| The global economic recession has had varying impact | | | | chicklet to your Web site and RSS feed. By making |
| on education sector across countries. The financial | | | | tagging and bookmarking easy for users, it encourages |
| crisis has negatively impacted state budgets, and | | | | readers to submit the content for you. |
| therefore, education, which is largely state or | | | | Less than.06% of the blogosphere garners all the |
| public-financed, has also been impacted. There are | | | | attention, links and authority when stacked up against |
| cultural variations too; Asians tend to place higher value | | | | the rest of 133 million blogs indexed by Technorati. If |
| on education and therefore education sector in | | | | you want attention, interest and links, you absolutely |
| countries like India has been considered | | | | aim to be included in that.06%. You need to |
| recession-proof. | | | | consistently create useful and unique content. |
| According to International Labour Organization's (ILO) | | | | Publish your college page on Facebook with frequent |
| assessment report of education sector, in many | | | | updates on events and abstract of research by |
| European countries - Austria, Finland, France, Germany, | | | | faculty. Several basic Facebook Applications are |
| Ireland, Italy, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Spain and the | | | | available for Business pages |
| United Kingdom, there have been cuts in education | | | | Discussion Boards: Enable students to publish their |
| budgets either as a result of a reduction in overall | | | | ideas |
| expenditure on education or only in particular areas of | | | | Reviews: Students can leave honest opinions about |
| education. In North America and in some Latin | | | | your institution. |
| American countries, education spending is being | | | | Video: you can upload video of college events or |
| reduced in particular areas. | | | | campus tour. |
| In India, the education sector in private space has | | | | Events: Organize gatherings or let people know about |
| escaped major blow; and is attracting private equity | | | | your upcoming events. |
| (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds. According to a | | | | Wall: The Wall is an open forum for students to leave |
| "Private Equity Pulse - Education" report by Venture | | | | comments, |
| Intelligence, the PE and VC funds have already | | | | Linkedin |
| invested $300 million in domestic education firms. | | | | 1. Create a LinkedIn company profile for your college |
| Education Sector Needs to Adopt Internet Marketing | | | | 2. The key to building out your institution's LinkedIn |
| In the face of economic downturn, the education | | | | network is to ensure that everyone is participating. By |
| sector needs to utilize internet marketing effectively to | | | | getting your faculty, staff and alumini to join and link to |
| attract local and international students, faculty and | | | | each other, you'll grow your college network |
| funding. | | | | exponentially. |
| Students joining colleges and universities today have | | | | 3. Include targeted keywords in your company's profile |
| been exposed to the Internet since childhood. They | | | | 4. Create unique anchor text for links |
| spend a good part of their time being online using | | | | 5. Activate your blog feed to your homepage on |
| multiple devices. They are savvy in using the world | | | | LinkedIn |
| wide web to find information and use social networking | | | | Webinar: Consider hosting webinars where |
| sites and instant messenger to stay connected with | | | | prospective students can ask questions on text chat. |
| each other. How teenagers and young adults receive, | | | | You can record and upload webinar events on college |
| process, and act on information has fundamentally | | | | website. |
| changed. They do research online and form opinions | | | | SEO for Education Sector |
| before selecting an institution to apply for admission. | | | | SEO will remain the most important tool in the arsenal |
| Adoption of Social Media | | | | of internet marketing for schools, colleges and |
| Recent studies show that 13% of the Fortune 500 and | | | | universities. Prospective students perform research on |
| 39% of the Inc. 500 currently have a public blog. It is | | | | search engines to select institution to apply for |
| interesting to note that college admissions departments | | | | admission. Foreign students form a substantial |
| continue to lead the pack with blogs at 41% of US | | | | proportion of student population in countries like USA, |
| colleges and universities. | | | | UK and Australia. |
| A research report "Colleges and Universities Adopt | | | | It is interesting to note from a random survey of |
| Social Media to Recruit and Research Potential | | | | college websites that basic SEO principles are not |
| Students" draws following conclusions: | | | | followed. |
| 1. Adoption is being driven by admissions departments' | | | | Not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages |
| recognition of the increasing importance of social | | | | (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character) as well as static |
| media in today's world. | | | | pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the |
| 2. Usage of YouTube has also increased substantially. | | | | number of them few. Web pages that are hidden |
| Video is now being used to deliver virtual tours of | | | | behind search forms (when people submit the form |
| campuses, virtual visits to the dorms, and sample | | | | your website generates a page with content that is |
| lectures from the faculty. | | | | specifically written for that query) cannot be accessed |
| 3. 78% of private schools have blogs, versus 28% of | | | | by search engine robot. Search engine robots don't fill |
| public schools, and 50% of schools with undergraduate | | | | out forms or select from pull-down menus. |
| populations of less than 2,000 have blogs. | | | | Some random, examples of dynamic content from |
| There is evidence that these powerful tools are not | | | | college websites with search engine unfriendly URLs |
| being utilized to their potential. Schools using social | | | | are:eco.cba.cmich.edu/default2.asp?40.3 of Central |
| media must adopt social media optimization best | | | | Michigan Universityhputx.edu/s/668 |
| practices in order to maximize their effectiveness. | | | | 874&calcid=1263 of Howard Payne |
| Merely publishing a blog will not result in being read by | | | | Universitybrownmackie.edu/Programs |
| the prospective students. The blog must be optimized | | | | default.aspx?discipline=13&program=296 of Brown |
| for both social media and search engines. | | | | Mackie College |
| Social Media Marketing techniques | | | | There are several solutions available to make hidden |
| You must create something unique, compelling and | | | | pages accessible: create a html sitemap with links to all |
| worthy enough of being submitted and linked to. Add | | | | hidden pages. If the number of pages is too large, |
| value to users, including links to areas that could help | | | | create a xml sitemap and submit to search engines. |
| them with their goals and purposes. Your college blog | | | | There are many tools available that will re-create a |
| should be the student communities first source of | | | | dynamic site in static form. There are also tools that |
| information finding. Students will link to your social site | | | | will re-write your URLs, if you have too many |
| and tag is as helpful or the 'ultimate' guide in that space: | | | | parameters, to "look" like regular non-dynamic URLS. |
| for example, career counseling for student community. | | | | Frames are another big turn-off for search engine |
| Post blog to Social Media sites: Del.icio.us, Digg, | | | | robots. Using frames can prevent them from finding |
| StumbleUpon, Flickr, MySpace, Reddit, Spurl, Blinklist, | | | | pages within a Web site or cause them to send |
| Shadows, Simply, Yahoo Answers. | | | | visitors into a site without the proper frame "context" |
| Place a retweet button on your blog articles. | | | | being established. There are many websites still using |
| Have a RSS feed of Blog for people to subscribe to. | | | | frames, e.g. website of Rice School of Architecture |
| Make your content more accessible by tags and to | | | | and Aravali Institute of Management. |
| add a "Digg This", "Add to del.icio.us" or Technorati | | | | |