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The purpose of this document is to showcase best practices in digital marketing for Business
schools to evaluate and implement. These recommendations are a result of numerous
interactions with MBA students in various leading Business schools across the world,
monitoring of business school forums and LinkedIn groups as well as benchmarking analysis
with the top 40 global MBA programs.
In particular this document takes a look at the following digital estates and compares them
with examples of schools considered as pioneers and leaders in showcasing their Brand.
School Website
Facebook ................................................................................................................................. 14
Twitter..................................................................................................................................... 16
LinkedIn ................................................................................................................................... 18
Blogs........................................................................................................................................ 19
Thus not only is it important to have a powerful and engaging website which showcases all
the basic and important information in an easy to navigate fashion, it is also important to
make sure that the website is Search Engine optimized and comes up as the top result on
any online query when the school is searched.
Given the quick pace of innovation in web and internet technology achieving the above
requires constant attention and commitment to ensure the school website plays a major
role in communicating the brand promise and credibility of the educational institution.
A Business school is essentially a service enterprise providing knowledge and wisdom to the
students who choose to receive it. Best practices evaluating the impact of a website for a
service business brand indicates that potential clients of service businesses now form a good
part of their initial opinion of a firm based on the firm's website. During their first website
visit, prospects spend a minute or two quickly evaluating the following three questions:
1. How clearly does the management of this service company communicate? Based
on the flow of content, clarity of content and professional look of a website,
potential clients develop a first impression of how well the people in the firm
communicate.
2. How modern is this service firm? Service business clients want to know that their
service providers are actively engaged in staying current with new technologies and
approaches to service delivery. If a service firm has a website that looks like it was
built in 1998 with 1998 technologies for 1998 buyers, it raises questions in buyers'
minds of just how current the firm really is.
3. Is this firm attentive to detail? Mistakes such as bad grammar and typos, broken
links, and out-of-date current events raise questions of quality.
All of the above applies to a great extent to Business schools and it is not uncommon to hear
students rate a school’s program just on the basis of their first impression formed by
viewing the school website.
“If the school’s website is so bad I can only imagine what the teaching would be like”
“I couldn’t find basic information about the program even after spending more than an
hour on the school website. Certainly makes me skeptical about studying there”
This perception is also proven by means of a study performed by The Princeton Review in
trying to understand website usage in undergraduate and graduate school search
As the data depicts MBA applicants lay the highest stress to a school’s website during the
initial investigation (ID) and final choice stages. These stages are the most important in
terms of attracting bright and talented students and since they don’t involve any
intervention on the part of the school it is important that the information found by the
process of self-discovery be of the highest quality.
To finally nail in this point a 2009 MBA.com registrants’ survey surveyed 97% of all students
who registered to take the GMAT in the first 9 months of 2008. Of this audience, 97% of the
students had visited the websites of schools where they planned to apply. Of these 73%
respondents considered the school website to be very or extremely influential in their
decision.
Best Practices
Based upon research and benchmarking with top business schools it has been established
that the following schools have implemented best practices in terms of engagement and
brand communication through a school website.
Each of these schools showcase the following recommended best practices in their
communication
Make the basics stand out – Schools often get carried away and end up showcasing
information that is not that important. 70% of the times students are only looking
for basic information such as type of programs offered, recent news about the
school and the alumni, presence on other online platforms etc. Thus, it is important
to make sure that the basics are easily visible and clearly explained.
The above are important yet basic examples of best practices that schools should consider
while creating their websites. In today’s fast changing world where new technological
innovations happen by the hour, new trends that catch on develop into needs, which
demand to be incorporated into the existing ecosystem.
Thus, the explosion of social media and niche networks has now become an intrinsic part of
any organization’s marketing strategy. These are further explored from here on.
Whether traditional institutions and leaders of the present day brought up in a world very
different from today accept it or not, the truth is that the past decade has seen an eruption
in the growth of and adoption of social media. As a result of this, Social media marketing
(SMM) which was earlier thought to be the indulgence of early adopters and lead users has
now become an intrinsic part of the marketing strategy for numerous organizations around
the world.
Besides its ability to create close-knit communities and portray businesses as human, caring
and conversational their use across the marketing mix also lowers cost and improves ROMI.
Social Media (aka “inbound”) marketing efforts are more cost effective and an average of
60% lower cost per lead than traditional outbound marketing efforts.
Source: Inbound Marketing Cost Per Lead Is 60% Lower Than Outbound
Also apart from the benefits that it brings in helping a business school’s marketing team
achieve its objectives and stay within budget it also fosters and creates a community and
contributes greatly towards creating the right brand image of the school in the minds of
prospective, current and graduated students.
Thus it can be hypothesized that Social Media channels help foster virtual communities
which contributes greatly to a better student experience and creating a suitable
environment for prospective future student referrals.
Finally, there is no doubt whatsoever that strong social media presence is the “need of the
hour and the requirement of the future”
Within the next 3-4 years a majority of the Business school applicants will belong to
Generation – Y who as of today not only use but “live, sleep and breathe social media” in all
respects. This along with the fact that a number of prominent business schools are devoting
significant resources to showcase themselves as pioneers and leaders in this space means
that if you don’t start now it’ll be too late to catch-up.
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Ideally speaking the “bar” above is what should be visible on the homepage of a Business
school as it indicates good presence on all major social media channels.
Best Practices
Best practices for Social media are best explored in detail by evaluating the different
networks separately. These platforms and schools that use them are explored in the
sections below.
YouTube
Every Business school should endeavor to have their own customized and branded YouTube
Channel that can showcase professionally made videos regarding the program. It can also
include Student made videos and these videos can be showcased on its website plus other
online properties such as BusinessBecause, student, faculty or admissions blogs, new
student orientation micro-sites or as part of PR and marketing campaigns.
This channel should then be showcased on the school Website, Brochures and on all other
important communication outlets leveraged by the school. Videos are excellent engagement
tools and a well made 2-3 minute video can say a lot about the program and its various
elements.
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Based on the analysis of the YouTube pages of the above schools and general best practices
it is recommended that each Business school in creating their YouTube Channel ensure the
following:
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Divide the videos into categories –It is recommended that there be a good mix of
videos on the channel showcasing official communications, lectures, student events,
ceremonies etc. This would help promote engagement and meet desired objectives
in terms of channel statistics such as number of subscribers, total upload views etc
Acquire a customized link and create engagement within the community first – It is
always better to have a customized link in the form of www.youtube.com/schoolA
rather than www.youtube.com/user/schoolA as it indicates attention to detail for
your brand. Also as a first step it is important to create engagement for the channel
within the school community itself as that is the easiest target audience to reach out
to.
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The page should be showcased on the school website and included in all other online
properties as well as other Marketing material.
Facebook allows users to have conversations with one another and allows the school to
monitor these conversations, provide clarifications where required, promote community
engagement and be seen as a proactive institution and brand.
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Use all relevant options and sub-pages – Facebook pages provides the flexibility to
add and drop modules from your facebook page to suit your requirements. It is
advisable to use as many of these that are relevant to your brand. E.g. if you have a
YouTube channel then that can be linked on your facebook page as a module.
Consequently if you would like to promote discussions amongst your members on
your page then such a module can also be added and used.
Acquire a customized url – Again, many schools ignore the fact that it is possible to
have a customized url for your facebook page which reads like
www.facebook.com/abcSchool rather than having a long and complex default url
which is not SEO friendly and is hard to showcase as part of other marketing
collateral.
Twitter
The use of Twitter as a means to connect with customers has only picked up in the last year
and continues to experience huge growth. As the use of mobile devices continues to
increase so does the use of mobile data. Twitter again is a great outlet to connect with
prospective students and Alumni.
An Alumnus of a school who is active on Twitter would love to get relevant updates from
the school from time to time and will get a feeling of staying connected with the school
even if he/she passed out many years ago. For current students, Twitter provides a personal
and credible channel to connect with the Alumni and showcase their interests in a particular
field that the Alum can notice, thus improving their prospects to find a job.
For prospective students it again provides a great way to learn about the school and helps
improve the brand and image of the school as part of their perception.
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Brand your account and tweet regularly – Twitter is the most viral social media
channel and what sets it apart from other channels is that all traffic to your twitter
feed is inbound. A person may or may not choose to “follow” a school’s twitter feed
depending on the content of the twitter feed, tweet frequency, follower to following
ratio and brand appearance. Thus, it is important to brand your account by using the
right images and design for your twitter account and homepage. It is also important
to tweet regularly. This frequency has to be just right and the best practices for
brands suggest between 5 – 7 tweets per day at regularly spaced intervals
Showcase your core values and competencies that set you apart – The content of
your tweets should showcase the core values and competencies of your brand that
will help attract followers looking for those characteristics. E.g. if your school is a
leader in creating entrepreneurs and promoting entrepreneurships then a certain
percentage of your tweets should be focused on startups, funding, new business
ideas etc. If your brand is located in a lesser known geographic location then it is also
useful to tweet about the benefits of studying in such a place including information
about the economy, growth prospects etc
Create a conversation and act Social – Unlike any other Social Media channels,
Twitter is a platform where conversations happen in real time and there are plenty
of ways to thank your followers, appreciate your competitors and create an admired
reputation. Thus it is not enough to brand your account and tweet the right content
regularly, but also to create conversations, acknowledge mentions, re-tweet etc
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is yet another social media channel that has emerged as a powerful tool within the
Business community in the past two years. MBA students and graduates are by far the most
active users of LinkedIn which is today considered to be a vital tool to create, maintain and
advance your professional network.
Recruiters and companies are also increasingly using LinkedIn to scout and source for talent,
advertise jobs and portray themselves as being active in the social media space.
For Business school students and graduates LinkedIn provides an excellent opportunity to
stay in touch with one another thereby allowing the school to showcase itself as one that
promotes strong and supportive relations amongst its alumni. Business school education is
known for the strength of its network and the connections that one develops in the process
and this fact can be re-enforced through the effective use of LinkedIn.
The use of LinkedIn for a Business School should involve creating a LinkedIn group and
LinkedIn page as described below
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Students are usually more active than institutions in this regard due to which many LinkedIn
groups for prominent schools are setup and run by the Alumni groups.
LinkedIn groups allow the alumni to communicate with graduates from various years and
use it as a place to find talent and candidates for suitable job openings. It allows students to
network with their alumni for career advancement as well seek guidance and support with
regards to coursework, personal research, answers etc
Schools can also use the medium to deliver important updates and notifications regarding
their program
LinkedIn Pages
LinkedIn recently launched a feature called “Company Pages” which allows corporate
organizations to create custom pages for themselves showcasing a brief description of the
company, their employees on the LinkedIn network, previous companies where the
employees used to work, popular profiles, new hires, recent promotions etc.
A Business school run as responsible corporate organization is highly regarded amongst its
target audience and thus it advisable that Business schools create a LinkedIn page
showcasing the school and the people affiliated to it.
This would act as a highly powerful extension to the school website allowing prospective
students, publications and researchers to reach out to the right people within the school.
Blogs
Business School Admissions and marketing teams are increasingly showcasing student blogs
and faculty blogs as part of their marketing communication efforts. Schools are using
Admission Blogs where admission advisors provide extra details regarding the admissions
process, tips on writing essays, useful admissions resources etc. This helps to improve
productivity and saves the admissions team to answer the same questions repeatedly to
different enquiries.
A Business school should endeavor to collect information about Student Blogs during the
time of Student Recruitment and Orientation and showcase the good blogs on its website
and other channels of communication. It should also showcase faculty blogs and specially
highlight its Admissions Blog.
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Thereafter if your school has the necessary resources and inclination to further showcase
itself as strong brand that seeks to attract and retain the best candidates, then the following
tools can be used to achieve an unparalleled digital reputation.
Business school Marketing and Admissions teams very often needs to find good pictures
showcasing student life, campus life, student events, school events etc as part of their
marketing material, in answering student queries and on various other occasions. By
creating an official branded flickr page a school can save a lot of effort, greatly optimize
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Such an initiative does not only help build engagement amongst existing students who are
mostly very proactive when it comes sharing images of their experiences, it is also of great
value add to prospective students trying to choose amongst several schools of their choice.
As shown above, Wharton school of Business has a flickr page that is showcased as part of
their Social Media presence. This page is updated frequently and highlights the latest
events, conferences, alumni summits and student trips in the form of high quality pictures
that are available to be viewed publicly.
Online Magazines/Publications
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Harvard Business School has pioneered this concept with Harvard Business Publishing that is
a powerful enterprise in itself owing to its supreme stature and royal reputation. Many
other reputed Business schools have aimed to create similar showcases of their knowledge
and research mostly in the form online magazines and websites.
The picture above showcases”Dividend” – The Alumni Magazine of Stephen M Ross School
of Business at the University of Michigan. Such efforts are an excellent way to stay in touch
with Alumni, keep them engaged and informed about latest trends in Business school
education as well as interesting developments in terms of the growth of the school.
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In summary it can be said that Social Media and digital presence allow an institution to act
in a proactive fashion and showcase themselves to their target audience in an appealing and
interactive manner. In today’s world where there is an abundance of choices every
institution is keen on attracting and retaining the best talent available. This can only be
achieved if your target audience can find you, appreciate your offering and commitment to
their growth and development and interact with you.
As of today, the second decade of the 21st century this cannot be achieved without investing
in a strong digital presence.
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BusinessBecause is a new one of its kind social network targeted at Business Schools as well
as Business School students across the entire spectrum i.e. prospective students, current
students and recent graduates.
The network has pioneered the concept of “community journalism” wherein current or
former students contribute stories related to their business school experience/journey
which are then showcased as feature or member stories. BusinessBecause is currently the
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The power of the BusinessBecause network if used wisely can greatly complement the
schools existing marketing communication efforts both in digital and print medium.
The network is a must have for schools that find it difficult to chart the complex terrain of
digital marketing on their own, lack expertise or face numerous roadblocks with regards to
approvals and organizational politics to achieve best practices in marketing
communications.
For instance, Ranke – Heinemann is an online directory of all Australian and New Zealand
based educational institutions targeted at students in Europe but in particular students from
Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Thus if you are a business school in Australia or New
Zealand looking to attract students from these regions it makes sense to be a featured
partner with Ranke-Heinemann
Similarly PagalGuy is a leading MBA forum in India and attracts millions of MBA aspirants
from India who visit the site to discuss and share their journey to get into Business school.
By means of a strategic partnership with PagalGuy a school can showcase its program to its
target customers based in India.
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Today, 10 years later the world is completely different. The expanse and scope of the
internet is virtually infinite and people are almost able to live on the internet every day.
There is an information overload given the open structure of the web and without the aid of
search engines we would be in no state to navigate through all the available information.
Thus not only is it important to have a strong digital presence but it is also highly important
to make sure that all the digital channels of communication are unified and work for one
another.
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“School related websites” in this context refers to all the social media channels described
above viz. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, school publications, papers as well
as a sponsored profile page with BusinessBecause. A Business school needs to ensure that
all these channels of communication that “live outside” the school website appear to be
related to the school and are acting as extensions of the school website.
This is only possible if the school clearly showcases its involvement in social media channels
on its website and thereafter re-enforces each of them for one another. E.g. a YouTube
video should have a short description of the video and should mention that more
information can be obtained by visiting the school website. Tweets from the school’s
account should mention that the school is also present on YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Articles in student, faculty or admissions blogs should also mention the presence of the
school on other networks and so on.
It is only when all digital investments are perfectly synchronized that an organization, school
or brand will be able to maximize the results and achieve its desired goals and objectives.
To conclude it can be said that “Digital is the future” and it is a universal best practice to
“stay in the present and focus on the future”.
This report has been compiled by Mr.Kirti Dhingra, founder and editor at DelhiPlanet Media
which pioneers in creating online e-zines offering engaging content in the areas of lifestyle,
technology, entertainment, global trends and analysis. Kirti holds a bachelor in Computer
Science Engineering from Manipal University in India. He is also an MBA from AGSM, UNSW,
Sydney and Kellogg School of Management, Chicago, USA.
DelhiPlanet Media currently operates two online e-zines, DelhiPlanet and GlobalMasala. It
also offers digital marketing and brand consulting services to Business Schools and online
networks that work with Business Schools.
If you have any comments or feedback about this report then please send Kirti an e-mail on
kirtidhingraATgmailDOTcom
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The Social Media Bible - Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success
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