8 Steps for Creating Killer Content
Education
In a previous post we talked about how social channels can create an emotional connection between your school and potential students. This post will provide the 8 steps you can take to help you create that killer content.
1. Show, don’t tell. You don’t need to tell prospects how fun your campus is on game day, or what kind of research a particular school is doing. All you need to do is provide the images. Let your students and prospects see it for themselves so they can connect the dots. Also, the more video the better. Look at the rise of platforms like Vine, Instagram and Periscope. If you want to engage, video storytelling is the way to go.
2. Keep it real…time. Millennials love and expect social conversations to be done in real time. You might not have staff to be monitoring 24-hours a day, but maybe there are specific times you can focus on throughout the day.
3. Keep it real. Be who you are. Don’t make your school look like it’s something it’s not. Embrace who you are and tell that story.
4. Crowd-source your efforts. Most schools have a small staff responsible for going out and creating content. But no matter how good they are, you’re only going to get so much. Amp up your efforts by recruiting students, faculty, alumni and staff to be part of the content generating effort. Provide them with the direction and let them go to work. This will help lighten the load and help represent the many different aspects of your school.
5. Establish a content manager. Someone has to lead and direct the type of content you want and when it will be posted. The content manager is critical in managing the flow of what’s coming in and what makes it out into the social channels.
6. Find your voice. This is a big deal. The words and images all need to have a certain look and feel that connects back to the university.
7. Take small bites. The temptation is to try and do it all – to jump from one platform to the next for fear of missing out and being left behind. You can’t do it all. So don’t. Determine what you want to do and on what platforms and hit your goals before moving on. For many this whole idea is too much and as a result nothing happens. Don’t fall into that trap. Start small and watch how things develop.
8. Measure. Adjust. Set your objectives and see how things play out. You may run into some speed bumps at first so look to see what people are commenting on. Capture the results and adjust your tactics along the way.
Finally keep this in mind – when it comes to your social efforts a healthy dose of patience is a good thing. Don’t expect to see changes overnight, because they won’t be there. But over time, your efforts will have an enormous impact with this target audience.
This post is excerpted from The Rise of the Millennials research study and presentation. Click here to find out about receiving this presentation at your school.
Pat McGovern works on the account service side at BVK. He has two Millennial daughters who keep him on his toes and make him feel every bit his age.
