The local store that made our Christmas

Shop local.
I experienced the importance of this a few weeks ago. Dunham’s Department Store in Wellsboro is a family-owned  store founded in 1905.
They’re also one of my wife’s clients. She came home from a meeting with owners John and Nancy Dunham after Thanksgiving and over supper talked about the meeting.

“After the meeting, when I was looking around, I saw the most beautiful coat,” she said.  I was half listening but remembered something about “soft” and  “rust color.”
It was so beautiful, she said, and there was only one in her size. She was sure it would be gone in a few days.
A couple weeks later, I did a book signing at From My Shelf Books, another locally owned, indie business. I walked up to Dunham’s, hoping they might still have the coat and could identify it with my meager two clues.
I ran into John and Nancy in the snack shop, sat down and had a bowl of soup and coffee.
“Linda saw a coat,” I said. I don’t know anything about it except it’s soft and rust colored.”
Nancy thought it over. “Well, I think I saw her looking at a coat in the display window.” She thought some more. “Based on what she’s bought in the past — like that white jacket a couple years ago. . . I think. . . let me go look.”
She returned with a coat. I had no idea if it was it. “I think it is,” Nancy said. John nodded in agreement. “That looks like her.”
For the first time in my life I said, ‘I’ll take it” without even asking the price.
“Do you want it wrapped?” Yes.
I was pretty nervous Christmas morning. If it wasn’t the right one my wife would be very disappointed. If it was the right one, it would make her whole Christmas.
It was the right one.
Imagine this.  Go to Bon Ton or Sears, or Macy’s . Can you sit down with the owners and have a coffee? Can you say your wife saw a coat two weeks before, give a couple vague clues and have them bring it out and hand it to you gift wrapped?
Not a chance.
The Dunhams know  all their regular clientele so well that on buying trips they pick out clothes based on their customers’ tastes!
Yes, I also like the idea that I’m supporting local business and keeping money circulating in the community, contributing to it health.
But I’m also grateful to John and Nancy for making my wife’s Christmas special.  (It’s nearly impossible for a man to buy a woman clothes she actually likes.)
Dunham’s has been around for 112 years, succeeding on the premise that knowing and caring about your customers is the best kind of marketing.

Corporate Loyalty & Real PR

Dick Jones is one of the most respected professionals in the PR consulting field.  Over the years, his company, Dick Jones Communications, has assisted more than 60 colleges and universities in the areas of public relations, story placement, media relations and  crisis communications.  I asked Dick to do a guest post on the role of the PR professional.

Arthur W. Page was a very smart man. He was the first corporate vice president of what today is known as public relations, taking that post in the 1920s for American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Page “got it” from the start. He knew that sending the company’s messages to key publics was only half the job. The other half—and the more important part—was to inform AT&T and to provide counsel on what the public was thinking and feeling about any topic that could impact the firm.
The PR Department, said Page, “…ought to bring to the management at all times what it thinks the public is going to feel about a thing.”
Public relations scholars agree. Think how much heartache could be avoided if this occurred routinely. This mandate, however, is ignored more often than observed and that is not because PR professionals don’t believe in it or understand it. It is ignored because senior management does not believe in it or understand it.
Unfortunately, PR pros who sense trouble ahead and alert management to it are often running risks, especially if the trouble they spot is headed their way because of some action proposed by the organization they serve. This is particularly true within organizations that value loyalty—or rather a misplaced definition of loyalty—above all else. In such circumstances, the PR practitioner is liable to be considered disloyal or, at the very least, not a team player, if he or she has the temerity to point out problems that may arise from a particular course of action.
Of course it is not disloyal at all to point out potential public relations troubles arising from an organization’s decisions; quite the opposite, in fact. But if senior management doesn’t see it that way, it can derail a career and often has.
You can get a sense of the value an organization places on honest, reasoned feedback by whether or not the public relations function is included in senior management. If PR pros are present at the creation of policy, that’s a good sign. If, however, PR is “represented” in the councils of top management by some other staff function which then “interprets” management policy to the PR staff, that’s not such a good sign.
PR people who find themselves in the latter position will want to:

(1) see if they can find a “seat at the table” where they can provide feedback to senior management;

(2) resign themselves to doing only half of the job they are supposed to do;

(3) update their resume and look for a place that values the full public relations function.

Crisis PR Management Made Simple

This post is for PR people and anyone in a leadership position.
Most of your organizations, at some point, will have a crisis.
Predicting that is easy because  organizations are composed of humans  and we’re all fallible.
In the coming months we’ll continue to see lying, cheating, stealing and  some very weird fetishes.
And, as we’ve noticed over the past few years, it’s getting really hard to hide things.

As  an FBI official in Ali Soufan’s The Black Banners says, there are no secrets, only “delayed disclosures.”   If you made a mistake, admit it.  If you’ve done bad, come clean quickly.

Crisis moments are multiplying fast in our social media world.    Two people come to mind in just the past few weeks.  Penn State President Graham Spanier, gave one of the worst first responses in the history of higher ed during the debut of the Sandusky scandal.    Chancellor Robert Birgeneau apologized for his police force who beat students and faculty during Occupy Cal.  The problem was that the weak apology was recorded on his way to spend Thanksgiving with his family, nearly two weeks after the incident.

Spanier got the boot and Birgeneau is facing a faculty vote of no confidence.

Listen to your PR people and come clean with as much grace as you can.

If you can’t come clean, resign.

And if your PR people tell you they can spin it, fire them and find PR pros who’ll help you with the truth.

Misbehavior has been part of mankind’s story since the Old Testament.  The misuse of sex, money,  and power have been constants in our continuing story.

Which means  there are more of you out there.  You’re going to have sex in ways not acceptable to society.  You’re going to acquire money in ways you’re not supposed to.  You’ll abuse power a little or a lot.   Some ambitious folks will do all three.

In today’s media savvy society, chances are good that you’ll be caught.  When you do, don’t try to spin it, downplay it, lie about it or ignore it.

Deal with it up front and immediately and accept the consequences.

There really isn’t any other option these days.  A tiny list of the fallen:  Bernie Madoff, Tiger Woods, Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno,  Anthony Weiner and a whole boatload of priests.

There are no secrets in this world anymore.  Bad acts, when caught — by anyone– can spread worldwide with a vengeance that amazes even seasoned PR folks like myself.

Now, I know one other thing:  if you’ve committed any of these acts, you’re probably too arrogant or insulated to think you’re going to suffer any consequences.  You may think you’re above the law.

So I’ll turn my attention back to PR people:  if your boss asks you to hide, twist or lie about an incident that might cause the boss or your organization pain, refuse.

In the worst case, resign.

Your integrity is hard to retrieve once you’ve abandoned it.

Penn State, PR, Media & Chaos

I’ve been following the Penn State story with the same sorts of feelings nearly every other human being has had. But from a professional’s point of view I’ve concluded that both the public relations and news professions have failed miserably.
I have known the Penn State university relations VP for decades. He is the consummate PR professional, as are his staff members. So I have to assume that the PR staff was told to sit on the sidelines during unfolding debacle.
Why do I think that? Because no PR professional would have let his or her college president meet the media and support, by name, two employees who would surrender to police the next day.

I’ve been in crisis PR situations on a much smaller scale. In every crisis situation, the prevailing force is chaos. The president relies on the PR staff for guidance and knowledge of how the media works. It is a time when cool heads, logic, and especially truth as far as it is known, is needed.

I doubt if a PR person would have waited until the last minute to cancel Paterno’s weekly press conference. By now there were reporters on hand from around the world. A university spokesperson should have stepped in and held the conference because when there is a void, someone will fill it. And when someone else fills the void, it’s probably with content you’d rather not see.

The story would not have turned out any differently, but PR professionals would have helped set a tone of civility and helped the media as much as possible to smooth out chaos’ rough edges.

The media were allowed to run wild, and the media today are, in good part, a batch of barbarians sniffing for blood and egging each other and the public into an unholy frenzy when the bleeder is found.

Granted this is the perfect storm of scandals with:

- an alleged crime so heinous most of us cannot imagine it;

-an American icon;

-football, which is as much about self-identification and emotion as it is about tactical ways to move a ball to and fro.

Sit enough monkeys down with computers and they’ll eventually get a good take on Shakespeare. Our monkeys are thousands of bloggers with opinions, some sincere, some just hit mongers. We have news analysts screaming empty-headed opinions and unchecked “facts” because they have to fill time and race in the ratings.

We have news sites like Huffington Post coloring our view before we even read the story with headline words like “Legendary Football Coach FIRED Among Horrific Scandal!” and “HORROR: Ex-Assistant Rumored to have “Pimped Out” Young Boys.” They’re spinning stories out of rumors.

Facts were allowed to be muddled. Chaos reigns. The victims, for God’s sake, have been smothered in the dust of the stampede for the Next Big Thing.

I know there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes that we’ll probably ever know. But I also know that there was no visible PR staff to act as a conduit between university and media.

And the media, for the most part, have acted like undisciplined, irresponsible, screaming children.

Keep College President Searches Quiet

Social media has forced upon us two things:  transparency and immediacy.

This is not always good.  Especially in the area of college/university presidential searches.  I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve seen a couple presidential searches over the past few years.  One  was accepted as president at a larger university.  We all knew it before he returned to campus.

Another president went through the final interview process and we knew about it as the interview took place.

This is not fair to anyone.  Trying to better one’s self is a natural flow in the career world.  If the campus knows your president is interviewing somewhere, it compromises him or her in a lot of ways.

Some would argue that at public institutions, total transparency is needed for taxpayers.

I disagree.   There are no hard figures but I have a feeling a lot of presidents do not apply for other jobs  because of this justified fear of being outed.  That’s not fair to the current institution where the fit may not be right or fair to the interviewing institution where the match might be perfect.

If it’s a public institution it’s not fair to the taxpayer — the parent — who may not be getting a president who is best for the university and its unique needs.

I don’t think this is as big a problem for provosts, deans and even development professionals.  They’re expected to search for positions at larger institution or a college presidency.

It is a problem for a sitting president searching elsewhere.  It says, for whatever reason, the president is not happy with his or her position at your university.  Morale goes down among students, faculty, staff and alumni.  Fairly or not, the president, who has been a cheerleader/fundraiser/parent/leader figure, is instantly deflated to lame duck status.

Higher education has a lot of creaky spots in its body.  This is one area that could be brought into the 21st century.  Let searches for college presidents be discrete.  Students, faculty, staff and alumni can and should be represented.

But a presidential search can be done quietly, discretely and with some class.

Public searches have no place in our instant message age.

Everyone loses.

University President: I’m Leaving Part 2

Social media was maturing six years ago when our previous president was a finalist at another college. Before he made the three-hour trip back to Mansfield after his final interview, we all knew about it.
Unfamiliar with social media, he was shocked that his private matter was very public.
When our current president, Maravene Loeschke was a finalist at a college in the south, a reporter called me at 4 p.m. to ask some questions. Her interview was being blogged in real time.
There are very few secrets anymore. And lag time has shrunk from maybe a week to a few minutes.  If you vocalize a thought, the world hears it.
That a few people at Towson and Mansfield University were able to keep President Loeschke’s candidacy a secret is admirable.  The synchronization of a   joint announcement was professional and swift.
Four local reporters asked to interview Loeschke about her time here, and then it was over.
There was a time when there were a lot of reporters. No more. The few left are  happy to use the official announcement.  Then they’re on to the next story.
A president leaves, a president is named.
Next story please.
I love Maravene Loeschke. A former actress and acting prof,  she’s  great in front of a camera, in the TV studio, excellent at improvising.  But she is a president and they come in and move on.
I and my assistant were dealing with other matters as well: an anonymous accusation that the dorms being constructed; an annual festival that is  important to the university and community; other things that are important to admissions, retention, public relations and community relations.

Within eight hours, the president story was shoved downward by other news.

Today, stories are local and universal.  Sometimes both.  There is very little in between.

But they do have one thing in common:  they flare fast, burn hot and cool quickly.

In the wired age, life goes on, just a lot faster.

***

Language peeve:  The only outlet that got Steve Jobs’ death correct was Apple, saying “Steve Jobs has died.”  Why do we persist in saying “Joe Blow dies?”  The process of dying may be long or brief, but when act is over, it’s past tense,  and so are you.  The language should reflect that.

MU President: I’m Leaving. Announcement at Noon.

On Monday, Sept. 26  at 10:30 a.m. our president, Maravene Loeschke, dropped by my office. “Can you come up and see me at–” she paused and looked at the wall clock behind my assistant — “11:40?”
I said of course. When a president asks a question like that, it’s rhetorical. You say yes, of course.
At 11:40 she sat on the couch and I in the chair across from her. “I have accepted the position of president at Towson University as of January 1.”
I nodded, as PR people do when given such news.
“At exactly 12 noon, the chair of our board of trustees and the chancellor of the chair of the University System of the Maryland Board of Regents  system will send out an separate announcements,” she said. I  made a couple notes and we talked for 10 minutes.
I returned to my office at 11:55.   Five minutes later, the announcements appeared.
Within minutes the Baltimore Sun’s  story was online.  Within a few more minutes Google Alerts was in full swing with links to media picking up the story.
By 12:30 pretty much everyone on campus –and the universe –  had the news.
The announcement surprised people but after some thought, made sense. Towson was Loeschke’s alma mater.   She earned her degrees, taught and held administrative positions there for 32 years.

***

I talked to our national media consultant, Dick Jones, the next day. Dick and I have had a professional relationship for decades. We’re the same age. We both started in the business as reporters.
“Didn’t it bother you that no one even involved the PR Department?” he asked.
The question surprised me.  “I hadn’t even thought about it,” I said.   “No. Honestly, it was handled so cleanly, we didn’t have to do anything.”
Only a few short years ago the president would have had a secret meeting, given a few of us the news. We would have to prepare a news release, call all the media and tell them there would be a press conference, then spend a couple days fending off all the questions.
She would have made the announcement and then we would  spend a couple days arranging individual interviews. The above would have taken nearly a week.
This was over in 15 minutes.
Dick’s question made me think about the radically changing world of communications and the role PR.

More in Part 2.

My Blog High Ed sabbatical: life, death and a new novel

In the time that I was gone from BHE, a lot has happened.

I finally finished my second novel, One Woman’s Vengeance, which I have been working  on for about eight years.    I found, again, that writers — especially fiction writers — and technology are an unholy mix. But the publisher is very good and I’ll do another post later to detail my experiences.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested, I created a One Woman’s Vengeance blog (of course!) for it.  If you’re interested in the process of writing and publishing, check it out and subscribe or “like” the Facebook page.

I thought I knew a lot about today’s marketing,  but I’m still learning.

***

We lost our beloved German Shepherd.   Only seven years old, he developed a tumor on his heart and had two weeks to live.   I had forgotten how absolutely devastating it is to lose a dog. We grieved, then began the search for a new puppy. Anyone who has gone through this loss knows you cannot replace your dog who had its own personality and was a part of the family.
You also know you can’t live without the presence of these special beings.

***

We found a new puppy and the process of learning, joy and hope begins again.

***

We spent two weeks in Alaska. Our daughter lives in Anchorage and was the perfect hostess.   We’ve traveled a lot across the U.S., but this was one of the most memorable trips ever.

***

At work there were new marketing challenges with the chopping of budgets.  Mansfield University has the added challenge of being right in the heart  of the Marcellus Shale.  High school students are graduating and going to work for the gas companies instead of going to college.  There are no motel rooms for visitors, no houses or apartments for students, faculty or staff.  (We’ve  had VPs and staff living in residence halls).

***

While I was gone from here, life, in all its variety, and with all its surprises, joys and occasional heartbreaks, went on.

And continues to.

Thankfully.

Next post:   The world’s most famous former FBI terrorist interrogator writes his memoir, challenges the CIA, and credits his alma mater for giving him his start. 

Maybe you don’t die after all

I said in the last post that we write and exist in the moment. Things are moving  fast and there is so much other excellent content that if you stop, others move in.
You vanish.
That’s only partly true, I found.
On July 4, when every patriotic American is drinking beer, doing hot dogs and ooohing to fireworks, I received an email inviting me to do a technical review of a new book in its final draft stage.
That the woman writing to me on July 4 was impressive.  She was a dedicated professional and thoroughly unAmerican.

I went back to the invitation which read, in part: “I’ve been reading your higher ed marketing blog and believe you could be an excellent technical reviewer for our forthcoming book on WordPress Marketing. . . .”

I have a soft spot for WordPress since my three personal blogs and my professional one at Mansfield University are all on WordPress.

Then I realized I hadn’t posted anything on this site in awhile.  I went back and checked.  The last post was July 2010 of me doing a whining sign-off with a bad case of burnout!  I hadn’t posted anything in a year!

But then, this isn’t unusual.  I’ve had responses to posts that are three or more years old, as I’m sure most bloggers have.  So maybe you don’t die after hanging it up.  You just keep floating out there in some half-life state and eventually someone enters your orbit.

I accepted the invitation and over the weeks as I worked on the review, felt the urge to get back into the game.

I did some research on the publishing company and found that the lady was, indeed, not American.  She had written to me on July 4 from her office . . . in England.

***

A lot of you are bloggers.  What is the oldest post one of your readers has responded to?  One year?  Three?  Five?

I’m back. Umm, do you remember me?

Putting the blog in moratorium, then coming back held many lessons.
First, I missed the BHE community. It was, and continues to be a group of pioneers who enthusiastically explore, experiment, write and share.
The second thing I learned is that I was not missed. A few friends and colleagues  wrote on the occasion of my last blog in 2010 with helpful advice about battling burnout.
But after that . . . nothing. I didn’t take it personally. During the few years I posted I received tens of thousands of hits. But when I stopped, the audience went elsewhere. I know, in marketing, you don’t quit a project and then plan to pick it up again and regain your momentum without some struggle.
But that never bothered me. I’m in the enviable position of writing because I want to, knowing that the folks who will benefit from it will find it.
But it was a very real reminder that we’re expendable. In fact, more than ever.
Cause for panic? No. It makes me want to –more than ever– do the best I can do. To develop the best content and write in the simplest most dynamic way I can and contribute to the field.
I do this now, realizing that we are operating in the continual now. And when we’re  done, we’re dust, blowing lazily in the wind as life goes on.
In a way, everything I just said is true.
In another way, as I found out on July 4, it may be utterly false.
I’ll tell you why in the next post.