Continued: The Rambler Marketing Plan and Increasing Online Presence

So last time we talked, The Rambler's staffers had put in a concerted effort to increase fans, followers, friends and e-mail distribution of The Rambler online.

We've continued those efforts, and since that time, we've also won several awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association from its annual convention, including honorable mention for general overall excellence for the web site--a great endorsement. Now, we're working to let everyone know about that and increase our valued readers/viewers.

For our campus community, we have a story in our online only edition of the student newspaper and a story just appeared in the campuswide newsletter. A specific e-mail was sent from me to several members of the campus community--our student publications board, the provost, my dean and my department chair. Next will be a story to our local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The announcement is also scheduled to appear on our social media entities, and will be added to our staff box for a recurring effect.

In the works, signs posted around campus, maybe a congratulations banner on our building, and some statement in our recruitment efforts for students.

We've put our alumni outreach on hold for a week or two, with a kickoff associated with our end of the year banquet.

Next up will be direct emails from me to department members from my own department and then departments within the School of Arts and Letters.

So to recap, we've taken the mass media approach (macro blasts) on campus, and now we're following up those blasts with more personalized e-mail blasts and papering the campus.

One wrinkle in the plan: we have two Facebook pages. Next week, we tackle that.

My Network, My Community

In reviewing my blog feeds today, I found this gem from Seth Godin at his blog.

Reminds me of an experience that I had yesterday. I attended the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Conference in Dallas, where I volunteered to help with the live news contest. It's an event where students gather to report on a manufactured story, and the best reporting wins.

Standing in front of a crowd of 75-80 student reporters and photographers, I was a bit overwhelmed. Even though these were members of my community, here I was about to "perform" before them and become controversial. I had planned a live news event that would test their sense of objectivity and in the end, vilify me. I even wrote about this briefly in my Facebook account, where another segment of my community embraces me and serves as my network.

Standing outside of the community of journalists was strange. Condemning them and espousing rhetoric in total opposition to what I believe and what I teach was even stranger, but in the end, it has strengthened my network. From this experience, I have been able to build a common bridge with people in my Facebook community and advisers at the contest. I suspect that I will also be able to build a bridge to students who participated in the contest or heard about it.

The point being, commonality and difference can create bridges. Most lead to community and an expanded network, but some lead to nowhere. In the end, the things that we do, the organizations that we belong to are all about the people, the community and the network. Now I believe I can leverage this experience at TIPA to build bridges and create connections where none existed. I can only guess where this might lead.