Derek DeVries – Imprudent Loquaciousness

Perhaps summer isn’t the best time to schedule a learning opportunity for education professionals.  Unfortunately the Paperclip Webinar on Community Colleges and the Impact of Social Media has been canceled and will be rescheduled for a later date.

As soon as we have a new date, I’ll post it here.

Community colleges across the country are finding ways to teach, market and communicate using various forms of social media. In this rapidly changing environment it is challenging for professionals to stay up to date on the latest trends and functions of a social media landscape.

In many cases, higher education has led in the adoption of these new tools and technologies. Much more can be done, however, both inside the classroom and outside the college engaging publics.

Join me for an interactive webinar where you will learn how to develop a greater awareness of hot trends in social media as they relate to community colleges and begin the process of creating an effective social media marketing plan.

Register Here: http://bit.ly/ccsandsocialmedia

On March 11, 2012 I did a pre-conference workshop at the 2012 Conference of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR).  It’s an organization for marketing and PR professionals in higher education at 2-year colleges.  Below you can find the resources from that presentation (the slides, handout, audio, and some video).

If you found the materials or the workshop to be helpful, I’d appreciate a review on Linkedin.  Hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to do more workshops like these.

Video:

Handout:

• How Not to be a Social Media N00b (.pdf) [I essentially crammed a variety of social media resources into this handout with brief descriptions so that attendees wouldn't have to scramble to take notes while I blathered on.]

Slides:

• How Not to be a Social Media N00b [This was the main set of slides I used.]
• Tutorials / How-tos [This was a second set of slides walking through how to accomplish a variety of useful tasks in social media.]

Audio:

Ideally, Internships aren’t just about getting resume-filler.  They’re about practical experience, networking, and portfolio-building.  One aspect of internships that most of us take for granted is the vital role they play in acclimating young people to  office culture.

Don’t laugh.  I was fortunate to have worked in my father’s insurance office since I was 13, but most young people don’t have that sort of exposure to the white-collar working world and its various intricacies.

Office culture is so ubiquitous and richly-textured that the sitcom “The Office” has spawned numerous adaptations for the varying office cultures around the world, beginning first in the UK but then moving to the US, Germany, Canada, Chile, Israel, and Sweden.

Virtually every textbook in Communications and Public Relations stresses the importance of cultural competence in effective communication.  So many of our paradigms for encoding and decoding messages are culture-specific.  Here’s what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K5SycZjGhI

Tips for Students on Maximizing Their Internships

1. Get Something out of the Experience: Unfortunately there are still a lot of organizations that don’t monetarily compensate their interns.  The practice is unethical in my opinion (and the opinion of the Public Relations Society of America).  The current dismal economic climate isn’t helping matters much, but for students unable to get hourly pay or a stipend (to cover the cost of the credits for the class) for their efforts there are still ways to get value from the experience by ensuring that one of three things comes out of their work:

• A Name: It’s easier to make the case to take an unpaid internship if the organization is one that has a solid reputation that will look good as legitimate work experience on a resume.
• Solid Experience: Another intangible value if a name and money aren’t available for an internship is hands-on experience.  Particularly for nonprofits and small companies, the possibility exists for an intern to be given a great deal of responsibility that exceeds the typical student experience.  Being able to oversee projects and produce valuable portfolio content also has a great deal of merit.
• Cultural Competence: For the rare student that already knows what field or type of PR that they want to practice, gaining exposure to the networks of professionals and world they operate in is also valuable.  Absent a name, cash, or responsibility in return for one’s work – being a fly on the wall in high-level meetings or consuming industry-specific literature on the job can also be valuable.

2.  Keep a Diary: Many people find journaling to be valuable while studying abroad and that also applies to “studying abroad” in the office environment.  Frequently when we’re in the moment at a job, it can be extraordinarily difficult to process and remember everything we experience.  Writing them down helps not only the exercise of processing what we learn, but helping us internalize it so that we can actually apply it to our own careers.  Try the following:

• Jot down terms you don’t understand to look up later.
• Keep records of the names of people you meet and the organizations they work for (this may come in handy .  Maintain a running list of all of the unspoken “rules” for office behavior that you encounter (email alone is rife with behavioral norms).

3.  Stay Open to Unfamiliar Experiences: Just as when traveling abroad, working in an office is a richer experience when you keep an open mind and volunteer for (or better yet, seek out) opportunities to do things or go places we wouldn’t have otherwise.

Looking back now after 15 years in PR, I realize that learning what I DON’T like has been just as valuable as learning what I DO like.  The earlier you can develop self-awareness, the more opportunity you have to change your career trajectory toward a career that is fulfilling.

It may not seem like it now when you’re eating Ramen and worrying about affording gas for your car, but money isn’t everything.  Contrary to what many textbooks, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and services like Salary.com say – you’re likely not going to get rich doing PR (the “starting salaries” they list are laughably inaccurate) … and that’s okay.  What matters more is that you like the work and find it life-affirming.

4.  Observe Others Reactions to You: Despite egalitarian ethos espoused by the the US, not everyone is equal in the workplace.  Different standards (and in some cases, double-standards) still exist for for race, gender and culture.  Understanding this is critical to navigating office politics.  I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you that a strong work ethic and quality output aren’t all you need to be successful in the white-collar world.

Given how much of PR is interpersonal relationships (with the media, with clients, with co-workers, with customers), every aspiring professional needs to be aware of how they may be received by the people they interact with daily.  Fortunately you have plenty of opportunities to make mistakes and learn from them early in your career – those opportunities diminish as you get older.

Women especially have to be aware of relationship dynamics in the office, as they are more frequently held to a different standard than men.  Take the adage “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult” from Charlotte Whitton.  Regrettably I’ve found this to be true in the so-called enlightened workplace of the “modern” era.

The curious thing I’ve observed is that women need to worry less about sexism from men than they do from other women.  Throughout my career, the majority of my supervisors have been female and I’ve watched as a female colleague many years my senior in experience and ability has her view challenged where I am not even though I’m making the same contention.

As far as race and ethnicity go, the sad reality is that most organizations put the “White” in “White-Collar.”  There isn’t nearly as much diversity in most offices as there should be.  The upside is that this creates a great deal of opportunity for minority PR students: savvy firms and companies are looking to hire them.  Naturally, PR pros know the intrinsic value of a diverse range of backgrounds and viewpoints in generating creative ideas as well as in relating to the increasingly-diverse US population.

In a recent post, I tried to compile some strategies for students to maximize their networking opportunities in the hope of gainful employment.  One of the things I advised them to do was to have their own business cards to give to people they meet.

Though it seems like a superficial practice, the act of preparing one’s own business cards can be an important opportunity for reflection and self-realization.  They’re not just for other people – they’re also for ourselves.

No, I’m not kidding.  Here’s why: Read more…

My favorite thing about working at Grand Rapids Community College is the small group of amazing people I get to collaborate with on a regular basis on really innovative and tech-driven projects (many of which we’ve managed to get through bureaucratic hurdles and actually put into practice – like being the first college in Michigan to offer text message alerts for students/employees in crisis situations back in 2005).

Some of these people (Szymon Machajewski, Garret Brand, and Eric Kunnen) and I recently entered GRCC’s “Armen Award” competition as a team with a mobile application built entirely by Szymon in his free time based on a concept we developed that would help save both students and the college time and money and promote conservation and sustainable practices at the college. Read more…

Several people have asked me questions (following the social media policy webinar I did with PaperClip Communications last week) about how faculty should interact with students using social media.  It’s a pressing issue first, because there have been several high-profile cases of inappropriate conduct, and second, because social media provides an opportunity to share relevant information to an entire class (or multiple classes) if it’s handled well.

Here are a few tips:

1. Stay “On Campus“: If they’re available on your campus, course management software like Blackboard, Banner or WebCT can do nearly everything Facebook can do and there’s a “check” in place in that the school is able to oversee the interaction. In addition, it allows other students to view, participate in and learn from the interaction.  We at GRCC use Blackboard and we also use a set of tools from Wimba (like Wimba Pronto which is a client that builds in collaboration, video chat, instant messaging, chat, etc. into one tool).  Most of these systems are also able to publish content to Facebook through an application like CourseFeed (so that students can still remain in Facebook – but participate in the class and get notifications and announcements).
2. Don’t Friend – Be Friended: Faculty(and supervisors)should never initiate friend requests – they need to respect the fact that the power inherent in their position might make students fearful to refuse the request. If a professor wants to invite students to connect with them – it should be done in the form of a general invitation to the entire class(no different than providing their email in the syllabus).
3. Stay Public: Conduct discussions in the open (ie through wall posts as opposed to personal messages) to help ensure that they stay focused on the course and don’t deviate into personal areas that might be inappropriate.  It’s the same as the principle behind conducting an after-class meeting with a student in a hallway as opposed to a classroom so that event he appearance of impropriety is avoided.
4. Use the Buddy System:  It would be ideal if faculty would let their department head, dean or another colleague know that they’re using social media to interact with students AND to “friend” them to give themselves a system of checks and balances.  If you’ve got another pair of eyes helping you keep tabs on what you’re doing, they may be able to help you watch out for interactions that may be problematic.
5. Be Transparent: Behaving as though others can see your conduct is always a good policy.  Anyone trying to maintain a public face that is markedly different from their private behavior is bound for epic failure in an age where online content is easily shared, and students (and consumers) have audio/video recording equipment with them at all times (on their mobile phones).  An “abstinence-only” approach to social media is bound for failure just as much as the “abstinence-only” approach to reproductive health education.  Content about you will go online whether or not you want it to – ultimately it’s best to have a say in the conversation.

In the end, as more of our communication moves to social media – eventually this will become the dominant paradigm for faculty as well as professionals in the private sector.  Better to get a head-start on familiarizing yourself with its nuances now than wait until it’s mandated as part of your contract.  Not only that -but I think you’ll find (as I have) that your teaching experience is richer for the relationships you’re able to maintain with students after the class has ended.  I’ve been amazed and humbled by the pursuit of scholarship that some of my students maintain outside the classroom – and I often learn just as much from them as they hopefully do from me.

[File under "shameless self-promotion"] If you’re working on a social media policy for your organization, I’m hosting a webinar for Paperclip Communications: “Social Media – Campus Policies & Protocol.” The program is aimed specifically aimed at higher education institutions and will cover legal issues, employer/employee issues, student/faculty/staff “boundary” issues, online reputation management, campus PR issues, and generally provide advice and tips to help keep a school’s use of social media positive and lawsuit-free.

Social Media – Campus Policies & Protocol – February 17, 2011 Webinar
Date/Time: Thursday, February 17, 2011 from 2:00-3:30 PM ET
Length: Approx. 90 minutes
Price: $259
Register here: http://bit.ly/SMPolicyWebinarFeb17

It should be a lot of fun; there have been no shortage of fascinating case studies regarding employees and social media policy in the news and this is a topic that I love discussing.  If you’re interested in reading some of my other posts on social media policy and online reputation management, here are a few:

• State Farm, Glenn Beck and Social Media
• Fear of Transparency Nixes Blog at University of Colorado
• 100 Percent of Companies/Organizations Have a Social Media Policy
• The Remote and the Real: Shopping for a BP Oil Spill Thong
• Sample College Social Media Policy Guidelines
• Your Visible Social Network: Radical Transparency as the Great Equalizer

I was talking to a couple of colleagues yesterday over coffee about teaching Public Relations and something occurred to me.

PR students are, in some cases, better experts on some areas of PR than their supervisors.

Public Relations is a relatively young discipline.  Many people who practice PR have no formal education; they’ve acquired their expertise informally – usually through experience.

Mapping Public Relations Knowledge

As a result, the people who lead PR departments or agencies frequently don’t have a broad-based understanding of the profession.  They may have come from hospitality with event-planning expertise, or from a news background (which gives them media relations expertise).  While they have a very deep and nuanced understanding of those disciplines – they have relatively little or no awareness or education about some other areas of PR – which is a very broad field that encompasses many responsibilities, practices and tactics.

In my experience, this has proven to be true.  I’ve worked in PR for over a decade and the majority of the leaders I’ve worked for fit this description.  They have very strong skills in particular disciplines, but they invariably have blind spots as a result of how their knowledge was acquired.  They may be experts on handling crises, but lack skills in measurement.  Or they may excel at writing, but know very little about the legal concepts that apply to PR.

That broad base of knowledge is what the Public Relations Society of America’s “Accredited in Public Relations” (APR) designation works to remedy – the gaps in the whole profession that may have been missed through one’s career in the profession.

It can be intimidating to be an intern or an entry-level PR pro sitting at the table with leaders who have decades of experience on you.  PR pros who are young to the practice should take confidence from the fact that in addition to the fresh perspective they can offer, they may also offer leaders knowledge they may not have.

Inspiring, no?

This window of opportunity likely won’t be open forever though.

Public Relations is now a formal degree offered by an increasing number of colleges and universities, so eventually the majority of PR pros will have some formal education.  I tried to track down the first college/university to offer a PR degree and found references to Boston University – but despite Google and leafing through a couple of PR textbooks I’ve not been able to locate a history of PR higher education (and if anyone knows the historical roots of formal education in PR – I’d love to hear about them).

Apropos of my recent post about the error uncovered in how Michigan colleges report data to the Federal Government, a story just appeared in Inside Higher Ed about the Washington Monthly’s rankings of Community Colleges in the US.

“The Washington Monthly has yet again irked some educators, as it did three years ago, by ranking what it calls “America’s Best Community Colleges” using openly available student engagement survey data.

Using benchmarking data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and four-year federal graduation rates in an equation of its own making, the magazine attempts to rank the top 50 community colleges in the country in its latest issue. Though the periodical’s editors say they only hope to highlight “what works and what doesn’t” at these institutions by ranking them, CCSSE officials have denounced the use of their data in this way and argue it may do more harm than good.”

The data available about your organization can and will be used with or without your permission.  With more information being published and the increasing ease with which that data can be used – it’s critical to be aware and vigilant.  Even with the best of intentions on the part of a journalistic entity like the Washington Monthly, it can damage an organization’s reputation (and mislead stakeholders).

In the executive summary explaining their rankings, the Washington Monthly acknowledged the limitations of their methodology and wistfully remarked about the lack of data available:

“Of course, our rankings aren’t perfect. Like the president, we wish we knew how community college graduates fare in the job market and their future careers. We’d like to know if students who transfer to four-year schools get good grades, earn bachelor’s degrees, and go on to graduate and professional schools.”

The upside is that the data they seek may soon be available from other sources.  For example; what if we were able to pull employment data from social networking platforms like Linkedin and Facebook (or even people-oriented search engines like Pipl.com that catch references to employment in press releases and newspapers) and mash it up with the data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement?

We may soon be able to complete the loop and better track student success (which is a challenge all educational institutions face).

Not only that, but what if we could monitor tweets and Facebook content (there are already algorithms that can evaluate tweets to determine whether they’re positive or negative) to look for warning signs that might allow counseling or student support services to intervene with a student to get them resources before it’s too late and they fail out of classes?

There’s a lot of possibility out there, and it’s up to us to tap into it.