Don't Lag Behind

-

Before I jump in, let me introduce myself. My name is Becca and I am working on my masters in strategic communications at Troy University. I currently reside in Kingsland, GA with my husband and two children. I have a five year old and a five month old, so life is pretty busy. I am employed by a technical college where I have served as dual enrollment coordinator for the past six years. When I am not working I spend my free time cuddling my baby girl, building train sets with my son, or tackling the next project with my husband. My cat Cooper also deserves an honorable mention. I received my undergrad in Family and Consumer Science Education from the University of Georgia in 2011. I put grad school off until now because I was honestly scared of it. I was the first in my family to graduate from college and that alone was a pretty big feat for me. My parents were your standard blue collar workers, my brother an amazing athlete, and so I was dubbed the "smart" one. But I never really considered myself smart. Just hard headed and afraid to fail. I am now in my mid thirties with children, a full time job, a mortgage, and many other responsibilities. I couldn't have picked a worse time to go back to school, but here I am. I want to show my children that you can do anything you put your mind to and finish what you start.

So why the blog? Well, since this is only my second course in the communications program and I clearly have a lot to learn, I thought I would bring you along for the ride. I'll be posting about a new topic once a week for at least the next nine weeks. Let's learn together. 

This week we read a few articles about Diffusion of Innovations. At first I thought what on earth do innovations have to do with communications? This my friends is why we read our assignments. Diffusion of Innovations is a theory explaining how ideas, products and beliefs change and spread throughout society over time. Essentially, something already in existence is altered to be better, faster, stronger and then the new way becomes the new norm for the majority. 

According to The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, Sociologist E.M. Rogers came up with the Diffusion of Innovations theory in 1962. Within this theory he determined there were five groups of individuals based on their likeliness to adopt new ideas. Innovators (2.5%), Early Adopters (13.5%), Early Majority (34%), Late Majority (34%) and Laggards (16%). Laggards are considered to be the least likely group to change and the hardest to bring on board when it comes to new ideas. 

Another article from Changeology describes each group in more detail and how to get them on your side when applying the Diffusion of Innovations theory. The author mentions how the Late Majority makes up a large portion of people needed in order to have a successful DOI. They suggest offering giveaways, using relatable stories from trusted people to spread your message or idea, lowering the cost if it's a product and proving strong customer service to this group. When I read this a light bulb went off. Part of my job at the technical college is to recruit new students. We struggle sometimes because people have a preconceived notion that technical colleges are only for adults, high school dropouts, and blue collar workers. What they don't know is that we actually offer affordable and quick programs that lead to high demand high paying jobs in areas like electrical line working and cyber security. But as I was reading the techniques to persuade people, I realized I am doing it all wrong. I mean here I am working on my masters for a job that requires a bachelors degree at a minimum. Why would anybody take my word? The DOI theory gave me the idea to recruit former students now in those high demand jobs to come and help speak to potential students and possibly change the way people think of technical colleges.

So what do you say? Are you going to be a laggard when it comes to innovation, or will you step up to the plate and innovate?



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Leader's Vision

-
Image
I mentioned a few weeks ago that my husband picked up a side hustle building an app for a local restaurant. We live in a golf club neighborhood and one day I thought it would be nice if a golf cart could bring me some food to my front door. From that thought we started coming up with ideas for a golf cart delivery app idea. From that idea and many meetings and pitches, we landed on the one that is currently in use. The golf cart idea never took off because the club house owners thought the idea of using their employees to deliver food outside of the course was too risky. After reading more about the diffusion of innovation theory, I believe the owners are laggards. They are constantly asking the community what they can do to change and bring in new customers, especially young ones. I know that as a young working professional with two small children that sometimes doesn’t get home until 6:30, take out is my only option once or twice a week. I also love to support small businesses. To me...
Read more

Lessons Learned: Crisis Communication in the Wake of Tragedy

-
  Youngstown State University defines their crisis communication plan as a part of larger set of plans to manage the university’s affairs situations that threaten their operations or safety of their community. Ready.gov defines crisis communications plans as an important component of a business’ preparedness program. They both sound like fancy sentences, but the message is the same. If and when your organization is faced with an expected challenge, have clear steps in place. Be transparent. Mitigate negative impact. It doesn’t matter if you are a big box store, a university, or a luxury vehicle company you should have a crisis communication plan set in place.   Key components of a crisis communication plan often include: Preparation: Identifying potential crises, establishing a crisis team, and defining roles and responsibilities. Response Protocols: Clear guidelines on how to respond promptly, including designated spokespeople, communication ch...
Read more

Marketing in Academics

-
Marketing in Academics I work in student affairs and get to work closely with marketing. I get invited to meetings with the head honcho of marketing at the state level, who I am admittedly not impressed with. As far as I know he does not have a background in marketing or communications. I believe he took a crash course in marketing and throws around words like “digital marketing” and “branding” so that we know he is in fact the marketing guy. But, in the years I have been here nothing revolutionary has ever happened. In fact, my own team has caught some major mistakes. When it comes to any sort of advertising you have to pay attention to every single detail. You also must look at things from every angle and perspective. Last year our school did a photo shoot of one of our fundraisers. We raise scholarship money every year through a skeet shoot tournament. The photographer took a great shot of a man in action and the shot was used for flyers, emails, websites, you name it. There was...
Read more