We are super excited to announce that this December, we welcomed Mikki Collins into the Pickle team as our new Content and Experience Designer!

We asked Mikki to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

Reviewing and editing your copy is crucial to ensure that the final words published on the page do what they need to do.

But when reviewing your copy, what are you actually looking for?

Ethnography. You may never have heard of it, but if you’re tempted to go beyond surveys and focus groups, it might be just what you need.

Here are three very quick and easy ways that you can use chatGPT alone right now to enhance and add efficiency to your higher education content marketing approaches.

We are super excited to announce that this June, we welcomed Florence Largillière into the Pickle team as our new Senior Researcher!

We asked Florence to answer a few questions for you to get to know her a bit better.

Experience design is a method for understanding how we create better experiences for our customers by thinking not just about the isolated touchpoints or functional elements within a journey, but about how our customers feel, and what their experience is actually like.

So you’re about to embark on a digital transformation project? What does that actually mean? In our experience, digital transformation is rarely about technology. It’s more often about culture, content, user experience and a myriad of other things.

Addressing big issues in a university environment is fraught with tension. There are practical challenges to overcome - systems, processes, technology - but there’s also the human element. 

The reasons why we choose not to attempt a whole-organisation content strategy are endless. But when we play the “can’t” and “won’t” game, we close ourselves off to possibility.

Creating a whole-organisation content strategy is entirely possible. We’ve done it. Multiple times. But it takes the commitment to lay an essential foundation that is more to do with culture than content, if it is to truly work.

Over the last few blogs, i’ve spoken about some of the ways you can improve the accessibility of your content. I’ve discussed screen readers, alt text, keeping things camel case and other practical and structural ways to make your content accessible to people.

But, as we know, accessibility isn’t just about the physical challenges people face when accessing your content. It’s also important to talk about the mental and neurological implications and how we can make content accessible.

One evening recently a thought popped into my head: What would happen if I gave creative control over a university brand and content project to AI-tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E 2?

Within an hour or two I had somehow become the unlikely founder of a new university:

The University of Anywhere.

When I talk about a brand strategy, what do you expect that to include?

For years now I’ve grappled with understanding where brand strategy ends and content strategy begins. As a content strategist I’ve had to retrofit more brand strategies and brand visions than I care to count. Brand strategies are rarely fit for purpose to meaningfully bridge the intention of the brand vision with the actual reality of the lived experience of that brand and everything in between.

As we reach the end of a creative and busy year, I’ve asked the team to think ahead to what their dream projects would look like for 2023.

Accessible documents are an important part of creating an inclusive approach to content. This post covers the basics of creating accessible documents, including some quick tips and resources for easy implementation.

Being accessible on social media just makes sense.

Accessible content is good for everyone. When you consider ways to ensure that people can adequately access and understand your content, everyone is more likely to access and understand it. It’s simple really. This post touches on some of the core elements of accessible practice on social media.

Heard a colleague complain that ‘students don’t read their emails?’ Email communications can easily be done badly, resulting in overwhelm and disengagement from students.

Yet research suggests that most students prefer to get information from their institution via email. Email is one of the most effective tools we have to communicate with students and drive action.

But to be effective, it has to be done strategically

Defining what makes a university distinct from others can be quite tricky. There’s not a lot of reputational space in which to play - so if we’re starting to think we’re the same as everyone else, how do we really make our university feel different?

Aren’t we just full of announcements recently!

We’re expanding our team once again with a fantastic new Head of Content and Experience Design; Andrew Twist. Andrew is a strong presence in HE, spending 8 years at the University of Sheffield and recently taking on an interim role as Head of Digital Communications at the University of Leeds.

As is our tradition, we asked Andrew a few questions. :)

A 10 minute training video to show you the power of using Airtable as a content and editorial calendar.