Day three continued with sessions and conversations. I am again reminded about the great work that happens in marketing and communications within higher education. Today’s insights focus on a few strategies we can personally and professionally consider as part of our work.
Here are my Takeaways:
Make the Work Visible
We must do better job at making the work visible. It’s easy for leadership to see much of the work we do around communications related to both storytelling and crisis. However, because marketing is more nuanced, oftentimes our leaders don’t understand or see all of that work that is happening. It’s on us to make sure we find ways to showcase that work, so there’s an awareness and an understanding to that part of the work we’re doing. Sometimes we don’t spend enough time on that and longterm that’s a disservice to us and our times.
Diversify Your Sense of Self
As we think about our sense of self, we need to make sure that we’re diversifying ourselves. We all have different identities as part of who we are – professional, leader, friend, spouse, etc. We should find small ways to nurture those individual identities, but they don’t have to all be equal. We can have certain identities we prioritize, but It’s important to still think about other identities that make up our sense of self. Having multiple identities that are part of us allows us to move between identities as needed. Having multiple of these identities will help us balance the highs, lows, and shifts that come as part of change.
Building Collaboration with Faculty
When building collaboration with faculty, it’s important to focus on the issues that align with faculty. Sometimes we speak too quickly about having a faculty member be a brand champion or ambassador and talking about the brand pillars. Instead, we should be focused more on their applied scholarship, their research, student-centered approaches, etc. Those things can live in the same sphere. Positioning research, scholarships, etc, can align with our brand messages and brand pillars. It is all about how we frame the conversations. This is a microcosm to the idea that if we’re going to relate better to many on our campus we need to emphasize their experiences and what’s in it for them. The more we can do this, the more likely we’ll help people become comfortable to tell their story in more public spaces.
Don’t be the Sole Holders of Data
When looking at engagement in your social media content, it’s important to share this data regularly in intentional ways. This is helps position you as an expert and show leadership that you’re paying attention and tracking what’s happening. When creating the reports that are being shared, the two pieces to consider are doing this month over to show seasonal trends but also do this by month to view anomalies that happened. When talking through the report, go through it more in detail the first two times before then shifting more to the executive summary. This again underscores an understanding but keeps the conversation high level.
Imposter Syndrome
I had a sit down conversation over coffee with a friend. We started talking about the idea that we both have imposter syndrome. I’ve said before that I suffer with this, and she named\d other colleagues who also feel the same. Throughout the afternoon, dinner and evening, this really stuck with me. I’m still wrestling with how as leaders we better talk about this. I think sometimes our younger professionals see all the great things leaders share and talk about. However, they don’t see the mistakes, mishaps, and miscues, which I suspect can further create imposter syndrome. While not a formal conversation or session, it definitely resonated with me. It also goes to my saying some of the best conversations and takeaways aren’t always in a session.
A longtime friend and I
Thanks for Reading
Several folks who haven’t been here in person have mentioned enjoying the recaps and takeaways. I’m so glad that it’s been beneficial to you.
For those of you attending, please let’s discuss if there are great takeaways you had!
And Carrie On 