Beat The GMAT MBA Watch Guide 1 Why MBA Watch? MBA Watch is a special social media platform that sits within Beat The GMAT (BTG). As the largest online community of current MBA applicants, the MBA Watch page is a great asset for branding and recruiting of full-time MBA aspirants. Schools listed in the MBA Watch directory can form social networks among current MBA applicants, students, and administrators. As part of the MBA Watch community, you receive: presence in the MBA Watch directory; general info/statistics page applicant stats (aggregation of current applicant statistical reporting); comment wall (similar to a Facebook wall); application calendar; ability to host online chat events; and an essay advice section; social streaming (MBA Watch Advantage only); blog syndication (MBA Watch Advantage only) Getting Started To set-up your MBA Watch page, please provide checklist details in the spreadsheet provided on our Customer Tutorial Website (Tutorial Website > MBA Watch): http://hobsonshighered.com/tutorial/btg, and email the spreadsheet to your BTG point of contact. MBA Watch Page Set-up Form Sample Be sure to provide as much detail for your MBA Watch page as possible. Details range from general stats to admission essays, deadlines, articles, and videos. We also need info on the school experts, i.e. people from the school who will engage with our members on MBA Watch. We highly recommend one-to-one interaction between the school and the online community, thus a school can have up to 3 experts on MBA Watch.
2 MBA Watch Advantage Only MBA Watch Advantage Clients are to complete this section of the set-up form. Get all of the benefits of MBA Watch Essential, plus exclusive BTG homepage exposure with the option to syndicate your school s blog headlines and social stream of your school s social media feeds. Key Page Features Your newly created MBA Watch page will feature the following sections: General School Info As the MBA Watch home page, this section will provide potential applicants with a detailed introduction to your school s MBA program. Here is where we list various stats about your program, school rankings, as well as a collection of articles and videos about your school. All key statistics provided on your MBA Watch set-up form will be featured here Employment statistics Rankings are standardized across all MBA Watch pages
3 Articles & videos can further highlight constructive information about your school Calendar In this section, all your school related events are promoted (i.e. upcoming admissions deadlines, notification dates or scheduled BTG chats & webinars events). Upcoming deadlines & scheduled events (i.e. chats & webinars) will be featured in the calendar section Comment Wall The Comment Wall is a great platform for actively engaging with followers of your school s MBA Watch page and hosting online chat events. Leverage your comment wall to promote upcoming events, school highlights, deadline reminders, and more. We also encourage your designated school experts to frequently login to the BTG community and regularly post to your comment wall (be sure to review the Beat The GMAT Expert Guide). A robust comment wall further endorses your school and increases traffic to your MBA Watch page.
4 Comment Wall Be sure to post an intro comment See how many BTG users are viewing your MBA Watch page, at the same time you are Student post Expert post
5 Essay Advice Here we feature your current application essays, as well as any available BTG resources on how to best tackle those essays. Blog Syndication (MBA Watch Advantage feature) Your school s blog posts will gain greater visibility as they syndicate to the MBA Watch page. Social Streaming (MBA Watch Advantage feature) Through social stream, all your school s social media feeds are brought into one spot on your MBA Watch page for the ultimate social media experience. Social media channels available to feed include: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, & YouTube.
Going Live! Welcome to the Beat The GMAT community! Once your MBA Watch page has been created, we publish it, and it will be listed within the MBA Watch directory. We also make sure to social share it via our Facebook and Twitter channels to announce the new page. Review & Publication Following the creation of your school s MBA Watch page, your BTG point of contact will email you a link to review and provide feedback on your newly developed page. Upon final approval, your MBA Watch page will be published and promoted via social sharing. Social Sharing When your MBA Watch page officially goes live, the page will be promoted via social sharing through BTG Facebook and Twitter mediums. We encourage you to share the news, by re-posting and retweeting. Step 1: Follow Beat The GMAT on Facebook and Twitter. We will follow you back! Step 2: Help raise awareness for your MBA Watch page by sharing our Facebook post and retweeting (RT) our Twitter message; we will tag your official Facebook and Twitter accounts in our promotional messages so that you are immediately notified. Just hit SHARE, respectively RETWEET and encourage your prospective and current student base to RSVP for the event! 6 Facebook: Mention of your official Facebook account Twitter: Hit SHARE to let your fans know about the event Tutorials: - - A Beginners Guide to Twitter by KCOMITServicedesk How to "share a post" on Facebook by SpeakerHowTos Hit RETWEET to let your fans know about the event
7 Best Practices & FAQs How do I fully utilize the marketing aspect of my MBA Watch page? Send as detailed info as possible in you initial MBA Watch set-up form. This will help us build a rich page that strongly endorses your school and benefits prospective applicants. Send recent, high quality articles and videos that highlight unique aspects of your school (e.g., testimonials from current students). Recruit current students, alumni, and school experts to be an active presence on your MBA Watch page; the activity on your Comment Wall will increase if you have active experts responding to members in a timely fashion. Can I include program stats on my part-time, online, and Executive MBA programs as well? Only full-time MBA programs are allowed on MBA Watch currently, therefore statistics reported on MBA Watch are for full-time programs; however, the Comment wall can include discussions on part-time and Executive MBA programs as well. Can I include additional rankings to highlight latest school recognition and achievements? The rankings section is standardized across all MBA Watch pages. Our BTG members have let us know that these are data points that they want to see. To promote your school s additional ranking accomplishments, we encourage you to leverage this information amongst the articles and videos featured on your page. How many followers will my MBA Watch page get? It depends; we encourage you to promote your MBA Watch page to your school s existing prospective applicants and student base. Much like fostering any social network (e.g., your Facebook fanpage), your MBA Watch page will need active monitoring and content creation by your team. The MBA Watch page is an events platform/social media network that allows Schools to host online chat events and actively engage one-on-one with applicants. For any questions regarding the Beat the GMAT MBA Watch Guide, feel free to reach out to Jennifer Mimms (jennifer@beatthegmat.com)