I started doing pro-bono consulting for my univeristy a couple of months ago to help with social media marketing. In the process I have learned a lot about how some colleges think about marketing. The lack of online marketing budgets is astonishing. I can't think of any other industry where a potential sale is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition plus possible donations in the future and in comparison close to no money is spent marketing to students online. Highschool students and parents are shopping for colleges online and why shouldn't they expect the same treatment from college sites that they get from online retailers?

What I started working on is a "customer service" section of the Web site that consists of a Ustream live stream + chat linked to a button on the front page that only goes live when someone is on camera. Imagine doing college shopping and being able to talk to a student at a college who is sitting in his/her dorm room ready to chat with you. I can't believe no college is doing this...