Blogger profile: Ben Jones, MIT Admissions

The MIT Admissions blogs are among the most successful higher-ed blogs in the country. I sent a few questions to Ben Jones, who oversees the project (which comprises more than a dozen separate blogs), and he very kindly shared a few secrets of his success. Here's Ben's profile; my thanks to him for responding to these questions.

1. What institutional objective(s) are the MIT Admissions blogs intended to serve?
I was hired in 2004 essentially to communicate to prospective students what MIT is really all about and to tell its stories in a way that they would welcome. It was becoming clear at that time, with the rise of Web 2.0 (etc.), that there was a large demand for primary source content, and that the flat-out rejection of perceived marketing/spin was increasing exponentially. Connecting current students with prospective students directly seemed like the best way to convey the true MIT, and blogging seemed the best vehicle through which to do so.

2. To what degree are the blogs helping MIT meet the intended objective(s)?
We have had a tremendous response to the blog program. We have over 2000 primary-source entries that support our "official" admissions info, and 34,000 comments/questions in response to those entries. Our site gets an average of 20,000 hits per day from 6000 unique users. Applications and yield have both increased since we started the program, and we've helped a variety of other schools launch admissions blogging programs.

3. Your blog community is incredibly active; the comment volume is outstanding. How did you achieve this? Is it merely a function of time (the site having been in existence since 2004), or have you taken specific steps to stimulate the conversation?
Much of it is a function of time - the traffic and commenting have both grown exponentially since we launched the first blog in '04. I also spend an absurd (says my wife) amount of time on Facebook, College Confidential, etc., and answer questions by referencing blog entries (with links, of course). Last but not least, I personally write a lot of content that takes a more general, less-MIT-specific approach to the admissions conversation, so some of my traffic is from kids who have no interest in MIT. But then, after reading my entry, they'll poke around the rest of the site, realize that MIT is actually quite different than the stereotypes, and all of a sudden they're in the applicant pool.

I guess the message is simply: "build compelling content, and they will come!" :-)

4. Have the blogs yielded other, unintended benefits (or unintended drawbacks?)
In terms of the drawbacks, I wouldn't say that there are any, other than the time commitment, which is extensive. A program as large as ours really needs a staff position dedicated to it. I see colleagues in other offices trying to share the management of a blog program on top of their regular jobs, and it's difficult.

5. How much staff time / $$$$ does your office devote to this project?
One dedicated staff member to run the whole thing (me), plus three other staff bloggers who publish entries, plus 12 student bloggers who are paid $10/hr with a weekly cap of 4 hours ($40). (Many of them choose to work more than this, but they are not paid overtime.) I believe we spent about $15K last year in paying our students, which, when you think about the cost of your average viewbook, is really a drop in the water. I designed the site in-house, so there were no expenses associated with launching the site other than my time.

6. Would you advise other admissions offices to launch blogging sites ? Why or why not?
Absolutely. It's by far the most successful of our communications initiatives. Most of our print materials quickly end up in the hands of parents --- this generation is firmly rooted in the Web and in Web culture. The best way to convince a skeptical administration to start a blogging program is to type the name of your university and the word "blog" into google. It will immediately become clear that the question isn't "should there be blogs about our school" but "should we be a part of what is already happening?"