Moving Steadily Toward Your Goals

Creating community or growing a community is challenging, and time consuming.

Going into my second semester as student media director for the Texas Wesleyan student newspaper, The Rambler,I am beginning to see the results of the long hours of work in the fall.

Students are "hanging out" in the office, showing a sense of pride, and really communing with each other. Success is in site on this front...at least until our seniors graduate.

This semester, I'm working to tackle on-campus perceptions.
Since journalists are held with about as much esteem as salesmen (just see the studies on this), my main focus has been to get to know people around campus and improve credibility.

Getting to know people takes time...something that I have a limited supply of as a full-time, tenure track faculty member and administrator of student media. So how do you get to know people and sustain relationships?

Well the getting to know people is pretty easy if you just schedule meetings. The sustaining relationships part is more difficult. Scheduling lunch with administrators, faculty and staff can become challenging when you're also trying to sustain community within your organization, do some writing/research, prepare for class, teach class and retrofit a building.

I'm not sure I always choose the right priorities, but prioritizing is the only way to go.

Rome wasn't built in a day, as the saying goes, and it will take some time and continued work to achieve all of our strategic goals. I guess the point is to move steadily toward those goals and continually put the community first.

After all, people still take precedence over things. I learned that in my reporting classes many years ago. And it's still as relevant today.

Networking Equals Community Building

Networking is creating community. Networking is also one of the best ways to get a job, especially in an industry like communications. But many people, especially new graduates or college students, don't understand how to network.

The Dallas International Association of Business Communicators give a few tips on their YouTube channel.

Take a look at these quick tips on Networking, and then join in a networking event. You'll be glad you did.

Twello Ladies and Gentlemen

Pardon my pun, but I needed something to catch your attention.

It seems that new media has struck College Media Advisers throughout the CMA Summer Workshop, but especially after a particularly fun-filled and information-filled session at the Poynter Institute yesterday. When I returned to the room, I was much too fried to give any of the new information a try, but I have since gone to Twitter's version of the Yellow Pages, Twello, and registered. It seems that every day launches at least one new application that can be added onto Twitter.

Those naysayers of social media will be clucking their disdain right about now, saying that Twitter is just a flash in the pan. But with almost an 800% increase in members in the last year, it's a mighty flash indeed. By the way, got my figures from Ellyn Angelotti of the Poynter Institute. What an impressive young woman, who introduced the lot of us (45 new and experienced media advisers) to the new news cycle. Some people are kicking and screaming, while railing against the changing news environment. Others are embracing with some reckless abandon. I say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Thus my addition of Twello.

If you haven't been dabling in the new media and social networking, what's taking you so long? Follow me on Twitter @kaycolley, and use Twello as a great resource to find folks who might share similar interests. Creating community by finding folks who share your interests or your values is the best way to introduce yourself to social media. After all, it's hard to talk when you don't have something in common, which is why we commune with similar folks. See you on Twello soon!

Not feelin' the love

Okay, I've got to admit it: I'm not feelin' the love. Maybe it's because I'm sick today, but I don't seem to be feelin' the love from my peeps. Where are my followers? Where is my community?

I guess this is a wonderful lesson in creating community, and something that I hope many of my students will at least read, even if they don't follow. Just because you start a blog doesn't mean people will follow you. Uncanny how that works!! I guess that's why we PR Peeps, which is a community all its own now, just put things together and expect them to work, and we're quite dumbfounded when things don't work. I've called this the "If you build it they will come" marketing and public relations mentality.

Haven't you been in an organization that practiced this kind of community-building activities: Throw it all against the wall and let's see what sticks? This ain't spaghetti folks! A little more strategy might make everyone's life a little easier.

So what does this mean for my little community here in the blogosphere? Well, I'm working on a campaign to increase the little community to a larger community. Stay tuned to see what happens.

Using social media to build community

This week, I'm doing a presentation about the use of wikis in public relations. My topic, in particular, is using wikis for media relations and marketing. While that's a wonderful idea, wikis help build community. A Business Week article really drives this point home. The examples that they provide really give you an indication of how great wikis are at creating and sustaining community, especially when you consider Hollywood has gotten into the act by creating wikis for some of its most popular shows.

The reason that wikis are so good at creating community and blogs are not as good at it is that wikis lack controls. The average person, for the most part, can post, edit, delete and create whatever he or she pleases. This is the essence of letting go of the message, something that many communicators have a problem doing.

Hopefully, I can convince some PR-types that letting go is a good thing, because to effectively create community in an online forum, you have to allow others to create and become a part of the creation. Something that even Business Week would recommend.