during campus visits and other events?
• send a special invitation to parents when appropriate?
• send a reminder email to registrants the day before?
• send out a “We’re chatting now” email when the event begins?
• invite other campus leaders (like coaches, faculty members, advisers, etc.) to participate?
• give out links to visit your social media sites? (like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc.)
• follow up the next day to see if there are more questions, ask for feedback and promote your next event?
• post the chat log to your site for others to view after the event?

We’ll be rolling out the new version of our chat system this Thursday, February 11th — so be sure to review the new tool with us if you have chats planned in the next few weeks.

Just call Jill Duppler, Client Support Specialist, at 877.715.7474 ext. 113 or email duppler@targetx.com to learn more.

Remember — even if you only end up chatting with a small group of students, yielding any one of them is more than enough to justify your efforts.

So best of luck with your upcoming events — and here’s hoping we “chat” soon!

Adrienne

P.S.  Need to contact TargetX after hours?

Here’s how to contact our technical support team for help:

1. Call the main TargetX line at 1-877-715-7474.
2. When you hear our greeting, press “3″ for technical support.
3. Leave a voicemail with your name, school and a phone number where you can be reached — someone will respond to your request as soon as possible.

Young people’s love for all things Apple may offer lessons for college recruiters.

The Cupertino company and its iconic leader, Steve Jobs, fascinate marketers and motivate them to look for larger meaning in Apple products and ads.

Most recently, the New York Times’ Steve Lohr wrote about the new iPad and how it continues a philosophy of product design that has applicability in higher ed marketing.

Jobs runs counter to the prevailing thought in product design that “more is better,” writes Lohr. Instead, he creates “edited products that cut through complexity, by consciously leaving things out — not cramming every feature that comes into an engineer’s head.”

Overstuffed viewbooks, promotional emails and other recruiting communications would benefit from such a philosophy.

In addition, writes Lohr, Jobs does not rely on committees to design his products.

Think about the advantages of that approach the next time you try to navigate your school’s website.

But Jobs does listen, says Lohr. He pays attention to the needs of prospective customers, especially young people, and he “listens to the technology — to judge when an intriguing innovation is ready for the marketplace.”

Some would say Jobs is unique, that he has almost unnatural instincts that can’t be replicated by other people in other industries. But marketer Bryan Eisenberg thinks it’s easier to understand than that.

“Simply put,” Eisenberg writes, “Apple understands people. It knows that people make emotional decisions, then use intellect to justify those decisions….People are at the heart of Apple’s marketing, not technology or features.”

Just the way it should be in college marketing.

Read Steve Lohr’s NYT article

See 7 marketing lessons from Steve Jobs

When it comes to email, I get tons of questions related to subject lines.  And since they’re an important one-line invitation to your message, it’s easy to understand why.

But even though the best subject lines are simple, the process of deciding on one can be anything but.

Here’s something that’s worked for me in the past:  Stop and ask yourself, “If I had to communicate the main point of this email in 5 words (or less), what would I say?”

Your answers might be something like “You’re invited to Open House,” “Chat online tomorrow” or “Visiting your high school.”

You may not land on the exact wording you want, but the act of asking this question will help you hone in on key words that should be part of your subject.

Don’t forget that your name (or your school’s name) will appear in the “From:” section — so don’t feel the need to include it in the subject line. Save those words for something else!

In the end, you want to choose a subject that helps the reader cut through clutter and describes why you’re writing as succinctly as possible.  If you can be clever, too, that’s great (but it’s usually better to err on the side of descriptive if you’re not sure).

Here’s hoping this little trick helps you next time the perfect subject line escapes you.

Now if only something this simple worked for application review…

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The Millennials are a mystery for many people.

Is this a generation indulged to the point of helplessness by helicopter parents or destined for greatness through technological savvy and commitment to social causes? Are they easy to market to because they’re always online or difficult to persuade because they’re marketing averse?

Last week’s Recruitment Minute on a new TV show about four Millennials prompted some readers to ask about other sources of information on the 75 million who will dominate undergraduate and graduate recruiting for years to come.

Here are some sites that can help you get to know the Millennial generation a little better:

The Next Great Generation
A blog by Millennials who describe how they live and what they think.

Millennial and Tween Bites
A Linkedin group that shares actionable Millennial insights for marketers.

Ask a Millennial
A commentary on advertising, marketing and public relations from the perspective of a Millennial.

Ypulse
Your guide to youth via news, commentary, events, research and strategy.

Engage: GenY
A leading online publisher covers Generation Y (another term for Millennials).

Trends & Tudes
A newsletter from Harris Interactive that addresses current topics in youth and education research.

Please share any additional sites or sources of information on this enormous and fascinating generation of prospective students.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview Andrew Johnson, a senior assistant director of admissions at Yale University and director, producer and writer of the now-popular and viral video, “That’s Why I Chose Yale.”  I was joined by two of my friends, Jeff Kallay (TargetX’s VP for Consulting) and Abby Laporte (high school senior and host of Abby’s Road).

(If you have not seen the Yale “admissions musical”, I’ve included it below our discussion video)

Interview with Andrew Johnson, Jeff Kallay, Abby Laporte and Brian Niles

“That’s Why I Chose Yale” Video via YouTube HD

Plain-text emails can be a really effective way to get your message across without the complexities and margin for error that html presents.

But what to do about those long, not-so-attractive links?

You know the ones — they include the “behind the scenes” coding that allows us to track who is clicking on them.  Html can hide them, but unfortunately plain-text bares all.

Here’s a trick I use to handle plain-text links:  Try rewriting the sentence with the link at the end.  Then add a colon and a hard return and place the link on the next line by itself.

When you’re done it should look like this:
(insert link here)

This approach sets off your call to action really well and makes skimming the message a breeze.

If I’m trying to link a word in the middle of a paragraph, often I’ll just add the link below the whole paragraph so it doesn’t interrupt the flow for the reader.

There may also be times that you opt to turn tracking off in favor of a nice clean link in the message.  Ask yourself, “What’s more important for this message? Knowing who clicked on it?  Or keeping it simple?” Both strategies have their advantages.

One last thing to consider:  Recipients that can only receive plain-text messages (or choose to) are used to seeing links appear this way.  Don’t worry too much — it will look normal to them.

So remember these tips next time you’re working on a plain-text version of an email message (we recommend creating one for all of your messages).

Because “plain-text” doesn’t have to mean your message is just plain hard to read.

Want to learn more about plain-text messages?  Our client support team is standing by to help you create and execute successful campaigns.  Contact them at support@targetx.com or call 877.715.7474 and press 3.
______________________________________________________________________________________
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Learn more and register by visiting:
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In the ever-expanding effort to understand the Millennial generation, college recruiters have a new resource. MTV is offering an unusual look into the minds and souls of four students making their way across America in a quest to complete a list of 100 things to do before they die.

“The Buried Life,” which debuted this week on MTV, has been called a bucket list for the four twentysomethings. But it is proving to be much more than that as the foursome is inspiring other young people to create their own list of things to accomplish.

Albion College’s Kevin Kropf was especially intrigued by the group’s response to a reporter’s question about other young people they’ve met, and how their generation sees the world. The Admission Director forwarded it to TargetX’s Jeff Kallay, a fan of Millennials and a national authority.

“We found that a lot of kids our age look up to our grandparents’ generation more than our parents’ generation,” said one of the group members. “I think a lot of people our age are craving something with meaning. And the more we look around, the more we see people finding it. Everyone’s stepping up in their own ways. It makes us think, ‘What are we as a generation going to do before we die?’”

“I find this quote so in line with the Millennial thought process and values,” says Kallay. “And it’s so in line with the whole generational flow identified by [authors] William Strauss and Neil Howe — that a civic generation takes on the behavior of the exiting elder generation.”

It’s a reminder that the Millennial generation is looking for something more than a good job after college and a fun experience while they’re there. They’re looking for meaning in their lives. Your recruiting communications should reflect that.

To read a review of “The Buried Life,” visit:
Chicago Sun-Times: The TV Paige

If you have questions about recruiting the Millennial generation, contact Jeff Kallay at kallay@targetx.com

One of the perks of my position at TargetX is having subscriptions to Advertising Age, Adweek and other non-education/business publications (as well as the time on planes to read them).

While many have been lamenting the “Great Recession,” a few did some future casting that I want to share with you:

In their Annual 2010, Advertising Age reports that “Ad Spending Heads Into Tepid Recovery: Outlook Bright for Digital, PR and Events.” In recent years, most media (newspapers, radio, and outdoor) have reported decreases in spending, but three areas are seeing increases: Digital, PR and Events.

So what does this mean to all of you in higher education? If other industries with huge advertising budgets are reallocating their spending, so should you.

While print isn’t dead, the 30-year recruitment model is. The notion of search needs to be challenged. Search is already happening, it’s called “Google” (the 16th largest media company). Each week I ask college students, “Why did you choose this school?” Never has the answer been, “Because I got an email or brochure in the mail.”

So invest in what connects: your website, your web presence elsewhere, helping spread word-of-mouth, getting press coverage, events, and experiences. Stop spending the largest majority of your budget trying to build a prospect pool and instead spend money on those who already know about you, have expressed interest, and come to visit your campus.