MULTIMEDIA & CONTENT STRATEGYTIL DEATH DO US PART

Gene Begin / @gbegin / #CASEMMWSenior Director of Integrated Marketing / Babson College

The planning, development, and management of content—written or in other media.*

WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY?

*WikipediaImage Source: Contentini

WE NEED A___________________

<insert meme>

<insert video>

<insert flashy new digital thingy>

WE NEED A #%!$%@+#%!$%@+

WAIT, WHAT?

NO.

THE BUSINESS OBJECTIVE.

FIRST… OBJECTIVES.THEN… STRATEGIES.

LAST… TACTICS.

[www.iveybusinessjournal.com]

WHERE DOES CONTENT STRATEGY FIT IN?

Institutional Strategy

Content Strategy

Digital Marketing Marketing Communications Technology Infrastructure

INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGY = CONTENT STRATEGY

Content strategy must be hardwired to your institutional strategy

HOW DOES CONTENT STRATEGY HELP

• What type of content should we produce?• Who is our target audience?• What stories should we focus on telling?• Where should we host our content?• On which platforms should we share our stories?• How do we prioritize requests when everyone

wants a video?

CONTENT GOALS & MEASUREMENT

• Build trust, conversation and deepen loyalty with our existing audiences (alumni/student feedback & engagement)

• Attract new prospect students, clients and partners (inquiries, applicants, deposits, clients, recruiters)

• Generate engagement and/or explore audience pain points and overcome myths and objections (comments/shares)

• Illustrate benefits through stories and experiences (views)

• Develop new ideas (feedback generated)

• Build reputation with search engines (search engine ranks)

WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT SHOULD WE PRODUCE?

9 MAJOR TYPES OF MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

1. Photography — all social has gone visual2. Video — YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia embedded right into a post or shared directly to

social media3. Screenshots — helpful images of your product or workflow4. Infographics — visual information, either super long and meaty or bite-sized and

informative5. Data visualization — standalone charts and graphs6. Comics — relevant comic strips or cartoons 7. Memes — popular memes customized to fit the context of your post or update8. Visual note-taking — casually-designed layout of ideas, typically text-heavy9. HTML5 Animation — interactive media

BufferSocial, May 2014

DEVELOP A CONTENT / ASSET SOURCES LISTSOURCE ASSET TYPE

Multimedia HTML5 interactive Animation

Magazine Web version Video exclusives Slideshows

PR Announcements Research Rankings Alumni businesses Student/programs

Athletics News Results Features/Stories Awards

Blogs College-created Student-owned Faculty-owned

Photography Staged User-generated Stock

Videos Event/speaker capture Scripted User-generated

Alumni Research Job Promotions Business launches

Social Media Conversation Testimonials Customer Service Questions

Newsletters Thought Leadership Alumni Students Parents

WHO IS OUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

TARGET AUDIENCE?

HIGHER EDUCATION CONSTITUENCY MAP

TARGET EXPERIENCE

Post-Experience Impact

Current Student Experience

Prospective Students/ParentsCurrent StudentsFaculty/StaffProspective EmployeesWorking ProfessionalsHR Decision-MakersRecruitersParentsGuidance CounselorsAlumniGovernancePolicy-makersEducators/Academics

HOW DO WE GENERATE AND/OR CURATE IDEAS FOR CONTENT

BUILDING A CONTENT PIPELINE

• Mine the events calendar for campus speakers• Collaborate with campus centers and organizations• Partner with the written word content creators (i.e. Magazine)

• Regular Departmental Meetings– e.g. Social Innovation Institute, Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial

Leadership, Center for Investments and Finance, Executive Education

• Marketing Strategy Meetings– Marketing Council, Social Media Council/Steering Committee, Agency

Meeting, Lifecycle Marketing Meeting, Editorial Meeting

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

PROCESS?!

TAKING REQUESTS AND CONCEPT IDEAS

DEVELOP A CYCLICAL CONTENT PROCESS

1. Audit - Be that politician across campus

2. Assess - Quality, type and channel

3. Prioritize - Institutional strategy and goals

4. Build - 6 month plan

5. Develop– Creative production, curation and re-imagination

After 3 or 6 months, check in and start audit cycle again

CONTINUE TO BUILD & DEVELOP PROCESS

• Content Calendar– Interests/categories– Regular topics/columns– Gap identification (new content)– Publishing schedule

• Curate• Re-imagine• Create• Socialize• Measure

Content CalendarInstitutional Priorities

March April May June July August

Redefining Eship

“Pursuing a Passion”

World Stage

Social Innovation

Andrew Zimmern

Education/ Curriculum

New Entre. Leader

CLTP 15th Anniversary

Babson Insight

GLDE

Living E-ship (Student-focused)

Shark Tank MCFE

Founder’s Day

Lemon. Day Boston

Defining Entrepreneurship

Defining Entrepreneurship

LEVERAGING CONVERGED MEDIA

OWNED MEDIA = website(s), multimedia, newsletters, SEO, social media accounts, campus environment

EARNED MEDIA = PR, word of mouth, social sharing

PAID MEDIA = traditional advertising, display advertising, paid search, event sponsorship, content advertising

Assets created are pushed through the paid channels but also owned channels in ways that drive the earned media and thus extending reach

HIGHER EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY MARKETING

THE IMPORTANCE OF ADVOCACY MARKETING

https://gaggleamp.com/blog/employee-advocacy-infographic

Assets created are pushed through the paid channels but also owned channels in ways that

drive the earned media fueling this reach

NEARLY HALF OF ALL INTERNET USERS HAVE REPOSTED A PHOTO OR VIDEO THEY HAVE FOUND ONLINE

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Photos-and-videos.aspx

From infographic by Matter’s Studio-C

WORD OF MOUTH IS YOURMOST POWERFUL FORM OF MARKETING

• Social media = word of mouth reinvented

• Use Your Advocates – Passionate About the Brand

• Use Your Network and Their Networks• Share with 10 people, they’ll share with 10 people, who will share with 10

people, etc.

STORYTELLING

INSPIRATION FROM OTHER INDUSTRIES

FOCUS ON THE FARMER

“Even the most technical subject has to have a human story behind it. We’ve been able to convince the management

that the content shouldn’t be about John Deere equipment.”David Jones

Publication ManagerJohn Deere

NOT THE EQUIPMENT

BUILDING A PROUD COMMUNITY WITH GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

THE CAUSE NOT THE COLLEGEStorytelling

Small, private business college 14 miles west of Boston #1 in entrepreneurship for 22 and 18 consecutive years Approximately 2000 undergraduate and 1300 graduate students, representing more than 74 countries

Undergraduate program (top 25 in business) Graduate program - MBA and MS degrees (top 50 in business) Executive education program (top 10 U.S. and top 20 in the world for custom programs

Increase brand awareness, engagement, and adoption for Babson, the educator for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds®.

BABSON COLLEGE

THE ENTREPRENEURS:A TRUE BABSON STORY

ACTION.BABSON.EDU

EARNED MEDIA

MAKE THEM THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT MULTIMEDIA

Objective Before TacticProcess Never Hurt AnyoneAdvocacy MarketingThe Cause Not the College

BE A CHANGE MANAGER

“To do disruptive innovation, you have to be willing to be misunderstood for a very long time.”

- Jeff Bezos, Chairman and CEO of Amazon.com

THANK YOU!

#CASEMMW

WWW.SLIDESHARE.COM/GBEGIN

GENE BEGIN / @GBEGINSENIOR DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED MARKETING / BABSON COLLEGE