Another week closer to Clearing

With A-level results a week today it's been an interesting week in the office! Clearing is the no. one topic of conversation and everyone is prepping last minute bits and pieces to ensure everything is in place. I hope by now you've all seen some of our new artwork, either online or around campus. We're all really pleased with the finished result and hope you like it!

This week I had a tour of the new library and I must say it looks fantastic! It's a great space and it certainly helped to get my steps up for the day walking down the nine floors (yes I have a fitbit and yes I did take the lift up - I'm not that crazy!). I'm currently arranging some student videos for the PG e-zine, PG Life, so I'm going to see if I can film in the new library and show it off a bit - watch this space!

I've also been working on the more than a degree site and finding out about some more initiatives at the University including the psychology film club and various trips run by the Business School. It's great to still be finding out about various activities that our students can get involved in, and it just shows what a wide variety of co- and extra-curricular activities we have on offer. 

Over the next few days I'm also going to be working on our Postgraduate online profiles - making sure our profiles on external websites are as up-to-date as possible. It'll be great to be able to add the information about the new library to the various websites as well as the latest NSS results.

I'm also looking ahead to next month when the new set of freshers will start their university journey! I'm hoping to be able to do some photography and videography at some of the events which we will be able to use on social media and in our e-zines throughout the year. I love going out and meeting our students - it also helps me build a nice list of contacts to call upon when we're planning our marketing photo-shoots!

Playing by the rules and the pike syndrome

A guest blog post from the freelancer!

Well, they’re keeping me busy here, working on, among other things, forthcoming Open Days, UCMK and PG Life, our monthly newsletter for those interested in postgrad education.
I’ve even recorded and edited (with a lot of help from Lauren!) my first YouTube video – an interview about our PG tourism courses.
As someone with a background in B2B marketing and sales it’s great to be talking to a different public in the form of potential, current and former University of Bedfordshire students. Whilst the audience is different the principles of communicating useful information to make informed purchase decisions are the same. 
Or so I thought … until… the traditional view of Marketing was called into question in a very entertaining way at a Knowledge Network event that Sarah, Rehanna and I went to at Putteridge Bury.

Business guru Grant Leboff, of Sticky Marketing fame, started off telling us about the ‘pike syndrome’ (go on - look it up on YouTube!) and used this analogy to educate us in the 3 (new) rules of marketing in the wake of the communications revolution and how we are all hyperconnected these days. (Except those of us who don’t have a smartphone yet but apparently I’m in a very small minority!!)
In a nutshell (because he talked for well over an hour, punctuated with examples ranging from the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign to Tesco weekly money-off vouchers and how Ford gave away Fiesta cars to prominent social media barons):

Rule 1. Marketing is no longer a means to an end-it’s an end in itself-no-one has a USP any more so Marketing must give value to the customer

Rule 2.  Marketing is no longer about products and services but about people, with information disseminated through virtual conversations ie  ‘online word of mouth’ such as Likes on Facebook or recommendations on shopping sites like Amazon

Rule 3. Marketing is no longer about getting customers (at least not directly) but about building communities and engaging with your public at different levels.

Perhaps I’ve added a bit of value with this blog post-especially to any marketers out there- by spreading the word about this ‘Marketing revolution’.

What do you think about how we communicate with you –can we give you ‘added value’?

In fact, is anyone out there reading this?!!

Actually that makes me reflect on that old philosophical chestnut –if a tree falls in a forest but nobody hears it did it actually make a sound? If I write something online, but no-one reads it, did it exist or has it disappeared in the ether?

Whoa!!... this is getting way too serious-I should be blogging about the latest piece of vintage jewellery I bought off eBay to add to my stunning collection-or whether to up the weights I’ll press in the gym tonight.  Or whether my beloved St Helens will get through to the Super League Grand Final…now, in view of this season’s poor form (they're playing like that pike), that would take some new rules!