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!
