TAG - education pr

Millennials – those born between 1981 and 1996 – make up approximately 23 percent of the global population, making them the largest adult generation worldwide according to the World Economic Forum.

Hi Laurence,

Public relations (PR) can be key to an organisation’s success. It helps to shape public perception, build credibility, and manage communications effectively. Whether you’re a PR professional, or a senior leader considering PR, here are six fundamental PR questions and answers to help you navigate this field.

Across the globe, business schools and universities are locked in fierce competition for the best and brightest students. From MBA programmes to executive education courses, institutions are not only tasked with delivering world-class education - they also need to consistently attract new waves of applicants who are informed, selective, and often overwhelmed by choice.

As a business school or university, students are integral to the existence of your institution. After all, what is a school without the individuals who want to learn?

If you were to ask a group of people, “What does business school PR involve?” you’d probably get one of these three answers:

As the holiday season approaches, professors, students, and staff are looking forward to a much-needed break after what has likely been a busy and challenging year. While the festive period is a time for relaxation and celebration, it is also an excellent opportunity for business schools to make a lasting impression on prospective students.

Press releases can be one of the most effective communication tools. They’re a quick way to disseminate information widely to a targeted audience, and a well-written press release can demonstrate professionalism and credibility for your business school.

Public relations is often all about improving and increasing the image of a brand or institution. It makes sense that a key part of the process is therefore measuring its success. Just like anything else you invest in, you want to make sure the service you get is worth it but, in the PR industry, is that easier said than done?

Once academic research has been done, it is important for that research to be exposed to people, to the general public, and for the important messages of the research to be broadcast widely, for its findings to be disseminated and thereby being able to effect society at large. This is as important for researchers as it is for research itself; professors are assessed more and more on the academic and wider “impact” of their research.

For business schools and universities, PR plays a critical role in shaping perceptions, enhancing visibility, and engaging prospective students. An interview may be brief, but the article that comes from it can have long-lasting effects.

Writing an academic research paper can take a few months to several years. But the work doesn’t stop once the paper is published. Now it’s time to think about promoting your findings in the media and on social media.

The pop girlies are having a moment this year. Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX can all teach us a thing or two about effective PR campaigns.

Showcasing the strengths and advantages of an MBA programme is crucial for institutions to present their best aspects to the world and potential students. Many stakeholders have an interest in the MBA being shined and shown off, such as current students, other institutions offering MBAs, board members, faculty, and alumni.

Rewind to 2017, in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, prominent Brexiteer Michael Gove famously said “people in this country have had enough of experts”. Though to many this seemed like a stupid statement – surely you can trust the experts the most?

Regardless of ranking, prestige or the specialisms a business school might offer, there is little doubt that part of what makes a programme uniquely valuable is the cohort.

McKinsey’s ‘war for talent’ isn’t restricted to businesses anymore; it rages throughout the business education sector too. Business schools compete to attract the most talented students into their flagship programmes.

Academia and the media go hand in hand, and today business schools and universities are becoming increasingly aware of why engaging with the media is valuable for not only their professors, but also their institutions as a whole.

Today, the world is always online. Increasingly, what matters is what happens online. When an event of any notes happens, its ramifications are debated online. Now, public and personal opinion is decided on the internet. Brands and companies have never been more concerned about what happens online. Reputations are bought, busted, and buoyed on the internet. Although the feelings people have toward brands and companies still happen in people’s minds (for now), the content each person works with to form opinion is primarily found on the internet. For these reasons and more, digital PR has never been more important.

From multinational corporations to pop singers to business schools, no reputation is ever static. A brand’s reputation is fluid and ever-changing – just look at Taylor Swift.

Why you need to leverage alumni success To attract star talent to your MBA programme, you need to show why your MBA is the one to take; to demonstrate that it is dynamic, lively, relevant and, above all, fundamentally worthwhile.

Nothing irritates me more than when I’m reading something and I come across the aggressively vague remark that ‘online learning is here to stay’.

If knowledge were a form of currency, business schools would be printing presses. These prestigious institutions produce hundreds if not thousands of research papers every year, most of which have the potential to significantly benefit societies around the world, covering topics as diverse as reducing tax evasion, environmental stewardship, ethical leadership, and much more.

Diversity and inclusion within companies, business schools and in the media has become a much wider discussion over recent years, and rightly so. More and more people are learning the importance of inclusion, and more action is being taken every day. Whilst there is still a long way to go, every step taken is a step closer to equity. Business schools are no strangers to this, with many schools championing themselves as leaders in diversity and inclusion. This is often seen through their communications efforts, but how exactly is it done and why is it so important?

Thought leadership is a phrase that is often thrown around in the business sphere. To be a thought leader essentially means being an expert in a specific area and positioning yourself as someone people look to for advice on that topic.

Research is essential to society as it provides answer to questions of what, when, how and why. Without it, we wouldn’t have answers to key social, environmental, and economic issues that we have faced in the past, currently, and in the future.

Securing media opportunities for faculty is one of a university or business school communications professional’s most important responsibilities.

The best research communications specialists are, to all intents and purposes, bilingual. To do the job well, you have to be able to converse fluently in complex academic terminology and translate it into the language of the everyday without simplifying or dumbing down.

Did you know that PR stunts can have real impact? Even for business schools and universities, a PR stunt can raise considerable awareness about the institution or an important individual. PR stunts can take many forms, but in order for them to work, originality is key.

Yes, they’re the Dean. Yes, they are the head of the school. But no, they shouldn’t be your only spokesperson.

In the fast-paced world of public relations, where the news agenda evolves rapidly, professionals often find it challenging to keep up with an ever-changing landscape. Nonetheless, planning in PR is crucial to success! By developing a comprehensive PR plan, you can effectively navigate the media environment, align your messaging, and capitalise on opportunities. And a PR plan does not have to underscore every last detail! In fact, in such a dynamic world, being adaptable is a huge advantage…

A timeless truth, understanding what the media is after will always be fundamental to media success, irrespective of the specific year.

Higher education institutions often strive to set themselves apart from the crowd. For their programmes to be viewed differently – more innovative, more industry-focused, more competitive, better respected – from similar market offerings. The ideal of being “unique” is highly sought.

Students are at the heart of every business school or university. They are the future leaders of our society, and the drivers of change in many institutions. A university or business school’s success lies with the constant flow of eager, inspired, and motivated students. This is why it is essential that all communications teams know how to entice and influence potential students to their campuses and courses.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you can’t have escaped talk of ChatGPT. You can’t browse any blog or social media site these days without seeing the answers to questions people have asked the AI bot, tips on how to use it, concerns over plagiarism, and fear that students will take advantage of the tool for essay writing.

Learning from your success is great – but learning from your mistakes? Even better.

In the world of PR and media relations, perception is everything. Optics are all that matter. Nothing is as important as what you see.

Press releases are a fantastic tool for PR professionals, they can get your brand’s messaging and your business school’s research in numerous publications – including top tier. But this only happens as long as they are crafted effectively.

Results, sadly, do not speak for themselves. Make no mistake, they are still an important part of an institution’s prestige, but relying solely upon them to uphold a reputation is like constructing a one-legged chair: recline upon it at your peril.

International media coverage is one of the goals which business school PR departments can target with their PR campaigns. Not only does international recognition build a school’s brand at a much larger scale, international coverage can also be used to reach new markets for student recruitment, promote new courses, and showcase successful alumni, among other things.

Effective PR is about generating those opportunities for fruitful publicity; the proof is always in the pudding.

When it comes to planning your next PR campaign, you need to consider all aspects of your approach. PR is more than just media relations, it often involves all aspects of external communications and, with the increase in digital platforms to share content on, it is important that your campaigns are managed strategically.

For many PR agencies, the instinct to run a firm that appeals to as many clients as possible through generalising their expertise is common. However, at BlueSky Education we believe that the most effective form of communications comes when you concentrate your efforts on defining your ‘niche’. In other words, we think that it is important to become an expert in your chosen industry – and in our case, that is business education.

If you’re working in business school or university communications you’d be forgiven for sighing when you see that this blog post is dedicated to the topic of rankings.

Once upon a time, you may have heard a school of thought that PR and SEO were two different methods of promoting an organisation or website, and would always remain as such. That line of thinking has now been thrown out the window following the mass migration of media to digital platforms, leading to the birth of a new concept: SEO PR. But what is SEO PR, and how can it benefit your institution?

LinkedIn boasts an impressive 830 million members in more than 200 countries worldwide. So surely it presents an opportunity for the savvy PR? However, like most social networking sites it’s overcrowded and noisy, making it difficult for anyone to make a real impact.

The role of the media relations team within business and higher education institutions is not an easy one. Straddling the worlds of fast-paced news and considered academic exploration it can be tricky to match your institution’s expertise to a journalist’s needs at the right place and time.

In Education PR, there are a number of different approaches you can take to boost the profile of your business school or university in the media depending on what your specific goals are.

Faculty members who are comfortable and experienced at dealing with media relations are an invaluable asset – largely because they are so rare.

So you’ve chosen a PR agency.