Content Marketing in Education: A Case Study

Content Marketing in Education: A Case Study

Shane HaggertyCEO/Director of StrategyGreat Heights Marketing + Communication@shanehaggertyshane@greatheightspr.com

Why the Shift?

Internal Surveys Guided the Way (2008 survey):

>65% don’t subscribe to a local newspaper>85% have home internet connection>99.2% have a least one personal email account>75% visit OHP’s website frequently>93% watch online videos>81% have no idea what Twitter is>75% never use Facebook

Why the Shift?

Internal Surveys Guided the Way (2010 survey):

>77% visit the OHP website frequently>85% use Facebook>40% use Twitter>70% visit Hipointjourneys.com>87% want OHP to use social media to communicate>49% prefer their cell to receive information, 46% prefer the internet

Why the Shift?

Other reasons:

>Newspaper readership is down (our local paper has a mere 6,000 readers)>Radio listenership is down and fragmented>Technology allows our audience to skip ads on television>A press release won’t reach everyone

Allowing our students to tell our story

Full-Scale Strategic Plan-Raise the visibility of our school district

-Make a contribution to our industry

-Give prospective students & parents a look at what life is really like inside the classroom at Ohio Hi-Point Career Center

-Give our constituents a better understanding of how we really are preparing students for college and careers

-Increase participation in campus events and recruiting activities

Full-Scale Strategic Plan-Target audiences: Sophomores & parents, community-at-large

-Guidelines established including a contract with the bloggers and their parents

-Utilized existing district use of technology policy

-Provided training to students

-Content control and management

Tactics

Hi-Point Journeys Social Media Campaign

>Students use FlipCams & Digital Cameras

>Students blog weekly for an entire school year

>Students able to post on Facebook (Year 2)

>Students make personal appearances and take part in recruiting process

Method

>Built on a WordPress blog

>Customized by Oxiem

>Utilized InnoGage’s InnoBlogs plug-in

>Students were able to upload their own content

Integrated into marketing planVideo created for online use & TV

Integrated into marketing planVideo created for online use & TV

Bloggers used in collateral

Integrated into social media

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr

Integrated into social media

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr

Building relationshipsStudents as spokespeople

Building relationships

Students as spokespeople

Content is King

>Various trainings for students >Students provided with technology to tell the story

>Utilize media outlets to share their content

>Push it out through various channels

Results

>Hi-Point Journeys site visited by 2,500 unique visitors and 5,500+ visits with nearly 20,000 page views

>Hi-Point Journeys Facebook page has 460 fans

>In a survey, Journeys was #2 behind direct mail as top way to reach out to sophomores

>70% of current students visit Journeys

What was learned?>Students are responsible with social media when you teach them how to be

>Parents are online and respond to social media

>There are stories to tell and they are more effectively told by students

>Hand pick your students

>Less is more

Other Schools Inspired by Content

>EHOVE Career Center

>Madison Local Schools

>Upper Valley Career Center

>Apollo Career Center

>Delaware Area Career Center

Content Marketing in Education: A Case Study

QUESTIONS?