beyond the prospectus: blogs, twitter, youtube and more... (2009)

Beyond the prospectus:Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more…

De Hallam, Murdoch University.

Case study: Bloggers campaign.

Murdoch University is the place where free-thinkers

come to succeed.

Our goal: connect with prospective Gen Y students.

Moving beyond brochures to create conversations.

What we did…

Campaign objectives:1. Encourage our students to blog about life at Murdoch in a

completely honest way - we wanted them to share positive and negative experiences, not contrived marketing messages.

2. Invite prospective students to feel a connection to the Murdoch community.

3. Encourage conversations between our existing students and our future students to help close the gap during the transition from school or work into uni.

Overarching online strategy:1. Create our position as the university that

provides real and honest advice.

2. Research and understand the social technographic profile for our target audience (listen and talk).

3. Increase the “authenticity” of our brand with our target audience.

How we did it.

• Step 1: Encourage students to blog about Murdoch.

• Step 2: Connect with prospective students.

• Step 3: Recruit our future student blogger and endorsed bloggers.

Rule 1:

• We would not censor blogs or blog comments.

Rule 2:

• We would not tell our bloggers what to write.

‘Simply put, the groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of from companies.’

- Groundswell, Forrester Research

Email 3,597 prospective students

1,327 influencers and parents

Promo banners

Online PR

Blogging assignments

• Create a physical banner to provide a simple but meaningful piece of advice they would give to people who are considering their study options

• Share 10 things about their Murdoch.

• Take our free thinking quiz and create a chalk drawing on campus to show their results.

Content score + views + votes

=

The result.

www.bloggers.murdoch.edu.au

What we’ve learnt.

Strong brand ambassadors.

Our students love to have a voice – and love

to be heard.

Our current students connect

naturally with Gen Y.

WA Web Awards (2010)Education standard of excellence(Winner)

Australian Institute of Marketing (2010)Social Marketing(State winner, National Finalist)

Association of Commonwealth Universities PR, Marketing and Communication Awards (2010)(Winner for ‘Websites’ category)

Questions?