1. Word Of Mouth: Turning Noise into Intelligence Philomena Mantella Senior Vice President Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Northeastern University

2. Assisted by Kerry Salerno Sr. Associate Director of Admissions Marketing and Communications Seamus Harreys Dean, Student Financial Services Jillian DeTeso Financial Aid Counselor Anyone over 2 and under 30

3. Word of Mouth  Consumer created marketing-relevant information  Also known as consumer generated media (CGM)

4. Presentation Objectives  Create recognition of key shifts  Create understanding of prevalence and penetration of CGM in our markets  Be clear controlling it is not an option - don’t react to every post – attempt to get a handle on the tipping point

5. Who is Talking?  Prospective freshmen are the biggest audience out there  Current students talk about their experiences  Parents are biggest user of university sponsored Blogs  Alumni are reconnecting outside of the web through WOM including /university sites/ Groups, classmates.com and other online community sources

6. Who are they?  “The Millennial Student”  iGeneration  The Net Generation  MyPod Generation  Generation Next  D.A.R.E. Generation  Reality to Generation Authenticity is the Holy Grail The Freshman Mindset

7.  On an average day, 4% of internet users  That’s 5 million people!!  Changes to Enrollment Management  Stealth applicants (first contact is an application) account for more than 40% of the applicant pool* * Eric Hoover “The Rise of the Stealth Applicants” – The Chronicle of Higher Ed; March 31, 2006 College Search Alone

8. “About two-thirds of all economic activity in the US is influenced by shared opinions about a product, brand or service. ” McKinsey Consulting 2005 www.researchandmarkets.com

9.  Unfiltered/unadulterated  Perceived as highly credible and authentic It is what they know… Online “chatter” is:

10.  Perception becomes reality at warp speed  The starting point may define the direction of the dialogue  Its potential impact on our market is huge  Yes, it is out of “our” control Challenges of WOM

11. University are largely focused tactically Getting in the game:  Creating Blogs  Participating in the conversation  Managing content

12. Examples  Online Omsbudsman  Engage student worker to monitor key blogs/boards who would provide factual information regarding NU online  Outreach  Factual response to inaccuracies on the web to both independent and commercial sites.  Student blogs  not the answer unless they are genuine  Community ambassadors  Use your insides  Buzz Generation  With bloggers, community voices and websites owners to provide interesting stories, similar to how we pitch PR

15. The “real student” bloggers

17. Market Response  Helpful and convenient university information  More parents than students  Not perceived as “real” consumer information  “Flogs” versus Blogs

18. What Should We Focus on?  The tremendous influence, power and speed of WOM  How we can better understand WOM  It’s impact on traditional marketing  How can we use it to improve our understanding of the University

19. Influence, Power & Speed

20. AOL HELL

21. June 15, 2006 June 20, 2006

22. June 24, 2006 June 25, 2006

23. June 26, 2006 June 27, 2006 July 14, 2006

24. Consequence or Concurrent AOL Impact  In the quarter that ended Sept. 30, AOL lost 2.5 million subscribers  Revenue declined 3 percent  AOL abandoned its “pay-to-play” model, is now trying to succeed as a free service in a very crowded marketplace

25. Remember These: Traditional Media Readership  The New York Times1.12M  The Washington Post 708,000  The Los Angeles Times 902,000 http://advertising.washpost.com/the_market/20 05General.pdf

26. “The New Influencers” By Paul Gillin – Quill Book Spring 2007 Former Editor of Computerworld Magazine Paul Gillin – www.paulgillin.com

27. 30 Million page views per day 4 million page hits per month 300,000 downloads per month 400,00 million page views in 2004

28. WOM Power is Compounded Given the prevalence and proliferation of sites discussing the consumer experience and the high usage by high school and the college age market… WOM impact on Universities must be seriously considered

29. What is Critical to Explore  How WOM creates a virtual reality of our university  How can it be used to gather market intelligence  How WOM can be used internally to create a deeper community understanding

30. What we can learn  The strength of our brand  A consumer perspective on academic and student life  What is driving students’ decisions?  What starts the best (and worst) conversations  Where are our brand advocates  Where/what de-brands our universities

31. Transparency is not an option, it IS a reality of the new world.

32. What is OUR virtual reality? And what can we do about it?

33. What’s Out There? Information sites Post information from various sources (that may or may not be correct )

35. The UThe U: Have you seen your university’s video? Sponsored by: The WB and U.S. News & World Report

36. Collegeconfidential.com  Average 300,000 visitors per month  Founded to “demystify” the admissions process  College Counseling – specializing in Ivy League and elite college counseling  Staff has served as college counselors

38. Conversation Starters College Confidential conversations are often started by a parent interested in input on their student’s chances on getting accepted livejournal.com

40. 02-28-2007, 08:18 PM College Confidential #44 NJres Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Threads: Posts: 1,526 My opinion, impression, whatever you want to call it. What I mean is my view is not based on anything I have been told by NEU, but I get the distinct feeling that they use predictive models provided by fairly sophisticated enrollment consultants that consider a host of factors in an attempt to predict "what it will take" to induce a particular student to enroll. That is also weighed against what they want, so an applicant from an underrepresented state may get more merit money than a kid from Massachusetts. That would explain why their awards appear random to us, but in fact they are not random at all, the awards are highly calculated.

41. Networking Sites Allow users to connect with others

42. Facebook  More than 7.5 million people registered.  Over 2,200 colleges, 22,000 high school, 2,000 companies.  Has sign up an estimated 90% of all undergrads  Two-thirds of registered people return every day.  People spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily, according to comSource.  #1 Photo site on the web with over 1.5 million photos uploaded daily.  Was ranked the 7 th most trafficked site in the United States.

43. What are students doing on Web sites?  36 % of college-bound juniors have read profiles of current students; 63% would if they could  18% have read alumni profiles; 56% would if they could  30% have read student blogs; 63% would if they could  17% have read faculty blogs; 83% would if they could  35% have viewed a virtual tour; 63% would if they could Source: Noel-Levitz / James Tower/ NRCCUA E-Expectations 2007 Study

46. MySpace.com  More than 50 million members  Fastest growing Web site in the country  75% of members are over the age of 18  Murdoch’s News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million one year ago

47. Social Networks  85% of teens who have created an online profile they use or update most often is on Myspace  Nearly half of teens who use social networks visit the sites either once a day (26%) or several times a day (22%), while 17% visit the sites three to five days per week, 15% visit on to two days per week, and 20% visit every few weeks or less often Source: January 2007 Project Data Memo released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project

48. Dialogue & Opinion Sites “the bloggosphere…” Allow users to talk amongst themselves about your University and other issues and to rate and review their experiences

49. LiveJournal.com  As of 7/11, total accounts: 10,626,317  Accounts active in some way: 1,851,177  Top Countries where Livejournal is most popular:  United States 2,989,290  Russian Federation 313,625  Age distribution:  15 191,427  16 338,726  17 416,434  18 433,467  19 432,400  20 401,853  21 336,701

53. RateMyProfessors.com  Over 9,000,000 students use site  5,300,000 ratings for Professors from 5,542 school

55.  New resource for NU students to scope out jobs before their first interview  Students can read evaluations of co-op employers written by former student employees  The rankings are compiled from anonymous comments covering an array of concerns a student might have about a prospective job.  The site contains an index of companies and jobs are rated on criteria ranging from work atmosphere to the "coolness" of the management.  Inspired by RateMyProfessors.com.  "I intended to create a resource that would assist my peers in making more informed decisions when picking their potential co-op job. -Joe Barba, creator Ratemycoops.com - NU student and originator Ratemycoops.com NU News, 10/11/06

57. RateMyProfessors: Hidden Camera Edition There’s a new reason to worry about students with cell phones in your classes. RateMyProfessors.com, the Web site whose popularity with students is matched by the grief it gives professors, has launched a new feature, encouraging students to shoot photographs of their faculty members and to post them along with the anonymous ratings of professors. Think RateMyProfessors is going to ask your permission to post a photograph that you may not even know was taken (camera phones are being recommended to students)? Of course not, although RateMyProfessor asserts that it has other quality control mechanisms in place. In the 48 hours since RateMyProfessors posted information about this new service on its site, it has received more than 1,200 photographs of professors and it is in the process of reviewing and uploading them. Announced on Nov. 2, 2006

58. Online Video YouTube  More than 445 of online Americans (ages 12 to 64) use online video weekly  #1 type of video viewed is news, followed by weather, and movie clips all of which are types of content produced by professionals, not by consumers  The demographic watching online video most frequently is males ages 25 to 34; 64% of them watch online video at least once a week  Among the females the rates are lower with 49% of female teens watching online video weekly Source: Magid Media Futures

59. Totally Sweet Professor

63. What can we do with our virtual space  Gather market intelligence  Spend as much time examining how messages are received as framing them  Use it internally to create a deeper community understanding of our university  Examine the agility of decision-making

64. Gathering Market Intelligence?

65. High Penetration Low Penetration Low ActivitiesHigh Activities Campusdirt Princeton review Livejournal Facebook Myspace College confidential Yelp Friendster CollegeBoard

66. Our First Pilot  Identified influential sites  Hired firm to monitor CGM  Monitored NU against 2 major competitors  Daily reporting of high importance adverse (negative) posts to keep NU apprised of developments to consider action  Six week analysis

67. Issues with Methodology  Not frequent enough  Not targeted enough  Specific events secured results  Not actionable

68. Methodology Currently Being Tested  Retained Cymfony Inc. for site monitoring  Dashboard designed to maximize analytical view  Dashboard designed for action

72. Concluding Thoughts  Can no longer manage from strengths, centers of excellence & powerful messaging – the power of publishing has moved from an elite few to everybody  Self-assessment and accurate portrayals are increasingly important

73. Learning From Our Students  Jeffrey Fontas – 19 year old NU student; won State Rep in New Hampshire  Sees his knowledge of the internet as a big advantage  Jeffrey used his campaign blog and social networking sites to rally support, voice his stances on the issues and raise money

75. Lessons Learned from Facebook One student’s story

76. Walter Carl, NU’s Own WOM Expert  Advisory Board Member, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (www.womma.org)  Published many book chapters and journal articles, recent research investigates word-of-mouth as it is embedded in routine, everyday communication practices, with a special emphasis on analyzing actual conversations and unique relationship histories.  Faculty Home Page (http://www.waltercarl.neu.edu)  Download Page (www.waltercarl.neu.edu/downloads/)  Research Blog (www.wom-study.blogspot.com)

77. A satisfied person tells one person A dissatisfied person tells 3 people or is it... 3 million or 10 million

78. Comment...Question…Discussion

79. Sites to Watch www.collegeboard.com www.collegeedge.com www.collegenet.com www.dialyjolt.com www.facebook.com www.hobsons.com www.petersons.com www.ratemyprofessors.com www.campusdirt.com www.collegeprowler.com www.theu.com www.mtvu.com www.epinions.com www.iagora.com www.studentsreview.com www.yelp.com www.xap.com www.Myspace.com www.Friendster.com

80. Organizational Sites for “True” Experts  www.chimprawk.blogspot.com  www.womma.com  www.emarketer.com  www.ama.org