Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/337193
47 BizEd July/August 2014 ARTOFLOG IC/TH I N KSTOCK ing those questions, you believe a video is the right format to tell your story, focus on executing it really well." See the video at www.youtube. com/watch?v=ZWnlIes1wWA. A Community of Entrepreneurs What's the meaning of entrepre- neurship? And can a business school shape how the world views and values entrepreneurs? Babson College in Babson Park, Massachusetts, considered those questions as it undertook a recent campaign to position itself as the "educator, convener, and catalyst for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds." Internally, says chief marketing officer Sarah Sykora, everyone understood that "Entrepreneurship of All Kinds" encapsulated the idea that entrepreneurship is relevant in all types of organizations at all levels, but administrators knew that outside constituents might not understand the expression without a little context. Boston-based ad agency Connelly Partners pitched the idea of a crowdsourced micro- site that would invite visitors to submit their own definitions of entrepreneurship. Thus was born the website define.babson.edu. Launched in January 2012, the site encourages visitors to submit videos, photos, or text blocks that contain their personal definitions of entrepreneur- ship. Users don't have to be affili- ated with Babson to participate. Administrators knew that, if they wanted the site to be a success, they would have to seed it with a few examples before it went live. "In 2011, we did beta launches at events where we knew attendees would be highly engaged, and we focused on gaining user-generated text definitions," says Sykora. The school also created a video that introduced visitors to the notion of providing their own definitions of entrepreneurship. In addition, the school drove stakeholders and other interested entrepreneurs to the define.babson site through a multimedia ad cam- paign that consisted of radio, print, and out-of-home ads—such as those on street furniture or in airports. More than a year after the launch, the school still points users to the site through paid advertising as well as social networks. By the close of 2013, the site had drawn more than 180,000 unique visitors from 180 coun- tries. And define.babson also had achieved another mark of success: For the campaign as a whole, the American Marketing Association named the school's marketing team the Higher Education Marketer of the Year in 2013. Even so, the school has contin- ued to tinker with the basic for- mula. By analyzing metrics of the website, says Sykora, "we found common themes in user-submitted definitions, and we used these themes to rework the layout of the site in late 2012. The homepage initially displayed a list of defini- tions of entrepreneurship in order of their submission. Now, we've redesigned the site around eight common themes, and we curate the best definitions to show users upon their visit to the site." Babson also is priming the conversation about entrepreneur- ship through its related website, entrepreneurshipofallkinds.org. That site includes articles, inter- views, and videos about dozens of entrepreneurs and shows how they operate in a wide range of industries. A marketing campaign that relies on websites to build com- munity might be unconventional, Sykora acknowledges. But she thinks that's why it works. "In a competitive and quickly evolv- ing industry, there is a great need to differentiate your school with unique and meaningful position- ing," she says. "For us, this site serves well as a brand awareness tool, because it's about the cause of redefining entrepreneurship," she adds. "This concept is applicable to people with entrepreneurial mindsets around the world, and, therefore, it has been a natural way for us to engage them." See Babson's video about defining entrepreneurship at www.youtube. com/watch?v=PfD7_hClcmM. Visitors to define.babson. edu can read definitions of entrepreneurship that have been sorted by categories such as "now" and "everywhere." They also can upload their own definitions in text, video, or photographic format.