Bradley University is offering a new social engagement platform for prospective students to interact with the school in a personalized way. inside BU is a web portal geared to give those interested in attending Bradley a unique window to the school’s offerings through handheld electronic devices. Tom Richmond manages enrollment marketing for Bradley. He says it a matter of communicating in a way natural to today’s 17-year-old. “If somebody says well, ‘I’m looking at two schools, I know one has it, I don’t know if the other has it.’ Well by making it easier to get that information, they might choose Bradley.”
Richmond says inside BU learns through interaction and tailors information for each prospective student as their interests change for purposes of majors and student life. “We’ve tried to open the door as wide as we can for real questions. We did choose ambassadors of Bradley that we know have a great sense of what’s appropriate, and so we trained them on the kind of questions they might get, and said ‘be honest. If a student want’s to know how much you study, tell them how much you study. If a student wants to know if the food’s any good, tell them what you eat.’”
The university can also see which prospective students are most interested in Bradley. It’s intended to gear recruitment to those who might be most interested in coming to Bradley.