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Lowering Your Standards: Leaving the fancy schmancy out of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook

And Again I Say, “Lower Your Standards.”

Today’s post may be a breath of fresh air to some (one out of two readers). No joke: YouTube is meant to host unprofessional videos. Getting a custom made myspace background for your admission counselor pages takes away their souls. Facebook is meant to not have layouts and too many special applications. So the pressure is off!

In fact, it’s a good idea to purposely not shoot a podcast in HD (though people have gone there). The most succesful podcasts that I’ve made have been strong on the fun and content and weak on the flashy. Sure my transitions may have been off and my camera a little shaky, but prospective students found them really helpful. I put most of my effort on conveying a point in a clear way. If we were giving a tour of a residence hall, I made sure there were times I would pause and just let the viewer look at the dorm room. If we were telling the student about the purpose of a preview day, we would make sure the visuals weren’t distracting (made a slow transition slide show of pictures from the previous year’s event) and put a voice over of a current student explaining the event on the audio track. If the topic was boring, I used the toys on my desk to describe the process (How to Apply) and then put some cheesy computer music as the soundtrack.

It’s Called MySpace and Facebook, Not CorporateFront and CarefullyMarketedMailer

Let your counselors be people on these sites. Let them (make them) post their favorite appropriate song as background music to their site, or a background of LA Galaxy, or pictures of their kitty. This attracts students to their sites. Prospective peeps don’t go to myspace and facebook to look at a school, but they will definitely sign on to socialize with people and your institution may come up in the conversation. Ironically, this generation stares at a monitor (or three if you’re Al Gore) to socialize.

So the little guy wins in creative online marketing. Sure you’ll need an adaquate amount of man-hours to put into developing and initiating a online presence, but most of what I suggest on this site is free technology (besides purchasing a domain–your institution should be able to share its web hosting). As I’ve said in this post, you won’t need a graphic designer or video production crew to draw prospective student interest.

© 2007 Tim Cox.