How to attract more readers
As a uConnect user, you likely invest significant time creating valuable content for your students and campus stakeholders — from curated resources and informative blog posts to career opportunities. While you may already have an engaged audience, growing your readership requires a deliberate strategy. This guide outlines 10 actionable steps to help you expand your reach and build relationships with new readers.
Here are 10 straightforward steps you can take to boost readership.
1. State your mission - Make sure your readers know WHY they should give you their time. The value proposition for each piece of content should be clearly stated in the introductory paragraph. ex. This article will outline the three steps any sophomore student should take to lock in a summer finance internship.
2. Formatting makes perfect - Research from the BYU Marriott School of Management found that identical blog posts were 100% more likely to receive a click-through when the thumbnail was a photo rather than a logo. Never underestimate the power of great visuals to attract readers. food, errrr...we mean, good pictures, to attract readers.
3. Identify underserved populations and then target accordingly - Who are you trying to reach? What kind of specialized resources can you offer them? Creating digital communities for your underserved student populations and tagging content accordingly gives you near SUPERHERO powers when it comes to delivering curated resources. Which brings us to...
4. Make sure your lists are current - Upload new subscriber lists at least once a semester. For best results, aim to refresh your lists at the start of each semester to capture new enrollees and remove graduated or inactive students. Keeping your lists up to date ensures that each and every one of your students are getting everything you have to offer. Bonus points for pre-assigning your students to industry or academic communities based on their majors (they can update at anytime).
5. Engage through institutional hashtags - On many campuses, athletics, student clubs, and other departments maintain their own social profiles. Do a little research to see how these groups are engaging on social with their audiences and then leverage the same hashtags to promote relevant content, events, and featured job and internship opportunities.
6. Recaps make the world go 'round and FOMO is real - The same BYU Marriott School content engagement study found that students were more likely to read Event Recap posts than Event Announcements. One likely reason: students who are earlier in their career journeys may not feel ready to attend in-person events — but they still want to know what happened and what they missed. Event Recap blogs can be as easy posting a few pics and recounting how AWESOME it was to take part (direct student quotes work great for this.) Who wouldn't want to come next time?
7. Automate your emails (but leave room for custom communication too) - A big reason for uploading pre-tagged student lists is so that you can use uConnect to send automated alerts. Automated alerts let students know when you publish something that matches their unique interests and drive them back to your uConnect platform to learn more about what you have to offer. And while automated alerts can save a boatload of your precious time, your editorial calendar can help you plan and design additional campaigns or time-sensitive announcements using the custom email feature. After all, your students should know there's more to you than just a finely-tuned, super effective marketing algorithm, shouldn't they?
8. Make believers out of faculty, alumni, employers, and advising and engage them to evangelize your work - Other campus stakeholders are getting asked a TON of questions about how classwork connects to career. Empower them to give great answers by letting them know that your uConnect platform is there to serve as a resource for them. They can even sign up for their own, customized alerts.
9. Spend time grooming your communities - Your academic and industry/career communities should be unique places for students to explore relevant, dynamic, and timely content. Biology students probably don't want to read about international finance internships, and Finance students don't need to know about work-studies in the Oceanography lab - and if they're that well rounded, they can change their alert preferences at any time. Make sure you're tagging content consistently to ensure your unique audiences know there's always something new to discover.
10. Keep on being you - Your resources are a unique reflection of everything your office, and your campus, can offer. Promoting yourselves in a way that students can recognize and relate to, with pics, content enhancers like GIF's and emojis, and overall, a great sense of humor, goes a long way when it comes to helping students overcome potential anxieties around career exploration.