The New York Times (which I pay to read on my Kindle) had a great article on how MIT and other colleges are using Powerful Blogging Software to leverage their own students in the recruiting effort.
As Seth Godin says: "Websites are for fact & figures, blogs are for stories". Who better to tell the stories about what your school is really like, than the students who attend? The present state of marketing consists of two unavoidable elements. The first is that institutions don't control the media, people do. This is a profound shift and the primary driver of organizations leveraging blog software that is designed for Search Engine Optimization.
People (yes, students are people too) are sliding into smaller and smaller niches. To find them, or more importantly, have them find you you have to really focus on creating and distributing lots and lots of relevant content. Most schools do a great job of talking up their Football team, but what happens when a valedictorian types in "best chess club" or is interested in the environmental work students might be doing.
These kids are searching, they are telling the search engines exactly what they are looking for and if you are not freeing your students to blog you are missing an amazing search marketing opportunity. The more student bloggers, the more great content showing the total range of what your institution can offer the diverse interests of today's students.
Why are educational institutions turning to Corporate Blogging Software instead of the home grown variety? A couple of simple reasons. One is to have a little control. This may come as a surprise to some, but although smart some college students can still make bad decisions. This doesn't make them bad people, but it requires that organizations use tools that permit approval before content gets live. This isn't designed to stifle creativity or crush the soul of the program. Monitoring is all about preventing content that can damage both the student and the institution.
The second reason Colleges choose Business Blog Software is because these tools are designed specifically as SEO Tools. Telling lots of stories that no one ever sees doesn't help anyone. The Goal is to target specific content to specific individuals by targeting their search terms.
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