Universities are all very familiar with the importance of Student Generated Content. We know the power of authentic voices and personal insights. But how many universities have a reliable and repeatable strategy for faculty led content?
In this article we’re going to show you how to turn faculty members into LinkedIn thought leaders and get them into the content creation groove.
If you’re interested in reaching business leaders, parents, post-graduates and even potential undergraduate students, LinkedIn is the place to be.
Similar to other social media platforms, LinkedIn is increasingly interested in developing its algorithm and content ‘discovery’ processes.
Content is now shown to users by relevance rather than the amount of followers a content creator has. Perfect if your academics have small social media followings but a lot of valuable insights.
With this development in the algorithm, users searching for value rather than followings, and a general move towards human-lead content, now is the time to build content strategies for hand-picked academics.
Before we remove the barriers of content creation, let’s look at a few more reasons why academics should be educated and empowered to participate on social media.
1 . Start with the audience's needs in mind and hang everything off that
Once you have chosen the faculty members you feel could provide the best insights, sit down with them to identify a few popular problems their expertise could solve.
Of course, it is an academic’s bread and butter to find research gaps, think critically and address challenging issues. However, it’s important to not get too complex right away. Simple problems are best such as “How to gain confidence in Mathematics?” or “What A-Levels do I need in order to study Archaeology?”.
Academics might feel boiling their field of expertise down to satisfy user search intent might be a bit reductive. But it is worth remembering that these content pieces, expertly delivered, could be a valuable entry point to their subject.
2 - Pinpoint where the content fits
Begin with the end in mind. Knowing where your faculty content is going to fit and what goal it aims to achieve is central to its success.
If your faculty expertise is being leveraged to increase interest in study programs, it is better to talk to niche audiences about accessible topics.
On the other hand, if your academic-led content is meant to showcase the industry experts working for your university, it is better to talk about niche topics to the broadest possible audience.
Knowing if your faculty content strategy is going niche to a broad audience, or broad to a niche audience will significantly increase its chances of success. Commit to one and stick with it.
3 - Match expertise with content needs
It is important not to become sidetracked with quick wins or dirty tactics. LinkedIn, like other social media platforms, can provide short term rewards for generic box-ticking content.
Why bother putting time and effort into an informative academic podcast series when you could post a selfie attached to an emotional life story for 100+ interactions?
The unavoidable truth here is you won’t have achieved any real traction with your selfie post. There’s no reason to come back, the faculty member has not increased their expert status and the university hasn’t benefited either.
Positioning faculty as thought leaders means:
The good news is becoming a thought leader does not require a huge following. The bad news is it still takes time. Your academics will have to commit to 12 - 18 months of iterative content creation before any tangible results can be seen.
4 - Define the best posting frequency for faculty content
One of the most common mistakes beginner content creators make is starting too enthusiastically, burning out and dropping off.
Make sure you have a concrete idea of how many content pieces you expect from each contributor, what support the academic will receive and how often their content will be posted.
It is always better to post one great piece of content every first Friday of the month, than five mediocre pieces every weekday and going quiet on weekends. Quality over quantity.
Once you know how quickly each faculty member can turn ideas into content, you’ll be able to match frequency of posting to content quality.
Top tips to make sure content is consistent and production is standardised:
There has never been a better time for universities to leverage the expertise and specilised knowledge of their faculty members.
Taking advantage of a swing towards authentic person-to-person content, higher education marketing teams can reach an organic audience on LinkedIn through expert voices.
Remember, expectations should be managed every step of the way. You may have some initial success within the first month of posting, but this is likely to drop. Smaller results become manifest within 6 months of consistent activity, with tangible returns only coming in after 12 to 18 months.
Curious how Words On Brand can help you with your faculty generated content strategy? Get in touch with us.
