U-CAN Needs You for YouTube!

Now that we’re comfortably past the launch and initial roll-out, we’re ramping up our Web outreach strategy. A key component is a YouTube channel that showcases videos about U-CAN, college admissions, and stories from students about the college search process, all from the student perspective.

Know of a video lurking out there that would be perfect to highlight? Have some students interested in creating and submitting a video, and having it featured on our site? Extra points for humorous or otherwise entertaining spots. Let us know – the more content we can post, the better. Remember - videos need to be of general interest and not self-promotional.

We’ve created a basic channel and posted a few videos to get started, but need more. Click here to see the UCAN-Network YouTube channel.

U-CAN Celebrates First Month, Continues to Grow

In the month since U-CAN was released publicly, the statistics show that the consumer information project is thriving and reaching a wide audience. The early success is only expected to grow as we enter the second stage of the roll-out, which includes targeted outreach to high school college counselors, radio talk show interviews nationally, and Facebook and YouTube campaigns aimed directly at students.

Here's a snapshot of U-CAN stats since the launch on September 26:

• Total participating institutions: 686
• Total profiles published publicly: 500
• Total visits to the U-CAN site: 63,978
• Total page views: 402,738
• Profile with the most hits since launch: Adelphi University, New York (2,253 hits)

U-CAN's Greatest Hits

We’re starting to look at some of the initial trends and web stats for the U-CAN site, and have compiled a list of the top ten institutional profiles viewed since October 18, when we added a hit counter to each profile.

What's the secret of the top ten U-CAN participants in getting the most hits? We'll be able to give some more definitive answers once we have more data, but some early thoughts after looking at the current top ten are below (in order starting with the most hits):

• Adelphi University - Uses their U-CAN profile as a “Quick Facts” link from the “About” section of their website (http://www.adelphi.edu/about/)
• Carleton College - Published an article on U-CAN in their alumni newsletter (http://apps.carleton.edu/alumni/events/newsletter/)
• Fairfield University - Added a link to their U-CAN profile from their “Admissions” section (http://www.fairfield.edu/x1544.html)
• Swarthmore College - Added a link to their U-CAN profile from the “Data, Facts and Stats” section of their admissions page (http://www.swarthmore.edu/x15226.xml)
• Albertus Magnus College - Displayed the U-CAN logo and a link to their profile from their homepage (http://www.albertus.edu/)
• Bucknell University - Published a news article that links to their profile (http://www.bucknell.edu/x38345.xml)
• Lafayette College - Added the U-CAN logo and a link to their profile to the header of their web template (http://www.lafayette.edu/)
• Duke University - Published a news article on U-CAN that provides a link to their profile (http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2007/10/ucan.html)
• Johns Hopkins University - Published a news article with a link to their profile (http://www.jhu.edu/gazette/2007/15oct07/15newweb.html)
• Union College – Added a feature on their U-CAN profile to their homepage (http://www.union.edu)
  

Have a good idea about publicizing your U-CAN profile? Let us know, and we'll compile a list of the best ways campuses have found to increase the hits to their profile.

The Washington Post Ponders U-CAN

Washington Post education writer Jay Mathews wants to know: "Can U-CAN help you find a good college?" His online Admissions 101 blog poses that question to readers. The response? Sparse, but positive. Poster "contrarymom" writes that U-CAN is a "great addition" to the college search process and that "U-CAN is now bookmarked in my computer." She also has good recommendations on how to improve the search function. As U-CAN version 1.0 evolves over the coming months, the number of search variables will grow. As we work to enhance the consumer's experience on U-CAN, we will carefully assess the feedback of users such as contrarymom. In fact, we encourage others to share their thoughts about U-CAN -- feel free to send us an e-mail at ucan@naicu.edu.

U-CAN Website Traffic Skyrockets

Following U-CAN's public launch last week, we've seen significant increase in traffic to the site. Traffic reached a new peak on Tuesday, with 2,466 visitors viewing 212,170 pages.

Much of this traffic is coming from institutions who have linked to their profiles from a dedicated button on the website (which we recommend) or through a news release. Our thanks go to the following top ten referrers to U-CAN (in order by number of referrals) as of 10/4/07:

Union College
Lehigh University
Bates College
Hamline University
Albright College
Furman University
DePauw University
Bucknell University
St. John's College
Robert Morris University