Still Working For An A? Or Have You Given Up On It?

Frustrated with the poor results they're getting from their online surveys, a couple of students have said to me: This isn't going to work. The students aren't interested. They won't complete the survey. What do we do? We want to get an A!

Because I spent more than 30 years in the field as a hands-on communications and marketing practitioner, I tend to think like a manager, and not a teacher, when I face challenges in the classroom. What would I do as a manager if an employee came to me with the issues that I'm hearing now from students?

How will you make it work?
Of course, that's not entirely fair because students are not employees. Employees are supposed to know better! Students are supposed to run into roadblocks, and then rely on their teachers to help them figure out the answers. I'm all in favor of that (which is why I'm writing this blog on a Saturday afternoon), but at the same time, the sooner that students understand that managers want results (not questions, or problems, or a defeatist attitude), the better. Managers want employees who will resolve the issues and get the job done. "Don't tell me why it won't work," managers often say to their employees. "Tell me how you will make it work!"

I'm not hearing much of that from MCM 201 students these days!

Making it work -- the major challenge we're facing with our online survey project -- requires several things from students:

Believing in the project
Believe that the project can work. For many of you, I don't think you do. So I want to ask you:

1. How much do you believe in your survey? 
2. How much time have you committed to the development of the survey? 
3. Are you proud of what you produced?

Implementing a campaign
It will take more than one email to friends to get the results you need. Your email campaign needs to be repetitive, as we discussed in class. (Each student was expected to create three email pitches and send them over a period of time to their personal lists). But email is only one technique -- there are many others. So I want to ask you:

1. What are the steps of your campaign?
2. How much time have you and your teammates spent figuring out the campaign? 
3. What else can you do to create interest in your survey? 
4. How many emails will you send? 
5. How many phone calls will you make? 
6. How many text messages will you send? 
7. Did you consider using Facebook and Twitter?
8. What else will you do?

Now is the time to be creative. Now is the time to motivate yourself. How valuable is an A to you? Is it worth writing the SurveyMonkey URL on your forehead and walking around and asking students to go to the site and complete the survey? . . . Is it worth calling 50 students in person and asking them to go to the survey and complete it? . . . Is it worth bringing a laptop to the campus and pulling people over to it and asking them to complete the survey?

You must have a plan. To say "it won't work" or "they're not interested" without showing evidence that you have a plan, and you implemented the plan, is not demonstrating that you've learned anything. Just putting in time and coming up with reasons why things didn't work . . . that's not worth an A.

Revising the campaign
After you implement the campaign, you evaluate the results and determine what to do next. So I want to ask you:

1. How much time have you spent evaluating the results?  
2. How often have you logged in to your survey to look at the results? 
3. How many people have you asked if they've completed the survey for you? 
4. Team Leaders: How often have you talked to your team members in the last three days to keep the momentum moving? 

Continuing the implementation
After you evaluate the results, then you decide the next steps. You can either continue to do more of the same because it's working, or you can re-think the campaign, re-design it, and implement new ideas. So I want to ask you:

1. What has worked?
2. What can you do to get more results?
3. What ARE you going to do? 

As future implementers in public relations and advertising businesses, you will be expected by your employers to "figure it out" and not simply throw up your hands and say it can't be done. Even in the classroom, it's not acceptable to give up. Nor is it acceptable to try a methodology that doesn't support the goal of the course. For example, yes it would be easy to print the surveys and walk around the campus and ask people to complete them off-line, as one student suggested. But that's not online PR, is it? But you could bring a laptop to campus and walk it around and ask students to complete the survey.

Much more you can do, if you want to
From what I've seen and heard (and sadly, it's not been much) there are so many more things that can be done. In the real world, we would offer incentives, i.e. a coupon for a free appetizer in exchange for completing the survey. At the university we have some limitations, but we're not totally without incentives. What favors are you willing to do for someone who does a favor for you? Businesses ask and answer that question all the time. So I want to ask you:

1. Would you buy someone a cup of coffee if they completed your survey? 
2. Would you help them study? 
3. Would you proofread a paper for them? 
4. Would you give away cookies or cupcakes or chocolate? 

Now we'll find out how much an A is worth to you!

There's so much more you can do, if only you'll make the commitment. I can't do that for you. This project, as I explained from the outset, requires a commitment from each team member. It depends on people working together and it depends on teams working outside of class time to complete the project. With few exceptions, I've not seen Teams working together or with a purpose. I still hope to see it!

Chances are, while I'm posting this on Saturday afternoon, most students won't even read it until Sunday in class, or maybe even Tuesday, by which time it will be too late to make a difference. Nonetheless, for those who do read it, here it is. Accept the challenge. 

Don't give up on your project. It's too soon! Giving up now means an A wasn't all that important to you anyway.