Another great day of sessions, keynotes, and conversations at day two of the American Marketing Association. A huge thanks to the planning team for curating such great conversations.
Here are my takeaways from the second day.
Fear of Failure
Too often, we let the fear of failure paralyze us from trying new things. We need to learn strategies to take a step back and evaluate perceived risk versus true risk. Many times, it’s perceived risk that can be reframed. When we separate what’s actually at stake from what just feels scary, we give ourselves permission to experiment, grow, and move forward anyway. Additionally, this helps us reframe failure into a learning opportunity.
Integrated Content Framework
When working in a decentralized environment, a content framework can help other departments and organizations connect to the work in their own way. This can work really well on social media and involves setting key themes. This gives departments and schools strategies to work toward, but it still gives them enough flexibility to own the uniqueness of their area. It also creates a shared language and structure so central marketing can more easily curate, amplify, and measure what’s really meaningful.
Hearing from the Media
In visiting with several leaders of the national media, senior leaders had an opportunity to hear topics that were top of mind in the coming year. From AI to affordability, to pathways to education, hearing from media partners about key issues they want to follow in the coming year helps us, as leaders, be more intentional. Discussing how we talk about these stories was helpful to understand what angles and perspectives are important for our media partners. Additionally, the conversation talked about the impact of research and how higher education institutions can better talk about research.
Be the Canary in the Coal Mine
As leaders, it’s our job to be the canary in the coal mine. That means speaking up if something doesn’t align with our brand or pushing back on something if there’s concern about a potential media implication. Leadership needs our expertise and awareness of our markets to help them make decisions, and we risk putting them and the institution in harm’s way if we aren’t willing to speak up in conversations.
Jaime Hunt & Safaniya Stevenson
Control the Things You Can
There is so much worry right now in higher education. It’s really easy to get too fixated on it. We certainly need to be aware of everything that can impact our institutions, but we need to stop there. Awareness can’t become fixation. When it does, we become paralyzed and lose focus on the areas where we can impact change. It’s hard to let those things go, but as leaders it’s really important that we model that for our teams.
Another great day in the books, and I’ll be back tomorrow with another recap of sessions.