Jeff Bunch, Web Content Strategist at Gonzaga University, is one of the 12 presenters of the 2019 Higher Ed Content Conference.
In this 4-question interview, Jeff 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?
We’ve changed the cadence of our core storytellers team to have more regular check-in meetings as we attempt to tell more stories across campus for both internal and external audiences. We’ve also invited key departments on campus into our meetings each semester to share current initiatives with us. As a member of the web and storytelling teams, my role continues to be a web liaison between the two functions in our division and to help envision content within new sections of our website to execute on our broader strategies.
In the past year, we’ve created collections of content to better draw in viewers and help them find similar content more easily. Our biggest success was our 2018 graduation section, where we executed a plan for all graduations on campus. Our biggest story out of those efforts was simply publishing the transcript of the undergraduate speaker address, “Cannonball: A Gift to Gonzaga Grads,” which went viral nationally across Jesuit websites.
2) How is the performance of your content measured at your school?
We measure our content across multiple dimensions: website traffic, social sharing activity, and public relations pickup (particularly among our e-newsletter subscribers).
On the web, we’ve gone beyond sheer pageviews to look at content performance by key themes (such as Admissions) and track metrics that show engagement across sections of the website. On social, we track the sharing of our stories that are both shared from our channels and which are shared by others. We have campaigns that are created in our email platform which set up tracking on our website. We also use a public relations & social media software suite to track major trends for our brand, especially sentiment. We then report these metrics to our division in a shared document which each of us update monthly.
3) Share 3 pieces of higher ed content that made you envious or proud
EWU Giving Joy Day
Eastern Washington University’s annual effort for Giving Joy Day was again a huge success across multiple platforms. EWU packages digital content together for this campaign, all of it executed in a personal, strong brand voice that celebrates results.
Gonzaga Magazine
The Gonzaga University magazine continues to be one of the best in the nation, tackling intriguing subjects in beautiful and thoughtful ways. Its “Lifting the Lamp” package of stories is some of the most compelling work I’ve seen done.
Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education continues to lead the national discussion on Higher Ed issues and has crafted a deft business model that seamlessly blends free and premium content. It’s timely and fearless and practical in its execution of feature articles and topics.
4) What’s your favorite new tool for your work with content?
My favorite tool over the last year is an old one: the new Google Search Console.
After the relaunch of our website, we better connected our platforms to it. Instead of using it only for technical SEO, we now use the full power of its web query and site search functions to better track the performance of our website content. It has also enhanced the richness of reporting with Google Analytics. I’m finding this tool can meet most of our needs for analyzing our content’s organic SEO performance and identifying opportunities.
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.
Tags: HECO19, Higher Ed Marketing, Higher Ed News