Amy Grace Wells, Content Strategist at University of South Carolina, is one of the 12 presenters of the 3rd Higher Ed Content Conference.
In this 3-question interview, Amy Grace 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?
With the launch of the content strategy plan, we introduced long-form content back into the university’s news.
I based this move on web content trends in general as well as higher ed examples we admired like Boston University. We didn’t really have any internal data to go on so the decision was a bit of an experiment.
When I reviewed story analytics at the end of the year, several of the long-form stories appeared in the top 15 and we had only started publishing these pieces in September! It really showed us that our audiences valued quality content that showed the impact of the university on a specific segment of students or area of the university.
2) What’s the biggest hurdle for content quality at work? How do you deal with it?
Content is everywhere and, in most cases, it’s not difficult to sort the good from the bad. I know we see a lot of bad content, but I also believe that good communication pros can easily create basic quality content.
The biggest hurdle, and what sets good content apart from great content, is taking the time for intention.
Quality content takes planning, planning takes intention, and intention takes time. Time is a resource so few of us have. This is where content strategy comes in by helping to set that intention with a structure and culture that make it easy to decide on great content quickly.
3) If you were given everything you need, what’s the first piece of content you’ll create for your school?
I’d love to create a robust social hub/aggregator that is not only featured on the website but also digital signage across campus.
There’s plenty of tools out there that can create one quickly, but most fall short on execution. It takes strategy, planning and so much maintenance to show a vibrant and exciting view of campus. It takes members from web development, social strategy, student affairs, content, creative services and more.
I love projects that cross teams and bring people together who don’t often work together!
