Strategic Tips for Hometown Newsmaker, Part 2: Inform Your Students

Welcome back! This is the second post in a series on Strategic Tips for Hometown Newsmaker.

Strategic Tip #2: Inform your students

You should inform your students that you’ll be promoting their college accomplishments in their local newspapers and online at readabout.me. Not only will your students (and their family) be excited that you’re recognizing their achievements, it will also increase social sharing rates of their stories to Facebook and help you create positive impressions about your brand among their communities and connections.

You should start off by sending out an email to all of your students telling them to expect emails from you with links to their personalized achievement stories through the year. You can support the email by posting an article in your newsletter, blog or using social sites.

Here’s a comment that was left on our site from a student that just found out her school will be promoting her achievements:

“I can’t wait until my schools starts to post all of my achievements.

It’ll be nice to be noticed for working so hard!”

– Kim, Northwest Mississippi Community College

Sample email to help get you started:

Dear Students,

[NAME OF COLLEGE] wants to make sure that you’re recognized for your achievements. The university has started using a platform called readabout.me to publicize your accomplishments, like making the dean’s list, completing a study abroad program, or winning a scholarship. This platform allows us to send news items about your achievements back to your hometown newspapers, and also publishes them on the web.

Your online reputation is important – 75% of employers Google an applicant’s name at some point in the hiring process. By using readabout.me, [NAME OF COLLEGE]  will help ensure that you have a positive online profile and that employers can easily discover your achievements.

When [NAME OF COLLEGE] issues news stories about your accomplishments, you’ll receive an email with a link to view your story online. You can connect with Facebook and add your photo and share your achievement with friends and family.

You always have the option to “opt-out” of publicity about your success by following the university’s opt-out process. Click here to opt-out. [Insert a link to direct students to your institution’s opt-out process]

We look forward to celebrating your achievements with your local hometown media and online at readabout.me. Keep up the good work and be on the lookout for emails about your accomplishments!

Things to keep in mind:

Students do not have to “opt-in” for you to write stories about their accomplishments. The information that is used to create hometown news stories is considered “directory information” and is covered under FERPA.

You’ll want to review your institution’s policy for students who choose to “opt-out” of directory information freshman year. You should always ask the registrar to filter your spreadsheet so it doesn’t include students that have opted-out.

Do your students already know that you’re recognizing their achievements?