As an adjunct faculty member of the University of South Carolina’s School of Mass Communication and Information Studies, I am constantly interested in and involved with my students and the way they receive and disseminate information.
Also, being a journalism major myself, I am keenly interested in how social media is being used to report the news. Read the rest of this entry »
Email is such a vital part of today’s marketing mix. Already, much has been written about President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign and its highly effective use of new media and direct marketing tactics to tap into and engage with a wide base of supporters. Many say this strategy gave Democrats the crucial edge needed to win this year’s election.
It wasn’t just Obama’s presidential campaign that used email effectively this year; it was the Democratic National Committee program as a whole. They followed email marketing best practices to engage and inform their subscribers, as well as solicit donations.
Here are a few lessons we can all take away from the DNC’s email program from the past year: Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve heard–and agree that the gap between expectation and reality is called disappointment. In the world of critical thinking if that gap is about something important to you and the gap is big enough to matter then it’s also a problem. The challenge in some situations is knowing when you should settle for disappointment or accept the situation as a problem you want to try to solve.
With all the writing and commentary on our new President-elect, we are reminded daily that forty years ago a sniper took the life of a man who refused to let discrimination and bigotry remain a lingering disappointment–he embraced the civil rights of all Americans as a problem that needed a solution. A problem he wanted to solve. While in many ways and in many places, that problem is still painfully alive 40 years later, Martin Luther King’s enduring efforts to address the deep issues–the root causes of inequality and injustice give us a model of persistent endurance and relentless determination that other problem solving initiatives should follow.
Today is a good opportunity for you to look in your world and ask yourself, “What disappointment am I accepting that needs more than a sigh–it needs a solution?”
Don’t settle for disappointment when you can have a problem–a problem that’s dying for a solution.
Last month I received an email from a potential student who would be taking my spring semester class in the Journalism School at the University of South Carolina. It went something like this, “Dear Professor Butt, I am blah, blah, blah and I will possibly be enrolling in your J545 Creative Advertising Strategy class. Since I couldn’t find you listed at RateMyProfessor.com I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me.” He then went on to ask my thoughts (and enforcement) of class attendance, timeliness of turning in work and my ability to be flexible with his demanding work schedule.
Needless to say, I laughed and sent his email to the listserv at the school for all faculty and staff to enjoy. I then immediate went to ratemyprofessor.com and found myself, indeed absent. But I did discover something interesting (besides the ratings of some of my peers). I found a good many websites and information available that make the college experience a lot more transparent. Read the rest of this entry »
It may be better to give than to receive, but for those on the receiving end, there’s no doubt real-world gifts are better than virtual ones. No surprise, then, that we’re seeing the emergence of more and more ways for online friends to give each other offline presents. The latest? GetThemIn, which allows UK Facebook users to send each other real alcoholic beverages. Read the rest of this entry »
