R
Riding the momentum of social media’s virtually unbridled growth, online reviews have become a powerful, proven tool for spiking sales at online campus stores, as well as shaping brand perception among current and prospective students.
Indeed, 72 percent of online consumers say web reviews
and ratings influence their purchase decisions more than any other shopping factor, according to The 2010 Social Shopping Survey, And 39 percent of those same shoppers say they read eight or more online reviews before spending money, according to the same survey authored by the e- tailing group (
www.e-tailing.com). Online reviews are also offering campuses another tool
to establish long term relationships with current, prospective and former students, as instant communities arise amidst the reviews, and students take advantage of various social networking tools to interact, stay in touch and reinforce the overall image of what life is like on a particular campus. As you might suspect, online reviews of higher ed insti-
tutions are popping up in great numbers on third-party sites. Students Review (
www.studentsreview.com), College Prowler (
www.collegeprowler.com), EduinReview (
www.eduinre-
view.com), CollegeGrader (
www.collegegrader.com) and
MyNextCollege.com (
www.mynextcollege.com) are just a few of many sites currently featuring student critiques. Rabidly popular youTube (
www.youtube.com) also sports
its share of college and university reviews. Many institutions are formalizing the process by featuring such video reviews on their private, institution-controlled youTube “channels.” The University of Oxford, for example, runs a number of student reviews (
www.youtube.com/watch?v= Wt1GwABGmTM ) as does The New England College of Business (
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvriBJOsCpk) and language educator Bell Educational Trust (www.youtube. com/user/Bellinternational).
subscribe at no charge at
www.todayscampus.com Many campuses on youTube also allow text comments
to be added to the page where the review videos appear, giving prospective students even more insight into what life is like at institutions of interest. In addition, a number of institutions offer peer reviews
in the form of supervised student blogs on their own web sites. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering is leveraging this technique (
http://blogs.olin.edu/studentblog/), as is Wellesley College (
www.wellesley.edu/admission/student- blogs/) and Westminster (
www.westminstercollege.edu/ blogs/), to name a few.
Peer review sites are having a greater impact on applicants’ perceptions.
Today’sCampus 31
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