Public Relations

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The future of Public Relations in Higher Education – chat on HigherEd Live

Published 19/04/2012 Higher Education , Public Relations , Social + digital media 1 Comment
Tags: Blogs, Higher Ed Live, Higher Education, PR, Public Relations, Social media, Twitter, Universities

Andrew Careaga, from Missouri University of Science and Technology, is doing a live chat with Seth Odell later on today on Higher Ed Live about the future of PR in Higher Education and has asked for any thoughts, so thought I’d give my two cents and pose some questions.

Andrew asks what sort of direction we see it heading in.

In the UK, in the short-term we’ve seen much more scrutiny of the university sector following the rise in tuition fees up to £9k. I think increasingly you’ll see PR teams responding to stories about contact hours, student rights, degree quality – even if they’d prefer the focus was on research
A greater focus on promoting the digital presence of individual academics, i.e. their blogs, videos, tweets. Especially in large institutions, PR teams will become a focal point for distributing this content out to other audiences (not necessarily the MSM), rather than creating content via their own press releases
Specialist ‘press office/comms social media feeds (such as Imperial Spark) rather than the PR team having direct control of social media, due to student enquiries
Don’t think there will be a move away from press releases (or media relations) in the near future. For better or worse, they still appear to work for achieving local and national coverage in some cases.

Questions

At a time when more (especially younger) academics are blogging, tweeting and establishing a digital presence themselves, should PR departments be concerned about this, or simply accept that this is a trend they can’t stop?

How do you achieve buy-in from senior management for resources in PR departments (ideally not as the result of a massive crisis)?

When does PR teams engaging with audiences (via digital media) etc, especially when those audiences are prospective students, become marketing? Should we begin to abandon the distinctions between PR/marketing and alumni relations/internal comms?

Are there any particular lessons the UK could learn from the US in this area (or vice versa)?

Join in – it’s at (if I’ve got my time zones right), 9pm UK time.

A matter of time and resources: how can charities use social media?

Published 16/04/2012 Public Relations , Social + digital media 1 Comment
Tags: Blogs, Charities, Communications, Digital media, Media Trust, Social media, Voluntary Sector

There is increasingly a push for every organisations, including those in the voluntary sector, to ‘be on’ social media. But how charities update and engage on a Twitter feed or shoot and distribute a video with only limited resources: be that a lack of funds or staff time?

Knowing how to use social media properly is difficult enough for large organisations who can afford to hire specialist staff or bring in external agencies. I’ve jotted down some thoughts on what charities should bear in mind when they consider using these platform:

1. Don’t rush in – you might not need it

Despite the feeling that the world is running in one direction towards social media, that doesn’t mean you should just sign up to Twitter and Facebook. It might not be right for your organisation. Rather than sitting down and asking ‘how can we use social media’ – first ask why. Audiences for charities come in all shapes and sizes and social media – indeed, even a website – might not be the best way of reaching them. Maybe it’s printed newsletters or public meetings.

So see social media in the context of a whole communications strategy: they are essentially just extra tools for engaging a membership or target audiences.

2. Don’t pay for it

One of the most appealing elements of social media is the lack of costs. Of all the social networks I use, only one – Flickr – costs me anything and that’s a minimal annual subscription. Subsequently, charities should avoid paying for expensive consultancy services or social media monitoring services (unless they can actually afford it – I’m not dismissing these organisations by any means but they are a luxury rather than a necessity). With a bit of knowledge it’s easy to do this in-house, with the added bonus of your staff knowing more about your stakeholders and culture.

3. Video and podcasts can be simple

When producing a podcast or a video, fancy equipment isn’t needed. A smartphone - admittedly, one probably owned by a staff member – is enough, alongside software download online for free, such as Audacity. Alternatively, just keep using the free trails of different, paid-for, software.

Podcasts and videos distributed online don’t need to look like a BBC broadcast or a Kony 2012 film. In fact a rough and ready, shaky film can work well with audiences. The right content is just, if not more, important than the quality of the digital media.

4. Use your members

Even if a charity has only a few members of staff it has another massive resource at it’s disposal: it’s members. It obviously depends on the precise area you are working in, but members could be blogging, taking photos, even making videos about your work or a relevant topic. Rather than being the author of content, charities can establish a system where they become the aggregator, editor and promoter of the work of others.

5. Use who you already have

I think one of the reasons behind successful social media feeds (I’ll explore this on a future post referring to HE) are down to a dedicated individual who runs Twitter, Facebook or a blog for their organisation. It might not even have been their intention or in a job description. If you have someone like this, use their skills and enthusiasm but don’t leave it all to them. They can train other staff.

This isn’t a comprehensive list which answers all the questions. But the resources available from the Media Trust offer much more detailed and innovative ideas than a brief blog post can.

What should videos from a university be for?

Published 06/01/2012 Higher Education , Public Relations , Social + digital media 1 Comment
Tags: coral, Digital media, Higher Education, Public Relations, Universities, videos

Many universities are now producing videos, whether in-house or via external agencies. We’re familiar with those aimed at recruiting students, particularly on the international stage. But if you’re producing videos from a PR perspective, I think it’s important to ask – what are they for?

The below is a video I put together last year to accompany research on how a compound found in coral protects it from getting sunburnt, and the potential for this to be the basis for new sunscreen protection in humans. Unfortunately I didn’t personally shoot the underwater footage from the Great Barrier Reef – I doubt there is a single PR budget for a university which would go quite that far – this was provided by the Australian Institute for Marine Science.

There are multiple reasons for putting together a video, such as the above, from a PR perspective:

As a hook for journalists, who will then hopefully cover the story (and use the footage)
Gives you a presence on the second most popular search engine – YouTube – from where the media, and anyone else, can embed your branded video on their site. Index and tag it right, and the SEO works for itself.
Even thought it’s not a recruitment video, it might indirectly act as one. Potential students are much more likely to remember, and share a video – which they might stumble on completely inadvertently - than text.
It’s an alternative means of telling a story beyond text and images.

Most importantly, it is simply impressive for the users who watch. Whether they are members of the public, alumni, others in HE or the media, it tells them about our work and establishes an association between an institution and a notable piece of news or research.

It’s also a real boost for internal audiences, especially students. When I’m looking for mentions of the university on Twitter, I love coming across links to our videos or stories from current students saying ‘wow I didn’t know we did this!’ Studying in one department means students aren’t always aware of the full scale of weird, wonderful and fascinating work which takes place at their institution. I remember not finding out until after I graduated that Sheffield has whole labs where you can grow plants in climate-controlled environments, all hidden under a car park. Again inadvertently – using videos/podcasts to tell strong research stories can make them aware of this.

In a group Q&A for the Meet Content blog back in October, @andrewcareaga - Director of Comms at Missouri University of Science and Technology, makes the point:

Traditionally, press releases are aimed at a single audience — journalists — and are designed to persuade them that our subjects, events or other “news” are worthy of coverage. But for years now, smaller news organizations have been using press releases as news verbatim. So we shouldn’t be writing solely for journalists anyway. We should write them for a more general audience.

If, however, our goal is to communicate with segmented audiences — prospective students, current students, alumni, parents and the like — then we should definitely reevaluate our content types and how we present the stories. Depending on the audience, a 90-second video may be more appropriate than a press release, or a lengthy article in the alumni magazine.

The one caveat I’d add to the above is that a video, especially when it’s promoting research, doesn’t have to be targeted at a particular segment of a HE audience, and doing so could narrow its broad appeal.

When we aim for media coverage it’s not to get it covered by a particular paper or outlet for the sake of it, but to reach the audiences they have access to. Shoot a video to promote research, an event or other news and providing it’s got something to say and is beyond a talking head, then maybe it can reach those same audiences too.

Worth a look: Chronicle of HigherEd article from July 2011 on Top 10 (US) videos posted by Colleges. Many commencement addresses in there but some research too.

(I’d urge you to read the full Meet the Content post ‘The Future of Public Relations in Higher Ed‘, and the comments for much more on press releases and social media in HE).

Social media in public relations: part of core skills?

Published 03/01/2012 Public Relations , Social + digital media Leave a Comment
Tags: In-house, PR, PR Moment, Public, Social media

Over on PR moment, Angela Casey suggests that you don’t need a ‘social media expert’:

I have lost count of how many times recently I have been asked “who is your social media expert?” and I have said, again and again, that in my view we should all be social media experts, just as much as we are broadcast, print media or public engagement specialists. It is our job to know how to communicate as widely as possible in the most effective way. And if that includes social media as well as the other channels, then we just do it and do it well. We do not need the bespectacled expert to drop in at the last minute and tell us how to do that one element of the programme. However, where there are people with particular expertise, we need them to be ensuring relevant training is the highest standard possible.

Give me a second while I adjust my spectacles (and no, I don’t claim to really be an expert!)

The post focuses on how agencies should respond to this issue, stating that having an expert in any particular area of PR may be a tempting way of marketing your services, but all practitioners need to be able to do, well, everything.

In the case of in-house PRs, there isn’t the need to market your services (as such) but the need for broad skills still remains. Angela’s point – one I completely agree with – counts for both in-house and agencies.

Perhaps more than any other area of PR, social media is practised everyday by those in the sector in an entirely personal capacity, be it updating Facebook, watching YouTube and so on. It’s not an alien technology, but a familiar landscape to all. Those just entering the PR sector are likely to come to it with a fairly comprehensive understanding, as they’ll have used these platforms for years already.

But with limited time and resources, how realistic is it to ensure your whole team is trained up in all areas? We may all be using social media, but digital is another area, even as the technology becomes more accessible.

Change in CIPR membership rules

Published 21/11/2011 Public Relations 1 Comment
Tags: CIPR, MCIPR, Membership, Public Relations

The CIPR has announced a change to its membership rules, in an update for the 2011 reality of the PR industry.

Essentially, all those who are Affiliates become Associate members or Members (MCIPR), depending on experience, and Member (MCIPR) grade now requires only two years experience, rather than previous criteria (10 years experience, six years plus a year on CIPR CPD scheme or one year plus the diploma).

From what I’ve seen (on Twitter), this is a move which has been broadly welcomed. Although it does mean higher charges for more practitioners with their membership being upgraded, it makes the grades less stratified, opens up more training opportunities and gives a wider electorate for CIPR elections, such as the one just finished.

Once the changes come into existence in January, 80% of members will be at MCIPR grade.

However, Sarah Williams points out:

But a more fundamental question needs to be asked – has it ever been representative? With fewer than 20% of practitioners choosing to be members (if the CIPR’s figures estimating the size of the industry are to be believed), then can the CIPR ever claim to have been representative?

I didn’t study PR at university, and I daresay nor do the majority of new entrants into the profession each year. Therefore, I hadn’t heard of the CIPR until well after I started working in the sector. Given the cost of joining and the disjointed nature of the industry (what counts as PR?), it’s not surprising that less than 20% of those in the industry join the CIPR. The solution seems to be somewhat of a Catch-22: there is some responsibility of the wider industry to point new practitioners in the direction of the CIPR, but they’ll only do this if they think it’s relevant. But the CIPR will only be so with a broad membership from across the sector.

The changes are definitely a step in the right direction and should be a positive move for future and current members and the sector as a whole – but there is still an underlying problem of representation, and of how to attract younger practitioners.

The future of public relations – an overhaul, new principles or just tell them stories?

Published 15/11/2011 Public Relations , Social + digital media Leave a Comment
Tags: CIPR, Digital media, Evernote, New York Times, Public Relations, Social media

One of the topics I’m currently obsessed with is the future of public relations. As such, I’ll offer a brief-round up of some of the recent content I’ve come across on this issue.

Rob Brown, who is currently running for CIPR President, was just one of the latest to ask ‘Does PR need an overhaul‘?

For the record I’m not about to an embark on a “print media is dead, social is the saviour” diatribe. Too often the debate is hi-jacked by social media snake-oil sellers who tell you that a Facebook fan page is a a strategy. But much of the PR profession needs to wake up and fast. Print is declining, in numbers, pagination and breadth of content. The media landscape is shifting.

The PR profession needs to adapt to create content that is valid across a broader range of media and we need to know how to drive people to that content. We now also have the opportunity to create our own spaces on-line.

I would incidentally, be wholeheartedly voting for Rob but unfortunately, voting is not open to affiliate members. But if you can vote and aren’t sure, watch the CIPR TV debate in case you still need to be convinced.

His warning of the snake-oil sellers is warranted. Although there is a great need to understand social media and SEO, when it gets hijacked by aggressive commercial ‘gurus’ (shudder) yelling about obscure metrics, it’s enough to put anyone off.

Last week, Richard Edleman gave a talk (pdf) at the Institute of PR (who I confess, I haven’t come across before). He calls for public engagement to become the standard for the PR industry. One of the four principles suggests is ‘take full advantage of democratised media’:

Our greatest challenge today is deciding where to begin telling a story.

There are four distinct, but related, types of media today:

mainstream

hybrid

social, and

owned

Imagine them as a four-leaf clover.

In the first leaf, mainstream, we have the traditional delivery vehicles of print or broadcast.

In the second leaf, hybrid, are the dot.com versions of traditional media and media that is born digital like the Huffington Post.

The third leaf, social, includes Facebook, Twitter feeds and YouTube channels.

The fourth leaf, owned, includes a brand or company’s websites and apps — vitally important because every company should be a media company [my italics].

Some have been a bit more dramatic in evaulting the future for PR, claiming that it will die or be replaced by something new. Rick Guttridge writes the obituary while looking forward to the next chapter – storytelling:

Great storytelling has always been central to great public relations. But the difference is now there’s no telling what can happen once Joe Public gets his status updates into your carefully honed key messages. As such the emphasis must be placed not just on the context within which content is published or publicised, but also the consistency, creativity, and coherency of a message across all media, social, traditional or other. With that in mind, and a nod of respect to the old guard generalists, it’s time to embrace this specialist future of niche thinkers.

Because in an age where standing still always means falling behind it’s vitally important to understand that we’ve changed the way we think, the way we operate, and the skillset we require from our staff. The end result is that PR jobseekers should be increasingly aware that a degree in public relations may not be the best route to industry success. PR is dead, long live storytelling.

The main points which keep cropping are seem to be engaging with users directly using your own content (rather than relying simply on media coverage), using your own spaces online and telling stories in whatever means works best for your audience and message.

For those who claim that PR is too influential in the current media landscape, one possible, partial-refutation of that argument is that the sector is very much playing catch-up with some of the big mainstream media outlets when it comes to social and digital media, UCG and developing online communities. Arthur Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times, recently gave a talk at the LSE on his paper’s digital transformation, and the transcript is available. He gives a smattering of examples – the #911plus20 hastag and live coverage of presidential debates.

I haven’t been in this industry very long, and I don’t claim to have a deep theoretical or practical knowledge of it. I’m also coming from an in-house, higher education perspective, rather than that of a commercial agency. But I’m not sure that shift from focusing on traditional media to our users – our communities – has got very far down the line so far, so it’s good to remind ourselves what people are saying out there.

(This plethora of posts comes courtesy of Evernote. Since I’ve set it up on every device I own or have access to, it’s become this super-index of anything interesting I come across, be it cycling routes, social media discussions or essays on the environment. Can’t recommend it enough, especially if like me, you relied on emailing things to yourself for reading later).

Using your own gadgets for work – a growing trend?

Published 30/10/2011 Higher Education , Public Relations 1 Comment
Tags: Google Docs, IT, NYT, Personal, Professional, The Cloud, Universities, Workstations

Writing in the NYT, Verne G. Kopytoff comments on the slipping away of control from corporate IT departments over their employees equipment and software (extraordinarily, I can’t find a link to his article – I read it in the NYT pullout from today’s Observer).

The corporate information technology department has long kept a firm hand on what equipment and software employees use in the workplace.

They are now in retreat. Employees are brining in the technology they use at home and demanding the I.T. department accommodate them, and many departments now do that.

It’s one of the more obvious manifestations of the blurring lines between personal and professional lines. Not only do your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles profess to be both on behalf of your organisation, but with the ‘all tweets my own’ caveat inevitably thrown in, but the tools we use to update such networks are now being used for both.

I was offered a Blackberry when I started my current role, but declined. Everything I need – email etc. – can all be viewed, updated and used perfectly from my Iphone, negating the need to carry round two devices. It’s versatile enough to be an assest to my job, even if the option of owning one is my own.

Obviously many people still prefer to keep the separation between work and personal life distinct, even down to the physical devices which are now so essential to managing each. It just seems more than a little inconvenient to me.

As Kopytoff mentions though, this isn’t an option open to those dealing with highly sensitive information due to security fears. I know friends in the civil service wouldn’t have this luxury.

For universities, the issue is less employees than students. Ferdinand von Prondzynski, from Robert Gordon University, did a post on the potential decline of workstations at university libraries:

A few weeks ago I visited another university and was shown its library. It was also a very modern library, opened a year or two ago, and it also had a good deal of space set aside for computer workstations. But what struck me on this visit was that, despite the fact that it was close to exam time, the workstations were almost entirely unused. Other parts of the library were quite full, but here I noticed that many students were sitting at desks with their own laptops, netbooks or iPads. I asked one of the library staff, and she explained that over the past year or so they had experienced a dramatic decline in demand for the workstations. ‘If we were fitting out the building now’, she suggested, ‘we probably wouldn’t include many workstations, perhaps even none at all.’

As a veteran of working part-time in the university library – 3 years at Sheffield – I’m not surprised by this. Despite having the option of remote access to our file store when off campus, I gave up on it in favour of a pen drive after two years, and then converted entirely to Google Docs once I started my postgrad degree. I think it will take a while for universities – such large and diverse organisations as they are – to fully convert to the Cloud though.

Is it possible to go beyond press releases?

Published 07/08/2011 Higher Education , Public Relations , Social + digital media 1 Comment
Tags: Digital media, Media Standards Trust, press releases, Public Relations, Social media, Universities

I was at a debate last month organised by the Media Standards Trust on ‘Churnalism’ (there is a video from the BBC College of Journalism). It centered around the PR/journalism relationship and the proliferation of press releases. It was mentioned that 90% of press releases never got any coverage, which is extraordinary considering the industry around them.

Yet what’s also notable is that we continue to perceive press coverage as the primary desired outcome of a press release. From a post by Alistair Wheate, from Glide Technologies, entitled ‘Would anyone read your news if they weren’t paid to’?

Who is the target audience for your press releases? If the answer that comes to mind is ‘journalists’ then think again. Do journalists buy your products or services? They might do if you are a well-known consumer brand, but probably not. The real audience is likely to be a mix of your current or potential customers, investors (where applicable), current and future employees, partners and range of other important stakeholders.

Journalists are in most cases an intermediary audience. You communicate with them in the hope that they will say good things (or not say bad things) about your brand that in turn will influence opinion towards your brand amongst those who make an impact on your business.

At the moment, especially in PR which isn’t consumer focused, we are perhaps still too hooked on the idea that public relations is based on media coverage. But what’s the point in achieving those column inches or broadcast time? In order to reach those key audiences, to establish and improve their perception of us, to influence the wider public debate and decision makers. The media are a conduit for this.

But we compete within an environment where users can consume media across borders, time-zones, platforms and outlets, and where those of us in PR still battle with each other for precious space in traditional media. As it’s the area I’m in, I’d ask how can universities add at least another string to their bow when it comes to promoting their work?

Alistair recommends one solution:

Take a new approach to how the story is presented. You may be able to get away with presenting a boring wall-of-text press release if the only people you expect to read it are those who are actually paid to do so. This is particularly true for larger companies who can get away with very lazy presentation – journalists will write about you anyway just because you are such a big player. If you write with the notion in mind that you want a more general audience to choose to read your story over and above other stories on the web then presentation becomes much more important. It’s no longer a case of a journalist choosing to read your bland press release over and above someone else’s bland press release but a potential customer choosing to read your story versus an engaging well-written blog post or news story.

Universities have an opportunity to leapfrog the mainstream media and explain our research, teaching and wider contributions to society in forms beyond the text-based press release. Whether it’s video, audio, slideshows or hosting debates, events and using social media to engage with different stakeholders, it seems like an inevitable direction. We have websites, and access to the tools needed to reach the public.

Content is still king, but new ways of telling our stories are also essential.

(Fiona Fox of the SMC, who chaired the MST debate, posted on it)

Presentation on social and digital media at universities to AHRC conference

Published 29/06/2011 Higher Education , Public Relations , Social + digital media Leave a Comment
Tags: AHRC, Digital media, King's College London, Presentation, Prezi, Social media, Twitter, University of Sheffield

Below is the presentation I gave today to the AHRC Aim High media conference, held at the University of Manchester.

Some useful articles and posts, relating to the subjects I covered in the presentation:

Nottingham’s YouTube Channel

The press release from Imperial

Sheffield release on the video from near-space

Social Analytics for Russell Group unis - a statistical assessment of Russell Groups university Twitter feeds. I’m a bit sceptical about this sort of thing, but it’s worth a look

Time to close your digital department (Rob Brown)

Academics and Colleges split their personalities for social media

I really enjoyed the day, and thanks very much to Jake Gilmore for asking me to speak. Any feedback is welcome!

RT @markbikeslondon: The BIG story from late last night in case you missed it: MPs to debate how to #GetBritainCycling http://t.co/mc5EmIwy… 19 hours ago
I know it's not that simple but if keep making it easier, people will keep driving, more congestion, more emissions #routemasters 1 day ago
Think money spent on traffic monitoring system @TfLOfficial be better getting people out of cars & invest in public transport #routemasters 1 day ago
@MandaBathory at #cslondon13 - series of 5-min talks on web content strategy: meetup.com/content-strate… 2 days ago
RT @think_info: Automate all things. Take power away from the users. per @philhawksworth #cslondon13 2 days ago