Mobile Conference Recap!

I had the pleasure of attending the Mobile Me & You 2 Conference in Chicago, IL this weekend, learning about the latest innovations in mobile media. Several graduate students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were able to attend, as UNL was a sponsor of the conference. 

Andy Boyle, of NBC Digital, and Kurt Gessler, Deputy Editor of Digital News at Chicago Tribune, presented at the conference at the Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications in Chicago, IL on October 29, 2016. 

Boyle and Gessler presented about how to evaluate your new mobile app or product. “You need to have a plan. What is success? What is failure? How do you define success? Is it traffic? Impact? Money? Ads served? Downloads? Subscriptions?” asked Boyle. He explained that you generally need to know your metric for evaluation first before proceeding. Boyle stated that the ultimate goal for most project-level work, though, has to be impact.  

“Don’t assume you know who the audience is or what type of mobile device they are using,” emphasized Boyle. He gave an example of this when the Chicago Tribune thought they knew their audience didn’t use tablets, only to find out 50% of the app’s use was on tablets.  

Boyle and Gessler also offered more advice to the audience about mobile apps, such as the importance of giving fewer decision options to your audience, and updating your applications and website because the digital space changes so quickly.

They also talked about how crucial it is to offer your craziest ideas first, they don’t need to be grounded in reality. Pitch the ideas and other team members will think how they can build on it. Don’t be afraid to fail due to the risk that management could say “no” to an idea. To avoid rejection, getting buy-in from executives early on can help garner that support in advance.

Boyle closed the presentation with a quote from Bob Woodward on the timely topic of working with management to move ideas forward: “All good work is done in deviance of management.”

Welcome to The Social Cube!

Hello! I am Abby Meyer, the Web Content/Social Media Specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. I decided to start a blog about social media best practices, specifically geared toward higher education institutions. My cubicle at UNMC is called The Social Cube, where all things social occur, so I figured the name should extend to the blogosphere as well!

Universities and colleges have a unique opportunity on social media, as they can engage with their primary target audience who are arguably the most tech-savvy generations of our time: Millennials and Generation Z. With great opportunity comes great responsibility though. Higher education social media content should be exceptional to attract this audience! Social best practices, digital trends, successful case studies, and social management techniques will all be covered on this blog.

A little more about myself... I graduated with bachelor's degrees in Advertising/Public Relations and Elementary Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. You may question how those are related, and they aren't directly! I wanted to have options when I entered the workforce after graduation, so I decided to simultaneously pursue two career paths. While I ultimately stuck with advertising, I learned that skills I gained as a teacher also related to advertising. At the core of each field, both advertising and education are about communication. Advertisers seek to persuade and sell products and services to consumers, while teachers seek to persuade and sell math and reading to students. The patience I acquired as a teacher also translates to my current position, where I teach colleagues about social media on a daily basis. So the industries aren't that different after all! I am currently pursuing my master's degree in Integrated Media Communications from UNL as well.

My work experience is primarily in video production and social media, as I was at advertising agencies and a production studio before UNMC. Working with national brands on social content as part of a social media team was a great stepping stone before leading the social media content strategy and execution at UNMC now. These experiences taught me how to think strategically and creatively about all concepts, and to always consider the purpose and the target audience for every piece of content. This is crucial at higher education institutions, where we must always think about our content through our target audience's eyes.

Thank you for checking out my blog, please check back regularly for more updates from The Social Cube!

-Abby