Anyone who’s followed me through 2023 knows I’ve been beating the drum for higher ed marketers to try out different AI applications, but one that’s particularly stood out to me is Fireflies.ai.
First, let’s get this out of the way — I’m not affiliated with the folks at Fireflies.ai. Honestly, I just think their product is awesome. It’s a comprehensive suite of tools designed with meeting productivity and collaboration in mind.
Well, I can tell you from personal experience that its accuracy and deliverables have saved my team from about 5-10 hours’ worth of mundane work every week since we started using it.
But you don’t have to take just my word for it. Other users have boasted time savings of as much as 76 percent.
It’s been a game changer for our everyday workflow, and I believe it can relieve many higher ed marketing teams from time-consuming rote tasks, as well. Here’s how!
Easy Transcriptions for Faster Content Generation
Fireflies.ai can quickly transcribe meetings and lectures across various platforms, including Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
It also boasts 90 percent accuracy, which is pretty good, as anybody who’s used other AI transcription services can tell you.
Also, for my international and multilingual readers, you’ll be delighted to know it supports over 60 languages, from Afrikaans to Welsh.
So how does this save you time?
Imagine turning a 60-minute video into a 10-minute summary with action points.
Your marketing team can take these transcripts, which Fireflies.ai generates in minutes, and repurpose them into engaging content much more quickly than if they had to review entire recordings.
And with Fireflies’ AI-powered search tool, you’ll also be able to pick out relevant information in seconds.
AI-powered Summaries and Task Delegation
Fireflies’ AI-powered search function allows users to swiftly review lengthy meetings and lectures, highlighting key metrics.
This allows team members to focus more on strategy and execution rather than getting bogged down by meeting minutes or unclear action items.
Basically, these summaries can exponentially boost your team’s productivity through precise task delegation.
For higher education marketing teams, where collaboration and efficiency are paramount, Fireflies.ai can be a vital tool for maintaining momentum and coherence in their projects.
Fireflies.AI Gives Deeper Engagement Analysis
Another interesting tool in Fireflies’ kit is their Conversation Intelligence feature.
Now, while I’m fascinated with AI technology, I’ve been pretty clear on how I feel about its limitations. I believe these tools will never replace authentic human sentiment or emotional intelligence.
However, sometimes we just don’t have the mental bandwidh to pick up on every bit of nuance in every conversation.
Suppose your university conducts a series of town hall meetings (with someone recording, of course) to discuss new campus initiatives.
The marketing team can then use Fireflies’ transcriptions to analyze the discussions for student reactions and concerns about these initiatives. They can quickly identify the most frequently mentioned topics or concerns, such as sustainability efforts or mental health resources.
The team can then create targeted marketing content that addresses these issues, demonstrating the institution’s responsiveness to student feedback.
This application enables the university to understand and actively respond to its student body’s evolving needs and interests, fostering a more engaged and satisfied student community.
Enhanced Collaboration and Ideation
The Fireflies team definitely developed their tool with collaboration in mind.
Users can add comments, pins, and reactions to specific parts of each conversation. They can also distribute meeting notes through popular communication and project management apps, including but not limited to:
- Slack
- Dropbox
- Notion
- Trello
- Asana
- ClickUp
It’s an especially convenient feature for team members who can’t attend specific meetings or for brainstorming sessions between different departments and demographics.
For example, let’s say your school is pushing a campaign to increase international student enrollment. Your marketing team might want to conduct interviews with some of your current international students.
While these interviews could provide authentic insights into the students’ experiences and challenges, the interviewers themselves might not pick up on them. We’re all human, after all.
With Fireflies.ai, your entire team can work together, highlighting key points in your transcripts to develop targeted messaging that genuinely resonates with prospective international students. This approach fosters a more inclusive and comprehensive strategy, ensuring the campaign reflects diverse student expectations and needs.
Ultimately, this collaborative approach ensures that creative ideas and feedback don’t get lost in the shuffle (or in email inboxes).
Fireflies.AI Seamlessly Integrates With Popular CRMs
With so many new AI tools floating around since the launch of ChatGPT, “integration” might be another contender for the buzzword title belt.
But that’s because each useful application that communicates with your school’s CRM is one less thing you have to worry about, right?
The good news is that Fireflies.ai does play nice with several CRMs that your college or university may use, such as:
- Hubspot
- Salesforce
- Zoho
This integration can be helpful for, say, managing prospective student inquiries and follow-ups.
For instance, after a virtual open house, you can use Fireflies.ai to log details of prospective student interactions into your CRM. This process can give your admissions team a headstart on personalized follow-ups based on the interests or concerns expressed by students during the event.
Oh, and Fireflies.ai integrates with Zapier, too.
Empower Your Higher Ed Marketing Team With AI Tools LIke Fireflies.AI
AI tools like Fireflies.ai are precisely that — tools. They can’t replace human intuition or creativity, but they can take the stress out of the mundane and augment your workflow capacity.
Adopting these tools is about freeing your time and embracing a digital-first approach that resonates with our tech-savvy audiences.
Gen Alpha will be walking your halls soon, and applications like these will eventually just be a part of life to them.
By harnessing the power of AI, we can make our messaging more effective, our strategies more data-informed, and our outreach more impactful.
If you’d like to learn more about how AI tools like Fireflies.ai can empower your higher ed marketing team, reach out to me. Let’s leap into the future together!
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Featured image by Primopiano via Adobe Stock
