Imagine you’re listening to a choir or a musical group and everyone is singing from a different song sheet. It will sound terrible. There wouldn’t be any synchronization amongst the group. You would be likely to run for the exits. Listening to a group that uses the same song sheet would obviously be a different listening experience (so long as choir has some singing ability!). “Song sheets” in …
Personal Websites – Lessons from the Top Thinkers50
Marketing expert Mark Schaefer explained in this article that the disruptions of the coronavirus could lead to a wave of “Content Babies”. Essentially, with more time at home and the disruption to every day work life, content projects that were on the back burner will become a priority and will be “born” in the months ahead. I could envision this being the case for many academics who might now …
How to Encourage Faculty to Engage in External Communications
"Our school punches below its weight." "Our school is not as visible at it should be." "We need to strengthen partnerships and engage more broadly with the business community." These are common refrains I hear from university presidents, deans, marketers and other school leaders. I would argue that it is virtually impossible to move the needle on these concerns if faculty are not engaged …
Academics: Create Content by Leveraging Different Assets
Terrific - as an academic you understand the importance of creating content for public audiences. (Watch this video if you need to be convinced why creating content from your research is good investment of your time). But maybe it is a challenge for you to identify ways to create content in a time efficient manner. Before you begin creating content, it is important to first think through your …
Academics: Please Stop Rambling during Media Interviews
It was painful to sit through. A while back, I was listening in on an academic's interview with a journalist. Each answer was probably about eight minutes long as he segued from one topic to the next without giving the journalist an opportunity to interject. He was going on and on, flippantly using big words that the average person would need to look up. His points were communicated in a dry and …