What You Can Glean from Conferences

Last week I was at SACAC at the convention center in Raleigh, NC. I was an exhibitor, and my table was in what I dubbed, “The Hall of Social Media.” There I was, at my U360 table, surrounded by Zinch, Target X, Stein Communications, myUsearch and more. So when the Hall wasn’t being inundated with admissions professionals and high school guidance counselors, I took some time to watch the interactions between the other companies, and it made me realize that in this industry (higher ed and social media), sometimes it is necessary to tear down the walls.

When I say “tear down the walls,” I don’t necessarily mean that we need to collaborate with our competitors and conquer the market. I mean that, just because we are competitors, that does not mean we cannot learn from each other. For example, in speaking to one of the reps, I learned that her company does more marketing and consulting than actual building of social media. The rep I spoke with looked over some of our information and stated that U360 does much more than the social network that they offer. She even said that if she speaks to a school that wants to focus on social media and building a private social network, she would probably be more likely to recommend U360 to them than try to promote her own product.

I also spoke extensively to the Zinch rep, and he and I both pointed out that many colleges and universities don’t realize the difference between our products. Zinch targets students while they are trying to decide which university to attend, and we offer a community for students to interact after they have made that decision.

Another person I spoke with was Elizabeth from myUsearch. I was not familiar with myUsearch, and she explained that it’s a completely unbiased college-matching service for high school students. She took me through the process a high school student would go through on her site for finding the school(s) he or she should attend, and then how that student would be matched up with those schools.

So basically, I learned from SACAC that vendors should not view each other as enemies. We are each trying to find our own niche in the higher ed community, and from the more than 500 counselors who attended SACAC, I would say that there is plenty of room out there for all of us! And by getting to know each other at conferences, we can save ourselves and everyone else a little bit of trouble by clarifying what that niche is for everyone.

What have you learned from conferences and fairs this year?

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