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Archive for October, 2007

Why are College Students so Silent?

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 by John Mallen

For the first time in my career, in the past two weeks I had the opportunity to speak to college students in their classrooms. Interestingly this took place on opposite sides of the continent with students representing opposite sides of the brain, and yet I encountered a surprisingly uniform reception: silence!

Last week I had the pleasure of dialoguing with members of a public relations class at California State University - Northridge (CSUN), taught by my friend and colleague Jeff Duclos. Jeff is the principal of Von Jesson Duclos and is a candidate for mayor of Hermosa Beach.

This evening, I conducted a workshop session for electrical and computer engineering students at the State University of New York (SUNY) campus in New Paltz at the request of Dr. Baback Izadi who, starting this term, has become chair of the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department there.

The Cal State class will be dividing its 20+ students into teams that, in turn, will take on the Bob Hope - Hollywood USO as a client. Their mission is to help Gen. Mike Teilmann Ret. and executive director, to get the resources he needs to support the 60,000+ military and families who flow through the area every year. Meanwhile, the engineering group at SUNY in New York State are in various stages of undergraduate studies, leading to technical EEE and Computer Engineering degrees.

Common Threads - Silence

Interestingly, both groups shared a common attribute. As I presented in both groups, only one person in each raised questions; three others participated by asking or answering questions. The remainder were silent, some taking notes and others not.

The last time I was in a college classroom — nearly 35 years ago at Syracuse University — the smokers lit up when the lecture started. The discussion flowed and we had to be reigned in when the next group came along to claim the classroom. The same situation occurred at Providence College in the mid-1960’s.

What’s with today’s silence?  Why isn’t the dialog more spicy? Why aren’t the questions more challenging?

My professor friends Jeff and Baback paused and then seriously explained that getting students to go beyond note-taking to asking questions, or to lead them to challenge or contribute does not occur. Both said that the sound of silence is a characteristic of today’s undergraduates.

Implications

Well, 18-21 year old college students are products of their families and their domestic cultures. Have we become a consumer citizenry?  Has information become a commodity, something to be acquired at the lowest possible cost (OR at the least effort), and any embedded viewpoint accepted along with the hard and measurable facts?

In between the CSUN-SUNY-New Paltz experiences, I visited with my good friend, PR colleague and social commentator Dennis Signorovitch. Following a career with AlliedSignal and Honeywell Aerospace, Dennis now serves as a consultant with the prestigious Hawthorn Group and an adjunct professor at Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles.

Independent of my observations, and reflecting his hands-on experience, Dennis observed that "silence" is typical of today’s students. Both Jeff Duclos and Baback Izadi agree and said they wrestle with this individually and at faculty sessions.

My interest is communications as a "success multiplier" — whether it’s communications internal to the organization or external with its customers and constituents. Communications can "move the needle" or help "resolve" an issue. What happens though when individuals in organizations retreat from communicating? What does it mean if they are conditioned to "absorb" information, data, perceptions, viewpoints without critical feedback?

I know these guys. Accepting silence is not something that Jeff, Baback, or Dennis accept. They will work to change the dynamics in their classrooms.

But is the University ready and willing to change the dynamic on a larger scale? If not, who is? 

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Using New Media and Relying on Old Media

Friday, October 5th, 2007 by John Mallen

Tonight’s premier of the opera Appomattox by Philip Glass will be an interesting test of the junction of very old media (opera), mass media (news) and new media (Web). The opera is presented by The San Francisco Opera

David Gockley, general director of the San Franciso Opera, is on somewhat of a "populist" campaign to bring opera to a wide range of audiences, which is part of a larger strategy to maintain the organization in an era where traditional support by business is declining and, to the degree this support continues, is much more commercial. Today’s business underwriting is given with an expectation of positioning a brand or reaching underserved customer groups.

Gockley was speaking this morning with members of the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN), where I’m gathered with other operators of PR and communications firms from around the world. Since coming aboard as the sixth general director, David has developed high definition video which he’s using to bring opera to people who don’t have the financial capability to attend. Good stuff.

Beyond revitalizing the opera, David and his team are building new, diversified audiences with free screenings in parks, Giant’s stadium, all kinds of innovations leading to tonight’s debut.

The renaissance has, to a great extent, been supported by generating news coverage in the mainstream media that reach the richly diverse community of San Francisco and the Bay area, says Karen Ames who handles communications for the SF Opera.

While the opera has been working intensively with the traditional media, new Web sites have arisen that cover the arts, and they’re adding a new voice to how the arts are presented and interpreted.  The Opera has received remarkable coverage in the media, with, I might add, great support from our host David Landis, founder of  Lanids Communications, Inc.  Meanwhile, about five local Web sites that cover the arts have appeared on the scene.  "It won’t be long before our promotion people begin using quotes from these sites," Karen adds.  Karen says these Web site critics "may be more welcoming" to the opera than the traditional critcs, especially given the Opera’s outreach to multiple audiences and the edgy nature of tonight’s program.

Historic Moment

"We’re really at historic moment with tonight’s opera," says David. Philip Glass, who has developed performances for a wide range of audiences, approached him several years ago about setting an opera in the last days of the Civil War. It’s set in the last battles of the war, as messages are going across between the Union and Confederacy. The opera focuses on how both generals were united in a belief that lives had to be saved. It shows Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee as men of high moral standards who were committed to saving lives and reuniting the country.

Act two introduces a "confrontational approach" to unfinished business that has contributed to separation since that war. It is not only about the legacy of rour relations with African Americans but also to people of various ethnic and racial backghrounds.

How the traditional media and the "new" Web sites respond will be telling, says David.

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KEI & A Cool Gallery Exhibit

Friday, October 5th, 2007 by John Mallen

In the afternoon I found myself in one of the offices of Oxclove Workshop, a Web development company where CEO and founder, Ric Dragon has been doing a lot with search engine marketing  (SEM), which is a combination of search engine optimization and other tools. SEO, which has been around since the Web is the alchemy of getting search engines to put you nearer the top of the list — whatever the is for the topic being searched.  "The SEO industry has been rife with charlatans," says Ric. In addition to that, "large expensive organizations providing the service but doing very little. The tragedy is their clients don’t know the difference."

Well, it always pays to shop around.

But, I’m interested in SEM because of how it can support a dynamic communications campaign built around the New Laws of Web 2.0 Marketing and Communications.  To communicate effectively, it’s essential to follow "new" procedures. One law is that communications has shifted from placement — through ads or publicity using mass media — to publishing on the Internet.

In a nutshell, it’s about providing content that your stakeholders or audience will find useful and making that material easy to hook when they set about fishing with their favorite search engine. The content, as David Meerman Scott points out so effectively can be in the form of a news release, a white paper offered on your Web site, or a blog, just to name the most popular three vehicles. It’s not just one-way push communications. Another of the new laws requires you — the organization, brand, person — play full out. That ranges from responding to those getting back to you through site e-mail "contacts" to blogging and replying to comments.

Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI)

How do you make sure people can find what they are looking for? Here’s were SEM comes in, Ric explains. The answer is we need to use words and phrases that they would type into a search engine box. We can use common sense and intuition to identify these phrases, or to go one better we can employ a structured keyword effectiveness process, which will generate a keyword effectiveness index (KEI). The KEI process is an organized sifting through presumed search words to locate the words and phrases .that are actually being used. The end result is a list of 20 or so words most used by people looking for what you have to talk about.

Using KEI is smart and it’s an investment. The investment pays off, of course, in the measurable response back to your Website. Used heavily in pay-per-click advertising, we’ve begun experimenting with, using KEI to help guide news releases and blog copy. It should be far better than using common sense and intuition to identify keywords.

Gallery Exhibit?

But out discussion takes an unexpected turn when Ric says, "I am amazed with myself getting into this business." His passion is painting. We talk about the art world, and I learn of Ric’s show October 13 -24 at the Brooklyn Artists Gym Gallery. The conversation drifts into the art world, some people we know in common. He hands me the catalog. Monoprints of bodies rollicking acRicdragon2ross the frame, colorful playgrounds of the imagination. Far, far from the rigor of KEI. A lot more fun too!

Check out the show 168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Phone 718 858-9069

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