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ADMISSIONS PROCESS

• Personalize the Admissions Process in every way! Most important takeaway!
• Every part of the admissions process touches a student. It affects the mood. Make sure everyone involved is aware of how to act. Everyone should be fun, friendly and engaged with the kids.
• Experience on Campus is what seals the deal. Not marketing materials – it just gets them in the door. Most students said it was a gut feeling they had. So make every experience count.
• Having the President come out and say how fun the college is and the experiences you’ll have and how prepared we’ll make you for the real world makes a huge impact. A cool president goes a long way. Also the Deans of departments introducing themselves to students shows they really care.
• Be informal in your speak and emails. It’s a relationship you’re building not a business deal.
• Its best to let students know you are coming to their school beforehand. Not just show up. Then they know you are coming and can be prepared or request time to come see you.
• Experience during college fairs makes a big difference! Demeanor, approach, kindness of counselor influences decision. Personality and interaction is key.
• Hook students up with a current student that is in their major interest. It helps personalize the experience and establishes a bond with the College.
• Having overnight visits and tagging along with a current student is also a major influence.
• Tour guides make a big difference. Are they reading from a script or really excited about this college?

MAILINGS

• Kids get too many mailings from colleges. Often repeated mailings. It makes them feel like they are just a name on a list when the same info is resent to them.
• Personalize all mailings. General mails don’t make them feel special. Its junk mail to them.
• Personalization and “Welcome to the College” gimmicks should not start only when accepted. They should be from the beginning. Otherwise students think now that you have my money you are taking the time to get to know me.
• Send the student the email of a current student that is in their program of interest. This helps build a connection with the College and reel them in. Then you’re not just “some institution.”
• Use colorful mailers. Blank white ones are boring and not worth opening.

EMAILS

• Hand written emails from admissions counselors make the most impact. Copying and pasting a generic block of text is a dead giveaway and turns kids off.

VIEWBOOKS

• Include all the seasons in your view book. Only spring/summer seems fake. Also, add photos  that are not staged. Kids want to see what is really like on campus. Not polished marketing photos.
• Kids want to see candid moments and a recap of campus life: dorms (how people decorate), events, the dining hall, etc. Not just set up shots of students smiling.
• Most kids only read the titles and look at pictures. They barely read the paragraph texts unless its about their specific program. Less type and more pow!
• Kids want to see a Fast Facts section so they can see the statistics about the College. Will I fit in, are class sizes appropriate, student-faculty ratio, etc.

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Kids do not want to be contact by Facebook until accepted. Don’t solicit. Its best to create an admissions Facebook Fanpage for them to go to for quick answers. Also incorporate this into every contact with student so they know they can go there for help.
• Don’t text students unless they are enrolled.

ADVERTISING

• Advertisements don’t really impress kids.

SLOGANS

• Make the catch phrase resonate with students. Don’t just throw a slogan around. It should be backed up in everything we do. Example, Drake University D+ Campaign. Pairing Drake with Experiences. Shows their more than just academics. It’s a whole experience:http://chronicle.com/blogs/tweed/did-drakes-ad-campaign-give-itself-a-near-failing-grade/26672
• Incorporate the mascot more in marketing materials. Kids bond with it. It gives a sense of pride in school.

WEBSITES

• Make it easy to navigate so they can find info they want.
• Separate the pages for Prospective, Undergrad, Grad. Kids only want info relevant to their status. Not have to hunt around for it.
• Financial aid calculator is an important. Can they even afford your school?
• Many kids go do facebook to find other kids in the school to talk to them. Also they look to Fanpages to get answers.

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FreeDigitalPhotographyTutorials.com has now launched! This new website provides the best digital photography tutorials, tips and articles for beginner, intermediate and advanced photographers. All for FREE!

My goal for the website to provide you with as much free information and digital photography turtorials as possible to make you a better photographer.

In addition to tutorials on digital photography, I also provide Digital Photography Book Reviews of the best books available on photography. No matter if you’ve just started digital photography or have been shooting for years, you’ll find that its agreed among all photographers that these books belong on every photographer’s bookshelf.

Each week you’ll find new dslr tips and tutorials on digital photography that will help you to create better photographs. Our tutorials are divided into Beginner Digital Photography Tutorials and Advanced Digital Photography Tutorials – allowing you to build upon your level of experience.

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Just finished a new website design for People Places, Inc. (a nonprofit foster care agency serving the Shenandoah Valley.)

To read more about my approach to the new website click on the image below to go directly to the portfolio page.

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Photoshop Power Tips & Tricks Tutorials
Episode #6 – Retouch and Smooth Skin – Part 1 of 2
By www.stephenhockman.com

Summary:
In this Photoshop Tutorial you will learn retouch imperfections on skin and smooth skin.

*Please remember to Comment and offer your own tips and tricks if you have them.

Download and Watch FREE:

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how much a video could be worth to your business. Video marketing is hot right now. Our love affair with the screen is stronger than ever, especially when it comes to the popularity of online videos on sites such as YouTube.com or Video.Google.com.

YouTube is the most popular video streaming Web site, but it’s also an immensely popular search engine, accounting for a quarter of the U.S. searches for its parent company, Google. There are so many searches on YouTube it would be the second-largest search engine in the United States if it were a standalone site.

I could go on and on with facts and figures, but the point is that online video marketing is extremely popular and that growth is expected to continue. By “online video marketing” I mean the use of short, informative videos that are displayed and disseminated on the Internet and used by businesses to promote their products and services.

In my opinion, video marketing is just as important to consider as social media marketing (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) when you’re analyzing what new Web strategies to put into place for your business. Here’s what you need to know and why you should consider using online video for your business, even if you’re camera-shy or totally clueless when it comes to digital photography and videography.

CONSUMERS DEMAND ENGAGEMENT

If you think of video marketing as a way to take a classic TV commercial and make it easy to comment on and share with your friends, you get some idea of the interactivity possible with online video. Plus, video engages more of the senses than traditional print media or Web pages. When people hear and see information about your products and services, it enhances credibility and allows you to connect to them in an emotional way. Video can be personal and social, which Web surfers love.

SEARCH ENGINES LOVE VIDEO

Forrester Research recently reported that videos were 53 times more likely than traditional Web pages to receive an organic first-page ranking. One of the reasons is that Google and the other search engines try to display a mix of content types in their search results, so they look for video.

However, there’s a scarcity of video content to choose from, especially content that’s been properly submitted. This is important, because it means that if you take the trouble to create a video and properly submit it, your chances of getting that video to rank in the search engines is much greater.

YOU CAN GENERATE INTEREST AND TRAFFIC VERY QUICKLY

Search engines are always looking for new content, and because video sharing sites such as YouTube are so popular, search engines visit them every few minutes. Your videos can appear in Google, Yahoo and Bing just a few minutes after you upload them, a process that otherwise might take days or even weeks.

MARKETING MESSAGES GET TO THE POINT MUCH FASTER

Most videos used for marketing messages are short, about one to two minutes long. It’s a lot faster and often more enjoyable for many prospective customers (not all) to watch a video than it is for them to search through a Web site. They can see what’s being offered and even be shown exactly how to install or use the product.

BusinessTown.com cites a study conducted by the Wharton School of Business that indicated that information gleaned from video presentations is easier for the viewer to retain and to comprehend. More people preferred watching video than reading printed information. According to the study, sales of the service or product being promoted increased by more than 70 percent when video marketing was employed.

VIDEO MARKETING IS (RELATIVELY) CHEAP, LONG-TERM

Online video communication can be a very cost-effective way to reach potential customers because the audience is huge and videos can be produced much more cheaply than TV ads. You can outsource video production for as little as $300, sometimes less (depending on format, how the video is produced and whether or not you commit to a video production package. Video distribution online is usually sold as a separate service.)

You can even create your own videos using digital photos and software you probably already have installed on your computer, such as Windows Movie Maker. Last year, I tried this for myself.

I was investigating the idea of offering video marketing in my own business and wasn’t sure how hard it would be to get started without spending a lot of money on software or equipment. So I created a very simple video using Windows Movie Maker and a $10 microphone and uploaded it to a bunch of video sharing sites.

More than 15 months later, if you Google “e-mail marketing Columbia MO” you’ll see that three of the top 10 results are references to that video. I do higher quality videos for clients now, but I wanted you to see that something like this is absolutely “do-able” and absolutely free.

If you’re not incorporating video content into your online marketing initiatives, you should seriously think about it. My next column will include a few video marketing “best practices.” See you then!

This article was published on page A6 of the Saturday, March 27, 2010 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune

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Clearly, video is one of the most engaging mediums to promote your products and services. Especially if you harness the power of the web by posting it on your website, Youtube, Yahoo Videos, etc.

While you may think that a professionally produced video is out of reach for your marketing budget, there is an inexpensive option that you can use that’s been proven to engage with customers.

The answer:  A Talking Head (Testimonial Style) Video.

What is a Talking Head (Testimonial Style) Video Podcast?

Its simply the use of an inexpensive video camera or webcam that you use to “talk with your customers.”You can use it to share information, promote product specials and discounts, or to just keep viewers up-to-date with whats going on around your business. They’re quick and easy to create and can be posted on your own website, Youtube, Yahoo Videos, etc.

To learn more about Talking Head (Testimonial Style) Video and how to create one take a look at this video below.

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Photoshop Power Tips & Tricks Tutorials
Episode #5 – Fix Red Eye
By www.stephenhockman.com

Summary:
In this Photoshop Tutorial you will learn how to fix Red Eye created by the flash on a photo.

*Please remember to Comment and offer your own tips and tricks if you have them.

Download and Watch FREE:

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I came across an article from SmashMagazine.com that brought up an interesting topic of website website design that many inexperienced studios skip – Website Content Planning.

So many articles explain how to design interfaces, design graphics and deal with clients. But one step in the Web development process is often skipped over or forgotten altogether: content planning. Sometimes called information architecture, or IA planning, this step doesn’t find a home easily in many people’s workflow. But rushing on to programming and pushing pixels makes for content that looks shoehorned rather than fully integrated and will only require late-game revisions

Before you even start to design a website you have to plan the content structure. So many of us design too fast. You need to make so many decisions before working on a visual wireframe or pixel-based mockup. If you start designing before understanding the breadth and depth of the content that your website will contain, you’ll inevitably have to cram stuff into places that it doesn’t fit.

Building a website is like telling a good story. It starts with a cohesive outline and clear plot. No matter how fantastic your website looks or works, eventually someone will read it. Someone will have to navigate it. Truly great websites pay attention to content and organization. There’s no way to fake that late in the game. Greatness comes from a solid plan.

If you’re a website designer, you owe it to yourself to read the Full Article Here.

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Did you know that LinkedIn is valued highly by Google in terms of its search results?

Why should you care? How does it affect your business?

Google ranks LinkedIn content higher in their search results, allowing your business to increase its website traffic by  implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques within your Personal Profile.

How can you take advantage of this trick? Watch the video below to find out!

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As most of you know, I’ve created several Photoshop Tutorial Videos that are available for Free on Youtube and iTunes.

Well, I’m proud to announce that one of my videos has reached 1,400 views in just one month! Make sure to check it out to learn how to smooth skin in photoshop. I’ve posted the video below.

Photoshop Smooth Skin and Retouching Part 1 of 2
By Stephen Hockman

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