I’ve been keeping tabs on John Bell’s Digital Influence Mapping Project, which focuses on innovations in the PR and marketing space… innovations that lead to more genuine connections between a brand and its constituents. John is Executive Creative Director and Managing Director of Oglivy PR’s 360° Digital Influence program.

Earlier today, I received his latest email, which talked about WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. WOMMA recently released their Influencer Handbook, which provides practitioners of word of mouth marketing with the following information:

• Definition of an influencer and influencer marketing
• Types of influencers
• Methods to engage and thank influencers
• Guidelines for influencer self-regulation
• Bibliography of influencer communication research and practice

The Influencer Handbook is full of good advice and definitely worth the read if your job is to figure out how to enhance your level of engagement with your school’s various constituent groups. We’re all having to learn how to accomplish more within a limited budget, so improving our word of mouth marketing skills can only help.

I started using Twitter a few months ago as a self-imposed research assignment, to try to get a handle on what someone would really get out of it. When I first heard folks talking about it, it sounded like a great tool if you were out and about a lot, trying to meet up with friends, letting friends know where you are and where you’re planning to go. But for those of us who don’t have many evening outings anymore (bar-hopping is quite a thing of the past for me, with 10 month old twins now the focus of my nights), it didn’t seem like something useful.

I confess, my view of Twitter was rather short sighted. Since joining, I’ve discovered that Twitter IS another way to remain connected, but not necessarily with just your friends and people you already know. Your list of who you are following and who’s following you seems to grow organically, as it does with other social media. But if it’s a dialogue, it’s a different kind of dialogue. It’s really an information exchange – real-time postings from an event you’re attending, news items, humorous observations, or just how you happen to be feeling at that moment or what mundane task you might be engaged in. It’s a wonderful mix of all of these things, and as you “follow” someone on Twitter, an image of them begins to take shape, pieced together from the many comments they’ve made and information they’ve shared. It’s pretty cool.

Now that I’ve become more familiar with how Twitter works, I’ve started reading up on how it applies to secondary and higher ed. In August, the blog .eduGuru offered up a smart take on how the higher education community should approach using Twitter. In her post, Karlyn Morissette, Web Producer for Dartmouth, suggested that rather than looking at how other schools might be using Twitter, instead look at how other industries are using it to communicate with their audiences. She references organizations running the gamut from Home Depot to NASA to the American Cancer Society. After you study how other varied industries are using Twitter, it’s pretty easy to begin seeing how it might be utilized by secondary and higher ed.  Athletics updates. Campus visit events. Application deadlines. Performance announcements. Alumni events. Links to audio or video of important lectures. Links to news items featuring your institution (think media momentum as mentioned in my last post). Appropriate audiences? Current students, prospective students, parents, alumni… anyone with a vested interest in learning about what’s going on at your institution.

With the number of Twitter apps exploding, and the number of individuals and organizations participating in the Twitter-verse growing by the minute, it looks like Twitter is here to stay, at least for a while. If you haven’t jumped in already, it’s time. If you already tweet, add Stein to your list.

To piggyback on Kathryn’s post about the social media session at NACAC, I wanted to mention a blog called Servant of Chaos by a fella in Australia named Gavin Heaton. Gavin describes his blog as an “interactive diary capturing my thinking on branding, digital strategy and the art of storytelling.”

Gavin’s post from September 3rd is focused on best practices in social media. He shares a list of best practices compiled from a variety of sources and adds a new one of his own: Tell a story.

Those of us working in higher education marketing embrace storytelling in the publications we create, the web sites we manage, and the blogs we write…. and this now carries forth into the myriad other social media options available. His succinct list of best practices is definitely worth a read as you continue to build your brand online.

Last week, AdAge ran an article about corporations rethinking the value of question-and-answer consumer surveys. While still spending lots and lots of money on survey-based research, major companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever are starting to focus on “digital chatter,” the comments and insights provided on blogs and social networks, as better indicators of customer attitudes.

Why the shift?

“You can’t ask people what they want, because what they say and what they do are two different things,” said Artie Bulgrin, senior VP-research and sales for ESPN…. “We can actually improve our [initiative's] success rate if we just listen a bit more … on a passive basis.”

If what people say and do differ when it comes to something like laundry detergent and frozen foods, imagine the discrepancies when it comes to decisions they’re emotionally invested in, like choosing a school. And imagine the discrepancies when your respondents are seventeen years old. (Some schools are already engaging in this kind of digital listening and qualitative analysis for precisely these reasons.)

This article also reminded me of a terrific blog entry by John Bell on “digital listening” from August that’s well worth checking out (h/t Jenny): Digital PR Skills 2008: Deploy Live “Listening Posts”

The full AdAge article is here.

This time of year is like an early Christmas at Stein. Client projects are finishing up for fall delivery, and almost daily we get in samples of completed publications. Here are some recent printed pieces that are standouts.

Wesley College

Welsey College was looking for a complete redesign of its admissions campaign with a goal of shifting perception from a regional college to that of an academically innovative institution.

We took a no-nonsense tone with the copy and created a sophisticated design to appeal to students’ pragmatism and high expectations. One cool aspect of the concept is that it uses atypical sizes. The viewbook is about 6 x 9 inches and the visit piece is conveniently back-pocket-sized.

Bo Uzzle, design; Taylor Trussell, writing; Kathryn Spruill, account.

Wesley viewbook and visit piece

Woodberry Forest

The Woodberry Forest project involved extensive brand research and interviews. From our research we developed a brand narrative and key messages, the first expression of which is a new viewbook that captures Woodberry’s strong sense of brotherhood and academic rigor.

Bo Uzzle, design; Taylor Trussell, brand research and writing; Jennifer Bagley, account.

Woodberry viewbook spread

Arizona State University

ASU is being guided by a clear vision focused on the concept of the new American university. Our goal was to present this bold vision but without hyperbole, which could diminish its validity. Our concept for the resulting publications was storytelling with a purpose, defining the vision in the context of real people doing real things to make a real difference in the world.

Bonnie McQuagge, design; David Harrell, writing; Jay Williams, account.

ASU prospectus spread

Contributed by: Taylor Trussell
Strategic Consultant, Stein Communications

Many books dissect and analyze the Millennial generation, and the views expressed run the gamut from the starry-eyed boosterism of Strauss and Howe’s Millennials Rising to Huntley’s paradoxical conclusions in World According to Y to the sophomoric psychologizing of Generation Me by Twenge. It’s easy to find profiles of this generation, but divining how to translate these profiles into useful marketing strategies isn’t.

Then there’s Lisa Johnson’s Mind Your X’s and Y’s: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers. What makes this book so different is that it gives you a veritable road map for marketing to Millennials. (While the X in the title obviously refers to Generation X’ers, Johnson maintains that X’ers are more or less following the Millennials’ lead in terms of what’s hot.)

The ten fundamental cravings of this generation, according to Johnson, are:

• Personalization
• A sense of adventure
• Less formal, more focused communities
• Good design
• Ways to filter information
• Peer-to-peer recommendations
• Participation rather than mere consumption
• Brand experiences that create emotional connections
• A sense of spirituality
• Giving back with their time and abilities

All of these have clear applications to educational marketing, but in the interest of space, I’m going to focus on only those cravings most readily adaptable.

Personalization
At first glance, this one seems obvious. Everyone knows you have to personalize. But here’s the twist: Johnson’s point is that mass personalization — pulling names from a database — doesn’t cut it anymore. These kids are used to feeling like the center of attention and tapping into that sense requires personalization that clearly shows a living person was paying attention to them.

Now, of course, you don’t (and, realistically, you can’t) produce genuinely personalized materials for every prospect. Johnson suggests developing ways to personalize materials for “bull’s-eye customers.” How do you deliver a personalized message to bellwether students in new markets, for instance? Or, perhaps you target high school teachers with personalized messages.

A sense of adventure
“Adventure” here doesn’t mean learning to street luge. Rather, there is a craving for engagement that goes beyond everyday experience, and it comes from the fact that experience functions as social currency. Remember, this is a generation that notifies the world of their every move via Facebook and Twitter — uncommon experiences impart cachet, especially among undergraduates, who are really just stepping out into the larger world.

What is your school doing that takes kids out of their ordinary zone? And before you say internships or foreign study, keep in mind that every school can claim these in one way or another. These are requisite experiences, so unless they’re unusually prestigious or exotic, they’re not going to stand out. More importantly, how are you communicating these experiences?

Good design
Today, it’s all about design. Good design has become a competitive edge insofar as good design connotes the good life; it creates an emotional attachment. Just look at the iPod’s following. How many technology companies are churning out me-too products on the basis of Apple’s design?

You’re never going to have to design consumer products, but what Johnson is emphasizing is the high expectations this generation has when it comes to design. Strong and consistently designed communications are key to resonating with your audience. They build confidence in the very idea of your school.

Peer-to-peer recommendations
With so much marketing clamoring for our attention, the old push approaches are no longer as effective as they once were, especially among this generation of prospects who have been imbibing advertisements since birth. Instead, they’re sidestepping the usual channels and going straight to the source — their peers, your students. (Oh, and by “usual channels” I’m including the students blogging on your Web site.) They’re turning to Facebook and Flickr for an uncensored (in every sense) view of what it’s like to be a student. They’re using the recommendations on College Prowler and College Confidential to gauge how well they’ll fit in. And it’s not just your students — parents are also relying on Web forums to get an idea of what their child can expect.

This is a reversal from the traditional marketing formula of loud, often, and always positive. Now, the point is to recognize that there are conversations about you taking place, and if you’re not a part of them, you’re at the mercy of every ill-informed but opinionated joker with a Web connection. By joining in (or by having a work-study student join in) and offering a candid view of your school, you can build tremendously positive word of mouth.

Participation rather than mere consumption
With a reliance on peer recommendations comes the expectation that peer-generated content will flourish. Your audience has grown up using digital media to create and express themselves — whether they’re posting music videos to YouTube, blogging, or posting on friends’ Facebook walls. Organizations that embrace the participatory aspect of online communications engage their consumers and create trust. If I see that someone is so invested in her school that she’s shot a video herself and posted it on TheU.com, I’m going to feel a stronger pull toward that institution than I will from simply watching a Flash introduction on the same school’s Web site. Participation validates a sense of authenticity.

This is a difficult leap for most schools to make, in large part because an architecture of participation requires self-governance and openness, and schools are most comfortable with clearly defined hierarchies. But without self-governance, there’s no ownership; and without ownership, the community lacks the self-monitoring and self-repairing nature that makes them so dynamic.

How can you create participatory communities? What areas can you open up to let your students participate in the content generation? How about a turning your student life pages into a wiki?

There is much more here than these brief summaries suggest. The book is a terrific analysis of the mindset of your market. Johnson explains each craving and offers reasons for why a craving is so prevalent. She also provides numerous case studies to illustrate her points, and to make the application of these points even clearer, she ends each chapter with a “Workbook” section devoted to questions you should be asking yourself. More than a broad analysis, Johnson provides an idea generator and critical tool that will help you orient and evaluate your marketing efforts.