branding – Page 104 – Andrew Careaga

What resources do you use, what methods do you follow, and what techniques do you employ to keep pace with all the changes in technology, communications and the business of marketing, PR and higher ed? In the latest issue of CASE Currents magazine, Patricia Quigley, Rowan University‘s assistant director of university media and public relations, pulls together some good thoughts about keeping pace with all the changes (CASE login required to access the full article). Quigley, like the rest of us, struggles to find the time to learn the latest about technology’s impact on media relations, the latest consumer marketing studies and how they relate to education, or what legislation coming down the pike is liable to affect her work. She talks to some other PR pros in higher ed to find out how they carve time out of their schedules to catch up on the latest tips and trends.

Quigley also offers some daily learning opportunities, segmented into a monthly calendar. Suggestions include reading the major dailies on Sundays; surfing some must-read higher ed blogs (like Karine Joly’s collegewebeditor.com, insidehighered.com, SimpsonScarborough, etc.); checking up on how major corporations are using technology; visiting Poynter and other journalism think-tank sites (such as AJR); reading Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion on a regular basis; and, at least once a month, taking a break from it all and walking around your campus — “the place any successful media relations effort really begins.”

All brilliant ideas! And most are at your fingertips. In the spirit of sharing information, I offer a few resources that Quigley overlooked. Some of these pertain more to marketing than to media relations, which could be why Quigley excluded them.

Join the American Marketing Association and read AMA’s Marketing News. Or save yourself a few dollars and read the Marketing News blog for free. (I think it’s worth the price of admission to get the publication, however.)
Subscribe to PR Week and scan it weekly. The op-ed section is the best part.
In addition to Poynter, AJR and Romenesko, news junkies should bookmark Journalism.org, the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s website, for more news about the state of the media.
For buzz marketers (and aren’t we all?), two words: Seth Godin.
Another blog I check on every other week or so, for ideas on innovations in business: Fast Company Now.

Those are a few of my favorite resources. What are some of yours?

One reason for the light posting around here lately is because I’ve been busy working on a variety of projects pertaining to the upcoming name change of my employer, the University of Missouri-Rolla, to Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T for short). The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved the name change last Friday. The new name goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

There is much work to do between now and then. A lot of rebranding, a lot of communication to a lot of people, and still a lot of blogging at our Name Change Conversations blog. I’ve been busy there, too, working to transform that site from a forum for discussion about the name change proposal to a forum to inform interested parties about how we’re going to implement the new name, and all that entails.

As a forum for discussing the name change proposal, the blog drew comments mainly from opponents. Does that mean the blog was unsuccessful? I think it was a mixed bag. I believe it was a success in a few ways: 1.) it gave alumni and students an “official” forum through which they could share their views, complaints and occasional expressions of support; 2.) it caused alumni, students and others to — in the words of one commenter — “think more about my alma mater than I have in a long time:; and 3.) the conversations that occurred there also won a couple of people over to the rationale for the name change. I wish more of the alumni and students who supported the name change would have taken advantage of the opportunity to share their views. But I also realize that the most vocal critics of any change will be the ones most likely to take advantage of an opportunity to make their voice heard. That’s the beauty of the blogosphere. Or one of the beauties, anyway.

I’ll try not to bore you all with lengthy posts about the trials associated with a name change. But understand that this undertaking will consume a lot of my time, energy and thinking in the coming months.