Mongoose Research

The College Web Editor's top story covers one of our newer clients - Nazareth College.

Nazareth launched a mobile Web site on October 1.  The mobile site is specifically targeted at prospective students.  

Since launch:

• over 500 visitors a day
• mostly new visitors
• very low exit rate once students are in (high level of engagement)

The site makes it easy for prospective students to:

• quickly answer their most common questions
• quickly request more information
• quickly sign-up for events
• quickly receive turn-by-turn directions to various locations on campus

These tasks would be extremely laborious using a mobile phone with our desktop site.

Special thanks to Liz Zapata and the entire Nazareth team!

Read the full story at the College Web Editor.

On your smart phone visit: http://m.naz.edu

Congrats, Naz!

Yesterday, St. Mary's University sent out a text campaign inviting students to Sleeping Bag Weekend (a key recruiting event).  Many students responded 'thank you' or asked simple questions.  The student below engaged in a conversation about the admissions process, transcripts, application and transportation to sleeping bag weekend.  After all his questions were answered, he replied "..all of this texting helps a lot..".

So nice to hear positive student reactions!

I've included a screen shot (with personal information hidden) of a section of the conversation. 

(click for larger version)
 

Mass configuration day at Mongoose.  
(we thought it was too cool not to share)

More and more highly interested prospective students are asking for text updates from their institution of choice.  Texting allows institutions instant access to this highly elusive audience. Yesterday, The Chronicle highlighted one of our clients and their innovative use of texting in the admission process.

Read the full article on Chronicle.com:

St. Mary’s U. Finds That When It Texts, Students Come

Clickz - per the norm - has an on-target article regarding how to best design for mobile.  Highly recommended read.

Brands (Or Universities) usually want to simply port their existing website and format it for a mobile browser. While that gets all the information in the users' hands, it doesn't achieve the true experience to match users' needs. Screen space is limited, and trying to fit all the various options of a desktop Web experience into a tiny screen is going to lead to user frustration in seeking information. Secondly, since mobile users are operating in the real world, it shouldn't be assumed that they have the time to leisurely browse as they would in a desktop experience. Designing for mobile means focusing on the key tasks that the user needs and making them as simple and efficient as possible.

For the full article:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2025619/scaling-generating-successful-mobile-experience

Champlain College's mobile site is a finalist for 'Best Mobile Site' ranked by EDUStyle.  Our client is up against Harvard and USC.  The winners will be announced at EDUWeb (which starts today) in San Antonio, TX.

For a quick view of Champlain's mobile site:

To experience the site on your personal smartphone, go to: m.champlain.edu.

Lab 42 polled 500 social-networking Americans aged 13 - 21 regarding their use of texting.  Among the fidnings: 71% of the respondents preferred texting to calling

For the full story: http://mashable.com/2011/07/02/texting-teens-infographic/

Google has revamped how the rate and rank pages.  No longer are 'frequency of updates', 'number of keywords', or amount of 'good' content' the best way to receive a higher ranking.  Google's new algarythem is now about creating a brand that people will love and share and reward and trust.  They now measure user 'happiness' both with evaluators who go to your site as well as analytic metrics that indicate 'happiness' this includes:

• time on site / page- bounce rate- browse rate
• Click through rate from search results (non-spammy domain name is best)
• diversity and quantity of traffic

Google wants their searchers to be happier.

So be sure to measure, track and improve your analytics for better SEO results.

For a clear view of this changing landscape in real human words, check out our friends at SEOMOZ. 

Some colleges are realizing that investing in apps is proving costly.  To cover the smart phone market, one would absolutely need an app for iPhone and Android - and should have one for Blackberry and Microsoft.  That totals 4 platforms to support.  The mobile Web is exploding and is supported by all Web enabled devices.  HTML 5 provides for a rich presentation as well.

Read the full story:
As Mobile Devices Multiply, Some Colleges Turn Away From Building Campus Apps 
http://chronicle.com/article/As-Mobile-Devices-Multiply/128060/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

As QR codes near the tipping point, I thought I woud share some tips to make them more visually interesting and effective.

1) Track everything.  Always use a tinyURLs when using QR Codes.  You want to know which codes are being scanned, how often, and when.  When doing a large direct mail project (like student search) use a unique code for each recipient.

2) Give instructions.  QR codes will be scanned at a higher rate if you include simple instructions. Make sure that you use clear and simple language to explain:

a. What a QR code is.
b. What they can get from scanning it.
c. What to do with it.
d. Where they could get a scanner application.

Something simple like:

Point your phone camera at the graphic and start experiencing the College.
Need a barcode reader application?  Text Tag to 46676 .

3) Not too small. While there is no official rule on the size of QR Codes, the code does need to be read from a person using their mobile phone. This means that if you are creating a billboard, your QR code will need to be quite large in order to be read from the side walk. If you create one for television, you may want to test it on different sized televisions from the normal location you would view your television, i.e. the couch.

When creating one for print, you want to make sure that the QR code prints out large enough to not become blurry.  Many smart phones do not have excellent cameras.  So keeping the QR Code at least 2" x 2" is advisable.

4) Reward is everything.  Anyone can create QR codes.  They are free.  The key is the reward - the experience after a student scans the code.  Make SURE the content is built specifically for mobile.  Make sure the student is rewarded for their interest.  A less than stellar experience will lead to a negative brand perception.  A positive / rewarding experience will cause a positive brand experience and increase the likeyhood they will become futher emersed in your brand.

5) Be creative.  The code does not need to be boring.  Many people do not know that you can:

- add color
- soften round corners
- add artwork, designs, or logos 

The code can have an error rate of less than 30%.  So start with a standard code, and manipulate it as you please, then test.  You will find there is a bit of trial and error. The following codes were used as examples from Mashable.com: