In January 2017, I assumed the presidency at Northwest Florida State College in the Florida Panhandle. Before my arrival, I began an environmental scan of how the college was performing in critical areas, including academic affairs, advancement, finance and student success. This scan was the beginning of the implementation of my strategy, “4L’s to Success”: Look, Listen, Learn and Launch.
One area with which I have worked closely to further my leadership vision is marketing and public relations.
Look
Upon my arrival at NWF State College, I began to look for connections and opportunities that could leverage the college’s development. I also looked for areas in which we were missing opportunities, and one of the most obvious was in our lack of marketing.
This excerpt comes from the February/March issue of AACC’s Community College Journal.
In our service area, competitors were engaged in a higher saturation of advertising. Therefore, one of my first meetings was with the director of marketing and public relations to discuss the budget, and I discovered we needed to invest in additional resources and human capital in this area.
Investing in marketing is as vital as investing in buildings and technology. It is evident to me that as presidents we are the chief marketing officers of our institutions, and our engagement with this department will infuse employees with purpose, energy, and commitment. As Zachary M. Hall describes in College & University Journal, “College presidents, like other leaders, are responsible for creating environments where higher education marketing can take root; they have the power over the organization’s commitment to marketing.”
Our first action was to rebrand the marketing and public relations department into a strategic communications division. Opportunities for conveying the institution’s vision involve not only traditional marketing strategies, but also communications of all types with internal and external stakeholders.
Secondly, we grew the department from the director’s position and one assistant to the director, two coordinators, a multimedia/website coordinator, and two designers. I collaborate with this department daily to optimize our engagement through a variety of media platforms. We implement proven tactics to position the college as an influencer in community, economic, and workforce development in Northwest Florida.
Branding and messaging were areas where collaboration needed to take place. The Strategic Communications team was operating independently to advance the message, and they needed my support to further our brand. We charted a focused plan and established new branding and messaging that serves as the foundation for all communications.
Listen
The Look stage of my 4L strategy gave way to the next step — Listen. I worked with our strategic communications department to listen to what internal and external constituents say about our college. As one tool, we used a media preference survey conducted by Interact Communications. This data allows us to be confident in our efforts to target our prospective students through advertising and marketing media. While internal stakeholders regularly use email, external communications must be carefully selected due to the variety of options available, so we are listening to our audience to determine the most effective communication streams.
In the Listening phase, we learned our external constituency groups wanted to be abreast of priorities of the college. As a result, we developed a stronger, more active social media presence, and I initiated a presidential Twitter account. Our strategic communications team attends speaking engagements with me, and they live tweet from events consistently.
After events, I will emphasize the college’s messaging with complimentary messages about the college presentation from my Twitter account. Twitter analytics reveal that visits to our college account tripled from September 2016 to September 2017. These results are also consistent across our Facebook and Instagram platforms.
Two other tactics on which I work with the Strategic Communications team are to develop a monthly President’s Perspective newsletter and to present the president’s report to our board of trustees. The President’s Perspective provides a glance into activities occurring at all locations of NWF State College, and throughout our communities. It’s emailed to approximately 1,300 community members, mailed to 530 community members, and 1,270 are distributed to all college locations.
The President’s Report to our trustees is a monthly PowerPoint that recaps all community involvement from the president’s office. This PowerPoint is a tool I use to keep our board visually engaged in the day-to-day activities of our college, while also equipping them to share our message and vision.
