On Being an Adjunct Professor… (By Melissa Wall)

I’ve been an adjunct professor for five years. I teach Introduction to Marketing and Communications to students in the accelerated undergraduate degree program at Mercy College in White Plains, New York. It’s a private college in an urban setting and has both full–time and part–time students, many of whom are older adults looking to complete or enhance their education.

There are lots of reasons to be an adjunct – although money isn’t one of them. You could probably earn more per hour creating grande lattes at Starbucks. But nothing compares to the rush of seeing the light go on in a student’s eyes, or knowing that you influenced someone’s opinion about a subject that is close to your heart. 

Personally, I like the challenge of trying to cram 12 weeks of learning into eight and making the classes interesting enough to keep everyone awake for four straight hours. It’s also a refresher for me. I get to revisit the principles of marketing once a year and remind myself of what I need to do better. 

Certainly some cohorts are better than others in terms of interest level, and there’s always a broad spectrum of capability just as there is in any group. After only a couple of classes I can usually tell who will be an A, B or C student. And, of course, there’s no shortage of excuses as to why the homework hasn’t been done, so you can’t be soft touch! All things considered, teaching at the college level is a great way to give back to the community, and to the next generation, while enhancing your professional credibility. I encourage everyone to give it a try.

For more information about how you can improve your marketing efforts, contact Melissa Wall, Marketing With Distinction, LLC, melissa@distinctmarketing.com or 203–888–9995.

College Teaching is Rewarding but Beware of Seat-fillers (By Martin Arnold)

Teaching the workforce of tomorrow at the college level can be an educational and rewarding experience for those who take the time to do it. Adjunct professors comprise upwards of half the teaching staff at many colleges. If you are qualified, most schools would be interested in speaking with you about working as an adjunct. However, there are perils to consider though before committing to this route.The pay is low, the work load can be daunting and some students are problematic. Outweighing these negatives are the rewards of actually changing someone’s life and career to a more positive direction. Over the past 10 years we have instructed hundreds of college students in marketing, PR, communications and public speaking. Many still keep in touch and have gone on to outstanding careers utilizing these skills.

In every class of 20-25 though there are always one or two “clunkers,” we call them seat-fillers, with attitude issues that make one take pause. After all, university courses are expensive and voluntary so it is a mystery why a few attitude-challenged students even bother.

In that vein, there are sound reasons why some can’t attend class or fulfill their assignments. We understand work-related travel and outright illness can interfere. But beyond those reasons we have compiled the more “creative” excuses. For example, every semester we lose one or two grandfathers. What makes it interesting is that over the years we have never lost a grandmother (too sad). Grandfathers seem to be expendable.

Others include:

“I fell off the roof.”
“I had a serious infection from a ferret bite.”
“My aunt gave birth and I had to attend.”
“My friend had a traffic mishap and I had to be with her in the hospital.”
“My parents wouldn’t let me drive in the rain.”
“I have scheduled electroshock therapy.”

Despite some frustrations, helping tomorrow’s professionals achieve their goals is worthwhile. So if you ever have a chance to teach a class or present at one, grab the opportunity.

To boost your business and learn more about our coaching service and ebook for entrepreneurs, email Martin Arnold mharnold@sbcglobal.net.

What They Don’t Teach You in School (By Tori Brown)

What’s the main difference between taking a class on public relations and actually practicing it? Well, there are quite a few differences. For instance, how often do you have to take a mid-term in real life? However, the biggest difference comes down to clients. Face it, in school, you just don’t have them.

Granted, some schools have programs where students will run a PR or advertising firm, but those programs are few and far between. The majority of students’ “clients” are in fact, their professors. Without learning some basics of client service, students then enter the job world basically unprepared to deal with “real-life” clients.

So we’ve compiled a list of important rules to remember, whether you are new to your industry or just need a brush-up on continuing to provide your clients/customers with the best service possible.

• The customer is always right. We’ve all heard this one before. However, sometimes it is hard for a client to look at a decision objectively since they are so far immersed in the business. Try suggesting they take some time to think about an idea you propose to or try to bring it up another time. While this may help some clients realize your idea is brilliant, others will not budge. Don’t push them.

• Be accessible. I’m not saying your clients have to have your email, home phone and your significant other’s cell phone. However, DO check regularly whatever avenues you have given people to contact you, be it your cell phone or e-mail address. If you plan to be unavailable for a sizeable amount of time, then incorporate this into your answering machine or set up an automatic e-mail response. Leaving the name of someone else who can help or when you’ll be back is helpful too.

• Admit if you’ve made an error. There is nothing worse that trying to cover up an error, whether it’s something major or not. If your client finds out from someone other than you that there is a problem, you’ll no longer have their trust, and perhaps their business. If you fess up, you have the chance to right any errors, and that’s much more admirable.

Tori Brown is an Account Executive with Marx Communications, a public relations and marketing communications firm that helps B2B companies and individuals build their brands. For more information, please contact Tori tori@marxcommunications.com or 203-445-2851. To boost your business and learn more about our coaching service, email wendy@marxcommunications.com.

Ethical Practices: Where clichés and guidelines often fail (By Martin Arnold)

“Do the right thing” is a phrase popularized by noted radio psychologist Dr. Laura Schlessinger. On the radio it sounds easy, but in real life problems are far more complex. For example, if you are in PR or marketing and you are asked to promote a product that you personally oppose, such as cigarettes or alcohol, what is the right thing to do?

It is not illegal to support such products, millions of people purchase both every day. Moreover, there are other values to consider like the value of continuing to provide for home and hearth and your other on-going responsibilities. Sometimes one can negotiate a change of assignment, but not always. In such cases it comes down to the individual to make a hard choice that is the “right thing” either way.

“Just tell the truth” is another phrase one sometimes is advised to do in the face of an ethical dilemma. Like “do the right thing,” this also is not as easy as it sounds. In some circumstances there are serious legal risks, disclosure or privacy issues can come into play. At times though, public interest can override any of these issues and, if so, it comes down to the individual to make that hard choice.

We know of one situation where a crime was committed the effects of which threatened a large number of employees. Law enforcement officials did not want details of the crime reported. In that case the CEO risked jail time to advise employees what the situation was. Fortunately it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do, but it was not easy to see at the time. 

In another instance a gas leak from an industrial plant compromised homeowner property. Despite instructions from the legal department to keep mum, the spokesperson chose to admit publicly what had happened and that the company would take responsibility for damages. In that case the spokesperson was rewarded for his effort, but in a different company facing the same circumstances, he would have been fired on the spot.

Codes of conduct can sometimes be a help in these situations. Typically they cover an organization’s value structure, information flow, competitive practices, disclosure, privacy, conflict of interest and other principles. 

But whenever people set out to defraud, no code of conduct, statement of ethical principles or legal statutes are going to stop them. In our experience, companies like this are few and far between.

While correct ethical practices are not always easy to discern, there is one we think stands the test of time. If your contemplated action were to be reported on the front page of your local newspaper and you would be embarrassed about it, don’t do it!

To boost your business and learn more about our coaching service and ebook for entrepreneurs, email Martin Arnold mharnold@sbcglobal.net.

Marketing Ethics (By Melissa Wall)

Some people might say that marketing and ethics are a contradiction in terms. After all, aren’t we marketers responsible for all the advertising that “makes” people and their kids acquire stuff they don’t need….another fast food hamburger, another credit card and the latest must–have toy?We could argue about the social aspects of marketing, but no one is forced into buying anything. If there is too much trans fat in a product – don’t buy it; if you don’t like a company’s business practices, then buy elsewhere. Eventually a company gets the message. Without moralizing, ethics in marketing to me is more about conduct. It starts with a company that creates a product or service that does what it’s supposed to, is built and packaged responsibly so no one gets hurt using it. It’s about not cutting corners to inflate the bottom line. Today, companies that engage in questionable practices are at the mercy of bloggers, whose ramblings can spread quicker than you can say “viral marketing.”

Our Top Five Ethical Considerations

1. Bait and Switch. Deliver what was promised.

2. Exaggeration. Don’t inflate capabilities or results. Eventually, it backfires. 

3. Plagiarism. If you cite someone else’s idea, writing or prior work, give them credit. 

4. Pretexting. Don’t ask an advertising agency, PR firm or other marcom vendor to provide specific ideas about a campaign and then implement those ideas without hiring or paying the vendor, or use their ideas to find a lower cost provider. The original vendor legally owns those ideas and could sue.

5. Badmouthing the Competition. You can point out product differences but just not slam them publicly. It’s bad form and nobody wins.

Our personal favorite is number four, what’s yours?.

 

For more information about how you can improve your marketing efforts, contact Melissa Wall, Marketing With Distinction, LLC, melissa@distinctmarketing.com or 203–888–9995.

How Would You Hold Up Under the Microscope? (By Tori Brown)

Unethical public relations tactics and how to avoid them

It often seems that the field of public relations gets a bum rap. How many times have you heard the term “spin doctors” used to describe those that work in the profession? We’ve even heard people mumble “public relations” as if they’re ashamed, when asked what job field they are in. 

 

So why does the field of public relations have such a stigma attached to it? We believe much of it has to do with several dishonest, unethical practitioners giving the rest a bad name. Here are two recent examples:

• Edeman/Wal-Mart blog: In late 2006, Edelman, a large
  public relations firm, ran at least three blogs praising 
  its client Wal-Mart, all of which were fraudulently presented as being written by Wal-Mart employees or supporters. This misrepresentation led to a lot of negative press for Edelman and Wal-Mart, once the connections were exposed. We’re pretty sure that’s not the type of press Wal-Mart thought Edelman would get them when they hired the firm.

• Misuse of Wikipedia: We recently looked up something on the site, and found that the page was overrun with quotes and links attributed to people we had never heard of. Once we checked the links, we realized that many of these so-called experts were using Wikipedia as their own personal advertising tool, clearly violating the online encyclopedia’s terms. We tried to clean up the page a bit, but the very next day all the links were back. Not only was this irritating to us as readers, but it was flagrant misrepresentation to pass yourself off as an expert when you’re not. 

Of course, we can’t spend all our time cleaning up other folks’ lies, but we can make sure that we can operate in an honest, open way in our own public relations efforts. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Do not offer bribes to the press. Saying to an editor, “If you write a story on me, I’ll buy advertising space,” will probably lead to a quick end to the conversation. The advertising and editorial sections are most often run by completely different departments and have little to do with each other.

• If you make a mistake (An employee is hurt, a product is recalled, etc.) come clean. Staying silent only kicks people’s imaginations into overdrive and may fuel the fire. Having a crisis communication plan can help.

• Always remember to disclose your identify and relationships upfront. You don’t want reporters or consumers to dig them up later and discover conflicting interests. 
  

Tori Brown is an Account Executive with Marx Communications, a public relations and marketing communications firm that helps B2B companies and individuals build their brands. For more information, please contact Tori tori@marxcommunications.com or 203-445-2851. To boost your business and learn more about our coaching service, email wendy@marxcommunications.com.