It’s easy to get excited about a big idea or a one-off stunt, isn’t it? But, if you haven’t got all of the small bits right and in place, you’re at risk of seeing your campaign fail. To borrow a sporting analogy, you need to nail those marginal gains in order to get it right.

We can’t claim the credit for that phrase. The credit actually goes to our guest for this episode - Thread & Fable founder Rebecca Roberts.

We sat down with Rebecca recently to talk about marginal gains and how you can use them to supercharge your campaigns. In our conversation, Rebecca explains about what she means when it comes to marginal gains, gives some examples of campaigns that have done it well and offers some thoughts on the value of a one-off stunt in 2018.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/140

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

When it comes to big names in the global higher education sector, few have more clout or more gravitas than the University of Cambridge. More than 800 years of history, an alumni community full of some of the most important and brilliant people ever and a plethora of the most beautiful college buildings you could imagine. In terms of aspiration, innovation, and reputation, it is right up there.

With all that in mind, you could almost forgive Cambridge if its social media presence was a bit bland or a bit safe - after all, who hans’t heard of the University of Cambridge? But, one look at Cambridge’s feeds is all you need to take to know that their social media presence is far from dull…it is absolutely excellent, and it is the focus of this week’s episode.

Our guests on the podcast this time are Barney Brown and Lloyd Mann from the University’s digital communications team, who were kind enough to invite us to Cambridge for a peek behind the scenes at one of the biggest names out there.

We talk about how Cambridge approaches different social media channels, why they feel it is so important to get the voices of their students involved in their content and just what steps the University takes to make 800 years of history and influence relevant for social media audiences in 2018.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/139

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

The youth of 2018 are an interesting proposition. Not a day goes by without something popping up online about Gen Z and what motivates them. In fact, there’s so much out there that it can be difficult to separate the good from the not-so-good.

Thankfully, there *are* some useful studies and reports available - and one of them is the focus of this episode.

Our guests are Media Chain’s Ben Davies and Alex Martin from Student Problems. They’re two of the people behind the recent report The Student Problem - Inside the Mind of a Modern Student, which was released a few weeks ago and is a great read.

We sat down with Ben and Alex in Manchester recently to talk through the study and chew over some of its findings. In our chat, we dig deeper into what UK students in 2018 want, discover just how big a topic mental health is for young people right now and learn some tips for brands wanting to better engage with this headline-grabbing and mysterious audience.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/138

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

Handing over the keys to your organisation’s social media account to someone who isn’t a full-time member of your team can be daunting…but it can also be incredibly rewarding, which is why an increasing amount of Universities are hiring current students to work on their social channels for them.

That’s exactly what the University of Sussex did early in 2018 when they launched their digital gurus scheme, a team of six students - diligently whittled down from more than 100 applicants - to create content for the University’s social channels. The results have been incredibly - soaring engagement rates and follower numbers, some brilliant content and plenty of real work experience for their hired gurus.

On this episode, I sat down with Edd and Rebecca - two of Sussex’s gurus - to find out more about what they do. We chatted about why they applied to be a guru, what they’ve got out of it and they tell me about some of their content’s greatest hits.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/137

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

This Wednesday - 10 October - is World Mental Health Day. Chances are you’ve probably got some content planned for whatever channels you manage and that your audiences will value it - after all, mental health is a big topic for young people and is far less taboo than it has ever been.

But, is that quite the case for social media and communications professionals? In an always-on job, where we’re often to required to check emails and feeds outside of normal work hours, reply to things quickly and regularly deal with negative comments, our jobs have the potential to be detrimental to our mental health and wellbeing - regardless of much we like our work.

To mark World Mental Day, this is a special episode of The Native Podcast - with it focus being mental health for social media managers and communications professionals.

My guest is Alistair Beech, who is senior social media co-ordinator at the University of Manchester and an articulate and much-admired advocate of talking about and looking after your mental health. Alistair has been open about his own mental health journey and written on the subject for CASE, as well as running marathons to raise money for the mental health charity Mind.

In this episode we quite simply talk about mental health. We cover things like presenteeism, getting active and some of the specific things about working in communications that could have an effect on our wellbeing. We also discuss some places where you can go if you are struggling or if you do want some help.

But, most of all, we just talk - because that’s actually one of the best things you do. Take care of yourself this World Mental Health Day - and every other day too - and get ready for a really great conversation.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/136

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

We can confidently say that, without doubt, one of our all-time favourite social media teams out there is the one you’ll find tucked away in the cloisters at the University of Glasgow. Put simply, Team UofG is the best.

If you work in higher education they’re probably already top of your list of favourites and you’ve almost certainly looked at their stellar campaigns with a mixture of amazement and a little jealousy. And, to be honest, even if you don’t work in education specifically, you’ll find fewer social teams out there quite as good at building community and creating audience-pleasing content as Glasgow’s.

So, with all that in mind, you can understand why we were so happy to travel to Glasgow recently and bag two-thirds of Team UofG’s social gurus for this podcast.

Our guests today are Emma Gilmartin and Tasha Quinn from Glasgow’s social squad, who sat down with us and let us take a peek behind the scenes at one of the best teams out there.

In our chat, we talk about how Glasgow’s team has involved, the importance of giving yourself time to create reactive content, how to get your students and your leaders on board and…well…unicorns!

So, apply your temporary tattoo, get coy and be prepared for a look at what goes on behind the Team UofG curtain.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/135

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

When it comes to social media, sport has to be one of the coolest sectors to work in. Think about it; famous teams, famous athletes and famous brands, all mixing together offering opportunities to tell fantastic stories, create amazing content and reach loads of passionate fans.

Yep, sports social media marketing is pretty cool.

It’s also a great sector to look at if you’re in need of some inspiration for your next campaign - just think about how Adidas rewrote the rules in 2016 on how a star signing can be announced or, more recently, when Nike took a stand and put the outspoken Colin Kaepernick forward as the face of its brand.

There’s loads to learn from sports social media, which is why we’m so excited to introduce this episode of the show - our guest is John Crozier from We Are Social Sport, who are specialists in sports marketing and creators of some really amazing stuff.

We chat about where sports marketing is at right now, where it might be going and how it all ties in with social media. We also discuss some of We Are Social Sport’s eye-catching work, which includes that time I mentioned just previously, when Adidas thrust together a footballer and rising underground music star to redefine how to break a big transfer, and how they’re using micro influencers and dark social to build an army of loyal brand ambassadors.

So, sit back and get ready for kick off!

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/134

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

What do reindeer eat? Can an owl turn its head all the way round? Do sharks eat angel fish? How fast do owls fly? These are the brilliant questions that a curious eight-year-old asked a professor at the University of Sheffield back in January 2017. That eight-year-old was called Aisha and she put her questions in a letter…the only problem was, she didn’t include an address for the professor to reply to.

And so began what became a wonderful story; a social media search to find Aisha, followed by bringing her onto campus to have her questions answered in person.

We sat down with Andrew Twist, content strategist at the University, to hear the story of the campaign and find out not only what happened but also what it taught his team about content distribution and how a simple letter gave the University a chance to show the world what it was about and what it wanted to be known for.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/133

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

It’s tough being a young person right now. Think about it; cost of living is going up but wages aren’t, the jobs market is heavily suited in favour of older workers and it can take almost 20 years to save for a deposit to buy your first house.

In short, young people are screwed. That’s the claim made by this week’s guest Simon Lucey - founder of student marketing agency Hype Collective. And, when you look at the facts, it’s a pretty strong claim too.

We sat down with Simon to find out more why young people are screwed and what that might mean for brands. Should they even care about it? Might being aware of the plight of our young people lead to opportunities for brands to grow and have more resonance with younger audiences? And are there any brands already doing it well?

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/132

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.

Our podcast is taking a break from new episodes over the summer, so we’re taking the opportunity to repeat some of our favourite episodes from earlier in the year.

This week, we’re going back to our second ever episode, a chat with BBC Sport’s then-Younger Audiences editor Stuart Rowson.

We looked at how BBC Sport is able to find the character that is befitting of the organisation and their audiences – which, it turns out, is somewhere between dad dancing and #ladsbantz.

For full show notes for this episode visit http://thenative.com/131

The Native Podcast is the audio baby of The Native - a hub of inspiring resources for education and youth marketers - and is hosted and produced by our editor-in-chief, Dave Musson. Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, leave us a rating or review and tell a friend who might be interested in listening too.

If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode of The Native podcast I’d love to hear from you! Use the contact form on our website, email [email protected] or get in touch on Twitter where we’re @thenativetweets. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our excellent weekly newsletter too!

Our music is by Broke For Free and is used under Creative Commons and The Native is part of Natives Group - the World’s Student Marketing Group.