Archive | Platforms & Tools

Medium: An Explainer on a New Platform for Duke University

What is it?
Medium is a blogging platform started by the founder of Blogger and Twitter. It is a place to write and publish. It’s also super easy to use and edit.

How it works.
Anyone can start a free account and start publishing their writing. Writers can publish to their own profiles, or they can publish their writing on publications. Writers can create their own publications and/or contribute to publications that curate stories. Medium has an existing network of writers, so communities form easily and writers can follow each other’s work.

You can find and follow people and publications using Medium’s search. Comments in Medium are left in the margins, which is a great way to create an interactive reading experience. You can also recommend articles that you like.

Content.
Medium is wide-open as far as topics. Writers publish both short-form and long-form and stories vary in tone, format and topic. You can insert photos and videos in a Medium story to make it more visually compelling.

Audience.
Writers and readers on Medium vary. Some are bloggers and journalists. Some are experts on
a certain thing. And some are just curious people who want to tell their stories.

A full 95% of Medium‘s readers are college graduates, and 43% of them earn six figures or more. Even better, from an advertiser standpoint, these readers are also young, with half of them in the coveted 18-34 demographic and 70% of them being under the age of 50. — From this article.

32% of Medium readers are from the United States, followed by 12% from India, and a combined 14% from the UK/Germany/France. — From Alexa.

People and Publications to Follow.

And its users are some heavy hitters: The Gates Foundation uses Medium to post updates on the latest charity work. The White House posted the State of the Union address on Medium ahead of the event. Google (GOOG) just started using the service to promote its “Ideas” blog. — From CNN

Here are some of my current favorite Medium publications:

Should you use Medium?
Are you just getting started with a blog? Medium has a huge built-in audience.
Are you new to blogging? Medium is really easy to use.
Are you looking to get more readers on what you are already writing? Medium might make sense for you to use in addition to op-eds and existing blogs you are publishing.

How are Duke people using Medium?
There are a handful of Duke professors who publish their opinions and findings to Medium.

Duke University has just launched a publication where we plan to pull in these stories as well
as:

Faculty opinion pieces, especially thought-provoking pieces that may not be quite right
for an op-ed, or that may have missed the short window of the news cycle, but would still be of interest to readers
Posts that distill faculty research expertise in a ready-friendly format, such as this post explaining work that was published in 2015 but is relevant to current conversations and political debate
First-person essays and posts related to the experiences of students, faculty and staff
Institutional opinion or perspective from senior leaders regarding policy issues, current events, or other current topics

Duke University’s official publication on Medium

Have a Medium account? Let us know by emailing the #DukeSocial team.

More Reading
How to Use Medium: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing, Publishing & Promoting on the Platform, from Hubspot

Medium for Business: The Complete Guide for Marketers, by Social Media Examiner

How to do Medium Well, by News for Authors

Snapchat: How Duke Communicators Can Join the Fun

By now, we’ve all at least heard of Snapchat.

It’s the crazy popular app (currently the #1 free app on the Apple App Store) that allows users to share videos or photos that disappear within 24 hours. As of today, it’s the second most active social media network, behind only Facebook.

For marketers though, it’s still the Wild West out there; success metrics on Snapchat are so slim that there’s confusion on what content strategies work. For example, as of today there’s still no easy way to see how many followers you have. Still, the potential for cultivating a captive audience on the platform is worth taking seriously.

So What?

The rise of Snapchat has three larger implications for higher education communications:

1. It coincides with a trend toward social messaging. Interestingly, while we tend to think of Snapchat as a social media network, the company itself describes it as a messaging platform.

2. Content on Snapchat is posted in real-time, so it’s inherently timely. That’s no accident. For example, there’s no equivalent of a profile page, and no space to describe who you are. So the only meaningful thing users see when they follow you is whatever you posted in the last 24 hours. To those who are scared away by the fact that content disappears, Snapchat strategist Carlos Gil says, “As marketers, we operate in real time. If it’s not consumed today, it’s irrelevant.” So, what have you done for them lately?

3. Snapchat is exclusively mobile. If you’ve ever wondered why the interface feels so clunky, just know that the design is part of what has made it so successful. It was designed for mobile natives (i.e. the young’uns):

The first thing users see when they open the app is not a news feed, but a camera, ready to capture the next ‘snappable’ moment.
Discovery functionalities are minimal. Snapchat was designed for messaging, so many users have the app synced to their phone’s address book to find people to follow.
It’s made for vertical video.

Cool. So What Can My Department Do To Join The Fun?

Great question! We don’t recommend starting an account for most parts of campus. Building a followership and posting good content consistently on Snapchat is such a challenge that it’s probably not worth the time/resources. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use Snapchat for your communication efforts. Here are two things you can do if you have an event or initiative you want to cover on Snapchat:

1. Snapchat On-Demand Geofilter: Geofilters are special graphic overlays that communicate the “where and when” of a Snap in a fun way, whether users are sending it to a friend or adding it to their Story (the Snapchat equivalent of a status update). For as low as $5, businesses and individuals alike can purchase On-Demand Geofilters for their event, business, or a specific location. Brand logos and trade-marks are permitted. Get started here.

2. @DukeStudents Snapchat Takeover: We are helping the Devils’ Advocates explore the idea of takeovers for their DukeStudents Snapchat account. If you’re interested in experimenting with us, give us a holler.

What they’re looking for:

Visual content. Think: Video first.
A host – that is, somebody who’s willing to be in front of the camera. Snapchat is all about using the front-facing camera to create intimacy. Remember: Users connect with human faces, not brands.
A storyboard with a beginning, middle and end. Plan for a 1-3 minute long video composed from clips during the day. Our peers at Princeton University put together this great blog post on storyboarding for Snapchat.

Here are the guidelines they provide to people taking over the account.

*Accounts to follow if you want to see these best practices in action:

Gary Vaynerchuk: The author of NYT bestseller Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook has his sights set on Snapchat as 2016’s “next big thing.”
Yusuf Omar: Yusuf participated in the 2016 Duke Media Fellows program and is an advocate for mobile journalism.
DJ Khaled: Once the butt of jokes about the ‘selfie generation,’ he’s now – literally – the poster child for influencer marketing. #BlessUp
DukeStudents: Because duh.
Bonus: Check out this story on how Wake Forest U uses Snapchat during finals week to encourage students and raise awareness of on campus resources. Simply, Study Buddy Ann is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).

*Tip: Try using these links from a mobile device, after downloading the Snapchat app.

Inexpensive Equipment For Social Media Photo & Video

We know that some of you are operating as one-man/woman shops and doing what you can with social media photography and videography based on your available resources. We’ve pulled together a quick shopping list of inexpensive items for your photo and video kit to raise your game without busting your budget.

iRig Microphone

If you’re shooting video on your phone for live Periscope shots or even for produced videos (Hey, why not? Your phone records in high-def.), you’re going to want better sound than the microphone in your smartphone will give you. This is the single easiest way to make your smartphone video way more professional. Sound quality is key!

Price: $59.99

Benefit: Better-than-bad sound from smartphone video recordings

Smartphone Lens Kit

If you’re using your phone for photography, you might want to get a little fancier than what the built in lens will let you get. This kit includes a macro lens for your arty close-ups, a wide angle lens for your big group shots and cityscapes, and a fish-eye lens because why the hell not.

Price: $14.99

Benefit: The option to shoot fish-eye stuff, because sometimes you just wanna

Smartphone Tripod Mount

If you’re shooting a video on your smartphone, the easiest way to make it look more professional is to put it on a tripod so you don’t get the handheld shake. Luckily, if you have a regular old tripod, you can buy a smartphone holder that works with what you already have.

Price: $12.95

Benefit: Look like you know what you’re doing

Light Kit

If you’re going to be shooting photos or videos indoors or at night, you might consider investing in a light kit. Luckily, LED panels aren’t super expensive and you can do a lot with a couple of them. The kit we’ve linked here includes everything you need: 2 light panels and 2 tripods. You can run the lights off of a couple different kinds of batteries or a power cord, and they’ll also fit in the hot-shoe of your DSLR camera if you’d rather use them that way.

Price: $64.99

Benefit: Get your subjects lit (literally)

Of course there’s lots of other equipment you could spend your budget on, but these are the ones we’ve gotten a lot of use out of.

For more options on equipment, check out some of what The Link has available. It’s a great place to try-before-you-buy, or even use for all your projects (if you don’t have too many of them).

Vidcon Recap

I just flew back from VidCon in California… (And boy are my arms tired. No? Ok, moving on.)

For those who haven’t heard of VidCon, it’s sort of the premiere YouTube-and-other-online-video conference. It’s run by Hank and John Green (the VlogBrothers), who pretty much invented modern vlogging.

There are several different tracks. The Community track is the one meant for 12-year-old girls to meet all their favorite YouTube stars. (If you ever want to hear high-pitched screaming—possibly including crying and/or wailing—just get Danisnotonfire to walk into a room full of preteens.) The Creator track is the next tier up, meant for video creators. That’s the one I signed up for. One tier up from the Creator track is the Industry track, meant for big brands and networks. (I wish I’d signed up for that one because it looked like they had some great content. Hindsight.)

I went to a whole bunch of workshops and panels and wanted to share some highlights and tips with you all.

Online Video News

There was a whole panel about news shows on YouTube, featuring panelists from The Young Turks and SourceFed. If you’re not familiar, The Young Turks is a live news show featuring way left-leaning opinionated commentary. SourceFed is a comedy news channel. The discussion centered on what works well on YouTube as opposed to in a traditional journalism setting.

The Young Turks channel in particular relies heavily on the opinions of the anchors. They made the comparison to Jon Stewart (of The Daily Show). He’s the most trusted news media figure out there, according to surveys, and the theory is that it’s because he’s relatable and you know his opinion.

Further discussion centered on making the news format digestible, and working to keep things snappy and fairly short.

SourceFed’s main goal is to walk the line between appropriate and inappropriate humor in news stories that aren’t always funny.

And here’s a tip for scripted shows that I thought was interesting: Sometimes reading off a teleprompter gives you “teleprompter face,” and you’re not as animated. The shortcut is to make sure that your eyebrows are still moving if you’re reading off a teleprompter. It keeps your face animated and engaged.

Video Formats

For news videos, lots of channels are doing round-up style videos, meaning they’ll include 3 or 4 different news stories in one video. When headlining these round-ups, though, they’re still using the catchiest news headline to get the click.

Another interesting item I heard about while I was there was the “elevation” of the daily vlog into more of a filmmaking style. I’m not sure how that would apply to Duke channels, but it’s cool anyway. In particular, check out Emily Diana Ruth’s “Letters to July” to see some examples.

Platforms

There was some mention of Facebook directly uploaded video as opposed to linking to YouTube videos on Facebook. You can see our ONC test results on that here. SourceFed mentioned that they’re exploring 1-minute, 1-take videos specifically for Facebook that are “extra” content beyond their YouTube content. Some were also experimenting with preview cuts for Facebook with direction to watch the full video on YouTube. (This redirection to YouTube is more important for those people who are monetizing YouTube views, and not so much to us in the business of getting as many eyeballs as possible without worrying about monetization.)

There was an entire panel on the different platforms available for online video. Represented were YouTube, Vimeo, Vine and Tumblr. The consensus was that YouTube is great for experimenting with new formats and getting feedback on your videos, and Vimeo is great for premium content, especially with their Vimeo On Demand setup, which allows you to charge people to get your video. The Vine and Tumblr reps didn’t have too much to add to the conversation. The Tumblr guy reiterated that GIFs work great on Tumblr, and if you want people to share your stuff on Tumblr, it probably wouldn’t hurt to make some shareable GIFs of whatever video you’re promoting. And, um, the Vine guy just sort of said, “Yeah man, Vine is cool,” over and over. So do with that what you will.

Music and the Content ID System

I will preface this by saying that everyone who talked about YouTube’s Content ID system at the conference began with, “I am not a lawyer, but…” so I’ll make that same claim. I am not a lawyer, but I learned some things about YouTube’s Content ID system in a panel on music. The panel was specifically about covers, parodies and remixes, but could also apply if you have a music bed in your videos.

Fairly recently, YouTube brokered some deals with the biggest labels in the music industry. Here’s how it works: YouTube’s Content ID system will pick up that you are using someone else’s song in your video and will give you a notice that says it’s someone else’s song. That’s not a bad thing because when you click to acknowledge that, yes, you are using someone else’s song, YouTube automatically begins to skim a percentage off of the ad revenue from that video and funnel it to the record label. The record label wins because they get money, and you win because YouTube lets you leave your video up and no one sues you. Yay.

The caveat here for us as Duke channels is that we’re most likely not monetizing in the first place, so this doesn’t really help us. I would still strongly recommend that everyone use music beds that you have licensed. (You can find lists of sites where you can get licensed tracks in the StyleGuide.) Still, if you’re conferring with students, this information could be helpful.

I went to some other panels, too, about storytelling and camera equipment and filmmaking and YouTube in general and got to meet with a a bunch of Internet-famous people, so if you want to hear more dirt or just chat about YouTube (or Disneyland), drop me a note or give me a call.

Q&A on Duke University’s Google + Presence

This interview originally appeared as a CASE blog post by Janna Crabb.

As part of a series of blog posts around Google +, I talked with Cara Rousseau, manager, digital and social media strategy at Duke University, about the school’s use of the platform.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the Google + presence your department manages and related goals. Does your institution have other accounts not managed by your department?
A: Duke University has a very active Google + presence with more than 280,000 followers and more than 2.5 million views. The main Google+ page is managed by our social media team in Duke’s Office of News & Communications. Duke Athletics and Duke Men’s Basketball also manage a very strong presence on Google+, with combined followers exceeding 500,000 and almost 2 million views, respectively. Our goals for Google+ are to reach niche communities (research, science, medical, health, etc.), to optimize search results and to leverage the Hangouts On Air video streaming platform to connect our audiences.

Q: Why is your institution on Google + and how do you find it valuable? Who is your audience?
A: Duke uses Google+ primarily as a place to optimize search results and for the Hangouts On Air feature. We first started using Google + in August of 2011 when pages launched, but we were really not sure what to do with it. Then, in April 2012, Hangouts on Air launched in beta, and we decided to explore the application, holding eight video chats for prospective and admitted students in the month of April. We used venues across campus, selected based on the theme of the chat. For example, we held our chat on “Duke spirit and pride” in the Cameron Indoor Stadium, which also houses our Hall of Fame. We held our “Duke research in the world” chat at the Duke Lemur Center to show how hands-on research happens for students. By connecting admitted students to current students in spots across campus, we were able to open a window to campus culture and student life.

Because Google+ is a social layer, it spreads across other Google applications like Google search, YouTube and Google Maps. Because these platforms all talk to each other, things that are posted on Google+ (and have good engagement and reach!) also perform better across other Google products like search. This is important if you are trying to boost the visibility of a small department or if you are promoting a faculty member who doesn’t otherwise have a public presence.

We also use Google+ to reach certain communities that are more active there than in spaces like Facebook or Twitter.

We’ve found that Google + is strong in niche areas of research and science health; it’s a cerebral place so we focus less on pride and sports and more on geekier content. Because Duke is a leading research university, we have a lot of stuff to share that is interesting to those users.

Q: What are some of your Google + successes? What have you learned? Any tips for other institutions?
A: Hangouts On Air have been my favorite thing that we’ve done on Google+. In addition to our student web chats, we’ve also done office hours with alumni and faculty for events such as the Oscars. Christoph Guttentag, our dean of admissions, moderated a debate between two high schools in California via Hangouts On Air. Duke’s Class of 1984 held aseries of Hangouts On Air with its class for months leading up to the 30th reunion. We have even held Hangouts via mobile devices live fromBlue Devil Days, our main student recruitment events. We are really excited to keep pushing the envelope by trying new things on this platform.

Tips for using Google+:

Browse the “discover” tab and find interesting things Google+ is featuring.
Search communities to see if there is a community already existing for your school (hint: it probably already exists, so it’s a good idea to find out who is active there).
Figure out what’s trending on Google+ and use the hashtags to share your content (as it makes sense).
Try a Hangout instead of a phone call the next time you have a virtual meeting. Using the tool will help you get much more comfortable with it.
Keep it visual! Google+ has more visual space in posts and cover art than Facebook does. Make sure you are posting beautiful things with captions that sizzle.

Q: How does Google + compare with Facebook at your institution?
A: Google + isn’t a replacement for Facebook; it is a very different space. We find that our audience on Facebook (and Twitter) is more interested in school pride and sports. Our engagement on Google+ tends to be lower than on Facebook, even though we have more followers on Google+ than on Facebook. However, engagement is growing, and we get an especially good response to posts when we use keywords that are “trending” and apply that trend to our content. Google+ also has a “communities” feature that is more searchable than Facebook groups.

Q: What Google + projects would you like to focus on in the future?
A: I’d like to leverage it for more departments and uses on campus. For example, we’ve started thinking about how our career center and global education departments can use Hangouts On Air for advising and information sessions. We’re also excited about continuing to explore how we can use mobile devices to host video and connect with audiences across the world.