Social-Media-Inspired PR Crises

Are the Social-Media-Inspired PR Crises Starting To Fall Like Domino's? by Catharine P. Taylor , Thursday, April 16, 2009 So, this week, the client in the unfortunate spotlight was Domino's. I probably don't even have to recap this, but, in case you've been spending your time instead watching Susan Boyle sing on "Britain's Got Talent," you must know that two Domino's employees (well, they used to be Domino's employees) uploaded a video of themselves doing disgusting things to the ingredients before putting them in people's food, and this created a crisis for Domino's. (The video is no longer available, incredibly, because one of the perpetrators has made a copyright claim to YouTube. In a world gone mad!) But, hey, clients, it could just as well have been your brand -- as the executives in charge of Motrin and Tropicana well know. (Granted, each of these instances is quite different from the others, but, on some level, a PR crisis is a PR crisis.) I actually don't think it's fair to take Domino's to task too much here for not already monitoring social media channels so it could get more out-in-front of this -- it's still early. When you're deeply involved in this business, it's too easy to remember that others are not. But, my patience on that will soon wear thin. If we're still in the first inning of social media, we're clearly at the bottom of the first, with two men out, runners on first and second, and a hitter who routinely hits into double plays at bat. By the top of the second, it's time to stop having sympathy for companies that have no clue as to what the blog-, Twitter- and YouTube-o-spheres are saying about them, and even less sympathy for companies that don't have any awareness of how to use these channels to their own advantage. Even if social media has unleashed the sometimes ugly, venal side of human nature, the beauty of it is that the tables can be turned, rapidly, by the companies themselves. As a former practitioner of PR, I would have died to have the avenues there are today to put my company's voice out there, unfiltered by the traditional, uncontrollable distribution channel: the media. I bet that when Domino's set up its Twitter account yesterday, someone at company headquarters marveled at how simple it was to do so. (In fact, some news accounts covered Domino's creation of a Twitter account as though it had done something far more involved, like go into the hamburger business.)

Stimulus spending will bring thousands of jobs to region

But economists warn that this massive effort to juice the economy could create a stimulus bubble for the region

Washington Business Journal article here

How to Hire—and Get Hired—in a Recession

The founder of Silicon Alley Reporter and Mahalo.com offers advice to employers trying to make the right hire and candidates struggling to land a job

BusinessWeek article here

AU Abroad Scholarships

Yesterday I served as a judge for the AU Abroad scholarship.  We should all be in the habit of encouraging students going abroad to apply.  For example:  we were judging applications for students going abroad in the fall, and we had enough applicants to pick from.  But in the prior process for students going abroad this summer there literally weren't enough applicants for them to give all the money away. 

The grants are modest but meaningful, ranging from $500 to maybe $2,500.  Any student can apply, including international students.  Success rests largely on your ability to write a nice essay and a good resume.  (Note to advisors: for this scholarship, resumes that highlight campus community involvement are most helpful.)  

Preference factors:

students going abroad for a full year

serious language study while abroad

students in the sciences (or other fields under-represented in study abroad)

challenging locations (e.g. Africa) or programs (e.g. Sciences Po)

students who have never previously studied abroad

What works against you:

being a recipient of another AU-funded scholarship (Presidential, etc.)

The Interview That'll Bag a Job

At an interview, you want to stand out for the right reasons. To do so, you'll need to leave your baggage and anxiety at the door.

Wall Street Journal article here

Income-Based Repayment

From: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/index.html 

Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new way to make your federal student loan payments more manageable starting July 1, 2009.  And if you're a teacher or work in government or at a nonprofit (501(c)(3)) organization, you might qualify for a new type of public service loan forgiveness after 10 years of eligible payments and employment.

IBR will be available to borrowers starting July 1, 2009, and the clock is already ticking for public service loan forgiveness.

On October 23, 2008, the U.S. Department of Education posted the final regulations for how each program will work in the Federal Register. However, some of the operational details of the programs are still unclear. Register with your email address and we'll make sure you get any new information as it becomes available. 

An Online Toolbox Starts With a Polished Résumé

Some tips on resume formatting and storing from our friends at the New York Times.

"Altitudinal" PowerPoint Tips From IBM-- a humorous guide for tech sales folks

Thought you might enjoy some IBM humor on how to adjust your powerpoint for your audience. They LOVE to talk about things from "10.000 feet" or "30,000" feet. Evidently, they are confusing customers, so here are there new guidelines. ;-) Do note the date of the directive.

SWG Directive
April 1, 2009		http://stats.surfaid.ihost.com/crd/uc.GIF?1.50&saemail&saemail&http://stats.surfaid.ihost.com/crd/uc.GIF?1.50%26saemail%26saemail%26mailto:sdarling%2540us.ibm.com%26sa_campaign=swgfc/Elena_Tezzi/SWG_This_Week:_01_13_2009/Feedback/2009-01-13/dl=SWG%2520Comms.%2520Group/sz=104&sa_campaign=swgfc/Elena_Tezzi/SWG_This_Week:_03_31_2009/Feedback/2009-03-31/dl=AP%20SWG%20Non-Mgrs%20-%20004/sz=200

To: All SWG professionals who deliver customer-facing presentations

Date: 04/01/2009

In response to widespread confusion on the part of customers and IBMers, the following presentation standards are today being announced by IBM SWG.

Issue

Inconsistent and arbitrary use of altitudes when delivering product presentations.

Details

The use of notional altitudes (e.g., "30,000-foot view") is a potentially effective device for describing the level of content of a presentation. Such imagery can lend color to one's presentation and set the customer at ease in regard to the level of technical content that he may expect. However, unconstrained use of this metaphor can lead to inconsistent interpretations of the various altitudes and confused messages from IBM. For example, one customer complained that in a 5,000-foot view of Lotus Notes he was unable to see a Connection document, whereas in a 50,000-foot view of Tivoli Access Manager he could read the details of a failover cookie on an inbound browser request. Another customer complained of dizziness and blurred vision during a presentation that alternated randomly between 60,000 feet and 90,000 feet. Such inconsistency is injurious to our professional reputation and may adversely affect the health of our customers.

Resolution

Effective immediately, the following guidelines are to be followed when delivering altitude-based presentations.

Admissible altitudes

Only the following altitudes are to be used:

1,000 feet

5,000 feet

10,000 feet

50,000 feet

100,000 feet

Please note that the use of any other altitude will be considered a violation of these guidelines unless prior authority is obtained.

Altitude assignments

Audience	Content (example)	Suggested altitude
Programmer	Product API	1,000 feet
CTO	Product technology	5,000 feet
Analyst	Product architecture	10,000 feet
CIO	IT value	50,000 feet
CEO	Business value	100,000 feet

Note: The above are for guidance only. Presenters are expected to use their discretion when pitching their presentations, taking into account conditions such as audience acrophobia, supported climb rates, etc.

Altitude transitions

In order to minimize customer confusion, at most three altitude transitions are permitted within a single presentation. Further, such transitions must be monotonic, i.e., all must be decreasing or all must be increasing. Please bear this in mind when setting your initial and final altitudes, taking into account the set of admissible altitudes as above. Please also consider the resilience of your audience to sudden and unexpected changes of altitude.

Presentation formats

A new set of mandatory presentation templates customized for your business unit are being prepared. These templates contain a configurable altimeter icon on each slide. Presenters must ensure that this altimeter is set to the correct value for each slide and clearly visible to the audience.

FAQs

In order to expand on a certain point in my presentation, I need to change altitudes and temporarily move to the whiteboard. Do I get an extra transition in addition to what is allowed in the base presentation?

No, any temporary use of other media is considered to be a continuation of the same presentation. However, if multiple presentations are being given consecutively, then the altitude is reset at the start of each presentation, provided that the audience is given sufficient time to adjust to any applicable change from the previous presentation. Alternatively, a mid-presentation break can be scheduled according to the following table:

Break length	Equivalent altitude change
5 minutes	1-5,000 feet
10 minutes	10,000 feet
15 minutes	50,000 feet
20 minutes	100,000 feet

My customer has set 40,000 feet as the standard altitude for all vendor presentations. Do I need IBM approval to present at that altitude?

IBM approval will be provided on presentation of an appropriate letter from the customer.

I need to present to the CEO of a large corporation. May I present at 150,000 feet?

No. Our products have not been tested beyond 100,000 feet. You may wish to consider asking the CIO to attend your session.

Are there any plans to approve additional altitudes?

IBM will monitor and assess the effectiveness of the supported altitudes. Consideration may be given to expanding this set over time according to business and technical requirements.

Questions?

Please contact IBM Altitude Enforcement/Somers/IBM if you have any questions regarding this directive.

<<<

Way New Collaboration! Howard Rheingold

This is a great 20 minute think piece by Howard Rheingold off of TED on the direction of society towards collaboration. It's both a new way of thinking and an old way. (The hunter couldn't kill the mastodon all by himself.) It seems that this is really relevant to the future of work and points out the need for our students to include collaboration in their skills portfolio.

Using LinkedIn to get a job

more than ever, experts say, a profile on an online networking site could actually turn into a job.

Charlotte Observer story

Lining Up Interviews Is Just the Beginning

Q. You have had several job interviews at different companies, but still no job offers. Are you doing something wrong?

Full New York Times article here

Careers in renewable energy

If you are advising students who are interested in careers in renewable energy, the emerging jobs in the near-term will be in the private sector with government contractors, as well as directly with the Energy Department. The paragraph below is from an article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, about the Energy Dept struggling to fulfill President Obama's mandate.

"Most of Energy's stimulus spending will be in the form of grants and contracts--the administration of which will be a major challenge for an understaffed and neglected federal workforce. Years of outsourcing and staff cuts have left Energy ill-prepared to handle the onslaught of work and responsibility these programs will require. Recognizing this, Congress has urged the department to hire more federal workers."

For the full article: http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/the-energy-department-ready-to-reboot-the-country

KAS a Star!

Our own fearless leader, Katherine Stahl, appeared on a number of Hearst TV stations last week to talk about - what else - job prospects! Here's one of her appearances.

5 tips for better networking at events

This advice goes against the grain...

from Jun Loayza in Personal Branding Blog

How great is our advising? It's AMAZING . . . and other words!

Here's a Wordle create from our advising comments at our AU Career Center exit kiosk this academic year. Out came our names and titles, and in came the compliments!

And you can create your own by visiting http://www.wordle.net/.

Employers turning to Co-ops/Internships?

Chris Pratt kindly sent this out on our CEIA listserve, referencing a NY Times piece, Recession Could Boost Co-Op Education which says

The recession could give new life to co-operative education," as
"cautious employers 'increasingly see that hiring a co-op graduate is a good strategy, since they know they are getting someone with experience,'" according to Paul Stonely, president of the National Commission for Cooperative Education (NCCE). . . According to NCCE data, "Nationally, 95 percent of co-op students that participate in co-operative education have a job when they graduate," and "more than 60 percent accept permanent jobs from the employers for whom they worked while in school." Companies, meanwhile, also benefit monetarily "because co-op employees do not receive health insurance or other benefits.

Structured internship programs may be similar. Stay tuned.

Photo by madebytess

Young and Old Are Facing Off for Jobs

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — This city has become a front line in a generational battle for jobs, as older workers increasingly compete against applicants in their 20s for positions at supermarkets, McDonald’s and dozens of other places. And older workers seem to be winning.

Full New York Times article here

Demystifying the Federal Job Search

BRAVO to our very own Travis Sheffler and THANK YOU for your fabulous overview of the federal government search and application process! If you missed it, here's his presentation that he tailored for us, with a link here to his presentation for students.

Electronic Portfolios: a Path to the Future of Learning

If we truly want to advance from a focus on teaching to a focus on student learning, then a strategy involving something like electronic student portfolios, or ePortfolios, is essential.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education

Faculty Speed Dating

For all of their big ideas, sometimes faculty are a bit like wallflowers at a high school dance; they need a little push to make the first move. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the University of Southern California is using “speed dating” techniques to encourage professors to work together across disciplines.

From insidehighered.com