Tony Dobies, Director of Social Media at West Virginia University, is one of the 12 presenters of the 2017 Higher Ed Content Conference (the 4th edition!).
In this 4-question interview, Tony 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?
We were recently one of the first universities in the country to create content using Snapchat Spectacles, and it was one of our most successful campaigns of the last few months.
We developed a campaign called the “WVU Campus Tour Extended Cut!” in which we showed off campus through Spectacles in a fun, personality-filled Story over a three-day period. Instead of showing all the normal spots, we took people to parts of campus they might not get to see on a normal tour. While using Spectacles to execute it, I actually think it was the tone that we used which made this project so exciting. We had great feedback from current and prospective students and have plans to continue to use Spectacles for more hands-on content.
2) What is your favorite tool to use when working on content projects?
Short, social video! I believe video is the single most powerful tool in any content creator’s toolbox right now. Statistics prove posts with videos are most likely to be viewed on major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. At WVU, we’re seeing a 300 percent jump in impressions when we use video in a post. Marketing is trending more and more toward a video-first execution each day, so it’s becoming crucial to have a strategy in place.
At WVU, we’ve really embraced short video (30 seconds to one minute) that we shoot and edit for social media. These videos tend to break traditional video rules; our most successful videos look and feel just like some of the most popular videos out there, and we’ve found that to be our most valuable tool right now.
3) What is the place of search engine optimization in your content creation and distribution process?
Gone are the days (if there ever were days like this) when a back page of a website is less important than the home page. People are Googling or searching to find content, and that means if you want yours to pop up, you’ve got to do a good job tagging and making sure your content is, for lack of a better term, optimized.
We’ve spent a lot of time at WVU trying to make things as easy as possible for people to find and view our content, whether it be a video, website, social media post, etc. Using the right keywords, tags and phrases can make such a difference. To me, we must take optimization outside of the realm of search engines, too, and begin to think of it in all sorts of marketing, especially social media where algorithms truly can make or break great content.
4) Video has become a key format. Can you share the most successful video produced at your school?
Our most successful video of the last year is what we called our “Traditions” video. It focuses on the key traditions at WVU. Across our social media platforms, this video has more than 1.3 million views, which more than quadruples any other video we’ve posted in the last year.
While the numbers surely prove the video was successful, we used this video as a springboard to an entire series of what we termed “hype videos.” Each season, we’ve developed a short, social video showcasing the different traditions and sights of our campus and state; we’ve found similar success with those videos.
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.
Tags: HECO17, Higher Ed News