Earlier this year, as I watched President Obama’s first prime-time news conference, I sat fixated—as an American, of course, but also as a public-relations administrator in academe. What intrigued me was not what the president was asked, but who was doing the asking. I paid close attention to the journalists he called on, and kept a mental list of the outlets he snubbed: Time magazine, Newsweek, and The Washington Post topped it.
When President Obama called on Sam Stein, a political reporter for The Huffington Post, I started kicking myself for not reaching out to the popular online newspaper/blog sooner with faculty-written opinion pieces and expert pitches. Approaching that media newcomer and other such sites had been on my to-do list for a while, but wasn’t a top priority.
Judging by the online chatter and news coverage of that news conference, the president’s choice surprised a lot of people. But it did something even more significant: It gave immediate credibility to nontraditional news media. In so doing, it refocused the priorities of many college and university public-relations professionals—perhaps sooner than we wanted. After all, while nontraditional media and online social networks open up a whole new world of possibilities for telling our institutions’ stories and sharing our experts’ insights, this new frontier also presents challenges we couldn’t have imagined a couple of years ago. And it is already reshaping our day-to-day work.
For years I’ve struggled to persuade scholars, some of them pre-eminent in their fields, to share their work with outlets other than academic journals. Many academics think journal editors are the only ones who don’t have an agenda and are capable of accurately quoting a source. So the thought of asking professors to make the leap beyond the traditional news media is daunting, to say the least.
For many faculty members, the unknowns and anonymity of blogs, online commentary, and social-media sites represent too big a reputational risk—concerns I certainly respect. But for better or worse, the Internet is powerful, and its very power makes it something we have no choice but to embrace. While it may not be an easy task to persuade a faculty member to be interviewed by a blogger, we can’t afford to wait to incorporate these new-media sites into our communications efforts.
The news hole of traditional media sources is not only shrinking, it’s imploding. Newspapers are folding and laying off seasoned reporters every day. Magazines are cutting pages and entire sections. This year our local daily in Worcester, Mass., cut 36 jobs, eliminated its living and business sections, and reduced local news from 1,100 to 400 column inches.
If that’s the bad news, the good news is that the timing could not be better to fully incorporate online media into our public-relations strategies. Getting your faculty and administration on board early is critical. Although we’re all navigating this quickly changing landscape somewhat blindly, you can take steps now to build confidence in nontraditional media sources among professors and administrators and ensure that your institution’s stories continue to reach important audiences.
Set your priorities early. If you don’t have a comprehensive media plan in place, now is the time to write one. Ideally, research should inform your priorities. You should have a general understanding of your audiences’ new-media consumption, so you know which reporters and bloggers to target. There’s no sense pitching something to a particular site if no one you’re trying to reach thinks it’s important. Outline the stories you want to tell about your institution and customize your outreach to a variety of nontraditional media outlets.
When you get great coverage, circulate it to your audiences using online social networks. Reuse your news. For example, a strategic message told well in video needs to go up on YouTube, and can then be used to enhance pitches elsewhere. I used a video about my college’s career-planning services—originally produced for an e-newsletter to alumni and parents, and subsequently posted on YouTube—in a pitch about the challenges that this year’s graduates will face in finding a job. The story was picked up by The Christian Science Monitor, and one of the students featured in the video was also interviewed by the reporter.
Get connected. If you’re still holding out on joining Facebook or Twitter, you’ll be left behind. Familiarize yourself with new technologies. Learn firsthand how the journalists and news outlets that you’re interested in approaching are using those technologies, and start using them yourself. If you aren’t savvy about nontraditional media, you’ll find it hard to persuade a faculty member to make time for an interview that will never appear in print or on air.
Tweak your tactics. A mass-distributed news release won’t get you the best return on your investment. Journalists don’t have time for them these days. They’re getting information from more sources than ever before, and, with Web sites to feed, they’re always on deadline. Brevity is king (think about those 140-character tweets), so sending short, targeted pitches—complemented by photos, audio files, video, RSS feeds, and links to additional information—will prove more beneficial in the social-media landscape.
Look for opportunities to get your news online. When you have an expert who could comment on some breaking news, and you send a pitch via e-mail, also post the information on your Web site and on other institutional or professional pages on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Make your news available via RSS feed, push it out to blogs and sites that your audiences are visiting. Tweet about it.
I follow CNN breaking-news headlines on Twitter, and can respond within seconds with expert information. Twitter is now the first place I release expert sources on news of the day because it’s one of the most immediate. It’s also a great outlet to recirculate your news. For example, when our financial-aid director offered advice on navigating the aid process on Boston’s ABC affiliate, I posted the link on Twitter. It was subsequently “retweeted” by some followers, extending its reach. And because Twitter is known for its great search capabilities, there’s a good chance my tweet will be seen by many in the future.
In all instances, think strategically about including keywords for search engines. Journalists can’t find you if you’re not visibly out there.
Train and inform. Offer training sessions to faculty members and administrators on dealing with nontraditional media outlets. Bring in experts on the topic for larger groups and one-on-one training. Or develop your own presentation for scholars on your campus who are most often called by reporters. Start with your president.
Redefine immediacy. Having a plan in place and having faculty support is important, but the ability to respond quickly to the news media’s needs can make or break you. In my experience, waiting 30 minutes to get back to a reporter at a newspaper or a television station almost always equals a missed opportunity. And writers at nontraditional media outlets move even more quickly. Be sure to stress the importance of a quick response in your training sessions and in your everyday conversations with people. It will be integral to the success of your efforts.
Prove new media’s value. Share success stories—from your own work or someone else’s. Successes will help build credibility and make people more confident in the outcome. Remember that coverage on a blog or nontraditional Web site can also lead to attention in the traditional news media. (We’ve all seen viral Web stories hit major national print and broadcast outlets.) At my college, a faculty member who regularly contributed opinion pieces to On Faith, a Web site on religion produced jointly by Newsweek and The Washington Post, has had his online work excerpted and published in print in the Post.
Track your reach. With new outlets for your news come new sources to track. In addition to print, broadcast, and online clips, start tracking things like Web traffic, blog activity, and comments posted on Web sites. All of those elements play a role in how your institution is perceived by its various audiences.
It may sound overwhelming to refocus and re-educate faculty members and administrators when they may just be getting used to talking to a local television reporter, but this is an exciting time to tell your institution’s distinctive stories. The new-media world is hungry for great stories, well told. Explore the new frontier and see where it takes you.
