10 cringe-worthy things #highered marketing professionals hear

One of my favorite PR news sites recently offered a list of 14 cringe-worthy things PR clients say. As a light-hearted first post for 2013 (following my extended maternity-leave blogging hiatus), I bring to you a version for those of us in higher ed marketing:

• "Can you make our logo, phone number and web address fit on this pen?"
• "I don't do social media. Can I have my student assistant run my Facebook page instead?"
• "I need a link on the home page."
• "This important official is visiting campus today at noon, and we need publicity. Just don't release his/her name for security reasons."
• "Only five people have RSVPed for tonight's event downtown. Can you help us get a crowd?"
• "I heard an ad for your college on the radio. Can we meet for 30 minutes to discuss how stadium bathroom stall advertising can help you reach your target market?"
• "Can we use these photos from my flip phone in the brochure?"
• "For some reason, that reporter at [national news outlet] seemed irritated when I called him the next day."
• "Your design is OK, but we're tired of the school colors so we had our research assistant design something new in Publisher."
• "Real writers use the serial comma."

Disclaimer: This blogger has worked in higher ed communications for more than 15 years and has heard many stories from many professional peers at many institutions. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Everyday adventures in managing Facebook pages

Much has been written on how to set up university Facebook pages, how to handle crises (both literal and virtual) on Facebook, and why we should have all have a presence on Facebook in the first place. However on most days, the management of an institutional Facebook page is much less dramatic.

Here are a few tips about the more routine issues that have come across my desk(top) in the past week:

• Plan for the grey area. Decide in advance, if possible, where you want to draw the lines for spam, negative posts and other related issues, then post guidelines in your Notes section to inform your fan community. You might want to allow local businesses to offer special discounts to your students, or you might choose to bar all advertising. Some negative comments are inevitable in social media, but when will you stop someone who is hijacking your page? Posting guidelines can set ground rules for the entire community and make future decisions much easier. Take a look at other higher ed Fan pages for examples; we really liked the University of Kansas comments policy when developing ours. If possible, get your legal counsel's buy-in before you post.
• Differentiate your voice from your institution's. While the common wisdom is to use a personal tone on institutional social media channels, never forget that you're still representing the institution. When our parent university asked a question about a legal term, I first feared that my answer would appear as the Voice of The Law School speaking on The Law. Since I'm not a lawyer, this could have been a dangerous role for me to fill. Thankfully, answering this question on the university's Facebook page with my regular profile identity worked out well—I could explain the answer, my source, and my role in an appropriate context.
• Be clever. While I wouldn't advise posting jokes when speaking for your institution, showing a little wit every now and then can be fun. A news item about a best-selling author lecturing on how lawyers could pursue writing careers prompted another recent speaker (Craig, also an author and journalist, but not a lawyer) to respond with the following exchange:
  
  I would have let the first statement go had it been from any random fan. But since this person's identity wasn't clear to the other fans, I chose to help the conversation along. In this instance, speaking as a straight-laced institution (with a dose of marketing language) showed some personality in a way that shouldn't offend even the most nervous college administrator. (Note: I don't advise using a marketing tone in most social media interactions.)
  
• Monitor others' use of Facebook in crisis communications. God-willing, none of us will never have to use our social media channels to communicate the threat of an active shooter on our campuses. But it's always wise to follow the Boy Scouts mantra and be prepared. Following the actions of other institutions in crisis via Facebook or Twitter can be valuable training. Check out Jessica Krywosa's .eduGuru post on "Does Your Campus Security Have a Place in Social Media?" about how the University of Texas at Austin handled their emergency communications on Facebook last week.
  
• Added 10/5: Keep your eyes open for opportunities in unexpected places. Thanks to Andrew Careaga's post on a Facebook fundraising effort to help one of his staff (Mary Helen Stoltz, whose two-year-old daughter is fighting brain cancer), I discovered FundRazr, a low-cost fundraising app on Facebook that processes PayPal donations. At a glance, it looks like it should work well for individuals as well as universities and other nonprofits. (And if you want to support a fellow higher ed communicator and her beautiful kid through a rough time, donate and test out via FundRazr here.)

Favorite concepts from the cutting-room floor

It's always easier to poke fun at the mishaps of others than it is to notice the faults in your own work. Instead of jumping on the #ugafail bandwagon, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a few of my own less-than-perfect moments. Thanks to my trusty supervisors, none of these ideas were ever publicly consumed (until now):

Oh, the horror. This online ad was meant to grab the reader's attention and suggest some of the fun places they could study through our summer abroad programs. Unfortunately, the copy reminded my boss of the title of a 1990s-thriller movie:



Bad cluck. I was looking for a new stylized icon that I could use as a background accent in my designs or to close magazine feature articles. After speaking with a designer friend, we decided to make something out of the capitals that top the many columns that form our campus architecture. Not only could this element be found in many of our Mediterranean-style campus buildings, but they are also commonly used in the columns that frame courthouses everywhere. We chose to simplify the capital design to the icon below, which was rejected by our dean due to its bird-like resemblance:

Unsportsmanlike behavior? It has long been the tradition of law schools to announce their new faculty members to other schools each new academic year. It's a great way to show-off introduce new hires to the academy by highlighting their achievements. One of our administrators suggested using a "trading card" motif to help these announcements stand out from the rest. Though I can't take credit for the original idea, it is certainly one of my favorite projects ever. Sadly, it was rejected as too edgy for our target audience.

So now that I've put some of my (few) weaker moments out there, I'd love to hear some of your tales of cutting-room floor concepts in the comments section!

Fun with emergency contact info

Looking for a creative way to get more emergency contact info on your students? The Medical College of Georgia has developed a fun video for its ICE (In Case of Emergency) campaign, available at http://www.mcg.edu/ice.

It's a great use of humor to drive home a serious point on a topic many choose not to think about. Kudos to the communications team and administration at MCG!

Creative gone wrong

My crazy-busy streak has continued, and I've decided that a silly post is now in order. Here are some recent discoveries for creative amusement:

• Photoshop Disasters: The blog all about awful, commercial photo editing.
• The Bad Pitch Blog: Not just bad news media pitches, but good PR advice as well.
• Tales from Redesignland: I first discovered this higher ed blog during our own redesign in 2008. This week's post: really bad quotations from real Web redesign consulting proposals.

And if you're considering the lighter side of font selection, check out this handy "How to pick a typeface" flowchart or the CollegeHumor video, "Font Conference."

Note: If you haven't noticed, I'm cutting back my blog frequency to every other week for the summer. I'll return to weekly posts once school is back in session!

Holiday gift guide for your favorite creative coworkers

Since many of us are still recovering from long weekends filled with food and shopping, I thought I'd continue with another light-hearted post. Here is your Cyber Monday list of quirky gift ideas for your favorite colleagues:

• The graphic designer: Pantone mug (but ONLY in your official color), $12, w2products.com
  
• The social media manager: YouTwitFace t-shirt, $22.00, cafepress.com
• The media relations specialist: "I know you have a tight deadline" wall clock, $18.00, cafepress.com
• The higher ed guru: 100% Higher Education Administrator t-shirt, $25.85, cafepress.com
• The photographer: Official Photographer cap, $17.00, cafepress.com
• The copy editor: Mixed up clichés magnet kit, $9.95, funkyfridge.com
• The dean: Everyone loves an academic dean teddy bear, $18.00, cafepress.com
  

Or, if you prefer to shop based on office personalities:

• The cynic: 2010 Demotivators calendar, $19.95 for customized letter-sized calendar, despair.com
• The eternal optimist: Deck of Boom-Boom Cards, $9.99, boomboomcards.com
• The slob: Dirty coffee mug, $10.99, amazon.com
• The caffeine addict: Caffeinated soap, $5.97, amazon.com
• The kid-at-heart: Desktop sandbox, $9.98, gifts.com
• The procrastinator: Desktop labyrinth, $16.99, officeplayground.com
  
• The control freak: Magnetic teamwork art (just don't keep it too close to a computer), $4.99, officeplayground.com
• The gossip: Book of Secrets, $5.99, amazon.com

Disclaimer: I have not personally ordered items from most of these sites, so I cannot vouch for their service or reliability. None of my actual coworkers will be receiving items from this list (or at least not this year), otherwise I'd be spoiling their surprises.