In this 4-question interview, Liz tells us about an exciting content project, a favorite tool, the place of SEO and shares a cool video with us.
1) What is the most exciting content project you’ve worked on over the past year?
The most exciting content project I’ve worked on this past year would probably be a stop motion video I created with another student for Thanksgiving. Our advisor Meg Keniston often asks the Student Social Media Team to think about fun ways St. Lawrence can celebrate holidays, and when Thanksgiving this past year came around, we wanted to do something St. Lawrence had never tried on social; a stop-motion video.
Another team member and I had a pretty elaborate plan involving an entirely real Thanksgiving table spread, including a turkey. We weren’t sure how much we could actually accomplish, or if it would end up even being usable, but it paid off and was one of my favorite pieces of content.
I think this was my favorite project because of how creatively we thought and that we were actually able to execute it. There are many times when our team comes up with amazing ideas, but they’re just not achievable within our time constraints or budgets, and it was really satisfying to pull one of them off and watch our community enjoy this video.
2) What is your favorite tool to use when working on content projects?
As much as I love utilizing technology, I go back to basics and plan things out by hand – usually a rough sketch and description, which our team utilizes with our Snapchat story template. I can think more creatively when I actually write it out by hand, it also helps me bring life to ideas that I might be struggling to explain to a colleague.
I think that generally just having a plan can create less room for error; if you have text all planned out beforehand you can spellcheck and fact check before posting and save yourself the mistake.
3) What is the place of search engine optimization in your content creation and distribution process?
The Student Social Media Team doesn’t spend much time talking about SEO. As someone interested in pursuing a career in a marketing and communications field, I’m hoping to learn from some of the other presenters about topics like this.
4) Video has become a key format. Can you share the most successful video produced at your school?
The Student Social Media Team often discusses how content performed for St. Lawrence and our manager, Meg Keniston, usually shares analytics she gathers on the back end of posts. Since video production is managed mostly by the staff in Communications and not our team, I’m not often aware of what the University’s goals and objectives are for each video.
What I can tell you is, from my perspective, which of the St. Lawrence’s videos resonated most with me was “Welcome New Laurentians Fall 2016”. From a student’s point of view, as well as a senior, this video made me excited because it was authentically St. Lawrence. The people in it weren’t staged, they were Orientation Leaders running around campus in sandals and baseball hats, genuinely excited to welcome the newest Laurentians to the family. It is a very quick video but effectively shows (not tells) the St. Lawrence spirit of community and passion that we are always trying to share with those who don’t know about it.
A conference focusing on content strategy & practices in higher ed?
The HECO conference has become a must-attend event for marketing and communication professionals in higher education looking for new ideas and best practices for content creation, management and distribution.
Read below what a few of your higher ed colleagues who attended the past editions of the Higher Ed Content Conference say about the event.