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By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
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MUSKEGON - When a school like Muskegon Community College wants to stay in touch with its students, where should it turn?

A new social networking site developed by Qonverge takes the school to where students are, specifically, social networking Web sites.

Enter Harump, a site designed to connect students to the college, with one another and with local businesses.

"It is becoming increasingly challenging to reach college students," Bill Loxterman, director of public information for Muskegon Community College, said in a statement. "Harump is a phenomenal way to let students know what’s happening around campus and in the area. It also shows our commitment to embracing new technology."

Doing the homework

According to Jason Piasecki, CEO of Qonverge, MCC approached them about a year ago as they were "looking for a way to reach college students and prospective college students that look to the Web for information." His directive was to develop a marketing vehicle that would reach that group of people.

After doing some research, including focus groups and surveys, Piasecki said the nature of the vehicle became clear. The best way to hit the targeted public was via social media.

"There are a lot of unknowns in social networking, but it’s a great way to create a bond," Piasecki told MiBiz. "We started from ground zero."

After coming up with the "little bit irreverent" brand of Harump, Qonverge developed an entire promotional and marketing campaign around the service, which MCC promoted on its Web site.

"It’s been a fun project," Piasecki said. "It’s not often you get a client that says, ‘Here’s an idea — run with it.’"

Broader opportunities

Piasecki believes the model will have appeal to other educational organizations across the country, and he’s planning to spend time this year taking the idea to other schools. However, Qonverge has agreed not to sell the program to schools within reach of MCC. Programs for other schools would still use the brand Harump, but would have a Web address specific to individual schools, he said.

Piasecki said his company spent a great deal of time on the architecture of the Harump Web site, taking into account how students, local business and the faculty might actually use the site.

"We know we’re not going to replace Facebook, but we wanted a place for students to express their individuality," Piasecki said. "We took a very bottom up approach."

The entries on Harump are policed entirely by the users. They have the ability to create unique profiles and to add classmates and friends to their profiles, as well as create links to their profiles on other social networking sites like Facebook and Flickr.

In appealing to local businesses that serve the student population, Harump also allows businesses to create a profile and share local events listings and other information on individual business pages. Piasecki said companies have the option to post job opportunities for students or even offer coupons for products or services.

Businesses that sign up must create and update their pages on their own and must be approved by the site administration.

The homepage has links to a local events calendar; a places listing for eateries, hang-out spots, retailers and event venues; a listing whereby commuting students can network to find carpooling; a savings page for business coupons; and a jobs listing.

"The idea is that this is a place for people to go to connect with people they see in class," Piasecki said. "It’s very localized and specific to the geographic market."

Harump was launched in beta in May, tested throughout the summer and has been active for about three months as MCC promotes it on their Web site.

"We continue to get a track record and build in new features," he said.

Bridging generational divides

When Piasecki first pitched MCC the idea of a social networking site, reaction was not entirely enthusiastic.

"People in administration were afraid of social networking, but once they get on the site and see how you can use it personally, those fears go away," Piasecki said. He’s noticed many people in the over 30 crowd have discovered social networking sites like Facebook in the past few months and have begun to dip their toes in the cyber waters.

"That’s my advice: Get into this technology and immerse yourself in it and play with it," Piasecki said. "It can be productive (for) business."

Since working on Harump, Piasecki said Qonverge has been involved with other West Michigan companies to develop marketing strategies that leverage social networking capabilities.

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