I had a person contact me from a third party vendor who stumbled onto one of my presentations the other day. He was launching a social networking app and wants to hit the higher ed market. He had laid out an email to send to perspective clients hitting all the usual points. A solid email that highlights their product.

Then I started to think about my experience from having previously worked for a third party vendor, doing presentations to various levels of higher ed employees, and the inevitable day when I decide I can no longer work for the low wages in higher ed and become a consultant or work elsewhere. And I think from my experience, higher ed is a really unique niche market and I really love it. Before I took my most recent job, I was offered positions at a few startup firms and I turned them down. Why? Not the money, I love higher ed. I have spent most of my career (yes, I’m only 27, as of today, b-day). 8 of 10+ years in higher ed.

This made me start thinking of how to market to them. Having been on both sides of higher ed, an employee and a vendor, I have seen how people work and think. Everyone thinks about how to section themselves off into sub-markets. “I’m a small private”, “I’m a large public research”. There are also the “we have a limited budget/ resources”. As far as that goes, I think that the playing field is pretty even. No one has a budget, so it’s “how do we work within that budget?”.
Another thing that I thought about in regard to the vendor’s message was ‘who are you going after, the do’er or their manager?’ For me, I am a do’er I. want the ‘what does your product do, how do I implement, what can it connect to’. For manager types the best things to think about are numbers and stats and for some reason those really speak to them. I personally am not overly concerned with numbers. It kind of reminds me of soldiers in the war. They don’t need reports, they’re on the front lines experiencing it.

The thing that gets me is I talk a lot of “social media in higher ed” (funny note: *google* “social media in higher ed”) and I find that I am very polarizing. People either love what I am talking about or they think it is total child’s play and unprofessional and undignified. So here are some stats: 85% of all college kids have a Facebook account. 61% of admissions offices use at least one form of social media. 56% of students said they preferred Web to print.

So where does this rant take us? Whether or not you choose to adopt these new tools, the students are there. You are missing an outlet that has far more people than any magazine you can print. Marketing is all about tapping into critical mass, and for our market that is social networks. There is probably no single market that uses social media sites more than college students, our bread and butter.

So whether you are a small private, large conservative, whatever… Just get out there and do it!!