Ouch.

I did say that once. A decade ago. Before I became a professor.

I left my job as a copy editor at The Albuquerque Journal in late August 1999, and I started my master’s program at Kansas State a week later.

It’s safe to say that I had a healthy dose of that attitude.

When I sat in my first graduate theory class, fewer than 10 days had passed since I stood at the end of the printing press proofing pages with a red felt tip pen.

When was the last time any of my professors had even been in a newspaper office?

The next semester, I got the chance to teach my own class, and I was instantly hooked — it is one of the great joys in life.

So I stayed in academics, earned a joint doctoral degree at Indiana, taught at Ohio State, and moved to Texas Tech.

Along the way, I opened myself up for the goodhearted jab from my former student newspaper buddy.

Social media to the rescue

But social media change that. I don’t sit in some ivory tower and think about how things used to be.

I could tell my students many stories about the Compugraphic typesetter in my parent’s ad agency. But I don’t.

I could tell my students about countless trips with my dad to Custom Color in downtown Kansas City to have color separations made before anyone even dreamed of Photoshop. But I don’t.

Instead, social media help me keep current, and they help me prepare my students for media careers today.

Hands-on experience with social media

This blog is one way that I keep current. I’m still writing. More importantly, you may notice that the blog has Google AdSense ads.

They don’t generate many clicks, but they do teach me in real-time how my words affect Google’s algorithms. Without this blog, I could only tell students what I read about online ads. Thanks to the blog, I can talk about how AdSense works for me.

For instance, sometimes when you click on my interview with the LPGA commissioner you see golf-related ads. Sometimes you don’t. I’m still figuring out why.

I also can talk about search engine optimization, or in my case search engine non-optimization.

More importantly, social media help me and my students stay in touch with experts in the field.

Experts like you

Twitter has been an invaluable tool for a professor trying to remain a step ahead of the “can’t do, teach” syndrome. Danny Brown, who organized the “Gonzo” event that drove many of you here, has been a great source of information

But it’s deeper than that.

At Texas Tech’s College of Mass Communications, we have an amazing National Board of Directors. Our dean, Jerry Hudson, has assembled an impressive list of media professionals — people such as, William Moll, chairman of Clear Channel Television, and David Fowler, executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather.

These media leaders travel to Lubbock every year. Interacting with and learning from these experts is incredibly valuable. It’s an energizing two days.

But then Saturday comes, and Lubbock returns to the small media market that it is.

If it weren’t for some chance meetings during travel throughout the year, that would be the extent of media contacts for the year.

For an educator hoping to stay more relevant than reading the trade press, social media change everything.

Making connections

I have more guest speakers lined up this semester than ever before. And not one of them will set foot in Lubbock. Most won’t even be in Texas, and some won’t even be in the United States.

Professionals that I’ve met on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn will appear in my class via Skype’s online videoconferencing technology.

And perhaps the most amazing part of Twitter has been that they’ve all said “yes.” Professionals are using social media to be social. They want to connect with students just as we on campus want to connect with industry.

From an educator’s standpoint, I need you to keep connecting, communicating, and conversing. If you’ve come to the blog from Danny Brown’s excellent public relations efforts, and you’re interested in connecting with students, leave a comment.

I’ll get in touch with you, and together we can try to ensure that the next generation of media professionals are the best trained, most prepared ever.

Photo caption: Talking advertising with agency professionals in Columbus, Ohio.

This blog serves as the outreach from my lab to the professional world. My 2009 goals for my career and this blog focus on making better connections this year.

Chris Brogan’s post on three goals inspired me to pin down the goals: relevance, outreach, and relationships.

Relevance

We in academia must do a better job getting our work into the hands of media workers. We must make it relevant.

Brogan said, “Simply, the work I do in 2009 is not about theory.”

Well, the work that I do is about theory. And that’s a good thing.

A good social scientific theory illuminates patterns that never could be seen simply chasing one practical problem at a time. A good theory helps intelligently guide behavior in meaningful ways.

But that’s not immediately intuitive, and it relies upon good theories. There’s a lot of good work being done in communication science. You’ll see me strive here to make it relevant to my students, our alumni, and most importantly, the broader media and social media industries.

Outreach

Relevance goes both ways. I will try to show you how our work is relevant to you. But I also need to know what you’re doing.

That is, I need your help. So I’ll be asking for your help in 2009. In addition to reading your blogs, newsletters, and Tweets, I’ll be contacting you for help. I’ll ask what you’re doing that my students need to know today.

For those of you who are especially generous with your time, I’ll ask you to speak to my classes. Since Texas Tech is in remote rural West Texas, we’ll make good use of Skype.

So many of you already have been generous with your time and offered to share, and for that I am extremely appreciative.

Guest Posts

Part of my outreach will involve writing on other blogs. My goal is simply to get more information about what we’re doing in the lab into your hands.

I love my day job as a professor, and I’m not trying to trade that in. But the word must get out.

I believe passionately in what we do, and I know you’re not hearing about it. Wherever the opportunity arises, I will try to engage you in a conversation about the intersection of research and practice.

Relationships

When we connect and engage, we need to take advantage of that inertia. I believe that we can have a reciprocal pattern of value added relationships.

Your practice and insights will benefit our teaching and research. And our research — and our students who are better prepared thanks to your advice — will benefit your practice.

There is no ivory tower. But there are a lot of talented researchers doing good work but frustrated that their results never impact industry.

Together we can improve industry, individuals, and academics. I hope you’ll start today with a comment below. What can my colleagues and I do to make your media careers and lives better?

Happy New Year!

Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com