MICA’s Social Media Reaction to President Fred Lazarus IV Stepping Down After 35 years (And What It Says About Social Media Use In Succession)

Yesterday, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)’s president for the past 35 years, Fred Lazarus IV, announced that he would be stepping down at the end of next school year. While no future plans have been announced for MICA’s future leadership, which is a bit alarming given the consistency at its helm for the past three and a half decades, the social media use by the school was just about as good as it could have been given the uneasy and sudden circumstances. 

 

The Following tactics were used by MICA:

 

1) A tweet announcing the news, linking to an article with more information, memories from his administration and his official statement.

 

2) A friendly and personal hashtag (#bowtie. He wore a lot of bowties.) to share memories of Lazarus’ time at MICA on Twitter and a Facebook page to serve the same purpose.

 

3) A series of re-tweets from students and residents of the area around MICA expressing their feeling about Lazarus’ 35 years at the helm of the college.

 

4) A retweet from a local news organization on the story.

 In my opinion, MICA has struck a pretty perfect balance between being informative to their publics, honoring their president of 35 years and letting their publics join in the conversation of determining his legacy. They come across as sentimental, smart and caring in a situation where their publics will surely be relying on their support and guidance. 

 From this we see how social media is best used in succession situations. A caring and informative voice. A friendly medium in which to ease the publics anxiety while helping them stay informed on the latest and most in-depth details of the situation at hand. The key is to convey that everything is under control, which MICA does well, despite the fact that they have no new president elected at the moment.

Reflecting On Our Pitch Assignments

I thought that the hardest part of the pitch assignment was keeping a consistent voice in all of the different kinds of messaging we had to do for the written portion. Slightly altering what was said based on the publics and the medium while still keeping a sturdy, consistent balance of an overall message can often be very tough. Especially when coming from four different voices. 

 

Another difficult part of the assignment was keeping realistic goals in mind. Coming up with a theoretical solution to our problem was not difficult but figuring out how it would actually be successful if implemented in real life was the tough part. Would students actually go for this? Why? How? What would motivate them? Would the administration go for this? Why would they change what they’re already doing? This kind of critical thinking is what takes classroom assignments and turns them into preparation for the real world of public relations. It was challenging but I feel ultimately rewarding. 

 

What I learned from watching other teams was how to engage an audience. Being an audience member with very little stake in the presentation, especially on Wednesday, I felt that when the other groups presented I was most engaged when the speakers were lively, energetic and personable. These are skills that I could definitely work on, especially at 8 am. Now I realize how much they separate an average PR pitch from a great one.

 

Overall, I felt that this experience was the closest thing to agency work I have ever had and something that I can use to help me in my future internships and jobs. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have participated in this.

Is Social Media Here To Stay?

Rarely do methods of communication just die out, unless something that helps people communicate more efficiently comes along to replace it.

Newspapers and magazines have been around for hundreds of years and while they are just recently struggling to stay afloat, at least in print, the general concept of a newspaper and magazine (despite the medium which it is delivered) seems to be solidly in place for the foreseeable future. Just Adapted to make it easier for the consumer.

The Radio has been around since the 1800s, and while it has mostly been replaced as a news and entertainment source by the television, it still exists in online capacities and in cars around the world. The concept of the iPod is really just a radio that a person can control. The radio has not died after 200 years. It has just been adapted and made easier for the consumer to enjoy.

Televisions rose to prominence a little less than 100 years ago. Now, people are able to pause, rewind, fast forward and record TV, as well as watch it on the internet whenever they please. But still, in the majority of homes there is a television. It’s just been adapted over the past century.

The telephone is now portable and can act as a computer. The advertisement is now on the sidebar of a website just as it has been on newspapers for centuries. Books are now available on tablets. Blogs make it so anyone, including me, can be a journalist. YouTube gives us an endless library of digital video tapes from around the world.

Technology does not die. It is just adapted and improved. Will our grandchildren Tweet? Maybe not. But whatever they are doing will certainly just be an improved form of what we are using today. Building blocks on top of building blocks on concepts that go back to the beginning of modern civilization. 

 

What Does “Newsworthiness” Actually Mean

As a PR practitioner it is very important to know what is considered the most desirable content for the media to cover and why. While specific outlets will always cover their niche markets, the ultimate goal of PR practitioners and their clients is usually to get covered on national news, so it is important to know what angels of a story are best to take in order to achieve that.  One of the most prominent national news outlets in the country is CNN, and after studying their website it is clear what interests them in a news story.

 

Bizarre Stories

 

Examples:

 

“Man Vanishes into bedroom sinkhole”

“Romania’s witch culture”

“Cell phone can also be stun gun”

“Confessed assassin, 13, slain in Mexico”

“New twist for teen who flipped off judge”

“Outrage over model, 16 in blackface”

“Westminster dog poisoned”

“Iraq vet amputee tries out for Dodgers”

Reasoning:

Stories that are out of the ordinary shock, entertain, offend, interest, scare and inspire the reader more than anything that routinely occurs ever could. Even if they are not the most relevant event going on in the world at the time, they create emotion in the reader. 

 

Celebrities/Known Names

 

Examples:

 

“Harlem Shake” section of homepage

“Armstong explains meltdown, rehab” about Green Day singer

“Turn down the instant outrage” about the Oscars

“Why we love Jennifer Lawrence”

“The reinvention of Ben Affleck”

“Westminster dog poisoned” (works for both)

“Super Bowl MVP signs new deal”

“Deaths in 2013”

Reasoning:

People care about things that they know about. They watch movies and television, listen to music, root for sports teams and watch YouTube videos. They feel like they know the people who star in these things and thus care about their lives and the endless analysis of them provided by the media.

Politics

Examples:

 

A whole section on “Forced Spending Cuts”

“State Dept.: No red flags on Keystone”

“State to take over Detroit government”

Reasoning:

Readers want the highlights of what is going on in politics. The American political system can often be frustrating, slow moving, mundane, repetitive, ineffective and the average person has not heard of 90% of the people involved in it. However relevant it is to the way our world works, if readers are bored by something they are bored by it. If they are reading about strangers fighting over complex issues and not solving them for years on end, they are going to be bored. Stories that get covered are either of the utmost importance (the budget cuts, the Keystone pipeline) or bizarre stories (Michigan taking over Detroit’s government).

 

International News

 

-“What Al-Qaeda’s magazine reveals”

-“Who will be the next pope”

Reasoning:

Very similarly to American politics, international politics are often frustrating, slow moving, mundane, repetitive and ineffective. The only difference is that instead of the reader not knowing the names of 90% of the people involved, they don’t know the names of 99.9% of them. Americans are also less directly affected by world politics than they are national ones, or at least that is the common conception. Unless the stories involve things that audiences are familiar with (the papacy) or things that scare or shock them (Al-Qaeda has a magazine? That has to be scary). 

Overall, people like bizarre stories and they like hearing things about people they have heard of. Those two things create the most emotion in a reader. That makes newsworthiness more so than the relevance of a story, or really any other aspect.

Ethics In Modern PR

In modern day public relations, the demands of the 24 hours news cycle on journalists, as well as the need for an abundance of very content-specific news makes the job of a public relations practitioner an interesting one. The enhanced workload of journalists makes way for stories like this one about a PR practitioner offering to write full articles for journalists if they promise to publish them more of a reality, as journalists are so content-strapped that they may be willing to look the other way on a practice that undermines the integrity of the communications field as a whole. Media relations is truly an art, and finding the most creative, informative and appealing ways to get your message heard is truly a skill. On the other end of the spectrum, turning press releases into articles is just as much an art and a skill on a journalist’s end as media relations is for the public relations practitioner. The practice written about in this article undermines the competitive nature of public relations, and really alleviates the need for any kind of skill in PR besides the lack of a moral compass. I hope that this is not a widespread practice, and Jan Hutchins is just one uninformed man acting out of stupidity. That is not an easy thing to believe though. I want to think that the anonymous journalist who reported Jan to this blogger was truly doing it because he was shocked and appalled at this practice, but it could have also been an attempt to blackmail him or just throw him under the bus.

Finally, I hope that when I graduate I am going to go into a public relations field where the skills I learn two days a week in class can be applied, and that the most skilled public relations practitioners who practice the most perfect methods of public relations truly rise to the top. But people like Jan Hutchins make it hard for me to be certain that is the case.

Mark Cuban’s Blog

Mark Cuban does not seem to post to his blog frequently (the last post is from 10 days ago) and I think he tries to accommodate for that with lengthy posts. His post’s also read like he was given/made a clear outline of what to write about in each paragraph and writes exactly that. There is really no flow, originality or skill in his writing. The post is basically outlined as follows:

Paragraph 1: I Love the Mavericks and Am A Fan Just Like You
Paragraph 2: Mavericks Fans Are The Best, Most Loyal Fans In The World
Paragraph 3: The Mavericks Are About More Than Just Basketball

Then he shows about 10 letters he has received about how the Mavericks have helped make people’s lives better.

A good subject matter, but the post is too simple and long to be truly effective in its goal of conveying the Mavericks as an inspiring brand that changes people’s entire lives for the better.

Overall, Mr. Cuban just does not put much effort into his blog, and that could not be more apparent. 

The Manti Te’o Case

I would like to tackle the Manti Te’o situation this week. Manti Te’o is a star football player who was recently involved in a large scandal involving his girlfriend who died in the fall of 2012. It turns out that she never existed. They were in an exclusively Twitter-based relationship and it turned out that she was an account run by one of Te’o’s male acquaintances, not attached to a real human being. Te’o claimed to not be involved in the incident, as did the person running the fake account, but his reaction still drew suspicion from the general public. First of all, his first reaction was silence, a bad move as it leads to people assuming the worst.When involved in a scandal that is not your fault, move number one should be to clear your name, not to ignore the topic completely. The worst part may have been that Te’o had a legitimate alibi but did not use it until days later. This was the biggest news story on every major network for days before Te’o addressed it, and leaving the media time to speculate can only lead to negative consequences. In the time that Te’o did not speak, he had speculative anonymous teammates come out against him saying that they always doubted his relationship with his “girlfriend”. Letting the media create their own story is bad enough, letting other people that are assumed to be involved with the story, but are against you, speak before you is a whole other issue. The other mistake Te’o made was playing up his relationship with his “girlfriend” in the media, when in fact he had doubts about her existence. Only speaking as confidently as you actually are on a subject is a good rule of thumb when it comes to public relations. Violating that rule can come to awful consequences, as was proved in Te’o’s incident. So from the Manti Te’o case we learn to always have the first word and to not speak more confidently about a situation than you are, no matter the circumstances. There two public relations rules will keep 99% of companies out of trouble in 99% of situations.  

Social Media Reaction To Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy was different than every major storm to come before it because of the widespread social media use while it was occurring. This gave everybody a voice during the storm and also gave an expectation of immediate reporting by major new outlets, government agencies and relief organizations. Of course, many positive and negative effects came out of that, for instance:

News Outlets

One of the most positive effects of social media use to come out of news outlets during Hurricane Sandy was the use of storm trackers, most notably by CBS and CNN. Live updates on the storms path and intensity in real time to that degree would be impossible without social media. A major negative effect of social media use by news outlets during the storm was false reporting. News outlets like NPR and The Washington Post spread a picture of soldiers guarding The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C reportedly during Hurricane Sandy, while the picture was actually taken in September 2012. The picture had been spread widely on Facebook and, under a time crunch, news outlets spread it without fact checking. Details of the picture’s real origin did not come to light until hours later. Another problem with social media use by major news outlets during Hurricane Sandy is that Hurricane Sandy was during the presidential election, and often times news outlets used their social media capital to report on the effects that the storm was having on the election instead of trying to keep people informed of its dangers and ways to help. 

Relief Organizations

Relief organizations used Twitter and Facebook to attempt to raise money for relief efforts during Hurricane Sandy, however, as was reported in a Huffington Post article on October 30th, organizations see social media as a “double edged” sword. Often people eager to help will just share or re-tweet an organization’s call for help, instead of actually helping. This is an issue that arose during Sandy for the Red Cross and many other organizations. This means they need to work on getting their message across more clearly using social media in the future, and learn how to engage and inspire volunteers despite the passive nature that comes with the territory social media outreach.

Government Agencies

Government agencies seemed to respond to Hurricane Sandy extremely well, setting up hashtags like #StormDE, #MASandy, #SandyDC etc. for each specific state. FEMA also worked with Twitter to set up an easy way to get text updates from Twitter for people who lost internet due to the storm. They communicated this prior to the storm through mass media outlets like CBS News in clear lists. Overall a great use of social media by state governments and government agencies. 

Social Media

As a long time social media user, I can confidently say that the overwhelming majority of things posted on Facebook and Twitter are absolutely useless. Whether it is coming from friends, companies, celebrities or whoever else, the amount of things that I actually care about, or remember later, on an average scroll through my “New Feed” is almost nothing.  There are also so many people trying to get you to come to events, “like” pages or buy whatever they are selling that I tune most of that stuff out very quickly. I know I am not the only person with this mindset when it comes to social media, and in fact I would say that most people I’ve encountered who are regular social media users share this sentiment. So how does a person, or company, get people to care about what they have to say when almost everybody’s naturally tendency is to ignore it? Like everything else in life there is a strategy to it, but since social media is so new and mostly used for recreational purposes and wasting time, people do not seem to take the strategy behind it as seriously as they should. From my experience in music PR, I know that Facebook “likes” are almost like a currency, and are often used as a way to uniformly quantify a band’s success.  I am sure that other industries are exactly the same way.  The guest speaker we had on Wednesday seems to have social media down to a science, and had many tips for how to get people to care about what you have to say on it. As she pointed out in her lecture, social media is a free, potentially extremely influential form of advertising. Everybody is on Facebook, everybody is on YouTube and everybody (now including me) is on Twitter. There are potentially hundreds of millions of people to reach if these tools are used correctly. The lecture on Wednesday showed us how to start to do that.