“Honestly,” begins your friend when offering advice, implying she hasn’t always been honest in the past. “Interesting,” responds a colleague thoughtfully after you’ve asked a simple yes or no question. “To make a long story short,” says a neighbor — and you know you’re about to miss your favorite TV show.

These are some of the words and phrases that drive readers crazy. Imprecise, misleading and banal, representing lazy thinking and fuzzy logic.

Like the misuse of anymore instead of lately. “Food has gotten so expensive anymore.” Or the overuse of ubiquitous. “I heard this word used at least 10 times by different presenters during a recent conference,” responded one reader. “It was ubiquitous.”

Phrases like take it to the next level, last line of defense and post 9/11 world are also getting to people.

Hackneyed phrases and words serve a purpose, according to linguists. And that’s why we all use them. They serve as conversational filler and provide shorthand; they tie into tradition and custom and help us fit in.

But that doesn’t reduce the irritation we feel when we hear our least favorites, and that’s not good for effective communication.

The people at Oxford University know a little bit about the English language, and they have compiled the top 10 most irritating expressions. Be careful with these:

1. At the end of the day
2. Fairly unique
3. I personally
4. At this moment in time
5. With all due respect
6. Absolutely
7. It’s a nightmare
8. Shouldn’t of
9. 24/7
10. It’s not rocket science

If you missed last week’s Recruitment Minute — and the conversation on words started by Mansfield University’s Dennis Miller — click below:
www.targetx.com/ithink/?p=2020

If you’re like Mansfield University’s Dennis Miller, there are certain words and phrases that drive you crazy. After hearing a speaker use one of those words about 20 times, he imagined her stepping away from the podium and singing like Olivia Newton John, “Granular, granular, let’s get granular…”

“Words become buzzwords and phrases become catch phrases for several reasons,” writes Miller, PR director at Mansfield and a popular blogger and novelist. “Some are catchy and fun to say. Many provide verbal shortcuts.”

But many become overused, misused and painfully abused. Like “literally.” “People literally use this word too much,” writes Miler. “‘Literally’ is the new ‘ironically’ which is used correctly maybe 2 percent of the time. Really.”

Or how about “outside the box”? “People who use this phrase are usually still in the box and will remain there,” he says. “They should be sealed in and delivered to the Museum of Terminally Boxed-in People.”

More recently, he wrote about “silos.” “I’ve just starting hearing this in office conversation and I’ve seen it a few times in writing. It’s one of those words that creates an appropriate image. (See yourself as dried corn nestled in your own comfortable silo not wanting to communicate with the corn in the other silos.) I hear it on campus as in ‘departments are silos,’ not caring about other departments. It’s going to wear itself out fast because it’s an easy concept for lazy speakers.”

And that’s where some of these words and phrases become more than just daily irritations. They’re often seen as substitutes for more precise thinking and expression. As Miller points out, “Some of the most uncreative administrators and executives I know litter their conversations with buzzwords and catch phrases to the point where conversations become meaningless.”

There are other words and phrases that Miller would like to see “dismembered letter-by-letter.” Check them out:

Words & Phrases That Should Be Buried

More Words & Phrases I’d Like to See Dead

At the end of the day, what words and phrases drive you crazy?
Let us know.

Get ready for more work and greater stress — at least according to predictions by some of your colleagues who responded to the question, “What does the future hold for college recruiting?”

For his forthcoming book — Overthrowing Dead Culture: The Vision to Change the World of College Admissions — TargetX CEO Brian Niles is asking admissions officers and their presidents to contribute to Chapter 10: “The Future.”

Submissions so far have ranged from the increasing role of technology to the age-old appeal of storytelling, from the growing importance of the campus visit to the changing nature of graduate admissions.

But one of the major threads is how the difficult job of recruiting students is only going to get more demanding and time consuming.

“Admission professionals will devote an even greater percentage of time providing personal access to students and families,” predicts Barbara Elliott, VP for Enrollment Management at the University of the Arts. “More conversation, more authentic person-to-person touch points will be critical as technology and binary personalization become even more pervasive in daily life.”

The President of Allegany College agrees: “Students of tomorrow require information at their fingertips now,” writes Bruce Exstrom. “Instant communication is critical, and part of the communication is the personal touch.”

“Recruiting in the future must allow students to have a personal, individualized, authentic experience,” adds Wes Waggoner, Director of Freshman Admission at Texas Christian University. “The phrase ‘We’re closed on Saturday and Sunday’ No longer works in retail; and it’s not likely to last very long in the non-profit, educational industry either. To serve our students, we’ll be there whenever we need to be there.”

More demanding, yes, but also hugely rewarding. “The admission world will continue to be exciting,” writes Marianne Inman, President of Central Methodist University, “for the task of enrollment professionals is to find the best match between student and institutions. The diversity of colleges and universities and their mission to serve learners of all ages and interests is the basis for the strength and popularity of American higher education.”

You can add your own predictions — and see what others think:
www.targetx.com/odc

You can also download Chapter 2: “The Change”:
www.targetx.com/odc

Admissions counselor Daniel Creasy loves Facebook, Twitter and the other social media that make it possible for admitted students to feel like they’re part of Johns Hopkins University before they ever attend their first class.

“I hear from people all over campus that with every progressive year, the newest incoming class is the most together and connected group that has ever showed up,” he told the Baltimore Sun newspaper recently. “They’ve already known each other for months.”

But the great rush to use social media also raises questions about privacy and appropriate relations between administrators and students.

“Desperate applicants might attempt to improve their admissions chances by ‘friending’ counselors,” writes Sun reporter Childs Walker. “Conversely, counselors might use social media profiles to search for red flags on certain candidates or to assemble information for targeted recruiting pitches.”

The growing ethical questions surrounding higher ed’s use of social media have caught the attention of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

“This territory is new and many administrators don’t know where to draw the line,” WOMMA noted in a recent issue of its newsletter. “Should you be using social media to get more applicants or should it be reserved for accepted students? Is it ethical to let admissions officers accept friend requests from potential students? Answers to these questions are rarely discussed. Social media is a new thing for these old institutions. Adjusting can be difficult.”

Given the enormous opportunities and accompanying challenges of using social media to recruit students, WOMMA is developing a Higher Learning Council to address the issues raised in the Baltimore Sun article.

If you would like to know more, WOMMA editor Pat McCarthy invites you to contact her at pat@womma.org

To read the Sun article, visit:
www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.socialmedia30sep30,0,5521473,full.story

Marketers get so excited by flashy website tools that they often forget about the fundamentals, says interactive expert Linda Eskin. And that can be disastrous since a good user experience on your website can be as important as good customer service.

Dramatic changes may be fun, but it’s more critical that you step back now and then to look at the little things that make such a big difference for visitors to your site, says the user experience analyst for Red Door Interactive. Here are six guidelines for uncovering potential problems:

- Understand your audience. “One simple-yet-effective way to discover issues with your site is to occasionally take a fresh look at it from the point of view of your target audience. To do this, you need to consider who they are and what they need.”

- Listen to your audience. “Your prospects are probably already telling you where the problems on your site reside. So listen up. A caller might ask, ‘What’s your address? I’ve looked all over and there’s no map.’ Never mind if there actually is a map; the point is that your customers aren’t finding it.”

- Get the whole team involved. “Everyone on your team can and should contribute to making improvements. Let them know you value their contribution and give them an avenue by which they can share with you any issues they discover.”

- Review the content. “It is the easiest, fastest, cheapest element to fix, yet content is often taken for granted and overlooked. Get actual members of your target audience to use your site, while you watch. This is always fascinating, and often disheartening, as they ignore what you thought was such a clever feature.”

- Address credibility issues. “Be sure everything on your site reflects your stated commitments to quality, integrity and attention to detail. Assure your visitors that their personal information is secure and will be kept private. Include photos of your staff to help visitors make a connection. Typos, broken links and poor-quality images reveal carelessness and introduce doubts.”

- Test everything, often. “The simplest way to find problems is to go out and hunt them down. Pick a page, go over it in detail. Is it clear where the links go? Click them. Do they work? Does everything on the page load quickly? Can you get to the contact information? Some of the worst problems are easy to find, but many companies never go looking for them.”

Continually improving your site does not have to be an overwhelming all-or-nothing project, says Eskin. “Every small problem you fix is one less problem your customers will encounter. Don’t wait for the perfect time to get started. Begin now, even if it’s only a few small steps.”

To read the full article, visit:
www.imediaconnection.com/content/24797.asp

It’s the most frequently asked question in email marketing, “How do I write a good subject line?”

Email experts have spent a lot of time exploring the mysterious subject line. Here are some of their findings and recommendations:

- Include a benefit. Give the reader a reason to open the email by answering that age-old question, “What’s in it for me?”

- Segment and personalize. That doesn’t mean merging first names into the subject line; it means tailoring your content to the specific needs and interests of your audience. For example, including intended major in the subject.

- Use action words and active tense. Experts say these are more likely to motivate readers to open the message.

- Put key words at the beginning of the subject line in case some email inboxes cut off the last few words.

- Don’t ever use all caps and be frugal with punctuation.

- Beware of spam triggers. Words like “special” and “free” have been stolen from us by spammers. Be sure to use a spam content checker like the one at spamcheck.sitesell.com

- Spend more time on the mundane process of describing what your email is about and less time trying to be clever. If you can manage both, more power to you. But studies show that informative beats clever every time.

- Test, test, test. Build in time for a split test of two or more subject lines to samples of your intended audience. Then wait 48 hours to see which subject performs best before sending your message to the rest of the list.

There are other elements of good subject-line-writing which will be covered later today in a free webcast, “10 Tips for Writing Better Email Messages.” In the 30-minute session (starting at 3 p.m. EDT), popular speaker and blogger Adrienne Bartlett will share her tips for composing messages that get noticed and inspire readers to act. For more information and to register, visit: www.targetx.com/webcasts

Have fun with your campus tours, Jeff Kallay advises his clients. Make them distinctive, memorable and authentic to your school.

So when he saw the long straightaway knifing through Alfred University’s beautiful New York campus and the number of students biking to and from class, he knew immediately this was the place for the 7-headed bicycle he discovered a year ago.

Referred to by its manufacturer as the “Conference Bike,” Kallay saw the strange-looking vehicle as the perfect Tour Bike. And that’s what the TargetX Experience Evangelist suggested to his colleagues at Alfred: Offer visitors the option of a communal bike tour — 6 people and a student guide pedaling their way through campus.

“The tour guides loved the idea,” Kallay says. “One of the things they mentioned was how authentic it was to the school — especially because it’s a little quirky.”

Alfred’s student guides, called “AlFriends,” plan to paint the bike in school colors of purple and gold and embellish it with streamers and bells. They’ll wear special t-shirts and will present prospective students and parents with their own commemorative shirts following the tour.

“It fits perfectly with what Alfred University is all about,” says Wendy Beckemeyer, VP for Enrollment Management. “Our students are very aware of environmental issues, and many of them enjoy outdoor sports that take advantage of our location in the Allegheny foothills.

“Plus, this is just different enough to be appealing to the type of students who are most attracted to Alfred, from the engineers who will appreciate the niceties of the steering by Porsche, to the artists who will like the design.”

Being different is what all campus tours should strive for, according to Kallay. “Be willing to think outside the box and come up with things that are authentic to you.”

To see the Tour Bike in action, visit:
www.alfred.edu/admissions/visit_us.cfm

To read more about the “tour with a twist,” click:
www.alfred.edu/pressreleases/viewrelease.cfm?&ID=5672

For most schools, changing the way they market is like turning an ocean liner. That’s why college fairs, high school visits, search mailings and other recruiting staples still play such a large role and eat up so much of the admissions budget.

But there are some schools that can change direction like a jet-skier, and those are the ones that TargetX considered for this year’s “X Award” for excellence in student recruiting. The winner is a college in California that has made great strides in “overthrowing dead culture,” the phrase adopted by TargetX CEO Brian Niles to represent the company’s philosophy of modernizing admissions marketing.

California Lutheran University was recognized with the 3rd annual X Award for “reinventing recruitment marketing,” including such steps as:

- Creating key staff positions that focus on electronic communications and the campus visit experience.

- Forgoing the viewbook, search piece and other traditional publications in favor of a timely and vibrant magazine that’s sent to students as they enter the recruitment funnel.

- Instituting an aggressive “yield campaign” aimed at the incoming class of 2010.

- Building a new space to serve as a visitor center, focusing on the special touches that will make it a uniquely CLU experience.

- Recognizing the power of storytelling, including a web page that offers individual stories from students, faculty, alumni and others, and invites visitors to “tell us your story.”

- Using its towering abstract sculpture of Martin Luther — affectionately known as “Enormous Luther” — as a signature moment at the end of each campus tour. CLU tour guides offer to photograph visiting families in front of the statue and then email the shots after visitors return home.

To see an online version of the “Cal Lu” magazine, visit:
www.callutheran.edu/admission/undergraduate/cal_lu/2009_fall/

To visit the “storytelling” page, click:
www.callutheran.edu/50/your_stories.php

P.S. For the first time, the X Award was also bestowed on an individual. Providence College’s Chris Lydon was honored for “embracing change in recruitment marketing.” Based on the enthusiastic response of 130 of his peers at the recent “iThink” discussion at NACAC, it was the right choice.

Bring together 120 enrollment officers and ask them what’s on their minds these tumultuous days, and you can expect a lot of hand wringing.

While there was some of that at the second annual “iThink” kick-off of the NACAC Conference yesterday, most of a lively two-hour discussion was spent on moving forward and finding solutions.

A handful of issues dominated the session, which preceded the opening of the 65th annual conference of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. They included public resistance to the cost of college, admissions policies and procedures that serve as stumbling blocks for prospective students, the increasing challenge from for-profit and web-based alternatives to traditional schools, and the drain on financial resources and staff time of trying to build the largest inquiry pool possible by being all things to all people.

Some of the solutions that emerged were:

- Do a better job of articulating the value and return-on-investment of a college education. For example, work closer with the career services staff to communicate the success of your graduates.

- Change how you do business. Take a page from proprietary institutions, which tend to be much more responsive and transparent in their dealings with prospects. They’ll let you know in 48 hours if you’ve been accepted, not tell you to wait for some universal acceptance date months down the road.

- Learn to appreciate the word, “no.” The sooner a prospect lets you know that you are no longer in the mix, the better for your school and the student. Ask prospects on a regular basis if they’re still interested and let them know it’s OK to say no.

- Do a better job of differentiating your school from all others. Tell people exactly who you are; don’t be afraid to let them know who you’re not. The goal is to find the best-fit students, and the earlier, the better.

As if tooling your website to appeal to savvy Millennials isn’t hard enough, now you have to accommodate their demanding X-er parents as well. And, needless to say, both groups are not looking for the same things.

Joe Dysart, writing for Today’s Campus magazine, took a look at the latest in a series of “E-Expectations” studies and offered some warnings — if not solutions:

- Eight in 10 parents say they are playing a pivotal role in helping their children decide which college to attend.

- Ninety percent of those respondents say they are using the web as a primary source of information on schools.

- The topics that parents are seeking include campus safety, admissions requirements, tuition and fees, academic programs and scholarships — not typically what excites their children.

- These web-focused parents report that they will dismiss an institution outright if its site is sub par. “In a chilling rebuff to colleges with inadequate websites,” Dysart writes, “10 percent of parents said they would not recommend a college to their child if the institution’s website did not answer their questions.”

So, while you continue to mold your admissions website to attract college-bound teenagers, remember this advice from the study: You should create content just for parents, make that content easy to find, and consider creating a special section just for them.

To read more of Dysart’s article, visit:
www.todayscampus.com/articles/load.aspx?art=1374

To review the E-Expectations of Parents, click:
www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/ResearchLibrary/E-Expectations.htm