GoalQuest Inc. today announced the release of UBlog™, a product module that enables colleges and universities to implement personalized blogs to support recruitment, retention and other communication initiatives. UBlog is part of the company's Universe™ suite, which is designed to engage online audiences by fusing informal peer-to-peer communications with "official" administrative approaches, such as Web sites, viewbooks and student handbooks. Prospective students, for instance, can use UBlogs to get a sense of a college directly from the source – an upperclassman designated by the school. More than 20 of the company's clients recently began using UBlog as part of their GoalQuest recruiting, yield, parent or retention offerings.

To incorporate UBlog into their GoalQuest programs, clients simply designate a group of bloggers – such as student ambassadors or mentors – and choose from a menu of UBlog configuration options. GoalQuest then supplies each blogger with a UBlog Setup Kit, containing step-by-step instructions for creating blogs, including key talking points, publication timelines, ground rules and responsibilities. UBlogs can include photos, audio tracks and digital video, depending on each client's preferences.

Bryant University, the first GoalQuest client to offer UBlog, began using the tool as part of its GoalQuest eCRUIT™ program, which targets high school prospects with a combination of helpful college consideration advice and Bryant-specific marketing content.

While immersing themselves in content topics such as planning a campus visit or application essay tips, prospects can click on a photo of one of five bloggers, review their profiles and read their regularly updated Web journals. Each of the bloggers gives his or her take on subjects ranging from a recent internship to their residence hall experiences.

Bryant hand picked each of its bloggers to represent its student body on a variety of levels, including geography and ethnicity as well as students' campus activities and academic majors.

"Bryant's greatest asset is its students," said John Drew, Associate Director of Admission at Bryant. "UBlog provides us the unique opportunity to connect current students with prospective students. Our student bloggers have received a great amount of feedback from prospective students who have logged on to learn what it is really like to be at Bryant. Prospective students appreciate being able to get information directly from the source. Unlike viewbooks and other publications we produce, blogging is a more casual medium and prospects are responding to it."

Bryant also coordinates monthly group chats among its prospects and recently added a real-time chat tool that lets admission representatives answer inquiries from parents and students instantly.

UBlog works similarly in GoalQuest parent, retention and alumni programs. For example, a school might choose a group of parents from its parent’s association to publish blogs that offer advice to parents of new students. GoalQuest believes that such parent-to-parent communication can be particularly encouraging and insightful to parents who did not attend college themselves. In the retention window, UBlogs add a powerful "virtual mentor" component to GoalQuest's FYRe™ (Freshman Year Retention) product.

According to Peter Kraft, GoalQuest chief executive officer and co-founder, "UBlog and the other modules in our Universe suite were designed to be fun and engaging for end-users. Just as important, however, is the ability of these tools to simultaneously expose audiences to key institutional communications that can impact recruitment, yield, retention and a host of other school objectives."

UBlog is one of several tools in the GoalQuest Universe product line, which includes UPeers™, UFindIt™, UScene™ and UPoll™. Each tool is the result of qualitative and quantitative research conducted among college-age students from 2001 to 2005.

About Bryant University
Founded in 1863, Bryant has grown to become a nationally recognized university on a stunning 420-acre campus in Smithfield, Rhode Island. Bryant has a history of excellence and innovation, both academically and technologically. The Princeton Review and Forbes.com rank Bryant the #2 "Most Connected Campus" in the country, and U.S. News & World Report lists Bryant within the Top 20 Master’s I colleges/universities in the North. Throughout its 142-year history, Bryant has been building the knowledge and character of its students to help them achieve success. Bryant is a student-centered university, focused on providing rigorous academic programs that blend business, liberal arts and technology to develop the skills and critical thinking that are essential to every profession.

About GoalQuest
GoalQuest Inc. is a New York City-based software company specializing in innovative solutions for higher education. The company's proprietary software assists colleges and universities in maximizing recruiting, enrollment yield, retention, parent communication and advancement efforts. Its suite of products, including eCRUIT™, FYRe™, PICS™ and AlumNet™ as well as its Universe™ tools such as UPeers™ and UPortfolio™, are based on a revolutionary technology that immerses participants in highly interactive content. The tools provide clients with a full-featured reporting center and automated activity alerts that monitor the real-time interest trajectory of users. GoalQuest is a NASPA strategic partner. For additional information about GoalQuest, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.goalquest.com or e-mail info@goalquest.com.