Social Media Portal interview with Martin Hofschroer from Kaplan International Colleges

Profiled - Martin Hofschroer, SEO Executive at Kaplan International Colleges

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your role at Kaplan International Colleges?

Martin Hofschroer (MH): Martin Hofschroer, SEO Executive. I currently work on the English part of the Kaplan International Colleges website.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about Kaplan International Colleges (for those that don?t know), what is it and what does the organisation do?

MH: Kaplan International Colleges is a leading provider of English language courses and other study abroad programs.

Students from all over the world learn English in our 42 language schools in destinations such as England, Scotland, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Malta.

SMP: Tell us more about the Kaplan International Colleges blogger competition, what is it about and why did you launch it?

MH: The Kaplan blogger competition is based around our ?How to learn English? infographic. Kaplan researched how people learn English from watching television and films, listening to music, playing computer games and reading comics.

We also discovered where people would like to travel in order to learn English and turned these research results into an infographic. Competition bloggers have to write about their thoughts on the infographic. The winning blogger will have the choice between an iPad3 or a Kaplan English course in San Francisco.

The competition launched on April 18th and runs until 11th May. Voting runs from 12 to 25th of May 2012.

We decided to launch the competition because firstly we wanted to reach out to bloggers in our relevant industries. Secondly we wanted to increase our social media presence and improve our online brand awareness.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why?

MH: Our target audience are education and travel bloggers as well as student bloggers who would be interested in a Kaplan English course in San Francisco.

We decided to reach out to these bloggers because they would be the most useful in terms of influencing people?s educational travel plans.

SMP: How are you initially attracting users to your campaign and how will you continue to do so?

MH: We have promoted the competition through our own social media channels as well as through affiliate websites and their social media platforms. We have included details of the competition in our newsletters and we have also distributed a press release. I will continue to contact bloggers throughout the duration of the competition.

SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far?

MH: Failing to integrate our voting mechanism with social media was a low point. We had intended to allow people to vote for their favourite blog by using a Facebook Like button, however, the logistics of implementing this proved too much.

We have now decided to let people vote for their favourite blog by leaving a comment on the competition page. Although this wasn?t our first choice, we?re confident that it will bring a number of benefits.

SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?

MH: We?ve been really pleased with the feedback for our Infographic. Many people are impressed with the content and design. It has also been great to reach out to bloggers and start building relationships with them.

SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities for the campaign?

MH: Some of the biggest challenges have been persuading bloggers to enter the competition but reaching out to a new audience of influential people is also a great opportunity to increase brand awareness and forge lasting relations with key bloggers.

SMP: How are you making it social?

MH: Along with using social media to promote the competition, I am also contacting bloggers via Twitter. Bloggers can enter the competition by posting a link to their post using the #howtolearnenglish hashtag.

SMP: What are the next moves for the campaign in terms of social media?

MH: Once the competition is over, we will use social media to announce the start of voting. Bloggers will be encouraged to promote their posts via social media to get people to vote for them.

SMP: What outcome are you expecting from the blogger competition

MH: We are expecting to raise awareness of Kaplan as a company and a brand by increasing our social media and online profile.

SMP: Best way to contact you and Kaplan International Colleges (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter, YouTube etc)?

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/kaplanintl
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kic
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/kaplaninternational
Google+ https://plus.google.com/116988581163775692795/

SMP: Anything else you?d like to share?

MH: Remember to vote for your favourite entry by leaving a comment on our competition page between 12th to 25th May 2012!

SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

MH: A slice of melon

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

MH: I bought a friend his coach ticket back home.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

MH: Make a cup of tea and check my emails.

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

MH: I would like Superman?s powers so I could fight crime.

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