wish you were here - experiments on telling your campus story from abroad
DESCRIPTION
This presentation was given at eduWeb 2010 in Chicago by Kirsten A. McKinney, Web & Graphic Coordinator for the University of Richmond, Richmond, VA.TRANSCRIPT
Wish You Were HereExperiments on telling your campus story from abroad
Web & Graphic CoordinatorUniversity of Richmond’s School of Arts & Sciences
Kirsten
McKinney
Purpose Statement
Social Media is a powerful sharing platform
How we leveraged social media to capture and share a student experience story in real time
1. Review current practices
2. Talk about the new approach
3. Share our experiment
4. Review results
5. Share tips on how you can incorporate what we did for your institution
Sharing our Stories
As public relations, communications,
marketing and web professionals, our job is to
tell powerful stories about our institutions;
stories that people want to share with family,
friends, and colleagues.
How we share our stories
Feature Stories
Story Collection
How we share our stories
Feature Stories
How we share our stories
Feature Stories
How we share our stories
Feature Stories
How we share our stories
The big idea
Blog
Video
Interviews
Website
Photography
Goals
Goals
Tell the story in real time
Encourage sharing the story
Experiment – what works?
Audiences
Prospective Students
Accepted Students
Parents
University community
Alumni
EC=MC
Every Company is a Media Company.
The transformative equation for business.
Holds true for higher ed:
• Faculty insight (blogs)
• Lectures and Events (YouTube)
• Real Time News (Twitter)
• Join in! (Facebook)
Changing Role of Communicators
Keith Childs and a colleague were embedded by his company at the
Geneva motor show:
Instead of repurposing press material I was part of team creating content. Writing
text. Taking pictures. Making videos. And it made me think about the changing role
of communicators.
We were thinking like reporters. What is going to make an interesting story? …
And we were thinking like editors. Making sure we were scheduling our posts and
not having long gaps of silence… As communicators we assumed the role of
reporter, film maker, photographer, editor and publisher. Gone were the multi-
approval steps. The responsibility was in our hands. Create, publish- and hope you
don't make any mistakes.
http://www.keithchilds.com/the-changing-role-of-communicators
Embedded Reporter: Military
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dod/embed.html
Living in the Moment
Students are living in the moment – whatever that may be
Deliverables
Video feed Photo FeedFacebook
Posts
Micro-Blogging (Tweets)
Blogging by Reporter
Blogging by students
Final video of interviews
etc.Live Video
Tools: Platforms
Used sets and galleries
Used the universities existing channel and
tagged UR Jazz
Handle = UR Jazz
Tools: Landing Page
Tools: Equipment
•MacbookPro
• Panasonic HD video
camera *
• Canon SLR
• Flip cameras (2)
•iPhone
• tripod, cables, backup
batteries, raingear *
• ONE BAG *
* purchased new for trip
Trip Prep
Do the best you can
with what you have
where you are
-Theodore Roosevelt
The Trip
The Trip
Hotel Internet
The Trip
+
Pochote
Pochote
Pochote
Pochote
Pochote
Return
Results
Immediate Results
Facebook ad – first two days
Targeted
• who live in the United States
• age 18 and older
• who like costarica, jazz, jazz band, latin jazz,
music, richmondvirginia or university
richmond
• who are not already connected to UR Jazz
• whose friends are already connected to
University of Richmond School of Arts &
Sciences
42 clicks
93,731 impressions
Immediate Results
538 clicks
1,757,129 impressions
Results
Long-term Results
Plan to use the Facebook page as a way to keep the
program connected to local jazz and interested students.
Take the trip again in the spring, then track awareness –
are we seeing a rise in students declaring as music majors?
Currently looking at other groups/experiences where we
could try embedding staff again.
Deliverables
Video feed Photo FeedFacebook
Posts
Micro-Blogging (Tweets)
Blogging by Reporter
Blogging by students
Final video of interviews
etc.
Issues
Power and Internet Access – what does a social
media reporter do without an internet
connection?
Editing and uploading happened at night – better
to be out capturing the moment than holed up in
the hotel editing.
Schedule kept shifting slightly – had to stay
flexible
Dark theaters not always great for video – tried
not to be intrusive during performances.
Could have used a microphone for interviews
Micro vs. Macro
Grand Total: $3,304
Item Cost
Flight $350
Hotel $200
Equipment $2270
Reimbursed $175
Facebook Ads $309
Total Cost
Trip Tips
•One purpose
•Technology first
•Be choosy about tools
•Build excitement pre-trip
•Formulate deliverables and
back-up plans
Trip Tips
• Assimilate
• Watch your emotional
attachment
• Take help whenever you can
get it!
• Follow up with fans post-trip
Conclusion
Social Media is a powerful sharing
platform
Most of us are telling our stories –
how can you use social
media to expand the reach of
those stories?
Think like a reporter – what would
make a good story? What’s
the best way to tell the story?
Have fun!
Questions?
Kirsten McKinney
University of Richmond
www.slideshare.net/kamckinney
kirstenmckinney.com/blog
+