FIGARODIGITAL.CO.UK
Katy Jo Stanton
HEAD OF MARKETING THE STUDENT ROOM GROUP
The Student Room Group is the world’s largest online student community and free learning educational resource for 14-24 year olds. Head of Marketing, Katy Jo Stanton, tells us about meeting the needs of a young, digitally-driven audience
Are you seeing any notable trends in the way your audience engages with content online? KATY JO STANTON: It almost feels old school to say ‘mobile’! However, that really is one of the most notable trends. We have learnt that you don’t have to be all things on a mobile, just the parts your users want. Getting on top of that, listening to what our community are asking for and getting developments in place to deliver those changes are some of the most exciting projects we’re working on right now. Another notable trend is the
consumption of video content onsite and on social. With evidence that video consumption is overtaking TV, video marketing is featuring heavily in our strategies. We are really enjoying building up our assets and the key thing about our audience is
that they make a tonne of video themselves, so their expectation around production quality is focused on quick and simple rather than glossy and high-end. This makes it an incredibly accessible medium for us. I’d say another notable trend among the 14-24 year old digital natives is that they are very open - they are used to commenting, giving feedback and expect a two-way relationship with a brand.
Any tips on how to establish a thriving, loyal and active community? KJS: This quote from Dr Stephen R. Covey has inspired us this year: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply.” In order to build a loyal, active
community you really have to listen to your audience. Research, test and plan with your audience in charge. Get to know their needs, worries and cares. Find out exactly who they are, what they like, what they dislike, keep abreast of how that changes and you won’t go wrong. We have an incredible
community management team who work as a touchpoint between our audience and what goes on behind the scenes. They are backed up by what we call our support team – an army of community members who are effectively super-users. They engage with users every day, and
retain a focus on specific areas of our forum to make sure visitors to each section have a great experience. We work really hard to ensure we’re all trained up and armed with the most relevant and useful information our members are looking for. It’s really important not to
dictate as a brand. Our audience is diverse and unpredictable. You can’t be a friend one minute and a corporate wall the next. Another key element is to be consistently helpful, enabling members to find what they’re looking for (even if they don’t know what that is yet!) The sweet spot is to tune in to users’ existing online engagement and capture trends through listening, then start conversations with relevant content, join in current conversations and be open and transparent as a brand ourselves. We read a lot about the
general population hitting digital overload. Think through the daily life of the average 14-24 year old: this is our core audience and this is one of the craziest times of their lives, with big decisions to make, heavy competition and economic stresses. It’s not all lie-ins and partying! Our biggest challenge is shared by most brands: how do you engage someone who’s already engaged with something else? As a brand we have to earn the right to their attention.
thestudentroom.co.uk corporate wall the next You can’t be a friend one minute and a 10 issue 26 november 2015
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