8 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Class

In 24 hours, my Marist College class covering journalism, PR, social media and life will meet for the first time this semester. With the new academic year now underway, here are some thoughts for students on what makes for a great classroom experience.

First, show up. Yes, my class meets at 6:30 p.m. and continues until 9 p.m. and I do not take a break in the middle. However, in all likelihood, you won't be too tired to go out after my class lets out. Heck, at 9 p.m., your evening is barely getting started. I put a lot of effort into each of my class sessions and I expect students to do the same.

Second, pay attention. That means not checking your email, looking at Facebook, or drafting your next tweet, unless it's about something going on in class. It's easy for me to find out whether or not you're paying attention. Just one example. You ask me a question about something someone else just asked and for which I gave a five minute response. There are other ways I know you're not paying attention, but I won't divulge those.

Third, following up on the point above, ask questions or give an opinion. I do not necessarily have to agree with you. We can have an honest discussion and perhaps learn from each other's point of view. However, be prepared to back up whatever point you're making. Your future bosses will expect that, too.

Fourth, hand in assignments on time. Hundreds of students over the past 20 years will tell you that I do not accept an assignment even one second late. A deadline is a deadline. If your boss asks where your work product is and you say, “Oh, I went out last night and didn't get home until 4 a.m.,” have your resume updated. You'll need it.

Fifth, get to know me and allow me to get to know you. You cannot ask me for a reference and I cannot recommend you for an internship or job if you are just a name on the roster, sit in the back, never look up, never speak, never offer an opinion, never answer a question in class, never even say hello or goodnight, or in any other way show you care about what you're suppose to learn in class.

Sixth, do a little bit extra. Are you involved in a club or organization? Write a story for the school paper or write a news release to send to the media. Attend meetings of PRSSA and the student chapter of SPJ. It's not just to pad your résumé. It's an opportunity to give me something to talk about should I get a phone call from a former student to whom you have applied for a job...and whom you don't even know is my former student. And yes, she or he will call me if they even suspect you are or were in my class, whether you list me as a reference or not.

Seventh, when I bring in alumni or bring you to places where alumni work, dress appropriately, show interest, ask questions, network, say thank you at the end and follow up with a handwritten note or an email. I have brought my students to dozens of PR and ad agencies, corporations, newspapers and magazines, even the headquarters of Major League Baseball. When the presenters, nearly all of whom were my students, finish their presentations and ask you a question, please don't just sit there staring at the floor. I'll let you in on a secret. They're evaluating you as prospective new employees. One of them could offer you a job. Treat this as an opportunity to meet an advocate for your hiring and get the inside scoop on a possible employer.

Eighth, stay in touch. I have placed more than 200 students in internships and jobs over the years. I understand I may not be your favorite person. However, if I don't hear from you for three years and you send me an email that only says, "Can you review my résumé?" I will be less inclined to respond as quickly as I do to those who keep in touch with me on a regular basis and don't just write to me when they need a favor.

Are there other suggestions professionals in the field would recommend to current students? Please feel free to comment below.

One last thing...I am so grateful to my former students who approach me with job openings for current students or recent grads as a way of saying thank you for helping them. Students who graduated 5, 10, 15 years ago are now in positions where they can hire and they remember when someone helped them. Now they want to pay that back. I tweet those openings and put them up on LinkedIn and Facebook. Some draw a lot of attention while others are ignored. Whatever the result, I ask my former students to keep sending those openings to me. You know I will only send and recommend someone who has done the things I mention in this post, those whom I know will succeed and not disappoint you. Thanks for giving back to your alma mater and those who follow in your footsteps.

Well There's No Place Like Rome for the Holidays

Twenty-eight years ago, I departed for studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, living in an American compound, the North American College in Vatican City. I was 27 years old, but had never been away from home for more than a month, and that was five years before when I studied in China. It would be two years before I could come back to the United States and unfortunately, I started out counting down the days until then, rather then throwing myself into the opportunity of a lifetime -- living abroad on someone else's dime, as I was there on the equivalent of a full scholarship, including room and board.

The first big test of homesickness would be Thanksgiving. In Italy, it was just another Thursday. In our five-story, walled-in hectares of America, it was a time of celebration. The fact that we had no classes on Thursdays (but did have them on Saturdays) helped start the day with that holiday feeling. While we were blessed to have an incredible house chef, Giovanni, we longed for the comfort foods with which we had grown up. It's amazing what you can whip up on a hot plate. Guys in a particular hallway would chip in. My parents once sent over bagels. The following year, I had access to the PX at the American Embassy because I had enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and served that summer as an officer with the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing in Bitburg, Germany. So, that meant buying Pop Tarts, "real" bacon (pancetta just didn't go well with eggs), American coffee (though nothing will compare to cappuccino from Tazza d'Oro), and tea (which you could then only get at Babbington's Tea Room in the Piazza di Spagna).

We'd gather for lunch in the refectory, properly dressed in suits and ties or high-end clerical garb, for a feast of roast turkey with all the trimmings and pumpkin pies baked over a 24-hour period by one of my classmates, Chuck, from Pittsburgh, who had graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, about a ten minute drive from where I live now in Poughkeepsie. We had other American guests join us, from ambassadors to students, and always started with three toasts: to the president, the pope, and the college. We would gather a couple of hours after the big meal for the annual "Spaghetti Bowl," a football game pitting the "new men," or first year students, against the "old men," or the rest of the house. The game featured live play-by-play. After I returned to the States, I recorded some radio commercials, including jingles,  for the college store -- KNAC -- and sent them over. I'm told they used them for years.

At night, after a VERY light dinner, we gathered in the magnificent auditorium, designed by MGM, to watch the original print of the film Ben Hur. Arrangements for much of the Rome-based filming were smoothed by the then-long-term-rector of the NAC, Archbishop Martin O'Connor from Scranton, PA. The viewing experience was a mix of Rocky Horror and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Some guys came dressed up in period garb, and we all shouted out commentary -- from the comedic to the sacrilegious. Then it was time for expensive calls home. We paid by the "click" -- a counter on the switchboard that went in intervals of ten seconds, which meant bills that could range from $25 to $150. I smartened up after getting some huge initial bills and would call my parents or Pete and ask them to call me right back, since it was much less expensive to call from the States. Even that brief call would be about $1. Remember, this was well before cell phones and global service and payment plans.

It was an opportunity to bond, to shorten the distance from home, and for some, to keep them from leaving because they couldn't deal with being away from family and friends. There would be other holidays that posed homesickness difficulties, most notably Christmas, but there was at least a festive air for those celebrations. Thanksgiving is a uniquely American (U.S. in November, Canada in October) holiday, and when you live in community with 150 countrymen, that shared experience bolstered morale and helped us march on toward exams, work, and travel.

I wonder if the students I've known from my 19 years at Marist (I still teach there) or other colleges and universities felt that same homesickness and how they dealt with is. Perhaps some will let me know in the comments section at the end of this post.

One last thing...I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I hope to be back tomorrow with another entry to reflect on Pope "Frankness" -- a man who is breaking the papal mold and is not afraid to challenge leadership in the church, in nations, and in corporate culture.

A Case Study in How to Get a Job

With about a month to go until many students graduate, the search for a job should begin in earnest.  Actually, it should be in high gear. A typical hiring process could take a month or two…at least.  A job opening is posted and applications solicited.  Interviews must be scheduled and references checked before an offer is made.  The successful applicant then should give at least two weeks’ notice to his or her current employer.  If this is your first full-time, post-college job, you may still want a couple of weeks to prepare for your entry into the workforce.  Just to give you an example, I left my position at Marist on January 6, and it appears that no decision will be made on a successor until May at the earliest.

A Marist Communication/Journalism major graduating on May 20 personifies the textbook lesson in how to land a job.  A week after he receives his Bachelor of Arts degree, Bryan Terry of Colonie, NY will start as a news assistant at YNN, a 24-hour news channel, in their Albany, NY hub.  How did Bryan do this? He earned it.

Bryan reminds me of myself at his age.  We were both news geeks, very focused on broadcast journalism.  It is that early interest in what he wanted to do with his life that helped Bryan create a path to his first job offer in the field he has wanted to enter since he was in the sixth grade.

Bryan took advantage of many opportunities offered to him.  He has a 3.9 GPA, plays trombone in the band, studied abroad in Florence, worked with the Marist Poll, and selected three internships that provided him valuable work experience from both sides of the reporter’s notebook – the newsroom of WRGB-TV in Schenectady, the team that produces Capital Tonight on YNN, and the press office of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. At each employer (and you should always consider your internship provider as an employer, whether or not you are paid), he worked hard, doing more than was required; was not a clock watcher; and shared his knowledge of social media.

How well did he do? You can see the respect and true affection his employers had for Bryan in their video tributes.  He may forever be called “Intern Bryan,” thanks to being assigned that moniker during his tenure with Capital Tonight.  His dedication, tenacity, and passion for his work left an indelible impression on each employer.

Bryan also maintained his relationships with his supervisors, sending them an occasional email or visiting if he was in the neighborhood.  I have written before about the importance of networking.  When you meet someone, you shouldn’t think, “How is this person going to get me a job?”  You should show genuine interest in the person with whom you’re communicating, and consider how you can help him or her.  Is there information you can provide?  Do you have knowledge in an area the other person does not and that you would be willing to share?  Was there an interesting item you read in mainstream or social media that is worth passing along? Bryan did this. An email here, a phone call there, an occasional visit, none intrusive, just enough to keep his “top of mind awareness” among potential employers.

Bryan blogs as a class project, but his work product shows he has a reporter’s instinct for news, that he writes well, and that he is not afraid to tackle tough issues.  He follows the right people and organizations on twitter, exhibiting an interest in national, state and local government topics, trends in journalism, a familiarization with his craft.

He checked in with people who would know what jobs might be open now or in the future. That’s how Bryan found out about the opening for a news assistant at YNN.  He had advocates within the organization who could attest to his skills.  He had references who could provide specific examples of his outstanding work (rather than a blasé chat that a human resources professional could sniff out as BS in less than a minute).   His résumé and cover letter extolled his virtues but addressed the needs of his employer rather than thumping his chest about who he is or what he’s done.  Both were also error free, having been proofread by several people.  After his interviews, Bryan immediately sent thank you notes to those who met with him, reiterating his interest in and qualifications for the job.

Bryan’s reward:  a job that is waiting for him a month before graduation.  He communicated his passion and ability, put those qualities to work to create a positive reputation, and as much as this is positive for him, it’s just as positive for YNN, which is fortunate to have someone as talented as Bryan on its team.

One last thing…A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted that one of my former students had a summer internship in finance for a prestigious firm in Manhattan and that anyone interested should direct message me for details and I would connect them to her.  Only two people did: A Marist sophomore and a student in London, England. The Marist student follows me on twitter, but I can’t honestly say that I know him well.  Still, the fact that he contacted me quickly, explained his credentials in 140 characters, and went back-and-forth with me to exchange information, always expressing his appreciation for helping him with this connection, spoke volumes about him.  He got the internship and thanked me immediately after getting the offer.  It was networking all around – my former student contacting me; my using social media to connect with prospective employees, and someone who follows me on that medium to reach out, follow through, and land the gig. That’s an age-old process that still yields results in 2012.

Glancing Back but Looking Forward

Many people reflect on the year that just passed and say they're glad it's over.  As I glance back at 2011, I can't do that.  It was a very good year.  That's not to say it was perfect, but there is much for which to be thankful.  It's also my belief in positive thinking.  I tell students that, even in bad times, if you believe in yourself and exude confidence (minus arrogance), success will follow you.  That had to be reinforced with one of my former students who is still not working, seven months after graduating.  She was obviously despondent, but I told her that can't be reflected in who she portrays herself to be.

If you internalize defeatism, it will be read on your face and ooze from your pores.  I'm not a New Age type of guy, but I honestly believe in a person's aura, the vibes and sometimes even a color that surrounds a person.  It's not a perfect system, but I'm pretty good at "reading" someone, as are HR people or others who interview prospective candidates for jobs.

In 1987, when I came back from two years of study abroad in Rome, it was very difficult to find a job.  A position similar to the one I'm about to leave was open at Marist. I was told by the College's HR department I wasn't even qualified for an interview.  After months of searching, I accepted a college PR job in Presque Isle, Maine, not my ideal location because my family and friends were in Poughkeepsie, but I needed a job.  Two weeks before I was supposed to start, I saw a friend, John Mack, then president of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation, who gave me a job at the utility -- in my home city and for more money than I would have earned in Maine.  After constantly being told, "NO!" I finally had two who said, "YES!"  It's difficult to remain positive in the face of rejection, but no one wants to hire a person with a negative attitude.  Exude confidence with a dose of humility.  You will succeed.

For Pete and me, 2011 was a year we will never forget.  June 24, we watched, emotionally, as the New York State Senate passed a Marriage Equality bill 33-29, with our Senator, Steve Saland, casting the deciding yes vote.  The State Assembly had passed the bill earlier and staunch advocate Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law immediately.  We witnessed one of the most historic civil rights landmarks of our lives.  We "proposed" to each other that night, announced it on twitter, and were heartened by the response from friends and those we know only through social media.  We became the first same-sex couple in Dutchess County to get married the day the law went into effect -- Sunday, July 24.  We will mark our "first anniversary" in 2012, but our 32nd as a couple on October 25.

There were several health issues for Pete's mom, necessitating visits to the hospital and nursing homes for rehab throughout the year.  Yet, today, Marj is home with us, faring as well as can be expected, and will celebrate her 95th birthday, God willing, in March.  My mom continues her incredible life journey at age 92, and with the exception of really bad knees, is in wonderful health.

I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus in mid-December, but thanks to a tremendous doctor, William Thompson, I'm mobile, pretty much pain-free, and looking forward to starting my new job very soon.

Ah yes, the new job.  I wasn't looking to make a change, but this position fell into my lap, thanks to a friend of 34 years (we worked together as radio reporters), whose two sons were my students and studied abroad with me in Italy and Israel.  Two of my friend's direct reports are also my former students, who remain very close to me.  It was an offer I couldn't refuse and answered a question about what phase my career would take as I approach my 54th birthday next month.  I am grateful for this new opportunity and for friends who made it happen.

I look back at my 17 years at Marist with much affection and a sense of accomplishment.  However, the job was more than scoring media placements in regional and national newspapers and on radio and TV, or participating in some history-making events.  Rather, it's the relationships developed with students and coworkers that were the highlight of my years at the college.  I count a number of former students among my closest friends.  Two of them became adopted sons and were the witnesses for our wedding.  A third has recently entered that same category.  I love them and an immensely proud of them, especially because they seize and excel at so many opportunities offered to them through internships and jobs, intellectual and athletic pursuits, and more than anything else, they are honorable, respectful and loving.  What more could a dad ask for?

So, I'm grateful for 2011 and look forward to 2012.  Here's to a New Year filled with health, happiness, peace and prosperity for all!

One last thing...thank you for the warm best wishes as I start the latest chapter of my life.  More than 1,000 people read the blog post announcing the new job.  For many bloggers, that's just a blip, but for me, it was an honor.

Listening to the Stars Will Get You a Job

Last night, two of the best sports communicators in the business gave a down-to-earth lesson in finding a job and enjoying what you do. 

My long-time friend Mike Breen was gracious to accept an invitation to come to Marist to inaugurate the college's new Center for Sports Communication.  Mike and I both went to Fordham, though I was three years ahead of him and did not meet Mike until he joined WEOK/WPDH as a news reporter after his graduation in 1983.  I had gotten out of the radio news business and was the assistant to the chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature, which meant Mike and I had the "hack" and "flack" roles.  I truly detest those terms, but use them here to show how false they are.

I saw in Mike a desire to learn, be the best, set goals, achieve them, and be helpful to others.  We had incredible fun working together in our separate roles, and we spent a lot of time hanging out together outside of work, becoming very close friends.

What impresses me now about Mike is that he is, without a doubt, the most successful and best known sports broadcaster in America today, yet he remains truly humble, giving of his time and talent to young men and women who want to move into any area of the sports comm world, in front of the camera or in the studio.  What was supposed to be a 90-minute seminar on Mike's career and tips for success turned into a Q & A session followed by a meet and greet with 200 Marist students that took us from 7 until 11 p.m.

Mike was introduced and joined by Marist alumnus Ian O'Connor, one of the best sports columnists and authors around.  Between the two of them, they provided Marist students insight into leveraging their talents and connections to get them to where they want to be. They reiterated what I tell my class, but it had more meaning coming from two men who are stars (though they would both dislike being called that).

Here are some of their tips:

Be passionate about your work. "You have to love going to work every day; follow where your heart leads you." You can't value your success by salary alone.  Discover your passion and pursue it.

Excel as a writer, because there aren't a lot of good ones out there. When Mike was asked by one student what classes he should take since he has some spots to fill in his schedule, Mike quickly responded, "English." Take as many English courses you can and write, write, write.  the more often you do it, the better you get at it. The same is true for on-air delivery. The more you find yourself behind the microphone or in front of the camera, the more comfortable you will feel and the more conversational you will be in delivery. Ian added that you need to read great writing to know how to write well, so read, read, read.

Gain as much experience as possible through internships.  As Mike said about Marist, "You guys have something really special here." Marist offers incredible internships, particularly in communication. If you don't take advantage of those opportunities, you will be behind the competition when it comes time to look for a job.

Network and take advantage of connections. Mike will give a closer look to a résumé from a graduate of Fordham because it's his alma mater, or Marist because of his close affiliation with the Home of the Red Foxes. He got his start in TV as an analyst alongside the great play-by-play man Dean Darling, broadcasting Marist men's basketball games in the mid-1980s during the Rik Smits era, and he holds a special place for Marist in his heart. Mike got his job at WEOK/WPDH because his then-girlfriend's mother was having lunch with the mother of the station's news director. It's not even six degrees of separation. It could be just one or two.

Be at your best every day on your job. Mike sometimes broadcasts games five nights in a row. He could be on MSG calling a Knicks-Celtics game one night, a Lakers-Heat game the next night on ABC, then be on ESPN for a Timberwolves-Raptors game the following night. He has to be "on" for each one because while it may be three in a row for him, a fan may only be watching one and deserves the best play-by-play and analysis.

Ian and Mike told some great behind-the-scenes stories, which I'll save for those who were in attendance.  When you can keep students in their seats for two-hours past the scheduled time of an event, you know you've captured your audience, and judging by the tweets during and after their talks, both men hit it out of the park. (I know, it's a baseball metaphor, not basketball.)

I also appreciated Mike's comment to Ian that "Marist is one of the hottest schools in the country." It's nice to have that third-party affirmation, even if it is from a close friend with perhaps just a little bit of bias.


One last thing...apologies for not posting for more than a month. This has been my busiest semester in almost 17 years at Marist. There are many things I've wanted to "say," but trying to eke out some time when I'm not attending meetings and events on- and off-campus, talking with students, or writing news releases and pitches has been nearly impossible.  Last night's seminar was so good and the messages so valid and valuable, I had to break the "cone of silence" and put them here. Congratulations to Dr. Keith Strudler, chair of the communication department at Marist, for putting together a great seminar for our students and for being the driving force behind the development of one of the top sports communications programs at any college or university in the country.

Communicating Irene's Wrath

Hurricane Irene roared through our beautiful Hudson Valley and Catskills and left a deluge of rain and a trail of destruction among the worst I have seen from any storm during my lifetime.  Some news outlets and individuals thought the event was over-hyped by the media.  Try telling that to my neighbors who spent hours pumping water out of their garage and basement, or the folks in downtown Poughkeepsie whose streets are still closed due to flooding.  My heart also goes out to the people in beautiful little villages like Windham and Margaretville, nice Sunday drives from Poughkeepsie, that have been nearly destroyed by cascading rapids and the washing away of homes and bridges.

Marist College also got hit.  We have one of the most scenic campuses in America, right along the eastern shore of the mighty Hudson.  Today it is the muddy Hudson due to all the runoff from the Fallkill Creek and storm sewer systems from municipalities along its length.  President Dennis Murray issued a wrap-up of the work done over the past couple of days in a memo to the college community today.

Over the past five days, I've posted more than 100 tweets, first about preparation plans for students moving back to Marist, then the storm's impact on our college and region, and finally, on its aftermath.  I know I tweet a lot, and probably lose some followers because of it (mostly spammers and bots, I hope), but during a crisis, social media is invaluable in keeping people informed and squelching rumors.

What kind of rumors?  Someone, whom I'm not even sure is currently a Marist student, tweeted that there was a partial collapse of Marist's Lowell Thomas Communications Center and put in other alarmist drama to make it sound like the campus was a disaster area.  Because I am constantly online, I saw that erroneous tweet, and a retweeting of the false info by someone I know is a Marist student, and took them to task publicly over their misinformation.  The student apologized.  The person who started the rumor, probably just to get attention for herself, did not respond but knew I was watching and switched to another topic.  Her tweets, btw, consist mostly of dropping the f-bomb.

Thanks to my friends and colleagues Melissa Egan and Cody Rotwein in Marist's Web Services department, we were able to place updates on the Marist homepage 10 times.  There were more frequent updates on the Marist Facebook page, and of course, on twitter.  Some of the updates were within minutes of each other, such as when there were changes in the estimate of when a repair of a Central Hudson Gas & Electric substation off-campus would restore power to Marist and the surrounding neighborhood.  An original estimate of two hours was thought to be too soon because of complications with the repair, so I wrote that it could take another three hours.  Excuse the pun, but I didn't want to leave students, parents and Marist staff in the dark.  Fortunately, about five minutes after that Facebook posting and tweet, lights came back on.  I'm still glad I sent out the other information because, as in any type of disaster preparedness, we plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Even I need some sleep and can't be online 24/7/365, though it seems like I am.  Fortunately, I have been awake and on various social media sites when I've seen incorrect info posted about Marist.  The strategy to address it is simple: confront it, nip it in the bud, correct it.

People want correct information and they want frequent updates.  More than 15,000 people visited the Marist Web updates from last Thursday through today.  More than 2,000 clicked on the bit.ly links from Facebook and twitter.  BTW, half of the referrals came from Facebook, making Facebook, in my experience, still the predominant social medium.  Twitter is rightfully credited for the rapid creation of content and serving as a great news aggregator (much better than a site I used years ago -- Newsgator).

One last thing...it's nice to get a pat on the back when you work hard and things go well.  Too often, people complain more than they compliment.  I am grateful for the comments made by students, faculty and staff at Marist, parents, alumni, people in the community, fellow PR practitioners and the media on Marist's communications efforts before, during and after the storm.  Many people not directly related to a public relations function are needed to make a communications strategy successful.  I work with incredible colleagues and deeply appreciate their cooperation and support.

We Can "Be the Media"

When I went to my first TweetUp a couple of years ago in Westchester County, the speaker was David Mathison, who wrote Be the Media, which details how each of us has the opportunity to communicate directly with audiences known and unknown, without being filtered by traditional forms of radio, television, newspapers and magazines.  I was intrigued by his talk, purchased the book, and have used the phrase "be the media" often in my classes.

When an item is posted on twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, or other social media, we can directly reach our followers, friends, connections or circles.  When a photo of the completed Route 9 pedestrian walkway was posted on Marist's Facebook page, it made 17,555 impressions and generated 155 likes and 37 comments, nearly all of them positive.  The vast majority of the nearly 8,000 people who "like" the Marist page are current students, alumni, prospective students and their families, elected officials, and the college's faculty and staff.  The page reaches those important constituencies directly to engage conversation, foster reminiscences, inform, and persuade. By now, I hope each person reading this blog understands this is how social media is supposed to function.

Let's see how one individual, a talented, young Marist alumnus, became his own "medium" to successfully raise money for a particular project.  In turn, he gave back to his alma mater in a unique way.

Robert Vijay Gupta, graduated from Marist in 2005 at age 16 with a bachelor's degree in biology.  He went on to get his master's degree in music from Yale in 2007.  That year, he became the youngest violinist (at age 19) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  Those in the music industry who do not want to be tied to a particular label fund their own projects through social media. I learned through a tweet from Robert that he was doing this for a CD of recordings, including one of his own compositions, that he will play on a 1716 Stradavarius violin:

guptaviolin87 so many thanks to everyone that's contributed to my @kickstarter album so far - only 5% to go! http://kck.st/jxkF0d

Kickstarter calls itself "the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world."

I promoted this on twitter and Marist's Facebook page.  Among those who read the Facebook posting was Marist President Dennis Murray, who later got an email from Robert detailing the project.  President Murray sent a contribution.  Robert went over his $20,000 goal more than a week before his deadline, raising nearly $22,000 from 216 backers.  I am not claiming credit for that and it would be difficult for me to prove any donations came from Marist's social media efforts on Robert's behalf, but I do know that the Facebook posting alone made 6,709 impressions and 11 people "liked" it.  As a community, Marist is very proud of Robert's accomplishments and I was happy to publicize his efforts.  As a thank you to President Murray and Marist, Robert played a selection from the CD at a Marist Welcome Reception for incoming members of the Class of 2015 on July 20, in Santa Monica, California.

Robert had fun with his fundraising.  His incentives to donors ranged from two hi-res mp3s for a $5 donation to this premium for a donation of $10,000 or more: "A live 90-minute recital in Los Angeles or New York, and...I'll cook you dinner! My Mom's recipe for the *best* lamb curry you've ever tasted" (plus all of the items mentioned for lower levels of donations).  While Robert did not get a $10,000 backer, he got two people to donate $2,500.  He is now providing updates on the strenuous recording process, keeping his supporters engaged throughout the process.  Bravissimo, Robert!

THAT is the power of social media.

One last thing...While I would have enjoyed Robert's private concert for incoming Marist freshmen and their families, and alumni who attended the reception in California, I was at another social media event in Boston on July 21.  It was the first Marist Boston TweetUp, organized by 2004 Marist alumna Liz Swenton (@lizswenton on twitter), who is one of three Marist alumnae working at March Communications in Boston. Fifteen alumni and a Marist senior, Marissa DeAngelis (@MSDe526), about whom I've written in the past, attended.  Three drove up from Rhode Island one drove in from Connecticut.  It was a mixer at Back Bay Social Club (@BackBaySocial), with dinner, the exchange of business cards, the renewal of long-standing friendships and the forming of new ones.  These were public relations and journalism majors, most of whom were my students.  It gave me a chance to talk about developments at Marist and get updates on their careers.  One attendee found she was interviewing at the company of another attendee, an opportune contact.  Remember my post on networking?  It works.  We all enjoyed ourselves and I left with a tremendous sense of pride in these Marist grads.  I look forward to similar TweetUps in other cities in the weeks and months ahead.

Tweeting Yourself Toward Employment

I'm grateful to Jenny Zou (@jiejennyzou on twitter) of the Chronicle of Higher Education for her very kind article about my efforts to help my students and other Marist grads find jobs via social media, specifically twitter.  I will not rehash what Jenny wrote. You can read Jenny's post in a popular Chronicle blog called WiredCampus.

What I want to discuss here is how this piece came about because it's a lesson in media relations that in itself made news recently because of the issue of "access."  First, let me tell you how this article appeared, then I'll mention the controversy surrounding a well-known freelancer for the New York Times and offer a few of my own thoughts.  I would appreciate your feedback on this, too, because it is an issue I will discuss with my class next semester.

For 14 of the last 18 years I have attended the College Media Relations Conference, initially started by a gentleman named Art Ciervo, picked up by Keith Moore, and now run by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.  I've had the privilege of speaking at this conference on social media, and it is a wonderful opportunity to network, learn from my peers, and meet reporters from a wide variety of media who come to talk about their publications, blogs, and TV and radio shows.  My friend Steve Smith (@RedCladLoon), who is the national news editor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, spoke this year on his work in social media and wrote a great blog entry highlighting the various talks at this year's conference.

At one of the sessions, higher ed media reps are given the opportunity to meet with reporters and editors from the Chronicle and InsideHigherEd.  As I was heading into the session featuring about a half dozen Chronicle reporters, I bumped into Chronicle Editor Jeffrey Selingo (@jselingo). I have much respect for Jeff and appreciated his comments on my social media work at a PRSA Counselors to Higher Education conference last April.  I mentioned to Jeff how one of my students, Alyssa Bronander (@ARBro), had sent me a tweet the day before saying she had not yet been hired.  I couldn't understand why because Alyssa is exceedingly bright, knows social media, is an excellent writer, and extremely personable.  So, I tweeted my incredulity with the hashtags #HireThisWoman and #HireArbro.  In less than five minutes, Alyssa got a tweet from another of my former students, Rob Gedarovich (@rgedarov), whom I mentioned in a previous post, asking for a résumé.  Alyssa eventually was hired by Toys R Us and just started this week as te corporation's associate social media manager.


I mentioned this off-the-cuff to Jeff and I honestly did not do it as a pitch.  We were just talking.  However, Jeff heard a good story, introduced me to Jeff Young (@jryoung), a top tech writer at the Chronicle and for the WiredCampus blog.  Jeff assigned the story to Jenny, who spoke with me by phone as I rode Amtrak back to New York.  Alyssa and my outstanding student intern this past year, Jim Urso (@JimUrso) also emailed and spoke to Jenny to round out the story.  An aside...Jim starts soon in the media relations department at Hofstra University.  My thanks to Karla Schuster (@KarlaSchuster) for hiring Jim.  I know it's a cliché but it's true -- my loss truly is Karla's gain.


What's so controversial about this process?  To me, nothing.  However, to the public editor of the New York Times, you would think PR people were like all those corporations that, on their own or via highly-paid lobbyists (many of them former lawmakers) pay for access to politicians in Washington.  I have met Times reporters at the College Media Conference every year, and was able to get a piece in a Times blog last year by pitching a reporter who had just completed his presentation.  


This process of give-and-take between journalist and public relations professional is common practice and ethical.  If you have a good relationship with a reporter -- pitching only those stories that are truly newsworthy, returning phone calls, not limiting yourself to being a "fair weather friend," and maintaining the highest standards of honesty and integrity -- you have a much better chance of getting coverage of your event, product, location, individual, or, in my case, college, than if you do not have a good relationship with that reporter.  That's a PR 101 lesson, not "get(ting) too cozy with the P.R. professionals who strive to influence coverage," as the Times' public editor alleges.  A journalist and a media relations pro must understand their roles.  They are not mutually exclusive.  They are similar -- tell a story that is worth people's time, enlightens them, and in some cases, advocates for the common good (though that last point is always open to interpretation).

In the back of my mind I think there must be another reason for the Times to go after David Pogue (@Pogue).  Maybe, someday, the Times' PR person will tell us what it is.

Your thoughts?

One last thing...I'll let you in on a little secret.  The second commenter at the end of the WiredCampus post, "mahoneypoststar," is Mark Mahoney, who was a student in a broadcast journalism class I taught at Dutchess Community College about 30 years ago.  Mark was a gifted student with a great sense of humor and a way with words.  He started out at my old radio stations, WEOK/WPDH in Poughkeepsie.  Today, he is the editorial page editor of the Post Star in Glens Falls, NY.  Two years ago, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.  To say I'm proud of him is a dramatic understatement.  I offer my thanks to him and to so many of my former students for their words of support and gratitude and retweeting Jenny's WiredCampus post.  Their faith, confidence and affection are deeply appreciated.  The sense of fulfillment I receive from working with and mentoring them is one of the wonderful aspects of my job, particularly at a college like Marist that truly is a community, or as some say, a family.

Just Another #MaristMonday

I don’t like being called a “social media expert” because I don’t believe there is such a thing.  The social media evolution, or should I say revolution, makes it nearly impossible to keep up with every new networking or bookmarking site. Last June, when I spoke at the College Media Conference in Baltimore, MD, I mentioned a Web site called namechk.com.  It listed 149 such sites which you can check to see if your user name or “vanity URL” is still available.  Fast forward to earlier this month.  I gave another social media presentation to 140 senior communications officials from colleges and universities across the U.S. (as well as Japan and Spain) at the Public Relations Society of America’s Counselors to Higher Education conference in Washington, D.C.  When I showed namechk.com again, the number of sites increased to 160.  Entrepreneurs and technorati want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey (founder of twitter), and established mega companies like Google and Yahoo! experiment with new applications to keep us eternally connected to one another – or at least to their platforms.

Yes, I enjoy speaking about social media, but no, I’m not an expert.  I share what I’ve learned by doing, succeeding, failing, repurposing. Tips from other users more intelligent than I are much appreciated, too.  Such is the case with #MaristMonday on twitter.  That suggestion came from 2007 Marist alumnus Michael Sterchak, an analyst with the Federal Reserve in New York.  

Marist employees get together after Commencement for a community-building BBQ called Marist Fun Day to celebrate the hard work of the college’s faculty, administrators and staff and the successes of the academic year.  That moniker makes me think of The Bangles 1986 hit “Manic Monday” and its catchy riff, “Just another Manic Monday.”  Unfortunately, I do not get to attend Marist Fun Day because I am usually overseas teaching a religious studies class (this year in Greece, Turkey and Rome for a course on the life and writings of St. Paul).  Even though I’m not there, I can’t get The Bangles' tune out of my head as I silently sing “Just another Marist Fun Day.”  You’d think I would have taken the next logical step to come up with the catchy hashtag that encourages a sense of community among the Marist College Family.  I didn’t.

It was Michael (@michaelsterchak on twitter) who suggested #MaristMonday, which has developed into an opportunity for students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, parents and others to share their current Marist experiences or fond Marist memories.  I also use it as a Marist version of #FF (Follow Friday) and share the twitter handles of Red Foxes who are new to the medium or newly-linked with me.  On a couple of occasions, #MaristMonday became a trending topic, no small feat considering Marist is a relatively small college.

Michael took his creativity a step further.  On September 21, 2009, I tweeted “Today is #MaristMonday, but tune in Wednesday for the biggest announcement in Marist history.”  Michael retweeted that with the hashtag #BigNewsMaristWednesday.  For the next two days, more than 2,000 individual tweets tried to guess what the big news was.  That campaign generated buzz and excitement and pushed traffic to the Marist Web site for the announcement of a $75 million gift – the largest donation in Marist history and, as noted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the 12^th largest gift made to any nonprofit organization that year.  The generosity of the late Raymond A. Rich included a 42,000-square-foot architecturally and historically significant mansion on the Hudson River in Esopus, NY, and the creation of the Raymond A. Rich Institute for Leadership Development.

How many visitors came to the landing site on the Marist homepage highlighting the big news and the slideshow of the Mansion?  I’ll let Google Analytics show you the spike in traffic for that day:

A second URL for the news release announcing the gift showed similar statistics.  By comparison, 641 visitors viewed Marist Public Affairs news release pages yesterday.

That’s when I saw, first-hand, the power of social media, and I’ve been a proponent ever since.

There will be additional posts on social media down the line, but I would like to note an event held one week ago tonight.  For junior communication major Marissa DeAngelis (@MSDe526), what started as a project for Professor Mark Van Dyke's (@markavandyke) public relations class turned into a learning opportunity for her and about three dozen Marist students, faculty, staff and local residents. Marissa, who is from Scituate, RI, organized a “TweetUp,” a gathering of twitter users connected to Marist who met face-to-face, many for the first time.  It was also one of the first TweetUps on any college or university campus in the country.

Marissa, who will be in my COM470 class next semester, senior Alyssa Bronander of Wyckoff, NJ (@ARBro), who was in my class last semester, and junior Luke Shane of Bolton Landing, NY, (@LShane262 – who ran the Boston Marathon in 2:44:49 the day before and still had the energy to give a dynamic presentation at 9 p.m. Tuesday), all Communication majors, gave tips on how to best use social media. They detailed their forays into blogging and tweeting and the personal and professional connections they have made.  Dean of Undergraduate Admission Kent Rinehart (the official @Marist tweeter) discussed how the college uses social media to communicate with current and prospective students and their families.  I discussed the pros and cons of “digital footprints” and how they can help or hurt a student’s (or for that matter, anyone’s) search for employment.

Marissa’s organizational skills led to a well-run event.  Alyssa will graduate in less than a month, and I can sum up her talents by a hashtag that some wise public relations agency, corporation or nonprofit will heed: #HireThisWoman!

Also in attendance was Chris Cornell (@cornell140), director of social media at Thompson & Bender, a Westchester-based public relations, advertising and marketing firm and the man behind TwitterProfessor.com. Chris also reported on the event for The Examiner, a weekly newspaper covering New York's Westchester and Putnam counties. The full article can be found at http://bit.ly/eMkkMJ.

One last thing...I’d like to thank Sarah Abouelmakarem (@Abouelmakarem), a Marist junior communications major with a concentration in public relations, for creating the banner at the top of this blog.  Sarah used her artistic skills to develop the stained glass motif.  We’re going to work on it just a little more, but her generous offer to give a visual identity to this blog was unsolicited and is greatly appreciated.  Thank you again, Sarah.