Higher ed content talks with Rebecca Stapley, Assistant Director of Social Media – Nazareth College

Rebecca Stapley, Assistant Director of Social Media at Nazareth College, is one of the 12 presenters of the 2019 Higher Ed Content Conference.

In this 4-question interview, Rebecca shares with us thoughts on content creation process and measurement, interesting higher ed content and a favorite tool.

1) What does your content creation process look like?

On my team, for our larger content needs like a specific project or campaign (Giving Day or Admissions Search, for example), we will often begin with a kickoff meeting and brainstorm.

In this meeting we’ll address our goals and objectives, audience, channels (most of our projects are integrated at this point: combo of web, social and print) and review past content to assess our needs moving forward. We’ll then transition into brainstorming and idea mode. We’re always looking to elevate or transform ways to tell the Nazareth College story to help us meet our larger goals.

When we have a solid foundation of ideas and content leads, we always conclude with next steps, deadlines and project management roles. While brainstorming, big picture thinking and idea generation will always be my favorite part of the content process. I’ve grown to deeply value and appreciate the less exciting aspect of project management to keep myself and the team on-task. There’s nothing more satisfying than checking of a project milestone, no matter how big or small.

2) How is the performance of your content measured at your school?

Our content performance is currently measured regularly and shared weekly at an all team content meeting. For specific social and website KPI’s, we share these updates once a month offering a summary of key pageviews, engagement/behavior and conversions based on the raw data that my colleagues and I are tracking regularly. We will also check in weekly for specific enrollment metrics or active campaigns like admissions yield, and search.

Based on those metrics, we might adapt our tactics or re-focus our energy based on what the data is showing us. For example, when we saw that our early decision numbers were not exactly where we wanted them to be last fall, we went into overdrive re-focusing on creating new Early Decision content, stories and an added paid reminder campaign to a targeted inquiry list.

3) Share 3 pieces of higher ed content that made you envious or proud

Three of my favorite pieces Higher Ed content are:

The @dukestudents IG account is an all time fav. Of mine. The quality of visuals, breadth and depth of experiences all through the student lense is fantastic. The content is high quality without losing a sense of authenticy.

NYU’s valentine’s day love stories, I actually first saw this as a LinkedIn post and was thoroughly captivated. It hooked me and I ended up reading through the larger story about alumni who found their soulmates at NYU. I love how they curated user generated content to tell unique and heartfelt stories while strengthening their alumni community. Disclaimer: I did not attend NYU or find my soulmate in college, but it still hooked me!

The official Twitter account of the Texas A&M Mascot Reveille IX, “the First Lady of @TAMU! #tamu”. Shoutout to Krista Berend who does social @TAMU and whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting IRL at multiple conferences (she rocks!). The consistency in style, tone and persona of this account is “pawesome”! As an epic dog lover myself, the combination of quality collie content + highered marketing=heart eye emoji for days.

4) What’s your favorite new tool for your work with content?

My favorite new content tool might be controversial: it’s the moment app, which helps me monitor my phone/app usage and be more intentional about my relationship with tech. I know this question was about content and you might have wanted a recommendation for that perfect app to help with photo editing on the fly.

But, I have come to realize that one of the biggest threats to my ability to focus and churn out creative, quality content is distraction and burnout.

Therefore, I have been making an effort to limit digital distraction and be more intentional about why, when and how I am interacting digitally.

So my unpopular summary is that tools are great, as long as they serve you. For me at this moment, being more mindful and aware about my own digital habits is helping me carve out more space and energy for creative thinking and overall happiness in my life. If you’re reading this and thinking, yeah girl you might be onto something–I highly recommend the book “Bored and Brilliant” By Manoush Zomorodi.

A conference focusing on higher ed content?

The Higher Ed Content Conference is a must-attend event for higher ed content professionals and teams looking for new ideas and best practices.

Read below what a few of your higher ed colleagues who attended the past editions of the Higher Ed Content Conference say about the experience.