August 10, 1998
Contact: Andrew Careaga Phone: 573-341-4328; [email protected]
INSTANT MESSAGING HELPS CAMPUS RECRUIT STUDENTS ONLINE
ROLLA, Mo. -- Recruiters at the University of Missouri-Rolla are using instant messaging chat programs such as ICQ and America Online's Instant Messenger to recruit students over the Internet.
Martina S. Hahn, director of admissions and student financial aid at the University of Missouri- Rolla (UMR), and her staff use three varieties of free instant messaging programs to tout the campus to prospective students online.
"More and more of our prospective students prefer to communicate online," Hahn says. "The least we can do is learn their language and communicate with them in a style they feel comfortable with."
Instant messaging (IM) programs are similar to one of the Internet's oldest communication tools, Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC allows Internet users to enter chat rooms for real-time communication. An added feature of IRC software is the "notify list," which lets users build lists of online acquaintances. When those people log on to the Internet, the IRC user sees their nicknames flash up on his or her computer monitor.
Similar IM services have been cropping up all over the Internet in recent months. Hahn and her staff are using three different IM programs -- America Online's Instant Messenger, ICQ, and Yahoo! Pager -- to stay in touch with UMR prospects. The recruiting experiment started last spring, when UMR recruiters compiled "buddy lists" of more than 800 prospects who have AOL accounts. Any time a prospective UMR student logs on to AOL or the Internet, that person's name will pop up on UMR recruiters' buddy lists.
"The responses have been great," Hahn says. "One prospect wrote, 'I'm flattered that you would take the time for me,' and the brother of another prospective student wrote, 'Thank you for taking the time to do this.'"
The idea for building relationships with prospective students via instant messaging came to Hahn while on AOL one day in February. While surfing AOL member profiles for people who listed "Rolla" in their information, Hahn "met" a prospective student from Texas, and struck up a chat.
Through the online conversation, Hahn discovered that the young woman had visited UMR last summer and was planning to enroll in the fall.
"She told me that she had met Dawn Medley (a UMR admissions staff member) and that she was excited about coming this fall," Hahn said. "I was able to speak with her directly about UMR because she happened to be online at the same time I was."
Hahn expects this recruiting approach to not only meet the needs of the new generation of techno-savvy students, but also to save the campus on long-distance telephone calls.
Using instant messaging is the first of several ideas Hahn plans to implement at UMR to make the techno-connection with the country's best and brightest college prospects. More recently, the campus began sending "literature" via electronic mail to high school sophomores, juniors and seniors. An electronic brochure sent to 900 sophomores and juniors netted a response of 113 in just two weeks, while a similar e-mail sent to 1,000 incoming seniors garnered 92 responses within three days.
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