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Public affairs operations, communications overlap, and engagement strategies at research institutions like Harvard University The Role of Communications and Public Affairs in American Universities Christine M. Heenan Vice President for Public Affairs & Communications Harvard University 18 October 2013
How do we operate? What are our big-picture goals? Harvard Public Affairs & Communications
HPAC GOALS • Report, broadcast, and amplify stories that reinforce Harvard’s excellence and preeminence in teaching and learning, as well as its unparalleled reach • Portray Harvard as a convener of the best minds and brightest thinkers, and as a powerful platform for developing, sharing, and debating ideas. • Interest government stakeholders and other target audiences in the belief a that Harvard is: • Relevant to people and societies around the globe, regardless of their connection the University • Making the world a better place through scientific research and talent development • A generator of solutions to pressing world problems through policy, practice, and research • Reassure neighbors of Harvard’s commitment to and involvement in its surrounding community in Allston, Boston, Cambridge. • Deliver on the brand promise of the enduring, iconic, and traditional Harvard • Reach potential students and their families with a message of Harvard’s affordability and accessibility • Communicate Harvard as a community of openness, diversity, opportunity, and breadth What are the big picture goals?
Maintain position as the most powerful talent magnet in age of increased competition • Create powerful and enduring associations between Harvard breakthroughs, innovation, and solutions(press coverage, research citations, community reports) • Sustain and grow philanthropy to the University through both alumni and non-alumni donors • Maintain federal support for university-based research; reaffirm and defend university organizational model • Broaden and increase audience of interested stakeholders, and allies in Allston, Cambridge, Commonwealth, and Washington DC MEASURES OF SUCCESS What does success look like as we think about the big picture?
So – how Do we align and Structure ourselves to achieve this?
Manages relations with local officials, influence leaders, neighborhood groups, businesses and non-profit agencies and serves as Harvard’s liaison to its host communities • Supports capital projects by coordinating the public process to optimize support for projects and facilitate regulatory approvals; shaping community benefit strategies and public information about projects • Works closely with civic leaders and local residents, and their work involves management of major issues such as negotiating PILOT or addressing regulatory change that impacts the university • Directly manage engagement and educational community programs in Boston and Cambridge. • Working with HPAC’s communications team, the team showcases Harvard’s local engagement and positive economic and social impacts with external audiences. COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Acts as the primary liaison with state government at both the legislative and executive level • Work closely with a broad range of the University’s internal offices, from the General Counsel to Operations Services, to identify and influence legislative and regulatory issues that impact Harvard’s educational and research mission • Manage issues ranging from student financial aid, research regulation and funding to endowment, tax, and compliance issues INTERGOVERNMENTAL & STATE RELATIONS
Act as primary liaison with municipal governments, officials, and agencies • Work closely with a broad range of the University’s internal offices, from the General Counsel to Operations Services, to identify and influence legislative and regulatory issues that impact Harvard’s educational and research mission • Manage land use, tax and regulatory issues with University colleagues in capital planning and project management and others BOSTON & STATE (MA) RELATIONS
Based in Washington, D.C., manages Harvard’s interactions, with Congress and the Administration on federal policy developments impacting higher education in general and Harvard in particular • Provides timely information to policy makers in an effort to shape national trends on support for financial aid, sponsored research across the range of scientific disciplines, and tax policies that provide incentives for charitable giving and foster a regulatory regime that encourages research and education • Maintains a web of connections with officers and leaders across Harvard to better inform our efforts as well as to identify emerging issues and develop positions • Has particularly close interactions with the research-intensive campuses that are dependent upon federal research support, the sponsored research officers, and compliance professionals of all kinds • Represents Harvard with various higher education associations, other colleges and universities, the Massachusetts delegation, within the Administration, and Harvard’s active alumni FEDERAL RELATIONS
COMMUNICATIONS • HPAC is the nerve center for the University’s communications efforts, whether that involves spreading the news about the good work of its faculty and students or protecting its reputation in times of crisis. • In addition to collaborating with public information officers at the Schools and coordinating messaging among the units of the Central Administration, HPAC has its own team of Public Information Officers responsible for areas that map to University priorities and a professional staff of writers, editors and photographers who produce stories and multimedia packages about campus life and academic achievement to be shared across campus and pushed out to external audiences. • HPAC communications officers develop strategic communications plans for major announcements or in response to developments with reputational risks to the institution. Members of the department work closely with the Office of General Counsel, the Harvard University Police Department, Human Resources, Campus Services and the Planning Office, and the offices of the President and Provost on a daily basis. • Communications is also responsible for media monitoring and reports, in print, broadcast and digital, both daily and when news is breaking in real time.
Manages client-funded communications, marketing, and project management for departments across Central Administration. • Manages photography and multimedia teams that create digital assets to showcase research, document events, and help tell stories for the Harvard Gazette and clients across Central Administration and FAS. • Oversees Harvard branding guidelines and other graphic design work for clients in Central Administration and FAS. COMMUNICATION SERVICES
THE HARVARD GAZETTE • The Gazette is Harvard University’s central news and communications vehicle providing coverage of the campus, the administration, the faculty, the students, the staff, and the surrounding communities. It also reports developments across the University’s dozen Schools and departments, working to build a stronger sense of community across campus. • Over the last two years, the Gazette has undergone some sweeping changes, embracing new technologies and platforms for a new age. • The Gazette team produces content for three platforms: • Harvard.edu: Staff-generated content is the primary focus of Harvard.edu, which receives 2 million page views per month. The redesign of the site permits a constant flow of fresh content from the Gazette as well as Schools across the University. • Gazette Online: This site has approximately 600,000 page views per month. The online Gazette showcases staff-written stories, administrative-based content, and press releases. Allied digital staff members expand the Gazette’s impact by funneling stories through rapidly expanding social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. • Daily email Gazette, which debuted in September 2010, is sent to Harvard faculty and staff (although anyone can sign up for it). Its initial list of 44,000 recipients has grown to more than 70,000. The daily provides three stories, three featured calendar events for that day, as well as special announcements, podcasts, and videos. The online and print Gazettes make up the majority of the content, but may include story links to websites from across Harvard.
DIGITAL • Since 2009 the University has made major investments in its web presence, and advanced its distribution of Harvard content across the social web. • Working in partnership with AA&D, the digital team is responsible for setting the University's public facing digital and online strategy and implementation • Delivers messages, many of them driven by Gazette content through innovative and effective outreach to the media and the public and its global alumni audience, moving toward broader engagement with online communities as we move toward a capital campaign. • Managed platforms include: Harvard.edu.; alumni.harvard.edu; iTunesU; Harvard’s YouTube Channel; University and alumni mobile apps; all social platforms.
MESSAGES TO ENGAGE ON THE PUBLIC BOUNDARY Strategies for Developing your message in new media and advocacy environments
SIX RULES for effective messaging & engagement on the public boundary • Understand the environment • Build your message (and stick to it!) • Know your audience, rely on research • Use language that cuts through the clutter • Be smart about the media • Manage your message across all channels (old and new).
RULE 1 Understand the environment.
People get information in new ways – and instantly. Source: Pew , State of the Media 2013
A new model for understanding the media: • Traditional media: Mainstream, broad reach; Print and broadcast • Hybrid Media: “Born digital”; Blogs that act like media companies • Owned Media: “Every company is a media company” (websites, apps) • Social Media: Highest consumer and mobile engagement
RULE 2 Build your message, and stick to it.
What is a message? • A MESSAGE is a simple, central idea that drives communications strategy and is underscored through supporting messages. • It’s a phrase or assertion that creates the overall framework for communicating about your effort—it is the trunk of the communications tree.
def. MESSAGE [mês-íj] A limited body of truthful information which is consistently conveyed by an organization to provide the persuasive reasons for an audience to choose and act on behalf of their agenda. Source: Marla Romash, Romash Communications, 2010
ORGANIZE YOUR MESSAGE Message Squares Message Triangles
4. BUILD YOUR MESSAGE Organize your message SUPPORTING MESSAGE SUPPORTING MESSAGE CENTRAL IDEA SUPPORTING MESSAGE
ORGANIZE YOUR MESSAGE SUPPORTING MESSAGE CENTRAL IDEA SUPPORTING MESSAGE SUPPORTING MESSAGE SUPPORTING MESSAGE
MANAGE OBJECTIONS WITH MESSAGE IN MIND • Don’t let “mud puddles” become “sand traps” • Don’t be defensive or refute legitimate objections • Accommodate different points of view without being knocked off message CENTRAL IDEA
MANAGE OBJECTIONS WITH MESSAGE IN MIND Some tools to help
MANAGE OBJECTIONS WITH MESSAGE IN MIND Some tools to help
RULE 3 Know your audience. Rely on Research.
CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCE: HOW WILL THEY RECEIVE YOUR MESSAGE? Keep in mind… PEOPLE WILL → • Believe what they want to believe • Follow their own dominant attitudes/ stereotypes • Respond to emotional connotations • Yield to repetition • Respond to the prestige of the messenger • Conform to fellow listeners • Try to be rational despite emotional responses
Pop Quiz: Who do you trust most? When thinking about current events, public policies, or major issues, how much would you trust each of the following types of people to provide a generally unbiased perspective? Would you trust each one... a great deal, some, not very much, not at all? A university scientist The head of a philanthropic organization A university President A health care professional like a physician A corporate CEO A U.S. Senator A TV commentator
POP QUIZ How important are these factors to building your trust in a company? Is an innovator of new products, services or ideas Works to protect and improve the environment Transparent and open business practices Listens to customer feedback Creates programs that positively impact local host community Widely admired leadership Consistent financial returns to investors High quality products or services Treats employees well Communicates frequently & honestly Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2013
UNIVERSITY MESSENGERS ARE AMONG THE MOST TRUSTED IN THE US… Source: Edelman Trust Barometer, 2013
UNIVERSITY MESSENGERS ARE THE MOST TRUSTED IN THE US… Source: Edelman Trust Barometer, 2013
CONSIDER THE MOST TRUSTED SOURCES WHEN CONVEYING YOUR MESSAGE… Source: Edelman Trust Barometer, 2013
RULE 4 Use language that cuts through the clutter.
USE LANGUAGE THAT CUTS THROUGH THE CLUTTER… • Use clean, clear language • Use colorful metaphors, anecdotes, first person testimonial • Use powerful assertions (when they make sense) • Use contrasts and comparisons
CUT THROUGH THE CLUTTER… • Use facts and details to support your message, but don’t let facts and details overwhelm your message • When in doubt, choose anecdote over analysis (blend them, ideally) • Use clean, clearly understood words, not “bureaucratese” or “double speak”
CUT THROUGH THE CLUTTER… • The rule of threes • “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” • Contrasts and comparisons • “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” • “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” • Extremes • “If the States do not have the right to secede then they have no rights at all.” • First person testimonial • “I drive a Toyota as you would imagine. My wife is in a Toyota. Both my children are in Toyotas. My parents are in Toyotas. My friends and family, everyone I know are driving Toyotas. I wouldn’t put those people in Toyotas if I didn’t think those vehicles were safe. They are safe.” Jim Lentz, President Toyota Motor Sales USA
What gets through? “Paying taxes is like going to the zoo. Admission is twenty bucks. You can’t walk in and go, “Here’s $18.50. I don’t like zebras.” Jon Stewart, on the rationale behind the Stupak Amendment. Analogies (and humor!)
What gets through? TBD First person testimonial
Rule 5 Be smart about the media.
