Thanks to all who participated in last week’s webinar on creating a social enrollment plan. We received a number of questions/statements that we didn’t get to. As promised, here are your questions and our answers.

I apologize for any typos or grammatical errors in advance!

Question: A recent study showed that people spend much more time on Facebook than Google etc. Doing pay for click ads are very cost-effective.

Tim Copeland: I would also imagine that most people spend more time watching television also. So perhaps you should advertise more??

The great – and underutilized – capability of online marketing is measurement. From your question, it sounds like you have a good understanding of the ROI on your pay-per-click ads. You can do some wonderful things using testing methods on various channels.

When people go to Facebook they do so to socialize, catch-up with old friends, and to share. People using search engines are there to find specific information regarding a need. Which channel is more likely to yield ready-made purchasers?

With any research – ours or from any other source – you should always confirm the findings in your market and with your audience. In other words, don’t apply the commonly accepted (and wrong) “direct mail produces a 2% return” assumption and apply it in rote. Test, test, test.

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Why CIVIL? ‘Everybody’s doing it’ is not a good reason to start using social technologies in your enrollment marketing efforts. Simply opening another channel adds complexity to already stretched organizations. Shouting at students through another channel is what students tell us is what they want LESS of.

What’s needed is a more systematic approach to change your student relationships.

Consider C.I.V.I.L, our five step methodology to developing a higher education, social enrollment plan:

1. Choose objectives
2. Investigate participation
3. Validate strategies
4. Identify metrics
5. Look for social technologies

In this model, strategy drives technology.

Learn more by downloading our white paper on using Facebook for enrollment marketing, How to Lose Friends and Alienate Students. This paper contains primary research we conducted of college and university groups on Facebook. After speaking directly with the prospective students who joined these groups, we share eye-opening findings on how students want to be engaged on social networks and provide you with next steps for making the most of your presence on Facebook.

Social technologies?

With the interest in Twitter and Facebook, colleges and universities are understandably interested in participating. But what are your students ready for? How do they want to learn about you? Do you know?

It’s easy to jump off into the deep end of the pool with the popularity of social technologies. Many are free, and in 15 minutes or less in some cases, you can have your college or university in the middle of the social fray. You have many ways to attract and engage students … the key question is which ones makes sense?

Today, we announced some research we are doing in the adult learner market to better understand: 1)  how this student population wants to learn about colleges and universities through interactive marketing channels, and 2) how they participate online. We have ten research partner institutions from across the country involved in the effort.

The purpose of this study is to understand how adult-learners WANT to communicate with institutions at various points in their decision process, from initial awareness, to registration or application. We will also look at how this student population participates in online activities ranging from posting social status updates and listening to podcasts, to using email. Understanding behavior as well as what students want may provide some guidance (or perhaps restraint) in the social ‘arms’ race.

The official study will be released in early 2010.  We will be sharing some early results later in the fall. At the time of this posting, some 4,000 adult-learners have responded to the survey. The results so far … are enlightening.