What we can do & what you can do:
Our most important recommendations are in italics. Focus first on these with your limited time.
Recruiting prospective students for your program
- High touch, interpersonal contact directly with prospective students.
- (Weekly) Monitor the funnel report provided to your department.
- Phone calls: to all admitted students in your program.
- Meet with students during campus visits.
- Send “personal” emails (ideally to all inquiries for your program using a template). Record interaction using Groove.
- Send personal mail (e.g. thank you cards) after visit with students (Admissions provides cards/address/etc.).
- Make sure and log all interactions in Salesforce.
- Build relationships with high school teachers in your field (esp. local & Mennonite high schools).
- Speak at key high schools and/or churches.
- (Annually) Website: Review the information on your programs of study websites and update. If you forget how to, here’s a good refresher. If you have questions or problems, contact web designer/developer Micah Miller-Eshleman in Com-Mar.
- While Com-Mar is continually improving the functionality and features of goshen.edu, as well as marketing approaches, it is primarily the responsibility of academic departments and administrative offices to keep the content up to date on all their associated webpages. Com-Mar is committed to offering assistance when needed and regular training/educational opportunities.
- Good content for adding:
- News/features section: awards, interesting student projects, photo album from an event/special activity (anything you wish Com-Mar would have written a press release about but didn’t)
- New alumni profiles (ideally from the last 10 years). Contact alumni directly for an appropriate photo and for information about what they are doing and how their GC education has helped them.
Alumni engagement (including connecting current students with grads)
- Set up a profile on LinkedIn. Use it as a way to keep track of graduates professionally from your department, be a recommendation and network with peers in your field.
- Pass on alumni updates to the Alumni Office as hear from your graduates.
- Facebook group (Please communicate with Com-Mar before setting up either a group or a page, and we can assist you. And note the college’s social media policy.):
- The benefits of a Facebook group are that you can restrict membership, everyone in a group can post and those posts will show up on each other’s newsfeeds. Creating a Facebook group (not a page) could serve as an alternative to a department newsletter as a way to stay connected with alums (ex. Goshen College Music Alumni & Friends, in contrast to the Music Department Facebook page). You will need to “moderate” a bit (a minimal time investment), though your first goal is to get your grads/current students added to it. This is great for giving updates from the department, sharing news links about alums, successes and opportunities.
- The benefits of a Facebook page (ex. Goshen College Music Department) are that you are able to advertise, it is available to anyone and you are able to track the page’s analytics/engagement. But it is more of a one-way conversation since only the page’s posts show up on follower’s newsfeeds.
- If you are choosing between these approaches, generally Com-Mar would recommend a Facebook group.
- Com-Mar has begun a monthly gathering for conversation, tips and education related to professional use for social media on campus. Contact Jodi Beyeler if interested in joining that group.
- Annual department newsletter (if not already doing this, don’t feel guilty)
- If doing a print version, use a Goshen College template (InDesign). Com-Mar’s graphic designer Hannah Gerig-Meyer can assist with this and the layout.
- If sending out as an HTML email, use a Goshen College template (MailChimp). Com-Mar can assist in the implementation.
- Any new content you create can/should be repurposed or used in various channels (a news/feature post on your webpage, FB post, etc.). If you are going to spend the time on it, make it reach as far as possible.
- Content suggestions:
- Focus on alums who graduated 10 years on less.
- Highlight special GC opportunities of and for currently-enrolled students (internships, research, SST, etc.).
- Don’t focus too much on faculty activities except as it directly connects to current student research or opportunities.
Sharing your expertise and raising your professional profile/brand
- (Annually) Review and update your faculty profile page online. If you forget how to, here’s a good refresher.
- Faculty and staff are always encouraged to talk to reporters about topics within their area of expertise. However, when you are asked to comment on an institutional question or an issue that relates to the college as a whole, such as human resources concerns or general institutional policies, please refer the reporter to the Communications and Marketing Office, which will determine the appropriate spokesperson for the college.
- When news happens that relates to your area of expertise, consider writing an op-ed for local, regional or national media. Com-Mar can assist in getting it placed, though typically needs to be written fairly quickly after events to be relevant.
- Write articles for a non-academic audience, making your research and expertise more accessible and relevant to a wider audience. Build a following online (via blogging or social media) with regular posts sharing your unique insights and perspectives.
- More ideas and suggestions…
Promoting events
- As setting up, first determine: Is there an audience for it? Do you have the time to properly plan and promote your event? Have you allocated funds for promoting the event properly?
- Consider if there are appropriate external partners that you could collaborate with and reach a larger audience (churches, organizations, media, businesses, etc.).
- Make sure information about event is complete (including a helpful description and ideally a photo) on the online calendar (goshen.edu/calendar) and helpful for off-campus people (spell out building names, use area code on phone numbers, link to where can order tickets, etc.).
- Create a list of appropriate high school contacts within 50 miles to send emails, mailings.
- Assign students in your classes to attend and ask others to assign students to attend.
- Use the Communicator and Faculty/Staff Bulletin to promote on campus.
- Communications and Marketing will (if we have the appropriate information): include in monthly events email, write/distribute press release, share Facebook events on the GC Facebook page, tweet about events, send announcement about to local church bulletins (if relevant for audience), help you determine appropriate print materials (posters, postcards, programs) to meet needs and design, assist with paid advertising (online, radio, newspapers, TV). Talk with Com-Mar at least 8 weeks before your event (longer if it is for a conference).
- Distribute/post print publicity materials after created (including getting list from Advancement or Admissions, depending who you are sending it to).
- Create a Facebook event. Tips:
- Make sure and add event photo.
- Post a link to the press release on the event when it comes out.
- Keep event name as short as can (long ones get cut off) and don’t duplicate info that’s in the event details. Think like an off-campus person and what they need to know: full name of locations (not abbrev.), web links, all details, etc.
- You can schedule events for publication if don’t want them to be live immediately.
- Invite people you know will be interested to the event (and have your students do that as well). On Facebook, you can only invite your friends.
- Once you do create an event, let Com-Mar know and we can add it to the GC FB page (and you can ask other pages that are relevant to do that as well).
- You can post to the event to engage attendees: updates, photos, related links, etc.
- If want to put a little money behind, could promote the event with advertising. Talk with Dominique Burgunder-Johnson if interested in this.