Focusing on the Bright and Shiny Object

When I started my current position, I was under the mindset that bright shiny objects were the goal. Creating the next revolutionary recruitment strategy was the way to go. Something that would attract the target audience, and still create efficiencies in the office was exactly what was needed to successfully attract high school students.

So I began to jump on board with every new tech tool and start-up available. I setup Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and Zinch profiles. I started tinkering around with all the settings, exploring the APIs and posting various pieces of content, all while assessing the possibilities for recruitment.

I then bought into the hype of how Universities needed social media managers because the corporate website was going to be extinct. The future of recruiting is through Facebook, YouTube, and elsewhere. I began to prepare for the revolution.

What?! Wait, why would our corporate (or in higher ed's case, institution) site go extinct? It remains the primary source of information for prospective students, and current students must use it on a regular basis to check class notes, communicate with professors, register for classes and check out upcoming on-campus events. News agencies link to our press releases, library research at the very least starts on our sites, and faculty and staff default their start page to us. We have some of the highest trafficked, repeatedly visited sites of any industry.

We have a consumer goldmine. Our students are engaged in our brand for (usually) at least four years. Identities are created in our institutions that live on as alums. Life-changing decisions are made on our campuses, and networks are created. Our students stay loyal to our brand, and invest heavily in it. If our institution's website goes extinct it's because we gave up on it.

In reality, we should be extending our websites. All the time and energy focused on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the likes should be repackaged and applied toward the experiences created on our sites. So much work must be done to break down walled-gardens created by portals and disparate databases. User-experiences need to be consistent, with accessible, applied conventions; timely, personalized and accurate data needs to be presented appropriately; and enrollment processes need streamlined. There is so much foundational work to be done our institutions' sites.

Social networks are awesome, Facebook is not. Online video is great, YouTube channels aren't. Instant messaging is crucial, Twitter isn't.