Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 14

I couldn’t believe the timing of my drug bust posts with an actual second bust. What are the chances? One of the offshoots of the arrests that I didn’t mention in my last post was that the hits on my bust series doubled. Why? As people did searches for Thursday’s bust news they came upon my three-part series and clicked on them.

Hey, always a silver lining somewhere. . . .

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A big thanks to Ray Ulmer, vice-president for communications at Targetx who, in a post about good podcasting, used Mansfield University as an example, along with my initial goals that I have pretty much lived by.

I was familiar with TargetX but not with Ray’s blog. It’s concise, thoughtful and well-written. I’m a subscriber now.

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Drew McLellan at The Marketing Minute turned me on to Microsoft video that’s making the rounds on YouTube. If you haven’t seen it, you must, along with his commentary.

On his latest post on Web Strategy by Jeremiah, the author lists some new search engines that track conversations about your company or school.

Just as interesting for Web and PR folks are the numerous comments, insights and questions.

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Just a general FYI as I record what I learn as I go, I’m changing the title to Lonely Girl, S*x, Mystery and Web 2.0. to Lonely Girl – the Creation Continues. We’ll see if that staves off the searches of the lonely, horny and perverted searching for something that has nothing to do with my post.

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Two Requests:

1. Our Web folks are getting ready to go live with a new web content management system. PR will be the first. The design is done. I’m looking for sites that have really cool category and content ideas. If you have some favorite sites – even your own—please send me the links.

2. I have to transcribe our podcasts. There are nearly 250, Has anyone used software like Dragon Naturally Speaking? If so, what was your experience? Our IT folks don’t recommend it and say it’s much better just to hire someone to transcribe. They’re probably right but I thought I’d check and see if anyone has used any electronic transcription programs.

Feedback, please!

Not Another Drug Bust!

My three-part drug bust series had been up less than a week when a reporter friend called and said the Attorney General’s Office was holding a news conference on a second bust.  This time they arrested 16 people.  Four former students were involved but no current ones.

The arrests were made as part of the continuing Operation Failing Grade investigation.

As a courtesy the office invited our president, Maravene Loeschke, to attend.  My news director and I rode with her to the state police barracks.  I’ve described in the previous posts the absolute professional way the Attorney General’s office conducts press conferences.

I had some new insights with this one.

The Attorney General, Tom Corbett, a down-to-earth, friendly guy, shook hands with Dr. Loeschke.  “You look a little more relaxed than you did the last time,” he joked.  She agreed. The exchange set a good tone.

We had 20 minutes until the 11 a.m. conference so we were led into a back room with Corbett, the DA and other officials.  An officer offered me coffee and pastries. We talked about the Pennsylvania primaries, sports, and, of course, the drug problem in America.

“Now let me be sure I’m correct that four of those arrested are former students.”  Dr. Loeschke said to Corbett.

“Yes.”

“Would you be kind enough to make that very clear during your presentation?”

Corbett nodded.  “Of course.”

He was good to his word, emphasizing to the room packed full of newspaper and TV folks that four of those arrested were former students, adding that there were no arrests on campus and that drugs are a problem throughout the state.

When he finished, he invited the president to the podium.  She thanked the various law enforcement agencies on their work.  “. . . I don’t think we have a drug problem on campus,” she said.  “We had a drug incident.  The majority of our students come to Mansfield to get away from these things. . . .If (drugs) are on our campus or in any part of our community, we are going to be a part of the partnership to get them out.”

I share this to emphasize that cooperation is the key in PR situations like this.  I’m pretty sure that because our president was up front, candid and cooperative during the first press conference in 2006, she was invited to this one. Because things were handled professionally (and our personal interactions were pretty informal) everyone felt good with each other.

It made this second drug bust conference – like this particular post – an anti-climax.

And that’s a good thing.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 13

Good article in Ad Age on aggregate news sites. This is going to be an interesting process to watch as the cost of creating news content continues to rise. Anyone who’s been in PR for awhile has seen the shrinking news staffs and found ourselves providing the news content which is often used word-for-word.

Gabe Rivera, founder of Techmeme, had this to say about the trend. “I expect efforts in news aggregation by established media companies to fail overwhelmingly,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Successful aggregators have largely come from (1) enterprising individuals; (2) pioneering new concepts; and (3) [those who are] motivated by ownership of their project. Most big-media news-aggregation projects, lacking all three elements, are doomed. I expect somewhat better things from independent projects.. . .

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Alexander Van Elsas has a good post on Web 3.0 and elimination of noise. It’s something we’re all going through to some extent.

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Found this impassioned and inspiring entry on Director Tom’s blog, entitled The Other Half of My Soul

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Click on the links. They’re just as passionate and heartfelt.

Fascinating short post on Twitter. The comment-chatter following the post rounds out the Steve Rubel post.

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I found it mildly amusing in a synchronicity way, that the next post I ran across was Andrew Careaga’s news about Summize, a Twitter Search Engine. (Oh, and congratulations, Andrew, on being top referrer.)

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Okay, Saturday was sunny and in the 90’s. My wife and I worked outside all afternoon, with breaks to play ball with the dogs. I have the kind of pleasant sunburn that stings just slightly and the kind of feeling that one with a day of physical labor after months of semi-hiberation.

I’m pooped.

I’m going to lay back with some cold mint tea and John D. MacDonald.

Drug Bust! Crisis PR! Part 3

The president called me at 3 p.m. the afternoon of the Attorney General’s press conference on the major drug bust. My news director and I (mainly him) were answering media questions. The president asked me to attend a meeting the students were holding that night.

It was an information session on the bust.

I said I would be there, along with the student affairs person and the provost. Someone said it would be a small gathering.

At 7 p.m. I walked over to the Student Activities meeting room.

At least 100 students sat waiting. They weren’t happy.

The Student Affairs director introduced us and the questions began, directed at me.

First question: “Why did you release the names of the student and all their information?” I was shocked at the students’ naivete.

“We didn’t,” I said. “The police did.”

“ It’s all over the Web.”

“It came from the Attorney General’s Office,” I explained. “When someone is arrested, the information is public.”

Two other students angrily asked me why we were making the students’ names public, making them look guilty before they were tried. The students involved in the bust were composed of black students and white students, but I could see now that this was all about race.

“We have no control over the information,” I said. “It’s provided to the media by the police. Our job is to answer questions we’re legally allowed to. No more, no less.”

There were more questions, then this: “Are drugs a big problem on campus?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “In this case we had a minority of students that made it look bad for a lot of students.”

A sudden buzz among the audience began growing. It was dark and angry and getting angrier. I realized that they had picked up on the word “minority” and turned it into a slam against the minority population.

The grumble became a low roar. Just before it swelled out of control the Student Affairs director stepped up to the mic and told them to calm down and show respect. Slowly the noise subsided. I was amazed.

And thankful.

The provost, to my great relief, jumped in and translated what I had said and took it from there.

The meeting ended quietly. I’m not sure the students ever understood that the PR Department didn’t release the students’ names. They left, a little more educated but still upset.

Bottom line?

Dealing with reporters is easy. We’ve got a major drug bust. It’s public.

Let’s get it done.

The secret is that you’re not on opposite sides. You’re dealing with a big story. For reporters and PR the end is the same: Headlines today. A new story tomorrow.

Students, I found out, are in a gray area in which emotion trumps the law. They are also subject to the influence of friends, faculty and staff.

At the end of a 16-hour-day, it was the students who were on my mind—the angry, the confused, and yes, the arrested.

Drug Bust! Crisis PR! Part 2

When the drug bust press conference was over, Terry, my news director, President Loeschke and I walked outside. It was a sunny, warm November day. I saw a female TV reporter who was my intern years ago. I gave her a hug and we talked about the more innocent days when she was a student.

The Attorney General’s office arranged to march the students out, slowly, one-by-one, past for the media. As a PR professional, I admired their skill.

They had thought of every detail.

So did our president. “Where will the students be coming out?” She asked.

“Over there,” Terry said, pointing to a side door. “The police are going to escort them down this way, then turn left and into the vehicles.”

She nodded. “Then I want to stand right there.” She walked to a spot where the students would be coming around a curve. “I want to be here where they will have to face me and see how incredibly disappointed I am.”

I’ve been in the news and PR business for 30 years and thought I was I was pretty hardened. But a shiver went up my spine. This woman had been president of MU for only five months and here she was handling a drug bust press conference as presidential and human as a person can be.

She had gone on camera thanking the Attorney General’s Office for its fine work , reiterating that our university does not tolerate drugs. And now she was personalizing it. Hers was the last face each student would see before entering the police vehicle.

The students began passing by. A couple glanced at her and looked away. One student made jokes. The rest saw her and looked down in shame and humiliation.

On the PR side, the moment made for some hard-hitting photos. What parent couldn’t relate to this woman, alone, arms folded, watching one of her students, his head down, being led to jail?

She stood for higher education, leadership and values, and they had let her down. They had let the university down.

It was classic.

Dr. Loescke’s response – going on camera and thanking the Attorney General’s office, her insistence on placing herself in a strategic position to face the students and force them to face themselves – turned a negative moment into something universal, positive, and most importantly, human.

We drove back to campus. The afternoon was spent answering media questions and I thought at the end of the day it was over.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

More in Part 3.

Drug Bust! Crisis PR! Part 1

At 8 a.m. November 1, 2006, the Attorney General’s Office called our president, Maravene Loeschke, to inform her that they were holding a press conference announcing a major drug bust at Mansfield University.

She was, of course, invited.

The president called Terry, my news director. “I want to be there,” she said. “I want you and Dennis to pick me up at 10:30.”

I’ve been in the business a long time. Most presidents do not want to be part of a press conference about a drug bust on their campus. Actually, most PR people don’t, either.

We drove up to the state police barracks. I soon found out that when the Attorney General’s office does a long investigation which concludes in the arrest of a whole batch of drug dealing students, they want the taxpayers and general public to know about it.

They had displays of evidence, photos and press kits. The 16-month investigation was called “Operation Failing Grade.” The Attorney General’s Office had a dark sense of humor.

Mansfield University is located in north central Pennsylvania. Reporters from a 100-mile radius attended.

As a seasoned PR person, I watched in awe the precision with which the conference was conducted. A rep from the Attorney General’s office spoke about the investigation, the undercover agents, and purchasing $17,000 worth of cocaine, marijuana and Oxy-Contin. The DA spoke.

There were hand-outs, visuals, and each presentation was short, dynamic and to the point. You don’t just whip a production like this together . It takes work.

I’ve known presidents who would run to the other side of the state to avoid being part of an announcement like this. Others would simply send their PR guys to the front line. The Attorney General’s rep asked Dr. Loeschke just before the conference if she wanted to speak.

She nodded: “Absolutely.”

When her turn came, President Loeschke stepped up to the mic and spoke in an even, firm voice. “I want to thank the Attorney General’s office, the state police and the District Attorney’s office for all their work,” she said. She went on to say that these students were not representative of the whole student body and that the administration is committed to a drug-free, safe campus.

Now, I agree that Dr. Loeschke’s background didn’t hurt. She spent years as an actress and an acting professor. She also did impromptu.

And in this very difficult moment she was excellent. She was firm, confident, everything a leader should be in a moment like this.

But what she did next took me totally by surprise.

I’ll tell you about it in the next post.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 12

Just when I think I have things figured out, somebody comes along . . . .

From everything I’ve read, the radio industry is imploding. I’m still placing regular spots both regionally and state-wide but have planned within a few years to shift all promotion to the Web.

Then Wizard of Ads guru Roy H. Williams comes along calling radio “the best value” of any type of media. “I believe 2008 will be a major growing-up year for radio and readers of the Monday Morning Memo need to understand what’s going on,” the Wiz says in a recent post. I respect Williams a lot. I’ve seen him person twice. On stage he’s dynamic, electric. In person, he’s quiet and shy.

He’s also an advertising visionary.

Check out his thoughts and see if you agree.

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I had also concluded that there’s not more of a handful of kids in the civilized world that read newspapers. Then last week a business professor friend stopped me on campus and said he had taken his class to New York City for a competition. He took pictures of them. “Several of them asked me if the picture could be in their hometown newspapers,” he said.

Maybe it was a fluke or maybe I’m off base on this one, too.

No. It was a fluke.

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Check out Advertising Age’s article, “Yahoo Makes Goo Goo Eyes at Google. There’s a strange dance going on among Microsoft, Yahoo and Google and it’s going to affect us all. Oh, and there’s Rupert Murdoch pacing along the edge of the dance floor.

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Good article in Podcasting News on podcasting, Madison Avenue’s Worst Nightmare and the phenomenon Willitblend which increased its business 500% with its zany videos.

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Also through Podcasting News I found a cool site entirely devoted to microphones. (Umm, yes, I love mics). Professor S.O. Coutant’s features information about a large variety of microphones used in broadcasting and recording studios.

The site delves into the most commonly used mics in broadcasting, as well as articles on communication pioneers. There’s also a page devoted to early celebrities and the mics they used, including the first host of the Today Show in 1952.

My favorite feature, however, is the play button below each photo which lets you hear how each mic sounds in the studio.

A lot of work went into this site.

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100 college presidents and athletic directors are lobbying NCAA President Myles Brand to rethink the presence of alcohol ads on broadcasts of games. They feel that college sports and beer advertising are a “bad mix.”

I gave this one some thought and, concluded: yes, I’ll drink to that. . ..

Use Quotes When Responding to Media Requests

I asked Dick Jones of Dick Jones Communications to step in with a guest post. He responded with this excellent piece of advice.

With drastic cutbacks in news rooms, and the journalists who are left required to do more and more work, media requests are assuming a greater role in college media relations.

Media requests, whether made directly by journalists to you or through a paid service such as Newswise or Profnet, are excellent opportunities for you to score with the news media.

How we respond to media requests can make all of the difference.  Media relations is an art, not a science.  Every “rule” has its exception that proved to be successful sometime, someplace.  Nonetheless, there is a rule about media requests which, if followed, generally yields more results than if not followed.

Use quotes. Quotes give the journalist an idea of the direction of your source’s thinking.  They separate your expert from the pack.  It is often not enough simply to give the name, title, contact info, and a line or two about the professor’s credentials or a link to the prof’s website.  Quotes often make the difference between your source being interviewed for the story or not.  While the primary role of quotes is to be the catalyst for that all-important interview, we are finding that they have another function in this era of downsized newsrooms.  Sometimes, news outlets use the quotes verbatim, occasionally without taking the time to interview the professor.  In such cases, the journalist usually will ask, “Can I use this quote?”

Generally, quotes are less necessary in local media relations than in national media relations.  If the local journalist knows and trusts you and your institution, it may not be necessary for you to gather quotes to bolster your case.  You can simply say, “Contact Bill Smith in the history department” and be confident that the journalist will do so.

The need to use quotes in responses to media requests is proportional to how well you know the journalist and how well he or she knows you or your institution.  But using quotes never hurts.

My thanks to Dick and if anyone has any thoughts  or experiences around this, let me know.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts Part 11

I was overwhelmed by the hits and thoughtful responses to my last post. It became obvious that the changing nature of our respective fields is on the minds of a lot of professionals. I would appreciate any other thoughts.

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Virtual manipulation! Watch your avatar! Fascinating article about an experiment with avatars and human behavior.

I was reading with mild interest until I hit this sentence: “That kind of manipulation can also be used by marketers and advertisers. And author Mr. Bailenson foresees widespread use of virtual reality by commercial interests to push products or services.” Fascinating in a scary sort of way.

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Andrew Careaga ribbed me for lifting his title and adding a “the” and “blog”. Here’s the story. Two years ago I thought I’d experiment with a blog just to see what it was all about. I had my Jedi Web Geek, Jared Barden, help me set it up on Word Press. We sat in my office after dining at MacDonald’s, his favorite restaurant. When we finished he said, “What do you want to call it?” I had thought about it but hadn’t come up with anything. I knew enough about blogs to know the title should relate to the subject. After a half hour of doing searches and finding all my ideas taken, we tried “thehigheredmarketingblog” because “higheredmarketing” was already in use. (Such a small world.)

My JWG argued against it because it’s long and clunky. I agreed and still do but in this world of change, I’m going to remain steadfast after working to build a community of readers. I told Andrew in a comment that occasionally I’ll ask my readers to go up to my url, delete “the” and “blog” and hit enter. Off they go to higheredmarketing.

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Congratulations to Andrew Shaindlin. The Chronicle picked up his posting on what alumni associations might look like in 10 years. You can find his original post  here or at BlogHighEd.

I’m a little behind because the last post took longer to write than I anticipated. Actually, a final draft that’s clear, concise and hopefully a little entertaining is, as Bush said about being President, “a lot of hard work.” (I think he said it 10 times in that one short speech, meaning being a Presidential speech writer is really hard work).

I know it’s against the quick-turnaround philosophy of blogging but I usually write something, set it aside, come back and revise 3-5 times. Why?

I’ll answer that in an upcoming post.

Web, PR, Admissions = Great Discussion

Okay, I’ve been wrestling with something for months and Matthew Herzberger’s recent post really pulled things together for me.  Well, actually it was the comments that brought things into focus. 

What I’d like is for you to go to his post, read it and the comments.  Then come back here.

(Time passes. . . .)

Okay, you’re back? 

Matt’s post was a well-done rant of a passionate, frustrated Web guy who needs to reach out and share his thoughts (and despondency) with others of us who have felt the same need to find a high cliff.

Several people agreed with him. 

Then Karyn entered. 

Whoah!  New spin on this discussion!

It was an extraordinary conversation, the kind we should be having more often. 

We have stats freaks.  We have Matt who likes stories and anecdotal evidence (same here, but I’m wading into the world of stats at the strong request of my boss). 

But most importantly, we have actual discussion among professionals from different fields of expertise.  

There are three groups today that should be merging and working as one team: The Web team, public relations, and admissions. 

As PR director, I work closely with admissions to motivate students to inquire about our university.  After they inquire, it’s up to admissions to lead them through the next steps.

We try to reach students through traditional advertising and, increasingly, marketing on the Web. 

So I need to understand how the admissions process works.  The admissions director has taken me through a full recruiting cycle.  I’ve gone out on the road with them to college fairs and high schools to experience the break-neck pace, the rushing crowds, smart students and students who should pursue careers as shepherds.

I need to understand Web folks, how they think, talk, and operate and the pressures they face daily.   They also need to understand my role in PR, marketing, and being responsible for the institution’s image.  We need not only to interact, but to actually work together. 

While each of us has several departmental goals, our common goal is to make a variety of publics aware of the university in a truthful, positive manner.

At Mansfield, the Web folks, admissions and PR have been talking more frequently with the development of a content management system.  I’m sure we’ll continue working together after it goes live. 

And I think discussions like the one on Matt’s post should continue. 

In his comment, Kyle  said : “We are the pioneers and the explorers.”  Okay, that means the rules are still being formed.  We’re still defining the terrain.  And, hopefully, we’re coming together as a team, learning each other’s language and experimenting our way toward a common community.

The beauty of the Matt post/discussion is that the various points  of view are presented in a civil, respectful way by thoughtful, passionate professionals.

It made me think.

And that’s what higher education is all about.

What are your thoughts?