Harvard’s Social Media Success
Are you on Facebook? Probably, you are, but are you doing anything resembling actual marketing on that social media platform? Or any other social media platform for that matter. What would you say if I told you that Harvard University has leveraged its social media presence in order toattract nearly 40,000 new applicants? You might say, “well, of course, it’s Harvard.� Not so fast. Even for Harvard, 37,300-plus is a record.
How did they manage this? Well, in part, they used the right bait. The influx of applications came after Harvard announced a $150 million gift, the bulk of which was allocated for financial aid. And it might be tempting to chalk this success up to another shameless, moneydrenched marketing scheme. While there may be some truth to that, it’s far from the only reason. And certainly not the only reason that six out of the eight Ivy League schools are announcing increased application rates.
Two factors are at play here. First, these schools are engaged in successful, targeted marketing campaigns. Second, they are using these campaigns for dual purposes. They want to increase applications as a whole, but they also want to diversify their customer base. To that end, the marketing was created to appeal both to a broad market while aspects within that market were specifically tied to certain desired — but underrepresented — groups.
Critics are sneering at these efforts as a cheap competition marker. After all, these schools admit fewer than 10%of their annual applicants. Why do they need more?
From a management perspective, let’s flip that question around. Say only ten percent of your target market buys. Wouldn’t you want the ten percent that would buy the most? The principle is the same here. By increasing your potential customer pool, you can be more selective about the sort ofcustomer you really want to target. But if you never throw out a bigger net, you may never catch them in the first place.
The same or at least a similar strategy can be used to manage your employees. You want the absolute best to be at their absolute best, so establishing some ambitious guidelines and a bit of healthy competition can be a good incentive to deliver this result. However, if you don’t open up your operation to bigger and better potential, you may miss out on a tremendous team member, simply because you never made a place for them.
Jonah Engler is a New York based entrepreneur.