Beginning is the most important part of the work. That’s when the planning and goal setting is done. At this point for the seed (or idea) to grow requires faith rather than reason.

It also requires an enormous amount of laughter. There is something special about the vibrations associated with laughter.

I have discovered that when you celebrate the first bloom at seed stage that a garden of blooms (success) is inevitable. You might have to bless a few people who say you are crazy arranging a dinner party celebration around a pot of earth, but isn’t crazy the square root of sanity anyway?

Success, like beauty “is in the eye of the beholder”.

With young people spending an increasing amount of time online (8 hrs a day according to the Kaiser Family Report), its no wonder that the future of student recruitment marketing depends on effective SEO (search engine optimization) and the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Linked In.

According to Azorus Inc, a blog on thoughts for higher education: “We live in an age dominated by technology. Social Media and digital platforms have become increasingly popular and – quite frankly – essential for universities who want to have the best student recruitment campaign possible”.

Although it may seem a whole new ball game, when it comes to student recruitment the marketing fundamentals have not changed. Those relationships a University or College has developed over the years  through “referrers” are simply further enhanced through the extension of digital. Integrated marketing is the name of the game and to be truly effective at this means some experimentation as there really is no ‘secret sauce’.  However, here are a few basic pointers:

1. Be visible on Google

When we seek information we go to search engines and in Canada over 90% of searchers prefer Google. This puts the emphasis on ensuring that a educational facility’s website is optimized for the relevant keyword searches.

2. Promote through multimedia

Video viewing online is growing exponentially. No longer are media like You Tube and Flickr study distractions. It would be wise to recognize the usage trends as an opportunity. “You Tube EDU” transforms mediocre presentations into a state-of-the-art standard that today’s student population expects.

3. Engage your prospects through the effective use of social media tools. Facebook cannot be ignored as 80% of students referenced checking out Facebook when they were researching an educational institution. Inputting a simple keyword into Twitter in a few seconds gives you the opportunity to participate in a real-time conversation. Additionally Linked In groups act as an effective way to engage conversation.

Student recruitment marketing today depends on an effective online strategy and today Universities and Colleges have a myriad of exciting tools to choose from. Delivering relevant content at the precise moment and in the appropriate manner is key to reaching, engaging and converting prospective students. Fast load websites that are mobile enabled and technically proficient (ie: flash does not work on an iPad) can be a decision breaker to a generation where patience is a virtue of a previous generation.

It was four thirty AM and the red-hot sun had just broken the horizon over Lake Ontario almost blinding me on the couch where I was drifting in and out of consciousness. A beautiful day for the Royal Wedding I thought as I reached for my laptop and logged onto the net in search for somewhere to watch the ceremony. I found the PBS News Stream and it was most interesting. No commentators just the real sounds of the street; crowds cheering, cars honking, as the guests and the Royal Family arrived at Westminster Abby.  I was glued to this “non-production” television format because it was intimate and social. The Twitter Feed was the commentator. “A sea of hats” “There’s the Queen!”  “No its not” “Yes, it’s the Queen, in yellow”.  I was at an online Royal Wedding Party with guests from all over the world and experiencing Social TV in its infancy.

According to a recent report by Nielsen there are some very interesting facts around the growing Social TV trends.

• In 2010 50% of US citizens viewed online video for an average of 4.5 hours a month – up 41%
• 50% of social networking and blog site visitors also visit TV network and broadcast media sites
• 76% of Twitter followers and 50% of Facebook users also view broadcast

Marie-Jose Montpetit and her students at the MIT Media Lab recently demonstrated a prototype of an interactive television platform where a central database aggregates video from sources, shares user specified data with social networks, delivers video to the users’ TV, and allows commenting back and forth between  users and the social network via an iPhone app.

But how well would such a platform be accepted by television viewers? It seems to me that guys are snarly enough if you interrupt “their game” and  that adding Twitter and Facebook updates to “their TV screen” would not be well received.  Well, there have been some interesting Social TV initiatives. ITV Lives’s (UK) soccer TV experience around world cup soccer garnered 2 million viewers in three weeks. The key is the second screen. Over 50% of TV viewers indicated they had a computing device with them when they watched TV.

The marriage of social, mobile and TV creates more than just a dynamic party, but instead this combination is a game changer as broadcast interactivity brings engaged viewers and forces broadcasters to completely reinvent their advertising models. Not to do so would be at their own peril. Because the push advertising models of the past are no longer wanted. Broadcasters need to create new ad models for Social TV.

Intro Now (recently purchased by Yahoo!) is an open source platform and available to developers and device manufacturers. It was touted as one of the more impressive Social TV apps. It has a technology that recognizes audio and identifies content. This content can then be shared with friends on social networks. Intro Now has a new ad model test going with Pepsi where people can tag a commercial and get a coupon for a free Pepsi.

Miso, another interactive TV platform, funded by Google, that goes beyond the Four Square facility of the check-in and sharing by adding reality TV voting as part of its platform.

AT&T is also active in the space and says that Social TV will allow you to see how popular a new show is, get ratings and opinions and general sentiment analysis.Verizon entered the space in 2009 with tremendous success. They offer a number of social widgets for Twitter, Facebook and the Associated Press.

Social TV is in its infancy but with TV consumption going up and revenue increases of 8% to 69 billion the television broadcast industry is again in the limelight. The key to IDTV success will be in understanding how to engage viewers on the second screen and keep them coming back. There are a whole lot of ideas around this but if you think of the many ways you can create “Fans” and communities around shows you are on the right track. In such an environment special content would be savored, relationships enhanced, and commerce enabled for advertisers through sampling and contests.

As the shift to online marketing continues there has been a proliferation of electronic channels that has lead to more meaningful and targeted ways to engage a customer. These advances have added pressure to the marketer’s role as it has become more challenging to deliver a compelling message to each consumer, at the right time, through the right channel, across inbound, outbound, on and offline and traditional and emerging platforms. Never before has there been such a need for online advertising integration as there is now. But what is integrated marketing?

IBM defines integrated marketing as an approach that “assembles all customer communications into one centralized command system that is continually informed in real-time data and intelligence”. In a recent study “State of Marketing 2011” over 87% of senior marketing executives surveyed expressed a desire for integrated marketing solutions but only 10% actually said they were having success at achieving it. Apparently organizational structure, culture, lack of in-house skills, and poor support from IT departments is to blame.

Online advertising integration is imperative in this day and age as it is the way to reach today’s new consumer.  Technology has had a drastic effect on consumer behavior. Take for example the ways we can source news that goes beyond newspaper, radio or television. We have online sites, search engines and social media, Facebook, LinkedIn groups, blogs and wikis, just to name a few. The variety of channel choices allows consumers the opportunity to immediately switch between channels before making a purchase decision.  This means that in order to have our products or services selected we need to be where consumers are.

It is interesting that in the emerging media like Social Media, North Americans outpace Europeans by over 30% in adoption rates. Activities are still limited to participation on 3^rd party networks like Facebook, and Linked In but nevertheless the Social Media channel is not being ignored. In fact 50% of marketers are using social media despite the fact the bright light that has shone on this channel is dimming under the scrutiny for ROI.

As we move towards the adoption of more integrated cross-channel marketing strategies and their implementation there will be a greater emphasis placed on ROI and analytics that can predict outcomes.  This is where the rubber meets the road in the drive to define next generation marketing excellence. However, if you thought Facebook’s Beacon was an infringement of privacy “you aint seen nothing yet, baby”.