The importance of real

Since I'm so new to higher ed, I'm open to anything and everything I can find about marketing in this arena. Which is why I attended eduWeb in Baltimore last month (see my conference blogging at my other blog). Which is also how I am finding bloggers like Karlyn Morisette, who presented at the conference. She's interactive recruiting manager at Norwich University and she blogs at Interactive Recruiting.

She had a good post last week about the importance of "being real" with prospective students:

They are out there getting the real story, whether you like it or not. Prospective students already place admissions offices very low on their list of credible sources of information when it comes to getting information about a college. They get it. It's marketing. You're trying to sell them because you have beds to fill. Want to really get their attention? Give them unmoderated blogs. Give them student produced content on your website instead of hidden on YouTube. Allow prospective students to e-mail, IM or chat on boards with current students without your moderation. Show them that you're not afraid of showing the real experience your students are having!

Why? Because, she says, rightly, I think:

... At the end of the day, you're going to build so much more credibility with your audience by being real with them. Kids are smart and they know how to filter. They have a million messages thrown at them every day and they decide immediately which ones are going to garner their attention and which ones aren't. Using the right technologies to communicate with them is not enough. To make it past their filters, you have to use the right technologies in the right way. To make yourself stand out, you have to be real and encourage your students to be real.

I've been through this lack-of-transparency thing with another employer, in another job, in a totally different industry. The "be real" mantra holds, no matter what business you're in. You can't hide, bury 'indelicacies' or push out cookie-cutter, jargon-filled marketing messages and expect to win buyers' (students') hearts. In the internet age, there are too many ways for the 'real 'to be found. We might as well embrace it.