media relations – Andrew Careaga

Writing about research: The story’s the thing

howresearche-800x533 Even those of us who spend our days trying to promote the research and scholarly work of our faculty and students sometimes forget that communicating research is about more than regurgitating data and numbers. It’s about telling the story of research in a way that captures and holds the attention of our audiences. Continue reading “Writing about research: The story’s the thing”

The #PR proliferation problem

America now has nearly five PR flacks for every journalist (image via Muck Rack Daily)

If you work on the media relations side of higher ed communications, you may have noticed that it’s becoming more and more of a challenge to get a journalist’s attention. A recent Muck Rack Daily article may help explain why. Continue reading “The #PR proliferation problem”

A refreshing take on the work we do

Steve Virtue (@SteveVirtue) — who once upon a time worked in our world of higher education marketing — recently pointed me to a nicely done article about the PR business in higher ed. It’s a brief op-ed by Léo Charbonneau, the deputy editor of University Affairs, titled Spare a thought for university communications offices.

It’s a refreshing look at the work we do in higher ed marketing and PR, and I’m glad that Mr. Charbonneau took the time to spare some words about us. He points out how the PR problems we face can be “silly or just irksome” — and shares some examples of both. He points out that the job is becoming more complex, thanks to social media and myriad stakeholders, and how it can be a frustrating job due to “competing interests and the diffuse structure of [a university’s] governance.” But his conclusion — that all in all, higher ed PR is a pretty good gig — rings true to me.

Charbonneau’s thoughts focus mainly on the public relations side of our business — probably because, as a journalist, he’s dealing with our institutions’ media relations officers more than marketing managers or graphic designers. Still, I suspect that some of his key points hit home with other disciplines that find themselves as part of the higher ed marketing/communications enterprise amalgam — photographers, writers and editors, graphic designers, user interface designers, videographers, and so on.

His conclusion certainly hits home with me.

In my experience, there have been some very good, and some very bad, university communications departments. At one university that shall remain nameless, the constantly revolving staff was legendary and their default attitude towards the media was always suspicious. At others, there are familiar names who have been there for many years unfailingly doing their best to attend to the media’s requests.

Earlier this week, I began my 25th year in this business, all at the same university. And while some days on the job make me crazier than others, I still love this gig and hope I will for years to come.

2014’s greatest hits

It’s time once again for the year-end roundup of this blog’s most popular posts. Here are the top five, as voted by your clicks.

3 branding game-changers and how #highered must adapt

The three behaviors are reminders for brands (including colleges and universities) to be more customer-focused, customer-responsive and human than brands have been in the past. Enabled and accelerated by technological change, these shifts in behavior will continue to challenge our customary approaches to marketing, branding, fundraising, student recruitment and alumni relations.

Embracing the C-word in higher education

Why do college and university personnel find it so difficult to think of students (and other groups, such as employers of our students) as customers? There’s something unsavory about instilling our academic world with the language of corporations.

The problem with content marketing

Our content doesn’t suck because it’s poorly written and sloppily edited (although that is sometimes the case). It sucks because it is more focused on the institution or business than on the customer or audience.

Kent State’s measured response to the Ebola media frenzy

From my distant perspective, I think Kent State is doing everything right. The response was swift yet measured. Social media is playing a critical role. Campus leaders are taking a proactive approach to communicating.

Branding rules in Cornell’s ‘breaking the rules’ campaign for engineering

This seems to be a universal concern among leaders of STEM-focused institutions. Our hard-working engineers and scientists are more concerned about solving problems and making things than about promoting what they do.

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Thanks for reading and for your clicks and comments during the past year. This will be my last post on this blog until 2015. Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.