No, I Don’t Get Summers Off!
Posted: June 21, 2012 Filed under: Content Marketing, Social Media | Tags: college, college PR, higher education, professors, summer semester Leave a comment »Fantasy
Fact
Leaving the K-12ers out of this, higher education institutions work all year-long, and no, they don’t get out at 3 o’clock either. In fact, with all of the writing, media monitoring, event planning and attending, crisis communications, and addressing breaking news, many college and university communicators work well over 40 hours per week.
Admittedly, summertime tends to be less eventful, but thoughtful experimentation and strategic planning have campus communicators plugging away. To support this humble opinion, I quickly Googled, “Higher ed gets summer off,” and surprise, surprise, I came across a number of recent articles that address the old platitudes:
- Dr. Ray Pastore, blogs about teaching, researching, and preparing this summer.
- Kristine M. Khire, identifies the stereotypes and misconceptions about higher ed PR in a PRSA article.
- Dr. Lora Helvie-Mason, braces herself whenever someone asks her what she does for a living. Her recent blog post addresses what she does each summer, and provides a laundry list of summertime faculty development opportunities for schools on a budget.
What all three authors have in common, they use the summer interval to improve what they do, so they can make higher education better! While I wish I could shield the cogs of higher ed from these stereotypes, I come armed with only two tools, 1) this newsletter and 2) this blog.
Our June newsletter is dedicated to all the summer time workers in higher ed; may you continue to take this time to make higher ed better for your institution and its stakeholders, and may we have the privilege of giving you the resources you need to succeed.
I Love My Job (and it’s only my first week)
Posted: May 11, 2012 Filed under: Announcements | Tags: college, higher education, institutions, social media strategy, student achievement 1 Comment »To anyone asking how my first week at readMedia went, I’d have to say, “Awesome.” I have a single purpose at readMedia, ensuring our clients have all of the resources they need to succeed in drawing attention to their school through publicizing the achievements of their students.” What’s more rewarding than that?
My first assignment was to write a blog post introducing myself to the readMedia community. After thinking about the many ways I could tell you how my professional experience qualifies me to be your new Customer Marketing Leader, I decided, that approach was booooring; so, I needed a new idea.
It was my last ride-along of the day; I had already sat in on a Research Brief, a Technology Brief, and finally a Customer Consultation with Danielle. Danielle said to a new client, “Contact me and I’ll help you through any problems or I’m happy to just help you think through problems too.” I was blown away by Danielle’s thoughtful remark. That’s when it hit me, Danielle’s investment in an institution’s success didn’t come with the purchase of a service pack, it’s genuine and it’s free.
In my five days on the job, I’ve learned a lot about the readMedia platform; I liken it to drinking from a fire hose, but I’ve also had the privilege of learning just as much about the company culture. In short, I’m taking this learning journey with you and my job is to help you better understand what readMedia is. That said, I’d like to share three things I’ve learned about readMedia:
No. 1: The average achievement shared on Facebook generates 7 additional page views of the original story. Multiply the number of page views by the number of students, and your department will be responsible for placing your institution’s brand in front of thousands, garnering the attention of parents, current and prospective students, and the media. One school generated 2,188 stories from a single achievement, graduation, that achievement was posted on readabout.me, it generated 15,055 page views, and finally resulted in 1,213 shares on social networks like Facebook. This was all accomplished with an investment of only 25 minutes of time.
No. 2: In one year, over 400 institutions have adopted readMedia and made it an integral part of their social media strategy. One year, 400 institutions, and over 2 million stories shared. That, to me, is amazing.
No. 3: I’m still blown away by the dedication and passion I’ve seen from the team at readMedia. Ensuring each institutions success – at any cost, drives this bright group of people. Every conversation I’ve been privy to has a similar theme – How can we make it easier for marketing, public relations, and communications departments to draw attention to their institutions brand and their students, and what can we do better to make sure this happens?
No. 4: This is a Mac lovin’ office; there’s no PC as far as the eye can see. I’ve had to abandon everything I knew about the inner-workings of a computer and start over. The forward delete maneuver finally feels natural now, but I’m open to any and all tips the readMedia community might have for navigating a Mac.
I feel very fortunate to be joining the readMedia team. As your new Customer Marketing Leader, my job is to make sure you have the resources you need to be successful with readMedia. If you ever feel overwhelmed or like you’re not using readMedia to its full potential, it’s my job to make sure you become a power user fast.
I’d like to see what you think of readMedia; do you have anything to add to my list of four? Leave a “Reply” and share your positive stories or concerns, I want to hear them all!
Happy Friday,
Jenn Connally
jenn@readmedia.com
@JennConnally
518.429.2799
