Inspiration on TAP

For this season finale of Inspiration on TAP, we've pulled out all the stops and secured a guest with all the seasoning you could ever need; it's the bad bitch of education influencers, IbzMo. In this episode, you’ll hear all about Ibz’s journey from a disadvantaged background in hackney through to being a Cambridge graduate, and how he documented the whole thing on his YouTube channel. You’ll hear how the central marketing team at Cambridge University embraced Ibz’s inimitable style and got his style and seasoning on their channels, you’ll learn what it was like for Ibz to interview Cambridge’s vice-chancellor, and you’ll get some tips on how you can work effectively with student content creators. Not only that, we’ll also find out what it was like when Ibz’s college told him to stop making videos and start writing more essays. You should definitely check out Ibz's YouTube channel, and follow him on Twitter too. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

Does your student recruitment content have heart? Is it personalised to your target audience? Is it meaningful? Are you using emotion effectively? Are you creating something that helps your audience or are you just adding to the noise? Our guest this week will help you make something great. Jonny Williams is a rising star in the higher ed content scene and can regularly be found on the conference circuit speaking from the heart, with enthusiasm, passion and, well, great content!  In this episode, we sat down with Jonny to discuss those key points – personalisation, meaningful content and emotion. They are Jonny’s passions and he has plenty of ideas about you can bring more of all three elements into your student recruitment campaign planning. Find Jonny on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

What’s your favourite type of pie? Apple? Pork? American? Something else all together? If you work in international education, there’s a chance your favourite pie isn’t encrusted in pastry, but still fills you with delicious knowledge and insight. We're talking, of course, about The PIE – the hub of everything for Professionals in International Education. It’s an independent media, recruitment and events company for professionals everywhere working in international education and is one of the most influential voices in the sector. Our guest this week is Amy Baker - the PIE’s CEO and co-founder, and an international education expert with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. She’s been passionate about international education since studying abroad for a year as part of her degree and is now a key voice on the international education scene. In this episode, Amy reflects on what’s gone down on the international education scene this year, what we should be looking out for in 2020 and tries to pick out what international students might want next year. Follow Amy on Twitter. Read The PIE online. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

The student communications ambassador scheme at Staffordshire University in the UK is one of the best around. Their ambassadors create amazing vlogs, host live streams and awards ceremonies and generally do wonderful stuff. Their content is cool, compelling and has serious cut through, and is a clear pointer to the value of working with student ambassadors to power your peer recruitment efforts. In this episode, we’re going to learn more about Staffordshire’s student communications ambassador scheme, with the help of Staffs' Digital Communications Manager Laura Allen. Not only that, we’re also going to hear from a trio of those ambassadors - Hayley, Nom and Maxie - to understand what skills they’ve built up, what sort of things they’ve worked on and, simply, why they do it. Check out Staffordshire University's student vlogs playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvIR_x7A7kk&list=PLkHj6Jg646IXpbFeQe9BJpDeLxGM_akfc Find Laura Allen on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

Gen Z. They're the generation everyone wants to know about, the generation that has heads turning and the generation that anyone working in higher education today has to understand. but, where to start? Well, this episode is a pretty good place! Rebecca Roberts has become something of an expert on Gen Z this year, after sifting through 50 different reports about today’s youth and pulling out common trends, interesting facts and a bunch of stats you really can’t ignore into a behemoth report of her own. Basically, she’s done loads of reading, thinking and analysing about today’s young people and left you with loads of useful stuff to act upon. In this episode, Rebecca will take you through her findings, offer some action points for you to work on and explain how to get real cut-through with your target audience. Read Rebecca's report at: https://threadandfable.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/engaging-youth-2019-thread-fable.pdf Find out more about the Helping Not Helping campaign at: https://www.helpingnothelping.org/ Find Rebecca on LinkedIn, and follow Thread & Fable on Twitter. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

We kick off season 2 of our podcast with a trip Down Under to understand why Australia is just so good when it comes to international education and international student recruitment - there is a lot of learning to be had in this episode! Our guest and source of knowledge on all things Australian higher ed is Mark Pettitt - a regular speaker at education conferences and the founder of the consultancy Edified.  Mark offers us an overview of the Australian scene, brings plenty of stats to highlight what a good job they're doing when it comes to international education and we discuss what challenges might be on the horizon. Find Mark on LinkedIn and learn more about Edified on their website. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

It's the episode you've all been waiting for...we're joined by the Twitter account taking the higher education sector by storm - the University of Bantshire! We find out more about Bantshire and how they approach their marketing efforts. We also put *your* questions to Bantshire. We also try, and fail, to find out who exactly is behind this brilliant account. We’ll be back later this year with the next full season of Inspiration on TAP. In the meantime, why not check out our previous episodes? Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

Next week, something is happening in the UK higher education sector that doesn’t happen very often; a brand new higher education institute is opening its doors and welcoming its first class of students.That institution is University Academy 92. Based a stone’s throw from Manchester city centre, UA92 is a partnership between Lancaster University and the Class of 92 – five former Manchester United footballers, namely Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt. UA92 plan to do things differently – with no exams, flexible entry points, and core modules that help prepare their students for life after graduation. Not only that, they also have widening access to higher education at the heart of what they do.To mark this potentially game-changing moment for the UK higher education section, we’re delighted to welcome UA92’s Principal and CEO Professor Craig Gaskell for a special bonus episode of our podcast. He tells us what it’s been like to build a new university from scratch, how they’ve worked to craft an authentic student voice when they don’t have any students and why the world needs UA92.We’ll be back later this year with the next full season of Inspiration on TAP. In the meantime, why not check out our previous episodes? Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review.Inspiration in TAP is hosted by Dave Musson and is brought to you by The Access Platform, a peer recruitment tool that enables universities to connect their Student Ambassadors with prospective students wherever they are in the world. Find out more on our website or come and say hi on Twitter.

Reddit has quite the fearsome reputation. It’s often seen as a place for trolls and quite a scary forum to enter. And, while that’s not entirely without justification, it also doesn’t tell the whole story – it’s also an incredibly engaged community that is really interested and values great content.That part of the mix means it has great potential for Universities – something a few institutions have realised…one being Imperial College, London. In this, the final episode of this series of our show, we're joined by Andrew Youngson from Imperial to hear all about Reddit, Subreddits, Karma and AMAs.Andrew is on Twitter @ACYoungsonInspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

In the conclusion of our chat with Tim Watkins from the University of Reading and Adam Koszary from the Museum of English Rural Life, we talk about what can be learned from going viral and what sort of things you might be able to do to get a boost on your own content.If you missed part 1 last time out please go and check it out!Tim is @_timwatkins on Twitter and Adam is @AdamKoszary.Inspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

In 2018, two buildings in the town of Reading sent tweets that went viral. The Museum of English Rural Life posted a picture of a big sheep, while the University slung a line from Hot Fuzz at racists and both blew up. It was sensational.We managed to get the two geniuses behind those posts – Adam Koszary from the MERL and Tim Watkins from the University – in the same room, at the same time, to join the podcast and talk us through what happened and what it was like to go viral.Join us for part 2 next week!Tim is @_timwatkins on Twitter and Adam is @AdamKoszary.Inspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

This week, we’re taking a deep dive into content strategy with the sector’s leading light on that subject; the one and only Tracy Playle. The CEO and founder of Pickle Jar and driving force behind the fantastic ContentEd conference is the only person you need to speak to when it comes to content strategy, so it’s a pleasure to welcome her to the podcast.We talk all things content strategy – what it is, why it’s important and who is doing it well. We also get excited about this summer’s ContentEd conference in Edinburgh, a conference being sponsored by your favourite people at The Access Platform no less!Tracy is @tracyplayle on Twitter. You can also check out her website and that of ContentEd. Talking ContentEd, we’ll be there! If you fancy meeting up then let us know!Inspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

It’s time for part two of our chat with Liam Ross and Bethan Fagan from Loughborough University’s social media squad – part one came out last week in case you missed it.This week we continue to peek behind the Loughborough curtain and get more solid insights; including the value of student reviews and the awesomeness of #VCBob.Both Liam and Bethan are on Twitter - @LeeHamRoss and @bethan_faganInspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

They win every award going, their campaigns always knock it out of the park and they are just plain awesome. Yep, it’s Loughborough University’s social media team.Let’s face it, they are superstars, so it was a treat to get them on the show. We were joined by Liam Ross and Bethan Fagan to get under the skin of what goes on in the East Midlands. Even better; our chat was so good that we’ve been able to split it into two parts – the second half will be with you next week.Both Liam and Bethan are on Twitter - @LeeHamRoss and @bethan_faganInspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

The idea of a social media detox is one that has grown in popularity of late. You might even have tried it yourself. But, could you imagine a University shutting down their feeds and going dark on social? Well, as it happens, one institution did exactly that.In January 2019, De Montfort University in Leicester stayed off social media for six days in the lead up to Blue Monday, as a way of highlighting just how much time we spend on social media and what it might be doing to our mental health. In this episode, we speak to DMU’s Press and PR manager Chris Thundow to find out how they did, what happened, and what they learned from it.Inspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

Being a team of one - or even a tiny team of two or three - equal parts challenging and rewarding, and it’s certainly worth taking any inspiration and advice you can to make your working lives run a little smoother. That means listening to wise folk like Katy Duddell.Katy is the Social Media and Conversion Co-ordinator at York St York University in the north of England and is a team of one. In fact, she is the *go-to* team of one for our sector and has become something of an expert on the subject – blogging about it and speaking at conferences. She gave one such session at this Spring’s CASE Social media and Community conference, after which I sat down with her to pick her brains on how small teams can not only cope, but thrive. Katy delivered with a host of great advice, so grab a notebook and pay attention!Find Katy on Twitter @katyduddellInspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. 

This is part 2 of our excellent chat with higher Education consultant, writer and blogger Eric Stoller – do go and check out part 1 if you haven’t already.Here, we continue to reflect on Eric’s time living and working in the UK and learn what he’ll be telling people on the other side of the pond once he returns home.Find Eric on Twitter @EricStollerInspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

To launch our new podcast, we’re joined by higher education consultant, writer and blogger Eric Stoller. Eric is one of the sector’s most influential thought leaders and we were delighted to sit down with him for a lengthy chat before he and his family moved back to the USA, after spending the last five years living and working in the UK.In our chat, we talk about the differences between the Higher Education sectors in the UK and the USA, what campaigns have caught Eric’s eye in recent years, why the term ‘digital native’ is a problem and loads, loads more.Find Eric on Twitter @EricStollerInspiration on TAP is a podcast brought to you by The Access Platform – an online tool that is redefining student recruitment by offering you an authentic connection to prospective students anywhere in the world. Find out more at http://theaccessplatform.com

Coming this May, a brand new podcast for anyone in Higher Education working in social media, marketing, student recruitment and outreach. Featuring conversations and interviews with some of sector’s influencers, thought leaders and downright good people - from The Access Platform, this is Inspiration on TAP.Season 1 launches on Thursday 2 May 2019.Find out more about The Access Platform on our website or say hi on Twitter.