Honey! I shrunk the competition!

mousetrap-with-caption

I just posted some thoughts on LinkedIn about marketing your small upstart in a field with more established competitors. I start out talking about mousetraps.

We Americans sure like building better mousetraps. The U.S. Patent Office has issued more patents for mousetraps than any other device, reports Ruth Kassinger, author of “Build a Better Mousetrap.” Yet, the spring-loaded trap is still the most popular, Kassinger says.

Do you have a new mousetrap? How do you get that story out about your new, upstart invention against a well-known, respected market leader?

Marketers of small, young, new organizations may have a good story to tell, but we must figure out how to tell the world.

Like many communicators, I believe that you can’t tell your story without great, compelling content. Let’s suppose you have collected dynamic, shareable content about your organization.

When you’re a small fish in a big pond, how do you get attention for that great content?

Read more …

Thought bubble: On light and thought leaders

beach-sunset

From our recent trip to Hilton Head

I like the light that reflects off the sand at sunset. I like when my porch glows with the indirect light of a summer afternoon, filtered through the tree in my front yard. I even like the soft light of an overcast day.

Photographers know that reflected light can often be more effective than a bright flash. The same can be said for what thought leaders can do for their organizations.

What is a thought leader? I’m going to stick with a very basic definition: A trusted authority who is sought out for her or his expertise.

As communicators, developing your experts into thought leaders can be a successful strategy for promoting your organization.

Social networks, like LinkedIn and Twitter, provide a platform for your expert to bloom into a thought leader, reflecting their light on your organization.

This strategy isn’t without risk. It takes time. Your expert needs to be willing and committed to the work. Once successful, your thought leaders could leave your organization, taking their influence with them. Or she or he could step in a pile and become the source of negative coverage.

That said, the best communications plans have a mix of strategies. The risks of developing thought leaders are not enough to outweigh the potential benefits. We are lucky at Ohio State to have many brilliant experts who are leaders in their field. Our challenge as communicators is how to focus our efforts in a strategic way.

Here are three Ohio State thought leaders I recommend following:

Martha Gulati, College of Medicine professor and cardiologist

Bruce McPheron, dean of College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and an entymologist

Matt Stoltzfus, chemistry teacher in College of Arts and Sciences

The bottom line: Don’t rely on a flash bulb – videos that may or may not go viral, news releases, major events – as your only illumination. Enjoy the reflected glow of your thought leaders. They will help increase exposure of your organization’s ideas and innovations.

 

Though bubble: Not ok — gender pay gap in communications

I may wade into some controversy with this post. Fair warning.

I think it’s OK that communications is a field dominated by women.

That ends the part that is OK.

It is not OK that the men are over-represented in the top positions, though it’s not too big of a gap. And it is really not OK that women in the field earn less, on average, than men.

My organization, as a whole, employs 300-plus communicators in various units. I have enjoyed collaborating with many of my communications colleagues across different areas in the same organization. It is obvious that the great majority of communicators in my organization are women. National statistics support my experience as the norm.

Let’s look at some numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released in 2013.

This first chart shows the proportion of workers in communications-related occupations who are women. They are our field’s worker bees. Anywhere from 57 to 65 percent of people in these roles are women.

fig1-percentwomen

Figure 1 doesn’t concern me too much. The gaps aren’t huge, though it would be nice to have more diversity in our field.

Now Figure 2 shows managers and leaders in our field. The titles in the manager occupation category do not precisely align with the titles in the professional occupation category. I did my best to focus on communications-related titles. The proportion of managers who are women is slightly less than the overall proportion of women in communications fields.

fig2-womenmanagers

This is slightly disturbing, but I expect that management gap to close. In addition, our field has more women managers than the combined category of management occupations, which BLS says is 38 percent women. Does that make it right? No, but I do believe the trends are in our favor on this.

What disturbs me more is the pay gap. Women communications workers and women communications managers get paid less than their male counterparts.

Table 1 shows the BLS salary data for women communications workers. It’s a little complicated, so I follow up with a simpler bar graph. Note that the BLS does not show salary data if the number of employees in that category is less than 50,000.

TABLE 1

Occupation Number of all workers
(in thousands)
Median weekly earnings,
all workers
Number of all women
(in thousands)
Median weekly earnings,
women
Number of all men
(in thousands)
Median weekly earnings,
men
Women’s earnings
as percentage
of men’s
Market research analysts
and marketing specialists
167 $1157 101 $1,029 66 $1,446 71.2
Public relations
specialists
123 $954 75 $887 49 (1 ) (2 )
Technical writers 46 (1 ) 26 (1 ) 20 (1 ) (2 )
Writers and authors 85 $918 43 (1 ) 42 (1 ) (2 )
Miscellaneous media
and communication
workers
47 (1 ) 32 (1 ) 15 (1 ) (2 )

1 Data not shown where the employment base is less than 50,000.
2 Data not shown where the employment base for either the numerator or denominator is less than 50,000.

Marketing specialists who are women get paid, on average, only 71.2 percent of the salaries of marketing specialists who are men, for a gap of nearly 29 percent.

For PR specialists, the number of men employed in that category is less than 50,000, so BLS doesn’t calculate their median weekly earnings or the pay differential. But you can see that the median weekly earnings for all PR specialists is $954, while for women PR specialists it’s $887. Doing some quick math, that means women PR specialists make 85.5 percent of what men PR specialists earn.

Figure 3 is a bar graph showing the two occupations from Table 1 for which we have or can deduce the information on median weekly earnings. The other worker categories do not have enough people employed in those occupations to merit reporting by the BLS.

Fig3-median-salary-occupations

 

Now let’s look at how the women managers compare to their male counterparts in earnings.

TABLE 2

Occupation Number of all workers
(in thousands)
Median weekly earnings,
all workers
Number of all women
(in thousands)
Median weekly earnings,
women
Number of all men
(in thousands)
Median weekly earnings,
men
Women’s earnings
as percentage
of men’s
Advertising and
promotions
managers
68 $1,164 40 (1 ) 28 (1 ) (2 )
Marketing and
sales managers
891 $1,408 392 $1.127 499 $1,660 67.9
Public relations
and fundraising
managers
62 $1,475 29 (1 ) 33 (1 ) (2 )
Editors 132 $902 74 $892 58 $933 95.6

1 Data not shown where the employment base is less than 50,000.
2 Data not shown where the employment base for either the numerator or denominator is less than 50,000.

Again, lots of data missing here from BLS, but we can look at the marketing managers and the editors. Marketing managers who are women make only 67 cents for every dollar a male marketing manager earns. That grates.

At least the editors fare better. Women editors are paid 95 cents for every dollar a male editor makes. (I’ll write a future post on the top 20 occupations for women in the U.S.)

Sadly, not a surprise

Is this pay gap in communications fields completely surprising? No. The average woman in the U.S. in all occupations combined earns 82.2 cents for every dollar a man earns. (Source: same BLS report)

In 2011, a team of researchers from the Public Relations Society of America released a study showing that women in PR earned 78 cents on the dollar earned by men, for a gap of 22 cents. After adjusting for years of experience, the gap narrows to 14 cents, with women in PR earning 86 cents for every dollar a man in PR earns.

Why the gap?

Figuring out the reason for this pay gap is tricky.

The same researchers released a follow-up study in 2012. In addition to years of experience, the researchers adjusted for “manager role enactment, participation in management decision-making, income-suppressing career interruptions, and career specialization.” After adjusting for all that, there was still a gap of 11 percent.

What accounts for that 11 percent? The researchers conclude that gender discrimination explains the gap.

I don’t completely disagree, but I also suspect that as women, we ask for less.

The first time I asked a prospective employer for a salary that I believed I was worth, I greatly undervalued myself. That one decision impacted my earning potential and future retirement savings.

I know I’m not the only woman who has done this.

Why should we care?

Aside from the fairness aspect, this gender pay gap should matter to all communications professionals. Over time, this inequity could drive highly productive women to other fields.

The gender income gap also impacts families headed by women. Paying women less than men has a ripple effect across generations.

You’ve heard the saying, “If you wouldn’t do your job for free, then quit.” In other words, love your career as a vocation. I absolutely do. I work with people who make the world a better place.

And I believe this world will be even better when the gender pay gap closes.

With this post, I encourage my communications sisters to embrace negotiation, understand your true value, and influence business decisions that help narrow those gaps.

What thoughts do you have about the gender pay gap in communications?

 

Lagniappe: Five (plus 2) learning resources for communicators

Like me, most communicators I know have one or both of these strengths: Input and Learner. These are from the StrengthsFinderTM assessment.

book-cover“People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.”

“People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.”

Strengths-Based Leadership, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

In short, we want to know more, and we want to continuously improve our skills.

In that spirit, I offer five learning resources for communicators:

1. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

My favorite way to use this website is to compare what I know about my target audiences with Pew’s data on those audiences’ behaviors. One topic that interests me is the strategic use of social media for health organizations. Here’s a Pew presentation that relates.

Another great piece is on the youth of today entering the workforce. They have grown up in the digital world. IPods, smartphones and online social sharing are the norm. Here’s the article and a quote from the article:

“So, why shouldn’t young employees think it clever and fun to post on their blogs pictures of Apple computers being delivered to the loading bay at Microsoft headquarters? That is what Michael Hanscom, a temp employee for a Microsoft vendor, did and was quickly fired for violating the company’s non-disclosure rules.”

Yikes! What might that look like in an academic setting? The football coach wearing a Michigan sweatshirt?

2. Ragan.com

A publisher and professional development firm, Ragan Communications publishes many e-newsletters for communicators in different sectors. The company also hosts conferences, webinars, and workshops. I subscribe to its PR Daily e-newsletter.

Here’s an article on 10 features that an employee intranet should have. I love #4. Sometimes at 3 p.m., I need to know who has chocolate on hand.

3. Content Marketing Institute

This professional development and consulting business offers guidance and training on content marketing. I like their articles.

In my iTunes U course on Branding, Content, and Social Media, I use Coca Cola examples throughout. They are mostly positive, with only one or two questions about Coke’s intention. Here’s a great article by CMI on Coke’s content strategy.

4. iTunes U

Speaking of ITunes U, I encourage you to browse its course listings. My course is Branding, Content, and Social Media. There are many other courses on marketing, writing, PR, etc.

5. Mindset Digital

Some of you might know Betsy Hubbard and Debra Jasper from their time here at Ohio State. After leaving the university, they built their own social media consulting business called Mindset Digital.

The company’s website offers a page they call the “cheat sheet” that includes all kinds of tips and tricks.

Check it out!

BONUS!

I only promised 5 things, but here are 2 more bonus ideas for Ohio Staters:

That’s enough for now.

What online sources do you use for continuous learning?