Greater Oklahoma City Chamber 123 Park Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73102 www.okcchamber.com Submitted by Sherry Mullin Marketing & Communications Copywriter SUMMARY Retaining Oklahoma s graduates is key to cultivating a strong, educated workforce to secure the economic future of the Oklahoma City region. The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber s retention strategy is multifaceted, but requires the use of cutting-edge technology to most effectively reach the target audience. GreaterGrads.com launched in 2007 with an interactive interface to connect Oklahoma graduates with Oklahoma employers and the community. In the six months since the launch in July 2007, site visits have increased by 300%.
SYNOPSIS Needs Identification Chamber research confirmed the need for a workforce development strategy in Oklahoma City. According to a Chamber study: Oklahoma City s population is growing, becoming more diverse, educated and younger. Local graduates are leaving Oklahoma City for jobs in bigger cities. More than 100,000 students are educated in the Oklahoma City region. The Greater Grads program connects Oklahoma Graduates with Oklahoma employers through a Career Fair, Summer Internship Program and the development of ongoing internship opportunities. But in order to effectively implement the strategy, a Web site is needed to facilitate connections, providing students and employers with a common destination to find one another for internship opportunities. Internships are critical to the graduate retention effort because they introduce students to career opportunities, the city and its quality of life, and allow them to make connections and build relationships. A section housed on the Chamber s Web site served as the main Web presence for the program for 1.5 years, but was framed into the site and lacked a distinct look and the interactive capabilities of a cutting-edge resource. A new, independent site was necessary to connect with students in a unique online environment separate from the Chamber identity. Objectives The goals for GreaterGrads.com include: Increase site traffic and strive for two minute average length of stay time Provide enhanced resources to guide students in job search, including etiquette, resume and cover letter tips, interview advice and internship job postings Provide students with online pre-registration for the Career Fair Provide a cost of living/quality of life calculator and other examples to demonstrate the benefits of staying in the Oklahoma City region Create a site and employ a content management system that ensures updating is easy and frequent Ensure employers can post internship opportunities, pre-register for the Career Fair, enroll interns in the Summer Internship program and download resources to help them develop internships Target Audience The primary target consists of junior and senior Oklahoma college students who will soon graduate and begin searching for jobs. The secondary audience of the site is Oklahoma City region employers. A tertiary audience consists of campus career counselors, who will serve to inform the primary audience of the site and its content. Relevance The more visitors to the site, the greater the number of students who will learn about the advantages of living, working and building a life in Oklahoma City, which will ensure a talent pool of experienced workers that will contribute to the city s economy in the future.
When the site is populated with relevant content, students will spend more time reading. This increases the chances that the Chamber s positive messages about Oklahoma City s job market and quality of life will reach students. With an easy-to-use interface, employers become engaged in the process and add their own internship opportunities to the site, increasing the amount of relevant, up-to-date content. Communication Piece GreaterGrads.com was designed with the target audience young, technology savvy college students in mind. The design and interface are attractive, highly visual and interactive. Graphics rotate each time a page is refreshed, adding to the fresh, up-to-date feel of the site. Content is concise, useful and current, which increased the chances it will be read. Videos and images portraying Oklahoma City, the Career Fair and Summer Internship Program are posted, giving the audience a richer experience. The primary and secondary navigation are clean and well-organized, leaving room on the site for resource and internship opportunity promotions on the right-hand side of the site. Visit GreaterGrads.com to experience the clean design, logical flow, well-written content and interactive elements. A printout of key site pages is included in the appendix. Methodology Generating site traffic is crucial to the Greater Grads retention program effort. Traffic has increased 300% since the site launched in July 2007. GreaterGrads.com site traffic Month Visitors August 2,100 September 2,000 October 2,000 November 2,250 December 2,750 January 4,000 Additionally, the average length of stay is 10 minutes 400% above the target of two minutes, which is the standard benchmark for successful sites. These numbers indicate that visitors are going beyond the homepage and reading content throughout the site, which is a strong indication that the content is relevant, applicable and interesting to the audience. The growing number of internship opportunities that are posted on the site indicate that the chosen platform is easy to use. At the time this entry was prepared, 50 internships were listed on GreaterGrads.com as compared to 10 at launch. While it is too early to have much quantitative data, the number of employers who pre-register as exhibitors for the April Career Fair online instead of calling to register is on the rise. Similar results are expected with the Sumer Internship Program, which will begin in June.
Production Schedule May 11, 2007: project start date. May 15, 2007: First design meeting. Provide additional pictures, logos, and PMS colors to coordinate with choice of template design. Provide dates, times and names of staff members to be trained on the software. May 27, 2007: Receive first design mock-up for the new site. First one hour training session with the staff. May 31, 2007: Design revisions. Continue the integration process. Second staff training session. Begin content discussions. June 13, 2007: Receive second revision of the design. June 18, 2007: Provide the final design changes. June 26, 2007: Receive the final site design custom pages. July 10, 2007: Greater Grads site launch. Marketing Schedule The site launch was announced in the Chamber s monthly print and online newsletters in July and August. The program and site were covered in three subsequent print articles, the Chamber s annual report and in marketing materials for the 2008 Career Fair. Additionally, the site is marketed at campuses across the state and to Chamber members companies. Student engagements include group presentations and Career Fairs. Employer visits include individual business and business group meetings. Greater Grads Program and Site Promotion Schedule Month Employer Visits Student Engagements July 8 0 August 11 3 September 4 4 October 3 5 November 6 1 December 4 2 January 9 3 A partnership with the Alliance of Emerging Professionals (AEP) in early 2007 ensured AEP s 100-plus members all recent graduates themselves leveraged their peer relationships at local campuses to promote the Greater Grads program and new Web site to college students during monthly AEP social events. Average event attendance is 30 people. Resource Allocation This project required the use of a content management system provider to help set up and host the site, as well as the creative services of an ad agency to design the look of the site. Internally, staff resources included the Chamber s copywriter, Sherry Mullin, to develop Web content, the interactive media manager, Julie Riggs, to oversee the development of the site and contribute to site building and the manager of graduate outreach and internships, Joyce Burch, to oversee the direction of the site.
Detailed Budget 1. Professional Setup & Design Fees Professional set-up & design package: Setup Fee (one time), prime domain (URL) $3,995.00 One premium template design integration, including home page and interior page designs customized using Chamber design Direct consultation with designer and project manager, 2 design revisions Up to 3 custom response forms created for the Web site 3 hours of content migration (approximately 30 content items) 2 x 1 hour live training sessions Creation of one Broadcast E-mail template Restricted membership areas SBA Integration one time set-up fee $1,495.00 2. Software Licensing Features for the Website: Professional Monthly Software License $395.00 Support Included 1. Domain Registration: Domain Name Registration/Redirect Svc. $25.00 2. Secure Certificates: Choose one: Private SSL Secure Certificate (one time per URL per year) $250.00 Secure Certificate (one time) $50.00 3. Content Migration: Content Migration service is available per custom time quote of $125 hour or 10 pages. 4. System Training: Provide complete online training sessions as indicated. 5. Technical Support: Unlimited technical support is available via Web and e-mail. One (1) hour of telephone technical support per month is included. See the entire Greater Grads Program budget in the appendix. Results As the site launched mid-way through 2007, many measures of success have yet to be implemented. Thus far, the phenomenal numbers recorded from site visits and average length of stay times have been a clear indication of the success of the site. So is the immediate spike in visits immediately after promotional engagements with students and employers. Surveys will be conducted annually to gauge content relevance and opinions of the site, Oklahoma City and decisions to pursue a career in Oklahoma City, but results were not yet available for this entry. As well, final numbers of students and employers that pre-register for the 2008 Career Fair in April were not available.