Many universities are now producing videos, whether in-house or via external agencies. We’re familiar with those aimed at recruiting students, particularly on the international stage. But if you’re producing videos from a PR perspective, I think it’s important to ask – what are they for?
The below is a video I put together last year to accompany research on how a compound found in coral protects it from getting sunburnt, and the potential for this to be the basis for new sunscreen protection in humans. Unfortunately I didn’t personally shoot the underwater footage from the Great Barrier Reef – I doubt there is a single PR budget for a university which would go quite that far – this was provided by the Australian Institute for Marine Science.
There are multiple reasons for putting together a video, such as the above, from a PR perspective:
- As a hook for journalists, who will then hopefully cover the story (and use the footage)
- Gives you a presence on the second most popular search engine – YouTube – from where the media, and anyone else, can embed your branded video on their site. Index and tag it right, and the SEO works for itself.
- Even thought it’s not a recruitment video, it might indirectly act as one. Potential students are much more likely to remember, and share a video – which they might stumble on completely inadvertently - than text.
- It’s an alternative means of telling a story beyond text and images.
Most importantly, it is simply impressive for the users who watch. Whether they are members of the public, alumni, others in HE or the media, it tells them about our work and establishes an association between an institution and a notable piece of news or research.
It’s also a real boost for internal audiences, especially students. When I’m looking for mentions of the university on Twitter, I love coming across links to our videos or stories from current students saying ‘wow I didn’t know we did this!’ Studying in one department means students aren’t always aware of the full scale of weird, wonderful and fascinating work which takes place at their institution. I remember not finding out until after I graduated that Sheffield has whole labs where you can grow plants in climate-controlled environments, all hidden under a car park. Again inadvertently – using videos/podcasts to tell strong research stories can make them aware of this.
In a group Q&A for the Meet Content blog back in October, @andrewcareaga - Director of Comms at Missouri University of Science and Technology, makes the point:
Traditionally, press releases are aimed at a single audience — journalists — and are designed to persuade them that our subjects, events or other “news” are worthy of coverage. But for years now, smaller news organizations have been using press releases as news verbatim. So we shouldn’t be writing solely for journalists anyway. We should write them for a more general audience.
If, however, our goal is to communicate with segmented audiences — prospective students, current students, alumni, parents and the like — then we should definitely reevaluate our content types and how we present the stories. Depending on the audience, a 90-second video may be more appropriate than a press release, or a lengthy article in the alumni magazine.
The one caveat I’d add to the above is that a video, especially when it’s promoting research, doesn’t have to be targeted at a particular segment of a HE audience, and doing so could narrow its broad appeal.
When we aim for media coverage it’s not to get it covered by a particular paper or outlet for the sake of it, but to reach the audiences they have access to. Shoot a video to promote research, an event or other news and providing it’s got something to say and is beyond a talking head, then maybe it can reach those same audiences too.
Worth a look: Chronicle of HigherEd article from July 2011 on Top 10 (US) videos posted by Colleges. Many commencement addresses in there but some research too.
(I’d urge you to read the full Meet the Content post ‘The Future of Public Relations in Higher Ed‘, and the comments for much more on press releases and social media in HE).
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