Experts Matter. Find Yours.

Social Media Spaces Can Be Instruments of God’s Unconditional Love, Theologian Says

Being 'always on' can be a source of anxiety or sorrow, but it also can be a way to strengthen faith, Baylor author says Many of us are “always on” — scrolling through social media, checking email or searching the web, says author Angela Gorrell, Ph.D., assistant professor of practical theology at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. In her book “Always On,” she writes about how social media spaces can be instruments of God’s unconditional love — but also sources of anxiety, jealousy and depression. With the arrival of 2020 — and its potential for change for the better — she discusses in this Q&A some tools for understanding social media and enabling Christian communities to address its use in constructive ways. Q: From your perspective as a practical theologian, are the social media strategies you recommend aimed solely at people of faith? Dr. Gorrell: Practical theology takes different forms. Ultimately, I aim to write about issues — like social media — that matter to people and shine the light of the Gospel on them. I also research and write about theology and faith in practice, how people express and perform their values, hopes and beliefs through practices, rituals, disciplines, activities, relationships, work—through their way of life. While I write about social media from a Christian perspective, much of what I have written about using social media mindfully and having “interested conversation” about media is applicable to people from a variety of religious and philosophical perspectives. Q: There is much talk about how people spend too much time on social media, to the point of ignoring family and friends when in their presence. How much is too much? And what problems can this create for people? Dr. Gorrell: The most important thing for people to realize is that how you spend time online is more important than how much time you spend online. There are a variety of issues that “passive,” unintentional, unregulated, time online can extend and nurture. I say extend because all of these issues can also be in-person issues. For example, empathy burnout, depression, anxiety and jealousy. We often encounter an enormous amount of suffering online. The amount of suffering and the velocity of these encounters — and rapidly seeing multiple examples back to back in articles or our newsfeeds — can nurture empathy burnout. We can become numb to the suffering we see online and take in but do nothing about it or think very little of it. Likewise, being on social media and passively scrolling through people’s status updates, tweets and stories for unbounded sets of time and looking at copious amounts of content but never replying, messaging, posting or sharing has been linked to depression and anxiety. Similarly, passive following, which is following people closely that we do not know (e.g., celebrities) or people we do not see regularly in person (e.g., high school friends) has been linked to jealousy, which can negatively impact how we perceive ourselves and our lives . . . When we see someone a lot in person or talk to them regularly by phone, we know that their lives have a lot more going on than what they are sharing online. Q: What strategies do you suggest help people use social media wisely? Dr. Gorrell: The goal is meaningful participation. I encourage people to limit passive scrolling and following as much as possible. Create something and share it online. Join conversations. Reply to people’s statuses rather than just clicking emojis. When you see that someone is celebrating, share their joy in a significant way. Share it as your status with a note of congratulations or text them or call them. When you notice someone is mourning, message them. When you encounter suffering online, stop scrolling and do something in response. Get offline, take a walk and pray about this suffering. Give money to an organization that is relieving this suffering. Find other articles and educate yourself on the issue. Learn more about how to help or how to invite other people to care. Q: Any suggestions as to how and where people might create a space to ask and answer questions about social media use? Dr. Gorrell: Asking powerful questions about people’s online experiences that encourage storytelling and helping each other think about new media can happen around the dinner table, in a church small group or on a road trip in the car. When family and friends ask each other about one another’s lives, we can include asking questions about and discussing social media experiences. We can ask curious, open-ended questions without simple yes or no answers like: 1. How do you make decisions about what to respond to online? 2. Have you ever been frustrated or sad about new forms of technology? What causes frustration or sadness for you? 3. When have you had a joyful experience online? Could you describe a time when you felt heard, affirmed or understood online? 4. How does social media help you love God and others and/or prevent you from loving God and others? 5. When have you had a painful experience online? Could you describe a time when you felt unheard, bullied, left out or misunderstood online? 6. What are the top two feelings you experience when using social media, and why do you think this is so? Q: How can we do a better job of using social media? Dr. Gorrell: Develop a rhythm for life with your friends or family that specifically addresses technology — when you will use it and for what purposes, when you will not use it, what boundaries you will have. Using social media constructively requires intentionality. I encourage people to find times in their week or month or year to not use devices and social media and to write down their plan on a calendar. A college student told me that he and his friends put all their phones in the center of the table at restaurants and say that the first person to pick up their phone during dinner pays the entire bill. Since they started this ritual, no one has picked up a phone during dinner. Practices like these help people to be present to people they are with in person. It is a great idea to put all devices away at night one to two hours before bed so minds and bodies can get prepared for sleep. I know families that have a basket for this purpose in their homes. I especially encourage parents to make sure children under 18 do not have a device in their room during sleeping hours so they can get adequate rest. I invite people to consider turning off notifications from all social media platforms and email and only check apps and email at a certain time each day. It is also important to have a plan for difficult moments and conversations online. What will you do when you get angry, disagree with someone else or feel depressed about your life or feel left out? What will you do next? It is equally important to think about what you will use social media for. How can you use social media to love people well, truly stay connected to people, expand your thinking on certain subjects, remain humble and open to being corrected, and nurture your creativity and increase your compassion? How might meaningful participation online support goals like these? ABOUT ANGELA GORRELL Angela Gorrell, Ph.D., assistant professor of practical theology at Baylor’s Truett Seminary, is the author of “Always On: Practicing Faith in a New Media Landscape,” which addresses the perils and possibilities of Christian faith in an era of massive technological change. She also is writing a book that addresses America’s crisis of despair, illuminated by its suicide rates and opioid addiction, and describes joy as the counteragent to despair. Gorrell earned a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry from Azusa Pacific University and an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary. She came to Baylor from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School, where she developed relationships with more than 250 scholars from roughly 150 institutions on four continents while managing metrics and evaluation for the project. She has more than 14 years of experience in congregational and parachurch ministry, including serving as a chaplain at a women’s maximum-security prison. ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT GEORGE W. TRUETT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary is an orthodox, evangelical school in the historic Baptist tradition that equips God-called people for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, Truett Seminary provides theological education leading to the Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, Master of Theological Studies, Doctor of Ministry and Ph.D. in Preaching. The MACM and MTS degrees also can be completed at the seminary’s Houston campus. In addition, Truett Seminary offers joint degrees: M.Div./M.S.W. and M.T.S./M.S.W. with the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, M.Div./M.B.A. with the Hankamer School of Business, M.Div./J.D. with Baylor Law School, M.Div./M.M. with the School of Music and M.Div./M.S.Ed. or M.Div./M.A. with the School of Education. Visit www.baylor.edu/truett to learn more.

Is your social media ready for when the next crisis strikes? Let our experts help!

At the National Institute for Social Media, response plans are the priority. A response plan is the high-level look, or the umbrella overview, that crisis management falls under. Your response plan details how you respond to positive, negative feedback, and any neutral feedback that comes your way.   Take a compliment and make the most out of it: Positive feedback feels like you’re off the hook. If feedback is all positive, you feel like you don’t have to do anything. But that’s your opportunity to nurture and strengthen those who are already your supporters. They then become your brand champions.   Avoid the neutral zone traps – react and respond accordingly: Questions or posts that aren’t really positive or negative land in neutral space, and that’s really not crisis communication, responding to those is just good customer service.   When crisis strikes: If you have a crisis, most people associate it with an isolated event, and sometimes you can plan for it, sometimes you can’t. A few years ago, when Nordstrom’s discontinued Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, they anticipated a negative backlash by those who would accuse them of being politically motivated. They stated sales was the reason, and 100 percent came out neutral, but they could anticipate that particular feedback. Whereas, in the viral video of a passenger being physically dragged off an airplane, the airline couldn’t have anticipated that event. However, with an online response plan, they would have been prepared to respond to the unexpected event. A quick response is important but an informed response is more important than anything else. If it fits the situation, you may buy yourself time to do a little research by commenting that you’ve passed their question on and will respond soon.   If you don’t have a strategic plan to fall back on, and you respond quickly but poorly, you run the risk of doing more harm than good. With an online response plan, people understand how to assess a given situation.  Respond: To show transparency, we want everyone to see we are responding to customer; we have a planned response where we acknowledge the customer. Take offline: Give them an offline option for sharing additional information.  Resolve: This allows the customer to have their issue resolved and be heard but discourages them from sharing ugly details on that highly visible platform. The plan is for a social media manager to have a path when they don’t know what to do. The viral airplane video is one example because by the time their social media people saw it, it was already going viral. They had every indication they should be panicking. Did they have a person to talk to help them make the decision about how it needs to be addressed? For those crises we can’t anticipate, there needs to be a clear path to a leader who can help with this difficult situation.   One of my favorite things to tell people is that you don’t have to be victimized online just because you’re a professional organization. You can set up community guidelines. Some businesses think, what if someone starts using racial slurs or inappropriate comments? You can post community guidelines that state these are our expectations of how our customers can participate respectfully, and we reserve the right to delete your content. You can set the expectation that you want people to engage respectfully.   You have to get to the heart of what people are really asking or wanting. In the case of Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, nobody was upset because Nordstrom’s wasn’t carrying the clothing line; what they were really upset about was that a large organization could be taking a political stance against the at-that-time republican candidate.   Are you looking to know more about how corporations and institutions need to be prepared and how they need to react when bad news goes viral? That’s where we can help.     Amy Jauman is social media expert, consultant, writer, and professor at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Dr. Jauman authored a (National Institute for Social Media) NISM textbook for social media strategists and is available to speak to speak with media – simply click on her icon to arrange an interview.

Villanova Experts Reflect on the 2010s

The iPad. Hurricane Sandy. Affordable Care Act. #MeToo. Brexit. Streaming services. Since 2010, there have been so many memorable and historic events that have shifted culture and society into unfamiliar territory around the world. Two Villanova experts have put together thoughts on a few of the decade's top stories that will continue to be relevant for the next ten years—and beyond. Stephen Strader, assistant professor of geography and the environment Over the last decade we have seen the issue of anthropogenic or human-induced climate change shift from something discussed between select, interested scientists to the front page of the news on a daily basis. This dramatic change in the importance and coverage of climate change makes complete sense given six of the last ten years globally have been in the top ten warmest on record. Actually, it's very likely, if not certain, that the last five years will be the hottest globally on record. The odds of that happening naturally are very close to zero. Nowhere have the effects of a changing climate been realized more so than in the western United States, where wildfires have wreaked havoc year after year in the 2010s. States such as California, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Washington all experienced record-breaking wildfires over the last decade. Specifically, the Camp Fire in 2018 became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, destroying 18,000-plus homes and killing 85 people in the town of Paradise.   Additionally: Hurricanes Dorian, Irma, Harvey, Maria, etc. damaged entire countries (Puerto Rico and Bahamas) so much that there is question whether they will ever recover from the effects. The deadliest tornado season on record occurred in 2011, including the devastating April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak and the deadliest U.S. tornado in modern history, which struck Joplin, Missouri (158 fatalities). Between 2011 and 2017, drought and water shortages impacted the western U.S., with California seeing its worst drought in history (or worst in 1,200 years). The drought killed 100-plus million trees and resulted in water shortages that affected crops and caused municipalities to limit water use. Record-setting rainfall and floods occurred in locations such as Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, etc., resulting in hundreds dead and millions of dollars in crop losses.  If the last 10 years have taught scientists, climatologists, policy makers and the general public anything, it's that we have our work cut out for us if we are to reverse this trend of increasing disasters around the world. The atmosphere continues to warm, and all model projections point to a progressively warmer future Earth if action is not taken. And this action can't be tomorrow or by 2025, 2050 or some other arbitrary year; it has to happen now if we want to reduce future economic and societal losses. Yes, it's easy to be afraid and fearful of the future when all we see as scientists and citizens are rising temperatures, deadlier disasters and a lack of drastic climate action. However, we can't let this fear result in crippling inaction; we have to let it motivate us to fight, not for just our futures but our children's, grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's futures. Let's give them a chance to see the world the way we used to: beautiful.  Jerusha Conner, associate professor of education and counseling The latter half of this decade witnessed a resurgence of student activism, sparked by Black Lives Matter protests and the dramatic events at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2015. Highlighting 2015 as a pivotal year for student activism, the authors of the American Freshman National Norms survey deemed the 2015 freshman class "the most ambitious" group in 49 years of the survey's administration in terms of their expectations for participating in protests, connecting to their communities and influencing the political structure; and the numbers of freshmen who report having participated in demonstrations as high school seniors has ticked up every year since. In my own research with college student activists in 2016, I found three striking trends: Nearly half came to college already seeing themselves as activists; only 10% consider themselves single-issue activists (with more than half identifying seven or more issues their activism addressed); and a significant share were not protesting their own institution's policies or practices, but instead concerning themselves with broader social and political issues. They are what I call "outward-facing activists," who use their campuses to stage and mobilize campaigns, rather than as the targets of their change efforts. In the last couple of years, we have seen activism among high school students take off, as students have staged walkouts and school strikes to protest inaction on climate change and gun violence. Although these movements may appear narrowly focused on a single issue, the students involved have intentionally advanced an intersectional perspective, which draws attention to the racialized, economic and gendered dimensions of the multifaceted problems they are seeking to address. Digital natives, these young people have deployed the affordances of social media not only to mobilize their peers in large-scale collective action, but also to attract and sustain the attention of the media, pressure business leaders and politicians and shape public understanding of the issues. One interesting shift with this generation of student activists is that, rather than turning their backs on the system or seeking to upend it, they are focused on enhancing voter registration and turnout, especially among young people. And their efforts appear to be working. Youth turnout in the 2018 midterms was double that of 2014, and record numbers of youth are continuing to register to vote. As the decade comes to a close and the 2020 campaign season revs up, the engagement of student activists in electoral politics will be important to continue to track.

7 Tips for Executing Expertise Marketing

Now that you understand the value of expertise and have defined who your experts are, you might find yourselves asking, “What’s next?” Our research with hundreds of organizations reveals that there are major gaps in the way organizations present their expertise and how it impacts the effectiveness of their digital content. The challenge for many marketers is that they don’t know how to approach the creation and publication of expert content, but it starts making a lot more sense when you look at the bigger picture.    Expertise marketing is about evolving our content marketing initiatives to deliver a more engaging experience to audiences. And because it’s so closely related to content marketing, it borrows several of the core principles we already use for our digital channels – but with an expert spin. At the end of the day, we’re simply collaborating with experts to ramp up the credibility, authenticity and integrity of your digital presence.    The Core Principles of Expertise Marketing In the list below, you can see that expertise marketing shares a number of best practices with content marketing. The difference is in how we execute them and the quality of the end product. By following these seven core principles of expertise marketing, you’ll be able to create and deliver the content your audiences are looking for. Discoverable: If you work in the digital space, you know how important search is to your success. Experts produce a wealth of structured information that can be optimized to improve your rank on Google and increase your overall market visibility. Rather than limiting content to an About Us page or corporate intranet, you should make it more discoverable by publishing it across multiple areas of your website. Personal: Expertise marketing takes an inclusive approach to getting expert content mobilized across the organization. But even when we ask our experts to create content, we tend to attribute the outputs to the organization rather than the individual. When showcasing the work of your key employees, it’s important to personally recognize this. It builds trust with your audiences. Remember that people want to deal with people so let your experts be recognized and they will support your growth. Relevant: Organizations often miss opportunities to position their expertise for breaking news and emerging stories. In many cases, you may be an expert in the field, but if your content doesn’t align with current news topics, broadcasters and reporters won’t know to come to you for insights. Your overall readiness to speak to the topics in today’s news cycle greatly impacts customer engagement and your potential for earned media. Credible: Journalists and other audiences looking for expert sources require proof that your employees and their content are trustworthy. It’s not enough to have a headshot and bio on your About Us page. Enhanced profiles should be easy to scan and complete with important fields like education, certifications, research, publications, awards and media/speaking appearances. Visual: If you want interaction, you’ll need to first get your audiences’ attention. Rich media such as video, social media feeds and interactive content are proven to outperform text which can be tedious for audiences to read. It’s now critical to feature multimedia assets in a way that creates a more dynamic presence and maximizes audience engagement. Curated: Audiences are consuming more digital content than ever and it takes a lot of work to feed the content beast. Rather than rushing to market with sub-par content, organizations need to think about how their content serves a range of audiences looking for expertise. Is your content aligned with today’s emerging topics? Is it specialized enough to be relevant? Is it up to date or does it look tired? Audiences are becoming more discerning and even Google is determining search rank based on these factors. Distributed: As specialized third-party search sites grow in popularity, organizations need to ensure that expert content isn’t confined to a single website. This means thinking about social channels, directories, and reputable sites that help get your message out there. By dynamically synchronizing your expert content across internal and third-party sites, you’ll increase your reach, drive more visitor traffic and initiate better digital conversations. Download the Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing For a comprehensive look at how expertise marketing benefits the entire organization and drives measurable return on investment, follow the link below to download a copy of ExpertFile’s Complete Guide to Expertise Marketing: The Next Wave in Digital Strategy or download one of our tailored Guides for Corporate & Professional Services, Higher Education Institutions, Healthcare Institutions or Association & Not-for-Profits.

3 Steps to Earn Local News Coverage

“HOW DO WE GET OUR COMPANY FEATURED POSITIVELY IN THE LOCAL NEWS?” This is the question I get asked the most as a public relations professional, media coach and as a former long-time journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC): how do we get in the local news? The question usually comes from a small, independently-owned business owner — a company or organization that doesn’t have anyone doing marketing or communications. They are looking for LOCAL media coverage primarily — but they don’t even know where to start. It’s understandable for them to ask this question. Earned media is the holy grail of building credibility and reputation — having your executives featured in the news media as experts on a subject. Those stories then get shared on social media and it becomes the gift that keeps on giving, living on in perpetuity on the Internet, helping your search engine optimization. I can tell you this — the local media wants your story pitches. That doesn’t guarantee you’ll get covered. However, local media has been cutback so much and is forced to do so much work in such little time now, that they appreciate a good story idea landing on their desk for consideration — especially during a slow news cycle — and especially if it’s not coming from a slick PR agency voice on the other end of the line. They want authenticity. So, how do you get there? Here are 3 simple tips based on my experiences. In no way am I saying this is the only way to do it — but I’ve seen others have success with it and hopefully you will as well: #1 – Do NOT Hire An Agency Yup. I just said that. And, yes, I do realize I am a public relations professional. However, based on experience, I can tell you the majority of small, independent businesses aren’t going to be able to afford PR firms to get local news. I reiterate we are talking about getting local news coverage — not national news. So, if they’re not going to pay for it anyways, why not give them a hand? I believe in karma. With a little bit of guidance on this blog, you’ll be able to do it yourself. In the past, I’ve helped small companies, pro-bono, get in the media (hoping they make it big and hire me later). In the future, I’ll just send them the link for this blog and save me some time. You can do this. Just stick to the basics. #2 – Prepare A Newsworthy Pitch This is important. And, it can be as complicated and detailed as you want — but for the sake of this blog, I recommend keeping it very simple and keeping it authentic. Answer these questions to decide whether the story you want the media to cover is actually newsworthy from the reporter’s perspective — because they are the people who assess the newsworthiness of a pitch. What is the story? You should be able to summarize the story in less than 30 seconds. Just like a good pitch deck for potential investors, a good media pitch typically involves the identification of a problem or a trend and coming up with a solution for it or insightful analysis in the case of a media story. This is simplified but you get the picture. Why should people care about this story? A good reporter wants stories that appeal broadly to their audience, the public. So, be prepared to proactively explain why people will care about this? Is it timely? Does it impact a broad group of people? Does it solve a problem that’s been impacting society? Who is driving this story? Is it you? Is it one of your employees? Who will be the main interview for the reporter and why them? (FOR TV) What are the visuals? If it’s television, what are some strong visuals the news crew will be able to capture on video? What can viewers expect to see in this story? It will help your TV pitch if you can illustrate a visual image for them ahead of time. #3 – Pick Up The Phone Pick one media outlet you want to pitch your story to and make the call. First decide what news media is good for your story? Is it a story with very strong visuals? Perhaps TV is the way to go. Is it a story that requires a more fulsome conversation? Maybe public radio is the best option. Newspaper is the best if you’re a nervous person and worried about being on TV or radio. Newspaper is the least intrusive of the media. Once you’ve decided what outlet, decide which reporter specifically. No emails at first in my opinion. It’s too impersonal for local news and you risk getting lost in the inbox shuffle. Doing it by phone also allows the reporter to ask any clarification questions they may have, right then and there. Now, if you call the general media outlet phone number, you can end up in phone transfer Hell or end up getting an editor or producer who is putting out six fires and juggling 4 balls. So, you are better to call an individual reporter (perhaps your favourite one). Do this in the first part of the morning before they get too busy. If they’re not there, leave a message and be prepared to call back later. Reporters are busy and may forget to call you back. Don’t take it personally. If you reach them, thank them for taking your call and make your pitch. Get to the point. A few minutes tops for the pitch. If they like it, they’ll tell you. If they don’t like it — again — don’t take it personally and don’t burn any bridges. Thank them for their time. When you get off the phone, contact a reporter with a different media outlet and do it again. Shop that story around and you’re likely to get a nibble. Final Thoughts: This isn’t a science. There are no guarantees. This process is just my personal opinion based on experience. Just be yourself. Be genuine. The reporters will like that as opposed to dealing with professional PR people or communications officers. They may find it refreshing to deal with a “real person” who isn’t trying to spin them. Beyond the initial pitch, whether it’s successful or not, offer yourself as a research resource to them on issues related to your industry — even if it means you won’t be in the story. This is how you build a relationship with a reporter and it may bode well for you in the future. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

Working with Faculty Experts to Build Reputation and Market Visibility

The Baylor University Playbook Featured in CASE Currents Magazine PHOTO CREDIT: BAYLOR UNIVERSITY MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS As traditional and social media organizations such as Facebook race to expose and disrupt the onslaught of “fake news”, a major opportunity exists for higher education institutions to more prominently feature their research and expert opinion to quell this steady flow of misinformation. We know that the gold standard of news reports and social media posts are substantiated with expert research and opinion. What gets in the way of comprehensive reporting and dialogue? It’s often the lack of input from great institutions and their experts. More than ever, traditional media organizations need to provide a steady flow of credible information to trump the influx of unsubstantiated content. But the media (from local mainstream editors to award-winning international investigative journalists) struggle with big challenges: growing editorial demands, small budgets, little time, limits to accessing information – all restricting their ability to pursue new research, data and expertise.  So how do they get around this and cut through the clutter? A lot of the responsibility falls on organizations to be more approachable to journalists to help them with expert sources.  Schools doing this well are already boosting their reputation with media and other key audiences by showing the relevance of their institution and faculty. In this month’s CASE Currents magazine, a feature article titled “Are Your Professors Ready for Their Close-Up?” Eric Eckert, Baylor University’s Assistant Director of Media Communications and Faculty Development, shares with other institutions the process his team took to prepare its faculty experts for the media spotlight with an in-house training program and the necessary tools to succeed. the Baylor playbook is a great read for any organization looking to boost media coverage and build reputation. Eckert, whose list of responsibilities at the university includes “Faculty Experts”, notes: “We demonstrate our commitment to this program by investing in tools that spread awareness of our researchers’ work. In addition to the time we devote to training and promoting our faculty members, in 2017 our office started using ExpertFile, a content marketing platform that includes the capability to create dynamic faculty profiles that expose our professors to a wider audience of journalists. We can also manage media inquiries through the platform. The software has reduced the time we spend updating faculty profiles. We can quickly add photos, videos, and links to an expert’s media hits and create faculty spotlights—a feature that helps us rapidly promote a professor’s expertise to take advantage of breaking news.” ExpertFile worked with Baylor to develop a searchable platform and content placements for their experts integrated into the Baylor website. To extend the reach beyond the website, Its experts are now also synchronized with the ExpertFile global experts directory and are also visible to thousands of newsrooms throughout the world through our partnerships with the Associated Press and Dejero. Eckert goes on to explain his organization’s use and success with ExpertFile Spotlight.  Spotlight is a unique content hub solution that is growing in popularity with marketing teams looking to quickly feature their experts in the context of breaking news, emerging stories, valuable research and newsworthy events. Virtually all of our clients are seeing the importance of providing relevant story angles that can be produced to help journalists on same day deadlines. Eckert goes on to speak of his experience with Spotlights:  “In September 2017, we created a spotlight to distribute a Baylor law professor’s comments on President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw authorization for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. A media inquiry received through ExpertFile resulted in a guest appearance on a nationally syndicated radio program in Canada.”  Other coverage generated recently by the Baylor team includes: Are you ‘phubbing’ right now? What it is and why science says it’s bad for your relationships The Washington Post You might be cheating on your spouse with your smartphone The Toronto Star Four bad habits that executives should nix The Economist Can ‘bedtime’ teas really help you fall asleep faster? Women’s Health The better way to take a break Fast Company The profile that experts develop through thought out programs such as Baylor’s can extend well beyond media to other key stakeholders, including potential research partners, funders, event organizers,  student enrollment and employee recruitment. How are your marketing, communications and media relations’ teams working with your experts across the campus to build market visibility and reputation for your institution?   We’d like to know. For more information on how ExpertFile Spotlight works or to read more success stories please drop me a line at Deanne Taenzer at dtaenzer@expertfile.com

Whats YOUR Audience Engagement Score

Despite the billions of dollars now being spent on content, many schools have a big problem – Invisible experts. Faculty remain one of the most valuable assets for building market visibility and brand reputation. Yet surprisingly, most schools struggle to develop a strategic presence for their expert content beyond blogs and simple text based biographies and boring head shots. In this age of multimedia and social content, it’s a fact that visitors will go elsewhere if you haven’t created an engaging presence for your expert content. The costs of invisible experts Missed Media Inquiries: Print and broadcast media go elsewhere if you haven’t made it easy for journalists to find, evaluate and contact your experts. Less Engaged Visitors: Lack of multimedia content means visitors won’t spend as much time on your website and will feel less compelled to respond to your calls to action. Poor Discoverability in Search Engines: Google is a starting point for most audiences, so not appearing in the first few pages means lost opportunity for engagement and brand recognition.   Poor Research Recognition: In academia, the lack of details on faculty research means missed licensing revenues, government grants and less opportunities for research collaborations. Faculty Engagement: Faculty want to see an online presence that professionally recognizes their work and builds their reputation. Lost Talent: Faculty prospects want to see how you represent your best people. Publishing professional, engaging expert content helps you recruit and retain the best talent through proper recognition of their contributions. So How Does YOUR Organization Score? Based on our research working with thousands of experts, Fortune 500 clients and leading higher education and healthcare institutions we looked at all the best practices in working with expert content. Then we created a quick diagnostic tool called Audience Engagement Score (AES) that is a simple way to assess how your organization is performing in 5 key areas. AES gives you a score based on a simple 100 point scale. If you are scoring below 70% there is certainly more you could be doing to create an engaging online presence for your experts. Until now, there hasn’t been an industry benchmark by which an institution can effectively measure how well they are promoting their expertise online.   Here are the 5 key areas we assess: Discoverability Can audiences quickly search your website for your faculty experts and their content by topics, keywords and names?   Are you missing important leads because your faculty content isn’t ranking high enough in Google search results? Credibility Can visitors quickly review detailed biographies and overviews of your experts related to their areas of research?   Can past speaking engagements and featured interviews, articles and publications be easily referenced? Engagement Do you have up-to-date content such as videos, photos, publications and social media feeds available for journalists to review prior to booking media interviews?   Are you creating news alerts for breaking or popular topics to make them more interesting to prospective clients and journalists? Responsiveness Have you made it easy for audiences to reach you and your faculty experts within seconds at the moment you have their interest?  Or are they going to other schools? Mobility Is your content well designed for a growing base of mobile phone and tablet users? Remember the experts that walk the halls in your organization are your greatest asset. Would you like to know how your organization scores? If you have 30 seconds, click here and we’ll put together a customized, report for you including helpful industry benchmarks. Send us the website address you’d like us to review and we’ll do the rest. Get YOUR Free AES Report

In this Era of Fake News and Alternate FactsExperts are King

There’s nothing new about fake news. Satirical media outlets such as The Onion have been around for a decade giving us a good laugh. But somewhere in the past 12 months, something changed for the worse. The wool that was being pulled over people’s eyes wasn’t so obvious anymore. Satire and bad humour were replaced by visceral accusations, conspiracies, and smear campaigns. How did we get to this point, and what can be done to stem the tide? A sure sign that we had a problem was a development that was apparent in the last presidential election. New voices were on the national scene branding our traditional media outlets as biased, and elitist. We saw the phrase “mainstream media” become a bigger part of the conversation. Now we have to contend with “fake news.” Unlike traditional journalism fake news outlets deliberately spew wrong information. In an effort to get a story out, mistakes will happen. But in the world of fake news there is no retraction or correction of these mistakes — even when they are exposed as blatantly untrue. Further damage ensues when social media then acts as an enabler as fake news articles get amplified to millions of people, who are clicking away, feeding advertising revenues to these publishers. No matter what your political stripe or where you stood regarding the recent US election, fake news was rampant on both sides spreading false information, invoking anger, and deceiving the public. More recently, a fresher version of fake news has emerged as “Alternate Facts.” A term made famous by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway as she defended the statements made by Press Secretary Sean Spicer who lectured and insisted that the crowd present for President Trump’s swearing-in was “the largest audience ever to It seems that the whole nature of the game has changed almost overnight. Even the White House press gallery isn’t immune to these developments. This week’s Saturday Night Live sketch brilliantly sums up the aversive relationship that we’re seeing develop between the media and the new administration. (Note: For the record, the photo at the bottom is NOT a C-SPAN broadcast. It’s a comedy sketch. It did not really happen. This is NOT Sean Spicer in the photo below — it’s an actor portrayal). Perhaps most ironic for me is how believable fake news can appear to be. A friend of mine, a former investigative journalist commented that “given the outright absurdity of the actual “real” news cycle,” it’s getting hard for people to sort fact from fiction.” Perhaps this says as much about society as it does about media. So Where Does All This Leave Us? Some say the solution is as simple as removing the bias from our news media. The problem is, I know quite a few (real) journalists and they are serious about reporting facts. They work in newsrooms and report the news, they tell stories, but gathering and checking facts are what define them. As they work to a set of professional standards and deliver real information. However, we’re witnessing a massive change in the way that ideas are shaped and communicated to the public. Sadly, the traditional avenues of information flow and the mutual respect that even democratic nation states have had with the media appears to be eroding. There is also a disturbing undercurrent of thought that traditional news organizations are biased, and every outlet is always serving a hidden agenda. Recent events have prompted the need for news organizations to brief their journalists on how to govern themselves in these very “interesting times.” John Daniszewski, Vice President for Standards for Associated Press in a recent blog post called for clarity regarding the definition of the so-called “alt-right.” “We should not limit ourselves to letting such groups define themselves, and instead should report their actions, associations, history and positions to reveal their actual beliefs and philosophy, as well as how others see them,” writes Daniszewski. Other news organizations are looking at recent events and taking the opportunity to internally brief their journalists. In a recent message to staff, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote about covering President Trump the Reuters way: “The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, that’s all it’s been!) have been memorable for all — and especially challenging for us in the news business. It’s not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth” or that his chief strategist dubs the media “the opposition party.” It’s hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration. So what is the Reuters answer? To oppose the administration? To appease it? To boycott its briefings? To use our platform to rally support for the media? All these ideas are out there, and they may be right for some news operations, but they don’t make sense for Reuters. We already know what to do because we do it every day, and we do it all over the world. To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. We don’t know yet how sharp the Trump administration’s attacks will be over time or to what extent those attacks will be accompanied by legal restrictions on our news-gathering. But we do know that we must follow the same rules that govern our work anywhere.” Adler goes on to provide a set of rules for the Reuters team that I think are very wise, especially given the current environment. Do’s: Cover what matters in people’s lives and provide them the facts they need to make better decisions. Become ever-more resourceful: If one door to information closes, open another one. Give up on hand-outs and worry less about official access. They were never all that valuable anyway. Our coverage of Iran has been outstanding, and we have virtually no official access. What we have are sources. Get out into the country and learn more about how people live, what they think, what helps and hurts them, and how the government and its actions appear to them, not to us. Keep the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles close at hand, remembering that “the integrity, independence and freedom from bias of Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved.” Don’ts: Never be intimidated, but: Don’t pick unnecessary fights or make the story about us. We may care about the inside baseball but the public generally doesn’t and might not be on our side even if it did. Don’t vent publicly about what might be understandable day-to-day frustration. In countless other countries, we keep our own counsel so we can do our reporting without being suspected of personal animus. We need to do that in the U.S., too. Don’t take too dark a view of the reporting environment: It’s an opportunity for us to practice the skills we’ve learned in much tougher places around the world and to lead by example — and therefore to provide the freshest, most useful, and most illuminating information and insight of any news organization anywhere. Winning back the public trust — Why Experts Matter Perhaps a way to help reverse this trend is to ask more of our experts within our organizations, and get them to contribute more to these important conversations. It’s about getting our academics, physicians, professionals, and leaders in their respective fields to contribute more to help the media present a more balanced set of perspectives in ways that engage the public. In this new era, it appears that many experts are invisible to the media on a range of big issues such as climate change, economic data, security, crime and healthcare policy. Opinions — not always informed opinions — are taken as fact. People without qualifications are being asked to speak on topics that require years of study, research, and experience. This is why, now more than ever, we need to see a return of intelligence and knowledge to present true facts. Credible Experts Matter Credible sources are vital in helping ensure the proper degree of research has been done. Published work, peer-reviewed studies, as well as policy that has been developed and practised all play key roles in determining an actual expert. Proven credibility cuts through rhetoric. It promotes the delivery and flow of facts as opposed to feeding only one side of a debate. Being Approachable Matters We have to agree that the current sentiment that many have toward traditional institutions and their experts is that they are not providing enough practical information of benefit to the public. The term “ivory tower” comes up frequently to describe environments such as universities and think tanks. While we need these environments of intellectual pursuit they cannot be seen as disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life. Transparency Matters Do you know where your information is actually coming from? The flow of money into the development of fake news and so-called “experts” who are pushing agendas is tremendous. We’ve seen it recently with the sugar industry — much like the tobacco industry who literally wrote the book on manipulating and re-wrapping expertise and research in the middle of the last century — setting ideas on nutrition back decades. The market is crying out for a more consistent way to discover and evaluate the credibility of experts. We need a quick and trusted way to review their education, background, publications as well as their affiliations. We need to be able to conduct a front-line background check before we give them the platform to share their perspectives on television, radio, or in print. We need to vet the expert before they reach an audience that relies on the information being communicated to form opinions and make critical decisions that affect their lives. Local News Matters Local media is shrinking. Newsrooms are currently being threatened by constant shifts in both consumption and business models. If we are to promote accurate information and win the war on actual facts, we must make it easier for local journalists to do their jobs. Mainstream media still carries a lot of weight, especially online and television where the nightly news reaches a massive audience. Though the ratings are large, the subject matter doesn’t always resonate with viewers at home. We need to do a much better job helping local media get better access to the experts in our organisations so they can localise issues and tell stories, and do it in ways that everyone can understand. For example, a story on national unemployment numbers has a different context in San Francisco than it does in Flint, Michigan. Climate change is impacting Miami a lot differently than it is in the Great Lake states. In the end, all news is local. Speed Matters News is increasingly a speed game. With social media, a 24-hour news cycle, and the race to be first, time is of the essence. But in this game, haste may not only make waste, the truth may be a casualty as well. Most recently Fox News reported on a violent shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada. Six people were killed by a lone gunman. Fox News reported that the suspect was of Moroccan origin — that was false. The shooter was in fact of Canadian origin. It wasn’t until the Canadian Prime Minister’s office requested a retraction that Fox walked the story back…but it took almost two full days. In true Canadian fashion, Kate Purchase, Communications Director for Prime Minister Trudeau thanked Fox News. In the meantime, wrong information was shared across multiple platforms and seen by millions of people. This is when having your experts prepared, media-trained, and trusted internally to speak with media is key. In times of emergency and chaos, it may be the words, advice and perspective of a high-level expert that can calm a nervous public, or at the very least, clearly explain a situation and its outcomes with accuracy and trust. So Why Should This Matter to You? If you are focused on building your market visibility and brand reputation, making your organization’s experts more discoverable and responsive to media is as much a function of good public relations as it is a public service. In these days of fake news, alternate facts, and unclear agendas, an unbiased and objective point of view presented by a credible expert may be one of the few remaining pillars of integrity we have left. Experts bring credibility, reliability, and an elevated level of perspective and advice that the public can trust. It’s up to all of us to ensure our thought leaders rise above the fray and help rebuild the trust that is essential to building a civil society. How is your organization working with its experts to respond to these challenges? I’m particularly interested in speaking with communications and media relations professionals in higher education, healthcare and professional services as our team conducts more research in this area. Let us know what you think by sharing below. I read every comment. 

Top 5 Lessons on how Wake Forest Won a Bulldog Award for Best Online Newsroom

“The primary goal of redesigning our online newsroom has been to help journalists covering Wake Forest do their jobs quicker, easier and better.” – Katie Neal, Executive Director, News and Communications In late 2015, the Communications & External Relations group at Wake Forest University embarked on an ambitious goal: “Tell Wake Forest stories and create a positive experience for news media by providing them as much content, access and support as possible.” Being in the midst of a $1 billion capital campaign, Wake Forest realized that the newsroom was a pivotal tool for helping shape the perception of the university to key audiences. Facing the challenge of dealing with an old newsroom, packaged in a way which made it frustrating for journalists to access the information they needed, the news team was tasked with creating a new and improved visually-compelling, mobile responsive and easy-to-navigate online newsroom. The news team was guided by two goals to address their primary audience of journalists: Give journalists what they want. Help them find the information they need to do their jobs easily and quickly. Make it easy for anyone to share Wake Forest news. And, to achieve these goals, they implemented their strategy which focused on four areas of emphasis: Offer a useful combination of newsworthy content, facts and resources. Showcase visual storytelling capabilities with multimedia options and a flexible web design. Establish a best-in-class expert guide. Prominently feature experts on trending topics and breaking news. Provide easy ways to share news stories, expert pitches, photos and videos to increase visibility on social media while reinforcing the brand. Since the launch of the Wake Forest newsroom in the spring of 2016, they have achieved notable success. They have seen a significant increase in media coverage stemming from their expert pitch efforts, they’ve had a positive social impact in their local community, and they’ve noticed an increase in content consumption. Just last month, Wake Forest was recognized for these efforts by winning the bronze Bulldog Award from the Bulldog Reporterfor “Best Online Newsroom of the Year.” The panel of judges was comprised of working and award-winning journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize winner, and represented a number of different media outlets including The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes and The Oregonian. So what can we learn from Wake Forest? Here are the Top 5 lessons on how they made their newsroom stand out above the rest. 1. They Wrote Stories for Journalists Instead of taking a reactive approach to getting their experts in the media, the team at Wake Forest opted to be more proactive in getting their experts noticed. This meant presenting relevant news items, story ideas and expert pitches in a central and very visible location. They called it “Headlines”. Realizing that some stories needed a longer shelf life, the news team created the Headlines section to help journalists by providing storyline options. Here, journalists have a picklist of potential stories, a recommended angle and relevant Wake Forest experts who can comment. It’s a one-stop-shop for journalists. Even more, with Headlines, Wake Forest is getting the added advantage of telling their stories. How are you helping with getting your stories out there? 2. They Brought their Experts Forward With leading researchers ready to comment on a range of newsworthy topics – including the unprecedented U.S. election cycle – the news team brought their experts to the forefront by putting them on display in multiple locations of the newsroom. Using ExpertFile’s REST API, Wake Forest was able to extend its expert content on multiple pages, while still having the ability to manage that content from one central dashboard location. This has allowed the news team to be more proactive in updating expert content, capture key engagement metrics and respond to potential opportunities in a timely manner. For instance, the team created a special portal in their newsroom to direct journalists to the best experts that could speak on the election. From The New York Times to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” more than three dozen Wake Forest faculty shared their election-related expertise with top-tier news outlets around the world. Wake Forest professors had more than 1,300 media mentions for expert commentary alone, with the potential to reach more than 2 billion people. What is your organization doing to bring your people forward? 3. They Provided a Clear Path of Communication You’d be hard-pressed to find a page that didn’t provide some sort of contact method in the Wake Forest newsroom. Between having the news team’s contact email and phone number available on every page, and multiple contact buttons on the expert profiles, a journalist would have no problem finding the best method of reaching out. It’s important to present a clear path of communication between the journalist and the institution. Safe to say, journalists tend to be very busy and often time constrained. So, if they don’t find what they’re looking for right away, to put it in the words of Jay-Z, on to the next one. How are you making it easier for journalists to reach you and your communications group? 4. They Made it Easy to Find the Best Person Katie Neal once said it best, “We’re not under the delusion that media wake up and think they should go to Wake Forest first when they are looking for experts.” For the Wake Forest team, providing multiple avenues for experts to be discovered was a major objective. And, where do media look first for experts? Google. “We’re not under the delusion that media wake up and think they should go to Wake Forest first when they are looking for experts.” Google likes good content. Enhancing the discoverability of Wake Forest’s expert content on the world’s most commonly used search engine, is one of the best ways to attract media. However, the Wake Forest News and Communications team didn’t stop there. They added easy search functions to their pages. How are you ensuring your experts’ discoverability? 5. They Didn’t Limit Themselves to the Newsroom It’s important to think outside the box. Wake Forest exemplified this by extending their reach beyond the newsroom. Through syndicating expert content on different networks (ExpertFile.com) and promoting with various social platforms (Twitter), Wake Forest was able to access a much wider audience. Remember, distribution can take you from good to great. How are you thinking outside of your website? So, there you have it. By following these lessons learned from Wake Forest University, you too can begin to engage with media more proactively. To summarize, the key questions to ask yourself when creating a newsroom to engage with media are: How am I putting my stories in front of media? How am I currently presenting my media experts on my website? How am I making it easier for media to contact me and my team? How am I enhancing my experts’ discoverability? How am I extending beyond the reach of my website?

How To Tick Off Reporters

During media training sessions, I share examples of easy ways to completely tick off a reporter — not as a tutorial — but as a cheeky way to say DO NOT do these things ever if you want to maintain any kind of healthy relationship with media. Below you will find the ones that bothered me when I worked as a journalist. Do any of these things, and you’re in for a world of fun. 1. Tell a reporter how to do their job – They love that. Criticize the subjective tone or focus of a story while you’re at it. Bonus points if you can do this while never mentioning that the story was technically 100% accurate. 2. Ask them why they didn’t cover your story – Reporters love justifying how they do their job and the decisions they’ve made — to PR people. If you ask with a little bit of attitude, all the better. They dig that. 3. Only be helpful when you want something from them – Reporters can’t tell when they have an artificial one-way relationship with a PR person. No need to invest a little time in getting to know them and THEIR needs a bit better. 4. Send them a media advisory right before an event – They will never guess that you don’t really want them there so you made it logistically impossible to get there on time without being able to say they weren’t invited. 5. Only communicate with them by email or text – Reporters love nothing more than a controlled message via email with no chance to ask a question. Sometimes (legal implications) you have no choice — but we’re talking about the other 99% of the time. An email is great for communicating tone, too. 6. Send out a media release with a contact who’s not available – It’s a great tactic. Send out a media release and put the person’s name at the bottom for media to contact. But, that person is not available. This screams “credible”. 7. Promise a scoop then hold a news conference – Nothing says “I love you” like a broken promise. And, chances are they communicated the promised scoop to their editor, too, so you now have double the fans in that newsroom. 8. Ban them from anything – If there’s one thing reporters truly love, it’s being punished for doing their jobs. So, ban them from news conferences or events. Lord knows they’d never tell anyone, especially on social media. 9. Tell them how lucky they are to get what they got – It certainly works with spouses — so why wouldn’t it work with reporters, right? 10. Make them go through access to Information – They understand that there is some information that will require access to information — but the true joy comes in having to go through the red tape to get something simple and easy. 11. Ask them if they’d ever come work for you in PR – Nothing says manipulation like false flattery and dangling a carrot. You better be serious. 12. Make them watch other people eat – What is more enjoyable than attending a Chamber luncheon or keynote address and watching people eat while you stand in the corner waiting for the speaker. No need for a media table at all. 13. Hold a news conference with inadequate audio/visual facilities – Today’s reporter has to listen to the speaker, ask questions, video, tweet, etc. all at the same time. Would an audio board and camera riser help? Sure. But, what’s one more thing for them to do at this point? 14. Call their boss to complain about them – This was one of my favourites — when the PR person would go over my head. I can assure you I didn’t hold a grudge and didn’t dig into your organization with a little more rigour. 15. Return their call at 4 p.m. – You’re busy so reporters completely understand if it took you 6 hours to get back to them just to say you can’t help. I’m sure the next time YOU want something, they’ll be equally as gracious. There are others. There are many others. Feel free to share the ones you know of and perhaps we’ll compile another list in a few months.