Friday Favorite. (weekly featured link from me to you)

Whenever I need the equivalent of a change of scenery before getting back to the project at hand, I head to The Daily Beast's Buzz Board. It's my favorite of all the sites claiming to offer the inside scoop on what's cool. The best part is the truly eclectic mix of notable folks passing along their recommendations for everything from mascara to art exhibitions, causes, getaways, novels, philosophers, and films. After checking out the Buzz I feel like I've had a refreshing walk around the block. Buzz Board is updated daily so I can usually find at least one to several new items during each visit.

So what does this have to do with schools and colleges? A university president from a well-known institution is a perfect candidate to buzz. Who wouldn't want to know what the president of Carnegie Mellon, NYU or Penn is reading? Schools with famous alumni and parents, who are big fans of the institution, can consider pitching those purveyors of taste to buzz about a favorite campus gallery, rare book collection, team, course or program.

Whether buzzer or buzzed, I'd love to see schools and colleges as part of the Buzz Board mix.

College Media Coverage: The More the Merrier?

Given the media's insatiable interest in college admissions, has it gotten easier to pitch higher ed stories?

From 1992 to 1997, I was the director of communications for Scripps College. My big media coup at the time was riding the wave of "the Hillary factor." Hillary Clinton had just become First Lady and the fact that she'd gone to Wellesley boosted the popularity of women's colleges significantly. Scripps, the women's college of The Claremont Colleges, wound up in Newsweek, Glamour, and featured on The Jane Pratt show. It was a big deal because back then colleges weren't big news, especially small liberal arts colleges.

So, I began to wonder what it's like for college PR folks these days when media outlets like the New York Times and Daily Beast now devote huge amounts of space to college stories. Jodi Heintz, director of public relations, at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, gave me this insight:

"I think the media is very interested in telling a certain kind of story about higher ed. Generally, it is true that because of the bad economy local and national reporters are actually beating down the doors of colleges looking for stories and people to interview. The bad news, in my opinion, is that they are only interested in telling one story -- the story of how bad everything is. They are singularly interested in covering crisis -- falling applications numbers, or conversely, overwhelming application numbers, endowment catastrophes, hiring freezes or lay offs, tuition increases, etc."

Heintz recalls one New York Times article about liberal arts college admissions deans wringing their hands over drops in applications. The article only briefly mentions at the end that, at one such dean's college, it was still their third-highest year in total number of applications.

She says that while she has indeed seen an increase in the number of reporter inquiries from the top media outlets, she's actually chosen not to respond.

"I'm concerned that collectively we are feeding the frenzy. I understand that many colleges are facing difficult circumstances but there are far more nuanced stories to tell about the economic challenges. And, I'm sure we PR professionals in higher ed could do a better job of educating reporters and helping shift the conversation and coverage."

Diving In

I keep telling school and higher ed colleagues that the only remedy for their anxiety about social media tools is to dive in and start using them. But diving in also means you're going to have some belly flops along the way. For me, someone who really wants to "do it right," those flops can sting. Little things have tripped me up: not realizing that I had to put a space after "retweeting" on Twitter so that the person I quoted would see the message as well RT@bobjohnson for example. Not knowing that the comment I posted to a blog and then pointed others to would not appear until the owner of the blog okayed it. Not adding tags to blog posts to increase the chances that anyone would see them much less read them. Tethering my Facebook and Twitter updates and then not knowing how to untether them. The result being several erroneous and irrelevant updates on both sides. All of these are minor slips along my learning curve. No doubt there will be more.

I still vividly remember the day I learned to dive as a kid. Lots of belly flops, but I wouldn't let it go until I got it. Then once I had the hang of it, all I wanted to do was dive in again and again. With social media it's the same feeling for me just a different pool.

Photo: Mike Warren

You Are What You Do

In recent years, pop psych wisdom has counseled us to remember that we are not "human doings" but human beings. I have subscribed to this notion myself. The idea being that one's self-worth is about more than achievement.

But two sages from different worlds -- Aristotle and Seth Godin -- advised me this week that, actually, what I do is who I am.

Sunday, as I pondered whether to work on a creative project near and dear to me or to tick off my to-do list, I was reminded of Aristotle's quote: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." That's all I needed to hear, I immediately chose to work on the project because that is who I want to be.

I was struck by this idea again this morning when I read Godin's post on authenticity. He concludes, "You could spend your time wondering if what you say you are is really you. Or you could just act like that all the time. That's good enough, thanks. Save the angst for later." Again, I chose to do what I want to be.

The same can be said for organizations. As a school branding consultant, I spend a lot of time working with institutions who want to be known for being excellent. I say, prove it. Tell me what makes your claim true. Tell me how you do excellence.

Connect the Dots

Between a few choice quotes and headlines from this week’s higher ed dailies and blogs.

“In his opening remarks [a college president] said [to the panel] that ‘perhaps the independent college sector has hit a tipping point when it comes to pricing.’”

“Americans Increasingly See College as Essential and Worry More About Access, Poll Finds”

“The more you sound like your competitors,” said a higher ed marketing consultant, “the more students will make decisions based on cost.”

“‘No Frills’ Campus in New Hampshire Saves Students Tens of Thousands of Dollars”

Big picture: Families have long based college choices on their own assessment of value (a personally subjective equation of prestige+outcomes+experience+price). Higher ed marketers have long made the case that “the experience” of one school over another makes a higher price “worth it.” But there’s no “perhaps” about the pricing tipping point. More than ever, price trumps “experience” and often prestige. A good deal can be prestige and experience in and of itself.

“I’m gaining on you.”

Whenever my 13 year-old daughter measures her height she says to me, “I’m gaining on you.” The same could be said to any communicator who markets to her generation.

I recently interviewed an independent school branding consultant for a CASE CURRENTS story. She was blown away by the fact that the 11 year-olds in her focus group could not only tell her what photos they would take to represent their school but what camera angles and lighting they’d use.

Her surprise is what surprises me.

Just check out any middleschooler’s Facebook page. Not only are they experts at shooting, editing, and adding graphics to their photos, they can tell their own brand stories with enviable style and wit (the brand being themselves).

After watching a professionally-produced Stanford video and a student-produced MIT video back-to-back I was struck by how similar they were. Sure the MIT video didn’t depict the ethnic and racial breadth a college office would want but there wasn’t a lot of difference in the level of message and execution.

So, as school or college marketers we have to ask ourselves what do we bring to the table? How can we up the ante, using our savvy to capitalize on next-gen talent and expectations?

Because they’re gaining on us.