Organizational Communication in Business
University Marketing
This blog has been up for some time already and I did not start this because I’m nerdy like that, haha. This is actually a fun requirement for one of my major subjects, Organizational Communication 153 (Communication Trends and Styles). One of the goals of this project is for Organizational Communication students to penetrate the new social media sphere and be ambassadors of the degree program. Moreover, this is a public relations initiative of my professor to sell the OrCom-UP Manila brand to graduating high school students. A similar approach is being done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Real Portal to Campus Life
The institution’s Office of Admissions tapped 12 student bloggers (selected through a writing aptitude screening) to write about their life in the university. Here’s the catch: MIT did not impose any rule to their bloggers. Kudos to MIT for respecting the liberalism of the new social media (unlike Mikey Arroyo). Anyway, it’s not only MIT who started to embrace blogging for university marketing. Amherst, Bates, Carleton, Colby, Vassar, Wellesley and Yale are just some of them. These institutions realize that high school students (the potential customers) are getting tired of the first-hand crafted messages done by the institutions themselves. These academic institutions realized that the real window to campus life is through student blogs. Moreover, these blogs created interaction with potential students and even made MIT listen to the concerns of their own students—hitting two birds (internal PR and external PR) with one stone.
Kim's 
Let us contextualize this with business organizations. First, consumers are tired of traditional, vain advertising. They want a real-life experience from a real human. Second, so far, corporate blogs are done mainly for the consumption of external consumers, specifically for future and present customers. I just wonder if there’s any company that lets their employees blog to market the the company as an employer. Can you name one?
And of course, when would the Office of Admissions of the University of the Philippines start a similar project?
News Article Source: The New York Times
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parang SA no? imbis na secretarial and blue collar work, you blog! ok sken yon. hahaha. UPM READ!
about 2 years ago
Kahit nga ata traditional advertising wala ang UP e.
)
about 2 years ago
I hope our very own university will have that kind of page too! It’ll fun to share experiences about our course and it will surely attract graduating high school students. I wonder if there’s a university in the Philippines that has adopted that approach.
about 2 years ago
@ nikki..I think DLSU and ADMU has already adapted the approach, but for UP it will take like 10 years before doing this approach, but if an ORCOM graduate becomes a UP PResident, expect an approach like this!hehe!
about 2 years ago
admu has a blog page in its website. i dunno with DLSU; i didn’t bother to check
UP has none. I’m not surprised? So if UP won’t, my classes can! LOL.
about 1 year ago
Hi fellow Orcommunicologists. I came across this page (way beyond the period of your conversation) while finding online sources of data on UPM Orcom. I agree with the observation that UPM does not advertise in the traditional way. Some units in UP Diliman, does, for example, UP ITTC (before) and if I remember right, a certain track / specialization of our College of Medicine. Would you believe that they received some criticism for advertising?
(When I say advertising, I mean one of the tri-media.)
Unfortunately/Fortunately, being chartered the National University makes advertising almost irrelevant if not anti-thetical to the idea of a public university. Any form of advertising entails cost–be it money or time or energy or whatever. Considering that your teachers (ehem, Barry) almost give their service and time for free (in light of their very meager pay), advertising is not just economical.
Of course, I could say also that we do not need to advertise. We have been recognized by the people (Read: Filipino PEOPLE) already as THE University that represents them. We need not sell any of our courses.
However, I agree that blogging of alumni and students about their experience in UP is a good way of marketing the program / school. I also agree that our programs may need some form of marketing (information dissemination: For example, “What is Organizational Communication?”).
By the way, Alps asked if there is a company that allows its employees to blog…. I don’t know if this has already been answered. But my answer is yes. Microsoft, in particular, is one BIG example. They allow EMPLOYEES (ie, not official Microsoft announcement but officially recognized as employees of Microsoft) to blog about their observations on software that Microsoft creates, including their criticisms and fears about certain software patches. In Organizational Communication, I remember it is part of public relations.
Probably, to finish this response, this communication is marketing the program (no longer simple advertising). UP Manila does not have a blog but CAS has! Of course, we have to clarify what exactly do you expect of blogs, anyway? Online journal, announcements, personal expressions, or what? Orcom students, faculty and alumni can play a big part in marketing (designing, producing, packaging, communicating and delivering) the degree program and the University in general.
Of course, every one who passes through the walls of CAS UP Manila is a walking advertisement. Even without speaking
.
Just my unorganized thoughts. Join the Orcom Website Project?
about 1 year ago
Hi Sir Ricky! Wow, too long a comment but I read the whole of it. Whatever happened to the OrCom website?