The Pew Research Center recently designated the term “Millennial” to those born between 1981-1996, a term attributed to a group of people who’ve grown up during the “age during the Internet explosion.” This internet explosion has been seen through AOL’s introduction of the online chat room, the innovation of the Apple iPhone, and the accessibility of Wi-Fi, permitting the sharing of digital content instantly with the swipe of a finger. Millennials aren’t just the creators of the avocado toast, they’re the curators, marketers, and strategists behind avocado toasts going on menus and advertisements. With the baby boomer generation now learning how to adapt to social platforms being the primary way in which we communicate, its up to us, the next generation to lead the way.
A Digital Content Producer is one who creates and curates digital content for social media platforms. A job that may seem easy, right? One who pulls out their phone whenever they deem necessary to garner a post, story, or snap and posting it to the internet for a myriad of followers to engage with. It appears that easy in plaintext, but what about the process that goes behind being a successful student content producer? When covering events, it’s been best to follow the three step process. First, setting the stage, providing context to the event that you’re attending. Then comes the best part, posting the content through different mediums, whether it be boomerangs, videos, or photos with eye catching text that will decrease the chances of users swiping away. Finally, the most important task is to close out the event to never leave users hanging.
At UConn, there are three student digital media content producers, students that including myself, attend campus events, strategize engaging campaigns, and depict our campus lifestyle from an “on the ground” point of view. Behind the scenes of these photos and wonderfully curated Instagram stories is planning, low-power mode phone batteries, and a battle between extroversion and introversion.
An example includes the Instagram coverage of the UConn Winter Weekend event, the One Ton Sundae, a long standing tradition that students line up in almost negative degree weather just to fill a bucket up of our award winning Dairy Bar ice cream. I lead the coverage for this event, waking up that morning to a full Friday schedule with my gloves, charger and ear muffs ready to start the day. The weather that morning peaked at 10 degrees and yet did not stop students from wanting to be first in line - perfect for an introduction post. Including the weather icon and a short note was all that was needed to provide context. As the early morning began, so did the wind of Storrs and the phone trouble. Unfortunately, after a certain temperature, iPhones begin to freeze and shut down until warmth is restored to them, regardless of battery charge. It was certainly an arduous task to run back and forth into a building to warm up my cell phone and run back to make sure every aspect of the event was still covered without interruption.
With that being just one fret student Digital Content Producers face, being extroverted is another. Attending campus events is fun, when you’re not working. Attending campus events while you’re working takes both focus and extroversion to move from within the crowd and walk to the front to get your content. Personally, it was difficult to move past those bounds as I thought my fellow classmates and staff would not take me seriously with a cell phone, regardless of having a media pass. My advice to extroversion in covering events, on campus or off, is to know that you have the power of your phone, the responsibility of your company (organization/large following?), and the personal confidence that you will still give the best coverage by following the three step process.