STAYING ON MESSAGE
s the market for online communications evolves, it’s hard to blame college administrators for feeling a bit deluged. Gone are the days of traditional media, where communications professionals relied on newspapers and print and radio advertising to recruit students and tell their stories. BY MICHAEL GROSS A
HOW THE RIGHT TOOLS CAN
MAKE OR BREAK YOUR COLLEGE’S
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
With more students embracing
technology today—particularly social
media—leaders face the challenge of
migrating alongside their constituents,
or risk losing touch.
That doesn’t mean colleges must
embrace every incarnation of online
outreach. But it does suggest that public information officers and others need
to consider the current landscape and
choose carefully those approaches that
best meet the needs of their colleges
and constituents.
ILLUSTRATION BY RANDY LYHUS
The New-Media Migration
There is clearly a migration under way
at the nation’s community colleges,
driven by the behavior of its core audi-
ences. It’s perhaps easiest to recognize
this change among young adults, whose
communications habits have been
transformed by technology. But they’re
not the only key demographic leaving
the easily defined and long understood
mold of traditional media.
