Yield Effect - Random Ruminations on Recruitment and Retention

Let’s say you work 240 days in a year.

What if I told you that I was going to add 10 days to 2009. And you had an allowance on those days. You only get 1 hour a day, every day you work.

What would you do with it?  Would you work more? Would you do some awesome project that you always think about?  Would you start something for yourself?  Would you learn a new hobby? A computer program? Would you simply use it to catch up with old friends and family on the phone?

Well, Christmas is early this year. Here’s your gift.

Lunch time.  1 hour a day, 240 days.  10 days a year.

How do you utilize that time?  How could you utilize it differently? To make a difference? To be a better person? To be more successful?

Or…. will you waste it? And piddle around for an hour… do nothing, make nothing, become nothing.

It’s waiting for you. And it’s free.  Bag a lunch and make the most of it.

Just some random observations by looking at higher ed conferences in November.

AACRAO-SEM 18th Annual Conference [Link]: Mostly VP’s of Enrollment, Deans, etc.
Attendees:800
Active Twitterers: 2 (0.25%)

AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Ed [Link]: Mostly Directors of Marketing/PR, etc.
Attendees: 550
Active Twitterers: 7  (1.2%)

Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference: Mostly Admission professionals, PR/writers, etc.
Attendees: 150
Active Twitterers: 19 (12.6%)

I don’t want to draw many conclusions without being at the other 2 conferences, but take it for what it’s worth. As I continuously say, educate and inform, my social media mavens.

NO, not all upper level admins  need to be on Twitter or need to know everything going on with #motrinmoms (seriously, go ask 10 people about Motrin Moms tomorrow and see what response you get…)

YES, they do need to be aware of the conversational shift taking place and how it will affect enrollment management.  Not 5 years down the road, not next recruitment cycle, but right now. It’s imperative.

Thoughts?

The app deadline is tomorrow.  How many kids are scrambling to get their apps done? How many 11:59pm submissions will we have from the online app this year?  Always interesting to see.

I have so many thoughts from the Stamats08 conference, I just don’t know where to put them all… twitter? here? squaredpeg? bradjward.com?  AH.

Thoughts on social media. On recruiting students. On presenting. On networking. On ‘personal brand’. On everything.

I’m just plain jittery.  It was great to take 3 days off for vacation with my wife, but getting caught back up is way too hard.

Your quest for Friday: take 1 thing that your office that you do every single year. A chat, an email, a mailing, you name it.

Then, change something about it.  Add a new piece of technology. Try a different time. Do different marketing. Make it stand out from another school.

Stand out. Don’t get mixed in with the rest.

Yesterday I presented at IACAC downtown than did a 20 minute podcast with Innovative Educators.  What knowledge are you spreading to others?  What are you keeping for yourself?  I love to share, but for every idea I give out I have 2 more in my back pocket.

Always stay one step ahead of your competition. Two if you can.

Having fun with all of those applications and scholarship essays yet?

Last night we had a chat.  21 kids showed up out of 4,500 invites.  I had a big idea for how to spice up the chat, but our chat provider threw words at me like ‘development schedule’, ‘future release’, ‘could be’, ‘perhaps’, and other avoidances.

Maybe I’m missing something, but it’d take about 1 minute to add my suggestion to the page. It’s just hard for me to believe that it can’t be done.

How’s your customer service?

When I posted on the Tribes Ning group about my 25th birthday coinciding with the release of the book, one particular response stood out to me.

And how true is that? I’d guess Paul is somewhere around 35-40.  Look at what’s changed in the past 10-15 years.  The connectivity of humans, ideas and thoughts. The endless amount of resources available at the click of a mouse.  Amazing when you think about it.

And if you’re a “youngin” like me…. what are you doing (every single day) to make sure you take advantage of the resources available?

My thought of the day on ties [I have thoughts about ties very often. They are rarely pleasant.]

Since when did wearing a tie begin to determine the quality of my work and my worthiness as an employee? Is it really that important? When did what you have around your neck become more important than the content and projects you’re pumping out? I hate ties. Especially on Friday.