Lights, Camera, YouTube, Action! By Karine Joly August 2007

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Although online videos produced by colleges and universities can drive very powerful word-of-mouth online campaigns, they don't have to spread online like viruses to result in positive outcomes in terms of publicity and recruitment numbers.

Take RealNebraska, for example. The monthly recruitment video series was launched in 2003 by the admissions office at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Modeled after The Daily Show starring Jon Stewart, the series is hosted by David Burge, associate director for admissions.

RealNebraska is available on iTunes as a free videocast as well as on the homepage of the UNL admissions office. The two episodes available on YouTube don't seem to have found an audience on the online video sharing website: Both had been viewed fewer than 300 times over the period of nine months since they were first posted.

Despite this fact, the online show has drawn constant positive feedback and played a major role in UNL recruitment initiatives. It even resulted in national TV coverage on NBC's Today show during six straight days, when David Burge was selected as one of the finalists for the "Anchor for Today" contest in February 2007.

"Our recruitment videos are already featured on our local cable network," says Burge. His initial goal was to get a chance to show his recruiting video once on NBC and get even more regional coverage for UNL. Outcomes have exceeded expectations: Four million people per day watched the TV segment; RealNebraska was featured on the front page of Lincoln's local newspaper three days out of six, while Burge was a fixture on three morning radio programs and featured on the evening news in both Nebraska and Kansas.

Following in the footsteps of institutions such as Furman University (S.C.), Longwood University (Va.) has focused its redesigned admissions website, whylongwood.com, on video content since last fall. The goal was to capture prospective students' attention by providing an immersive online experience offered mainly by the online video program Longwood Show, written, produced, and directed by students. "Having students help in the production not only saves you time and money but results in content more likely to speak to that prospective student thinking about your school," says Dave Hooper, director of web communications at Longwood.

Longwood Show brought in 250 percent more visitors to the admissions website on the day the first episode was launched. "Combined with our other marketing activities, we're seeing the ultimate results-approximately 20 percent increase in applications over the last two years," adds Hooper.

Mars Hill College (N.C.) has gone even a step further. Last March, staff there launched a new video online and cable channel, tvMHC.com, featuring student videos. Beyond the traditional interviews and a few video blogs, MHC students have the opportunity to record videos in a booth set up periodically in the cafeteria where they can share praise or concerns about the college. "The students loved this project and really got involved," says Andy Mrozkowski, MHC's webmaster, who developed an open- source video player for this project.

Duke, UNL, Longwood University, and Mars Hill College have decided to provide more online video content on a regular basis. Thanks to the giant leap made recently by the technology and the spread of user-generated productions, it has become possible for most institutions to offer online videos produced by students or staff members. No Hollywood budget required.

Karine Joly is the web editor behind www.collegewebeditor.com, a blog about higher ed web marketing, public relations, and technologies. She is also a web editor for an East Coast liberal arts college and a consultant on web projects for other institutions.

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