A single headline-making crisis can permanently alter how the public perceives your institution.
In the face of a crisis, your reputation is on the line. How should you communicate a crisis to your stakeholders and how can you manage your reputation in the process?
These questions and more are answered on this episode of The Higher Ed Marketer. Bart Caylor, President & Founder at Caylor Solutions Inc, and Troy Singer, Senior Account Executive at Think Patented chat with Christy Jackson, Senior Director of Reputation Management and Communication at UNC Charlotte, about:
- Examples from her work at Virginia Tech and Sweetbriar during their defining crises.
- Crisis communication and reputation management.
- Operational crises vs reputational crises.
- How to manage stakeholder expectations.
- How social media plays a role in crisis communication.
Know of a higher education marketing change agent you’d like to hear on the show? Does your university have an interesting story to be featured? Connect with Bart Caylor or Troy Singer. If you’re not on LinkedIn, check the Caylor Solutions or Think Patented websites instead!
To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to The Higher Ed Marketer on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
The Higher Ed Marketer podcast is brought to you by Caylor Solutions, an Education Marketing, and Branding Agency.
Transcript
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You were listening to the Higher Ed
Marketer, a podcast geared towards marketing professionals
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00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:11.910
in higher education. This show will
tackle all sorts of questions related to student
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recruitment, don't a relations, marketing, trends, new technologies and so much
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more. If you are looking for
conversations centered around where the industry is going,
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this podcast is for you. Let's
get into the show. Welcome to
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the Higher Ed Marketer podcast. I'm
troy singer here with my cohost, Bart
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Kaylor. And Bart, I am
excited and I want the world to know
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is I got to see you in
person for the first time in a while,
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as we both attended our first higher
read conference in over a year.
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Yeah, that was great, try, I really appreciated being able to hang
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out with you, and it wasn't
on a screen recording to for a podcast
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with, but going to the Association
of Biblical Higher Education, the Abh Conference
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in Florida was just wonderful. I
know so many the other folks attending more
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grateful to be able to be out
and certainly be masked and socially distanced,
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but it was. It was good
to be able to be kind of back
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in that environment. That's right,
Barton. Other than not knowing how to
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first approach someone, whether you wanted
to shake hands, bump this or touch
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elbows, it was great getting out
among other higher ed marketers and presidents and
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leadership and talking about things like it
was almost normal and having a very positive
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outlook. So again, it was
great seeing you. Was Great participating at
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that conference. At this time,
if you would tell us about today's guest,
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Bart Yeah, I had a chance
to meet meet Christy Jackson. She's
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the senior director of reputation management communication
at you and see, Charlotte. She's
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actually was introduced to me. She's
a friend of Jamie Hunt, our episode
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two interview, from Universe Miami,
University of Ohio, and so A.
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Christie has a great deal of experience
in her career and crisis communications, and
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I won't steal her thunder, but
she's been in a lot of different crises
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and we'll have a chance to learn
from her on how how that expertise has
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really been helpful and how it could
be helpful for any school of any size.
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Great. Well, at this time, let's bring Christy in. I'm
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excited to welcome Christy Jackson, senior
director of reputation management communication. At you
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and see Charlotte to the conversation.
Christie, thank you so much for joining
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our podcast today. Thank you for
having me try. It's great to be
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with you in Bart today. We
are going to get into some wonderful,
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maybe a little heavy, conversation around
reputation management. But before we do that,
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can you give our listeners a little
bit about you and something personal that
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they might not be able to get
from your linkedin profile? Well, there's
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a lot they probably won't be able
to get from my linkedin profile because I'm
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not great at keeping that up,
but I pledged to do better. Well,
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as you said, I am currently
the senior director of reputation management and
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Communication at UNC CHARLOTTE. I have
been in highered my whole career. I
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started my career at Virginia Tech and
then I moved to Radford University and then
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I was at sweeper our college before
I came to Charlotte five years ago,
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and throughout that time, unfortunately,
crisis has sort of punctuated my whole career.
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It started on April Sixteen, two
thousand and seven with the shooting at
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Virginia Tech, which is widely known
and understood and then from there I have
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sort of had different kinds of incidents
at all of my institutions that I have
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learned from and grown from and I
hope that I can maybe help others learn
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and grow from those experiences to wow, Christie, thanks for sharing that.
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You know, when we first spoke
about the show, we did a kind
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of a pre interview, you mentioned
that crisis is relative. You know,
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every crisis is relative to the situation. So tell me more about that.
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Sure. So in my career I
have unfortunately dealt with two school shootings,
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I have dealt with a college closure, I have dealt with a student enrolled
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at our campus murdering a police officer
at another campus and then I have dealt
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with sort of everything in between and
what I have learned in that process us
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and what I said, you know, crisis is relative, is what may
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seem like a big deal to someone
on their campus are in their organization may
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seem like Tuesday to someone else.
And I say that in Bart you and
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I talked about this. My hope
is that I am in a very exclusive
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club right you don't want people to
have that same friend of reference that you
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have, and you've been through things
like that. But it doesn't have to
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be that for it to be a
crisis. There are reputational crisis that can
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affect organizations at every level. We
see them in the news all the time
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and they are brought on by decisions
people make or don't make or, you
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know, mishandling of an operational crisis
that turns into a reputational crisis, and
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I think as communicators sometimes it's challenging
for us to sort of help our leadership
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understand what truly is a crisis,
what truly rises that level of stop the
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presses, hold everything. You know, we all have to turn our attention
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to this and I'll give you an
example. After the institution that I was
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working at announced closure, I was
in conversation with the president of another institution
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and we were talking about what had
happened and how it had happened and the
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response, and this person was trying
to empathize with me and they said to
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me, you know, I get
a crisis is so hard. I understand
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what you're going through. Last year
the Health Department gave our dining hall a
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be rating and this person meante with
every good intention and to them, to
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them that was a crisis because they
had they had never really experienced that level
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of scrutiny before and their students were
upset. The families were upset. They're
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paying for this money, but these
dining plans and you're giving my child subpar
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food, and it was awful for
them in the moment they were in it.
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Now, for me and others of
my colleagues who have perhaps experienced something
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that's a little more intense, we
would say that's probably a Tuesday right a
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be health writing on a college campus, probably a Tuesday. You need to
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address it. It's an issue,
but you can manage it. It's not.
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It is not a seismic potential seismic
shift for your organization if you don't
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handle it correctly. But for them
it was very much a huge deal.
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And and so it's relative. It's
relative to the people living it, it's
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relative to your audience. It's also
relative to where you are in time.
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I think we've probably all had those
things that we felt were going to explode
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and they didn't, and then the
things that we never dreamed would be a
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big deal and they did. It's
kind of an unpredictable environment when you're dealing
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and working in crisis. Yeah,
that's a that's a really good point and
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I think that you know, even
as you just demonstrated there within your own
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career. I mean you you mentioned
crisis and as you've experienced, it comes
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in all shapes and sizes. I
mean, certainly Virginia Tech versus the dining
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hall getting a bee rating is a
much different size and shape and, like
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you said, it's relative and there's
certainly a difference in I know you and
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I talked earlier about the idea of
when a crisis is being done to you
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and your school and your organization,
for is, when it's a result of
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a decision that's made by the school
or the organization. I mean, tell
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me about that. I know there's
there's a difference there. So there is.
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Both are both can be equally awful
but in different ways. When you
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have, or what I have discovered, when you have sort of that crisis,
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it's brought on by a threat,
whether it is an act of violence
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or a hurricane or or something like
that, it's an operational crisis. What
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we really where I am now,
we really deemed an operational crisis. In
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a lot of ways, it's almost
easier to manage initially because the needs are
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so similar and they're very simple.
It's life health safety. That's what your
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first action is to do that,
to protect life health safety, to make
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sure people have what they need to
do that. It's a simplistic message,
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at least initially. When you're dealing
with more of you know coming out of
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the gate this is a reputational issue
and it is complex and it is messy
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and perhaps you know the decision is
what the decision is, but you know
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people are going to fall on all
sides of that decision. I think that
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is a harder thing to manage because
the communication needs and the expectations are so
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vast and varied and your audiences are
coming at this from a completely different frame
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of mind. They are what they
need in that moment. Is is very
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different than if you know there's a
tornado coming, well, you need to
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get to the basement, versus your
CEO has embezzled money and now you have
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to to announce that. It's just
a different kind of message and it takes
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a different kind of management, which
is not to say again, you miss
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manage a hurricane, you're on your
way to a reputational crisis. And you're
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on your way to having to explain
a whole lot more than you than you
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thought you were going to have to
do. I will also say I think
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there's also more grace expended in one
than the other. With your audiences,
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people can genuinely agree that a hurricane
is bad and an act of violence is
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bad and that shouldn't have happened to
you. And there is grace and there
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is compassion and there's kindness, usually
from in the in those moments, where
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as announcing poor choices by leadership,
controversial decisions by leadership, that grace and
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that kindness and that patience isn't always
immediately extended. You don't have any sort
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of space to kind of get your
footing beneath you. You have to just
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be out of the gate right away. I really appreciate that perspective. In
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along the lines of managing I often
hear that a big part of communications is
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managing expectations. So can you do
a little farther and tell us what your
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experience is with that? I think
with as a communicator, you have to
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manage expectation sort of up, down
and out. So you have to manage
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with your leadership what is possible in
this situation. When can we when can
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we stop it? When can we
make it better, and when can we
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apply pressure until the bleeding sort of
eases? And when is our only hope
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just to come in and clean it
up? Not Always, but sometimes that
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I think most communicators have had this
experience at some point in their career.
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There's this expectation that no matter what, PR can fix it. Well,
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we'll just spin it, we'll just
spin it, and that is a naughty
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word as far as I'm concerned.
With, you know, spinning. We
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don't spend. We tell the truth. We tell the truth. But there
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are sometimes, and I'm sure you
gentlemen have seen it, there is nothing
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you can do except wait for the
storm to pass and start the clean up,
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and I think you have to be
honest with your leadership when that happens.
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You all have to go in face
in the situation, on the same
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page, and I would say there's
a lot of that managing down to with
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with your team and with others in
the organization on this is what this is
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what's possible for us to do and
what's not. And when I when managing
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out, I mean with your audiences. I have discovered over the course of
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my career that even if you can't
tell people what they want to know,
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if you can tell them why you
can't tell them, it often goes over
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a little bit better and I think
it is important to be up front with
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this is what I have, this
is what I can tell you and this
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is why I can't, and if
I can't, I'm going to tell you
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why I can't. You know,
working in public education we faced that a
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lot. We are under a lot
of federal guideline state guidelines for information we
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can release and, as you gentlemen
have probably also discovered, the right to
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know versus be want to know is
often very confused, especially in a crisis,
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and it and it's managing that.
And the other thing I would also
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say is understanding the expectations of your
audiences. And my most recent are my
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current job. We did a lot
of research with our campus constituents, our
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faculties, at students and families and
sort of what they wanted to hear in
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whine a crisis, in a non
crisis situation. And you know, I
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think it's really easy when you're in
the room where it's happening, to assume
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everyone has the same information that you
have to work from and that their understanding
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in the same context that you have. And what we found out is just
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because we didn't think someone would want
to know that, because it didn't seem
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like a big deal, didn't mean
they didn't actually want to know it.
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Sometimes our audiences just wanted us to
reassure them that we we saw the hurricane
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to even though it wasn't here,
but we're watching it and if anything happens
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we're going to let you know,
but if you don't hear from us,
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you're good. And we did that
and we started operating in that way and
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it really, I think, helps
build that goodwill and that social capital so
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when the big things happen you have
more to draw from because you've shown up
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for your audiences in the small moments. That that makes sense. They'll give
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you more grace in the big moments
if you showed up in the small moments.
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That's really, really good. I
think that plays out so well and
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so much of these, whether it's
crisis communications, are just communications in general.
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I think that's that's quite quite a
good point. I know that,
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Christy, one of the things when
we were talking earlier you'd mentioned how much
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crisis communications and reputation management has changed
with, you know, social media.
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I mean obviously you know even this
year, you know, two thousand and
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twenty one, we've seen the crisis
and in the capital insurrection in the district
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of Columbia and things like that.
How do you think social media plays a
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role in crisis communication and planning and
reputation management? You know, with with
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that, I mean certainly over your
career, it is changed vastly. You
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know, I think it's the wild
card in everything we do in a lot
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of ways, and especially in crisis. I often tell my team assume in
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most crises you're going to be two
steps behind out of the gate because of
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social especially when it comes to the
more operational kind of situations. Assume your
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you are likely to find out something
has happened on your campus because you just
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got tagged on social media and someone
is, you know, taken a video
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of it and and is letting you
know that way, and I think that
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makes it far more challenging to do
what we do because you will never have
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complete control of the message. I
mean you can't with social journalism and you
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know, keyboard warriors and keyboard courage, and so I think. But I
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would also say I think you have
to give respect to that space and you
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have to treat that space like you
do other mediums. In a crisis,
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you have to be delivering content for
that space, you have to be monitoring
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that space and you have to take
it seriously. I have worked in the
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past with folks, Oh, that's
just social, which is social? Well,
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it's just what are no one's paying
attention to it, except they are,
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except our students are. That's where
they all are. So if there
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is a rumor running rampant that we
can dispel, we should dispel it,
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in my opinion. Now that's not
to say I believe engaging controls, because
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they don't, and I think that's
going back to my managing expectations. I
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think with social you kind of have
to have that. What's our baseline of
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tolerance here? What are we going
to say? Is a normal level of
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negativity and nastiness that we're going to
see in this moment? And when do
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we engage in when we don't?
But I think it has shifted everything we
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do as communicators. You know,
there is no it. It forces the
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rapid response in a crisis. There
is. No, we got to gather
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all the facts and we got to
make sure everything is perfect and then we'll
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send out a press release. No, no, no, no, you
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are out there and you were saying
something fast, and you know. That's
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where the holding statement comes in,
acknowledging here's what we know, here's what
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we don't here's what we're going to
go back. But it has, it
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has forced the speed at which we
work as professionals, especially in a crisis,
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because if you're not out there,
they're going to be out there and
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I promise you, whatever they say
is likely not going to be accurate.
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You know. Just with that in
mind, I mean so much of social
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to whether it's crisis or just in
communications with you know, you know you've
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got a troll out there. Many
times you can rely on those allies that
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are there on social media to help
along the way. I mean, like
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you said earlier, you invest in
the small and you can you reap the
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trust in the bigger things. How
much do you think that plays into?
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I mean, as I look at, you know, the schools that are
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listening to this, I mean they
might not necessarily be in crisis mode all
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the time, but it seems to
me that there's a little bit of investment
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that you can make on social to
start gathering around those, you know,
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allies that are going to, you
know, come to your support when the
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time comes. I absolutely agree with
that and my team and I, all
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my teams and I, we talked
a lot about rapport building versus reporting and
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using social to also to build that
rapport to have those allies, to have
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those fault leaders that will come to
your defense, and not even come to
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your defense, but just share the
right information it. That's what it is.
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Half the time it's just correcting that
and I will tell you, there's
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nothing I love more than that self
regulation and correction on social where you don't
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even have the way in because fifty
other of your biggest supporters have just done
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that for you. But I do
think it is it is about and I
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am not a social expert. That's
why we have people who are. But
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to me, when you're when you're
building that content and you're putting on social,
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you really are strengthening and building your
relationships with the people who are out
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there. That is how alumnice day
connected it tell student. I mean it's
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it's relationship building, it's pride building. So again, if you invest there,
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then when something bad happens you are
more likely to have the people coming
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and say it. Actually you can
believe them because here, here are all
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the ways that they've they've told the
truth before, they've shown up for us
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before, and I do think we're
lying on that network to help you.
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Is Critical and I think that often
is far more authentic to the people receiving
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that information when it comes from others
than when it comes from you. I
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mean, I can set there and
type on facebook responses all day that I'm
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telling you the truth as a university, but if you know you bart,
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the respected Alumna, alumnus, is
saying it, then I think that often
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carries more way. Well, I
don't know about you, Bart, but
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thank you, Christy. I just
feel I've experienced or audited a three hundred
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and one level communications course. They're
in the last twenty minutes and you gave
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it so passionately. It's very evident
why you are good at what you do.
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At the end of each one of
our episodes, we like to ask
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our guests to offer a quick tip
or something that other marketers could either implement
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or take away as a nugget usable
in the next thirty days. If we
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were asked that of you, what
would that be? If you don't have
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a plan, get one. If
you do have a plan, dust it
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off and Polish it up and test
it. I think so many people oftentimes
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with there's so much going on right
now, right there's always too much work
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to do and the crisis is the
thing you hope never happens, so it's
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easy to sort of push it away, but I think you need to view
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it as an insurance policy. You
invest in it and you hope you never
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need it. But in addition to
writing the plane, you got to practice
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your plan, you've got to get
it out and and build that muscle memory,
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because there is only so much that
can be templated and flow charted.
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You as a person, you as
a leader, need to know how you're
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going to respond and make sure you
have built that depth of knowledge so that
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when it does happen, and I
hope it never does, that you are
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your you know what to do,
you know how to do it and you
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can do it successfully. While Christy, thank you for that and thank you
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for joining us and sharing your journey
today. I thought that you provided not
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00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:10.789
just that, but many other takeaways
and insights that others will be able to
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implement as they think about how they'll
handle crisis in the future. Again,
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thank you to everyone. The Higher
Red Marker podcast is sponsored by Kaylor solutions
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00:19:22.390 --> 00:19:26.299
and education, marketing and branding agency
and by thinking, patented a marketing,
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00:19:26.339 --> 00:19:30.980
execution, printing and mailing provider of
higher red solutions. On behalf of my
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00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:38.609
cohost Bart Taylor, I'm choice singer. Thanks for joining us. You've been
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00:19:38.650 --> 00:19:42.769
listening to the Higher Ed Marketer.
To ensure that you never miss an episode,
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00:19:44.009 --> 00:19:48.250
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Simply tap the number of stars you
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