You can use social media sites as a way to market your business, services or products. However, there are things that need to be done a particular way in order to prevent failure. The article that follows will help you learn the best methods to use in social media marketing.

Some larger companies have helped their employees bond and come together through successful social media marketing. It can link employees from all over the world to one site and help build a team of connected workers even though they may never meet in person. This will also expose you to all your employees' contacts if they share content from the company social site.

To get your social media page off to a good start, be a good listener. Take the time to talk to everyone who stops by your page, and listen to their comments or suggestions. Doing this will make them feel loyal towards your company and will encourage them to share the content on your page with their friends.

To help you attract more visitors, you should promote your site through niche social media sites. What's great about niche social media sites is that they can send you a lot of targeted traffic. Even if the niche site is small, it can still send you quality visitors who are more likely to purchase something from your site because they already have an interest in your product.

Have a goal for your social media marketing campaign. You need to set a goal of why you are stepping into the social media market. Do you want to be on the cutting edge of marketing for boosting sales, or do you truly want to have a more powerful relationship and engage with your customers? Setting a goal before starting can direct you towards the best strategies to achieve them.

Add a bit of value to your social media marketing. Look for something that no one else is offering that you can easily provide to get your customers interested in you. Offer specials and discounts through your Twitter account or feature a giveaway for a free item through your Facebook account.

When using social media to market a product or service team up with other companies using the same idea. As such whenever a potential customer visits one of their pages there is a chance that they will see your link and click it. In this easy way your customer pool is larger.

Create more than one profile on a same site. You could for instance have a page on a social networking site for your business as well as a profile page for a fictional character you use as a mascot. You might be able to reach out to a slightly different target audience with each page.

The headline above your prepared media should immediately grab the reader's attention and give them a reason to stay. A proper "reader callout" is a core puzzle piece, and if done incorrectly can cost your company customers and profits. Find a way that touches each reader individually, while also not becoming so complex that it causes them to lose interest in the media.

When posting on Facebook, use the 80/20 rule. This means you should post about 80% relevant information and 20% "just for fun" information. Posting this way makes you feel less like a business, and more like a human. This can be a great thing when it comes to social media marketing.

Maintain a positive perspective regardless of what others post on your page when using social media marketing. Being positive is essential to making your customers feel good when they visit your page. If they feel good, they are more likely to share your page or revisit to see what deals or promotions you may have running.

You should it possible for users to leave comments on your blogs. Not allowing reader comments will make them feel as if they do not have a voice. Make sure that you closely moderate the comments though because you do not want any negative or inflammatory information to be available for all to see.

When working with social media marketing, you should always remember that you are speaking to individual people, and not the masses. The tone of your postings should be directed towards personal level for maximum success. It takes some practice to develop the right voice, but over time and with practice you will be able to communicate effectively.

Be sure that your content is interesting and unique, so that other social media users will want to share it with others. People succeed by using social media, but only if their content sticks out from others. If you are out of ideas, you can always find inspiration online or from family and friends.

Link your social media sites together. Have links from each site you maintain to all the others as well. This way if a person who follows you on Twitter also has a Facebook page, they can find it and see you on both platforms. You can increase the amount of followers you have dramatically.

During the holiday season, present your products as gifts. This might not be a good approach for your website, but it is relevant on social networks. Post updates about your products as Christmas presents and wait for your readers to accept this as a possibility rather than pushing this idea on your website.

You can add applications such as SlideShare to LinkedIn. Try different applications and see which ones could be helpful to you. SlideShare allows you to create photo albums with detailed descriptions for each pictures. You could add pictures of your products or have your customers send you pictures of themselves using what they bought from you.

You now have knowledge of the best proven methods of social media marketing. Use the tips that you were provided, and write a marketing plan that you can work from to make the social sites on the internet your new marketing domain. They really can help to grow your business quite rapidly.

Getting yourself set up online with social media is now becoming an absolute necessity for any business, whether based in a physical location or explicitly online. This article will show you how to effectively market your company using this new marketing outlet. It's not as hard as you might think it is.

To get people to pass your content around, write lists! A list format might seem a bit awkward and silly, but people are more likely to share this type of content than just about anything else. Whether it's a top 10 list of products or a list of ways a product can be used, lists will get people engaged.

To make the most of social media marketing, respond to questions and comments in a very timely manner. You do not want to sit at your desk refreshing your inbox 24/7, but you do want to check in multiple times per day if possible. Anyone asking questions is either a loyal customer you want to retain and get more business from, or an interested prospect who might open their wallet if you give them some personal attention.

When deciding how to implement your social media marketing strategies, it is important to take into consideration the nature of your products and services. For example, if purchasing your products is something that most of your customers would prefer to keep private, then do not put Facebook-like buttons right next to the buy buttons! Eventually, someone will click it accidentally and then get angry at your business.

Be sure to find other bloggers that are in your niche. Read their information regularly and make comments on what they blog about. This will allow you to be seen by them, and they may end up returning the favor for you. In addition, their readers may see the comment you make and want to visit your blog too.

Get your audience attention by launching a mystery campaign. You will need to create a different page and perhaps a micro-site to go with it. Post an intriguing video or picture on as many popular websites as you can: Youtube, Reddit, 4chan, and so on. Promise your readers to reveal more on a certain day, perhaps a week later. This is when you post new content on your micro-site and explain show more of the mysterious video and mention your brand.

Regarding retweets, acknowledge them when you do them and when they are done to you. What this means is if you like what someone tweeted, use "RT" and paste in their @name and the message. This gives them credit for the content. And, if someone retweets your content, thank them. These are simple courtesies.

Things move very fast in social media, and your company will have to adapt quickly to the changes as they come. Just, a few years ago, tablet computers and smart phones did not exist in a mass-produced and publicly available form. Keep an eye on the new technology so that you are better prepared for the changes to your marketing.

Utilize RSS feeds. These all people to subscribe to your feed and have the posts go into their Google Reader account once your feeds are published. This makes your content accessible in an easy-to-access way for your customers. Make the button to subscribe easy to identify, so the whole process takes no effort on the part of those visiting your site.

Make sure you make your profiles public. LinkedIn and Facebook both have privacy settings you can customize: remember that you are creating these profiles to advertise your products, and that you want as many people as possible to see your pages. You can block individual users if you are having issues.

Sign up for Twitter. Get as many followers as you can by signing up for blogging sites like Tweepi.com. Using a site like this makes it easier for people to find you on Twitter. Tweet regularly about other bloggers. You should also automate your tweets so they aren't forgotten about by your followers.

Learn which companies run what sites and find out how they all benefit in their relations. For instance, videos promoted on a Google blogging service have different options and exposure possibilities than on a foreign company. You should learn the pros and cons of each website and use their interactions to your best ability.

When using social media to market a product or service team up with other companies using the same idea. As such whenever a potential customer visits one of their pages there is a chance that they will see your link and click it. In this easy way your customer pool is larger.

To help you attract more visitors, you should promote your site through niche social media sites. What's great about niche social media sites is that they can send you a lot of targeted traffic. Even if the niche site is small, it can still send you quality visitors who are more likely to purchase something from your site because they already have an interest in your product.

To make sure your social media page appeals to your target audience, research books, magazines, and other things you believe they'd enjoy. Try to match the tone of the content you see in your research, and incorporate popular phrases. Doing this will help your target market to trust you and will make them interested in what you have to say.

When marketing your business on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, try to talk like a "person" rather than a "business". People who use these sites are looking for personal interaction. If you can incorporate some of that into your marketing campaign, you will have an edge. Personal conversation that is humble, collaborative, and two-way in nature works best.

As you can see from this article, while social media can seem intimidating for someone who hasn't spent much time on it, it is really quite simple. As far as marketing goes, social media is actually something that is free and simple enough to do yourself without having to hire a professional.

Social media marketing has a reputation for being an extremely complex advertising plan, but this is untrue. It is actually one of the easiest options out there and requires no fiscal investment. Using social media allows the business owner to interact on a more personal level with his or her audience and create a ripple through the internet. One simple video can turn into a plethora of traffic if the below advice is considered.

To create social media marketing materials that get noticed, learn how to write attention grabbing headlines. It does not matter how good your products or pieces are unless the headline is good enough to draw in a reader. Facebook fans are skimming over many posts within their feed. How do yours stand out worthy of a closer look?

Be sure to visit your social media page often and respond to comments as they come in. One of the benefits of visiting this media, is the fact that it is instant and up to date. It serves as a real-time research tool for many people who may have questions they want answered quickly. So your quick responses will help you build a relationship with them.

Don't worry too much about making your site perfect. While it is important to give the people a lot of information, don't let the fear of imperfection keep you from getting started. Just as in many things, you will need to learn a little as you go. Getting started is what is really important.

Using social media is a great way to find potential customers doing keyword searches. If you are in the home improvement business in Tampa, reply to users who post topics with the phrase "remodeling in Tampa" or "looking for a contractor in Tampa". Many business will generate a hundred new customers this way every month.

When using social media marketing, you cannot limit yourself to one area of the internet. Since there are many different social media sites in existence, there are many opportunities to reach potential customers. Join every social media option available and take full use of the resources they offer to get the best results.

Use YouTube to attract a following. The video service on YouTube can very effectively be used to market your business across many forms of social media. Make videos about your business, service, or niche market, and update them regularly. Once you make a video, you can link it to your other social websites.

Develop a fan base. If your products can confer a sense of individuality to your customers, you can use social media to strengthen this idea. Post pictures of the typical product user and write updates about common issues among your target audience. Your followers will recognize themselves in the image you are creating.

If you are considering social media marketing, the first thing you should do is sign up with as many social media websites as possible with your preferred account names. These account names should include your business names. This is particularly important for websites like Twitter where your account name is your displayed name. As time goes on, it will become more and more difficult for you to get the account name that you want. Reserve those names now.

Use social media to market your business! Offer incentives to people who share your page with others. Doing so can lead to hundreds or even thousands of people being sent invitations to your page. This can be done through coupons, free samples or whatever else you may think of. It will make your customer happy to spread the word about your business for you!

Create an open forum in which you allow customers to be part of your creative process. You will be surprised at how well your customer base can help you brainstorm an idea, create the "blueprint", and lay out the best implementation of the idea. When you have this kind of input coming from your customers, it is safe to assume they will buy when launched.

To maximize the benefit of social media marketing for your company make sure your web page is social media ready. Offer like buttons or twitter links next to popular products or articles to more effectively take advantage of social media marketing. When it comes to these social media buttons the more the merrier.

It's all about how your present yourself and what you have to offer. Therefore, knowing how to put together well-crafted sentences is key to drawing attention towards your business. Make sure you double check anything you send out to people, as this might be the only impression they get from your business. When you present yourself well, it can help you in the long run.

Find out about the different tools associated with social networks. They will help you find your niche, post content and have access to your accounts faster. You could use tools like ReFollow if you have a Twitter account or toolbars offered by social networks in order to always have access to your notifications.

Try to obtain a Twitter handle that is very close to your business name or brand name. Avoid handles like Jane7592 because nobody will remember you.. You want your name, and your brand, to be remembered so that consumers will look for it when they are shopping online or at the store.

When using social media marketing, you may have to adjust and refresh your objective and goals on a regular basis, so that you can stay on target. The conversations may take your marketing down unexpected paths, so it is best to re-evaluate the direction it is going on a regular basis and adjust accordingly.

Gaining traffic is important, but it is more important that they take the step from traffic to customer. This can only be done if you create quality media and target the correct audience. Do not waste time or money trying to market to the entire online world when simple planning and the above tips can save you both.

Social Media Marketing Pointers That Will Change Your Game

Social media marketing has a reputation for being an extremely complex advertising plan, but this is untrue. It is actually one of the easiest options out there and requires no fiscal investment. Using social media allows the business owner to interact on a more personal level with his or her audience and create a ripple through the internet. One simple video can turn into a plethora of traffic if the below advice is considered.

To create social media marketing materials that get noticed, learn how to write attention grabbing headlines. It does not matter how good your products or pieces are unless the headline is good enough to draw in a reader. Facebook fans are skimming over many posts within their feed. How do yours stand out worthy of a closer look?

Be sure to visit your social media page often and respond to comments as they come in. One of the benefits of visiting this media, is the fact that it is instant and up to date. It serves as a real-time research tool for many people who may have questions they want answered quickly. So your quick responses will help you build a relationship with them.

Don't worry too much about making your site perfect. While it is important to give the people a lot of information, don't let the fear of imperfection keep you from getting started. Just as in many things, you will need to learn a little as you go. Getting started is what is really important.

Using social media is a great way to find potential customers doing keyword searches. If you are in the home improvement business in Tampa, reply to users who post topics with the phrase "remodeling in Tampa" or "looking for a contractor in Tampa". Many business will generate a hundred new customers this way every month.

When using social media marketing, you cannot limit yourself to one area of the internet. Since there are many different social media sites in existence, there are many opportunities to reach potential customers. Join every social media option available and take full use of the resources they offer to get the best results.

Use YouTube to attract a following. The video service on YouTube can very effectively be used to market your business across many forms of social media. Make videos about your business, service, or niche market, and update them regularly. Once you make a video, you can link it to your other social websites.

Develop a fan base. If your products can confer a sense of individuality to your customers, you can use social media to strengthen this idea. Post pictures of the typical product user and write updates about common issues among your target audience. Your followers will recognize themselves in the image you are creating.

If you are considering social media marketing, the first thing you should do is sign up with as many social media websites as possible with your preferred account names. These account names should include your business names. This is particularly important for websites like Twitter where your account name is your displayed name. As time goes on, it will become more and more difficult for you to get the account name that you want. Reserve those names now.

Use social media to market your business! Offer incentives to people who share your page with others. Doing so can lead to hundreds or even thousands of people being sent invitations to your page. This can be done through coupons, free samples or whatever else you may think of. It will make your customer happy to spread the word about your business for you!

Create an open forum in which you allow customers to be part of your creative process. You will be surprised at how well your customer base can help you brainstorm an idea, create the "blueprint", and lay out the best implementation of the idea. When you have this kind of input coming from your customers, it is safe to assume they will buy when launched.

To maximize the benefit of social media marketing for your company make sure your web page is social media ready. Offer like buttons or twitter links next to popular products or articles to more effectively take advantage of social media marketing. When it comes to these social media buttons the more the merrier.

It's all about how your present yourself and what you have to offer. Therefore, knowing how to put together well-crafted sentences is key to drawing attention towards your business. Make sure you double check anything you send out to people, as this might be the only impression they get from your business. When you present yourself well, it can help you in the long run.

Find out about the different tools associated with social networks. They will help you find your niche, post content and have access to your accounts faster. You could use tools like ReFollow if you have a Twitter account or toolbars offered by social networks in order to always have access to your notifications.

Try to obtain a Twitter handle that is very close to your business name or brand name. Avoid handles like Jane7592 because nobody will remember you.. You want your name, and your brand, to be remembered so that consumers will look for it when they are shopping online or at the store.

When using social media marketing, you may have to adjust and refresh your objective and goals on a regular basis, so that you can stay on target. The conversations may take your marketing down unexpected paths, so it is best to re-evaluate the direction it is going on a regular basis and adjust accordingly.

Gaining traffic is important, but it is more important that they take the step from traffic to customer. This can only be done if you create quality media and target the correct audience. Do not waste time or money trying to market to the entire online world when simple planning and the above tips can save you both.

If you have hit a wall in your plans for successful internet marketing, it may be time to take an honest look at your strategies and make some tough decisions. If you believe that your plan has true value, it may be that you just need some practical advice to get back on track. Try some of these tips.

Always link recent media exposure on your home page for as long as it is relevant! If you go on television to discuss your product, embed the video on your homepage for easy access by potential customers. Your customers will appreciate knowing more about what you and others have to say about the merits of your product.

Write short posts for your blog and use no more than 250 words per post. If you have more to say, then write more than one entry. Shorter posts will seem less overwhelming to your readers. It will also force you to only write what is important and not to veer off the topic.

If you expect customers to participate in and respond to your online marketing by disclosing their personal contact information, shouldn't your business do the same? Do not make your contact information a mystery to prospective or existing customers. Include a contact name, e-mail, and phone number in addition to the site address. If the message recipient needs further information about something he or she reads in your marketing messages, you must ensure that they can easily reach you or a representative."

It's important that if you're linking on someone else's site for internet marketing that you make sure your link is a "do-follow" link. You can click the page source of any link and look at the HTML. Unless it specifically says something to extent of "do not follow," you know you're safe here. Always be sure to check this.

People these days are not looking to buy things that they think are much too difficult to use. If you use the word "easy" a lot in the course of you advertising you are assuring the purchaser that he or she will not have difficulty using your product in any way.

Be accessible. Feature a prominent button on each page for questions or comments, and respond promptly to each input. Even an auto-reply that the question has been received and someone will give an answer as soon as possible lets customers know that you value them and will address any issues thoroughly and quickly.

Visibility on your site should be paramount, and upgraded if there are issues. Your mobile web design should focus on simplicity, as this could take away from the viewing experience of your customers. Refrain from adding Flash on mobile web designs and stick to a single column layout for maximum functionality.

There are simple ways to encourage your customers to opt in to email correspondence. Your customers will likely love contests and promotions, so why not couple an e-zine subscription with the entry into the promotion or contest? This gives your customer an incentive to be emailed in the future and continuously reminds them of your business.

Find a charity that you know would appeal to a lot of your sites users and give them donations in exchange for backlinks on their site. While some charities will not want to participate in this type of exchange, there are some that would welcome the donation an proudly display your email.

Design your site so that it is easy for visitors to navigate and find what they need. If there is a great search to finding what they want on your site, they could decide to save the effort and go elsewhere. You want to ensure that they can find all that they need easily so you can grab the sales while they are there.

Be sure to add new content frequently and in a pattern. Frequent postings can add more visibility to your site as search engines look more favorably on this activity. It shows that your site is updated and you will also have a chance to offer great advice and guidance more frequently, becoming reliable and dependable to your customers.

Concentrate your efforts on the pages that really matter. Every website has a few pages dedicated to disclaimers, policies or a contact form. If people want to see these pages, they will look for them. Create links to the pages that you want people to see: your home page or a page that presents your products.

Make a video, and post it online. Humans are visual creatures, no text, graphic, or photo can compare with a video. With the numerous free video hosting sites available, the potential for increased business is huge. Whether you film a commercial, an interview with staff or a behind-the-scenes peek at your business; you are sure to reach a larger audience.

Nothing sells a product or service better than someone completely neutral helping sell that product. For this reason, your page should have a customer forum for reviews for your product. In this way, your customers, themselves serve as a marketing tool and their brutal honesty can help sell your product.

If you have a large assortment of products to choose from on your site, make sure that you include a sort option for your customers to utilize. This will allow them to sort by the highest to lowest price, and can serve to pinpoint the exact product that they are looking for.

Catalog your website in many different directory sites. Every link to your site increases your search engine visibility. The more places that your site is linked, the more popular it is going to be. Try to find directories specific to your subject material so that your site will appear in searches related to that subject.

As mentioned above, even though you may feel that you have hit a wall with your internet marketing, there is something that you can do to get moving again. The strategies you use can always be improved with some good advice and practical tips. Try one or more from the article above to get beyond that wall.

The city has created hundreds of new programs focusing on science, technology, engineering and math to help better prepare students to offer digital solutions for global problems.

There are a lot of people discovering different ways on how to become successful today. One of the best ways to become successful in today's world is through social media marketing. If you are unfamiliar with the term then look no further, this article contains information that can help you on your way towards success through social marketing trends.
Learn to make fun headlines for your social media blogs. Headlines are like the front of your business. You can come across boring and run down, or new and exciting. Think of interesting ways to lure people into your blog. Don't be afraid to experiment with the headlines on your page.
If you are going to post something that you saw somewhere else you need to make sure that you give credit for the content to the original author. Readers will not trust you if you give them the impression that you are using original content and then they realize that it is from another source for latest marketing trends.
To get your social media page off to a good start, be a good listener. Take the time to talk to everyone who stops by your page, and listen to their comments or suggestions. Doing this will make them feel loyal towards your company and will encourage them to share the content on your page with their friends with latest marketing trends.
Remember that social media is not about speaking as a company. Every time you address a potential customer, introduce yourself by your real name. Do not treat them as a friend; act as a professional at all times. You will have to create a friendly voice and keep the focus on your customers instead of yourself.
Try to make lists when you make posts on social media. These are usually a big hit among people who pass on information to others through social media. Lists also highlight your main points, and make it easier to reference and remember the information that you are presenting to the reader.
Whenever you post something on your blog or update your website, write a Facebook post right away. Perhaps you should plan ahead and write your post in advance so that you are not rushed to do it. Remember that people subscribed to your Facebook posts to be updated about what you are doing. Social marketing plan must support these activities.
A well organized e-mail list is important to a social marketing trends campaign, but should be kept separate from other accounts. This will give visitors the chance to become "connected" and reminded at a later time. You can schedule regular updates to continually pop into the inbox of those whom may have forgotten and stand the chance of pulling in a returning customer for latest marketing trends.
To get the best possible customers from your social marketing trends, keep your content coming regularly and with consistency. When a customer sees you post on Facebook every other day, it is enough they remember you comfortably, but not so much that they get annoyed with you showing up too much. When it comes time for them to spend money on something you might offer, they will go with you because your brand feels like a trusted friend.
Be sure that your content is interesting and unique, so that other social media users will want to share it with others. People succeed by using social media, but only if their content sticks out from others. If you are out of ideas, you can always find inspiration online or from family and friends.
Read the terms of social marketing plans services of every social media site you make a profile on. Make sure that understand the rules of the site you are making a profile on, otherwise your profile could be deleted and all your hard work will be gone. Some sites do not allow affiliate links; so know the site's rules before you begin.
Interact with your customers by asking them to share their stories. You could, for instance, ask them to post on your Facebook wall about their best memory linked to one of your products, or simply tell a story unrelated to your industry. Select the best stories or pictures and feature them.
Hashtags are a great tool. Use them to promote your conferences, special events, products, and brands. Hashtags not only allow you to market these things, but they will also let you listen to what others are saying about you. This can be a great way to both promote your business and get feedback from your audience . That can be supportive to latest marketing trends.
When you are using Facebook make it a point to share posts from others that you like. Nobody wants to feel like all you do is talk and the only opinions you value are your own. This will show them that you think that what others have to say is important that support social marketing trends.
You can get your followers' attention by posting something in a format that makes reading easier. For instance, try coming with a list of top 10 tips or writing questions and answers. The visual aspect of your article will make it more appealing and your readers will be more likely to share it. It can enhance your social marketing plan
An important tip for successful social marketing trends is to monitor your social media accounts regularly. Hire someone or use your own time to scan the web for mentions of your business, especially on sites such as Yelp, Twitter and Facebook. By doing this, you can respond to negative or positive reviews in an appropriate way, and perhaps offer discounts to customers who have had a bad experience. This shows customers you value their opinions and could cause them to look upon your business more favorably.
Twitter is a great way to market your company on the world wide web. However, make sure that you don't just throw out information without saying "please" and "thank you". Manners are very important so customers don't feel that you are being pushy or disrespectful. Be polite when talking about your company and giving out information social marketing plan .
Now that you have a better idea about how you can become successful with social media marketing you should start to feel more optimistic about your future success. Just try your best to learn as much as you can and to apply all of the knowledge you learn and you should reach any goals you have with social media marketing.

The Obama administration hopes colleges will adopt the ‘shopping sheet’ so students choosing a college can make side-by-side comparisons of tuition, loan payments and graduation and default rates.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday released a version of a financial aid award letter that will allow students to better compare college costs before deciding where to enroll.
The so-called shopping sheet is a one-page, standardized form that the administration hopes public and private colleges will adopt so that students can make side-by-side comparisons of estimated annual costs, potential loan payments after graduation, and an institution’s graduation and loan default rates.
“So many students I meet across the country don’t really understand how much debt they are in until the first bill arrives, and that’s far too late and simply not fair,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. “This is an easy-to-use form that standardizes information parents use to make smart educational choices and makes the true cost of higher education far more transparent.”
Duncan released an open letter to college and university presidents asking that they start to use the forms for financial aid packages beginning in the 2013-14 school year.
The shopping sheet was developed with the federalConsumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis, in part to educate consumers.
The bureau’s director, Richard Cordray, said many college financial aid forms are laden with jargon and use terms that differ in meaning from institution to institution. Meanwhile, the costs of higher education are spiraling upward and more students are in debt. Outstanding student loans have surpassed the trillion-dollar mark, and defaulted student loans total more than $8 billion, he said.
At California’s public universities, students have seen tuition and fees soar as state funding support has declined in recent years. Both the University of California and California State University systems said transparency and accountability were paramount, but they are still considering whether to use the forms.
The UC system already widely disseminates information about tuition and costs, but Carolyn Henrich, director for education at the UC Office of Federal Governmental Relations, said the campuses could easily format their information to fit the shopping sheet.
CSU campuses also offer similar lists on their websites that prospective students can refer to when deciding on colleges, said CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp.
“I don’t know if we would do a wholesale change, because a lot of the information we now offer is specific to our universities and we feel ours is a little bit more comprehensive,” Uhlenkamp said.
Other colleges indicated they did not have plans to reevaluate their financial aid forms.
“We’re proponents of transparency in the financial aid process and don’t anticipate major changes to our current award letters,” Karen Cooper, director of financial aid at Stanford University, said in an email.
But State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, whose school system is one of 10 so far that has agreed to implement the new form, said the administration’s efforts put “colleges and universities on a path toward providing students with a complete and comparable college costs outlook.”
The new form will contain individualized information for students, including estimated costs of tuition, books, housing and transportation; grant and scholarship aid; and payment options. The form also includes information on graduation rates, loan default rates and median federal borrowing.

Think about the upcoming rollout of new national academic standards for public schools, he urged the crowd. If they’re as rigorous as advertised, a huge number of schools will suddenly look really bad, their students testing way behind in reading and math. They’ll want help, quick. And private, for-profit vendors selling lesson plans, educational software and student assessments will be right there to provide it.
“You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up,” said Lytle, a partner at The Parthenon Group, a Boston consulting firm. “It could get really, really big.”
Indeed, investors of all stripes are beginning to sense big profit potential in public education.
The K-12 market is tantalizingly huge: The U.S. spends more than $500 billion a year to educate kids from ages five through 18. The entire education sector, including college and mid-career training, represents nearly 9 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, more than the energy or technology sectors.
Traditionally, public education has been a tough market for private firms to break into — fraught with politics, tangled in bureaucracy and fragmented into tens of thousands of individual schools and school districts from coast to coast.
Now investors are signaling optimism that a golden moment has arrived. They’re pouring private equity and venture capital into scores of companies that aim to profit by taking over broad swaths of public education.
The conference last week at the University Club, billed as a how-to on “private equity investing in for-profit education companies,” drew a full house of about 100.

OUTSOURCING BASICS
In the venture capital world, transactions in the K-12 education sector soared to a record $389 million last year, up from $13 million in 2005. That includes major investments from some of the most respected venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, according to GSV Advisors, an investment firm in Chicago that specializes in education.
The goal: an education revolution in which public schools outsource to private vendors such critical tasks as teaching math, educating disabled students, even writing report cards, said Michael Moe, the founder of GSV.
“It’s time,” Moe said. “Everybody’s excited about it.”
Not quite everyone.
The push to privatize has alarmed some parents and teachers, as well as union leaders who fear their members will lose their jobs or their autonomy in the classroom.
Many of these protesters have rallied behind education historian Diane Ravitch, a professor at New York University, who blogs and tweets a steady stream of alarms about corporate profiteers invading public schools.
Ravitch argues that schools have, in effect, been set up by a bipartisan education reform movement that places an enormous emphasis on standardized test scores, labels poor performers as “failing” schools and relentlessly pushes local districts to transform low-ranked schools by firing the staff and turning the building over to private management.
President Barack Obama and both Democratic and Republican policymakers in the states have embraced those principles. Local school districts from Memphis to Philadelphia to Dallas, meanwhile, have hired private consultants to advise them on improving education; the strategists typically call for a broader role for private companies in public schools.
“This is a new frontier,” Ravitch said. “The private equity guys and the hedge fund guys are circling public education.”
Some of the products and services offered by private vendors may well be good for kids and schools, Ravitch said. But she has no confidence in their overall quality because “the bottom line is that they’re seeking profit first.”
Vendors looking for a toehold in public schools often donate generously to local politicians and spend big on marketing, so even companies with dismal academic results can rack up contracts and rake in tax dollars, Ravitch said.
“They’re taking education, which ought to be in a different sphere where we’re constantly concerned about raising quality, and they’re applying a business metric: How do we cut costs?” Ravitch said.

 Advertising Women of New York (AWNY), the premier organization for women in advertising, marketing, media, digital, promotion and public relations, has announced the creation of a$100,000 Education Loan Relief Scholarship Fund to mark the start of its Centennial year celebration. The new initiative, designed to help alleviate financial burden for AWNY members grappling with education debt, launches at a time when student loan bills have become the largest single category of Americans’ financial obligation.
AWNY will present a minimum of ten $10,000 awards to qualifying members at the organization’s Centennial celebration luncheon on October 4.  A portion of all Centennial event sponsorships will raise the $100,000 award monies.  The award application, which must be submitted no later than August 15, can be found at www.awny.org.
“For 100 years, AWNY has dedicated its resources to advancing women in the communications profession, and throughout that time, higher education has been the key to lifting women into positions of influence,” said Carol Watson, AWNY’s new president, who heads the cross-cultural talent consultancy Tangerine-Watson. “Mounting education debt, however, hinders success. With the creation of our Education Loan Relief Program, we aim to address this national issue. AWNY is, to date, the only advertising organization with such a program.”
“This is an unparalleled offer for our industry,” said Kathleen Nagle, co-chair of AWNY’s Young Executive Committee and account director at Redbook.  “Student loan debt is a burden that touches many AWNY members, including myself. This education initiative further demonstrates AWNY’s commitment to educate, support, develop and advance its members, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
About AWNY
Advertising Women of New York, which turns 100 this year, was founded in 1912 as the first women’s association in the communications industry. The organization today counts more than 1,600 dynamic and influential women and men representing the advertising, marketing, media, digital, promotions and public relations fields as its members. AWNY’s mission is to provide a forum for personal and professional growth, to serve as a catalyst for the advancement of women in the communications field, and to promote and support philanthropic endeavors through the AWNY Foundation. For further information, visit http://www.awny.org.
SOURCE Advertising Women of New York