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.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Community Relations Ranks at the Bottom for Higher Ed PR
http://chronicle.com/article/Understanding-the-Public-in/48999/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The previous article, Understanding the Public in Public Relations, is from the Chronicle of Higher Education. It focuses on a portion of public relations at universities that gets short shrift: community relations.
Now how, you ask, does a university located in a community ignore the community? Well it isn't a matter of ignoring. It's more a matter of taking for granted.
Throughout the history of higher education, institutions of learning have depended on the support and finances of the local community to fulfill their missions. Without the local community, these institutions wouldn't have become the Harvards and Yales and even the University of fill-in-a-name. Instead, they would have withered away and died.
In the early going, even Harvard had problems staying afloat, relying on the generosity of the local community, and some benefactors from throughout the United States, to pay faculty, provide books and provide students...
So why is it that universities have taken their communities for granted?
Well, like any good relationship, if you're in it long enough, you begin to relax. You begin to count on the person on the other side to just be there and to just be. That's when you begin taking the relationship and hence the people for granted.
I'm not saying that all universities do this. I'm saying that it's easy to do this in a longstanding relationship. But when new people move into an area, they don't understand how the university did whatever it did. They expect a certain level of attention, and when they don't get it, problems arise. Here's when you should focus on community relations--before this happens.
Public relations is supposed to be about building and maintaining relationships. Community relations really focuses on this more than many other forms of public relations, which is why it's so important. And while we have a tendency to just take that relationship for granted, it does require work and maintenance.
So PR folks in Higher Education, when was the last time you asked your neighbors what they think of your university? Maybe it's time again.
The previous article, Understanding the Public in Public Relations, is from the Chronicle of Higher Education. It focuses on a portion of public relations at universities that gets short shrift: community relations.
Now how, you ask, does a university located in a community ignore the community? Well it isn't a matter of ignoring. It's more a matter of taking for granted.
Throughout the history of higher education, institutions of learning have depended on the support and finances of the local community to fulfill their missions. Without the local community, these institutions wouldn't have become the Harvards and Yales and even the University of fill-in-a-name. Instead, they would have withered away and died.
In the early going, even Harvard had problems staying afloat, relying on the generosity of the local community, and some benefactors from throughout the United States, to pay faculty, provide books and provide students...
So why is it that universities have taken their communities for granted?
Well, like any good relationship, if you're in it long enough, you begin to relax. You begin to count on the person on the other side to just be there and to just be. That's when you begin taking the relationship and hence the people for granted.
I'm not saying that all universities do this. I'm saying that it's easy to do this in a longstanding relationship. But when new people move into an area, they don't understand how the university did whatever it did. They expect a certain level of attention, and when they don't get it, problems arise. Here's when you should focus on community relations--before this happens.
Public relations is supposed to be about building and maintaining relationships. Community relations really focuses on this more than many other forms of public relations, which is why it's so important. And while we have a tendency to just take that relationship for granted, it does require work and maintenance.
So PR folks in Higher Education, when was the last time you asked your neighbors what they think of your university? Maybe it's time again.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
How to Promote and Market Your Student Publication
This is the presentation that I did at the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Advisers convention in Austin last weekend.
Our student newspaper at Texas Wesleyan, The Rambler, is a weekly, so it should be all about community engagement. That's what weeklies are good at, and that's what communities expect.
This presentation was reaching out a different community, my colleagues at student newspapers across the nation, to help them understand that marketing and public relations aren't bad words, and that they should do more of each.
Our student newspaper at Texas Wesleyan, The Rambler, is a weekly, so it should be all about community engagement. That's what weeklies are good at, and that's what communities expect.
This presentation was reaching out a different community, my colleagues at student newspapers across the nation, to help them understand that marketing and public relations aren't bad words, and that they should do more of each.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Creating Engagement With Wikis
Check out this SlideShare Presentation. I'll be presenting this on Saturday in Houston at 8 a.m., so stop by if you're around for the IABC Southern Region Conference. I'll also be commenting on additional aspects of engagement throughout the week.
Creating Engagement With Wikis
View more presentations from Kay Colley.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Importance Of Professional Networking
Networking is just another name for creating community. We rely on our network of contacts to help us get jobs, find out information, give us the latest gossip, and provide us with a good set of eyes and ears so we'll know the latest in our chosen professions.
To successfully maintain a professional network, you have to be good at maintaining community. Whether the network is actual or virtual, people want to hear from you, and that's what community is all about.
Check out this SlideShare Presentation. Hopefully you'll find it helpful. I certainly found it helpful to put together--I always learn more from teaching people. And fortunately, I was able to find a super-duper networking tip sheet from Barbara Gibson, president of the International Association of Business Communicators. I've embedded a link to her website in this presentation.
To successfully maintain a professional network, you have to be good at maintaining community. Whether the network is actual or virtual, people want to hear from you, and that's what community is all about.
Check out this SlideShare Presentation. Hopefully you'll find it helpful. I certainly found it helpful to put together--I always learn more from teaching people. And fortunately, I was able to find a super-duper networking tip sheet from Barbara Gibson, president of the International Association of Business Communicators. I've embedded a link to her website in this presentation.
The Importance Of Professional Networking
View more presentations from Kay Colley.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Narrow Definitions of Objectivity Kill Media, Reduce Minority Community Coverage
As the adviser to a college student newspaper, part of my job is to teach students how to cover stories for the mass media. As you might guess, that can become quite a daunting task, especially when you throw in ethics.
Recently, an adviser colleague found ethics to be even more daunting than usual as she contemplated hiring a student who was part of the gay community. This student was active in the gay community, and the adviser was concerned about the student's ability to objectively cover issues related to the gay community.
A variety of other advisers chimed in saying how involvement in an organization means that a person cannot be objective in covering the organization.
My response was immediate.
As a journalist and a professor who teaches journalism, I have had the philosophy that wrapping yourself in the flag of objectivity is ridiculous if you are a journalist. Objectivity is an ideal, not a reality.
It's better to understand your biases and work to maintain fairness and balance. The ideal of objectivity just leads to biased coverage and lack of context, which is what most people complain about when they roast the media. This is the context in which my response began, but it is also based on my belief that the white, male view of news is just plain biased. And the white, male view of journalism is what my colleague got from the variety of other advisers who offered their advice.
The reality of covering news is that gay journalists have a better understanding of the gay community; Hispanic journalists have a better understanding of the Hispanic community, African-American journalists have a better understanding of the African-American community, etc., etc. You get the point. People from the community are also more likely to speech to folks who understand them--people who are like them. We use this understanding of people in research by trying to match subjects and researchers based on gender, age, ethnicity and race. It just makes sense.
Today's media would benefit from looking at things differently. Embrace the different points of view of groups who could expand coverage, expand thinking and expand the media market. Seems like something today's media really need--expanded markets. After all, narrow thinking has left the media grappling to stay alive. Isn't it time they were maybe a little more relevant?
Recently, an adviser colleague found ethics to be even more daunting than usual as she contemplated hiring a student who was part of the gay community. This student was active in the gay community, and the adviser was concerned about the student's ability to objectively cover issues related to the gay community.
A variety of other advisers chimed in saying how involvement in an organization means that a person cannot be objective in covering the organization.
My response was immediate.
As a journalist and a professor who teaches journalism, I have had the philosophy that wrapping yourself in the flag of objectivity is ridiculous if you are a journalist. Objectivity is an ideal, not a reality.
It's better to understand your biases and work to maintain fairness and balance. The ideal of objectivity just leads to biased coverage and lack of context, which is what most people complain about when they roast the media. This is the context in which my response began, but it is also based on my belief that the white, male view of news is just plain biased. And the white, male view of journalism is what my colleague got from the variety of other advisers who offered their advice.
The reality of covering news is that gay journalists have a better understanding of the gay community; Hispanic journalists have a better understanding of the Hispanic community, African-American journalists have a better understanding of the African-American community, etc., etc. You get the point. People from the community are also more likely to speech to folks who understand them--people who are like them. We use this understanding of people in research by trying to match subjects and researchers based on gender, age, ethnicity and race. It just makes sense.
Today's media would benefit from looking at things differently. Embrace the different points of view of groups who could expand coverage, expand thinking and expand the media market. Seems like something today's media really need--expanded markets. After all, narrow thinking has left the media grappling to stay alive. Isn't it time they were maybe a little more relevant?
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