Attracting Television to Campus

Presenters
Melanie Jackson, NBC Today Show
Ellen Schweiger,  C-SPAN

Melanie talked about what makes a good story for television.

Showed a piece done by Jenna Bush Hager who she suggested everyone follow @JennaBushHager.
Jenna does education stories and stories that affect young people. Jenna likes profiles.

Melanie looks for trends, tragedies and triumphs.

One theme that came up several time from reporters during the conference was owning your bad stories and showing how good came from them.

"Stories start with someone who can tell that story," she said. Don't pitch someone who can't tell their story.

Tell about research from a quirky angle.

Best way to pitch: Keep it short. Send emails after show goes off the air...send links to photos and video. If they bite, make sure you help NBC get the story done by providing assistance with logistics, facilities, crews and be willing to do this at off times.

Tips from Melanie included:
• Know your faculty and students
• Pitch experts who can talk on camera, what does the expert look like, can they tell their story
• Know who is willing to talk when it's inconvenient, who is willing to go all out
• Familiarize yourself with on-air talent and producers
• Local affiliates are a good place to start...they will put the story on the news channel
• Don't send pitches too early (heard this from a number of reporters)

Ellen emphasized C-SPAN covers public affairs and not news....they are looking at public policy

• C-SPAN is interested in event coverage related to public policy, ie., a Supreme Court Justice coming to school..."Clarence Thomas is always visiting schools and we find out the day after, " she said. Yes indeed!

Symposium or lecture that national audience would be interested in? The cover it "gavel to gavel" and it will air 5 to 6 times during congressional recessions (month of August for example)


EMAIL: events@c-span.org (2 weeks notice needed) explain who the people are...C-Span is looking for up and coming speakers "biggest expert on x teaches at my school"

C-SPAN covers dozens of commencements each year.

Social Media Bootcamp

Presenters
Tom Evelyn, St Lawrence College
Fritz McDonald, Mount Mercy University

A lot of time in this session was spent with attendee discussion on use of video.

Tufts is offing applicants the opportunity to write an essay OR submit a video as part of their applications.

Some parents in audience say their teens are using YouTube to learn more about what it's like at a school because they cannot visit all their choices.

Strategy should drive choices with video

Students go to university website for facts. They don't trust social media to get the facts right. Go to social media for flavor. What kind of students go to this school. Consider having two social media YouTube channels labeled to distinguish between media office video and student video

Better to work one social media channel well than six poorly.

Focus on approach!

Yes, the word of the day is "focus."

Too many social media channels can confuse people.

Who owns social media? Everyone isn't equally responsible. Someone needs to have management of a social media site as a responsibility.

Involve "young faculty stars" in tweeting and blogging. They are good content resources. Offers opportunity for faculty to brand themselves