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Media Strategy
Depending on your circumstances and your goals, you might want to inform people about a situation at your institution or in your state through student or local media, existing video-sharing and social networking sites, or a simple website.
It is highly recommended that each chapter maintain both a Facebook page and a Twitter account in order to help spread messages and encourage communication to members and the larger public community.
Taking some time to talk through your strategy will make your communications more effective. Some questions to consider:
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What are your chapter’s goals for public communication? Every message your chapter issues, whether to your members, a reporter, or a wider audience, should serve to advance the chapter’s short- and longer-term goals. What you want to achieve should be a first question when planning a particular communication.
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Who can help you achieve your goal and how? Each communication method a chapter employs can speak to different audiences. Are you trying to involve students in order to pressure the administration on a particular point? Then think about what communication tactics are mostly likely to reach students. Ask which reporters speak to the audiences you are trying to reach. A newspaper in the state’s capitol, a local radio or TV station, and a national higher education reporter each speak to different readers and viewers. Make sure you have identified key allies to enlist in your campaign--as well as opponents whose arguments you may need to counter.
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Whom do you speak for? You will have more strength and credibility with an organization behind you—an AAUP chapter or conference, the faculty senate, or an ad hoc coalition or committee devoted to one issue.
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Do you need national or local media attention? Often, you will get more bang for your buck and your time by concentrating on your campus, town, or state. If, however, your situation is in some way remarkable—affecting a large number of employees or students, for example, or involving violations of academic good practice—you may wish to contact the national media. Two main outlets for higher education news are the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Additional higher education news outlets that are worth considering include Open Campus, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, and the Hechinger Report. The AAUP can also offer advice to chapters about selecting media outlets or posting chapter stories on the Academe Blog.
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Designate a person to manage your chapter’s social media accounts. Not everyone feels comfortable using Twitter or Facebook for professional communications, but it's important that a chapter designate one or two people to manage its social media accounts. This is a great opportunity to tap the strengths of your chapter membership and locate someone who is already proficient in using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or other social media platforms. Planning social media to complement your work and engaging colleagues, students, and the public online can help spread your message more widely. While audiences and tastes shift, the conventional wisdom suggests that chapters use Facebook to reach supporters and members, Twitter to reach media and the wider community, and Instagram for students.
