Marketing and Social Media

Marketing 101

Recently, I received a hard cover book in the mail from a vendor of ours. The topic of the book was how small businesses can utilize different strategies to help their businesses grow. The two gentlemen who authored the book run a very successful web-based company. The book was well written and offered many helpful hints on how to manage a small business -all while trying to remain sane. But the most interesting aspect of the book was that the name of the company these gentlemen run was mentioned no less than 15 times. After reading the book, I looked back on some of the other information I had received from them and low and behold, the same thing was true –valuable information wrapped around great marketing. What a great idea.

As colleges and universities try to reach students in this age of social media, what should be kept in mind is that each interaction must include marketing -each email, each blog post, and each Facebook message. But the messages can’t scream marketing, they must gently hint at it. If students believe that your message is about you, then you missed the point.

At MoreThanGrades.com. we interact with students on many levels. Through our counselor chat feature, students can ask a private question and get a personal answer to their question. Through the Mycollegecalendar tab, students can find virtually any piece of information related to college admission, including documents that can be downloaded. Through our unique blog feature, students can respond to fellow students, teachers, and colleges on current topics of concern to all high school students. In short, we believe that we are providing a valuable service for our students and colleges.

So how does one market without marketing? That answer is really not that difficult: Provide valuable information that is timely, welcome, and to the point….with your logo, name, contact information, and website readily available so students can reach you when they want to…And they will.

What do you think? We would love to hear from you. Post a response or contact me directly. Mike@morethangrades.com