Month: August 2011

Universities and Public Relations: How do universities innovate in PR?

This is a big ol’ post about public relations in higher education, based on today’s discussion over at The Guardian. I hereby give you advance warning that you may want to skip over this post if you’re not interested in behind the scenes university chatter. 🙂

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I knew we’d be in for a fast-paced, interesting discussion on PR in higher education when David Colquhoun weighed in so forcefully with the first comment:

“Ah that’s nice. A meeting to consider how to communicate hyperbolic claims to the public. PR is simply paid lying. I maintain it has done a good deal of harm to universities. The public may not have a great depth of scientific knowledge, but they can spot advertising when they see it. And they can tell that most of the startling promises mad in press releases, or on the web, vanish without trace.”

BOOM!

By the way, if you don’t read Colquhoun’s Improbable Science, you really should check it out.

Colquhoun explained that staff must have a genuine interest in your audience. He explained, “If your hidden aim is to promote the university (or the authors), you’ll soon be spotted and you’ll bring into disrepute the university for which you work.”

While I don’t think disrepute is automatically brought upon a university in every single case, I do agree that PR should go way beyond simple promotion and getting stuff out to as many sources as possible. Good PR shows attention and care.

Pushing information out is useful only when it goes to relevant people, interested people, people who could benefit, people who could help causes further, and so on.

I’m talking about official channels of PR here. People who are paid to promote a university and what takes place within. On this point, Mario Creatura helpfully entered the discussion with some interesting points that are worth reproducing in depth:

“Each HEI will usually have at least one press or media officer (this is a drastic understatement). If they put out one traditional press release per day, then each HE journalist could in theory be bombarded with 165. Most HEIs put out more. Even if we ignore the targeted lists, that’s a lot for one journalist to cope with.

“As Matt wrote in his introduction, 90% of releases are ignored by the press. By sheer volume received alone this is understandable. The old one-direction shotgun approach of spraying press releases to all and sundry is no longer tenable.

“So my opening question is this: in a saturated market (evil word!) is it possible for universities to differentiate themselves to the media, and through them, to the public using digital and new media?”

Universities can use digital and new media to tap markets, but they still need an angle and they still need to care.

Moving to any new platform requires an understanding of how to best use the platform, as well as how to best broadcast relevant messages. Just shouting the same press releases from another place isn’t groundbreaking in itself.

Mike Simpson explained, “In an age when many people don’t get their news and information from the press, to depend on such methods is folly”. If a growing percentage of the public are accessing press releases and other channels directly, there is potential to engage with the public first hand.

Again, no matter what is done, those involved in the PR must care not just about the university and the job they are paid to do, but they must care about external communities and the messages they’re trying to communicate. PR isn’t solely about promotion, even if it does that very thing.

I’m sure that the majority of PR staff in universities do care beyond shoving out messages and promotion. But how do they deal with feedback? Do they consistently engage in listening to and responding to what’s being said about their brand? How are negative messages dealt with? Tracyplayle spoke about this early on in the conversation and is worth reading in full. [Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you…]

No matter how staff react and respond, there is still the little matter of whether or not any of the PR has worked. KatrinaBath picked up on this question:

“Column inches and the traditional methods of evaluating are (rightly in my opinion) criticised for being unsophisticated measurement techniques… and with social, digital and online communications it often isn’t relevant anyway.”

These new methods of communication are more easily analysed for clicks, conversations, comments, reach, and so on. It won’t prove whether PR has worked the way a university wishes, but it does begin to tell a story beyond mere column inches. And it’s trackable in realtime if required.

Nevertheless, as tracyplayle mentioned, “time and money issues remain, and until we crack those, we’re never going to be able to do really great comms in the HE sector”.

Tracyplayle also gave preliminary results based on 68 HEI responses on social and digital media for PR:

“More than half of HEIs view themselves as behind the curve in the use of social and digital media for PR (58%).

“The biggest barriers are: time (80% of respondents), skill/know-how (56.3% of respondents) and money/resource (52% of respondents).”

Clearly, there are still barriers even when an institution wants to engage with new and useful methods of communication.

Video

MikeSimpson asked if online video content should be ‘slick and professional’ or ‘a bit rough and ready’. My thought is that both are relevant. A brief look at YouTube alone is enough to see a popular mixture of both professional productions and amateur offerings. I remember the exposure Lincoln had when TomSka made his own ‘Banned’ University of Lincoln adverts. PR that didn’t even involve PR.

Official videos should adhere to a certain amount of production value, but the same shouldn’t automatically be said when a member of staff is making an independent video about their own work or an issue that shows what is being done within an institution.

Any video requiring an official logo/introduction, with full in-house production, should look relatively polished. It wouldn’t make sense to look anything other than professional.

I agree with rfcellis that “the bar on video content keeps on getting higher”, which results in having to keep up with developments and spending more time and money… the two things institutions are trying to save! That said, it is the content that matters, not the slickness. Professional enough is acceptable in most cases. People won’t care if what’s being dished out is useful and entertaining in content.

Lorna Gozzard uses a simple benchmark for quality:

“The question I always ask myself, is would I watch this?”

And in terms of moving away from press releases, Mario Creatura says “It is easier to watch a 30 second video than read a 300 word press release!”

Mario’s point points again toward information directly to the public, rather than to journalists and media agencies. Videos are already popular and there is still a lot more growth to come.

PR beyond PR

What does PR mean? MelonieFullick entered the debate by suggesting that it’s not all press releases and direct PR action:

“The idea has to be expanded to include what students and professors and staff do that brings attention to the university: all those things are the “message”, just as much (and even more than) a press release is.”

Fullick added that these messages cannot all be controlled. Due to this, PR is about relationship-building internally just as much as externally.

But all this takes time. Time that we have already established is not freely available. KatrinaBath said “I’m sure all HE press officers will agree that it can be hard to take time out from the daily routines and to-do lists to think creatively”.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be a press officer doing all the work. Journalists and the public want to hear from ‘experts’. And universities have plenty of those! Mithulucraft suggested, “The question is then how can university PROs embrace that and use it to their advantage”. Could universities bring together a range of academics to talk on and dissect new research in a way that can be presented clearly to the public and allow further discussion off the back of it?

Kyle Christie and Mario Creatura pick up on the growing number of online outlets used by universities. Many channels originate outside the realms of press officers, but those PR staff should be aware of all those channels both to source stories and to help communications move in the most relevant areas.

Change the game

There was much talk of restructuring press releases and the fear that doing so may not benefit. However, The Guardian’s Matthew Caines seemed enthusiastic about many of the new ideas being suggested.

Could it be that what we think we know as useful is actually out of date?

Creatura explained that new strategies are still necessary, especially within the HE community:

“The majority of HE coverage is with specialist journalists when we discover a cure for this or a solution to that. That won’t ever go away. It’s whether the positive profile of the sector (in general national media) and the expertise of individual HEIs (in the niche and expert publications) can be effectively supported through modern media strategies.”

Adparker linked to a great social media news release template for institutions to use and suggested that these releases provide better media coverage results than traditional approaches.

As the conversation was coming to a close, Mario Creatura asked if the HE sector wasn’t brave enough to try new things:

“Can that slow and meticulous attention to detail in research be hindering the relatively instantaneous requirements for expert comment?”

It was a shame to see such an important question at the end of the live Guardian chat. But the end of a chat doesn’t mean the end of the discussion.

As with anything as wide ranging as PR in higher education, there are always more questions than answers. That shouldn’t stop us from searching for answers though. If nothing else, it will highlight new questions and yet more wonderful places to start searching.

The road is long. Never ending, perhaps. I guess we’d better make it an exciting journey then!

Edulinks – 12 August 2011

The latest Push student debt survey is out today. Future students will see a big rise in headline figures, given higher fees from 2012.

Under the new system, repayments will come from money out of graduate pay packets when they’re earning over £21,000.

But this part of the debt isn’t scary. It’s more annoying than dangerous. If you’re earning less than £21k, you don’t repay. And the debt eventually clears after a few decades.

The bigger problem is immediate living costs. Debts have been rising every year (other than one small dip in 2004) since Push started compiling their survey.

Johnny Rich, Editor of Push, explains that “students will need to find a quarter of that money from outside the support of the official loans system”.

Nearly 7% of debt will arise from bank accounts and credit cards. I hated these debts the most, but I had to live with them as a student. I know many of you have to do that too. The Push survey suggests these debts are continuing to rise.

Credit card and overdraft debts are in your face. Right now. How can that be helpful when you’re trying to concentrate on other things? I felt the pressure as a student, living on a financial knife edge as soon as I started university.

And a recent journal article reports that these financial difficulties impact upon academic achievement.

One academic suggests that you should be able to pay off tuition fee debt by donating a kidney. Perhaps more students would be interested if it covered living costs too…

Alternatively, you could sell some of your possessions that aren’t part of your body. Research by NUS and Ensleigh suggest that students take £2,652 worth of stuff to uni. There must be something worth selling amongst all that, eh? 😉

Here’s a great TED Talk by Julian Treasure on 5 ways to listen better:

And I’ll leave you with these wise words by Cal Newport:

“Start things earlier than you think you need to, aim to finish them well before they’re due.”

Amen.

Why being ‘involved’ is so important to learning

How much do you care about your degree?

Seriously. When you’re given an assignment, how does it make you feel? Excited? Interested? Antsy to start reading up on things?

Or do you ignore it? Dread it? Groan at another piece of work hanging around your neck?

Your degree may be in a subject you love, but the work itself may not automatically grab you.

This post will explain why you need to get more involved and how to become more involved than the average punter without breaking into a sweat.

photo by *(xava du)
photo by *(xava du)

True involvement in what you’re doing gets you feeling positive about the work you’re set. You’ll know you’re involved, because you’ll want to look beyond the task and constantly challenge your own assumptions. Not only does it feel good, but the work won’t feel such a drag either.

Interested yet?

Good. So — other than the above reasons that are awesome anyway — here’s why being involved in what you are learning is crucial to getting a grip of everything, including your grade:

  • Sparks natural interest – You go from consuming information to engaging with it. You start to do ask more questions. Greater depth brings with it greater curiosity. Without this involvement, it’s easy to give up at the sheer amount of detail covered. Once you become involved, you look forward to what’s next.
  • Natural flow, as opposed to letting off a firehose – As your involvement grows deeper, so does the constant rhythm of your work. Think for a second about the last minute essay rush that we all know too well. Days, even weeks, of nothing suddenly turn into a mad dash to meet deadline in a day. Intense pressure!
    Luckily, all that becomes a thing of the past when involvement grows. Procrastination isn’t entirely banished, but the monster is less likely to call on you.
  • Desire to query things at face value – Not satisfied with a basic answer (or perhaps ANY answer), the involved scholar isn’t satisfied without more detail. This isn’t out of spite or to trip anyone up; it’s because your personal focus on the subject is growing deeper.
  • Desire to seek out and create answers – You won’t stop at questions. The more you become involved, the more you’ll become a natural researcher for the topic. Far from being overwhelmed by it all, increased involvement makes the work a breeze. Ish. 😉
  • Opportunities present themselves more freely – You’ll look out for new things, next steps, and the latest information. It’ll feel like everything is coming to you. But you create your own luck. You just won’t have noticed your own hard work.
  • Others notice your enthusiasm and want to take things further – Take involvement all the way and you’ll get seen. Perhaps stuff *will* start coming to you before you seek it out! There’s no limit to how involved you could become. So what if you’re only an undergraduate? Who cares if you’re a Fresher? These days, you’re encouraged to start everything early for your future prospects. So jump in. Get involved. Do it right away.

How do you build up the inclination to be involved to this extent?

First off, shape what you do to reflect what you want out of life. If you have no big and bold reason staring you in the face, you won’t see the point. When you see relationships between doing and achieving, you care more convincingly.

Don’t sell yourself short. Here’s how to get more involved in whatever you like. It doesn’t have to be your degree, but that’s as good a place as any to start. Especially on this blog!

  • Write down what you want from this – Armed with this information, you have a proper idea why you need to do it. It’s not good enough to have a vague idea about the future (though a bit a vagueness can help in other ways). Note down the deeper meaning behind the work. Even the most enviable lifestyle requires moments of boredom and annoyance. Keep your eyes focused on the bigger picture to cope with these moments.
  • Frame it as a time-saving exercise – Look again at all the reasons why greater involvement is so awesome. Time and again, it’s because involvement helps everything feel natural. Increased focus doesn’t automatically require more time in the long run. Dedicated initial effort brings huge time savings. The hardest part is sometimes simply starting off.
  • Think long-term – As with the previous point, good beginnings are slightly more intense, but pay off many times over as you carry on. A short-term view means a hard slog rather than a light load. Look ahead and let your involvement grow with ease.
  • A light load still equals heavyweight commitment – You have to want to be involved for things to work out. No matter how long-term you project, and regardless of how much time you think you’ll save, you still need to be totally behind what you’re doing. Without true dedication to the subject itself, the momentum simply won’t develop.

There is an element of training yourself into an attitude here. While that might sound a bit forced, it isn’t all that frustrating. Above everything, give due importance to what is being asked of you, and recognise that the most you can get out of your experience is only ever less than or equal to what you gave in the first place. Short of giving you the answers, no amount of academic hand holding can help you if you don’t put the effort in yourself.

I don’t expect you want your hand held too much anyway.

Getting from A to B, obstructions will always litter your path. That’s why you need solid reasons why you’re travelling to point B. If it’s only in order to reach point C, you won’t give point B time of day. And when you finally reach point B, you won’t be thinking about point C because you’ll be looking forward to point D.

Life is full of pathways, but the adventure starts from the moment you set off. The more involved you are in that adventure, the more you can achieve.

10 easy ways to use the summer break to prepare for next year

The summer months are a good time to rest, catch up with family and friends at home, get some work (i.e. money) in, and so on.

photo by j-ster
photo by j-ster

The summer months also represent the perfect time to prepare for the next academic year. And you don’t need to spend much time to reap the benefits when you return.

Below are ten things you should do to get socially and academically fit for when you next hit campus:

  1. Read up in advance – You know roughly what you’ll be studying, you have reading lists, and you have a year or more of degree study behind you now. This is the best time to casually research your new topics and scan through (or even read) a few books.
    Work out both what you’re already familiar with and what leaves you confused. The whole point is to be confused in places and to get stuck once in a while as you check through. That way, you won’t approach the work blind.
  2. Write opinions and thoughts – After the initial research, get some notes down. Again, just be casual. You’ve got nothing to worry about, so say what you like. Even if you later discover you’re barking up a completely different tree, your eureka moment will be stronger and the detail will more easily lodge in your head. Result!
    As a bonus, anything with no right or wrong answer gives you an opportunity to start finding your way through the subjective minefield long before others are even aware of what’s going down.
  3. Write initial questions and concerns – Like I say, it’s good to find confusion and uncertainty in your initial dealings with new topics. The only way you can get a serious grip on finding out more is to tackle it head on with questions. There are no stupid questions. And you won’t be asking them anyway. These notes are for you to be aware. You might get answers in the first few minutes of the first lecture back. Even better, you’ll notice straight away once you’ve prepared, which is a more natural approach.
  4. Get administrative affairs up to date – Now is a great time to get stuff filled in, filed, organised, and set up in advance for when they’re needed. Don’t leave the paperwork and boring stuff until the last minute as you’ll end up losing it, forgetting it, and having to do it at the same time as EVERYTHING ELSE!
  5. Financial check – Do you have a spending plan? Will you need more money? How much will you rely on credit cards? What bills will you have? What is your shopping budget? How much do you have for evening entertainment?
    Nip those money questions in the bud with a proper budget plan. For any definite shortfalls, work out if you can cover them another way. If you can’t, seek advice on your options as soon as possible through your university and students’ union. Don’t go straight to more credit cards and commercial loans, because there are other, far better, avenues to try first.
  6. Use the Internet to find websites, crib sheets and summaries in advance – A quick look online can provide you with a wealth of information on what you’re studying. Just a couple of rough Google searches and a quick check in Wikipedia is enough to uncover major sites and subject summaries. And if you delve further, the sky’s the limit. You’re not limited to websites either. Use Google Books and Amazon ‘Look Inside’ for previews of books while you’re not near the uni library.
  7. Read your past essays and assignments – Never discard your old work. You might look back at something from only a few months previous and cringe. “Did I *really* write that!?”
    Yes you did. So learn from it. Examine tutor feedback and consider what you’d do instead next time.
  8. Spend a couple of hours on your future plans – What goals do you have for the year? Do you want to better organise your social calendar? Is there anything you can do to start on career plans long before you graduate?
    All you need is an hour or two to ask yourself questions about the life ahead of you and give the answers careful consideration. You may get stuck for answers, but at least you know what you’re up against when you get back to uni. You will be in a much better position to confront the issues and go in, guns blazing.
  9. Confront issues from previous year(s) – Just like reading past essays, looking back on past difficulties can be helpful. It’s not always best to dig up the past, but neither is it healthy to bury your head in the sand. When you want to do things differently next year, get your mind on the same side. Face those fears and limitations. You are more amazing than you realise.
  10. Prepare for a year of surprise and new experiences, not same old, same old! – There is always something different to enjoy at university. Even a tiny institution in the middle of nowhere has a veritable banquet of delights awaiting you. But you have to grab what’s out there. If you don’t, the initial excitement of ‘uni life’ turns into an ‘everyday life’. Excite yourself; dare to do something different!

None of this takes too long to do, so you’re free to enjoy most of the summer as you normally would. Yet you’ll still save you loads of time when you do get back to uni.

All for a little bit of forward planning. Good times!