Posted by Howard Kang, Ignition Officer
Back in March I decided to go on foursquare and Gowalla tours of Harvard’s campus while I was in Boston visiting clients. I’ve never been to Harvard’s campus, so I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to understand the perspective of a prospective student.
I’ll share my experience with you and what I learned from it all.
I’ll go ahead and say it. Location-based network tours by themselves are not effective or practical. If that’s your plan for innovative marketing, you’re more concerned with new trends vs. reaching students. Here’s why.
The image above shows where the spots for the Harvard Yard tour on Gowalla are laid out. (Foursquare doesn’t provide trips, but has a badge you can earn. Foursquare isn’t really designed for trips as it’s only location based to a certain extent, whereas Gowalla uses a precise location.)
So tell me honestly, do you think a high school student, completely unfamiliar with the campus would be able to easily navigate through these spots they’ve never seen or been to on campus with just this information? Me neither.
First issue. Gowalla does not layout a logical path for the tour. It merely provides you with the location, spots included in the tour, and approximately how many directional meters the spot is from you. If a student is completely unfamiliar with the campus (as I was), the only way to navigate from path to path is to pull up the spot, map myself there on my iPhone through maps, follow the direction to the spot (and hope the GPS locates me accurately), open Gowalla, check-in, navigate to the trip again, and start the process over again. Not exactly an easy or intuitive process. I also didn’t really know what the buildings looked like unless it was a featured spot and had a special icon (Gowalla has since added a photos feature in April which changes this) so I really didn’t know exactly where things were. (Oh, and perhaps we should have started with the fact that both tools have an extremely limited user base at this point, so the odds that your audience is using the tool to begin with is very slim.)
Additionally, GPS in mobile devices can often be unreliable when pinpointing exact locations. Gowalla users often complain about being unable to check-in to places due to their location being read as slightly off. In-fact I faced that problem while on my “tour.” I literally was touching the John Harvard statue and my phone could not locate me. I could check-in with foursquare because foursquare is quite lenient with the radius one can check-in from, but I had to recalibrate my GPS several times before I was located.
Beyond the technical glitches that hindered me, I ultimately gained little from the “tour.” The campus tour can be the deciding factor in many cases for prospective students. It’s their opportunity to get a feel for the people on campus, the culture, the lifestyle, the steps they’ll be walking, even the smell. Using a mobile device to take your tour ultimately serves as a distraction. I spent my time looking down at my phone figuring out if I was in the correct placement to even notice what was going on around me. Also, without a knowledgeable voice to look to, I was left to learn about the campus from the short sentences the descriptions told me. Essentially, what makes the campus tour special revolves around the human connection. Students want to be able to experience the campus enough to be able to say, “Hey, I can really see myself here.” If your tour guides are telling prospective students a collection of statistics that you can find on your website, that doesn’t cut it. If that’s the case, your prospective students probably will benefit more from NOT paying attention and watching the current students. A mobile phone tour by itself can’t provide that, it actually detracts from the experience (vs. walking around alone). The less technological version of a location-based network tour is a checklist of locations on a piece of paper and going through campus with that by yourself. Before mobile phones, would you trust that to represent your campus?
Harvard partnered with foursquare to encourage current students and faculty to go explore and do more on and around campus. Prospective students can’t compete for mayorships on campus (a large driving point for foursquare) as they will not be on campus everyday like current students.
Now, am I saying there’s no place for location-based networks in Higher Ed? Absolutely not. I’m simply saying, as always, “Chase the goals, not the tools.” Don’t use foursquare and Gowalla just because it’s “trendy” and “hip” if you don’t have goals or strategy to back up the time you’re expending to create these tours. Gowalla and foursquare can be used creatively to augment the traditional tour as well as help create memories (which have huge power), but again, does not work by itself.
I encourage you to go and try a location based campus tour from the eyes of an unfamiliar prospective students yourself and share your thoughts. Feel free to share your thoughts below!
Posted by Howard Kang, Ignition Officer
KISS – The usability mantra, the creed of the web designer, the secret of marketing…we’ve already heard it all before.
It’s one of those messages that gets drilled home so much to the point that it becomes noise and we forget about it; …not so fast.
These tools available on the social web…have you remembered to K-I-S-S? Have you gotten lost in the buzz and forgotten the simple things? I know I have.
We do get lost in the “coolness” of it all don’t we? Looking around at what others have accomplished, what we think is possible, and though we don’t admit it…we really do care more about the numbers when we lead on.
When’s the last time we heard somebody say something like, “Oh, the web is great for amplifying a message via word of mouth.” Probably last year because that’s when there were a bunch of buzzwords about word of mouth floating around. Now that message has been stripped down to, “Oh, the web is great for amplifying a message.”
On the most basic level, we love the social web because it helps us connect with other humans (people behind brands/universities/etc. included). That human connection helps us build relationships, along with buzz, and connects us in a community. It doesn’t exist solely to help amplify your message, just to make your brand more popular, or anything along those lines. Having a Facebook Fan Page, does not give you the “license to spam” as Joe puts it.
When we remember our roots, remember what enchanted us so much about communicating on the web, we have the greatest success. People miss the simple things. So here’s your friendly reminder…
Keep it simple, stupid. 
Posted by Howard, Ignition Officer
“In 2014 we’re adding a new science building with the newest in digital innovation.”
“There are plans right now of adding a student union to campus soon.”
“We will add a collection of 1st Edition Dr. Seuss books to our library in the future.”
In higher ed we encounter this kind of language all the time. For some reason there seems to be an overemphasis on what’s happening in the future and what we’re hoping or planning to get instead of appreciating and embracing what we have. I’m not saying that looking to the future or looking forward to the next step is bad, but I do think that you could be missing out on appreciating some of your hidden strengths.
Your prospective students notice these future oriented statements. It often makes your institution seem inadequate. Imagine meeting a new person you were trying to judge. Let’s call him Guy. Guy says to you statements like, “In 2011, I’m going to lose 30 pounds!” or “I’m hoping to have a perfect lawn someday.” What Guy says about his future is interesting in the sense that you get a feel for what he’s striving for, but you’re also left thinking…and? What about now? An overemphasis on future plans leaves a perception that what you currently have isn’t enough. If you don’t think it is, do you think the prospective students will?
An innumerable amount of other institutions students are looking at have similar future goals and have things like “small class sizes where you’re not another number.” Still, given those facts, no two universities are exactly alike are they? Those are your “hidden strengths.”
Last fall I visited Winthrop University and I saw a student with a shirt that said, “Winthrop Football…still undefeated.” The joke? They don’t have a football team. Students have actually come to embrace the fact they don’t have football. There are passionate students like Eagle Man who cheer on the Eagles with pride. It speaks to the culture of their university. Will Winthrop embrace football if they get it? Probably, but the students don’t seem to mind not having it.
These hidden strengths often may be hinted at or mentioned in passing during preview days, but I think they’re often glazed over as nothing more than ancillary details, when really those small details are what some potential students fall in love with. I can name several students that immediately knew my alma mater was the right fit for them when they learned that our library architect designed it with no right angles so that students could think differently and creatively.
I think it’s time to shift “in the future we’ll have…” thinking to “this what we have and this is why we rock.” The small things, that when you consider it really help contribute to your institution’s identity.
Own it, be proud of it, and spread the word. Your future students will notice.
Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
I’m leaving for a few hours to go present BlueFuego’s Independent Colleges of Washington Workshop with Howard. It’s a 4.5 hour session tomorrow, and we’re doing 3.5 hours of Q&A! I love Q&A, I wish more of my presentations were strictly Q&A. There are so many questions out there about all of these tools, practical strategies for moving forward, how to measure, and so much more.
This is the 6th workshop that BlueFuego has done, and we already have 8 more scheduled for 2010. It’s apparent that people are hungry for more, and have lots of questions on their mind about web marketing.
I was finishing up my slidedeck and decided to post the pre-workshop survey questions we received on a slide to magnify the fact that if you have questions during the workshop, you’re not alone. I then bolded words or questions or statements that stood out to me. When I finished it, it became a strong representation of where I think higher ed currently is in dealing with web marketing.
It’s been interesting to watch our workshops evolve over the past 8-10 months. Last spring and summer, we were constantly answering questions like “What IS Twitter?”, “What is a Facebook Page?”, “How do I start?”, etc. Now that schools have moved past that initial first step, the questions have become like the ones in the image above.
“How do I sustain?” - Ensuring that efforts are manageable and scalable.
“Foursquare is awesome, but should we play?” - Recognizing that not every new tool is worth the time.
“Tools to help manage multiple accounts” – Now we’re not dealing with one Twitter account, we’re dealing with 12.
“How do I show my managers the importance of devoting time and money to these new techniques?” - “New media is a synonym for no budget”, Seth Godin once said.
“How can we customize?” – Recognizing the need to stand out, and that simply being on a site isn’t a sustainable competitive advantage.
“I probably have a zillion other questions floating around in my head.” - Again, you’re not alone.
We look forward to tomorrow’s session and spending the large portion of the day with people from universities across Washington, answering questions like these and more!
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Posted by Brad, Chief Explosion Officer
Happy 2010 everyone!
We’re excited to kick off 2010 by introducing you to the newest member of the BlueFuego team, Howard Kang.
I’ve known Howard for several years, and it’s still hard to sum him up. He’s a unique blend of business and right-brain thinking. He’s extremely smart, contagiously passionate, imaginative, devoted, driven and detailed. He continues to amaze us each week with his fresh thoughts and ideas for higher ed marketing. Recently, while reading The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership I came across a great quote, which I think can best describe what excites us about Howard:
“It’s well known among engineers that the most important inventions in a particular field are often made by people who are new to the field [...], people who aren’t held back by all the reasons why something can’t be done, and who are therefore able to think more freely about seemingly intractable problems.”
Howard brings a strong marketing background, but being new to this specific arena we’re already impressed with how Howard is continually challenging us with his vision, as he consistently looks beyond what is possible. We’re excited for him to share these ideas with both clients and colleagues. Look for him to be presenting some of these ideas at conferences in 2010 and beyond. He’ll also be a frequent blogger on here, and we know you’ll learn a lot from his unique perspective.
Outside of work, Howard comes from Portland, OR and is a huge Trailblazers fan. He cares about world issues, sustainability (he always seems to be reminding me of my carbon footprint from flying so much!), sports, cooking, photography… pretty much everything. You’ll often find him reading The Economist and listening to NPR. We love his thirst for knowledge as we share in his curiosity to learn all we can.
Howard’s already jumped in full-speed and fits right into the BlueFuego culture, bringing his passion and drive daily and never accepting to do any work he’s not proud of. His work with clients has already shown everyone involved that he’s a strong asset to BlueFuego.
Without further ado, please join us in welcoming Howard to the BlueFuego team by leaving a comment below!
Be sure to get to know Howard better and follow him at:
http://twitter.com/howardkang
http://www.howardkang.com
