What’s better than actually going to the HighEdWeb Conference? Recording an episode with your friends that actually went! At least that’s what Lougan is telling himself this week as he welcomes Jackie and Jon-Stephen back to the show along with new guest Alaina Wiens. We chat about what it’s like running social media for the conference, and the various presentations they gave. We also talk about the “golden nuggets” they are taking back home this year. 

Links to cool stuff: 

• Jackie: Twitter | Linkedin
• Jon-Stephen: Twitter | Linkedin
• Alaina: Twitter | Linkedin
• 2019 HighEdWeb Conference Website
• HighEdWeb’s Recorded Live Streams
• HighEdWeb Association Website

Ravi Jain from Boston College joins us on the show this week! Ravi serves as the Senior Associate Director of Digital Media & Web at Boston College. We talk with Ravi about being selected as an inaugural INBOUND2019 Fellow and his upcoming talk at INBOUND 2019. Ravi tells us more about why he’s become a short form video evangelist and how he uses micro-storytelling to tell the story of the different “cities” at BC. We also discuss why vinyl sounds better and the fun and agony of designing email templates.

Links to cool stuff: 

• Ravi on Twitter
• Ravi on LinkedIn
• INBOUND19

Jon McBride works at Brigham Young University as the media relations and social media manager. Since he started at BYU 6 years ago, he has begun to develop a strong and creative social media strategy. In this episode, he explained how he loves that his department is adaptive to the field of communication. Jon tells us about the time he pitched Beyonce’s publicist, and also chats with Lougan and Jackie about his student social media team and their thoughtful Instagram stories on tough campus topics.

Links to cool stuff

• Jon on Twitter
• Jon on LinkedIn
• BYU Consent Instgram Story
• BYU Respect Instagram Story

Christine Figgener is a marine conservation biologist, a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University and Time Magazine recently recognized her as a ‘2018 Next Generation Leader.’ Christine is credited with helping spark the anti-plastic movement with her viral video of a straw being pulled from a turtle’s nose. She loves how research is connected to mentorship. After graduation, she hopes to focus on science communication to build the gap between scientists and non-scientists.

Links to cool stuff

• Christine on Twitter
• Christine on LinkedIn
• Christine on Instagram
• The Turtle Video (viewer discretion is advised)
• Time Magazine’s 2018 Next Generation Leader
• Time Magazine article on Christine’s work

Rather than sit down and talk with a guest this week (totally on purpose), Lougan and Jackie chat about what’s going on in our respective offices this semester. Lougan has worked on a variety of projects this semester including new commercials, a new podcast and some new social media strategies. Jackie’s working with a new team student influencers and Well Said: UNC Chapel Hill’s story telling podcast.

Links to cool stuff

• The New Commercial by Lougan’s Student Worker
• Well Said Podcast: How Gratitude Affects Your Body and Your Brain
• Well Said Podcast: The Irina Project

James Stafford is the director of marketing and public relations at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. He never planned on going into higher ed, but stumbled into it by being a data nerd. James shares his love for how excel sheets can solve a lot of problems. James current tasks vary from changing the virtual tour to the military appreciation football game. The group discusses the challenges of being in university photos and hiding from 360 degree camera. James and Lougan discuss cameras and the potential of iPhone video. And Lougan pulls out his 11 year old OG iPhone and yes, it still works. 

Links to cool stuff: 

• James on LinkedIn
• James on Twitter
• A photo from Lougan’s original iPhone

Graham Carpenter is a professor at the University of Pacific. Carpenter earned his PhD from the University of Alabama in Communication and Information Sciences. He still works  as a freelance cameraman for ESPN Games and he started sports broadcasting at 18. College Football and American Ninja Warrior are the two things he mainly works on. Pacific Tiger Broadcasting Network is the radio station that Graham oversees. He believes working out in the field will help his students. He has been teaching since 2010 and he created a course called “Mediated Interpersonal Communication,” which is how media influences our relationships. He is continuing his research on dating apps.

Links to cool stuff

• Graham on Twitter
• Graham on LinkedIn
• Tiger Radio

This episode of Higher Ed Social was brought to you by Top Hat! Learn how their suite of easy-to-use apps can help you engage your class, adopt incredible next generation textbooks, or to run tests within a secure, digital environment. Visit tophat.com/higheredsocial to learn more. 

Teresa Gawrych is many things. She’s an instructor at University of Alabama and the internship coordinator for Creative Media Majors. She’s also a director. Lougan may have drooled a little bit as Teresa described her students’ opportunities inside and outside of the classroom, especially with her awesome upcoming project with the Center for Public Television. The discussion also includes learning ALL the skills even if you don’t want to and drawing the line between journalism and creative storytelling (spoiler: it’s not as black and white as you think).

Link to cool stuff:

• Our other guest from Pittsburg, KS

Kevin Hahn is the associate director of residence life at SUNY-Fredonia in western New York State where he oversees RD and RA development and recruitment. We talk with Kevin about his plans for the upcoming year as classes wrap up for the summer. Kevin Hahn is well known for his handwriting, where he has a font of it, you can download it in the show note links. We also discuss how to bring higher education residence life into the fad of interior design/renovation shows.

Links to cool stuff:

• Kevin on LinkedIn
• Kevin on Twitter
• Kevin’s magic handwriting font