Internal Communication

I stumbled on the UBC Admin Blog thanks to Martine Lafleur who shared its link on Twitter.

Yesterday, I took the time to explore this recently launched group blog aimed at enabling further dialogue between senior administration and students at the University of British Columbia.

While president blogs have been around for some time (President Michael Crow from ASU was one of the trailblazers, President John Meada at RISD has also been doing a great job at blogging), I hadn’t come across a blog by senior administrators that hold as many promises as the UBC Admin Blog (Well, Joe Hice’s Hice School is also a great blog, but I’ll put it in another category as Joe is a communicator by trade).

Frankly, what I found really surprising and interesting in the UBC Admin Blog was to find UBC VP of Finance, Resources, and Operations among the bloggers.

In those tough budget times in higher education, it’s pretty rare to see the people in charge of budget cuts get up front and personal to try to initiate open dialogue with students and other constituents.

The UBC Admin Blog — The administration connecting with students online.

Anyway, here are a few things UBC is doing right with this blog:

• A short video introduction from each blogger on the About page of the blog.
  It helps put a face on a name and can also help promote civility by reminding readers they are interacting with real human beings.

  Here’s the video introduction from Pierre Ouillet, the Finance VP.

• A great moderation policy highlighting in plain English what is ok and what is not when it comes to comments and available from one of the top navigation tabs of the blog.
  
• A conversational tone as shown in the first post written by Ouillet, From transparency to dialogue, and the direct reply to the comment of an international student about budget on his second post.

What do YOU think? Has your institution done something similar? Let us know by posting a comment!

In the summer of 2007, I created a survey about the state of print and electronic publications in higher education. At that time, more than 200 institutions took the time to complete this survey.

Later, I produced a 5-page executive summary PDF file presenting the main results and wrote a column “Demand Print or Print On-Demand,” published in October 2007 in University Business.

Last week, I was interviewed about the digital future of alum magazines for an article to be published in the March issue of CASE Currents, and as I was discussing best practices, I realized that this topic has never been THAT timely.

With the current budget crisis accelerating the shift from print to electronic when it comes to higher ed publications, I think it’s time to find out how things have changed over the past year and half.

This is the reason why I’ve put together an updated version of this previous short online survey to get a better idea of the state of print and electronic publications in higher education and the impact of the economy downturn on the gone-digital-going-paperless trend.

The results of this survey will be used for a research I’m conducting, a subsequent white paper and depending on the results for a future University Business column.

My goal is to assess how the Web and other electronic media (email, blog, RSS, etc.) are used in universities and colleges as complements or replacements for print publications.

This online survey has only 20 questions. It should take you 3 to 4 minutes to fill it out. The data you provide will only be used for its statistical interest.

If you include your name and email address at the end of the survey (although this isn’t mandatory), you’ll get a chance to win one of the 2 free passes to be drawn among responders for a future webinar series from Higher Ed Experts, a way for me to thank you for your participation.

So, please take 3 minutes now to do this survey!

First, let me start by a quick disclaimer, I might be a bit partial on this topic for 2 reasons:

• I’ve known and collaborated for almost 3 years on different projects (conferences, webinars, etc. including the upcoming “Saving Big” Webinars for which registration ends tonight by the way) with the blogger behind this blog – Joe Hice, AVP of Public Relations and Marketing at the University of Florida.
• I’ve shared a few pointers about blogging (including my 12-step plan for better blogging) with Joe when he decided to start his blog last Fall.

Now that Joe’s blog, Gator Grotto: A refuge from hastly jugdment, has a few posts behind its (crocodile?) belt, I really see a great institutional yet conversational – and sometimes even controversial – blog in the making.

Joe is a seasoned communication professional, a great presenter and writer (he worked as a journalist earlier in his career) with a unique voice and it really shows on his blog.

While the blog has been live for just a few weeks – close to 2 months, it has already managed to develop a readership of about 300 regular readers, mainly based in Gainsville where UF is based.

Dealing with topics as diverse as an old myth around the place of birth of the famous Gatorade, budget cuts, rankings or research, Gator Grotto is a refreshing take on the executive’s blog genre.

In an email exchange we had last week, Joe shared a few behind-the-scenes comments about the whole process. I’m publishing below a few excerpts of this email with his permission.

After 2 months blogging, what can you say about this experience?

We’re still trying to find our voice as we move forward. Our president has endorsed and supported the blog, so we are a point of contact with UF. That’s good, but it also means we’ve got to take the University’s official position into consideration with everything we post. That has kept me in check, somewhat, and I think it’s the right way to go.
[...]
It is more challenging than I anticipated. It’s easy to just cut and paste things, but when you start including your thoughts and comments, taking into account UF’s position on issues, trying to provoke discussion, etc., it’s quite a task. For UF, and me especially, it has been a great learning experience. I’m certainly no expert, but feel more confident every day. I can also manage WordPress pretty well.

Any blogging success story yet to share?

I was proud to help uncover some previously unknown, or at least, unsubstantiated facts in the development of Gatorade. People have said from time to time that FSU had a sports-related drink in development several years before Gatorade. That was actually posted as fact on national television during the Florida State vs. Florida football game. Well, a number of people were offended and I did a post about Gatorade being the original. It was actually the first post we did on the blog.

Literally hours after the post went up someone sent us a pdf of a news story that appeared in the Tampa Tribune about three years before Gatorade was launched. In the story, the writer referenced Seminole Firewater. That created a stir and I posted the update along with a picture of the old article. That interested the Florida Alligator newspaper in the story and the reporter actually tracked down a few members of the FSU football team who had supposedly been drinking Seminole Firewater. But the best was yet to come. One of those team members was T.K. Wetherell, the president of Florida State University. He did say that the team give them something to drink, but it was nothing more than a Cool-Ade flavored drink accompanied by an orange slice, ice and salt tablets. The Seminole Firewater myth was exposed by the president of FSU. Pretty cool, I thought, and the Gator Grotto blog played a part in the discovery. It was a great way to launch the blog.

Does your VP or president have a very original take on blogging? Should they? What do you think?
Let us know by posting a comment.

Happy New Year my dear regular readers (and casual browsers)!

My first UB column for 2009 (actually it’s the one that was scheduled for the December 2008 issue) is now available in the January issue as well as online: “Should You Twitter? Real and effective communication, 140 characters at a time”

Here’s a quick excerpt to give you a reason to read the column:

Wondering why you should read a column about a web service powering the dissemination of 140-character messages?

Here’s a short, 140-character answer about Twitter: It can help individuals and institutions reach out to their network to share info, request help, organize, and update everyone in real time.

A bit dry, I know. [The column includes] a few more examples to illustrate the long answer.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do so at http://twitter.com/karinejoly.

By the way, if you are a University Business reader who has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.

I’m currently working on my next column for University Business to be published in February 2009. This article will present 10 very practical tips to do more (or as well) with less (budget, people, time, etc), which explains why my main focus lately has been on the economic downturn and its consequences for higher education.

Even though economic crises can usually translate into positive outcomes (increased enrollment with many laid-off workers going back to college to upgrade their skill set), I have serious doubts about it in this specific case.

Didn’t the whole thing started with a financing meltdown?

The New York Times seems to agree with me today (not personally, but still) on this point in an article about a recently released report, article published today on its website: “College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S.”

The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve all started to feel the pinch that is going to spread to our profession and industry. But, I’m wondering if you’ve already been asked to work on a similar type of the crisis communication website I stumbled upon this morning: Wesleyan’s “Securing The Future” website.

In the last update dated November 25, 2008 of this website launched in October, Wesleyan President Michael Roth even went on camera – in a short online video – to share an update about the current situation of the college budget and finances.

The website includes updates by the president, frequently asked questions and links to several posts Roth wrote about the topic on his blog, Roth on Wesleyan.

Have your top executives started to use the Web to communicate on this tough topic as well?
Do you think this is a good idea? Tell us by posting a comment.

This session is presented by John Roberts, director of Internal Electronic Communications at Furman University.

Internal audiences (faculty, staff, etc.) helps institutions define their brand outside of campus, especially with the recent paradigm shift in communication.

According to the Families and Work Institute, the main factor in employee satisfaction is “providing and understanding and supportive work environment.”

10 years ago, Furman had a newsletter and communication took place in informal settings in the hallways, at lunch, etc.

Then, they launched FUnet, an internal news website (I would give you the web address, but it requires a username and password – weird for a news website even if it’s an internal one IMHO)

They require login information so everybody commenting on stories is identified by name automatically – to prevent anonymous posting.

It’s produced (written and shot – for videos and photos) by a team of students. Roberts has a background in journalism and acts as the editor of this online publication.

87% of employees report they check the website once a day.

But, not everybody has access to the web on campus (facility, cafeteria, etc.)
At Furman, this group represents a third of the employee.

So, Furman launched the FUnet Flusher, a flyer – more than 200 copies – available in restrooms across campus and designed as a piece of… toilet paper. Gets a lot of positive feedback on campus.

They also redesign Inside Furman and switched it to a quarterly format with an appealing design.

Some good advice for internal communications

• Find your voice and keep it real
• Use employee photos because it help people make connections, crop them in creative ways
• Write about people, profiles have high readership
• Develop an internal communications policy where you spell out how the different communication tools should be used.
• Keep face-to-face meetings (gatherings, games, forums, etc.)
• Use humor