Is your university’s story a 2,000 word Tinder bio?
In his latest post, our Head of Content, John Hill, explains why less is more in storytelling and how to plant the seed of a great story for your audience.
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We are an international consultancy providing digital strategy, online communications and support for content strategy and content marketing in schools, colleges and universities. We have worked with over 160 education institutions around the world to support their strategic use of digital and social media.Contact us for a discussion about how we can help you.
We've worked with:
Our Work
We have worked with schools, colleges, universities, training and professional development bodies and research institutions around the world. Here we provide an insight into just a handful of our projects in the education sector. You can also view our full client list here.
Going Global: Quality Conference Coverage
Providing social and content coverage for Going Global, with Twitter impressions of #GoingGlobal2015 increasing dramatically to 34 million, from 302,000 impressions in 2014.
Chagos Conservation Trust: Getting Your Message Across
Imagining the vision and mission of the Chagos Conservation Trust, and creating compelling copy to support this with key messaging.
UCL: Raising awareness of studying abroad
Developing a more strategic approach to the promotion and communication of global opportunities at UCL, to help them reach their Global Engagement Strategy targets.
University of London: Embracing writing for the web
Providing writing for the web training to advance creativity and quality of web content amongst a distributed network of editors.
Students’ Union UCL: A new brand and website
We worked with Students' Union UCL on a rebranding and website redevelopment project in order to increase the Union's student engagement.
St George’s, University of London: Planning a digital transformation
Developing a full content strategy based on intensive research to support and advance the University's website and intranet redevelopment project.
Launching The de Ferrers Academy Sixth Form
Pickle Jar Communications was appointed in December 2017 to support the Academy with marketing advice and recommendations to ensure the recruitment targets are met.
Study in Sweden: Advancing International Recruitment
Audience research with international students to provide insights and develop personas to advance digital engagement activities.
University College London: Influencer Mapping
As one of the world's leading higher education institutions, it was important for UCL to understand and advance their online influence.
Teesside University: A Roadmap for a Digital Future
Setting a roadmap and defining work packages for the University to imagine and advance a digital and connected future.
Heriot-Watt University: Creative Content Training
Advancing creativity, content and social media skills through a year-long bespoke workshop series for a range of staff
Universities Human Resources: Communications Support
Developing a communications strategy and providing ongoing support to engage people in and with HR in Higher Education.
Sanger Institute: Website Content Strategy
Working in partnership with web agency NewCity to develop the content strategy and plan to influence the new website for the Sanger Institute.
Northumbria University: Student Communications
Working in close partnership with the University, we set out a vision for the University's future approach to student communications.
AHUA: Engaging Members and Raising Profile
We were commissioned to develop a communications strategy and have since been working with them to implement that strategy.
Nord Anglia Education: Digital Content Strategy
Working in a versatile team, we delivered content plans for each Nord Anglia Education school and produced content for many of their websites.
Oxford Brookes: Case For Support
To help the University launch a new support and fundraising strategy, we developed the Brookes Because messaging concept.
Newcastle University: Creating a Thriving Social Community
We created a strategy that helped Newcastle University reach its students, and grew the Facebook audience by 1400% without advertising.
Imperial College London: Creating a Guide to Student Success
We worked with Imperial College London on the award-winning "Imperial Success Guide", which provided advice on assessments and learning.
London South Bank University: Discovering What Students Want
We helped LSBU to shape a portal that students would want, based on interviews, analytics, best-practice and a range of intelligent tools.
War Child: Getting the Right Message Across
We carried out research and interviews to help War Child choose a campaign message that worked for them, and spoke to their audience.
City University: Keeping the Strategy On Track
We helped City University develop their social media strategy, and stayed on as a "critical friend" to offer guidance and help keep their plan on track.
Radboud Universiteit: Sharing the Potential of Social Media
We visited Radboud to organise a week-long event which shared the potential of social media with staff, academics and senior leaders.
The Open University: Facebook for International Students
We assisted the Open University in the launch of a new Facebook page for international learners, and provided content to boost its audience.
UTHSCSA: Social Media for Student & Patient Engagement
While UTHSCSA were re-thinking their website, we helped them devise a social strategy that would connect with both patients and students.
What We Do
Our work focuses on the education and education-related sectors. We provide bespoke digital communications consultancy and support to help your school, college or university with student recruitment, parent engagement, corporate communications, fundraising, research communications, alumni engagement, and internal communications with staff and students. Specialists in content strategy and digital planning.
Digital Project Planning
Setting the vision for your major digital engagement projects and website development activities. Creating project plans and a roadmap for your activities.
Research & Benchmarking
Working to better understand what really motivates your audiences through audience research, and recommendations on how to use our insights.
Content Strategy
Development of content strategy and content marketing strategy and plans for websites, social media and integrated online and offline communication.
Delivery
Creating engaging and sharable content for your websites, blogs, social media channels or print. Writing SEO copy to enhance your content marketing approach.
Support
Working in partnership with you as a “critical friend” to provide ongoing advice, guidance, support and input into your institution’s communications.
Workshops & Training
From public speaking and talks on content strategy and digital communications, to workshops and bespoke training packages to help you develop.
Blog
Want to keep up to date with the latest news from Pickle Jar, and join the discussion about the best ways to build and connect with your audience? Our full blog archive is here
Mapping influence at ContentEd 2018
Robert Perry, our Head of Research, spoke at ContentEd 2018 about influence mapping on social media, and how this can become part of your content strategy. So we thought we’d create an map of online influence just for the two day conference.
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Crafting content that shows you care
Carewords appeal to the emotional side of audience decision-making, as well as to their factual and literal information needs that they are looking for on your website. Our Senior Content Strategist shares how to develop carewords for your university.
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The impact of technologies and changing demographics on UK Higher Education
Our CEO, Tracy Playle, participated in a panel discussion at the Campus Management conference in May – and came back with a few unanswered questions about the impact of technology on higher education.
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Using personas to understand internal stakeholders
It’s essential that key stakeholders are onboard with your project from the very start – and designing personas can help you to think about engaging your stakeholders.
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Why would you switch off social?
With the recent negativity towards social media platforms in the news, our Head of Research reflects on how we can optimise our social media channels, rather than to delete them.
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