Rob Pasquinucci, Director of Communications at UC College of Arts and Sciences, is one of the 13 higher ed professionals presenting at the 2014 Higher Ed Content Conference.
Rob help UC’s largest college develop interesting stories for alumni, students and potential students. He also teaches PR classes at the University of Cincinnati.
In this 3-question interview, Rob tells us about a content challenge, a secret weapon to create better content and shares some advice.
1) What is the biggest challenge you face in your day-to-day work on higher ed content?
Helping faculty understand the news value of their research and how to make it relevant to mass audiences. I deal with this by attending department meetings when I can to provide some guidelines or working with faculty to get a better sense of the wider applications for their research.
2) What is your secret weapon to get better higher ed content created?
It’s not a secret weapon, but Tweetdeck (or something similar) is handy to keep tabs of the accounts we manage. The other secret weapon is your faculty – they are often doing the research that can be turned into great social media content. I’m a big believer in developing an editorial calendar or some sort of status document to keep track of the many articles we have in the works. If you have a journalism or PR program, you have a great opportunity to hire a student worker or intern to help develop content.
3) What piece of advice would you give to somebody who wants to improve digital content?
Embrace multi-media. A photo gallery, audio file or video can enhance any piece and adds a new dimension. Also, I’d recommend adopting an “always on” mentality – look at the day’s news and see where your faculty (and their expertise) fit in. It might be as simple as “5 things you didn’t know about the Ukraine” from a history or political science professor. Be nimble!
