Students don’t actually want technology to replace all human connection. What prospects do want is one-to-one relationships with student ambassadors who will tell them what the institution is really like and help create a sense of belonging even before admission.
In this episode, we interview Diego Fanara , Cofounder & CEO at Unibuddy , about a platform to facilitate peer-to-peer connections that promote belonging.
Join us as we discuss:
- The idea of affinity groups and student tribes
- The successful utilization of peer-to-peer platforms
- How the student ambassador can replace a campus tour
- What role admissions and technology should play in human-to-human connection
Interested in a demo of Unibuddy?https://insight.unibuddy.com/l/848943/2021-11-08/227x37
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to Higher Ed Marketer on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or your preferred podcast platform.
Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Higher Ed Marketer in your favorite podcast player.
The Higher Ed Marketer podcast is brought to you by Caylor Solutions, an Education Marketing, and Branding Agency.
Transcript
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Because today it's not any more about
taglines or police marketing materials and impressions.
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It's about human connections, and so
peer to peer will become the platform where
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this can happen. You're listening to
the Higher Ed Marketer, a podcast geared
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towards marketing professionals in higher education.
This show will tackle all sorts of questions
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related to student recruitment, don'tor relations, marketing trends, new technologies and so
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much more. If you are looking
for conversations centered around where the industry is
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going, this podcast is for you. Let's get into the show. Welcome
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to the High Ed Marker podcast.
My name is Troye singer and each week,
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with the help of Bart Taylor,
we try to bring to the high
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rate community marketers that we admire or
ideas that we think would be helpful to
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the higher rate community. Today we're
going to talk about peer to peer platforms
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with Diego Fanara. He is the
CO founder and CEO of Una Buddy,
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which is a company that is gaining
momentum here in the states. Yeah,
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try it's it's going to be a
great conversation. I really like Diego.
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He's got some he's got some firsthand
knowledge and I think that his story,
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being an international student, he's originally
from and helped, he'll go into this,
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originally from France and and then grew
up in Switzerland but wanted to to
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attend a UK or US school and
kind of coming in as an international student,
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the idea of wanting to connect with
his affinity group even in the admissions
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process and the enrollment process. And
I don't think diegos alone, because obviously
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the platform that he has helped found
and build and it's, you know,
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one of many that are out there. But you know, buddy allows schools
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to be able to engage and provide
a structure and scalable experience for peer to
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peer networking so that, you know, a student who's coming in can connect
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with other students that are similar to
them, whether they're from this the same
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state, whether they're studying the same
program whether maybe they're an international student who
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we always talk about. That in
high red marketing is that, you know,
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once we get somebody to apply,
how in the funnel can we make
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sure that they get connected to the
right group? Sometimes that happens on the
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campus tour, sometimes that happens with, you know, just student ambassadors can
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connections, but these peer to peer
platforms have emerged that really provide structure and
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scalability that allows the US, as
marketers, to be able to manage that
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and to kind of, you know, intentionally do that so that we can
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increase the yields throughout the funnel.
Although Diego does represent a specific company,
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I believe he does a great job
of describing the advantages of the type of
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platform that they represent overall. So
I think there's a lot to glean from
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this and, without further ado,
let's ring in Diego. We are honored
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to welcome Diego Fanera to the show. He is the cofounder and CEO of
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Una Buddy and he is also talking
to us from another continent. Welcome to
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the show, Diego. Hi Try
it's great to be here. Thank you,
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if you would. For our listeners, if you could tell us a
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little bit about you, your company
and your role as CEO of Uni Buddy.
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Sure so. I'm, as you
say, from another continent right now.
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I'm based in London. was actually
born in France. They grew up
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in Switzerland and, as an international
students, dreamed of studying finance in the
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UK or in the US. And
that's how the idea of Uni Buddy and
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peer to peer and marriage while I
was going through this transition of looking for
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universities and being unsure of how to
do this. And so the concept of
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UNIBODY is powering community, connecting perspective
students with current students to share attending information
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so that prospective students can have the
right information and autentic insights to know how
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it's like to be in the university. And so unibody cells software to admission
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offices so that they can leverage the
power of community to increase their yelled while
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doing this connection happen. That's great. Thank you, Diego I. I've
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been following you a buddy for several
months now and I've been impressed. I
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know that you're developing quite a presence
here in the US with with several schools,
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and I'll just encourage the audience if
they want to learn more about that,
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they can go to the unibuddy website
and see that. But I think
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today we want to really kind of
focus on, you know, this idea
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of allowing perspective students kind of a
glimpse into into the student life and to
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what what you know, what everyday
life is like. And you know,
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schools have tried to do that over
the years with blogs and with even with
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some of their social media accounts.
But I think there's something about the idea
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and the advantage of these affinity groups
in higher education enrollment, you know,
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kind of kind of with the idea
of being able to identify the perspective student
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and their affinity and then be able
to match them up with, I guess,
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what you would call student ambassadors from
the university. So tell us a
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little bit about that. I mean, I think a lot of times it's
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kind of like the idea of connecting
students with their tribe, that they are,
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you know, naturally a part of. Yes, that that's so true,
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and that come back to the purpose
of what drove into this. It's
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the importance of community and tribe.
We believe that students consider an institution because
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of their course, because of their
location or a lot of parameters, but
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they convert for the community and they
stay at the institution because they feel that
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they'd belong. And so what they
need these to be able to see what
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the community is like, to meet
peers and appear someone of the same age,
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background or ability as another person.
It could be someone who shares experiences
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and similarities with yourself and in higher
education. This is an incredibly powerful notion
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because, all in all, it
don't furs the more level playing field and
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uses the power of student diversity to
connect people. So having those trusted voice
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for students who of who they can
assimilate themselves, this is where you can
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rise above the those to meet someone
who's currently experiencing this life and and aspires
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for themself, and that's when that
connection happened. It unleash students to have
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clarity and confidence to make their leap
and make the right decisions. I think
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that's great and it reminds me of
the classic statement that I hear from from
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enrollment officers and admissions professionals is that, boy, if we can get them
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on campus for that campus visit,
we can usually. I mean statistics show
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like eighty ninety percent of students who
do a campus visit will matriculate, and
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I think what's fascinating to me is
that you've created a platform that kind of
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takes a lot of the aspects that
happen in that campus visit, which are
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people kind of recognizing and identifying that
I can fit in here, I can
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see my tribe. Maybe they're engaging
with tribes and a lot of schools like
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to kind of have a kind of
immersive campus visit where they maybe spend the
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night in a dorm with some student
hosts. Well, that's a chance again
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to do that peer to peer connection
and I think what's fascinating to me is
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that you're kind of taking some of
those aspects that we would find traditionally in
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a campus visit and especially in light
of Covid in light of maybe international students
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or even students who are, you
know, not within a constant, centric,
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real close location. You're taking this
peer to peer platform and really turning
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that into an advantage for the schools
to really start creating some of the same
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emode of connections that they have on
those traditional campus visits. Is that?
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Is that kind of what you think? Yes, I mean definitely. This
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is where we're trying to use digital
and technology to make what universities were already
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doing, but at scale, and
not that scale in a way so that
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we just allowed them to spend less
time and so we just use technology to
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replace all human connection. It's actually
to scale one to one intimacy, and
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that's what students wamped. Students don't
want scale, and that's why thousands of
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perspective students email the admission team because
they prefer this intimacy of a wantowin conversation,
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either by email or by coming on
campus. And so student to student
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marketing as the role of allowing effectively
scaling intimacy of those campus visit for students
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that are not able to join the
campus because they leave far away or out
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of first states or internationally. And
so when we think of building Uni Buddy
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softwarees, either if it's our peer
to peer chats or Uni Buddy events platform
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that we have, it's always with
the mind of how can we scale intimacy,
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and the best way to date ever
this it's to invite students to be
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marketers themselves and be able to position
the institution. I love that idea,
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as the student be marketers. I
mean so many times I think that even
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thirty, forty years ago, when
I was in college, I remember being
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working in the admissions office as a
student. I would go on the camp
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teams or I would be there for
student visits and I was, you know,
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kind of a student ambassador, but
I think this takes it to a
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different level because, you know,
I was I was there, but I
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was I think what your software is
allowing them to do is to build those
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relationships in a dynamic way that fits
today's world, and the student ambassadors really
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become more of the true ambassadors,
where they're actually rather than just giving a
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tour, they're actually, you know, speaking on behalf of the university,
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and I think that, if I'm
correct, you know, your platform and
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probably others like yours, create systems
that allow the students to be able to
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have the freedom to have those conversations, but within the context of having some
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checks and balances in there as well. That is that is so true.
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And a conversation on a peer to
peer platform like Uni Buddy is like chatting
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with your future and with someone that
you can you can trust, and so
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that's where you feel the freedom to
ask anything in a safe space. That
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really will shape your decision. And
I think that when, by accepting that
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we're no longer in control of the
of the student decision making journey, we
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open ourselves to the diversity of student
to student conversation. At the end of
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the day, when people feel that
they can hear from others like themselves.
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That's where trust the marriage and trust
is what great communities are built on.
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That's great. I love that and
it really sounds to me like you're empowering
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the students, the perspective, students, to make the right decisions, but
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you're also empowering those student ambassadors to
really buy in more to the school themselves,
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and I think that's going to really
lead to a better relationship as an
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alumni and as a donor and things
like that. So that's that's great.
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I think that's been a's that's wonderful. Wonderful Way to kind of take advantage
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of the's affinity groups. Troy,
would love to hear some specific examples.
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You the concept sound wonderful, but
to help the listeners understand by offering some
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things that have happened that were winds
for enrollment teams utilizing UN buddy. Yes,
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so it's a great question, Troy, and what we're always asking institutions
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is impact on the value proposition of
why they're buying anybody and why they're buying
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you anybody in the first place.
It's to increase enrollment, build and also
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the summer melt. You know that
drop out before enrolment and of course this
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is where the power of tribes,
community, peer to peer comes in,
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where we allow prospective students to build
that sense of belonging and this affinity with
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the institution. And so we've seen
an or case case study with some institutions
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like Sant John's university USC that's seen
there the rise of yield true unibody from
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fifteen percent to twenty seven percent or
or at deposit rate or sixty six percent
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increase of involvement yield. It's been
awesome to see those case studies across so
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many institutions. But it's also definitely
on the number. But then when you
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talk to the students, that's where
we also go back to the user and
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see how meaningful those conversation has been. And what we love seeing is when
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our prospective students and become themselves student
ambassadors when they joined institutions because they took
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so much pride in hearing about the
student to student that then when they enroll
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at the university they come and that
I hey, can I also become a
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student ambassadors? I want to give
back and I think that's what Bark your
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mentioning that then we can follow this
still the alumni and feeling really part of
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the institution community for life. Yeah, I think that's great and I really
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love the fact that I'm guessing.
I mean you've governed some great, great
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statistics there with kind of fifteen to
twenty seven percent on the yield them.
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I'm sure there's different places in the
funnel, whether it's, you know,
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like you said, from you know
accepted to deposit, what those being able
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to have the student ambassador program and
the kind of the peer to peer conversations
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at that point, and then even
from from that deposit to the enrollment in
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the matriculation there's I think it's so
powerful for that. But I have to
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probably even believe, and you might
have some case studies for this, that
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those students who participated through a tool
like this probably are going to be better
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retention students because they feel a part
of the community. I mean, I
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know one of the challenges a lot
of a lot of schools have is that
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you know you have that, you
know they have a summer melt already,
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but then you have kind of that
melt from first semester to second semester where
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a lot of students never really got
plugged in. They never really got connected
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in that tribe and so they end
up, you know, leaving and retention
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rates go down. And so I
have to believe that a peer to peer
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network like this, even at the
beginning, in the prospect of student stage
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and then the enrollment stage, really
impact student life later on with with retention.
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Was that? Is that correct?
Yeah, definitely, and and that's
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related to do uni buddies mission,
which is to empower every students to make
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the right decisions through their higher education
journey. And so it's about a journey
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and wherever you catch the student journey, we seen your community to belong,
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that's where you want to have more
like you would for them to stay before
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enrollment, post involvement. They just
feel these ex tray irrational affinity with your
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with the institutions and and be part
of this Diego for and en Roman executive.
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That the sounds interesting to however,
maybe not knowing if this would be
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applicable to them, what is a
quick hit or maybe a thought that you
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would give them in order for them
to think about it differently or become more
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interested enough to look into peer to
peer platforms that try it's a good question.
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So if they believe that community can
change and impact the way students make
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decisions and how we can shape their
confidence in enjoining their institutions, then I
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see that peer to peer becomes the
platform for any student admission officers or marketer
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who are like to say could the
community architect and be compared to to the
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director of a play, which means
that they would set the stage, the
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environment and give their student community the
platform, which means the tool and training
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refer sources so they can talk to
prospective students. And then that means they
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can get out of the way,
because today it's not any more about taglines
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or police marketing materials and impressions,
it's about human connections, and so peer
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to peer will become the platform where
this can can happen and they can architect
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this community to shape the the the
student belonging. I love that and I
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love the fact that you're talking about
as a platform, because it's interesting.
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I mean post pandemic. Now,
I remember we had started using zoom in
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our business maybe four or five years
ago and you know, it was a
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platform that we used. It was
something that was helpful for us because we
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have kind of, you know,
different people around different locations. We're not
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we're not centralized. It's a virtual
agency. But during zoom, the during
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a pandemic, zoom became a whole
different thing. It became kind of a
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ubiquitous tool that was just part of
everyday life. I mean, I might
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have a either Microsoft word or Google
docs that I use every day. Now
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I'm using zoom every day in the
same way. It's just it's just part
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of my entire tool set and I
kind of believe that platforms like you know,
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buddy, are going to be part
of that entire tool set as well.
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I mean, you know we talked
about you. Every admissions office has
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a nice crm, whether they're using
slate or something like lead squared or sales
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force. You know, they've got
those tools. They've got the tools of
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male tools, they've got, you
know, texting, they've got all these
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different tools. I think that platforms
like you know, buddy, are going
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to have to be one of those
tools going forward post pandemic. Because mean,
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whether we like it or not,
there's been a shift in the way
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that traditional enrollment happens. I mean
decrease and campus tours are going on.
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You know, test optional is going
on as far as the way students are
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being able to be marketed to,
and so I think that the importance of
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increasing that yield percentage is going to
be so critical to admissions professionals and enrollment
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professionals. It's going to be,
you know, because a lot of students
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are making decisions without ever setting a
foot on campus. Is that? Is
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that kind of what you think?
To Diegos, that kind of where you're
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going with it? Yeah, definitely, and and I definitely see unibody,
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all of the tools that you mention
not replacing anything, but more as an
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enabler that that's something that was already
existing. And so today two thirds of
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marketing happens in touch points outside of
our control. But even if we are
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not on this stage, because students
talk to each other on those new tools,
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we're still very much part of the
production, and so it's not about
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sharing our knowledge and help turn the
student ambassadors into powerful content creators. So
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the more powerful the community, the
greater its ability to move its members to
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belong, and so it all comes
down to an enablement rather than replacing anything,
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and the once we see this way, then that's how we can leverage
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a maximum benefits from those tools like
appear to be your platform and you anybody,
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Diego, we appreciate you bringing the
information about peer to peer platforms and
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introducing our constituency to them. Before
we sign off, would there be any
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other points that you would like to
make on behalf of the community that you
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represent? Now I look, I
think the market is adapted so well during
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this pandemic. They really adapted to
a digital well that was unknown for a
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lot of people, and I feel
we're all going in the right direction at
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the right speed, and so I'm
very pleased to see how the market is
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getting together themselves as a community to
make it happen so that we can really
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impact students lives and as leaders of
this sector, we're setting the stage.
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We want our student communities to do
what it does best. It's shaping the
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decisions that set young people on the
path to their future, and so I'm
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really confident that will make it happen
by leveraging everything that we have around us.
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Thank you, Diego. If someone
would like to reach you, but
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would be the best way for them
to reach out to you? So my
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email is diego at unibuddycom. But
and and the best world. The wise
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to reach our team is to go
on our website, Uni Buddycom you and
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I be you, double Dy.
So yeah, we're trying to build buddies
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all around the world to reach out
and announcer all the the deepest question that
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prospects might have. Love it and
thank you very much for again bringing the
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peer to peer platform ide enabling us
to get it out to our listeners.
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Bard. Well, you have any
comments before we sign off this episode?
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Yeah, I really like a lot
of what Diego talked about. I think
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that this peer to peer platform is
such a great idea and such a powerful
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way for institutions to be able to
really increase and enhance the relationships and really
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increase and enhance. You know that
that a lot of what's already going on.
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I loved the Egos Point about the
fact that, you know, it's
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like a play and we might be
the directors in the enrollment office, but
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at the end of the day we're
not the actors that are that are actually
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doing the the communication, that the
emotion, that the dynamic tribe building.
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But I think a tool like you, nobuddy, allows allows that direction to
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take place. It provides a platform
for that. It provides the means and
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tools to be able to manage those
student ambassadors in a way that's that's meaningful.
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It's a way that kind of keeps
them in boundaries. You know,
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certainly one way you could do peer
to peer networking is just to say hey,
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student ambassadors, the end of the
tour, you know, give out
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your text you know your cell phone
numbered everybody on the tour and let them
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text you. Well, that's certainly
one way to do it, but a
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tool and a platform like you know, Buddy, actually allows you to scale
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it. It allows you to make
it more professional and allows you to kind
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of put those bumpers in place so
that you know, you know what's going
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on, you can understand it and
you can provide that that freedom for your
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ambassadors to encourage them to be themselves, but you also have a little bit
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more direction to it, and so
I really really appreciated that. So,
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you know, I think it's great. I would encourage everyone to look into
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this, these types of platforms,
because I do think it's going to be
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a big part of hired marketing going
forward. I Agree Bart. I also
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would invite anyone who either has experience
with peer to peer or has done research
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on it, to share with us
what your opinions or your experience is.
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So thank you, barked, and
also thank you Diego, and good luck
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to you and UNA. Buddy.
Thank you so much driving me. It
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was great. That brings us to
the end of another episode of the Higher
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Ed Marketer Podcast, which is sponsored
by Kalis solutions and education, marketing and
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00:23:00.190 --> 00:23:06.069
branding agency and by thing patented,
a marketing, execution, printing and mailing
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00:23:06.109 --> 00:23:11.390
provider of Higher Ed Solutions. On
behalf of my cohost Bart Taylor, I'm
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00:23:11.470 --> 00:23:17.299
troy singer. Thank you for joining
us. You've been listening to the Higher
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Ed Marketer. To ensure that you
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