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Hashtags are everywhere. Higher Education Twitter aficionados use a variety of them to engage, ask questions, and for networking. Perhaps the most notable of student affairs hashtags is #SAchat. The #SAchat hashtag has a massive level of engagement. However, one functional area that has been rarely represented in the student affairs twittersphere is enrollment management (EM). Enrollment management generally includes: admissions, financial aid, registrars, and retention programs. Thankfully, those of us who wish to have a more formal Twitter-based conversation about EM now have a hashtag.
#EMchat was created a little over a month ago by Alex Williams and Jennielle Strother (her real name may be unfamiliar to some, but her Twitter handle, "HigherEdGirl," is all over the place on Twitter). I stumbled upon the hashtag when several people that I follow started using it. According to Williams, the hashtag started out as being focused on admissions issues. #EMchat has now expanded to cover all areas within the scope of enrollment management. Fortunately, Williams has created Storify documents for each chat so that interested parties can peruse the chat conversation. #EMchat's happen on Thursday evenings at 9PM EST.
The list of #EMchat topics has included an interesting roundup of EM-related topics:
- Week 1: Expanding the admissions role
- Week 2: Motivating your staff, including admissions "road warriors"
- Week 3: Tele-counseling
- Week 4: CRMs
- Week 5: First-Generation student recruitment
- Week 6: First-Generation student retention - This happens today at 9PM EST!
Williams and Strother serve as moderators for the weekly chat and are always looking for new topics. I look forward to seeing if any strategic enrollment management firms pick up on the fact that this chat is full of amazing insights and industry commentary. However, as I've stated before, sometimes it's necessary for vendors to "lurk and learn" before engaging. And, similar to the #SAchat, people are tagging their tweets with #EMchat throughout the week as a way to aggregate and connect EM-related thoughts, resources, questions, and conversations.
Do you tweet? Let's connect. Follow me on Twitter.
