Recruiting 2.0

Over the past few years 2.0's or new, evolved ways of doing things. One of the more recent 2.0's is recruiting 2.0. This term was first coined by Brian Niles.

Brian Niles, chief executive officer of the interactive recruiting firm TargetX and a former university admissions officer, said such efforts indicate that schools are trying new strategies in their efforts to attract students.
The current group of college-bound students, part of the millennial generation born after 1981, is different from their predecessors in the way they respond to information, Niles said. "These teenagers are much more interactive," he explained. "They want to converse with colleges, not be marketed to. They want to be able to ask questions and comment on what they see and hear. They demand the unvarnished truth and are extremely resistant to hype and advertising speak."

Niles added: "I call this new environment Recruiting 2.0. You can no longer talk at students through publications, direct mail, static web sites, and eMail broadcasts. You have to open a dialog with them."

The fact that recruiting 2.0 has come os quite obvious. However, a majority of colleges and universities out there have not evolved with the students that they are trying to recruit. Sending generic pamphlets is a thing of the past. In todays world a generic printed pamphlet of information will hit the garbage before even being opened.

In today's world the expectations are higher. Prospective students do not want to hear why your school is a great school, they want to know why it fits them personally. Many schools are creating web applications like interactive questionaires. These questionaires then match the traits of the student with traits of their university.

There are also many schools that host chat sessions and video conferences online, where students are able to ask them questions and be provided with immediate and personal answers.

Currently, if you have not fully adopted recruiting 2.0 you can still get by and attract students to your school, however, I predict that in the not so distant future, if you have not fully integrated recruiting 2.0, your institution will struggle to survive.

Printing is no longer necessary...

Several years ago the University of Wisconsin started sending out informational dvds, they gave students a video tour of the campus and showed interviews with current students.  That year their orientation for new students was more full than it had ever been.

They were an early adopter.  They were the first to realize that multi-media was much more effective in recruiting young people than old style printed pamphlets.  They also realized that in the end the cost to mass produce a dvd, was far less than the cost of printing all of their material on paper.

The use of multi-media for recruiting is not being used by most Universities.  However, sending physical copies of dvds in the mail is now becoming a thing of the past.  Schools have now realized that they do not have to pay to distribute their media.

Now there is www.youtube.com/edu and while many Universities have begun to take part in this online community.  However many schools including the University of Montana have not adopted this highly effective technology.

Eventually I am sure that all schools will take part in this and youtube.com/edu will be a major factor in students choosing colleges.