My Modern Media

  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...

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...

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...

My grandmother passed away about three years ago and naturally, I missed a few days of work. When I got home my coworker and good friend sent me a text asking me to call him. He asked if I had a few minutes to walk and if I was at home. I knew by his tone that he was preparing me for bad news. My grandmother had just passed away so how bad could the news be? It was bad. Very bad. Evidentially while I was on bereavement leave, someone at the high school where my office is located decided to make a complaint about me. She was actually just venting, but she was venting to the wrong person. It was terrible timing as she passed away the first week of school, but what was I supposed to do. Ask her to wait a few more weeks? Sorry Grandma. It turns out that while I was gone a parent called and asked this person who shall not be named a question she could not handle on her own. Since I was not there to help answer this question, in the heat of the moment, she complained to a director about my...

Since I started my professional blog for class, I decided to start a personal blog on the side. For now, it is not something I am interested in doing for income. It is more so for journaling and writing practice. But this week as I learned about personal branding, I made sure to take note just in case I change my mind. My husband on the other hand has a side hustle. He created a pizza delivery app for a small pizza shop in town and is currently trying to expand his idea to other stores. I think he could really benefit from building his personal brand to become a more legitimate resource to potential customers. So, what is personal branding anyway? According to BetterUp personal branding is a very strategic and intentional process used to create a public image of yourself. You’ll create this image through various avenues. Not only do you present this image through how you dress, but through your business cards, headshots, business cards, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, personal website,...

This week I have been reading about word of mouth (or WOM), opinion leaders, and filter bubbles. At first, I was really intrigued by WOM. I’ll be honest, when I first sought out to get my communications degree, I felt like I was just checking a box for work. But it’s actually been inspiring what I do at work even more. As I was researching WOM I had another light bulb moment just like I did last week. WOM is exactly what it sounds like. It is when a friend, family member, coworker or influencer recommends a product, place, experience, etc. Even though I don’t directly work in marketing, I found myself jotting down so many great ideas. Impact Plus had a great WOM marketing idea about sharing testimonials. According to Global Newswire, 95% of customers read reviews first and out of those reviews about 65% make a purchase. I’m not sure how that would translate into college admissions, but it’s worth a shot. I don’t know how to segway into my next topic so here is a picture of some roas...

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 r...