Steve Roulier, Executive Director of Communications at Springfield College, is one of the 12 presenters of the 3rd Higher Ed Content Conference.
In this 3-question interview, Steve shares a surprising outcome from content work, the biggest hurdle for content quality and a higher ed content dream.
1) What’s the most surprising outcome – in your work with content – you experienced in the past 12 months?
While we all realize marketing and communication has become a two-way communication flow, with increasingly more power going to the consumer, my content team and I continue to be surprised by the effectiveness of a quick response to a positive or neutral content. Constituents expect a response to anything they write about you, and they expect it quickly. If it doesn’t come, we’ve found that they may perceive us as uncaring or aloof.
We learned that we needed to implement into our overall content marketing strategy a quick response plan that included a consistent voice, and with regularity that concretizes who we are as an institution.
2) What’s the biggest hurdle for content quality at work? How do you deal with it?
Unfortunately, our biggest hurdle is providing enough resources, especially considering a majority of internal clients and departments still see our communications office as a service agency.
They want a brochure and they want it completed their own way, and by tomorrow. Digital communications and social media are sometimes not even on their radar. Nor is the need for a content marketing strategy.
Quality is compromised as considerable time is spent educating each client. Additional resources are needed to continue to develop a preemptive coaching and consultation strategy to our clients so that they may gain a deeper understanding of today’s marketing communications.
3) If you were given everything you need, what’s the first piece of content you’ll create for your school?
The first piece of content I would create is fresh website content that should be updated daily. We’re in the middle of a website redesign and I’ve noticed it is very tempting for my staff to think that, once we launch the new website, the content will remain there for a long time and they won’t have to look at it.
Not only do I believe we should be refreshing our main content daily, we also need to personalize it with the assurance that voice and tone appropriately reflects the medium.
4) What role does video play in your content strategy?
A video marketing strategy is critical to higher education communications leaders.
Not only are prospective students watching videos online, research shows their parents are doing so, too. The challenge for us is finding enough resources to create fresh videos that effectively reach all of our targeted audiences, including alumni and community leaders, and creating videos that make our content and brand memorable.
