Higher Ed Storytelling University

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:18:13
Lauren Keane
We like to think about what we want people to know, what we want them to feel and what we want them to do. And so when we think about those stories that we end up sharing with the press, you know, we want people to know that there are affordable, accessible, higher education options for them, even if they weren't able to go to a traditional institution.

00:00:18:15 - 00:00:31:04
Lauren Keane
We want them to feel connected or inspired by the students stories that we're sharing. And what do we want them to do with that information?

00:00:31:06 - 00:00:51:17
John Azoni
Hey, welcome to the Higher Ed Storytelling University podcast on the B Podcast Network. This is a podcast dedicated to helping higher ed marketers tell better stories, create better content, enroll more students. My name's John Oseni. I'm the founder at Unveiled a video production company working specifically with college marketing teams on automating their student success stories through a subscription approach.

00:00:51:17 - 00:01:15:02
John Azoni
And you can learn more at unveiled that TV that's unveiled. Or if you want to chat directly with me, you can find me on LinkedIn or find the contact info on the contact page of our website. My guest today is Lauren Kean. Lauren is the associate vice president of communications at Southern New Hampshire University, and she wrote a fabulous article for Inside Higher Ed called Harnessing the Power of Student Stories.

00:01:15:07 - 00:01:40:04
John Azoni
In this episode, we turn our attention to getting media exposure with your content and how student success stories in particular are appealing to media outlets. In particular, we cover building a story pipeline how to create a system where students are self submitting stories and also putting students first over your institution. Your story, pitching to media outlets, and how to make it easy for them to feature your story.

00:01:40:05 - 00:01:57:01
John Azoni
And Lauren shares with us some great examples of how SNH you got tons of exposure, national exposure and media outlets and a bunch more stuff. So let's dive in. Here is my conversation with Lauren Kean. Lauren, thank you so much for being here. Tell us where you work. What's your role? What do you do?

00:01:57:07 - 00:02:21:06
Lauren Keane
It's great to be here. My name is Lauren Kean. I have been at SUNY, too, for about eight years. I have spent my career in nonprofit communications and public relations, first for a PR firm in the D.C. area, working on a lot of social change issues. One of them being education and higher education peripherally got connected to US and Asia and joined to build a communications team here.

00:02:21:11 - 00:02:31:13
Lauren Keane
So that was eight years ago. I helped to lead our internal and external communications at the university and it's been a great ride so far.

00:02:31:17 - 00:02:56:19
John Azoni
Awesome. So you you wrote an article we got you on the episode because you wrote a really good article in Inside Higher Ed called Harnessing the Power of Student Stories Five Strategies to Help Increased Earned Media Placements. I'll put the article in the show notes. Very good article. Pretty quick read, but very practical. One of the things I like about the article is how simple it is.

00:02:56:19 - 00:03:30:16
John Azoni
Just off topic, but I'm like Boom, five points. The points are in bold I can like and you know, so there's there's no fluff in there. I love it. You're obviously a communications professional, but but yeah, really good article. And in the article you talk about storytelling. Telling stories that are going to be picked up by media and your students have been, you know, featured in like People magazine, Inside Edition, NBC Nightly News, Live with Kelly.

00:03:30:16 - 00:03:38:14
John Azoni
I saw this morning my wife was watching live with Kelly. It's now live with Kelly and Mark. I don't know. I think that's her husband, right?

00:03:38:16 - 00:03:42:05
Lauren Keane
It is her husband, but that's hard to do.

00:03:42:07 - 00:03:58:16
John Azoni
I don't I had the same thought. I'm like, how would I run a show with Laura? I mean, we get along great, but I don't know. I don't want to run a show together and then come home and eat dinner together and then, you know, all this stuff. But she's been through.

00:03:58:16 - 00:04:01:16
Lauren Keane
I feel like I want Laura to be on the podcast now.

00:04:01:18 - 00:04:33:10
John Azoni
Yeah. We demand a husband and wife hosts, see how this goes. But no, Kelly, it's been in the last few years. It's been like live with Kelly and Michael. Live with Kelly and Ryan, live with Kelly and Mark. Anyway, completely off topic, but Kelly has handled some Sun ju story or two. So tell me about how you got that kind of exposure and the strategy behind kind of getting some of those on there.

00:04:33:12 - 00:04:54:03
Lauren Keane
Yeah, absolutely. So when I started at SC two, eight years ago, we didn't really have a centralized comms team. You know, anybody could talk to the media or send press releases, which resulted in us just not telling our story as well as we could. And the board really charged our team with telling our story better in our own backyard.

00:04:54:05 - 00:05:19:20
Lauren Keane
So over the years we've really focused in on sourcing and telling our stories better first around commencement. Building relationships with staff. And now we source and pitch hundreds of stories every year. But when we think about the strategy, we really this is not my my coming up with this strategy is a pretty known communication strategy. But we we like to think about what we want people to know, what we want them to feel and what we want them to do.

00:05:19:22 - 00:05:54:07
Lauren Keane
And so when we think about those stories that we end up sharing with the press, you know, we want people to know that there are affordable, accessible, higher education options for them, even if they weren't able to go to a traditional institution. We want them to feel connected or inspired by their students stories that we're sharing, whether it's a working mom or somebody who has survived cancer or overcome health challenges, or maybe a military service member or spouse who couldn't go to a traditional school because they moved so much.

00:05:54:09 - 00:06:22:07
Lauren Keane
And what do we want them to do with that information? Of course, we would love for them to enroll. Let us meet you or share the story with other people in their networks. But there are also 44 million Americans with some college and no degree, and we can't ask any to cancer, all of them. And so really, when we think about that strategy, it's boiling it down to just showing people who haven't been able to finish their college degree that it's possible for them.

00:06:22:09 - 00:06:35:19
Lauren Keane
And those are some of the stories we've been able to source and place and it's those really inspiring, authentic stories that have made it to some of the bigger national outlets over the years.

00:06:35:21 - 00:06:47:10
John Azoni
And you you, you have stuff that you look for in stories. What what is the quality? What makes a good story that's worth pitching to the media?

00:06:47:12 - 00:07:12:08
Lauren Keane
So I always say, I mean, it has to be tied to who your brand is authentically. You know, for me too, we've had a long history of delivering diplomas first via a bus that went across the country to deliver diplomas to online students who weren't able to come to commencement. And that was a national TV ad campaign that I still no matter where I'm traveling.

00:07:12:10 - 00:07:33:16
Lauren Keane
And so I work for us. And each year they're like, You're the school with the bus. And but that is authentically part of our brand narrative. And while the bus isn't on the road anymore, there are a number of students who can't make it to commencement every year. And we do still use the surprise element of bringing diplomas to them and surprising them.

00:07:33:18 - 00:07:56:06
Lauren Keane
So that has been really helpful for us. We had a 94 year old student based in Hawaii about five years ago, and her story really went viral pretty quickly. We were able to surprise her with her degree. And she she said one of the quotes that really took hold was, you know what am I going to do all day?

00:07:56:06 - 00:08:27:00
Lauren Keane
Like watch Netflix? And I'm sure Netflix wasn't happy with her with their Google alerts that week. But that quote really resonated with a lot of older people. Right. And so looking for those unique stories that, again, will show somebody who, you know, not what they see in TV or movies about what traditional higher education is, but showing that it's possible if I can do it, then if they can do it, I can do it too.

00:08:27:02 - 00:08:57:08
John Azoni
That's great. And so you talk in your article about building a story pipeline, and I feel like you don't really get stories like that, like a 94 year old receiving a diploma when you when you limit your story collection collection activities to like asking some faculty like, hey, who, who do you know? Because the faculty, you know, they're going to find the student that's maybe getting a good GPA so far or is liking it or has potential to get a good job or something like that.

00:08:57:08 - 00:09:21:06
John Azoni
And that's all great. But they often, you know, it takes some deeper diving to learn some of the deeper stuff. Someone is going through cancer, someone's really struggling with something. Someone has something. I mean, probably a 94 year old, you probably see on the surface that that's that's different. But, you know, it does take some deeper diving to find those really, really gripping stories, too.

00:09:21:07 - 00:09:32:12
John Azoni
So talk about the story Pipeline that statue has built and what like how do you incentivize students to submit their own stories?

00:09:32:14 - 00:10:01:01
Lauren Keane
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as communications professionals are often on the front lines with students. So when we started again with the team about eight years ago, we really had to start building some of those conversations with admissions and advising staff and faculty members across the university. So going to introduce ourselves, you know, making sure they knew who we are, how to reach us, but also showing them some of the stories and the types of stories we were looking for.

00:10:01:01 - 00:10:27:09
Lauren Keane
So giving them examples of some of the stories that have made it to the media and why, and giving them some buckets and parameters that like if you have these types of stories, these are the ones that we really wanted to know about. So of course, media relations and communications is all about building relationships, but thinking internally first is really important and a step that you should skip to doing that short sort of internal road show is really important.

00:10:27:11 - 00:10:54:11
Lauren Keane
And then a share your story mechanism. We started to share your story link about six years ago that we included in all of our commencement related communications leading up to our ceremonies. And that strategy has really evolved for us over the years. But we used to get a few hundred submissions each cycle. Last year. We tried something new, thanks to a great idea of one of the members of my team, Melanie.

00:10:54:13 - 00:11:28:22
Lauren Keane
She thought of doing a more targeted strategy based on demographics. So what we did was we split, we did three standalone emails, one for campus graduates, one for online undergraduates under the age of 50 and one email for online graduates over the age of 50. And we used a video clip from somebody in one of those demographics so that when a student was receiving it, they could see themselves and like, Oh, this student was over the age of 50, just like me, and submitted their story.

00:11:28:23 - 00:11:51:15
Lauren Keane
And just that strategy helped us increase our story submissions for our spring ceremony by 41%. So really just showing students that there are people like them who are graduating, that their story is worthy of being told. We saw such a huge increase in students. And I think what we have found is that people want to share their stories.

00:11:51:15 - 00:11:53:21
Lauren Keane
They just need an avenue to do it.

00:11:53:23 - 00:12:21:16
John Azoni
I love that. I mean, two things that stand out about that one internal road show I think is is a smart way, is a smart way of putting it. And just in building those relationships on campus with people that are on the ground with students, you know, you'd have to get out of the office suite, you know, out of the mindset of just like if we send a mass email to all the students, we're going to get thousands of submissions.

00:12:21:18 - 00:12:42:06
John Azoni
I think, you know, you'll learn the hard way that you have to get a little more, you know, grassroots with it. So yeah, the internal road show building those relationships, but then getting specific I think is key there too. Yeah. Like you said, allowing people to see people that look like them and you're talking to people in a way that's that's catered to them.

00:12:42:06 - 00:12:49:13
John Azoni
I think that's really smart. Obviously very smart. It's 41% smarter or 42, whatever you said.

00:12:49:14 - 00:12:50:22
Lauren Keane
All thanks to Melanie.

00:12:51:00 - 00:12:52:05
John Azoni
Yeah.

00:12:52:06 - 00:12:53:19
Lauren Keane
Yeah.

00:12:53:21 - 00:13:14:01
John Azoni
Cool. So let's see, our our students incentivized in any way to share their story. Like, one thing that comes to my mind is like, what is a student going to think that's like, what's in it for me? You know, why should I take half an hour to create a video of myself? Give me some thoughts on that. Like what might be the incentive for them?

00:13:14:03 - 00:13:33:16
Lauren Keane
Know our students are incentivized in any way we're up front of like how the stories can might be used. So it might be shared with media, might be shared on social media, might be shared with our internal audiences, but we don't incentivize them to share. Again, I think it goes back to like people want to share their story.

00:13:33:18 - 00:13:55:15
Lauren Keane
They just need a way to do it. And I think once we receive their stories and they start engaging with them, you know, of course we want them to feel heard and seen and and valued. And we take great pride in taking good care of them, especially if they're taking the time to share their story at commencement. So we always make sure that that is is part of it.

00:13:55:15 - 00:14:00:00
Lauren Keane
But we don't incentivize them. They just they're willing to share. That's great.

00:14:00:02 - 00:14:11:23
John Azoni
That's awesome. So talk about in your article, you mentioned putting students first, not trying to force the brand in the narrative. Talk about the implications around that.

00:14:12:01 - 00:14:33:18
Lauren Keane
Yeah, when we think about media relations and you think about media today, they're overwhelmed and get a ton of things every day. And so they're really looking for those authentic human centered stories. And we have a lot of those and all of our student stories that we're pitching to media really speak for themselves. So I would say probably nine out of ten pitches that our team sends the press.

00:14:33:18 - 00:14:55:19
Lauren Keane
We don't even mention you until the second paragraph. You know, we really let the student story shine. And, you know, it's hard to tell the story without including us and you. They often don't leave the university's name out. But by really leading with the student first, I think it has paid dividends for us in our media relations strategy.

00:14:55:21 - 00:15:18:09
John Azoni
It reminds me of I used to do a lot of wedding videos and I friends with a lot of wedding photographers, and you don't see this as much these days, but probably ten, ten years ago it was like the thing to do to put your watermark on every image you deliver to the to the couple. So all these wedding photos from professional wedding photos had this big like that.

00:15:18:11 - 00:15:49:10
John Azoni
Jamie Lynn photography on it and just always struck a wrong chord with me. I'm like, It's not about you. And like it would be more more about you if you didn't put that on there. So it's just like they want to post their own photos. They've already paid you. They're not like they're not, you know, trying to advertise for you now also, but also like by letting the content, the people shine, it leads it leads viewers to the brand or readers to the brand or whatever.

00:15:49:10 - 00:15:55:14
John Azoni
But when you do the opposite, when you make me, me, me, me, it's almost like super off putting, I think.

00:15:55:16 - 00:16:25:08
Lauren Keane
Right, Right. I think journalists especially, you can see right through that. It's really not about us. It's about the student and their story and how it will resonate with the journalists audience. And we're really careful about making sure that whoever we're pitching knows that. And also, I think it helps us build a stronger relationship with a lot of reporters because they know that we're not really doing it for for us in that way, that we're really trying to to let the student story shine.

00:16:25:10 - 00:16:47:07
John Azoni
Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Having a culture of just making it clear that the story is really what what you're after and uplifting the great positive work that that people have done and sharing that and celebrating them. I think that in itself is a is a great incentive for, you know, people want to encourage others with their story. You know, the more it gets out there.

00:16:47:09 - 00:17:05:23
John Azoni
Quick break here to tell you about how you can scale up your student and alumni success stories without taking on a bunch of extra work to manage with our video storytelling subscription. But I'm actually going to let Sharlene David, she's the full time videographer and photographer at Baker College tell you about how we made her life easier.

00:17:06:04 - 00:17:33:11
Charlyn David
The video subscription idea was a real godsend for me. It's been kind of life changing in a way. I don't know if that's to strong of a statement on a couple of different levels. As a social media manager, it was really fantastic to have this entire campaign, if you will, of student testimonials. I know that for my channels I'm going to get a new video every single month.

00:17:33:13 - 00:17:56:23
Charlyn David
There's a lot of content to produce and not a lot of content creators here. So having somebody who can take that portion off my plate, it's allowed me a little bit of room to breathe and maybe focus on some other projects. Not only do you get a fully edited testimonial, you also get a delivery of all of the B-roll that was taken of that student.

00:17:57:01 - 00:18:26:08
Charlyn David
For instance, we have this culinary institute, and one of the projects we wanted to do is to create just a short little video connected to a QR code on all the little chocolates that we that we give out in the restaurant, or if they make chocolate for a special event or for a board members or for any meetings or graduation, they can scan the QR code and up pops this video of some like really beautiful slo mo hands making chocolate and that sort of thing.

00:18:26:08 - 00:18:45:17
Charlyn David
And I was able to go into this role and find some fantastic shots of one of our students who did a testimony of creating these bonbons and creating cakes. And you've got the batter going and you've got the chocolate drizzling. So I know that I'm going to be able to take that footage, resize it. I can I can resize it vertically if I need it.

00:18:45:17 - 00:19:09:07
Charlyn David
I can resize it into a one by one. If I need it, I can color grade it. However, I need to fit my needs and I really don't have to travel across the state to our culinary institute to do a whole new shoot because I've got that beef footage at my hands. So really, that's something that I could sit down, edit for a couple of hours, have it done and check it off the list, which is fantastic.

00:19:09:09 - 00:19:48:22
John Azoni
If you want to get like sure and have a steady stream of student success stories, raw B-roll and interview content showing up in your inbox every month, go to pricing dot unveiled dot TV where you can learn more about how this works. Unveiled is spelled UND, VII, Aldi. And now back to our conversation with Lauren Keen. So you talk in your article about the way that SNH you has been praised for creating these media ready packages, and so you had some really practical tips in there for how to deliver the media in the pitch in a way that makes it easy for the editor or whatever to say yes.

00:19:49:00 - 00:19:50:01
John Azoni
So tell me about that.

00:19:50:03 - 00:20:23:01
Lauren Keane
Yeah, the best media relations advice that I've ever been given is to be a resource to the media. They are don't have a lot of time. You know, newsrooms are shrinking, so we need to be able to give them everything that they need to tell the story without physically having to be there. So we again, don't share many pitches with the press without sharing a link that includes photos, B-roll, interview footage, and it doesn't need to be costly.

00:20:23:02 - 00:20:44:06
Lauren Keane
It doesn't need to be a high budget production to do that. But sending some sort of visual is always going to increase your chances of getting media hits. And that has been absolutely true for us. I think of a couple of examples of examples. I think we'll talk about the Joan Donovan story a little bit later. But you know, for that story, again, she was an 89 year old woman in Florida.

00:20:44:08 - 00:21:03:18
Lauren Keane
It was a last minute thing that came to our team. I happened to be visiting my parents in the town over so around the holidays. And I just said, like, I'll deliver the diploma. I didn't have my team with me. I didn't have video equipment with me. But my mom tagged along to help and she ended up shooting the video of this surprise moment on my iPhone.

00:21:03:18 - 00:21:10:11
Lauren Keane
I told her to hold it horizontally, which was a miracle in and of itself, but she took my feedback and direction and.

00:21:10:12 - 00:21:10:21
John Azoni
Added.

00:21:10:21 - 00:21:35:16
Lauren Keane
That her video was the video that made it to ABC World News Tonight. So again, like it doesn't need to be high budget production, but giving some visuals will always increase your chances. And then the story that I referenced earlier, the 94 year old Amy Creighton in Hawaii, the videographer that day, we had taken a flight from the East Coast.

00:21:35:16 - 00:22:03:13
Lauren Keane
So we were on a completely different time. We're up very early and she took a time lapse on her iPhone of the sun rising over the ocean in Hawaii. And it was really cool. And she just like included that in the B-roll like string out. And I couldn't believe how many producers or editors ended up using that one little clip and the story as like a transition piece and the Amy Crayton story.

00:22:03:13 - 00:22:12:23
Lauren Keane
But again, like doesn't have to be a high budget production, but definitely think about visuals first when you're pitching media time lapses.

00:22:12:23 - 00:22:23:08
John Azoni
I tell you what, those are time lapses and drone footage are universally universally useful in storytelling. I feel like.

00:22:23:10 - 00:22:36:02
Lauren Keane
Yes, yeah, we did a time lapse of kind of the graduates coming into commencement too, and included that in our media string out last year. And yeah, a lot of outlets ended up using that footage.

00:22:36:04 - 00:22:44:02
John Azoni
So did your mom insist on putting her watermark on her video footage before.

00:22:44:04 - 00:22:51:18
Lauren Keane
She did it? But I did give her I gave her a little s Anita swag for her for helping out as an employee for a day.

00:22:51:20 - 00:23:24:10
John Azoni
Nice and cool. So let's see, I was going to ask you the. Oh, well, you kind of answered it. My follow up question was, how do you get to be here? Also in a normal in a normal scenario where, you know, it's not this like kind of drop everything, you got to capture this moment. However, now that sounded like an Eminem song, but can you can you can you tell us, like, do you have a team that like like internal video team that's like you're tagging them to go out on these shoots?

00:23:24:10 - 00:23:30:12
John Azoni
Or do you have people within your staff? They're just like, we're bring our iPhone and we're going to shoot this bureau. How does that work?

00:23:30:14 - 00:23:57:02
Lauren Keane
It's a it's a mix. Sometimes times, you know, for the for the recruiting one in Hawaii, we just had one videographer photographer. So small, small operation. I would say that for most of our diploma delivery, it's just one person that's going it's not a full production team that that is capturing this footage. It's really about like getting quality stuff and being able to turn it around same day.

00:23:57:02 - 00:24:20:17
Lauren Keane
So I would say like speed is almost better than this high quality broadcast level production. Other times at commencement, we do have an in-house video team that helps out, but we are also working on rapid response. So making sure that we're getting and turning around media packages that night that we too, so that it's still timely for reporters.

00:24:20:18 - 00:24:40:15
John Azoni
Cool. Yeah, that's that is important. My one my one personal experience with pitching to media. I did not follow that advice. I was filming for something else for a different project and we had all these floods in Michigan and the highway. The main freeway was just completely flooded and there were cars like abandoned and just like floating there.

00:24:40:15 - 00:25:00:11
John Azoni
And I happened to be getting a drone drone over this. And I'm like, Oh, I'm going to I'm going to sell this to to all the news outlets. So I'm like, So I emailed them an email of no response and I follow up, no response, I follow up again. And they're like, Dude, this happened a week ago and we have helicopters and drones.

00:25:00:12 - 00:25:16:06
John Azoni
We're good. I was like, All right, I'm probably not the best PR, you know, communications professional, probably not ready to be hired by the masses yet, but yeah, so timing, timing.

00:25:16:06 - 00:25:17:13
Lauren Keane
And but yeah, I mean.

00:25:17:15 - 00:25:21:04
John Azoni
Probably knowing what they already have is helpful.

00:25:21:06 - 00:25:48:14
Lauren Keane
Yeah. And just giving them that that media package of the photos B-roll and quick energy interview footage, it shouldn't be heavily edited but again like letting them have the all of the assets so that they can cut it any way that they want as if they were. There is been really key, if you know, so many of our stories that we've pleased, there haven't been any cameras from a news organization there.

00:25:48:14 - 00:25:58:18
Lauren Keane
It has been all of our footage that we have sent them and that they have packaged in a way that fits fits their broadcast. So that's been key for us.

00:25:58:19 - 00:26:19:17
John Azoni
Yeah, And I would have, you know, in the interest of having the editors like, save time, like I would assume that, oh, I'll give you an edited, already edited piece and then you're just launching that. But like they have to fit it in to a certain timeslot. They have to. There's certain things they've got to do with it probably to make it on brand for the new station.

00:26:19:19 - 00:26:27:05
John Azoni
So I thought that was really good advice to where I was kind of surprised. I'm like, Oh, it would seem like more work to just give them raw footage, but that's actually less work.

00:26:27:07 - 00:26:54:23
Lauren Keane
Yeah, Yeah. And we're not giving yeah, we're not giving them a fully produced piece, but we're just cutting kind of the selects down and stringing them out. So taking out the questions and, you know, cutting out any answers that might not be relevant or one that maybe somebody stumbled or something. So like taking out the fluff and tightening it down, trying to get an interview down to like 6 minutes or something to send to the media because they're only going to run 30 seconds.

00:26:54:23 - 00:27:22:18
Lauren Keane
So getting an interview down to selects, you know, giving a couple of minutes worth of B-roll and some still images is really what they what they need. And we've just gotten such good response from press saying like, you know, thank you for making it so easy and you always give us everything we need to tell the story. Those are the the emails that we get in response that, you know, are all worth it for those busy turnaround times.

00:27:22:20 - 00:27:59:18
John Azoni
And for schools that are maybe going to start trying to try their hand at this. What you mentioned earlier about was it your mom getting your mom to film horizontal Like that's a that's a really key thing that I think people really need to understand. It's like if you're pitching to a story to the media, it's not it's going to be on a TV screen that's horizontal and like nine times out of ten, if I ask for user generated content for a video that we're making or something, it will come to me vertical because that's just the world that we live in now.

00:27:59:23 - 00:28:25:23
John Azoni
It's just that's how you hold your phone and that's how that's how it's just natural, but it's almost like unnatural now to turn it to turn it sideways. But that's actually how we watch. Netflix is all horizontal. TV's horizontal movies are horizontal. So so yeah. Anyway, so, so talk about this idea you mentioned about going local to get national.

00:28:26:00 - 00:28:57:17
Lauren Keane
Yeah. So this this strategy has been successful for us in a in a couple of I mean many different ways. I'll give you a couple of examples. I think the imagery and story again that I've shared that was in Hawaii. So of course there were networks are not going to travel to Hawaii to to tell this story, but really starting with the ABC local affiliate in Honolulu knew they were there and they packaged to that story and broadcast it out to all of their affiliates across the country.

00:28:57:17 - 00:29:21:09
Lauren Keane
And that really got picked up quite a bit. Another one that we had last year was we surprised a Broadway star who was on the show come from away with her diploma at curtain call. She had gone back to school during the pandemic when Broadway went dark and it was really fun to surprise her with her with her diploma.

00:29:21:09 - 00:29:48:05
Lauren Keane
And again, we started with just the New York City locals because she was from Brooklyn. That's where she grew up. So just starting work with her local networks. And then that ended up being on NBC Nightly News. And then when we're sharing our commencement stories, there have been a number of them that we are just sharing, you know, a number of students from across the country coming from all different states and really just sharing their stories with their local networks.

00:29:48:05 - 00:30:05:20
Lauren Keane
We're not trying to share all that with New Hampshire outlets or national outlets, but from the communities that they come from. And that just gives us some of them have just stayed in those local networks, which has been great because it gives our brand exposure in other areas of the country and other markets that we haven't been in.

00:30:05:22 - 00:30:39:21
Lauren Keane
And but some of them have gone national. We had a couple last year or two years ago, they met in an online class discussion board and one was from Indiana, one was from California. We pitched to their local outlets and that ended up becoming a national story. So, you know, you don't always have to aim for the Inside Edition or People magazine, but starting with your local networks, to give them those really good stories, they have really broad networks, especially if they're with their affiliate networks.

00:30:39:23 - 00:31:04:20
John Azoni
Mm hmm. Absolutely. All right. So let's talk about Joan Donovan, who you mentioned in your article as well. And through her story, you were to pull off a potential reach of 561 million people for people who haven't read the article. Tell us what the story is and then, you know, walk us through that.

00:31:04:22 - 00:31:37:11
Lauren Keane
Sure. So, Joan Donovan, she's 89 years old, finished her degree that she had long, always wanted to achieve. The story didn't come to us through share your story or anything like that. Her son had reached out to somebody at the university asking what size the diploma was so that he could get her a frame for Christmas. So this was a week before Christmas last year that it came to our team and somebody said, like, do we want to bring her diploma to her?

00:31:37:13 - 00:32:05:03
Lauren Keane
And of course, it had been a long year as the week before Christmas. I was like, you know, do we want to add this to the team's plate? Do we want to, you know, work with the family to do something like the week, the Friday before Christmas? But when we found out that it was just in the next town over from where I was visiting my own parents, I had said that I would, you know, bring the diploma to her and do a little mini graduation party outside.

00:32:05:05 - 00:32:26:08
Lauren Keane
So again, we had no big staff. I had did not have a video crew, but my mom tagged along with me, which was a great help. And I had asked her to film the surprise moment of me delivering the diploma to Joan on my iPhone horizontally. And again, like that was the video that ended up on ABC World News.

00:32:26:10 - 00:32:44:06
Lauren Keane
And so, again, you know, when you're thinking about getting media relations, you don't need to have a huge team. You don't need to have a huge budget. You just have to have good ideas and the willingness to try new things. So it was a great moment. It was, again, the Friday before Christmas, and that story played out over three weeks.

00:32:44:08 - 00:33:10:15
Lauren Keane
Usually we're not we always get that advice and PR to not pitch something on Friday and especially the Friday before a major holiday. But we ended up pitching that feel good story around Christmas and it got some local pickup in Florida over the weekend and then that following week between Christmas and New Year's, I think, you know, outlets were trying to fill some space in the news cycle, so it got a little bit more pickup.

00:33:10:17 - 00:33:30:11
Lauren Keane
And then the the Monday after New Year's, it was like that odd holiday, the second that some people head off for a federal holiday and some people didn't. And our local station, WMUR in New Hampshire had said like, hey, we're we're trying to fill some space. Like, do you have some more information on this story? And they ended up running it then.

00:33:30:13 - 00:34:01:09
Lauren Keane
So a whole ten days later and then it got a whole new wave of pickup. It got a syndicated network that had picked it up. And it was in a number of outlets across the country. Good morning, America. America picked it up and then eventually ABC World News. So I'll just say like sometimes you just have to throw the PR media relations rule book out the window if you have a good story that resonates pitching on a Friday before a holiday, you know, using your moms.

00:34:01:09 - 00:34:29:23
Lauren Keane
I wrote it and just testing some new things. So it ended up getting, I think, 650, more than 650 media clips over the course of about three weeks. And her story was was everywhere. But I think it just resonated at a time, you know, coming out of the pandemic, people needed a feel good story. And that really uplifted a lot of people and inspired a lot of people at that time.

00:34:30:01 - 00:34:36:03
John Azoni
Heading into Christmas, too. I'm sure helps with the feel good stuff.

00:34:36:05 - 00:34:52:10
Lauren Keane
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Don't like, you know, send your product placement press release on Friday before Christmas. But if you have a good, feel good, uplifting story before Christmas, they can pay off for a lot of media relations efforts.

00:34:52:12 - 00:35:02:09
John Azoni
Good deal. Well, this has been a super great conversation. Laura and I appreciate you coming on. Where can people connect with you at? Yeah. Where can people find you connect yet?

00:35:02:11 - 00:35:27:07
Lauren Keane
Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn, on Twitter, at Lauren Chene or via email. I just need to. So feel free to share my contact information. We're always looking to connect with other universities and communications teams. So happy to help in any way. And thank you so much for allowing me to share some of our stories with your audiences.

00:35:27:10 - 00:35:29:19
Lauren Keane
Really had a great time.

00:35:29:21 - 00:35:46:05
John Azoni
Awesome. Thanks for listening. Three things I want to give you before you go. Number one reminder to go to pricing dot unveiled dot TV. If you're interested in our subscriptions and download our pricing guide. Number two, if you want to the storytelling you're already doing to the next level or you want to incorporate storytelling into your strategy to begin with.

00:35:46:11 - 00:36:04:14
John Azoni
I have a free resource for you. It's a three part framework for creating compelling student and alumni testimonials, and you can get it at unveiled DOT TV's Student Testimonials. It doesn't even have to be video. Put it the framework to use in any format in which you tell student outcome stories. And then number three, love for you to leave a review for this podcast.

00:36:04:14 - 00:36:15:20
John Azoni
It helps us out a ton. Thank you so much for listening. My name's John Sonego. Connect with me on LinkedIn. And in the meantime, we'll catch you on the next episode of the Higher Ed Storytelling University Podcast. Thanks.