Higher Ed Storytelling University

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:25:04
John Azoni
My guest today is Briana Blackburn. Briana is the manager of social media strategy at Bowling Green State University, where she leads the Bgsu social media team, cultivating an audience of more than 350,000 across platforms following a record year of enrollment. Briana launched one of Bgsu UK's most successful advertising campaigns to date developed influencer strategies and led Bgsu to be the number one university in the state of Ohio.

00:00:25:04 - 00:00:35:05
John Azoni
4% Audience Growth in 2023. In 2024. In one of the most saturated regions, four public universities in the country. So, Briana, welcome to the show.

00:00:36:01 - 00:00:38:12
Brianna Blackburn
Thank you, John. I'm so excited to be here.

00:00:39:02 - 00:00:44:10
John Azoni
Yeah, it's awesome. So tell me something that that people would be surprised to know about you.

00:00:45:13 - 00:01:08:08
Brianna Blackburn
I love the question. Well, I am training for my first full marathon. I always say if you run, then you're a runner. So I've done a couple of half marathons, but I'm trying to kind to get that first full marathon under my belt. And then another thing is I love creating, you know, content on my own personal social media channels.

00:01:08:08 - 00:01:30:05
Brianna Blackburn
And I love travel. The last summer, I had the opportunity to travel with a company called EF Ultimate Break, and we went all around Europe on there. It's called our European Road Trip Trip. And I got to go with my best friend and it was just amazing. So I love running and travel. Those are kind of two things about me.

00:01:30:17 - 00:01:32:08
John Azoni
That's awesome. Where did you go in Europe?

00:01:33:12 - 00:01:59:13
Brianna Blackburn
We went to a couple countries, went to Swiss Alps, Paris, Amsterdam, London, all around Italy, the Amalfi Coast, Rome. So it was a great summer. I really like looking at all the marketing in each country and comparing them because I because it's just so different than like here in the U.S. So whenever I travel, I always like to take pictures.

00:01:59:13 - 00:02:06:19
Brianna Blackburn
I like the billboards and things like that and like what ads? I'm being served even on my phone.

00:02:06:19 - 00:02:27:20
John Azoni
So interesting. Yeah, that's like the marketing brain I always track of. Like I have an album on my phone of like good hooks and bad hooks. So if I see like, yes, like if I get served like an Instagram ad or something and I'm like, Oh, I actually kind of watched like 10 seconds of that. I'm like, I like analyze it and I save it.

00:02:27:20 - 00:02:28:13
John Azoni
And so like.

00:02:28:16 - 00:02:45:14
Brianna Blackburn
No, yeah, for sure. I'm the queen of screenshots and also like Instagram collections. I don't know if you use that, but yeah, I have like so many ideas bookmarked, even if I don't use like the same trend. Just like their hook. I'll yeah, I'll definitely draw inspiration from.

00:02:46:10 - 00:02:56:09
John Azoni
And the running thing to I mean good for you I can't I tried that the most I tried was an eight K and I trained for it but I trained on a treadmill.

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Brianna Blackburn
Oh and that worst.

00:02:59:06 - 00:03:13:20
John Azoni
When I went this was like a long time ago like 2009 or something like that. And I train on treadmill and then did the real thing. And I swear, like a mile into it, I was like, We're about done right. Like we're across the finish line in.

00:03:15:03 - 00:03:30:19
Brianna Blackburn
That it just felt like the how it feels. Whenever I'm running, I'm like, okay, just like, run for five more minutes, five more minutes, and then like, then you can walk if you need to. But I just keep telling myself, okay, just a little bit more. Yeah. Because the only way to get through a race.

00:03:32:13 - 00:03:46:10
John Azoni
Well, good for you. I commend you for being able to run that that long. Cool. So tell me about tell me a little bit about in your own words, your your role at Bgsu, how you got there. Give us a little bit of background.

00:03:47:14 - 00:04:21:06
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. So my journey. AP Just you really started as a student. I got involved. My freshman year with a student organization that led to connection for an internship for the College of Business here at BGI. So I did their social media my freshman and sophomore year and just kind of like networked among, you know, all the different people in the marketing office and had some amazing mentors.

00:04:22:09 - 00:04:50:11
Brianna Blackburn
And then a spot opened up on the, you know, the parent channels that this will be just, you, a cow doing social media for them. And so I applied and got the role. And so I did. I was an intern for all four years of college, all three years because I graduated early. But and then my senior year, well, actually my junior year, it was covered.

00:04:51:05 - 00:05:22:15
Brianna Blackburn
So I was able to work remotely an internship and started meeting weekly with our AVP, Amy West. So she kind of oversees our whole office and she really wanted to focus more on our social strategy, especially as it pertains to like, you know, the safety of everyone on campus during the pandemic. So I was like, Oh my gosh, like, I felt so lucky to be meeting with her.

00:05:24:05 - 00:05:58:09
Brianna Blackburn
And then they created a new position called Social Media Strategist. And I applied and I started working right after graduation and January 2021. And so when I first started, it was like a one woman show hired some interns who, like I would not be here without. They were amazing. And then just over the last three, three and a half years, we've grown the team and I've now I oversee two full time strategists and we have four interns.

00:05:58:09 - 00:06:23:18
Brianna Blackburn
We've got some social media freelancers who help us with our, you know, engagement and like monitoring all the comments and DMS, which is so helpful. And we work with like our photo video team, our visual team has really grown. I used to just be one person doing photography with no videographer. So now we have a fourth team that we collaborate with on that end.

00:06:23:18 - 00:06:30:20
Brianna Blackburn
And so we're really, really lucky that we've had such big growth in just three years. But it's been awesome.

00:06:31:06 - 00:06:36:12
John Azoni
Awesome. And so you're pretty fresh out of college. So you said 20, 21, you graduated.

00:06:37:11 - 00:07:04:11
Brianna Blackburn
2020 December. Yeah. So I actually I graduated December 2020 and then I started working in January. But since it was 2020, we didn't have a commencement ceremony, but they like invited all the classes back in 2021. And so I got to walk even, even as I was like working full time at the university. I got to take a day off to do that for college graduation thing.

00:07:04:11 - 00:07:05:09
Brianna Blackburn
So that was awesome.

00:07:05:09 - 00:07:13:13
John Azoni
You're like, also like shooting, like selfies and stuff. Yeah, like we need this content.

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Brianna Blackburn
Exactly.

00:07:15:20 - 00:07:49:19
John Azoni
So we're talking about so I've been familiar for a little while of big use, short form video content. We might get into some long form. We'll just see, see where the wind takes us. But yeah, but I wanted to focus this episode on your TikTok reels and, and short strategies. And so, you know, we're sort of fresh off of a webinar that I did a month ago with Rob Clark, who works for Greenville University.

00:07:50:02 - 00:08:13:00
John Azoni
And we got a lot of questions that people submitted when they when they registered for the webinar. And one of the questions that popped up a couple of times was, I wanted to just get your opinion on is like, is short form video really necessary? Like because, you know, there's a lot of buzz about I mean, just anything any, any sort of like social media platform.

00:08:13:00 - 00:08:36:20
John Azoni
It's like I remember when social media first came out, it's like everyone's like, you have to be on social media or else your your business is going to completely tank and you know, or whatever. And you know, now it's now it's like tiktoks and reels and doing like dances and funny trends and stuff. And it's like the sentiment seems to be if you're not doing that, you're, you're behind.

00:08:36:20 - 00:08:48:21
John Azoni
But there's different schools of thought there. So I wanted to ask you, like, do you feel like short form video is 100% necessary? Can a school be successful without it? What what are some of the pros and cons of doing it or not doing it?

00:08:49:15 - 00:09:11:20
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, I really feel like, you know, TikTok and short form video in general has changed the way that we consume social in general, and I'm a huge advocate of it. We were Bgu is the first university in Ohio to really take TikTok seriously. I think we were like the first university really in the Midwest, like posting every day.

00:09:12:04 - 00:09:34:19
Brianna Blackburn
So I was like the first thing that I did when I took the role because, you know, I'm Gen Z workforce. I wanted to like just kind of make our that represent exactly. I think it's one of the easiest ways to find new audiences to who might be interested in your school or just interested in higher education in general.

00:09:34:19 - 00:10:14:10
Brianna Blackburn
I especially like all that top of funnel content. And so now I mean, it's been like three or four years since I feel like Tik Tok and roles have really took off. So it's like the algorithm has been pushing it for a while now. So I do kind of think it's like important part of a social media strategy in general, because it's like one of the things that consumers are looking for, like when they open their, you know, Instagram app, I feel like, or TikTok like they're, you know, obviously TikTok, but it's kind of what they expect now.

00:10:14:10 - 00:10:45:08
Brianna Blackburn
It's what the consumers like are expecting and want to see. So and I think like if you do it right, I think you can really make content that's shareable. But of course, like you can always find the wrong audience. I feel like it's easier to find the wrong audience with short form video because of the algorithms. And there's, of course, just like so much saturation, but I definitely see it as like a huge opportunity, especially for higher ed to get involved with it.

00:10:46:00 - 00:11:19:09
John Azoni
Yeah, I kind of look at it like, you know, the question is like, is it necessary? Well, the question is really like is getting new people in your orbit necessary? You know? And so if you feel like that's not that is true, it's like, well, do you want to take a more manual approach and, you know, go to high schools and meet people and shake hands and stuff like that or do cold outreach or, I don't know, just whatever or do you want a robot to just go find you people?

00:11:19:21 - 00:11:29:22
John Azoni
You just post something interesting and they'll just go find you people, right? I feel like, you know, it's it's it's going to be effort either way, you know? Right.

00:11:31:06 - 00:11:59:09
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. And I feel like you're right. It really does depend on your goals. So if it's are you trying to elevate like student engagement, like kind of brand pride with your students on campus? I feel like short form video is a great way to do that. Or if you're just trying to find new audiences or like increase brand awareness about like, you know what your university, how it's, you know, creating good in the world.

00:12:00:00 - 00:12:07:04
Brianna Blackburn
I feel like that's a good way to find those new audiences. But I think it just depends on what your goals are for sure.

00:12:07:20 - 00:12:26:23
John Azoni
And when you started with BGC was like social stuff. Were you already I mean, you're gen-z were you already like pretty like, like a consumer of the platforms or was it something that you were like you were you just kind of like you already came in with like, oh, this is what's hot? Like, we're we're going to we should do this, we should do that.

00:12:26:23 - 00:12:29:06
John Azoni
Or did you were you kind of learning from scratch?

00:12:31:02 - 00:12:53:09
Brianna Blackburn
I would say a little bit of both. Like there's obviously like a learning curve when you're like the person that starts managing a brand. But I mean, yeah, I'm a huge consumer of TikTok and short form video is in general. So that really helps me, I think especially with like I feel like big something that differentiates us is like the student experience.

00:12:53:09 - 00:13:17:04
Brianna Blackburn
We're the number one university in Ohio for the student experience. So I'm like, okay, how can I help elevate the student experience just through content that, you know, make somebody laugh or smile and like make them proud to be a And so that's kind of like was like my approach from the get go is like, how can I be a part of like making their college experience better in a small way?

00:13:18:17 - 00:13:42:13
Brianna Blackburn
But there are so much that I had to learn because, you know, the algorithms are constantly changing and I think like just being like, my boss always told me I was a student. Like, she always said, like, you're a student of social. And I really just like, took that identity on like being a lifelong learner and not being afraid to, like, try something new because I don't know how to do it.

00:13:42:13 - 00:14:05:18
Brianna Blackburn
Like, I remember when, like, voice overs, like people really started doing more voice overs because I used to just be like quick little trends, especially on TikTok. But now, you know, there's a lot more vlog editing styles that are popular. So just kind of learning that being comfortable, hearing my own voice or being in front of the camera, like that kind of stuff, it's totally a learning curve.

00:14:06:09 - 00:14:20:00
John Azoni
Yeah. Awesome. So what would you say? And you said, like the student experience is one of the content pillars. What are some other pillars that that, that kind of builds that social media content around?

00:14:21:11 - 00:14:46:16
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. So I like to look at it like a couple different buckets. So like the first bucket I feel like is our, you know, top of funnel content content that's, you know, broad appeal. It's entertaining. It connects with somebody like emotion. It needs to be like relatable in some way. So I like to look at, you know, like the college experience in general.

00:14:47:00 - 00:15:12:22
Brianna Blackburn
I feel like, you know, everyone's constantly talking about more and more people are not choosing to go to college. So how can we make college like attainable, relatable, or even just like connecting with people who went to college, even if it wasn't big? But I feel like, yeah, parents, students, future students, there's there's so much really ability opportunity there.

00:15:13:07 - 00:15:35:19
Brianna Blackburn
So that's like our top of funnel content And then of course like you know, research that has broad appeal or is like a great story. So that's like the top of funnel. And then brand pride content is what I like to call all the content that we post about that differentiates big. So our brand is we're a public university for the public good.

00:15:35:19 - 00:16:20:16
Brianna Blackburn
So, you know, that means like our academic programs and partnerships with industry, that those programs are helping to meet the workforce needs of our state. So we talk a lot about that. Any research that we're doing, like how is this affecting your everyday life? I mean, I know, yeah. So that honestly is really our brand is like easy to make it top of funnel, even if it is like the stuff that differentiates us and then, you know, other brand pride content, things like being the number one university in the Midwest, students would choose again, kind of like, you know, like Amazon review five stars.

00:16:21:21 - 00:16:45:01
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, that really seems to speak to future students and alumni. So I love that ranking because, you know, alumni are like, oh, it's like the best decision of my life. And then future students are always asking current students like, would you if you could go back, like, would you choose this university? And so having that ranking has been great for brand pride.

00:16:45:08 - 00:17:18:14
Brianna Blackburn
Mm hmm. Besides that, we do a lot of event promotion. So that's always, you know, just getting people to attend events like athletics events or student alumni focused and then trying to like, tell that story of how, you know, amazing the student experiences. And then besides that, just of course, in enrollment, student opportunity, faculty, alumni, success, those are kind of like our pillars.

00:17:19:00 - 00:17:47:17
Brianna Blackburn
And it all is under this idea of being a public university for the public good. And we I think like one thing that we really try to do as a university and a brand and this like even starts like in our admissions office. So like we try to really sink like the admissions, like what the admissions counselors are, you know, presenting to students and parents to what we're posting on social.

00:17:47:17 - 00:18:13:13
Brianna Blackburn
So we try to focus on like, here's what we want to do for you to prepare you for success. Not like, look how great we are. Like, we have all these accreditations. We're really focused on the family and the student. Here's how we're going to prepare you. We have a program called like Design, which is like huge differentiator for BG and it helps students with their transition into college and into their careers.

00:18:13:13 - 00:18:33:10
Brianna Blackburn
They're meeting with like career coaches. So it's like, I feel like we're kind of ahead of our time in that area compared to other universities. So I love finding things that make us different and just like focusing on that and, you know, community building, I feel like those are like our pillars.

00:18:34:04 - 00:18:53:22
John Azoni
Yeah, I love that. I mean, a couple of things stuck out to me. One was that like, you know, you just your like top of funnel stuff like one thing I noticed about about BDC is video content is that you guys do have this brand pride stuff, but then you could take that same theme, but also just kind of make it broader.

00:18:53:22 - 00:18:56:08
John Azoni
And it's, it's about college, you know.

00:18:56:11 - 00:18:56:19
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah.

00:18:57:12 - 00:19:16:05
John Azoni
You know, I know we'll talk about one of those examples in a few minutes here about the, you know, when you guys jumped on that of course trend And so you had one that was more like, of course, like we're college students. Of course we do this. And so that's like very broad emotional appeal. But then you had another one that's like were falcons or something like that.

00:19:16:05 - 00:19:19:04
John Azoni
Of course we do Falcons stuff.

00:19:22:10 - 00:19:29:04
Brianna Blackburn
And that one was we're Falcons flame. So it's like if you meet and you get married and you're both Falcons, you're Falcons flame.

00:19:29:05 - 00:19:50:07
John Azoni
So that's awesome. So we have a friend of the family I've just this randomly thought of this we have a friend of the family that's an actual falconer and he owns a hawk and he met he met a woman that he married who is also a falconer. So they they both like, take their hawks, like hunting for mice in the field somewhere.

00:19:50:07 - 00:19:52:22
Brianna Blackburn
Oh, that's so funny.

00:19:53:04 - 00:20:19:14
John Azoni
Yeah. Anyway, okay, so what's, what would you advise colleges? You know, when when, when it comes to making content that's engaging and shareable. So you have all these ideas in these buckets, but what is it that, like really makes something like have kind of a spark to it? Because I notice like, like I always think about content in like levels.

00:20:19:14 - 00:20:40:23
John Azoni
Like there's, like first level is like you just say the thing like it's, it's like, right, But like second, second level, third level is like you find some like all that, that was like a really creative twist or like a plot twist, you know? Yeah. Or so, like I saw one that was like, what was it like hot places to go?

00:20:40:23 - 00:21:03:03
John Azoni
If you was like, places to go, if you don't have a lot of money. And it was like the, the the got it. This wasn't a college thing. It was just like you looked it looked like you were going to be watching like a travel thing. Like, oh, these are all these travel destinations that you could get they can get to on the cheap and then he like, walks out in this mountain or whatever, and it's like places you can go if you don't have a lot of money.

00:21:03:12 - 00:21:29:21
John Azoni
And then it just cuts to LinkedIn, India, dot com indeed dot com monster I got it's just I like that's like that's like this next level of like just took it to a different level so like I don't know what what for you like what are some obviously not every video is going to be like insanely clever but like what is it that kind of makes something have a spark that makes someone want to share that video?

00:21:30:17 - 00:21:50:06
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. Oh my gosh. I love that example. Like, I keep seeing all the there's so many different reels. I keep seeing where it like starts with like somebody like pouring water on someone or like they're doing like they're like running and like doing like oval and gymnastics and then it like just transitions to, like the social media manager.

00:21:50:06 - 00:22:13:13
Brianna Blackburn
I feel like that is like, of the same of the same wavelength. Yeah. But I think yeah, I think just like you got to capture somebody's attention in the first 2 seconds. So if there's any type of way you can build humor into your video, I feel like that is amazing. Focusing on like your hook. There's so many different ways to say something.

00:22:13:13 - 00:22:38:22
Brianna Blackburn
So rather than just, like you said, saying what it is like, how can you spice it up? I think like when we're like building a short form video, I'll work with our our student interns and sometimes we'll we'll have like five different variations of the same text until we actually land on what we want it to say. Just how can we prove it even more, make it funnier.

00:22:39:06 - 00:23:13:17
Brianna Blackburn
And I think like the big thing for me that I'm really trying to do is make something fun and entertaining for anyone, even if they don't know the trend. So like if you're going to use a trend, that's amazing, but how can you make it work for like a, you know, a boomer or whoever? Like maybe they're, you know, just casually like, looking like their grandparents and they're looking at their the college Instagram that their interest, their students interested in attending.

00:23:14:01 - 00:23:39:22
Brianna Blackburn
And they see this like weird trend, like that's not going to resonate with them. So yeah, I think like with like universities, like you obviously have this like really broad audience. It's multigenerational. So how can you jump on trends but make it fun for people who don't know the trends? So yeah, like, even like the Roman Empire trend, like we.

00:23:39:22 - 00:23:49:00
John Azoni
Never understood that. All right. Can you explain that to me? Because I have never I, I haven't taken the time to to, like, Google it either. But I keep saying this and I don't get it.

00:23:49:18 - 00:24:14:09
Brianna Blackburn
Okay. So, yeah, we actually we had a little flop with the Roman Empire Trend. We posted it on LinkedIn. Like, I can't remember it was exactly, but just like something about like our campus being our alums, like Roman Empire. So the idea is, well, there was like all this like discourse on TikTok of how all guys think about the Roman Empire, everything all day.

00:24:14:09 - 00:24:22:21
Brianna Blackburn
And they're constantly like dissecting it or like, that's just like what guys always think about And as girls.

00:24:22:21 - 00:24:24:23
John Azoni
Been a while since I thought about the Roman Empire.

00:24:25:09 - 00:24:52:04
Brianna Blackburn
Okay, well, that's great. I just kind of, like, snowballed into this thing where a bunch of girlfriends were, like, asking their guy friends and dads and boyfriends, like, when's the last time you thought about the Roman Empire? Or What do you think about the Roman Empire? And then they would just go on this huge, long speech about how it's so interesting or whatever and everything that they knew about it.

00:24:52:04 - 00:25:09:12
Brianna Blackburn
And so then the girls took that, and we just started saying, these are all the things that we think about constantly. So like, it's like, you know, Taylor Swift is my Roman Empire or like, whatever it is that you love is like your Roman Empire. It's what you think about all the time.

00:25:11:05 - 00:25:12:23
John Azoni
So you guys had a flop?

00:25:12:23 - 00:25:32:16
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, we did it on we did it on LinkedIn because that's where, like, our alums are, okay? We're like, Oh, like, you know, my college days might be just you if something like that is our Roman Empire. And there was so many comments from alum who were like, Why would you want to be associated with the Roman Empire?

00:25:32:16 - 00:25:42:16
Brianna Blackburn
Like, I don't understand this at all. And I was like, okay, well, maybe we should keep this on TikTok and Instagram in the future.

00:25:42:16 - 00:25:49:19
John Azoni
But yeah, you pass the generation that like, missed missed the joke, you know?

00:25:49:23 - 00:26:18:11
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. Like they didn't get the joke. So instead of doing that, you know, making content for people who, you know, they might not know the trend, but it's kind of that you can get so many ideas from a trend and then just make it a little bit like easier to understand for anyone. Yeah. So that's kind of something that we're trying to do to be relatable to this super broad audience.

00:26:19:11 - 00:26:20:04
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, yeah.

00:26:20:14 - 00:26:47:16
John Azoni
I like the, the thing you mentioned about, like the, the hooks, like splashing water on somebody because I think those are I thought that's a that's an interesting way to like create a mid or bottom funnel piece of content on a top of funnel platform because I see a lot of businesses marketing their services that way where it's like, you know, it's like, well, it's like I see a lot of churches doing this one word like a boy.

00:26:47:16 - 00:26:50:23
Brianna Blackburn
I know so many churches do that. I've noticed that.

00:26:51:13 - 00:27:11:16
John Azoni
Like it's like a bull that like, runs into a guy and like, knocks him out of the frame. And then you see this pastor just like, jumping into like, all these chairs or whatever and just like falling over and then like getting up from the wreckage and being like, come to church on Sunday. You know, it's funny, we did so to market that webinar.

00:27:11:16 - 00:27:31:19
John Azoni
I had my kids do the splash buckwild around me, like with the coconut, like cuts, like the coconut or whatever in the water splashes out that took, that took like I think six or seven takes and changes of shirt because we didn't want to I didn't want to like get the right take, but I was like already, you know, from.

00:27:31:19 - 00:27:37:08
Brianna Blackburn
The oh my gosh, you had to change shirts every time. Yeah, that. Oh, my gosh, that's so funny.

00:27:37:13 - 00:27:59:18
John Azoni
Yeah, it turned out it turned out good, but it's it turns out it's it's it's a lot harder for a kid to throw a bucket of water accurately, like in the right spot. You know what? It's like a heavy thing, too. So. So that was fun, but so funny. But yeah, good stuff. So take us through. So you've got some examples.

00:27:59:18 - 00:28:12:06
John Azoni
Six or seven of these take us kind of out on tour through some of the biggest use content that that stands out to you. And I'd like you to tell us kind of what you learned, what stuck out to you, what was noteworthy about that piece of content?

00:28:13:04 - 00:28:41:02
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, so kind of like in the same vein of, you know, doing something like attention grabbing for your bottom funnel content to kind of be top of funnel content. I guess we did that. So our president, I get to play a pretty big role in his social presence and he loves, you know, he loves doing videos. He'll he's always open to do anything.

00:28:41:02 - 00:29:10:02
Brianna Blackburn
So we didn't do like a meme, like the coconut kind of cooking I have or whatever you guys did. But we did like the same idea. So we took like a trending sound on Instagram and he was like looking lonely on campus like a summer. Like all the students are gone and of just looking around like sad. And it was to the sound of I forget like, how about that?

00:29:10:03 - 00:29:46:11
Brianna Blackburn
The origin of this trend? But it's like a baby. Basically the the trend is like it's usually a kappa and it's of a baby like kind of looking like really smart and but also like lonely. So that's what we like. That's the sound we use and we kind of like, set him up like that. And then like three or 4 seconds into the video, it just like cuts to him, you know, giving out presidential message of sorts of just how excited he is for students to come to orientation, you know, welcoming those new students into the fucking family.

00:29:46:11 - 00:30:19:20
Brianna Blackburn
So that ended up getting close to 100 kids. It's like his top performing post of all time nice and that he doesn't I think he has like 8000 followers on Instagram. So that was like a great you know, it was great for great for him and like, great for the university. He we had a lot of students, incoming and current students and alums comment on the video as well as like random people who didn't know what you were associated with the university.

00:30:19:20 - 00:30:22:05
Brianna Blackburn
So I like think that was like such a win.

00:30:22:23 - 00:30:59:12
John Azoni
Yeah. President getting your president involved is is a good is a good tactic. And just a little tip for everyone that any time you can I have found because I'm doing a bunch of research on for a report on what's working in higher ed video and one of the themes that I noticed is like if you can get your president in sort of sort of an irreverent sort of situation, maybe not like irreverent, but like doing just normal life stuff, like sitting there waiting for students or whatever are like, there's one Central Michigan University had their president doing the gritty across the commencement stage.

00:31:01:00 - 00:31:10:10
John Azoni
And it was it was it was like awkward but in like a totally endearing way that that that video got tons of tons of views anyway.

00:31:11:03 - 00:31:39:22
Brianna Blackburn
But yeah, it's just like not taking themselves too seriously and like, I don't know, being like it's a great way to connect with students. One of the things that I keep saying I really want to do, so the idea for anyone who can get their president to do this, I keep saying like parents, like saying a word, and in their kids, like say the word and Gen Z terms, like whatever the slang is.

00:31:39:22 - 00:31:59:13
Brianna Blackburn
So like charm. And then the kid would say, like, read is like that kind of thing. And I think that would be so fun to do with a university president and like their freshman class couple people or one student from their freshman class, like teaching them how to communicate with the new with the new students or something. Yeah.

00:32:00:18 - 00:32:01:10
Brianna Blackburn
So, yeah.

00:32:01:11 - 00:32:21:10
John Azoni
My church did something like that a couple of years ago and it was like they had like to like, I forget, I don't know who they had, but like two people that wouldn't have gotten the, the, the slang on stage and it was like a game show contest. It was like, All right, what is pushing paper mean and like that or pushing pee or something like that.

00:32:21:10 - 00:32:26:02
John Azoni
And, and it was and then they had to like, chime in and like whoever, you know whoever.

00:32:26:10 - 00:32:27:05
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, yeah.

00:32:27:16 - 00:32:30:20
John Azoni
And they made a game out of it But, but yeah that's.

00:32:30:23 - 00:32:31:04
Brianna Blackburn
That's.

00:32:31:07 - 00:32:34:16
John Azoni
That's great. That's a good idea.

00:32:34:16 - 00:33:06:18
Brianna Blackburn
Another fun thing that our president does every year at the beginning and the end of the semester is he gives free Starbucks to anyone that gets there at 9 a.m. and you're in line from 9 to 10. You get free Starbucks. So it's great for like the first day of classes and like exam week. And then he just, like, chats with the students as they're in line and people it's like, become this really amazing tradition that everyone wants to go talk to.

00:33:07:01 - 00:33:41:05
Brianna Blackburn
President Rodgers. So he's really made like coffee, like coffee and coffee, just like his brand, which is awesome, great content to work with. And then of course, like that's got to be like really stressful for like the dining staff, you know, having this long line of students having to get all the Starbucks coffee. So we really like every, every semester, we really try to go big on that Starbucks moment and really thank our Starbucks dining dining employees.

00:33:41:23 - 00:34:06:21
Brianna Blackburn
On his constant and the official be just your content. So that was a TikTok that we posted that went viral. We did like the the salon is like I don't even know what it's called it's like it's like really fast and like, it's a stressful sound. Yeah, Yeah. Like, thank you. Really. Thank you so much to the big Starbucks employees.

00:34:06:21 - 00:34:19:00
Brianna Blackburn
You guys are amazing. And, you know, it was like when your president decides to, like, give the whole campus coffee on the first day class or something. And so that kind of went like mini viral for us to laugh.

00:34:19:05 - 00:34:36:23
John Azoni
Well, that's that's another that's a good example of that broader emotional appeal, because it's because it takes it from something that exists only on BGC campus that anyone else wouldn't really. It's like a big deal. The I don't go to BSU. I don't care that the president's giving out free coffee, but now it's about like. But now it's about service workers being appreciated.

00:34:36:23 - 00:34:37:17
Brianna Blackburn
Yes.

00:34:37:17 - 00:34:49:20
John Azoni
You know, now, now I can get on board with that and go, Oh, that's really cool. That that Bgsu is doing this event and giving out free coffee. And what a great way to meet the president. And also, you know, now all of a sudden I care about it.

00:34:50:17 - 00:35:10:18
Brianna Blackburn
Right? Yeah. Because it's like a cool thing that his office is giving students this opportunity. Get free coffee. But it's also like, you know, that's got to be stressful. If anyone has ever worked in restaurants or fast food like I have, that's got to be stressful. So yeah, I just playing. Yeah, that.

00:35:11:02 - 00:35:33:07
John Azoni
I couldn't do it. I was a dishwasher at a restaurant once and it was the most stressful job. Like it was like the worst paying job and you had the most stress. And like, the, the, the line cooks are like yelling for pans. And I've got like, buckets of just like, just those bass buckets or whatever, like, full of dishes to get through before I get I'm like, hurry up and get into the pans.

00:35:33:07 - 00:35:42:09
John Azoni
And I'm like, I'm like there till like one in the morning. Everyone else is gone and I'm like, still doing dishes and like, sweeping the floors and stuff like that. Like that kind of work is real stressful.

00:35:42:17 - 00:35:46:05
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, I feel it's character for sure.

00:35:46:05 - 00:35:49:00
John Azoni
Yeah. Cool. What's next on your list?

00:35:50:19 - 00:36:20:08
Brianna Blackburn
Okay, so one of the things that we like to do, we try to do it almost every week is those little tiny mini make videos, interviews. So we call those our talent talks. What our one of our little brand lingo is like talons out for falcons so we call them pound hawks and that's where we go across campus and interview students.

00:36:20:08 - 00:36:44:21
Brianna Blackburn
So we did sometimes we'll do things like for Pride, like, Oh, what do you think makes me just the number one university for student experience? Or why did you choose Benji? Or what's been your favorite for the moment? But one of my favorite ones we did was like more that like debatable approach. And we did like the you know what have you.

00:36:44:21 - 00:37:08:19
Brianna Blackburn
Listen, I think it was like, have you listened to the new Taylor Swift album? And it was when Midnight came out. So this was like two years ago. And that kind of went that went really well for us, went viral. And it was like we asked different questions each time, like, do like Taylor Swift. What's your favorite Taylor Swift song rather than just like something related to G?

00:37:08:19 - 00:37:28:19
Brianna Blackburn
But it was like such a big moment on campus for, you know, all the Swifties. So we really like, Oh yeah, I'm playing into that. Or if somebody had like their headphones, then we would ask them like, Are you listening to the new Taylor Swift album? What's your favorite song stuff like that. And then, of course, like there were people who were like, No, I hate Taylor Swift.

00:37:29:13 - 00:37:54:13
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. So just, you know, playing, playing along with like a pop culture moment, like the timeliness of that. So that was really fun. And we got the way our talent talks started was we would get we didn't have like a huge intern team, so we would get student organizations involved, like our music industry club helped us out with that video.

00:37:56:00 - 00:38:23:12
Brianna Blackburn
And you know, like our Falcon Media is our student organization for journalism students who are interested in like broadcast journalism. So like kind of just like getting people on campus involved and making it like a fun, a fun like just moment for them, even if they're, you know, not an intern, but getting more faces on the page and using them as like, they're our host.

00:38:25:09 - 00:38:25:14
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah.

00:38:25:16 - 00:38:34:16
John Azoni
So I noticed that you had you had like some different people hold the mic and stuff like that. I like the that the tiny Mike thing too.

00:38:36:05 - 00:38:48:05
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. And like, it's easy to edit so, you know, you don't have to include all the answers and you can just include like the most engaging answers. Yeah. So that's super fun.

00:38:48:11 - 00:38:49:18
John Azoni
Are you, are you a swifty?

00:38:50:06 - 00:38:54:11
Brianna Blackburn
Personally, I'm a huge swifty. Are you Swifty, John.

00:38:54:22 - 00:39:22:04
John Azoni
I. I wouldn't say I'm a swifty. I'm a I'm a swifty sort of by proxy because my wife and I have two daughters. They're nine. And girls. Almost. Almost seven. Yeah. And a girl dog, too. So I'm. I'm. I'm the only male in the house. So we listen to a lot of Taylor Swift, so I know all the words to most of the songs I've seen the other.

00:39:22:04 - 00:39:23:01
Brianna Blackburn
Not by choice.

00:39:23:17 - 00:39:45:05
John Azoni
Yeah, you know what? I Because. Because, you know, for people listening, we had to reschedule this this, this podcast from last week because I got, like, really sick and all I could think about was like, I was like, I think I'll be all right to do this, to do this podcast with, with, with Brianna. And but then I was like, and I was like, if I was Taylor Swift, like, there's no excuses.

00:39:45:05 - 00:40:02:13
John Azoni
Like, you you get in in a bedazzled leotard and you get out there for three, three and a half hours, you know, and you dance around and you do. I'm like, how does she I'm like, I can't even I like I had some other meetings, too. I'm like, I don't even want to go to this meeting. I like I can't even, like, think straight.

00:40:03:12 - 00:40:03:22
John Azoni
I'm like.

00:40:03:22 - 00:40:33:23
Brianna Blackburn
She's literally amazing. She's like, running like a marathon every day for 3 hours while singing. It's. It's insane. It's crazy. Yeah, I, I love looking at, like, Taylor Swift's marketing and brands reality. It's so interesting. I feel like there's a lot of like, I don't know, like, just like the the anticipation of, like, her tickets and like, the exclusivity of, like, getting to a concert.

00:40:34:09 - 00:40:42:01
Brianna Blackburn
I tried to, like, think about that with, like, any, like, events we have on campus or I don't know, there's just so much you can do with Taylor Swift.

00:40:42:01 - 00:41:13:00
John Azoni
So yeah, so there's a book that I like that you might like. It's called Hook Point by Brendan Kane, and he was he worked with Taylor, like in her early days of, like really blowing up to something like designing the website in a way that would really hook people and blah, blah, blah. I can't remember. It's been a while since I read it, but there's like a whole Taylor Swift case study in there about, like how he helped her kind of like explode a little bit.

00:41:13:00 - 00:41:22:04
John Azoni
And the whole book is about like, how do you hook an audience? You know, in the first 3 seconds or whatever. But anyway, that's a free, free book foundation.

00:41:22:08 - 00:41:27:15
Brianna Blackburn
I'm adding that to my Goodreads, like immediately after this.

00:41:27:15 - 00:41:29:16
John Azoni
All right, cool. What else do you got for us?

00:41:31:14 - 00:41:58:14
Brianna Blackburn
Another one of my favorite videos we did was really honoring our staff. I feel like we it's very easy to create content for around, like faculty success. Like what what the faculty are doing for students or their research. But we don't always do this, do as much for our staff. So we had our photographer, who's been at B Zoo for like 25 years.

00:41:58:14 - 00:42:25:23
Brianna Blackburn
His name is credible. He's absolutely amazing. He's like legend on campus and he got to give his son his diploma when he graduate with his master's. It was like a year ago or summer commencement. And so that was like the first and only commencement. He did not work. So he's you know, every every spring we have like three or four commencement ceremonies and then we have one in the summer, two in the fall.

00:42:26:06 - 00:42:52:01
Brianna Blackburn
So like, you add that up over 25 years, that's a lot of commencement ceremonies. Yeah. And he's been and covered and captured the essence of every single one for so long. And so it was just like a really cool moment to kind of honor him. And, you know, of course, like any parent, giving their student a diploma is like going to be like a cute social media moment anyway.

00:42:52:01 - 00:42:59:18
Brianna Blackburn
So yeah, yeah. And we did it with like the song Rivers and Roads, and it was just it was perfect. That's awesome.

00:43:00:15 - 00:43:05:13
John Azoni
All right. So we got Minecraft, too. And then you did the of course trend.

00:43:05:21 - 00:43:32:05
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, pretty recently we just did a Instagram reel and Tik Tok that went pretty viral building Minecraft, our building our college campus on Minecraft. And so instead of like just a little tweak, instead of saying like building bowling greens and university on Minecraft, we did like building our college campus on Minecraft to kind of give it that broader appeal.

00:43:32:15 - 00:43:53:12
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, and of course, like anyone who sees like the U. Logo and our profile picture and like kind of like tweaking our caption and like we tagged Minecraft and we're going to try to make that a series because it was just like the very beginning. And our student intern Tommy Hamlin, created that and we did such a good job.

00:43:53:14 - 00:44:08:05
Brianna Blackburn
So that took a probably like 8 hours to create. So it was worth it though, because it got so many views. It hit a million views on Instagram last week. So we're like, so proud of him for that. Cool.

00:44:08:22 - 00:44:17:12
John Azoni
You guys had that and then you got like sort of trolled like you told me in our pre-interview about by Ohio State about it.

00:44:18:06 - 00:44:46:23
Brianna Blackburn
Yes. So so it was such funny timing. We posted the video like early afternoon and then 2 hours later, I notice OSU posted the same concept. So and of course, like our video is just like very Ami's, like the very beginning of building the campus and they did their version that was like poorly done. It was created by an alum in 2018.

00:44:46:23 - 00:45:09:01
Brianna Blackburn
So they had this, you know, ready to go. And I was just like, Oh man, look at them go, Good for you. But it was yeah, it was kind of funny how we had posted the same thing to OSU. I love their content, they're so good. But I was like, Why did you have to post that? The same day we did, right?

00:45:09:04 - 00:45:11:13
Brianna Blackburn
Like literally like 2 hours after we did.

00:45:11:13 - 00:45:42:12
John Azoni
But I don't really have any skin in the game. But here in Michigan, we're not big OSU fans, so especially I'm a we're, we're a go blue U of M family so it's like the rivalry is is extra intense but I, I don't care but like some people some people are like I have some friends who's like their kids call the Buckeyes they call them the Buckeyes.

00:45:42:12 - 00:46:07:16
Brianna Blackburn
So it's just like a total like David and Goliath moment is how I felt, you know, a mid-sized university and they're huge. So it was just funny. But we definitely had some people commenting like, Oh, I just thought we just needed this. That's interesting. Yeah. So that was I love to see the Falcons, like kind of, you know, rooting for us in the comments was nice.

00:46:07:23 - 00:46:36:10
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. This and then yeah the last the last trend I wanted to talk about a little bit was that the where? Of course. So we touched on it a little bit but we, we saw that trend and we, you know, I immediately I feel like a lot of universities did it to be like, oh, we're bobcats or Oh, we're the Buckeyes.

00:46:36:10 - 00:47:00:02
Brianna Blackburn
Of course we're going to X, Y, Z and a lot of other brands too. Like, there's so many things you can do with that trend. It's it's a really it's really fun. But we like the first time we did it, we took a really broad appeal approach. So trying to connect with anyone who is related to the college experience.

00:47:00:02 - 00:47:22:04
Brianna Blackburn
And so we did like we're college students, of course, we're going to Starbucks three times a day or things like that. And we had a lot of fun with it. Our students, we have like three or four students, helped create that and it performed really well. It was one of our top performing videos of the year. So that's like that top of funnel content.

00:47:22:04 - 00:47:48:19
Brianna Blackburn
And then our the next time we did it, we did were Falcon Flames. Of course, we're going to comment on how much campus has changed every time we visit or of course we considered having our wedding chapel, which is like our on campus like chapel. So there's like really neat things to people who have gone to B, g and that also performed really, really well.

00:47:48:19 - 00:48:14:21
Brianna Blackburn
I think that got like 5060 K views, which is pretty good for pretty good for an organic reach for us. But yeah, I think like there's a place for both of those things and we've done it with like, you know, people who are in student teaching. So that's kind of like heading on a little bit of both. Like the broad appeal, anyone who is a teacher or is studying to be a teacher.

00:48:15:19 - 00:48:49:20
Brianna Blackburn
But then also we added a a few things that are specific to be G in that video. And so I feel like that was like one where we like started the video with like broad appeal. And then as it went on, we started sprinkling in more things you need to do that differentiate it. So I think just like kind of playing around with that, that idea of like top of funnel content has been like so much, it's made a huge impact on our reach.

00:48:50:10 - 00:48:50:17
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah.

00:48:51:17 - 00:49:11:21
John Azoni
So are you guys, are you guys on TikTok and Instagram like equally, or do you kind of focus on or in shorts too? I guess we'll throw in there. Are you. Yeah. Do you have one that you're that's kind of like the more laser focus for you or are you kind of just like do you like repurpose across the board kind of equally?

00:49:13:05 - 00:49:40:19
Brianna Blackburn
So we create content specific for TikTok and specific for Instagram. We really haven't gotten to the point where we're like jumping on YouTube shorts trends yet, but that's like a goal for this year is to like either like hire an intern or like kind of get to that capacity where we're creating content for the shorts platform specifically, but we have content that we overlap.

00:49:40:19 - 00:50:11:13
Brianna Blackburn
So like anything we post on Reels and TikTok, we'll post it on shorts, but then we'll also have things like for TikTok and Instagram, those are like our main focuses. We'll create something just for TikTok or just for Instagram and we won't post it on the other platform or we'll take the video and repurpose it for, you know, if it's an Instagram reels trend, we'll post it on TikTok with a TikTok trend.

00:50:11:13 - 00:50:17:03
Brianna Blackburn
So it's like the same concept, but totally like optimized for TikTok, if that makes sense.

00:50:17:10 - 00:50:26:21
John Azoni
Okay, what would you say is like, what's the difference? Like what? How do you think about optimizing differently for both platforms?

00:50:27:13 - 00:50:57:15
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, so we try our best to, you know, use the Instagram fonts or the TikTok fonts versus, you know, I don't even know like using like a Kappa or a Canva. Fine. Yeah, Yeah. Or using like Instagram fonts on TikTok and vice versa. We try to like download the video before, before we.

00:50:57:15 - 00:50:59:18
John Azoni
Before you put it screen. Yeah. Any text. Yeah.

00:51:00:13 - 00:51:28:22
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. Because I like those kind of things. Like really do help with like the algorithm. Like, I definitely think the algorithm, once the platforms want you to edit some part of your video in the platform so it doesn't have to be the whole thing, but like this is like super niche. But for some reason, if we post anything on our TikTok page that's under 6 seconds, it gets like 200 views.

00:51:29:10 - 00:51:49:12
Brianna Blackburn
Like, that's it, that's like the cap. So we know that on like Instagram or else you can get away with like posting like a three second video and it just loops and loops and you can get tons of views that way. But for some reason on Tik Tok, I don't do this on my personal account. I only see it on the university account.

00:51:50:04 - 00:52:20:06
Brianna Blackburn
If we post something that's under 6 seconds, it gets no reach at all. So we always try to make our videos like, you know, eight or 9 seconds at least, and then we so we try to mix in like, you know, the shorter videos with like one one and a half minute videos like we'll do Dana like logs many minutes or not even just day in the life, but like a vlog style video that's like has a hook.

00:52:20:06 - 00:52:53:14
Brianna Blackburn
It's interesting whether it's like a tour of campus or a video about like an academic program having a good mix of like super short form videos and like, it's so short form, there's like a little bit longer. Yeah. So that you're like giving the algorithm everything that it wants to see, and you're seeing that more and more like Instagram is starting to like push more like voice overs, blogs like they want you to like be talking to the camera.

00:52:53:16 - 00:53:01:22
Brianna Blackburn
And I feel like it used to only be like two, three, four or five second videos and that's it. But they're starting to push those blogs.

00:53:01:22 - 00:53:25:18
John Azoni
So I find the algorithms are very different between TikTok and Instagram, and I haven't really cracked the code yet, but I've just I've just been having fun. Just like a fun experiment for me has been marketing this podcast through TikTok and Instagram. So yeah, at higher ed storytelling on TikTok. And then I have I think it's at Higher Ed Storytelling University on, which is the full name of the podcast on Instagram.

00:53:26:00 - 00:53:49:08
John Azoni
And I notice like something that'll take off on TikTok will just completely tank on Instagram and like and I don't know what the difference is. And like, even even just like I'm like doing the texts natively within the platform, like you mentioned. So like I did one that was like, you know, like my, my audience is like higher ed leadership.

00:53:49:11 - 00:54:21:04
John Azoni
You know that, right? You know, marketing leaders, market leaders. So I did one that was like a scene from Dumb and Dumber and know he was like pulling up Jim Carrey like pulling up. And the caption said like you're a selective college that's like struggling with enrollment numbers or something like that. And then Jim Carrey's like, We don't normally pick up hitchhikers, but sadly, and that did really well, like on TikTok, I mean really well by myself.

00:54:21:04 - 00:54:40:03
John Azoni
I have like we have like 70 followers. I'm, you know, I'm I'm on Tik tok. I don't really pay much attention to it, but like, sometimes I'll experiment with it, but it's a pretty good It got it Did it did good. And then I posted the same thing over and tweaked it a bit for Instagram. I think it got like 16 views or something.

00:54:40:05 - 00:54:52:17
John Azoni
I mean, it's like the difference is like astronomical. And there's something, something in that algorithm that it doesn't like, you know, from one platform to the other. And I haven't quite figured it out yet, but yeah.

00:54:53:11 - 00:55:13:05
Brianna Blackburn
I think like, well, I mean, you probably already know this, but like one thing I always think about is like I feel like Instagram or TikTok is usually like a week ahead of the trends for like a week or two weeks before it hits Instagram reels. And then it's like another two weeks before it has like YouTube shorts.

00:55:13:18 - 00:55:47:03
Brianna Blackburn
So we'll like try to like if we have something that pops off on TikTok, we won't always post it like right away on Instagram and vice versa. So like timing and like also like using like the trending sounds like on TikTok, we try to do things that are like, I see like a ton of people have used the same sound in a short amount of time, or it's like, how does everybody is doing it?

00:55:47:03 - 00:56:19:12
Brianna Blackburn
And then like, you know, your audience wants to see your your take on it. And then of course, like Instagram, like those, they're there. So they make it so easy to pick the trending sounds. But I do think like using trending sounds that have under like five K uses does like help a lot. Yeah. So what we did with the Minecraft video, like we didn't use a minecraft sound, we use like some like Trending USA Vibe sound it.

00:56:19:14 - 00:56:20:03
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah. Great.

00:56:21:02 - 00:56:48:03
John Azoni
So I'm going to jump into some like rapid fire questions here. But but on that note, how does BGC you go about like navigating copyright issues with with trending songs and stuff like that? Because I know Tik Tok is like kind of its own thing, Like they've got their own like library and stuff like that. But I know I've had this question come up a few times from from people that I've talked to.

00:56:48:03 - 00:57:18:00
John Azoni
It's like as a as a organization with a commercial appeal or whatever, like you have a commercial bias or whatever, like you're trying to get people to pay money to enroll at your school and write, you know, are you allowed to use a song that's like some sound that's from a popular movie or are, you know, a song that's that's, you know, a popular like a Beyonce song or something like that?

00:57:18:00 - 00:57:22:15
John Azoni
You know, like, well, how do you guys navigate those those issues for sure?

00:57:23:15 - 00:57:46:06
Brianna Blackburn
So we we do our best to follow the rules that the platform set. But like, we're not afraid to use a song that was uploaded. A user that has like a mix of like is like a remix song that will use those a lot. And that's what I see a lot of other brands and universities doing as well.

00:57:46:18 - 00:58:10:06
Brianna Blackburn
But you can't on a like a business page, you can't just use like let's say like Sabrina Carpenter's espresso. You can't just use like espresso. You have to use like a sped up version or a remix version, which is totally fine because those are the those are the sounds that are usually trending anyways. So it hasn't been too much of an issue for us.

00:58:10:06 - 00:58:42:16
Brianna Blackburn
But let's say we're posting something on, you know, Twitter. What we'll do is we're like taking like a TikTok video to Twitter. We will either download the video with no like no like TikTok watermark and we'll change the sound to be like copyright free or we've played around with like posting the video with a TikTok watermark. So you can tell like, Oh, this is from TikTok.

00:58:42:16 - 00:58:54:08
Brianna Blackburn
We're not like ripping up a sound, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So those are just two different ways that we've done it and we haven't run into any issues yet, so fingers crossed it stays that way.

00:58:54:08 - 00:58:54:13
John Azoni
Yeah.

00:58:54:13 - 00:58:56:07
Brianna Blackburn
We are afraid of getting like shadow banned.

00:58:57:10 - 00:59:18:21
John Azoni
Yeah, it's, you know, I saw some video that I don't know who it was like Sony or something. Sued some creator over using some song for commercial purposes. But honestly, it just seems like everyone's just using stuff and it's just part of the culture. It's just part of the culture. It's like just kind of how we communicate now.

00:59:18:21 - 00:59:28:03
John Azoni
It's it's so it's tough. It's definitely like very great copyright stuff. You know, even when you get into long form stuff, you know, with like using.

00:59:28:21 - 00:59:29:08
Brianna Blackburn
Rape.

00:59:29:23 - 00:59:40:23
John Azoni
Archive footage from the news or whatever or certain music, it's, it's a it's a, it's a gray area. So yeah. So it's tough.

00:59:40:23 - 01:00:00:05
Brianna Blackburn
To know when it comes to like the long form videos. We're pretty like with our, like visual team, like we're pretty like, you know, copyright free music only. And there's great tools out there like get good music, but it does make such a big difference if you can link it to a trending sound, even if it is long form.

01:00:00:05 - 01:00:01:14
Brianna Blackburn
So we've played around with that too.

01:00:02:03 - 01:00:28:10
John Azoni
Yeah. So what's one question that came up from our people that are attending our webinar a bunch times was what's the ratio of posting like fun and trendy stuff versus more informational stuff or like come to this event or, you know, apply now or whatever? Like, how do you guys think about that? Or is it just like 100% fun, trendy stuff on short form platforms for you guys?

01:00:29:21 - 01:01:04:00
Brianna Blackburn
So we try to make everything fun and trendy, even if it is informational. So I really try not to look at it as like two separate things. I'm like, How can we optimize the informational content to be fun and trendy so that you're converting like people to come to your event or, you know, get involved or whatever it is, like apply, sign up for whatever whatever your court action is and you're still you're entertaining them.

01:01:05:02 - 01:01:41:16
Brianna Blackburn
I think it's hard to do both, but we do try and every piece of our content, even like research, like how can you like we're really big. One of the research areas that is really great is like our water quality research. So that's something that we have like amazing scientists who are helping to improve water quality, studying like the algal blooms in Lake Erie and Victoria and like even just like small little, you know, caption tweaks.

01:01:41:16 - 01:01:52:15
Brianna Blackburn
I don't know. There's like there's always a way that you can, you can buy something up to make it a little bit more fun, even if it's like a very serious topic. Yeah, Yeah. So we try to take our fun very seriously.

01:01:54:02 - 01:02:10:03
John Azoni
Yeah. There's always an opportunity to just make make it about something else. You know that while you're serving the information, you know, but like, make it connected to some sort of more fun or deeper emotion or something like that, for sure.

01:02:10:17 - 01:02:35:15
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, but it is hard. So if I had to say like an exact ratio, I would probably say like, I don't know, like 5050. I mean, you have to you have to do that. You can't just do fun, trendy content for the sake of fun, trendy content. You have to have all that information, all pieces, like whatever your strategic goals are, university like that you have to have a huge presence of on your social.

01:02:37:00 - 01:02:42:05
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, because that's like the most powerful platform to achieve those results most of the time.

01:02:43:07 - 01:03:10:05
John Azoni
So last question for you is, you know, a lot of our audience manages people doing this work. And so as someone who is, you know, you're a member of a team, but you have a lot of autonomy, but I presume you have you know, it's you have to run some things by some people above you. Yeah. What what do you feel like you what makes you thrive?

01:03:10:05 - 01:03:21:05
John Azoni
Like, how are you set up to to thrive in your environments? What do you need from leadership? Like what? What would you like? Talk to the people that are managing people like you.

01:03:21:20 - 01:03:22:05
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah.

01:03:22:15 - 01:03:27:21
John Azoni
And talk about like what? What makes this successful from that perspective?

01:03:27:21 - 01:04:00:15
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, that's like such a good question. I think like my boss, Amy, she's the EVP of our office, so she's like managing a lot of different teams. So she's like, you know, she's spread then like, she has to think about our, like our overall enrollment strategy and how social media affects that. And I think like, the biggest thing that was like set me up for success with her is just like having, like, you know, conversations about like what our office districts in the university's like strategic goals.

01:04:00:15 - 01:04:30:00
Brianna Blackburn
Like everything has to be tied back to the strategic plan that we do. So like the university strategic plan and like she's really, really good at communicating like our presidents and the board's like priorities, like it all comes from the top down and I even like, go through that every couple of weeks with like our students like. So I think just like having that really clear communication, How is success going to be measured?

01:04:30:00 - 01:04:56:14
Brianna Blackburn
Like what are what are her expectations? And but the biggest thing is like she like really trusts me to set a lot of those benchmarks. And I think like just like having somebody like showing your team that you trust them is like the best feeling in the world. Like it gives you like creative freedom and like empowerment to try new things and take risks mindfully.

01:04:56:14 - 01:05:29:09
Brianna Blackburn
Of course, like, but I think like also just like having a really close connection with her, like what are the what are the risks? You know, what is like the, the hot topic things that are happening maybe across campus that, you know, the that are happening among the faculty like that the student interns aren't going to like tell me about but like she she's communicating like, oh, here's like the state legislator like, here's the here's what's going on with like state legislators and faculty.

01:05:29:09 - 01:06:19:03
Brianna Blackburn
And I'm communicating with her. Okay, here's the vibe with the students. So like having that, like, super open communication helps her do her job better and the social media team do our job better. And so I think, yeah, just like open communication trust, like have confidence and your social media team that they, you know, they know what they're doing and they're it's you know it's their jobs are like their their jobs can be fun but they're not like you, you know everything that they're doing is like strategic even if it seems like silly or like fun, like a fun piece of content like we did like we did a couple of weeks before the whole

01:06:19:03 - 01:06:43:03
Brianna Blackburn
presidential thing. But we did like the bright summer trend. And it did so well. It's not just like, you know, silly, stupid posts like there's like strategy that goes behind it. And even if she doesn't, you know, get the trend or understand, like she's not like, why would you post that she's? Never like questioning me and that kind of way.

01:06:43:04 - 01:06:55:09
Brianna Blackburn
She's always just like, I want to learn more like and I think like that trust and confidence like, goes such a long way and just like, Yeah, yeah, open communication.

01:06:55:15 - 01:07:27:18
John Azoni
So yeah, you sort of have, I mean, with managing a, you know, social media, you have to have it be pretty autonomous because I mean, I've been in jobs before where like my first job out of college, I was, I was doing some content stuff, but like more just because I wanted to not, not because anyone expected me to, but like, there were so many approvals and I was just like, yeah, I was like the the inspirations gone By the time you read this blog post two weeks later, you know.

01:07:28:23 - 01:08:07:00
Brianna Blackburn
That seems to be like such a huge theme in Higher Ed is like the approvals, and I think that's like one of the biggest reasons that we've been able to have. Like the success and growth that we have at BGI is because like our our readership kind of gets out of our way and they like trust us to do the job because we, we, you know, and if ever there is anything that we're like, not sure about this, or maybe they'll be upfront and say, hey, like we need to we need to get approval on this post before we rent it by legal or we need to run it by X, Y, Z.

01:08:07:10 - 01:08:32:07
Brianna Blackburn
So there's definitely like projects like that where we have to like have things. Yeah, with oversight. But you know, the majority of the time we're pretty much, you know, posting things out approval and that comes with like sometimes like a risk like, but we also like the other thing, like I always try to loop in our campus partners.

01:08:32:07 - 01:08:53:20
Brianna Blackburn
So like, I'm not perfect of this by any means, but as I've been in this role longer, I feel I've found that I'll have more success if I if I'm going to post something niche about life design or niche about our biology program, I should probably send it to you like the director of the biology program first so that they can like fact check everything.

01:08:54:05 - 01:09:19:23
Brianna Blackburn
Not everything else on the website has been updated in the recent years. So that's something I learned early on is to just try to get to know your campus partners and let them feel like they're part of and ask for ideas from them too. Like if there's anything, you know, any differentiators or things you want to highlight, always feel free to send us ideas.

01:09:19:23 - 01:09:21:16
Brianna Blackburn
And I think that's really helped as well.

01:09:22:22 - 01:09:33:04
John Azoni
Cool. Well, this has been awesome. It's been super great chatting with you where can people connect with you at if they have questions or just want to say, Hey.

01:09:34:03 - 01:09:48:07
Brianna Blackburn
Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. Brianna Blackburn Then I am on Instagram and TikTok. Brianna L Blackburn So you can find me there and then follow up. She'll be just you on everything.

01:09:48:07 - 01:10:25:11
John Azoni
That's great. So in that webinar, people are asking like one of the questions was how do you keep up on trends without struggling for hours and hours? And I was like, Well, you could just follow some like accounts of colleges that are keeping up on trends that I yeah, I'd namedrop to you guys I was like just follow, you know you know bgsu or and you know CMU and some of these other ones because it is I mean yeah that's a hack, that's a shortcut you know just let let Brianna the trends and just get out pick up on it so Well cool Yeah Thanks so much for being here.

01:10:25:11 - 01:10:26:10
John Azoni
It's really great talking to you.

01:10:27:02 - 01:10:35:17
Brianna Blackburn
It was so good talking to you. Thank you so much. I always love following your podcast and seeing everything you're doing. So thank you again for the opportunity.

01:10:36:07 - 01:10:36:16
John Azoni
Awesome.