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Jaggers Communications

Jul 13
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Fostering Community Conversations in Education and with Media

By Communications, Media, Social Media

It was a really exciting week for the Jaggers Communications team. On Tuesday, we hosted area leaders in education communications in a roundtable discussion that was so inspiring and gratifying. We’re big fans of education and fostering good digital citizenship so it’s exciting to be part of the evolution of our community adopting social media from students to parents to faculty and administration.

Last night we held a tweetup — a public gathering of folks who know one another from social platforms (mainly Twitter) but have not necessarily met “in real life.”

The purpose of the tweetup was to introduce members of the Charlottesville media to those in the social media community and generate discussion about the intersection of social and traditional media. As members of the community who depend on news organizations and who often represent or help generate news ourselves, it’s important to foster healthy discussion about transparency, timeliness, and how evolving technology affects our ability to both consume and produce news.

Our panelists, from left to right included (that’s me, in the purple, moderating): Brian Wheeler from Charlottesville Tomorrow, our co-host for the event, Rick Sincere, columnist at Examiner.com, Graelyn Brashear, news reporter for C’ville Weekly, Amanda Williams, executive producer, NBC29, Travis Koshko, chief meteorologist, the Newsplex, Carter Johnson, anchor/reporter at the Newsplex and Nate Delesline of Work it, Cville, the Charlottesville Business Journal and Daily Progress.

We had such great feedback from both events this week and are excited about planning future conversations.

Jul 12
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Tweetup with the C’ville Media — Tonight! #Meetthecvillemedia

By Communications, Media, Social Media

Tonight at 5pm, we’ll be gathering at CitySpace http://charlottesvillearts.org/cityspace/ for a fun and informative Tweetup — a Tweetup with a purpose. For those of you playing the at home game, you know we tried to hold this even a month ago and there was a power outage that forced us to cancel it at the last minute. That makes me even MORE excited to be finally hosting tonight’s event. Here’s the skinny:

Meet the faces behind the Twitter handles at this free, casual event hosted by Charlottesville Tomorrow and Jaggers Communications!

Charlottesville Tomorrow  and Jaggers Communications are bringing people in our community together to inform and engage in this unique event. Tweet-up with members of the media and the local Twitter community. 5pm — 7pm Thursday, July 12 at CitySpace. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
We will be moderating a short panel discussion about the intersection of traditional media and social media; how news is delivered and travels in our community. Joining us for the discussion will be:
Join us for some fun discussion, interesting people and a little food and beverages. See you at 5pm! If you can’t make it, follow along virtually with #meetthecvillemedia on Twitter.

Jun 22
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Better Business in Charlottesville

By Communications, Marketing, Public Relations

Teri Kent is my hero. Truly. Teri started Better World Betty as a resource for all things green in our community. Then, she took it to the next level, creating, managing and executing the Better Business Challenge.

Last night, the Jaggers Communications team was delighted to be present as friends of the firm walked away with awards they earned by converting to a paperless system, reducing waste, increasing recycling efforts and reducing energy consumption. It was a fine display of environmental stewardship and we were proud to be applauding fans of the effort.

Teri has been at the forefront of the whole effort. She’s professional, efficient, inspiring and enthusiastic. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.

We’re also so proud to be affiliated with, neighbors and friends of participating organizations including Rebecca’s Natural Food, Woodard Properties, Beer Run, Camp Holiday Trails, Center for Nonprofit Excellence, the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, C’ville Coffee, Eppie’s, GreenBlue, Jean Theory:, and Relay Foods. Congratulations to all the winners and, indeed, to all the participants; this effort is just another reason we’re so proud to be part of the Charlottesville community.

 

 

 

Jun 13
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Nine Tenths of Crisis Communications is Stifling the Rumor Mill

By Communications, Crisis Communications

It seems the majority of the Charlottesville community is in violent agreement about the mishandling of the resignation of University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan. I am continuing to focus on the communications gaffes; above all, the assumption that the Board of Visitors could “control” the message by releasing the news on a Sunday morning. As the lack of information perpetuates, now three days past the announcement, speculation abounds.

When releasing sensitive information to the public, it’s important to be clear, specific and as transparent as possible. The Board of Visitors’ failure to do this and satisfactorily provide the explanation of how the dismissal/resignation occurred and why has only served to fuel the collective imagination of the community. And boy do our imaginations run wild.

How much better it would have been, if the messages had been delivered in an organized, clear and cohesive manner. How much less damage control would University staff have to do, if clarity were employed, if planning of message delivery had been managed and a group effort was evident.

I’m not addressing here the obvious issue of the resignation not making a lot of sense . . . but rather the failure to appropriately communicate it to the world.

If you’re trying to avoid the extra work of putting out rumor fires, be up front with your information in the first place.

Jun 12
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How UVa Handled the Announcement of President Teresa Sullivan’s Resignation

By Communications, Crisis Communications

On Sunday, June 10, the University of Virginia released the news that Teresa Sullivan, a president with just two years’ tenure, had been asked to resign. I talked at length with Coy Barefoot on WINA Newsradio 1070, Charlottesville: Right Now on the topic of how the news has been handled.

The challenge with releasing news such as this is that no matter what it’s going to be a shock. There are going to be questions that are either unanswerable or not available for discussion, based on legally binding arrangements among the affected parties. The decision to hold the press conference on a Sunday morning was smart; missing the Sunday paper news cycle and letting the community wrap their collective minds around the information before the opening of business on Monday sidestepped a lot of immediacy in the need to be reactive. Of course, a sudden dismissal of this kind can rock the reputation of a university and of a community that depends so heavily on a university as its major employer, and UVa should be mindful and careful to monitor its online reputation as discussion of Sullivan’s dismissal ensues.

In crisis communications, we urge clients to share news with transparency and reassurance, and the University has focused their messaging on the future: what steps the University is taking to recruit and place a new president. While explanations for the action are somewhat vague and unsatisfying to the community, it’s likely that very few details beyond what we know now will be revealed.

What do you think about how the University has handled the news?

From C’ville Weekly:

“Around 11:30am Sunday, students and faculty received an e-mail from UVA Rector Helen Dragas and Vice Rector Mark Kington announcing that Sullivan would resign on August 15. Sullivan, who was quoted in the e-mail, said she and the Board had “a philosophical difference in opinion,” but didn’t elaborate.

At an emergency meeting with vice presidents and deans later the same day, Dragas briefly discussed the budgetary hardships faced by the Board and implied a difference of priorities between members and President Sullivan.

“We have calls internally for resolution of tough financial issues that require hard decisions in resource allocation,” Dragas wrote in a memo summarizing the meeting that was posted on UVAToday. She said the compensation of UVA’s employees is continuing to decline, and the challenge of filling vacated spots is “truly an existential threat to the greatness of UVA.”

The Board still has personal respect for Sullivan, she wrote, but indicated it wants a leader who is more bold and proactive on tackling difficult decisions.

“We are living in a time of rapidly accelerating change in both academia as well as in health care,” Dragas said at a press conference on Sunday.

“That environment, we believe, calls for a different approach to leadership.”

Read more:

The Washington Post 

C’ville Weekly

The Huffington Post