News on Relevant Science: 20 Colleges With the Smartest Content Marketing

Content marketing is hardly a new phenomenon. Marketers, including those at colleges, have been promoting their brands through custom magazines, white papers, roadshows, and events for decades. But with the power of the Internet, colleges have the opportunity to really step things up with interactive digital content. We’re seeing incredibly customized Facebook pages, websites that feature content built from the campus community, viral videos, and more. Many colleges are innovating in this field, but we’re particularly in awe of the 20 we’ve highlighted here. Read to to find out what some of the smartest content marketers in higher education are up to these days.

University of Arizona:

The University of Arizona has a really cool mobile app that provides marketing content for prospective and current students. Plenty of schools have mobile apps, but we love what Arizona is doing in particular because they’ve integrated content that is ideal for marketing to prospective students. Just in the app, you can go to Arizona’s iTunesU page, check out maps of the campus, school videos, photos, and even consider potential major paths with a searchable course catalog. Current students enjoy the app for checking out local restaurants and meal plan balances.
Occidental College:

Occidental College boasts a very active Flickr stream, full of photos that depict various scenes from campus life. Graduation, performances, carnivals, panel discussions, and ribbon cutting ceremonies can all be found on Oxy’s Flickr. We especially love the perspective offered by Oxy’s photos, as they’re from staff photographers, students, and faculty, a real-life mix that offers a unique view into what the school is all about.
Yale University:

Admissions videos tend to be a bit dull. So a group of overachievers at Yale decided to make something a little bit different, and in doing so, created an awesome video, That’s Why I Chose Yale. It went viral, with over a million hits and counting. The video offers a really fun, lighthearted perspective (in musical form) on student life and why Yalies choose to attend Yale. We love how this video simultaneously pokes fun at silly admissions videos, while also showing off Yale’s personality and a host of reasons to choose the school.
Vassar College:

Colleges using YouTube for content marketing is not at all a new thing, but Vassar College does a particularly good job taking advantage of this medium. A view of their channel’s page shows that they’ve really thought about content that would do well not just on the video site, but in marketing to potential students. We of course expect to see talks from professors and videos depicting college and academic life, but Vassar keeps things fun and short, too. There’s a two-minute lecture series section that tempts even the most crunched-for-time student, and even 4th Floor Main an original comedy series about dorm life at Vassar. The school also has several different channels branching out from its main Vassar channel, including college sports, news, and various educational departments.
Drake University:

We’re really impressed by what Drake University is doing on Pinterest. One of the most active college and university accounts, it really seems like Drake knows what prospective students are looking for on Pinterest. They’ve got boards for dorm room decor, pins to celebrate Drake, ideas for exploring Des Moines, plus a board where alumni can join in to pin their Drake pride. This Pinterest account is truly a community effort sharing excellent content meant to inspire new students.
Michigan State University:

So many colleges are on Facebook, but one school that we really like in particular is Michigan State University. On their Facebook page, they’re working to collect the stories of the Spartans, everyone from alumni to students, faculty, and staff. Even fans can get in on the action to tell their story. Visitors to the page are encouraged to “Tell Your Spartan Saga,” creating social proof from the school community that can be shared and inspiring for prospective students.
Texas A&M:

Another university doing a great job on Facebook is Texas A&M. The Aggies put future students front and center, offering links to admissions, tours, the university community, and a special section sharing the school’s traditions. Prospective students can also get linked up to TAMU on iTunesU, find fan photos, campus news, and more.
University of Texas:

The University of Texas didn’t even create UTexas Memes (a freshman at UT did), but they’re incredibly popular, and a fun way to spread the word about the school. Students, fans, and prospective Longhorns can all appreciate the college humor found in these meme pictures. This community effort is open to all contributors with something funny to share with the UT community.
Boston University Professor Voices:

Blogs are pretty commonplace in the university environment, but most are simply streams of PR news updates that aren’t highly compelling or interesting. Boston University’s Professor Voices offers a way for prospective students to connect with their future professors in a more personal way. Readers can check out what the experts of BU have to say about timely topics including politics, finance, and even gas prices.
Rice University:

Rice University has an incredible repository of educational content available through Connexions, one of the world’s first initiatives for sharing open educational resources online. From this initiative, students everywhere have been able to enjoy small nuggets of knowledge within a variety of collections free of charge, a great way to market Rice University as a leader in global learning, and an incredible resource to share with the university. Connexions has also grown into OpenStax, a resource that provides free open texts and resources for some of the most popular college courses.
MIT:

Most online learners are familiar with MIT’s OpenCourseWare, an initiative that’s in the same vein as Rice’s Connexions. MIT shares thousands of courses, lectures, and learning resources online in this website. In this amazing repository, MIT seems to be suggesting that if this is the stuff they’re willing to give away for free, the knowledge available to enrolled students must be out of this world. MIT’s initiative is an incredibly effective and impressive way to attract self-starting students to its campus.
Johns Hopkins University:

Johns Hopkins University has created Hopkins Interactive, a place for intense interaction among current, former, and future Hopkins students, faculty, and staff. Designed especially for prospective and admitted students to connect with the university through candid and uncensored information, Hopkins Interactive is refreshingly real. Students have volunteered to share their experiences at Johns Hopkins through blogs, Facebook, videos, and other fun projects that contribute to this initiative’s incredibly rich content.
Boston University:

Boston University’s BU Today is not totally unlike other university news websites, but it stands out for being extremely well done. It’s attractive, informative without being overwhelming, and friendly without being silly. Large, compelling photos, a clean layout, friendly text, and tempting headlines make this a great website for future students to get a feel for what the campus is like. They can even find the thoughts of current students, thanks to BU Today’s In Your Words section. Hot topics get their own tags, and editors pick out their very favorite features.
Harvard University:

Harvard is not the only university on iTunes, but it certainly seems to be working particularly well for them. Several of the most popular courses and content on iTunesU belong to Harvard, and with high-quality picks, it’s easy to see why. Users can check out Michael Sandel’s Justice series, full courses, and even multimedia features of Harvard ideas and creations. Harvard has done an incredible job taking advantage of what iTunesU has to offer, and made available great content that has made them so popular.
Tufts University:

A great way for a school to show its value is to display firsthand evidence of just how badly students want to be a part of it. Tufts has done just that with its Tufts, Please Pick Me campaign. The university invited applying students to submit YouTube videos along with their applications, and the results were quite interesting. Some were so popular that they got thousands of hits on YouTube. This campaign was a really fun way for the university to get to know applicants, and a great way to spread the word about why Tufts is a wonderful place to be.
University of Kentucky:

We really like how the University of Kentucky is making things personal for future students. They’ve got a great website at SeeBlue.com, featuring profiles of current students and staff, and especially alumni who have gone on to become successful after leaving the University of Kentucky. Overall, the university’s content marketing is very welcoming, with admissions counselors even going so far as to tweet welcome messages to newly accepted students.
Central Institute:

A small technical college in Australia isn’t typically on the radar of most students outside of the school’s general area, but Central Institute won its way into the minds of more than 2 million with a viral video created by two former Central Institute students. This darkly humorous video is incredibly shareable and a great way to share Central Institute’s personality.
University of Phoenix:

Twitter is such a great way for schools to connect with prospective students, and we really like the way the University of Phoenix is doing things. With their @askphoenix account, the university makes itself available to help future students find resources, create plans, and get information about becoming a part of the school. It’s a simple way to be there, not just with content, but assistance as well.
Ohio State University:

Many of the colleges we’ve profiled here allow future students the opportunity to read, see, and even experience what college is like for current and former students. But with CollegeSolved, Ohio State allows prospective students to actually connect one on one with current students. They can even use the website to find partners with common interests for private and confidential conversations. And although the conversations aren’t shared, OSU has been wise enough to collect anonymous data about what subjects students are most interested in, like scholarships and dorms, so that they can better highlight these topics in future marketing.
Mississippi State University:

Anyone can show off photos of their campus, but Mississippi State University took things a step further, asking their study abroad students to participate in a photo contest. These photos were then shared on MSU’s Facebook page, showing off just how fun, beautiful, and inspiring studying abroad with MSU can be. We really appreciate not only that MSU got students involved, but also that they took a unique approach to an old content idea with great results.