1. Sharing the Campus Culture
Through Social Technology:
Unifying the Academic & Extracurricular Experience
for the Admitted Student
Presented by:
Laura Zuppo and Davina Gould

2. Agenda
 Overview of Case Study:
 Stetson Law and Project Goals
 Explain and discuss content strategy for admitted
student website
 Review approaches for using social technology to
engage admitted students
 Share examples of assessment techniques
 Provide tour of the site
 Discuss lessons learned and tools you can use

3. Stetson Law
 Founded in 1900; Florida’s first law school
 University has main campus in DeLand, FL
 Decentralized admissions and enrollment
functions
 763 FT and 227 PT law students
 Enroll new students in the fall only
 Average age 24 for FT and low 30s for PT
 Culture:
 Warm, collegial, active campus community
 Commitment to pro bono service
 Proud of experiential learning opportunities

4. Goals for Admitted Student Network
 One-stop shop for all admitted student
information
 Engage students by sharing Stetson’s friendly
campus culture through the online experience
 Takeaway: Assess, address and adjust
throughout the process

5. StetsonConnect Content Strategy
 Traditional website content
 Campus life and academic information
 Financial information
 Forms/documents
 How to prepare for law school
 Personalized information
based on admitted student profile
 “Your Interests” pages

6. StetsonConnect Content Strategy
 New student announcements
 Event invitations/reminders
 Deadlines
 Housing, orientation and IT information
 Archived announcements for students admitted later in the
cycle
 Multimedia content
 Videos
 Live chat with staff
 Online chats and chat transcripts
 Blogs

7. Content Strategy Approaches
 Integrate with post-admission
recruitment plan
 Calendar/timeline
 Staff responsibilities/roles
 Integrate with “gap” and orientation content
 Develop mind-map/outline to organize
content
 MS Word or Office outline tools
 MS Visio (flowchart software)
 Web search for “mind map software free”

8. Engaging admitted students
 Private social network technology
 Password-protected with administrator approval
 Personal profiles with photos and status updates
 Groups and discussion forums
 Direct messaging
 Email notifications

9. Engaging admitted students
 Interaction with Stetson community
 Admissions professionals
 Select administrators, faculty
 Student life, residential life, academic success
 Ambassadors and selected students
 Student social media group

10. Engaging admitted students
 Interaction with future classmates
 Entering student group
 Special interest groups: part-time students, international
study, veterans, intramurals
 “Life Off Campus” forum
 Housing
 Activities in the community
 Places to eat

11. Assessment techniques
 Quantitative
 Compare user statistics against final enrollment data
 Student satisfaction survey (multiple-choice questions)
 Qualitative
 Student satisfaction survey (open-ended questions)
 Interviews and focus groups
 Comments from non-matriculants
 Comments from orientation leaders

12. STETSONCONNECT
WALKTHROUGH

18. Lessons learned
 Frame the conversation
 Streamline navigation for ease of use
 Designate roles
 Schedule announcements and content updates
 Ask for feedback/perform assessments
 Keep audience needs in mind
 Broaden constituent participation
 Remember to keep it personal and not let
technology take over recruitment process

19. Tools you can use
 Private social networking tools/software
 Groups on major social networks
 Facebook, LinkedIn
 Open-source software
 JomSocial for Joomla, BuddyPress for WordPress
 Third-party private social networks
 Ning, SocialGo, Grou.ps
 Higher ed firms: Hobsons, Inigral Schools app

20. Participant Information
 Laura Zuppo, Assistant Dean of Admissions and
Student Financial Planning
 Zuppo@law.stetson.edu
 Davina Gould, Director of Publications and Online
Communications
 Gould@law.stetson.edu