Why Higher Education Content Creation Matters
On this episode of Higher Ed Demand Gen, we dive deep into the art and strategy behind content creation in higher education with Mathias Reed from Oberlin College. Mathias emphasizes the unique, continuous learning environment that higher education offers and the joy it brings to be part of a place focused on constant education. His background in music, arts, and video production gives him a unique perspective on how content can play a crucial role in educational institutions.
The Role of Authenticity in Student Engagement
Reed highlights the importance of authenticity in higher education content, noting that prospective students, especially Gen Z and soon-to-be Gen Alpha, are incredibly sensitive to fake or overproduced content. Students can quickly identify whether content feels genuine, making sincere representation crucial. The key is creating content that feels real and relatable, whether through video, social media posts, or other mediums. Reed also discusses how user-generated content (UGC) can provide an authentic glimpse into student life, often resonating more with prospective students than polished marketing materials.
Leveraging LinkedIn and Other Platforms for Brand Building
Surprisingly, LinkedIn has emerged as a powerful platform for Oberlin College, engaging an audience of professionals, alumni, and even current students. While the platform traditionally caters to the post-graduate audience, Oberlin has found success in using it to foster a supportive network and extend the institution’s brand reach. This platform, alongside Instagram and others, forms part of their omnichannel approach to content distribution, ensuring that message and brand identity remain consistent across various channels.
Collaboration with Admissions and a Shift to Social-First Strategy
A significant part of Reed’s role involves collaboration with the admissions team to create content that supports their goals, often requiring a balance between institutional needs and creative storytelling. Reed has shifted his team towards a more social-first strategy, focusing on how content can be initially tailored for social platforms before being adjusted for others. By incorporating UGC and maintaining an authentic voice, Oberlin College effectively uses its resources to create impactful and engaging content, helping draw students into a genuine narrative about life on campus.
This episode is packed with insights on how colleges can harness the power of content creation to connect genuinely with potential students, using the resources and platforms most effectively.
Read the transcription
Mathias Reed [00:00:46]:
Hey. Thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here.
Shiro [00:00:49]:
So I do ask all my guests this. Right? Tell us what you love about higher ed.
Mathias Reed [00:00:54]:
Yeah. It’s a good question. As someone who went to a small school, studied music and interested in arts and stuff, I’ve always looked at higher ed as an awesome industry to work in. What I love about it, I’d say, is that it’s a learning environment across the board. Everyone’s focused on learning. Everyone’s focused on continuing education just as, like, a mindset, not even, like, as a degree pursuit. And, yeah, I like being on a campus where, that’s happening every day.
Shiro [00:01:29]:
That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that. And it was also really good to meet you in person at AMA. Was that just prep probably by the time this is posted two months ago, but,
Mathias Reed [00:01:38]:
Yeah.
Shiro [00:01:39]:
Thais and I got to connect, and we actually attended a session together on, I think, the student journey and how students currently find out and figure out where they wanna go to school. So it was it was great connecting with you in person.
Mathias Reed [00:01:51]:
You as well. Yeah. No. AMA was awesome. Can’t wait for the next one.
Shiro [00:01:55]:
Yep. Well, let’s get into this. So can you tell us a little bit about your role and background in a minute or two?
Mathias Reed [00:02:02]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, as I mentioned earlier, I studied music, in in college, piano performance. So I was in into piano and organ. And I quickly shifted, during my time in college actually into video production, media production. And then straight out of college, I worked with a b to b, a small b to b group, a marketing and non marketing group, and really loved that work. It was really exciting to kinda do video production within the marketing world, expanded beyond kind of a higher ed, group. And then from there, I, you know, moved out to Ohio, was doing a lot of production work within music and arts organizations, and then joined Oberlin.
Mathias Reed [00:02:49]:
So, Oberlin College Conservatory, it’s, you know, an an awesome campus, tight community that, you know, we’ve got, some world class musicians within the conservatory and some, you know, amazing research that happens within our within our college, arts and sciences. And so I started here as a video producer. Kind of going across the board. Right? CollegeCon, performance videos, faculty pieces, student profiles, and all of that. I, after a couple of years, grew the team, to a team of two for video production. And then, this last year, I stepped into this new role as the director of content and social media strategies. So that’s working with an awesome team of five covering things from our alumni magazine production, to our social media management as well. So it’s it’s a pretty, exciting position.
Mathias Reed [00:03:52]:
It’s been a pretty awesome year. And, yeah, I’m I’m excited to see what we do in the next year.
Shiro [00:03:58]:
That’s amazing. How how did it feel when you stepped up into this new, role managing a much bigger team?
Mathias Reed [00:04:06]:
It’s it’s a lot. It’s exciting. It’s also, like, major challenge for me. You know, I think one of the big things that I realized over the last what’s it been like, seven or eight months since I changed into this role, I think was the level of kind of collaborative mindset that I was already coming from. So, you know, in the video production world, like, you are as sort of strong as your, like, team and team mindset. That’s how good the piece is gonna be. Right? Like, even if everyone’s at their top game, but, like, isn’t really working together, or is isn’t really, like, as focused on the final piece, you know, the final film or project, it can kinda it it can carry out. It’s just like an energy thing.
Mathias Reed [00:04:53]:
So, like, shifting in this role has been cool reminder of that that that sort of team mindset, teamwork approach, collaborative workflow is, like, the key to leadership success, but also, like, team success. I don’t know if that answered clearly. But
Shiro [00:05:12]:
No. It’s good. And do you work closely with, like, enrollment teams, other departments around campus, speaking about team?
Mathias Reed [00:05:18]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So we collaborate all the time with our admissions team, on a lot of the work there. So both in our communications office, we work closely with our design team, we work closely with Webb, and and pretty much across the board. But then all our office is also working actively and constantly with admissions and enrollment.
Shiro [00:05:40]:
Yeah. Because I’m sure, like, admissions will come to you with some content requests or content collaboration requests. Right?
Mathias Reed [00:05:47]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, it’s a lot of, collaboration on, like, our sort of admissions cycle materials, whether that’s print, digital, and kind of, like, you know, shifting to an ongoing omnichannel approach, something I like to talk about in our sort of content across the board, whether that’s admissions or sort of broader institutional brand, alignment stuff.
Shiro [00:06:14]:
Gotcha. Okay. I have a good question for you, but I’m gonna save it for a few minutes when we get into it. Cool. Yeah. Thanks for explaining all that. So I’m talking to a content master. Right? Why is content so important? And can you tell me about your take, or what is authenticity in tennis?
Mathias Reed [00:06:32]:
Sure. Okay. So, like, full disclosure, I don’t consider myself a content master at all. And I am again, what I do love about content and content production, is that there isn’t really it’s a daily sort of evolution. There isn’t really, like, a mastering of it. You know what I mean? Like, we’re constantly as a culture shifting, like, especially in the digital space, especially in the social space. Like, it changes every day. And what sort of works and what doesn’t, like, there isn’t, like, a key magic that sort of just, like, is the code to solve this Mhmm.
Mathias Reed [00:07:08]:
And you can just plug it in to chat GPT or whatever, and it’s, like, gonna, like, spit out exactly what you need to succeed as a content creator. But to jump into authenticity and kind of authenticity antennas let’s see. I mean, I think for, for us, a lot of times, you know, we’re focused on that interested, student group. Right? Interested students who are looking into their college college journey and trying to find the right fit in terms of an institution to attend. And I think they are 110%, you know, focused on authenticity. Like, the the antennas of authenticity are, like, super sensitive. And so, you know, for me, I think it’s really easy to see in those first two seconds on a piece of content, whether that’s video or or even just sort of written content in the story space on Instagram or something. Whether something is sort of market speak or not, whether this is, like, you know, the carefully worded brand, brand notes versus, that sort of user generated content approach, which I’m sure we’ll get into in a minute.
Mathias Reed [00:08:23]:
So for me, I think, you know, authenticity is key, kind of always kind of jumping back to, both for ourselves and kind of leadership positions. Like, hey, does this ring true to that kind of brand core messages, the brand identity, and also as you get into, like, individual team contributors, giving some ownership there too. Like, we like to collaborate a lot on that, send stuff around as a team. And we’re actually we’ve expanded the semester into a stronger group, student contributors, student ambassadors in terms of our social space. And that’s really helped as well to, to get a sense of authenticity into the content more consistently and kind of more evaluate that process. Sorry. I’m kind of went rambling now.
Shiro [00:09:17]:
I feel like I’m just No. You’re good. No. No. You’re good. No. You explained it. I I mean, this is fascinating.
Shiro [00:09:24]:
I think that your your content you’re focusing your content on being authentic as in terms of how it’s perceived by students, right, or prospective students. And I think that’s huge. Do you think that there’s a shift in the attendance being more aware, do you think, with as, you know, Gen z and and soon to be Gen Alpha come, approaching, college age? Do you think that because of, like, amount of content purely out there in this information age are making their antennas more sharp? And so, like, it’s harder and more, more necessary now to focus on authenticity than it we had to, like, ten years ago. Just
Mathias Reed [00:10:04]:
Yeah. No. That’s a good it’s a good point. I mean, I think in my perspective, like, what I’m seeing, the the short answer is yes. I think the longer answer is, you know, it’s complicated. I feel like each generation and even, like, there’s micro shifts within that generation of, like, what they wanna see, how they want to be served content, like, what they what experience they’re looking for in their, college search and just in general, right, in terms of overall content. Because I think we get you know, obviously, our role is, is brand aligned content and a broader sense of, like, communicating the values of the institution, partnering with admissions and enrollment. But I think we kind of always have to keep in mind, like, this content isn’t existing solely in a higher ed space as well.
Mathias Reed [00:10:56]:
Like, people in the social space, they’re scrolling through, and they’re getting either, they’re they’re they’re searching out specific channels and dropping into those or, you know, like like, both of our experiences of Instagram, like, your scroll is it could be anything. Right? And, so we have to be mindful of that when we’re creating the content, and speaking to the sort of authenticity, sensitivity there. You know, I think we’ve seen a huge shift in the last couple years pretty much, I’d say, post COVID, kind of in the middle of COVID, but then post COVID, towards, you know, user generated content and a sense of, like, transparency. So another kind of way to think about authenticity. And students really seem interested in that in their search. Like, they wanna be able to hear directly from another student, see directly from another student what their housing and dining experience is like, what their academic journey is like, what their day to day life is like, which seems pretty basic. Right? When you think of, like, large level marketing strategies, you know, you think, oh, we’ve gotta hit all of these key metrics and make sure that we’re hitting all of these key points and messaging. But at a certain point in that journey, the the interested students just wanna connect with another student and both, see themselves in that journey and also, like, see sort of an expansion of what could possibly happen for them.
Shiro [00:12:20]:
Yeah. I I think from my perspective as a marketer, like, I I call this type of content social proof. That’s, like, from a corporate lens, right, or, private, in the private sphere lens. Like, that’s what I call it, but it’s interesting because it actually makes me think of the the session we went to at AMA, which talked about the student journey. And I was actually surprised to find that the student journey still often starts with a search, like, whether it’s, you know, you come up in a paid search position or organic search. But, like and then, you know, the student goes to the website, learns about their program, etcetera. Again, that’s why website’s really important. But that third step in the journey, which is, like, the increasing the yield and the application process was, like, the social content.
Shiro [00:13:03]:
The students will then, after the website, check out the social channels of their interested school and and see if they could see themselves on campus, see if there’s a piece of content that, you know, fits, how they perceive the world, and if if if if it fits with their or matches with their identity and their personality. And so, like, I think what you’re talking to really closely aligns with that decision making process, especially around, the social proof, by hearing and and seeing, UGC or u g generated content.
Mathias Reed [00:13:36]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, you know, there’s this sense of, like, in the social space, it’s it’s always available, but it’s also always changing. It kind of like that wall of content on Instagram or scroll on Facebook if you’re still on Facebook. And your admissions journey, like or TikTok. Right? You know, that is it can get buried so quickly. So we really try to focus on, having sort of a consistency that comes back to our core values, that comes back to core messaging, even in those individual user generated pieces.
Shiro [00:14:13]:
Gotcha. And
Mathias Reed [00:14:14]:
that’s a balancing act.
Shiro [00:14:15]:
I think it
Mathias Reed [00:14:16]:
was cool also at conference. I was gonna add, it was cool also at conference to see, what, they were doing at University of Miami, Florida. They actually had that really cool collab post where they’re like, you know, we’re not the same person with, Miami University, which I in Ohio, which I thought was cool. And but I thought what was fascinating with their work is they were like, hey, look at Nutter Butter. Look at some of these, like, you know, corporate partner accounts or corporate accounts that are, or other brands, right, that are just really pushing the envelope of, like, what is sort of professional content or brand content, what is sort of completely off the walls looking at Nutter butter here, into the just, like, user generated space. And maybe it’s too far. Right? Yeah. But that was a really that was a great, presentation, and I really appreciated that sort of push towards, like, embracing, authenticity almost to an extreme.
Shiro [00:15:15]:
Yeah. I completely agree. And and I I love examples or talking about examples on the show because I think helps con people contextualize and visualize because most people are listening in, obviously. I’m wondering, like, tying back to how you said you work closely with admissions teams, like, what type of content has been working for you guys in terms of, you know, reaching and partnering with admissions goals? Is it the UGC stuff as well?
Mathias Reed [00:15:41]:
Yeah. I think so. I think it’s, it’s an ever evolving journey, and it’s I mean, metrics, there’s so much data out there. Right? At this point, like, every little piece of content that you publish on the Internet, you can you can pull all of the analytics, and then you have to figure out how to interpret that. And it’s not always a one to one ratio of, like, oh, well, because we posted that, it’s frequently never a one to one ratio. But, so we’re trying to be mindful of that too within the content creation space. Some of the things that I think are working for us within social and just in terms of, like, engagement and reach and just community building, sort of the surprising one for us is the LinkedIn space. I don’t think a lot of people look at LinkedIn and say, hey.
Mathias Reed [00:16:29]:
This is you know, that’s where, the admissions journey happens. And I would agree. Right? Like, I think often that’s sort of the post grad or the alum space more than anything. But we actually see a lot of engagement in in our LinkedIn space. We see a lot of folks, playing in, sharing, commenting, and just, congratulating. It’s it’s probably the in terms of, like, our off campus community, it is probably the most supportive, and engaged, channel. And I think that’s really cool to see. Again, is that admissions? Not necessarily.
Mathias Reed [00:17:09]:
But it’s, it’s also kind of reach and sort of brand awareness.
Shiro [00:17:15]:
Mhmm. And
Mathias Reed [00:17:15]:
I think that that’s sort of duality that, like, colleges are really, embracing. Right? That we are essentially, we should be approaching our mindset within marketing and communications as brands, and that that’s a healthy way to look at it, within not just the admissions journey, but the overall, sort of institutional image and across channel. So, LinkedIn has been really cool to see that growth. It’s cool to see sort of, I’d say organic shares. Right? Folks that ultimately are sort of what is it? Like, thirds or, like, two two levels or three levels removed from us, sharing content that, might be around the student internship experience that we’ve talked about. And we framed within the LinkedIn space with company tags and stuff like that versus the Instagram space where it’s really about that student. Right? And that’s where I’d say, like, does that really answer the question of, like, what’s impacting admissions? I don’t. Not necessarily, but it is cool to see the different communities come together on our channels, to see how current students will, you know, rally around a student’s internship experience and show up in the comments and the DMs around it.
Mathias Reed [00:18:36]:
And then in the LinkedIn space to see how professionals and alums and sort of some of our internship partners, jump into that as well and just show the the the value of this education experience Mhmm. And also celebrate it. So LinkedIn is kind of a surprise for me.
Shiro [00:18:56]:
And I
Mathias Reed [00:18:57]:
I wouldn’t have expected that pre sort of higher ed, but it’s cool to see that continue to be a consistent, like, positive community.
Shiro [00:19:05]:
And, you know, I I know I know you think about everything you factor in everything. Right? Like, school size, what your school offers in terms of programming. And I think it it’s very interesting to hear this because I think it really plays to Oberlin College and Conservatory because a lot of your graduates and alums, they they go on and do amazing things with their life that does play well to LinkedIn, you know, sharing your successes on there. And I think to your school size, which is on the smaller end, like, I think it plays really well. So I think it’s interesting to see it being leveraged as a channel or or being successful as a channel. And I think if if you’re a similar school size and you have unique programming, like, even you haven’t thought about LinkedIn, I think it’s it’s worth a test. Right?
Mathias Reed [00:19:51]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I’d say don’t don’t skip on LinkedIn even if it’s just cross posting. And you can get more you know, I mentioned omnichannel. Like, that’s something that we are leaning more into as we move into this next year. And so kind of thinking about the segmentation of content, same content, but maybe different packaging or same content and a little bit of a different framing. Right? Like, it’s posting in the LinkedIn space and saying, hey.
Mathias Reed [00:20:18]:
This was an internship at this company. Let’s make sure that we, include them in that description and tag them so that, you know, we can get some some engagement from them, but also, like, build a stronger image and network there. Yeah. It’s it’s pretty cool. And again, I don’t think I mentioned earlier, like, our campus size, you know, our our student student body is, like, twenty nine fifty, I think, at the moment, give or take. So fairly small, compared to some of the, you know, the larger schools out there. But, yeah, it’s cool to see the kind of the reach in the grad space and in the alum space there. Mhmm.
Mathias Reed [00:20:56]:
And even current students again to the internships and those sort of opportunities, happening and being celebrated within the the sort of professional social media channel of, you know, LinkedIn.
Shiro [00:21:10]:
Yep. No. I like that. I’m I’m obviously on LinkedIn a lot, so I love always talking about LinkedIn. I know you’ve mentioned a little bit about omnichannel and things you wanna do next year, but, in your short time leading this team now, like, how are you shifting your team to better support the the needs of today, and then also, like, doing that all with constraints and resources as well?
Mathias Reed [00:21:34]:
That’s a great question. One of the sort of team shifts we’ve worked on is leaning into social. I wouldn’t say we’re, like, exclusively a social first mindset, but I do think social takes the lead a lot of the times in terms of how we’re approaching content. And so it’s saying, you know, what might traditionally might have been more of a kind of, classic, like, news online news approach, and then it gets segmented out to to channels. We are leaning towards a kind of a social first, but then also an omnichannel approach. So again, it’s that, like, hey. How do we segment segment the same work that we’ve done, the same leg work we’ve done, the same content we’ve assembled to fit within, you know, a short space on YouTube, and also a sort of a celebration piece on LinkedIn. So Right.
Mathias Reed [00:22:29]:
Some of the other things we’ve done in terms of leveraging, the sort of the resources that we have, is leaning into user generated content. I think what’s cool about user generated content, and I’m, like, super excited that this is happening in the higher ed space, is that, you know, it’s essentially our customers, if you will, or our students become, our strongest advocates, for the next class. And that’s so cool. And that’s like you know, I think that’s almost a unique quality to the higher ed market, you know, compared to some of our sort of out of higher ed, other other, other businesses or other markets, right, where user generated content might be a little more difficult to, to navigate or to produce or to, you know, encourage and and leverage. Like, in higher ed, like, we have twenty nine fifty, two thousand nine hundred and 50 students who are here, who are users, and, you know, certain majority are are interested in creating content or are already creating content.
Shiro [00:23:38]:
Mhmm.
Mathias Reed [00:23:38]:
And so that’s a really cool, like, opportunity to have. So I’m, like, super excited that that’s happened. A little bit of a backstory there. Like, in my experience starting in video for higher ed, you know, a lot of the push when I first started back in 2017 was for sort of, like, top tier production value, like, really showing, hey. This is our beautiful campus. See all of our drone shots. Like, see all of our, you know, like, cinema shots. Let’s make sure everything’s got that, like, DSLR shallow depth of field slash we’ve brought a red in to film this one spot and, you know, like a really big production value.
Mathias Reed [00:24:14]:
And I think that still has a place in, like, some of the pieces that you produce, but it’s really, I think, helpful to see that kind of broken down and shifted into the, again, that authenticity of user generated content and the transparency that I think the next few generations are looking for, in their in their journey.
Shiro [00:24:35]:
I did have a question about so UGCs, like, I I talked to bowling’s, Bowling Green State. Mhmm. Brianna, she’s amazing. She does, like, a bunch of, like, what’s popular on TikTok and Instagram, which is, like, they have a bigger school, so they drive around in a golf cart and they do those little, like, mini mic questions.
Mathias Reed [00:24:53]:
I saw that.
Shiro [00:24:54]:
That’s, like, technically UGC, but that’s also, like, that’s one half of it where, like, you’re still leading the conversation going out producing it. And then there’s the other side of UGC, which is, like, like, what Amazon does. Right? Like, they, like, the the customers who buy the product will post about it themselves, and then, like, the company may take that post and then repost it or even, like, add it to their their quiver in their image. Like, hey. This is like a testimonial a a customer made, but, like, it’s so good that I’m gonna add it to, like, our product images or description. And so, like like, how how do you think of UGC? Like, are you creating it, and are you going on campus and getting stories from students, or are you actually, like, getting students to post about their experience on their own and then taking that content and finding out ways to redistribute that?
Mathias Reed [00:25:43]:
Yeah. So, the short answer is, we are currently more modeled after, you know, being the initial reach
Shiro [00:25:53]:
Yep.
Mathias Reed [00:25:54]:
For that content. But I’ll I’ll point to another example to kind of give you how we’ve shifted, mindsets around user generated content, and it’s kind of in between. So my VP, last year was like, hey, you know, I really wanna, focus in on some of this internship content, internship coverage, and find ways to, you know, share the awesome internships that are happening, for our students, over this coming summer. And, that was a big lift for us, but it was also an opportunity. Right? It was like there’s a resource limitation here, like, at the time, you know, given our resources, it’s like we weren’t we weren’t gonna fly someone around to film a bunch of videos across the across the country, but also internationally. And, it was a great opportunity to, like, pivot creatively and figure out what are some ways for for stronger content that still carries these messages, and tells these stories. And we leaned into authenticity for those. I think this is where I shared, in our other conversation around this.
Mathias Reed [00:27:08]:
The, inspiration for this was kind of pulling from, some of the work that I saw, Airbnb doing. That was, like, this meld of, like, user generated content, really simple. Let’s pull a couple of photos and tell a story, right, around someone’s travel experience. And they’re not even sharing locations in terms of, like, hey, they stayed in this amazing place. It was just, like, here’s five pictures and a short story about, you know, this couple’s trip to Japan or this couple’s, you know, staying with an awesome host in Italy, I think was another one. And I had seen those, and I was like, oh, that could be really interesting, to approach, with a limited budget. So we leaned into that with our our students in students interning around the country and around the world, and really, you know, reached out to them, had them work on collecting some content, reflections, kind of modeled it after that, like, you know, sort of a phone call to home. Like, hey.
Mathias Reed [00:28:08]:
This is what I’m working on, and here’s a couple of snapshots that I’m gonna text you and that type of thing. And that model, like, has worked really well, and we’ve continued that forward into a couple of other spaces with study away programs, and a second set of internships now this, this year. So, yeah, it’s I think it’s a great sort of success story, if you will, of, like, both pivoting, a limited resource situation, where you still wanna be able to tell those stories and share them directly with your audiences, but also an opportunity for kind of the user generated model, and then a more authentic kind of transparent way of of sharing that.
Shiro [00:28:53]:
No. I I really like this. And just to distill down, like, what I’m hearing from you is, like, it is possible to have students actually create their own content and then redistribute or repackage it as a marketing team and not even using your own bandwidth to, like, go out there and schedule time in a day and a location for a shoot. You can actually have students create their own content, but you do have to be, like, specific with your ask and what it’s for. And, like, you had a great use case here, which was, like, interns around the world. Like, I wouldn’t send an email to all of our undergrad first year students and be like, hey. Can you create a can you record a selfie of yourself? It will be your experience so far. Maybe that’ll work, but, like, it’s your ask was very specific, and I think that, you know, like, if someone came to me and it was that specific, I I’d much more likely be inclined to do something.
Shiro [00:29:40]:
So that’s pretty cool.
Mathias Reed [00:29:42]:
Yeah. It is cool. And I’d say, like, you know, there’s some like, there was a learning experience. Like, round one was definitely Mhmm. More of a challenge out the gate of, like, okay. How how does this work? Yeah. What are we specifically asking students to do? And we’ve kind of found a a great balance of sort of the self collect model and then the, the packaging, we pretty much do that kind of edit post production process we do in house. Mhmm.
Mathias Reed [00:30:09]:
And then we often, not exclusively, but a lot of the model at this point for these types of pieces is sort of a post, post experience interview, if you will, or again, like reflection piece. And those actually I think my favorite part of this is, you know, we kind of split it again within the the narrative side. So they they are telling stories. They’re they’re, there’s a voice over component talking to the experience. And these are short pieces, you know, or this is somewhere between, they vary in in length between sort of thirty seconds to a minute for the basic internships. And then for some of those larger study aways where they are a longer experience, we we bumped that to kind of a one minute one minute thirty, sometimes two minutes range because it’s there’s usually, like, just tons of material to work with. But what so back to the narrative side, the approach that has worked for us with that is, yeah, we we start with the kind of a written reflection to kinda get them focused in on on what what their experience was and how they wanna share it. And then we record that in person when they’re back on campus, you know.
Mathias Reed [00:31:20]:
We start with that and then we break out with questions from there. And it kind of is is a great balance in the edit between, like, hey, we’ve got that specific structure that we need, and then you get these awesome reflection points that are just clear, and unique and, you know, things that we might not have thought of in the kind of, like, talking points we wanna cover for this piece, but really kind of bring back that sense of authenticity, the sense of transparency, and the ways that I feel like, again, those users, those students are sort of the best, you know, advocates for the sort of what the campus culture is and the experiences. So
Shiro [00:32:04]:
Yeah. Nice tie back to the authenticity point, Shinto. A good way to wrap it up. That’s amazing. Well, if you made it this far, I think that was a perfect framework to creating UGC content with relatively, low resources or limited resources. So appreciate you sharing that. That’s amazing to hear. Well, this has been fun.
Shiro [00:32:23]:
I I know we’re just at about time. I’m wondering where our listeners can understand a little bit more about what you’re doing and where they can connect with you.
Mathias Reed [00:32:33]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, I myself am on LinkedIn. That’s the easiest way to connect with me. I spend as little time as possible on other personal channels, which is funny. But it’s, you know, when there’s, like, the work side, I try to just keep keep that time for, work time on social and then but, yeah, if you wanna reach me directly, I’m on LinkedIn. Matthias Reed, I believe, is the URL, but you should find me there. And then in terms of Oberlin, feel free to follow us.
Mathias Reed [00:33:06]:
We’re on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, obviously, YouTube, TikTok as well. We didn’t talk about TikTok, but that’s that’s that’s happening. And, yeah, look forward to connecting with folks and learning more. Because as I said before, I think the the mastering of college content creation is a daily endeavor, and a great goal. So I really appreciate you having me on. This is awesome.
Shiro [00:33:34]:
Yeah. This is great. I’m glad we finally got to do this. So thank you for your time, and I’m excited to see all the good thing you’re gonna be doing next year. So let’s check back in.
Mathias Reed [00:33:43]:
Yep. Sounds great.
