Own your story! It’s a common refrain of modern publishing. With so many great content tools at our disposal, we need not outsource the telling of our story to third-party media. One of my all-time favorite quotes, by former King’s College communicator Kyle Christie, sums it up nicely: Universities have an opportunity to leapfrog the mainstream media and explain our research, teaching and wider contributions to society in forms beyond the … [Read more...]
The Power of the First-Person Perspective
July 15, 2014 by
A lot has been said about “clickbait” content from sites like Upworthy, whose headlines tug on (some say exploit) emotions and curiosity to lure readers to their content. While I don’t feel as strongly about these headlines as many do, one type of headline that particularly grates on me is the faux first-person headline. For example: A News Team Follows Potential Models For One Week. My Face Is Now Stuck In Disgust Mode. I’ve Tried To … [Read more...]
Reconsidering the Social Media Hub
February 21, 2014 by
One of my favorite projects when working at Tufts University was leading the creation of our social media hub, a custom-built page which hosted feeds from all of our social media accounts and served as an at-a-glance destination for campus social chatter. I was (and still am) extremely proud of what we built. But that was back in 2010. Now, four years later, these types of pages (often called hubs, mashups, or aggregators) are still very … [Read more...]
We Blog About Headlines. What Comes Next Will Amaze You
January 21, 2014 by
My first job out of college was working for the Boston Globe’s website, which afforded me the opportunity to write a lot of headlines. Perhaps the best (or worst) headline I ever wrote, after a Boston Celtics victory, was “Pierce nets 40 as Celtics pierce Nets.” Clever, eh? “Clever” could be an apt description for many headlines you read. The goal of the headline is to tell you what a story is about, establish its tone, and entice you to read … [Read more...]
Results: A Look at Content Strategy in Higher Education
August 20, 2013 by
Last month, we opened up our inaugural survey looking at content strategy in higher education. The goal of the survey was to gauge exactly how content strategy is practiced in higher ed. Thanks to 130 of you, we have a lot of information to help tell that story. Here, we present the results from the survey, with some commentary of our own—but we’d love to hear your thoughts and follow-up questions in the comments. Thank you again to … [Read more...]