Derek DeVries

Community colleges across the country are finding ways to teach, market and communicate using various forms of social media. In this rapidly changing environment it is challenging for professionals to stay up to date on the latest trends and functions of a social media landscape. In many cases, higher education has led in the adoption [...]

In the kampy 70s-era Batman TV series (and movie), Adam West’s titular character was always trying to extricate himself from a supervillain’s trap by “reversing the polarity.”  It’s one of those pseudo-sciencey terms that pre-teen kids find believable (even nerdy kids who like Dr. Who). Colleagues and I have joked before that the marketing budgets [...]

Online nothing goes away, and anything can come to light if enough time and pressure are applied. George Zimmerman is about to find that out because the Miami Herald found his MySpace page.  I’m kind of surprised this didn’t come to light sooner.  In a bit of dark humor, he was just awarded the “In [...]

Recently someone in Grand Rapids, Michigan started adding Banksy-esque stenciled images of former president Gerald Ford on walls downtown.  The first image that appeared depicted a standing figure of Ford, which later had a word bubble added with the words “Motu Viget” (the city’s motto which is Latin for “Strength in Activity”). Another figure appeared [...]

One of the first places people go (from Google, that is) for quick answers and information is Wikipedia.  The size of the audience it commands, and its ability to become a critical resource for developing the narrative from current events mean that it’s of critical importance to any public relations professional. Unfortunately the PR community [...]

A disturbing trend has ramped up over the past couple of years: employers demanding the login credentials for the Facebook accounts of their employees.  Another example of this cretinism reared its ugly head here in Cassopolis, Michigan at Lewis Cass Intermediate School District where teacher’s aide Kimberly Hester was fired for refusing to cough up her [...]

Congress member Bobby Rush (D-Il) was recently removed from the floor of Congress for wearing a hoodie in protest of the shooting of Trayvon Martin.  The rule used to remove Rep. Rush dates to the 1800s and mandates that the wearing of hats on the floor is prohibited.  Hoodies are apparently considered to be “hats” [...]

On March 11, 2012 I did a pre-conference workshop at the 2012 Conference of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR).  It’s an organization for marketing and PR professionals in higher education at 2-year colleges.  Below you can find the resources from that presentation (the slides, handout, audio, and some video). If you [...]

I threw this chart together for a presentation I’m doing; it includes current numbers for some of the more prominent social networking platforms (including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify, Wikipedia, Foursquare, Pandora, Digg, etc.).  Hopefully I’ll be able to kick out updated versions every few months. [Updated to include MySpace - originally I had [...]

March 7, 2012 marked yet another holiday for geeks (and especially poseur geeks) as another Apple Wednesday unveiled a new iPad, Apple TV, and Ver. 5.1 of iOS.  Here are my Top Ten Fake Apple Wednesday Announcements: 10.  Included in the code of iOS 5.1 are the text of suicide letters from Foxconn employees. 9. [...]