Student Generated Content: Part Five

This is the fifth post in a series on integrating student-generated content into communications, particularly in social platforms. Read the entire series here.

Below are two great examples of blogs and other presences that highlight student generated content.

Example One: Beyond the Elms from my alma mater, Scripps College

Beyond the Elms is written by current students as they begin to explore their options for life after college: graduate school, entering the workforce and entrepreneurship. Students also discuss their searches for summer internships, interviewing tips and other career-related endeavors. Valinda Lee, Assistant Director of Career Planning & Resources and manager of the student bloggers, shared a great success story with me via email:

“One of my writers is interested in going into literary criticism. In one of her posts she mentioned the names of a few critics who she admired. One of them must have had a Google alert set on his name and found the blog entry. He left a comment offering help to the student, and they connected for a great informational interview. He happens to have connections to her midwest hometown and put her in contact with an editor of a paper there.”

Thank you Valinda!

Example Two: Videos from Students on Ice

Looking for even more examples? Check out this shared Google spreadsheet created by Kyle Judah (@KyleJudah) listing student blogs from institutions around the world.

I know there are many, many more examples out there. Please share yours in the comments! I hope this series of posts has inspired you to think about how your organization can use student generated content to reach your many audiences.

Student Generated Content: Part Four

This is the fourth post in a series on integrating student-generated content into communications, particularly in social platforms. Read the entire series here.

Managing student staffers can be tricky. Here are some things to remember:

Put Someone in Charge

A single member of the professional staff should be responsible for student workers. Having this point person helps eliminate confusion on where to go for guidance and assistance, both for student workers AND staff members. Brainstorming, determining the content calendar, and selecting topics can be highly collaborative activity, but one person should have the final say on editing decisions and other issues.

Be as Clear as Possible

Describe what you have in mind when giving directions to your students. Be specific. Don’t tell your students to “go take some pictures.” You won’t be happy with the result. Instead, say something like, “take photos of people, make sure you can see their faces. Make your photos tell a story.” This way, you won’t end up with random photos of the sky, the ground, or other “interesting” shots you probably won’t be able to use.

Provide Feedback and Evaluation

Meet with your students on a monthly basis to share the results of their posts. Show them the number of hits, comments, and any other feedback. Tell them how they’re doing on meeting deadlines, working with the team, etc. Make sure they understand the impact of their work on your larger audiences – this will motivate your students and make them feel like part of the team.

“Pizza is not Pay”

That’s my mantra. Student content generators are valuable members of your team. Don’t try to buy them off with pizza and soda. Compensate them with a monthly stipend, pay them on a post-by-post basis, or have them work for an hourly wage. Thank your students for their hard work with more than money: offer to serve as a professional reference, and publicly thank them whenever possible.

In an upcoming post: some great examples of student generated content.

Student Generated Content: Part Three

This is the third post in a series on integrating student-generated content into communications, particularly in social platforms.

So you’ve identified your student content creators…now what?

It’s time to give your team the tools and the guidance and  they need to work efficiently. Here are a few things to remember:

Provide Tools and Technology

You wouldn’t expect a professional staffer to provide their own computers and office supplies to get the job done; treat student workers the same way. Give them access to office cameras, software, hardware, and anything else they may need to create and edit content.

Provide Admin Logins and Access

Trust students with the keys to the castle, but do so with caution. If possible, give students medium-level access to your social media and administrative tools. For example, some blogging platforms will allow you to provide the ability to upload content without the permissions to make it “live” to the public. This cuts down on overhead for you, and helps students learn the tools.

Lighten Your Workload

Create a workflow that is as simple as possible, clearly defining who does what, when. The key is to cut down on re-posting, copy/pasting, and reformatting. The more work you can have the student take care of on the front end, the better. Give them their own login (as described above) and you’ll save time. Instead of taking a blog post sent to you via email, pasting it into your blogging software, re-doing the formatting and adding tags, you can just review and approve the post.

Coming up in future posts: managing students, choosing appropriate tasks and responsibilities, and compensation.