Amidst our growing appetite for storytelling, I’d argue that higher education and the arts are the two industries best positioned to embrace the trend. However, a potential weakness is the growing need to adapt and catch up to the digital age in order to embrace digital storytelling – a place many of our clients find themselves.
This topic was forefront at the July eduWeb Digital Summit, where Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, opened with a keynote address on “Digital Thinking—What @Sree Learned at the Met about the Future of Education.” Sree is known as one of the pioneers in using social media for storytelling and engagement, having spent 20 years at Columbia University as a member of the faculty of the Columbia Journalism School and a year as the University’s first Chief Digital Officer before joining the Met. Sree shared some of his insight from to keep in mind as higher ed continues ramping up to the digital age:
- Think mobile first. More and more users use their mobile devices as their primary platform to consume content and access information, and we need to be keenly aware of how our communications are received in this changing landscape. To make sure your institution is ready, follow Sree’s ABCs of the digital, mobile world; “Always be charging, always be connecting, and always be collecting.”
- Increase the number of people who are influential. Many university presidents and chancellors have established a voice on social media, but there is an opportunity for other constituents to play an important role. We ALL could use our faculty, staff, alumni, and students in better ways. Start thinking about ways to showcase and amplify these influencers on your digital platforms.
- Think of your operation as a media operation. Sree believes, “There is nothing worth doing if you don’t tell people about it.” Within higher ed, we’ve seen this shift begin to take place as many editorial teams are expanding their traditional roles to incorporate the content and digital capabilities critical for digital storytelling. As a small news team, their role is to not only distribute the right content, but also think about how, when, and to whom it is distributed.
- Do new things and try new trends. Sree shared a great example from Harvard University. Harvard capitalized on the GIF trend by creating a GIPHY channel featuring GIFs from across the campus, making it easy for anyone to to embed the GIFs across communication.
- Deliver content how your customers want to receive it. While many of the Met visitors enjoyed the content of the museum’s audio guide, the delivery format left a lot to be desired. Under Sree’s leadership, the Met implemented a mobile audio guide for visitors that enables them to get all the same information as before, but now from the convenience of their phone. This is a great example of design thinking that puts the user experience first – something that higher ed needs to keep top of mind as institutions continue to embrace and prioritize digital.
