#23 - The Future of Higher Ed Marketing in the Metaverse - with Brian Piper, co-author of Epic Content Marketing 2nd Edition
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SHOW NOTES
My guest today is Brian Piper. Brian is the Director of Content Strategy at University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. he is also the co-author of the 2nd edition of Epic Content Marketing along with Joe Polizzi, a book that really covers the gamut of the content marketing space in 2023 and how to succeed in it. Highly highly recommend this book. In our conversation though we zero in on one aspect of the book and that is Web3, or in other words, the Metaverse.
LINKS:
Epic Content Marketing
Connect with Brian on Linkedin
Mentioned in this episode:
-Pricing for Video Storytelling Subscription: pricing.unveild.tv
-Download the 3-part storytelling framework for student/alumni testimonials - "3 Absolutely Crucial Components Every Compelling College Student/Alumni Testimonial Needs"
Transcript (done with AI so only about 80% accurate):
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:35:00
Speaker 1
And I think we're going to see more and more adoption into the metaverse. We're seeing more and more brands get into these spaces and start playing around because they recognize that this is where consumers in the future are going to want to operate. So as marketers, we need to start thinking about how we're going to integrate content marketing and experiences and storytelling into those environments in a way that can, you know, help establish that brand credibility, help build our identity within these virtual worlds.
00:00:35:02 - 00:00:50:21
Speaker 1
I think the technology is, you know, within the next five years, I think the technology is going to get to a point where Metaverse is a much bigger part of all of our lives.
00:00:50:23 - 00:01:12:05
Speaker 2
Hey, welcome to the Higher Ed Storytelling University podcast here on the Be Podcast Network. This is a podcast dedicated to helping higher ed marketers tell better stories, create better content, and enroll more students. My name's John Azoni. I'm the founder at Unveild, a video production company working specifically with College Marcom teams on automating their student success stories through a subscription approach.
00:01:12:05 - 00:01:28:21
Speaker 2
And you can learn more at unveild.tv. And if you're listening to this podcast for the first time, I'd love for you to subscribe. And if you've been listening for a while now and haven't left review, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? I'd love for you to break the seal and do that.
00:01:28:23 - 00:01:51:10
Speaker 2
My guest today is Brian Piper. Brian is the director of Content Strategy at University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. He is also the coauthor of the second edition of Epic Content Marketing, along with Joe Pulizzi - a book that really covers the gamut of the content marketing space in 2023 and how to succeed in it. Highly, highly recommend this book.
00:01:51:11 - 00:02:17:16
Speaker 2
In our conversation though, we zero in on one aspect of the book and that is web3. Or in other words, the metaverse. Look, let me tell you something. Before today, I only pretended to know what blockchain meant and why someone paid $450,000 to live next to Snoop Dogg in the metaverse. True story. I also pretended to know how people are getting all this money.
00:02:17:18 - 00:02:44:15
Speaker 2
Actually, I'm recording this after my conversation with Bryan, and I'm still wondering where people are getting all this money. Groceries are just absolutely insane. Lately, I can't even just What happened? I mean, do you know how many packages of, like, raspberries I could get for $450,000? Like seven packages. Like half my grocery budget goes to keeping my kids berry supply flowing.
00:02:44:17 - 00:03:04:20
Speaker 2
Anyway, if you've ever wondered how the metaverse and these digital coins and all this stuff might affect higher ed marketing and enrollment strategies in the relatively near future, stay tuned because we're going to dive into all that. And so here is my conversation with Brian Piper. All right, Brian, thanks for being here.
00:03:04:21 - 00:03:06:19
Speaker 1
My pleasure, John. Thanks for having me.
00:03:06:21 - 00:03:09:16
Speaker 2
So tell us who you are, what you do.
00:03:09:18 - 00:03:36:15
Speaker 1
So I am the director of content strategy and assessment at the University of Rochester. And, you know, my primary job is looking at our content data and figuring out what content is performing and what content is not. How to make sure we're reaching all our audience and how to optimize our content performance across all all of our channels, all of our schools, departments, different institutional entities.
00:03:36:17 - 00:03:39:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. How did you get into that?
00:03:39:04 - 00:04:07:18
Speaker 1
So, yeah, I mean, I started off when I when I first came to the University of Rochester six years ago. You know, they originally hired me just to look at our content within our communications department. And after the first year, we had doubled our organic traffic to our news center. We had got better visibility around what we were doing on social and tied that more into our news center.
00:04:07:18 - 00:04:19:23
Speaker 1
And just after seeing the changes that we had made, they started sending me out across the entire institution to help other teams and other groups do the same thing.
00:04:20:01 - 00:04:24:11
Speaker 2
That's awesome. Good deal. So how long have you been at university of Rochester for then?
00:04:24:13 - 00:04:30:02
Speaker 1
So I started there in 2017. So six years ago.
00:04:30:04 - 00:04:37:13
Speaker 2
Cool. All right. So I live in Troy, Michigan, which is about I live about a mile from Rochester, Michigan.
00:04:37:15 - 00:04:38:22
Speaker 3
Okay.
00:04:39:00 - 00:04:44:23
Speaker 2
And there's a school called Rochester University a couple of miles from my house.
00:04:45:01 - 00:04:54:15
Speaker 1
Yes, we are aware of them because there is some crossover with, you know, search rankings and terms and branded keywords and things like that.
00:04:54:17 - 00:05:09:09
Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm having Jen is there. Jen Waters, their main like development officer having her on the podcast in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll have you guys on to just battle it out. You know?
00:05:09:11 - 00:05:10:22
Speaker 1
Absolutely. I love it.
00:05:10:23 - 00:05:26:09
Speaker 2
See who deserves the rankings more. Anyway, so you wrote a book or you co-wrote a book the second. So tell me about the book about content marketing. There was a first edition and it was just written by Is it Joe Polizzi?
00:05:26:11 - 00:05:28:08
Speaker 1
Yup, yup, yup. Let's see. Yup.
00:05:28:10 - 00:05:31:22
Speaker 2
All right. And it was just it was just him. And then you got involved. So tell me about that.
00:05:32:00 - 00:05:58:13
Speaker 1
That's right. So I actually started off as a website developer back in 1996, and I wasn't a very talented or very satisfied website developer. It was a job to pay the bills. I worked with some really smart developers, so they would typically say, Well, why don't you go do this like web positioning content stuff and we'll do the coding and the backend stuff.
00:05:58:13 - 00:06:28:01
Speaker 1
So I got doing SEO back in 1996. So then kind of did that worked for some ad agencies as their, you know, website developer director and worked in some defense contracting companies, creating e-learning courses, those sorts of things. And then in 2013, I read the first edition of Epic Content Marketing, and as soon as I finished it, I was like, This is what I want to do.
00:06:28:01 - 00:06:54:19
Speaker 1
I want to be able to tell stories and put out content that's valuable towards people that then they will know, like and trust you. And eventually they will take some sort of, you know, profit forced action and purchase your products or services. So I thought that was just a revolutionary concept. You're basically just giving away your content and answering questions and helping people out and building that trust.
00:06:54:21 - 00:07:32:07
Speaker 1
So I went right down to the head of marketing at the company I was working for. I said, You need to hire me to be your digital marketing manager. She said, We don't have a digital marketing manager. I said, Yes, you need one. So she hired me within the first year, doubled our organic traffic, made all sorts of great changes within the digital landscape, and that led me into the job at University of Rochester within the first two weeks of taking that job, I convinced them to send me to Content Marketing World, which was Joe Pulitzer's big event.
00:07:32:09 - 00:07:52:23
Speaker 1
So every year that I went there after that, I would track Joe down. I would take a selfie with him, thank him for writing the book, Changing My Career Path, making me much happier about what I'm doing with my my job. And then in 2020, I started speaking at Content Marketing World virtually the first year because it was covered.
00:07:53:01 - 00:08:13:01
Speaker 1
And then the second year I got to spend a lot more time with Joe. We got to engage a lot more. I started asking him when he was going to do a second edition of Epic. I was like, You know, it's still got Google Plus in there needs to be updated. It's still good content. So, you know, we had lots of conversations about that.
00:08:13:03 - 00:08:40:04
Speaker 1
You know, his new business is all focused on smaller content entrepreneurs. So he wasn't sure that it was the right fit for his audience. And I convinced him that we could absolutely, you know, make it the right fit. And then in October of 2021, we were in a content marketing institute, Slack Channel, where they were doing a book review of his most recent book, Content Inc at the time.
00:08:40:06 - 00:09:03:15
Speaker 1
And so it was him and I in there and maybe four other people. And I asked him again in the chat, I was like, When are you going to do a second edition of Epic? And he said, Well, coauthor it with me and we'll do it. So yes, I absolutely will. So that and you know, a year later it was, you know, written and to the publisher and that was a fantastic experience.
00:09:03:17 - 00:09:13:02
Speaker 2
That's awesome. That's awesome. Good to meet. Good to meet one of your heroes. Take selfies and then eventually actually get to work with them. That's cool.
00:09:13:04 - 00:09:21:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. It was a fantastic collaboration. And now we, you know, I, we reach out to each other back and forth on all sorts of things all the time. So it's great.
00:09:21:16 - 00:09:24:16
Speaker 2
So had you ever authored a book before?
00:09:24:18 - 00:09:46:01
Speaker 1
I had not. I was a poetry major, a creative writing major back in college, and I had had some poems, you know, published. But that was the only thing I had ever, you know, had published my first first book. And now Joe has me, you know, addicted to putting out books. So I'm already working on the next one.
00:09:46:03 - 00:09:52:22
Speaker 2
That's awesome. So the book is is out now, or is it is it not out yet?
00:09:53:00 - 00:09:54:06
Speaker 1
What's that?
00:09:54:08 - 00:09:57:21
Speaker 2
The epic content marketing. Is that published? Is it out there now?
00:09:57:21 - 00:10:25:10
Speaker 1
It is published. It is out. And I actually just have a chapter here in another book that's coming out. It's called the Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever. It's Mark Schaefer's community. He's another well known content marketer. His he brought his community together to collaborate on a book project. So there's 35 different authors. We each wrote a chapter, and so that book comes out at the beginning of June.
00:10:25:12 - 00:10:47:17
Speaker 2
That's awesome. All right. And once again, the most amazing marketing book ever. That's it. All right. I've been I've been like brainstorming book titles and things like that. And like I zero in on that stuff, like headlines that are catchy and stuff like that and like book titles. I just remember the story in the bookstore with with my dad one time, and I was like, Oh, there's a book called Everyone's Going to Die or something like that.
00:10:47:17 - 00:10:52:15
Speaker 2
And he's like, He's like, Well, if it was called Everything's going to be Okay. Nobody would buy it.
00:10:52:16 - 00:10:53:13
Speaker 3
That's right.
00:10:53:13 - 00:10:55:21
Speaker 1
Absolutely. It's all storytelling, right?
00:10:56:02 - 00:11:03:16
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. So what what makes content epic versus just normal content?
00:11:03:18 - 00:11:25:01
Speaker 1
Well, that was one of the great things about the book is we got to talk to all sorts of different, like amazing content marketers and got to get their input on, you know, what it is that creates, you know, that turns regular content marketing into epic content marketing. So a lot of different answers, you know, everything from, you know, epic marketing.
00:11:25:05 - 00:11:51:23
Speaker 1
The content marketing is marketing the people will pay you for. So that was an interesting take on it. But, you know, our our perception of epic content marketing is, you know, marketing, content marketing that makes people take some action, that causes some action. Anytime you can bring someone into your story, you can get them to trust you and connect with you.
00:11:52:01 - 00:12:19:11
Speaker 1
Creating content that resonates with somebody. That's where you're you're crossing over into that epic area where it's something that you know is not going to generate. You can't just go out and find it by doing a Google search. It's content that is very valuable, very focused on your particular audience that will cause them to, you know, to take some measure of change, to do something that's different than what they've been doing.
00:12:19:13 - 00:12:36:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. And going back to being at University of Rochester, what was what was some of like the ways or an example of a way that you kind of brought the current content marketing their their content marketing landscape into a more epic sort of mode.
00:12:36:02 - 00:12:52:03
Speaker 1
Yeah, and a lot of that was just really looking and, you know, I do I do consulting with other higher ed institutions. And really the first thing that we always look at and the first thing I looked at when when I started at the university was what are our strategic goals? Where are we going? What are we trying to do with our content?
00:12:52:05 - 00:13:16:03
Speaker 1
And if you're not moving in a specific direction, you're you're wasting your time. You're not as efficient as you should be. So it was really, you know, just understanding high level, what are we trying to do with our content? What action are we trying to make someone take that's going to help us reach our goals? And then the second thing you really have to think about is who are we talking to very specifically?
00:13:16:05 - 00:13:42:14
Speaker 1
Who is our key audience for each piece of content? And I think just creating that mindset within all of our content creators to really make them think about what am I trying to get a particular user to do after consuming this content and connecting with us that will help us reach our goals. And then, you know, we just set up measurements around those tactics so we could see which ones were working and which ones weren't working.
00:13:42:16 - 00:14:07:13
Speaker 1
We could look at stories that, you know, connected with a particular audience and figure out how we could drive traffic from that story to some call to action that would, you know, create some conversion down the road. So it was really just being more intentional about your content. And we have a tendency, I think, to to put out a lot of content and to feel like we have so many stories to tell.
00:14:07:13 - 00:14:18:07
Speaker 1
We have to put it all out there. But you really have to take a step back and think about why you're putting out the content you're putting out and who you're talking to with that content.
00:14:18:09 - 00:14:55:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, and I think I feel that there's there's so much pressure to like post every day on some, you know, media, social media channel. And so it's really easy to just be lobbing content into the into the Internet and and not really taking a step back and say it's okay if I don't post for a couple of days while we figure this out, you know, and it's an then for me, I mean, I've worked at organizations where it was more, more loose, less strategy, and I've worked at organizations where there was a defined like this is these are the this is why we're posting here, here and here.
00:14:55:17 - 00:15:09:22
Speaker 2
This is why were posting what we're posting and this is what we want them to do. And the ladder is just so much less stress of like when we can sit down and know, I know what I'm supposed to do today and here's why I'm supposed to do that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:10:00 - 00:15:31:00
Speaker 1
Absolutely. And you know what else it does is it gives you the opportunity to experiment more because you have a baseline. You know what your standard is, You know what you're trying to do, what you're trying to accomplish. Then you have the opportunity to say, Well, let's try something different. Let's try another channel. Let's try a different strategy on this particular channel.
00:15:31:00 - 00:15:49:18
Speaker 1
Let's try some content, you know, that that reaches a different audience. But if you're not measuring, if you're not tracking, if you're not very intentional about where you're going, whenever you do those experiments, you can't really track them because you don't know how they are different than than what your typically standard doing.
00:15:49:18 - 00:16:08:09
Speaker 2
So yeah, absolutely. So, okay, I wanted to get I want to hear about the book and then but what really drew my attention in the book was the section about Web three. And is that I can edit this part out. But is that something that like you're comfortable talking about?
00:16:08:11 - 00:16:09:09
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:16:09:10 - 00:16:38:16
Speaker 2
You bet. Okay. All right, cool. Yeah. So Web three and the reason for me is I am so confused and I feel like I would guess 90% of our listeners, it's just over their head. I mean, and so I wanted to sort of learn along with everyone else. Yes. So I've, you know, I've I've digested the section on Web three.
00:16:38:18 - 00:16:57:18
Speaker 2
I'm still like, it's a lot it's like drinking from a firehose. It's a lot to like taking with blockchain and the metaverse and all this stuff. I kind of get it. But give us a broad overview of what is Web three? Why does it matter? Especially why does it matter, you know, in future higher ed marketing efforts?
00:16:57:20 - 00:17:24:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. So I mean, Web3 is basically it's the evolution of the Internet. So Web one was where, you know, when the Internet just got started and companies were able to put up websites and put information out there, it was a game changer for users because now we had all this access to all this information that, you know, before we would have to go get from your magazines or, you know, TV news or the library.
00:17:24:04 - 00:17:43:22
Speaker 1
So now we had all this access at our fingertips, but it was very much a read. Only at that point we could just consume you know, what was put out there because it was expensive to create a website. It was very technical, complicated at that time. And then Web two was kind of where we got into blogging and CMS and social media.
00:17:43:22 - 00:18:03:22
Speaker 1
And now this was a read, right where now we can we can create content. We can tell these brands, you know what they're doing that we like or don't like. You know, it really became more of a give and take. And then Web three, what it is allowing us to do is actually prove that we own digital property.
00:18:04:00 - 00:18:34:07
Speaker 1
So it's all based on blockchain, which is basically just a database that's public and it is very difficult, almost impossible to change because of the way that it's created. So this allows us to create records of digital property that we own that other people can access to see that we actually own that content or that property and they can't say that they own it.
00:18:34:09 - 00:18:42:10
Speaker 1
So let's talk about use cases, because even that is a little you know, it's like, well, what how does this change? We have database is already.
00:18:42:12 - 00:18:45:12
Speaker 2
You know, like I own I own my Facebook profile. Right.
00:18:45:14 - 00:18:47:10
Speaker 3
Right. Right.
00:18:47:12 - 00:19:13:15
Speaker 1
But you don't really own your Facebook profile because Facebook really owns that. And so part of what Web3 does is it creates this decentralization where no longer is your data all owned by these third parties. So instead of Facebook owning all of your Facebook data, you can actually control your data much better. So we know we're having issues with with cookies.
00:19:13:15 - 00:19:36:02
Speaker 1
Third party cookies are going away. People are trying to figure out how they're going to get this, you know, personal data. People are much more concerned about data privacy. They want to protect their own data. So Web three gives us opportunities to do all of that. It gives us the opportunity to control what data we want to share from our digital identity.
00:19:36:04 - 00:20:25:00
Speaker 1
And it gives other people the ability to validate what we're sharing. So for instance, on LinkedIn, I saw a statistic that 80% of the people on LinkedIn who say they went to Harvard did not go to Harvard because LinkedIn doesn't validate that they don't you don't have to prove that you went there. But if Harvard or and there are already some institutions that are issuing diplomas and degrees as nfts as web3 tokens, if they issued their degrees that way, and if LinkedIn used that as a method to validate that someone actually did graduate or study at Harvard, that would be a very easy way to create that certificate from the institution that would be validated.
00:20:25:02 - 00:20:55:02
Speaker 1
And, you know, so I think within the next 3 to 5 years, we're going to see a lot of things becoming Web three and four years. I don't think we're going to talk about them as nfts. I think that Web3 language is kind of going away. I think the NFT craze from 2021 is not going to return, but I think we're going to see more practical uses for nfts, for tokens, for cryptocurrencies even, and through blockchain.
00:20:55:04 - 00:21:21:16
Speaker 1
And I think the, you know, any sort of, you know, your car title, your house mortgage, your certifications, you know, even experiences are things that you will be able to put into your digital identity. And then if you do decide that you want to share that with, you know, a particular website or a particular group of people, you'll have the ability to turn that on or turn that off.
00:21:21:18 - 00:21:47:00
Speaker 2
I like that. All right. It makes sense. It's making sense. And I thought, you know, back in 2020 when I was I was getting into NFT and starting to get swept away with like, oh, I could just make something and be a millionaire, you know? And and I'm watching like, these these little dumb little images just get sold for so many thousands, millions of dollars.
00:21:47:02 - 00:22:02:17
Speaker 2
And it's just it's just crazy. I thought that's what it was. I thought that's what an NFT was. It's like a piece of artwork. But you're saying that's kind of like the output, the output of, you know, the technology behind it, which says you own this piece of artwork and therefore you own the value.
00:22:02:19 - 00:22:26:13
Speaker 1
Exactly. And, you know, owning those particular pieces of digital property could give you access to things. So then people started figuring out that they could gate their communities or their websites so that you had to be able to prove that you owned this asset to be able to get access to these communities. So that's where people were starting to see the value of that.
00:22:26:15 - 00:22:56:07
Speaker 1
And we're already seeing, you know, loyalty programs, Starbucks NFT, loyalty program is, you know, basically a great use of of nfts of the blockchain. And we're going to see more and more implementations like that that don't necessarily say this is an NFT project because, you know, it's it's moved away from that, you know, purely financial kind of a hype, which I think is good because now we're seeing much more practical use cases.
00:22:56:09 - 00:23:24:08
Speaker 1
And I think it's that way with any new technology. We're seeing it with A.I. right now. I mean, I've been around for a long time, but that kind of thrust, generative AI, you know, into the world and now we're seeing, you know, several hundred new A.I. applications being launched every day. And probably, you know, 80% of those are all going to eventually fail or be, you know, consumed into larger projects.
00:23:24:10 - 00:23:33:22
Speaker 1
So I think it's just that, you know, then eventually people are going to figure out the right way to use A.I. to solve their particular problems.
00:23:34:00 - 00:23:46:11
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I want to talk about the metaverse. And then and then we kind of wrap it all together in like how how schools can can harness these things that we're talking about. So tell me, what is the metaverse?
00:23:46:13 - 00:24:15:13
Speaker 1
So lots of different definitions of the metaverse. Some people see any sort of, you know, gathering of people virtually as a metaverse. I think when we're talking kind of traditionally what people think about the metaverse, it's really creating this these virtual 3D immersive environments that persist across time. So it's the environments are always there. You can come in and out.
00:24:15:15 - 00:24:45:16
Speaker 1
It'll support a large number of people and then people within that Metaverse will have digital identities that will be connected to them. So avatars or, you know, digital scans or nfts. And I think we're going to see more and more adoption into the metaverse. The technology behind the metaverse is still very nascent. It's still developing. You know, the goggles are clunky.
00:24:45:18 - 00:25:22:22
Speaker 1
It's other than like millennials and Gen Z, not a lot of adoption for the metaverse spaces, but we're seeing more and more brands get into these spaces and start playing around because they recognize that this is where consumers in the future are going to want to operate. So as marketers, we need to start thinking about how we're going to integrate content marketing and experience answers and storytelling into those environments in a way that can, you know, help establish that brand credibility, help build our identity within these virtual worlds.
00:25:23:00 - 00:25:34:03
Speaker 1
And I think the technology is, you know, within the next five years, I think the technology is going to get to a point where Metaverse is a much bigger part of all of our lives.
00:25:34:05 - 00:25:59:16
Speaker 2
Quick break here to tell you about how you can scale up your student and alumni success stories without taking on a bunch of extra work to manage with our video storytelling subscriptions. Look, come here... come here... making even one video takes a lot of legwork. So many steps to go through. You know, you got to hire a video vendor. You got to coordinate everyone's schedules, approvals, all this stuff.
00:25:59:18 - 00:26:24:00
Speaker 2
Got it. God forbid you have to do an RFP. Oh, my gosh. Bless your soul. You don't have to do all of that with our storytelling subscriptions because all you have to do is find the stories to tell and pass them off to us. Whether you're a big school or a small liberal arts college, you can tell really compelling stories all year round and fill your content calendar with video content.
00:26:24:02 - 00:26:40:06
Speaker 2
And we're going to get this done for you anywhere in the U.S. What we do is batch you a year's worth of content and then every month we're going to drop out to you one new student or alumni story along with a whole package of additional video content. So you're going to get the full length story, which is 2 to 3 minutes.
00:26:40:08 - 00:26:57:13
Speaker 2
You're going to get a 30 second and a 15 second cut down of that to use in various ways. And you're going to get eight topical videos, for instance. You know, while we've got this student sitting here, let's ask him about scholarship opportunity. So let's ask him about career development opportunities. Let's ask him how the housing was. All that stuff.
00:26:57:15 - 00:27:14:22
Speaker 2
We're going to work with you to figure out what are those things, those extra things that we can get the student talking about so that we can argue with that content to have whenever you need. The great thing is you can keep all of the B-roll and interview footage that we film and there's no extra charge for you.
00:27:14:22 - 00:27:37:02
Speaker 2
There's it's all included in your subscription and there's a wealth of additional content opportunities within that, and you don't have to go film anything. So head over to pricing.unveild.tv to download our pricing guide, which has everything in it you need to know. And if you'd like to chat further, you can book a call with me on our website and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.
00:27:37:04 - 00:27:59:18
Speaker 2
Okay, back to my conversation with Brian. My question is kind of like when I when I hear about that, I'm kind of like, that's really cool. But also like, okay, let's see if this actually gets some legs, because, I mean, I remember virtual reality. I remember the first like, I don't know, it's like early nineties where like the Mario tennis game came out was like Virtual Boy or something like that.
00:27:59:18 - 00:28:28:19
Speaker 2
And you played tennis and I never had one. I always wanted one. And then but I feel like as as I got into, you know, my career in video and that kind of parlaying into this virtual cool augmented reality thing that started I feel like it was like 2016, 2017. We were hearing a lot more about virtual reality in 360 video that was supposed to be like the big thing, and you still see some of that.
00:28:28:19 - 00:28:56:17
Speaker 2
But I feel like virtual reality, the hype has died down and also the 360 hype has has died down. You still see a lot of colleges with 360 video tours of their campus, which I think is really smart. But yeah, but and so for me, I'm kind of like I'm curious to see, you know, if this is just a little hill of hype or if this actually this isn't going to if this is going to, like, come to fruition in like 2050 or something.
00:28:56:17 - 00:29:03:16
Speaker 2
And we'll we'll we'll be talking about this metaverse as the the virtual boy Mario the first iteration.
00:29:03:18 - 00:29:25:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure we will. I'm sure we're going to look back on this and be like, what do you mean you're at your avatar, didn't even have legs. You know, what kind of metaverse is this, that? But I think we're seeing a lot of the big companies really trying to push the limits and really trying to get the technology to the place where it needs to be.
00:29:25:04 - 00:30:05:00
Speaker 1
I Apple's coming out with their VR hybrid glasses later this year. Be very interesting to see what you know, whether that's another, you know, Google Glass or whether it's actually a step in the right direction for the metaverse. I think the technical issues around the metaverse are the big detractors right now because, I mean, just a little bit of latency in the visual perception that can create that feeling of queasiness sickness that a lot of people get when they put the, you know, VR glasses on there figuring that out.
00:30:05:02 - 00:30:33:08
Speaker 1
They're figuring out how to do more of the processing on the server side and then feeding that directly to the units instead of trying to rely on the units to do so much of the processing. So, you know, it's a it's a technology issue at this point because I can see it in my kids. They have no problem coming down and throwing on the VR headsets and playing beat Saber for two or 3 hours at a time.
00:30:33:09 - 00:31:14:03
Speaker 1
I think they're much more willing to work, to interact, to engage in this environments. They go to concerts in Fortnite, they spend time in an Roblox and they're exploring these virtual spaces where they're connecting with other people who they wouldn't be able to connect with. I think once we really start integrating this into education, there's already over 150 schools that have virtual twins in the digital space where they're offering classes and creating research opportunities for people to come together from all over the world to collaborate on different ideas.
00:31:14:04 - 00:31:37:13
Speaker 1
So I think we're going to see more and more of this, especially as, you know, the next generation starts getting deeper into the job market and into careers and start understanding the the opportunities for being able to do these virtual meetings with people from around the world who, you know, can interact and engage in these small groups very quickly.
00:31:37:13 - 00:31:39:01
Speaker 1
Very easily.
00:31:39:03 - 00:32:00:15
Speaker 2
Yeah. The robot, the Roblox connection helps helps me because I just my daughter, my she's eight, she's eight is just she's in the last year gotten into Roblox and I've gotten into it with her just as a way to like kind of hang out hang out with her on the couch, side by side, but be it like it like building a house together, something.
00:32:00:18 - 00:32:01:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely.
00:32:01:22 - 00:32:22:21
Speaker 2
It's kind of it's kind of fun. And she's always on her on like, on there with her friends. And they're all they're all like, going to each other's houses and things like that. It's really interesting. Part of me is like, Wow, this is really cool. I can see how useful. The other part of me is. Like, what? What I was telling my daughter Ellie, and what is the point of this?
00:32:22:22 - 00:32:48:23
Speaker 1
Right. And I think that's an incredible question because so many of these spaces like Minecraft, there's there's no like winning the game. Like we're used to playing video games where there's, like the big boss at the end and you win and, you know, the credits, screen rolls and these games are just people in. They're co-creating, collaborating, working together, you know, having these interactions.
00:32:49:01 - 00:33:11:13
Speaker 1
So I think it's a very different mindset, and I think that's going to roll right into, you know, business utility, co-creation, collaboration opportunities that are going to be created in these spaces that are very difficult to do in the real world because people have to fly across the globe or, you know, Yeah. So I think there's there's a ton of opportunity there.
00:33:11:15 - 00:33:43:10
Speaker 2
And even just monetizing that to it kind of amazes me with with with Rob Roblox how and I was at the correct my my wife was just road blocks. Right right. Drives me and Ellie nuts. So I have to like make sure I'm not seeing the demo. So Roblox so it's it's even just like there's a currency in there called Robux where you can actually like you buy Robux and then you can like buy like virtual things.
00:33:43:10 - 00:34:06:15
Speaker 2
And it's actually very I always thought, that's so dumb. These in-app purchases. I never would, never would I do that. And then here I am, I got hooked on this game, Flag Wars, which is like capture the flag and in you you get you, you can buy different weapons and you can see immediately how much more power you have in the game.
00:34:06:17 - 00:34:10:17
Speaker 2
And I probably spent 30, 40 bucks.
00:34:10:18 - 00:34:14:03
Speaker 1
But there's nothing that you have physically, right? It's all digital.
00:34:14:05 - 00:34:23:11
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's yeah, it's a lot of fun. My wife had to have a conversation with me about how much I was playing Flag Wars.
00:34:23:13 - 00:34:23:20
Speaker 3
So.
00:34:23:23 - 00:34:49:23
Speaker 1
But then you can think about that experience and imagine so imagine instead of going to the movie theater now you can put on your, you know, your glasses. Eventually they're going to be the size of standard glasses and you can be fully immersed in your favorite movie ever where you can like, you know, walk up to the front of the Titanic and you be able to, you know, see the ocean and see the waves crashing.
00:34:50:01 - 00:35:26:07
Speaker 1
And then if you really liked the jacket that Jack was wearing, you could just pause the movie and select that. And that with crypto, it would, you know, automatically transfer through. And then if you incorporate a I and generative video into these solutions, you could control the narrative of the movie. You could change the way the movie turns out so that, you know, based on your interactions and your choices with, with that character within the movie, you could change the whole outcome of the movie.
00:35:26:07 - 00:35:35:10
Speaker 1
And maybe, maybe Jack. So, you know, it's very interesting when you start thinking about all the different ways that these technologies could come together.
00:35:35:12 - 00:35:41:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. And so how how do you think that colleges can what would a college do with this?
00:35:41:15 - 00:36:04:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, and I really think, you know, one of the things that that colleges higher ed is really going to have to figure out how to incorporate is building community I think community and for for businesses and brands. I think this is the future. I think AI is going to make it difficult to know what sources of information you can trust.
00:36:04:11 - 00:36:31:16
Speaker 1
And I think creating these communities of trusted individuals is going to provide, you know, those resources that people are looking for. They're going to be looking for sources where they can go to get detailed information about, you know, new research or new opportunities. And so I think the metaverse is one way that colleges and universities will be able to create these communities.
00:36:31:22 - 00:37:02:19
Speaker 1
You could create communities of students, you could create communities of alumni, where then they could come in and interact. You could open that up to researchers of particular areas. So if all your climate researchers could get together in this metaverse space and talk about the problems that they're face in, break out into smaller groups, or then they could go share information, share resources, share access to specialized equipment that maybe they don't, you know, that they can't access in Kenya.
00:37:02:19 - 00:37:34:02
Speaker 1
But we have, you know, one in Chicago. They could use those resources to help solve problems. I think this is really going to be, you know, kind of the future of communication is finding instead of going out and searching on Google, you're going to go in and search, you know, content Marketing Institute for your questions about content because you know, you're going to have people there who can say, Oh, well, your situation's a little different than what, you know, the standard answer would be.
00:37:34:04 - 00:37:52:10
Speaker 1
And then you could get individual help from real people in those communities. I think a lot of search is going to go the way of, you know, AI generated common responses to common questions. But when you really want to dig deep into something and get details, you're going to need humans.
00:37:52:12 - 00:38:14:03
Speaker 2
Yeah, and I experience that a lot like when I have a question about something and I've been posted it in some forum on Facebook or whatever and been told, just Google it. I'm like something. I'm like, I know I can Google it, but I want I want this community to give me like, what do you do, you know, in in this situation?
00:38:14:04 - 00:38:21:11
Speaker 2
So that's that's huge. I think in just, you know, the spread of misinformation, I think would be limited to a lot more that way.
00:38:21:13 - 00:38:48:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we started talking about ways to integrate Web three into a I, I mean, if you could tag all of your personal content, your brand content on the blockchain with your digital identity, any time I scraped your content, it could credit you with a reference within their answers or or it could at least alert people that it had pulled content from you.
00:38:48:11 - 00:39:01:11
Speaker 1
And if someone else puts out a Deepfake video, anybody consuming that content would be able to look at it and say, Oh, this isn't verified on the blockchain to be owned by, you know, whoever says is creating this content.
00:39:01:13 - 00:39:13:21
Speaker 2
So yeah, totally. And that's I was watch there's some documented documentary on TV on Britney Spears and I watched a couple of minutes of it. No judgment.
00:39:13:23 - 00:39:15:04
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:39:15:06 - 00:39:36:03
Speaker 2
My wife was watching it and I came into the room. I was like, sucked in. But I noticed they had they had, I assume they had like Britney Spears is voice narrating her Instagram posts. And I mean, I assume they they didn't get her permission and call her up to come in and to the studio and do that.
00:39:36:03 - 00:39:47:00
Speaker 2
Right. You know, with A.I., they like Deepfake her voice. And I just thought that was incredible. And also pretty scary that that that that can that that can happen.
00:39:47:01 - 00:40:17:10
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. I saw a video showing how they had taken a you know, Snoop Dogg had recorded something for this brand for one of their commercials, and it worked great. And they played the commercial but then they had a subsidiary company that had a different location, and they were able to use A.I. to change his mouth movements and change the audio so that they could do use the same recording for different locations without having to reshoot and pay him more, you know?
00:40:17:12 - 00:40:18:23
Speaker 1
So yeah, you start wondering.
00:40:18:23 - 00:40:19:20
Speaker 2
Where.
00:40:19:20 - 00:40:26:19
Speaker 1
Where are we crossing the lines with you know, individual rights and deepfakes covers? Yeah.
00:40:26:21 - 00:40:48:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. It makes now. Now it makes sense. Why, how the the ways like that ways the app. Yeah. Because I'll get like notifications like hey, do you want the Jonas Brothers to give you directions, You know, But, but they're, I'm thinking like how did they, how did they, did they have the Jonas Brothers come in and go left.
00:40:48:15 - 00:40:55:13
Speaker 2
Right. Like, say every possible word. But now I'm kind of like I probably they probably just mimicked their voice.
00:40:55:15 - 00:41:08:03
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to know what to trust these days. So I think that's where, you know, these communities and this, this web3 ownership ideas will really start paying out.
00:41:08:05 - 00:41:31:22
Speaker 2
So where can if someone if, if a marketing team and a college wanted to take a step in this direction, where do we go? Because I assume like going to a website owned by someone else is counter countering the idea that you would own this kind of is there like a play, a sort of like a URL you go to to like get into the metaverse or.
00:41:32:00 - 00:42:06:18
Speaker 1
Yeah, I mean, right now the metaverse is are all owned by, you know, different entities, entities. So decentraland is one sandbox is one. So these are are kind of like, you know, big companies who are creating these decentral environments, these landscapes that no one particularly owns. But you can own assets within these different, you know, collaborative spaces. So there's still a lot of I mean, we're so early in the metaverse space, but there are a lot of like brands that are building in these spaces.
00:42:06:18 - 00:42:37:06
Speaker 1
So like Nike has a big presence in Roblox. So you can go to the Nike. It's not really a store, it's the Nike Center in Roblox, four different experiences in there. So I think at this point it's mostly just exploring, trying out different landscapes. We have I'm in a community that has meetings every month within spatial, so spatial IO is, you know, it's a virtual environment where we can go and try new things and experiment and do presentations.
00:42:37:08 - 00:43:05:18
Speaker 1
I'm in part of I'm in the edX three DAO, which is it's a web3 community focused on educating educators about Web3 and they have K 20 educators Metaverse space where we go and we have conferences in the space. We gather, you know, a thousand people from all over the world, educators to come into these metaverse conferences and, you know, have conversations and explore, experiment and try new things out.
00:43:05:23 - 00:43:30:15
Speaker 1
So I think that's, you know, that's kind of where we are right now in the Web3 landscape. I think people are still experimenting and playing, and I think it's important to start looking for opportunities just to understand it. I mean, just just from what you've talked about with your experiences with Roblox, you can see now you have a different perspective of what the opportunities are within those environments.
00:43:30:17 - 00:43:37:12
Speaker 1
And I think it's important for us to be customers before we become creators in these spaces.
00:43:37:14 - 00:44:05:16
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's great. And yeah, for people listening, I seriously recommend this book because it's just breezing through. It's you guys cover a lot of ground in this. And what I appreciated is that this updated edition, like you said, the first edition was mentioning Google Plus and I read a lot of books and even the ones that are like a couple of years old, you know, they're talking about Facebook algorithms from two years from now, You know, So it's this stuff is is moving so fast.
00:44:05:16 - 00:44:19:07
Speaker 2
And this this I feel like if people wanted to get like right now today a really great overview of like what's going on and how to succeed within that content marketing space. It's a really good book to pick up.
00:44:19:09 - 00:44:34:17
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, thank you. And it was interesting because when we first started out with the second edition, we had a lot of conversations about, well, you know, what do we keep? Do we just update the statistics and, you know, keep the shell of the book? And we were like, look, it's been ten years. Let's throw it all out.
00:44:34:17 - 00:44:53:13
Speaker 1
This is all going to be different. Nothing's going to be the same. And then when we started actually coming up with the chapters in the structure, we kept looking back at the first edition saying, Well, this strategy stuff, this audience stuff, it is all the same. It all, you know, with some minor tweaks and some nuances, it's mostly the same.
00:44:53:13 - 00:45:15:02
Speaker 1
You have to know your strategy. You have to know who you're talking to. But it was very interesting to see where things had changed Within that first chunk. We were able to get some amazing case studies that didn't exist ten years ago because content marketing was barely a thing at that point. So it was easy to get some just amazing case studies to include in the book.
00:45:15:04 - 00:45:41:03
Speaker 1
So really the first third of the book is still those essential core things from the first edition and then the second third. We really get into, you know, content optimization and how to really pick your channels and how to create different sorts of content and make it perform really well. How to look at your analytics and understand the search landscape.
00:45:41:05 - 00:46:00:04
Speaker 1
And then the last third is really looking at these new technology is and looking at looking at AI, looking at Web three, talking about, you know, communities and superfans and all of these, you know, things that are springing up that are becoming more and more important in in this content landscape.
00:46:00:06 - 00:46:11:00
Speaker 2
Awesome. Well, this has been this has been great. One thing I did want to ask you, because I looking at your LinkedIn profile, is that you you have your own coin.
00:46:11:02 - 00:46:13:07
Speaker 1
I do. I have the Piper coin.
00:46:13:09 - 00:46:20:16
Speaker 2
So it's okay. Give us a little bit of a descriptor about that and how it's useful and promoted if you want.
00:46:20:18 - 00:46:42:18
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. So blockchain allows to provide different kind of tokens. You can create these different kinds of tokens. So there's these non-fungible tokens. We were talking about these nfts that each one is unique individual. You prove that you own that one item, you can buy and sell that item. And then on the other side of that is fungible tokens.
00:46:42:18 - 00:47:05:19
Speaker 1
So these are like cryptocurrencies. So you can create these micro economies where, you know, you can give somebody a bitcoin and they give you a Bitcoin and it's the same value transfer back and forth. So it's not like each one is unique, but each one has a value. So one of the things that Web3 allows you to do is to create your own tokenomics economy.
00:47:05:20 - 00:47:33:05
Speaker 1
So I created the Piper coin where it really only has value within my community. So if someone comes into my discord and engages and interacts and ask questions and adds value, I can reward them with giving them Piper. And then when they get enough, then they get access to different courses, one on one coaching with me. I can come in and run reports for their website, all sorts of different things.
00:47:33:05 - 00:47:49:08
Speaker 1
So it's really just a way to create kind of a trade system within your own environment, where then you have the opportunity to reward people who are contributing and helping and growing the community.
00:47:49:10 - 00:47:54:23
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's great. I love that idea. And it's like robux to where, you know, it's.
00:47:54:23 - 00:47:57:04
Speaker 1
Exactly, exactly the same thing out.
00:47:57:05 - 00:48:13:05
Speaker 2
You can earn Robux Maybe I'll create my own coin. I do like to reward my audience in my email newsletter. Sometimes I'll send out like Starbucks gift cards and stuff for people that you know are active readers. And so maybe that would be a good thing to do.
00:48:13:06 - 00:48:13:21
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:48:13:23 - 00:48:35:01
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a great experiment and just understanding, you know, it's given me a whole new understanding of how the blockchain tracks and rewards and engages in different ways that you can, you know, figure out if someone is replying to a tweet that you posted, you can reward them for doing that.
00:48:35:01 - 00:48:35:22
Speaker 1
So.
00:48:36:00 - 00:48:46:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, this has been a super insightful conversation I really appreciate it. I learned a lot. I feel like I got some free consulting here.
00:48:46:14 - 00:48:55:17
Speaker 1
Well, I enjoy it. I really I love the show. I think you've had some great guests and some fantastic conversations. So. So thanks for putting out great content.
00:48:55:19 - 00:48:58:10
Speaker 2
Yeah. So where can people find you?
00:48:58:12 - 00:49:05:08
Speaker 1
I am at Bryan W Piper dot com or I am Brian W Piper on almost every social channel.
00:49:05:10 - 00:49:09:02
Speaker 2
All right. Awesome. Well, Brian Piper, thanks for being here. Appreciate it.
00:49:09:04 - 00:49:11:00
Speaker 1
Thank you, John. I appreciate the opportunity.
00:49:11:02 - 00:49:40:11
Speaker 2
Hey, thank you so much for listening. I love all the people that listen. Send me comments and things like that. It's it's great. Love this community here. Three things I want to give you before you go. Reminder to go to pricing.unveild.tv. If you're interested in our video storytelling subscriptions and download our pricing guide. If you want to take the storytelling you're already doing to the next level, or if you want to incorporate storytelling into your strategy to begin with, I have a free resource for you.
00:49:40:11 - 00:50:08:21
Speaker 2
It's a three minute, a three minute it's a three part framework. And if you read really fast, it could be 3 minutes actually, maybe not even maybe get read at normal speed and it would be 3 minutes long. It's pretty short and effective, but it's a three part framework for creating compelling student and alumni testimonials. You can get that at unveild.tv/studenttestimonials. doesn't even have to be for video, but the framework to use in any format in which you tell student outcome stories.
00:50:08:23 - 00:50:21:21
Speaker 2
Number three leave a review for this podcast because it helps us out a ton. Thank you for listening. My name is John is only go connect with me on LinkedIn. And in the meantime, we'll catch you on the next episode of the Higher Ed Storytelling University Podcast. Thanks.
