Word Of Mouth:Turning Noise into Intelligence

Philomena MantellaSenior Vice President

Enrollment Management and Student Affairs

Northeastern University

Assisted byKerry Salerno

Sr. Associate Director of Admissions Marketing and Communications

Seamus HarreysDean, Student Financial Services

Jillian DeTesoFinancial 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

Who are they? “The Millennial

Student” iGeneration The Net Generation MyPod Generation Generation Next D.A.R.E. Generation Reality to Generation

Authenticity is the Holy Grail

The Freshman Mindset

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

College Search Alone

“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

Unfiltered/unadulterated Perceived as highly credible and

authentic

It is what they know…

Online “chatter” is:

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

Challenges of WOM

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

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, 2006June 24, 2006

June 25, 2006June 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

The New York Times 1.12M

The Washington Post 708,000

The Los Angeles Times 902,000

http://advertising.washpost.com/the_market/2005General.pdf

“The New Influencers”

By Paul Gillin – Quill Book Spring 2007

Former Editor of Computerworld Magazine

Paul Gillin – www.paulgillin.com

30 Million page

views per day

4 million page hits per month

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 2004Threads: 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 SitesAllow 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.

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

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: 10,626,317 Accounts active in some way: 1,851,177

Top Countries where Livejournal is most popular: United States 2,989,290 Russian Federation 313,625

Age distribution: 15 191,427

16 338,726 17 416,434 18 433,467 19 432,400 20 401,853 21 336,701

RateMyProfessors.com

Over 9,000,000 students use site

5,300,000 ratings for Professors from 5,542 school

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

Ratemycoops.com

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

Online VideoYouTube

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

Low Penetration

Low Activities High Activities

Campusdirt

Princetonreview

Livejournal

Facebook

Myspace

Collegeconfidential

YelpFriendster

CollegeBoard

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

Issues with Methodology

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• www.collegeboard.com

• www.collegeedge.com

• www.collegenet.com

• www.dialyjolt.com

• www.facebook.com

• www.hobsons.com

• www.petersons.com

• www.ratemyprofessors.com

• www.campusdirt.com

• www.collegeprowler.com

• www.theu.com

• www.mtvu.com

• www.epinions.com

• www.iagora.com

• www.studentsreview.com

• www.yelp.com

• www.xap.com

• www.Myspace.com

• www.Friendster.com

Organizational Sites for “True” Experts

www.chimprawk.blogspot.com www.womma.com www.emarketer.com www.ama.org