Transcript Word Of Mouth: Turning Noise into Intelligence Philomena Mantella Senior Vice President Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Northeastern University.

Word Of Mouth:
Turning Noise into Intelligence
Philomena Mantella
Senior Vice President
Enrollment Management and Student Affairs
Northeastern University
Assisted by
Kerry Salerno
Sr. Associate Director of Admissions Marketing and
Communications
Seamus Harreys
Dean, Student Financial Services
Jillian DeTeso
Financial Aid Counselor
Anyone over 2 and under 30
Word of Mouth
 Consumer created marketing-relevant
information
 Also known as consumer generated media
(CGM)
Presentation Objectives
 Create recognition of key shifts
 Create understanding of prevalence and
penetration of CGM in our markets
 Be clear controlling it is not an option don’t react to every post – attempt to get
a handle on the tipping point
Who is Talking?
 Prospective freshmen are the biggest audience
out there
 Current students talk about their experiences
 Parents are biggest user of university sponsored
Blogs
 Alumni are reconnecting outside of the web
through WOM including /university sites/
Groups, classmates.com and other online
community sources
The Freshman Mindset
Who are they?
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“The Millennial Student”
iGeneration
The Net Generation
MyPod Generation
Generation Next
D.A.R.E. Generation
Reality to Generation
Authenticity is the Holy
Grail
College Search Alone
 On an average day, 4% of internet users
 That’s 5 million people!!
 Changes to Enrollment Management
 Stealth applicants (first contact is an application)
account for more than 40% of the applicant pool*
*Eric Hoover “The Rise of the Stealth Applicants” – The Chronicle of Higher Ed; March 31, 2006
“About two-thirds of all economic activity
in the US is influenced by shared
opinions about a product, brand or
service.”
McKinsey Consulting 2005
www.researchandmarkets.com
Online “chatter” is:
 Unfiltered/unadulterated
 Perceived as highly credible and
authentic
It is what they know…
Challenges of WOM
 Perception becomes reality at warp speed
 The starting point may define the direction of the
dialogue
 Its potential impact on our market is huge
 Yes, it is out of “our” control
University are largely focused tactically
Getting in the game:
 Creating Blogs
 Participating in the conversation
 Managing content
Examples
 Online Omsbudsman
 Engage student worker to monitor key blogs/boards who would
provide factual information regarding NU online
 Outreach
 Factual response to inaccuracies on the web to both independent
and commercial sites.
 Student blogs
 not the answer unless they are genuine
 Community ambassadors
 Use your insides
 Buzz Generation
 With bloggers, community voices and websites owners to provide
interesting stories, similar to how we pitch PR
The “real student” bloggers
Market Response
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Helpful and convenient university information
More parents than students
Not perceived as “real” consumer information
“Flogs” versus Blogs
What Should We Focus on?
 The tremendous influence, power and speed of
WOM
 How we can better understand WOM
 It’s impact on traditional marketing
 How can we use it to improve our
understanding of the University
Influence, Power & Speed
AOL HELL
June 15, 2006
June 20, 2006
June 24, 2006
June 25, 2006
June 26, 2006
June 27, 2006
July 14, 2006
Consequence or Concurrent AOL Impact
 In the quarter that ended Sept. 30, AOL lost 2.5
million subscribers
 Revenue declined 3 percent
 AOL abandoned its “pay-to-play” model, is now
trying to succeed as a free service in a very
crowded marketplace
Remember These:
Traditional Media Readership
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The New York Times
1.12M
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The Washington Post
708,000
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The Los Angeles Times
902,000
http://advertising.washpost.com/the_market/20
05General.pdf
“The New Influencers”
By Paul Gillin – Quill Book Spring 2007
Former Editor of Computerworld Magazine
Paul Gillin – www.paulgillin.com
4 million
page hits
per month
30 Million
page views
per day
300,000
downloads per
month
400,00
million
page views
in 2004
WOM Power is Compounded
Given the prevalence and proliferation of sites
discussing the consumer experience and the high
usage by high school and the college age
market…
WOM impact on Universities must
be seriously considered
What is Critical to Explore
 How WOM creates a virtual reality of our
university
 How can it be used to gather market
intelligence
 How WOM can be used internally to create a
deeper community understanding
What we can learn
 The strength of our brand
 A consumer perspective on academic and
student life
 What is driving students’ decisions?
 What starts the best (and worst) conversations
 Where are our brand advocates
 Where/what de-brands our universities
Transparency is not an option, it IS a
reality of the new world.
What is OUR virtual reality?
And what can we do about it?
What’s Out There?
Information sites
Post information from various sources
(that may or may not be correct)
The U: Have you seen
your university’s video?
Sponsored by:
The WB and U.S. News & World Report
Collegeconfidential.com
 Average 300,000 visitors per month
 Founded to “demystify” the admissions
process
 College Counseling – specializing in Ivy
League and elite college counseling
 Staff has served as college counselors
Conversation Starters
College Confidential conversations are
often started by a parent interested in
input on their student’s chances on
getting accepted
livejournal.com
02-28-2007,
08:18 PM
College Confidential
#4
NJres
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov
2004
Threads:
Posts: 1,526
My opinion, impression, whatever you want to call it. What I
mean is my view is not based on anything I have been told by
NEU, but I get the distinct feeling that they use predictive
models provided by fairly sophisticated enrollment consultants
that consider a host of factors in an attempt to predict "what it
will take" to induce a particular student to enroll. That is also
weighed against what they want, so an applicant from an
underrepresented state may get more merit money than a kid
from Massachusetts. That would explain why their awards
appear random to us, but in fact they are not random at all, the
awards are highly calculated.
Networking Sites
Allow users to connect with others
Facebook
More than 7.5 million people registered.
Over 2,200 colleges, 22,000 high school, 2,000 companies.
Has sign up an estimated 90% of all undergrads
Two-thirds of registered people return every day.
People spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily,
according to comSource.
 #1 Photo site on the web with over 1.5 million photos
uploaded daily.
 Was ranked the 7th most trafficked site in the United States.
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What are students doing on Web sites?
 36 % of college-bound juniors have read profiles of
current students; 63% would if they could
 18% have read alumni profiles; 56% would if they could
 30% have read student blogs; 63% would if they could
 17% have read faculty blogs; 83% would if they could
 35% have viewed a virtual tour; 63% would if they
could
Source: Noel-Levitz / James Tower/ NRCCUA E-Expectations 2007 Study
MySpace.com
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More than 50 million members
Fastest growing Web site in the country
75% of members are over the age of 18
Murdoch’s News Corp. bought MySpace for
$580 million one year ago
Social Networks
 85% of teens who have created an online profile they
use or update most often is on Myspace
 Nearly half of teens who use social networks visit the
sites either once a day (26%) or several times a day
(22%), while 17% visit the sites three to five days per
week, 15% visit on to two days per week, and 20% visit
every few weeks or less often
Source: January 2007 Project Data Memo released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project
Dialogue & Opinion Sites
“the bloggosphere…”
Allow users to talk amongst themselves
about your University and other issues and
to rate and review their experiences
LiveJournal.com
 As of 7/11, total accounts:
 Accounts active in some way:
10,626,317
1,851,177
 Top Countries where Livejournal is most popular:
 United States
2,989,290
 Russian Federation
313,625
 Age distribution:
 15
 16
 17
 18
 19
 20
 21
191,427
338,726
416,434
433,467
432,400
401,853
336,701
RateMyProfessors.com
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Over 9,000,000 students use site
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5,300,000 ratings for Professors from
5,542 school
Ratemycoops.com
New resource for NU students to scope out jobs before their first interview
 Students can read evaluations of co-op employers written by former student
employees
 The rankings are compiled from anonymous comments covering an array of
concerns a student might have about a prospective job.
The site contains an index of companies and jobs are rated on criteria ranging from
work atmosphere to the "coolness" of the management.
Inspired by RateMyProfessors.com.
"I intended to create a resource that would assist my peers in making more
informed decisions when picking their potential co-op job.
-Joe Barba, creator Ratemycoops.com - NU student and originator
NU News, 10/11/06
RateMyProfessors: Hidden Camera Edition
There’s a new reason to worry about students with cell phones in your classes.
RateMyProfessors.com, the Web site whose popularity with students is matched
by the grief it gives professors, has launched a new feature, encouraging
students to shoot photographs of their faculty members and to post them along
with the anonymous ratings of professors.
Think RateMyProfessors is going to ask your permission to post a photograph
that you may not even know was taken (camera phones are being recommended
to students)? Of course not, although RateMyProfessor asserts that it has other
quality control mechanisms in place.
In the 48 hours since RateMyProfessors posted information about this new
service on its site, it has received more than 1,200 photographs of professors
and it is in the process of reviewing and uploading them.
Announced on Nov. 2, 2006
YouTube
Online Video
 More than 445 of online Americans (ages 12 to 64)
use online video weekly
 #1 type of video viewed is news, followed by
weather, and movie clips all of which are types of
content produced by professionals, not by
consumers
 The demographic watching online video most
frequently is males ages 25 to 34; 64% of them
watch online video at least once a week
 Among the females the rates are lower with 49% of
female teens watching online video weekly
Source: Magid Media Futures
Totally Sweet Professor
What can we do with our virtual space
 Gather market intelligence
 Spend as much time examining how messages
are received as framing them
 Use it internally to create a deeper community
understanding of our university
 Examine the agility of decision-making
Gathering Market Intelligence?
High Penetration
College
confidential
Princeton
review
Facebook
Myspace
CollegeBoard
Yelp
Low Penetration
Livejournal
Friendster
Campusdirt
Low Activities
High Activities
Our First Pilot
Identified influential sites
Hired firm to monitor CGM
Monitored NU against 2 major competitors
Daily reporting of high importance adverse
(negative) posts to keep NU apprised of
developments to consider action
 Six week analysis
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Issues with Methodology
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Not frequent enough
Not targeted enough
Specific events secured results
Not actionable
Methodology Currently Being Tested
 Retained Cymfony Inc. for site monitoring
 Dashboard designed to maximize analytical view
 Dashboard designed for action
Concluding Thoughts
 Can no longer manage from strengths, centers
of excellence & powerful messaging – the
power of publishing has moved from an elite
few to everybody
 Self-assessment and accurate portrayals are
increasingly important
Learning From Our Students
 Jeffrey Fontas – 19 year old NU student;
won State Rep in New Hampshire
 Sees his knowledge of the internet as a
big advantage
 Jeffrey used his campaign blog and social
networking sites to rally support, voice his
stances on the issues and raise money
Media Credit: News Photo/Zach
Virgilio
Jeff Fontas
Lessons Learned from Facebook
One student’s story
Walter Carl, NU’s Own WOM Expert
 Advisory Board Member, Word of Mouth Marketing Association
(www.womma.org)
 Published many book chapters and journal articles, recent
research investigates word-of-mouth as it is embedded in
routine, everyday communication practices, with a special
emphasis on analyzing actual conversations and unique
relationship histories.
 Faculty Home Page (http://www.waltercarl.neu.edu)
 Download Page (www.waltercarl.neu.edu/downloads/)
 Research Blog (www.wom-study.blogspot.com)
A satisfied person tells one person
A dissatisfied person tells 3
people or is it...
3 million or 10 million
Comment...Question…Discussion
Sites to Watch
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www.collegeboard.com
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www.collegeprowler.com
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www.collegeedge.com
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www.theu.com
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www.collegenet.com
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www.mtvu.com
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www.dialyjolt.com
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www.epinions.com
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www.iagora.com
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www.studentsreview.com
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www.yelp.com
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www.xap.com
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www.Myspace.com
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www.Friendster.com
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www.facebook.com
www.hobsons.com
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www.petersons.com
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www.ratemyprofessors.com
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www.campusdirt.com
Organizational Sites for “True” Experts
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www.chimprawk.blogspot.com
www.womma.com
www.emarketer.com
www.ama.org