Are you one of those people who believes that it’s valuable to find out all you can about the behavior and motivations of your target audience? If so, you’re going to love our sequel to last year’s “Mythbusting Admissions” research.
Recent research on prospective teen applicants’ use of digital in their college search and choice — including research we’ve conducted — has focused mainly on social media, smartphones, tablets, and apps that have changed teens’ college search. I think I know how today’s prospective teen applicants use college websites in their college search and choice. But the most-current in-depth research on this topic is about five years old.
I’m always looking for research insights. And I’m curious to know how teens really use college websites in 2016.
This is why we at mStoner partnered with Chegg (again!) to ask teens what they do, specifically, when they visit college websites during their college search.
We want to know how much you know about what teens value on the websites you design, build, and manage. We’re asking higher ed marketers, admission officers, and website managers to share their insights.
Don’t be surprised if you get an email from us inviting you to contribute your thoughts to this research. If you don’t want to wait for that email, dive right into the survey now.
We’ll select one person at random from those who complete the entire survey for a free admission to the 2016 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, the premier event for college and university marketers.
We’re calling this project “Mythbusting Websites: Where Prospects and Professionals Agree, and Disagree, on How Teens Use Websites in College Search.”
It’s a perfect sequel to last year’s research that explored how teens relate to the whole array of communications they receive when they’re engaged in their college searches and choice — and what admissions professionals knew about their views on this subject. Here’s more information about that research, including the white paper with our findings.
Gil Rogers, director of enrollment marketing at Chegg, and I will reprise our session on Mythbusting Admissions one final time this June. Register for free to learn the most effective ways to reach prospective teen applicants.
In our white paper, “Mythbusting Admissions,” we pointed out that “One of our main objectives in doing this research was to illuminate and address some of the myths we encounter in conversation, blog posts, tweets, and the well-meaning advice we hear people offer based on a limited view of data mismatched with actual behavior.”
We’re after the same sorts of insights this year. Is it valuable to “redefine” the college website by introducing widgets, nonstandard navigation, and other elements? Or should you focus on building out your academic program pages? We’re curious to know.
If you’d like to keep informed about what we learn, please sign up for project updates and the announcement of our white paper release.
And don’t forget: if you want to take the survey right now, please be our guest! As we explore the data, we’ll help you measure your own knowledge about what teens do and what information they value with what they say. And, who knows, you might just win the free admission to the Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education!
Michael Stoner Co-Founder and Co-Owner Was I born a skeptic or did I become one as I watched the hypestorm gather during the dotcom years, recede, and congeal once more as we come to terms with our online, social, mobile world? Whatever. I'm not much interested in cutting edge but what actually works for real people in the real world. Does that make me a bad person?