Public Relations Is an Act of Love

“Your work should be an act of love, not a marriage of convenience,” said the novelist Haruki Murakami. The Global Communications team at Zhejiang University truly believes this. We spoke to the all-women Global Communications team at the university.

Birth of a new global communications team

I can feel your team’s fresh and powerful vibe. When was the team built?

CHEN Weiying: This office started in April 2017. The mission of our team is to promote the university’s reputation globally.

AI Ni: The first project we completed was the global website revamp. The old website was too outdated. It was not even mobile-friendly!

YE Ying: It was such an unattractive site! No one wanted to click anything on it! (laughs)

AI Ni: We completely revamped the website together and started posting news updates almost every day.

CHEN Weiying: Next was social media. We used to have only Chinese SNS accounts like WeChat and Weibo but they are not for a global audience. We opened up Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn and started updating everything in English.

What role does each member play?

CHEN Weiying: The team is small, so we do everything together. But each of us owns one or two key responsibilities. Ms. AI is in charge of the website, Ms. YE is in media relations, and Ms. HE creates content for news, SNS, and publications.

AI Ni: You know what? None of us come from a marketing or PR background.

YE Ying: We collaborate a lot and solve problems together.

AI Ni: And we all work very hard, don’t we? (laughs) Just the four of us manage quite a lot of work!

Being drawn to the university and its culture

Can you tell me why you all chose to work in this Global Communications team?

AI Ni: Should I go first? I was in academia in the US for about 10 years. I wanted to switch to university administration and applied to ZJU. I guess ZJU offered me this position because I’m quite familiar with the international culture and perspectives.

YE Ying: I am a ZJU graduate. I did both my bachelor’s and master’s degree here.

Why did you want to join your alma mater?

YE Ying: Because I really love this university! I first joined as a program coordinator for partnerships with German and Asian universities. I later applied for this position because global promotion is very meaningful and gaining more importance these days.

HE Jiawen: Mine is the same story. I am also an alumnus of this university, and I joined because I love the university so much.

CHEN Weiying: You know what? I am also a ZJU graduate!

Really? Three out of four of you are the university’s alumni?

YE Ying: Yes. I think there is something about ZJU. We all have a strong attachment to our university, so we are willing to do something to contribute to our alma mater.

What makes ZJU so special?

HE Jiawen: Let’s see. Maybe it’s because I am from Hangzhou. It’s a dream university everyone wants to go to, so I feel proud of working here. Even my parents were happy when I told them I got this job!

YE Ying: I share the same sentiment because I’m from Zhejiang Province, but that’s not all. As you may know, Zhejiang University is one of the oldest, most traditional universities in China, yet this university has a very young, active, and innovative culture. I studied here for 15 years, and I’m really grateful for the benefits the university provided me.

What kind of benefits?

YE Ying: Many great experiences. I have studied as an exchange student in Germany; I had the opportunity to partake in several international conferences and workshops in various languages, and so on.

The campus and my interactions with you have given me a sense that ZJU has a very open culture!

AI Ni: That’s true. ZJU is very open. This culture probably stems from the entrepreneurial spirit of Zhejiang Province. People like to collaborate with others. If you want to be successful in business, you have to work with other people.

CHEN Weiying: We have the breezy east coast culture that Shanghai has. The province is rich, a great place to live in, and has good weather. Unfortunately, today is cloudy (smiles).

Philosophy behind the new global website

I like your new global website. The content has been carefully curated to keep only the essentials, and it’s very easy to navigate to relevant information.

AI Ni: Thank you! It’s because we are really thinking about the international users.

CHEN Weiying: The website traffic has seen a 17-fold increase in six months, and 98% of the visitors are from outside China.

AI Ni: The website is the starting point for anyone interested in the university—students, media, future partners, and research collaborators. Our job is to make it easy for them to find the right information and right contact so that we do not miss out on a great opportunity of collaborating with them.

It was pretty easy for me to find your team’s information on the site.

AI Ni:  Having visitors contact us isn’t the end of our work. We also care about what happens next. So we sometimes conduct mystery shopping and contact our university as fake students to gauge the experience.

Really? How do you do it?

AI Ni: It’s kind of fun！Last time I pretended to be an American-born Chinese student from the US, and emailed the contacts of all the 44 colleges, schools, and departments listed on our site and recorded how they responded to the inquiry.

CHEN Weiying: We check how fast and how well they respond, and assess the quality.

AI Ni: Then, we make recommendations to the senior management of all the schools. It’s a way to shake up the university and get them to take the quality of communication very seriously.

Other universities should do that too.

CHEN Weiying: In fact, other Chinese universities have visited our office to learn what we do, to build a similar department of Global Communication.

AI Ni: Chinese universities had their own method of working and communication was done only by a few people, but many of them now realize the importance of global reputation. It’s important to have communication professionals on the team.

News and SNS

 You are active on social media. What’s the purpose of each account?

HE Jiawen: Facebook and Twitter are for news distribution to a wider audience. Instagram is for student engagement. LinkedIn is often used for attracting job candidates.

Isn’t it challenging to find news to post every day?

HE Jiawen: We collect news from all news sources. Our secret is that we have a student media team. There are around 15 students in the team who work as campus journalists and collect photos and news stories from the campuses. DAI here is one of our journalists.

DAI Zhiyi: We create a list of activities that will take place on campus at the beginning of every semester and keep working on it. Some of us go to the events, take photos, write articles and submit to Ms. HE.

How do you know what will happen on the campus?

DAI Zhiyi: We have a better idea about what’s happening around the campus than teachers do. We have a radar for finding new and interesting things.

Why did you join the student media team?

DAI Zhiyi: My major is advertising, so I am interested in communication. Also, I thought this is a great opportunity for brushing up on my English.

You seem proficient in English. Did you grow up overseas?

DAI Zhiyi: No. I studied English in ZJU. The university has a really good English class. I also had the opportunity to study in Sydney for an exchange program thanks to the university’s partners.

What would you like to do after graduating from ZJU?

DAI Zhiyi: I am actually thinking about pursuing my postgraduate degree in global communication. I find it very interesting.

CHEN Weiying: She’s good, isn’t she?!

HE Jiawen: Our students speak good English, but she is one of the best!

What drives their passion

What makes you so passionate about your work?

AI Ni:  It’s our website. If there’s something you are proud of at work, you feel confident even when you are tired or stressed out, right? I am proud of the website we built, so every time I look at the website, I feel happy because it reminds me of the good job I’ve done. I’ve done a good job (smiles).

YE Ying: For me, I think it’s seeing the number of followers of our social media channels increasing. I also feel excited when I receive an interview request from international media, because it means that our work is drawing global attention.

HE Jiawen: For me, it’s my students. I was a student only two years ago, so I feel connected to them. They give me new perspectives every day.

CHEN Weiying: A lot of exciting projects happening in ZJU motivate me, but I would say my team is the source of my passion. I feel happy when I talk to them, and I feel I am so blessed to have them around me!

That’s an awesome answer.

CHEN Weiying: We have to do something new every day. We work hard and learn together. So, all of us feel very excited when we see the improvement of ZJU’s brand reputation.

AI Ni: It’s actually a very exciting and fulfilling job, because you feel you are a part of something big and can see the impact you make.

Stepping out of the comfort zone

What challenges have you taken on?

YE Ying: My practical challenge is finding ways to broaden our promotion channels. Science journalism is very challenging work to have an impact in a short time. There’s a lot to learn.

CHEN Weiying: My biggest challenge is getting people outside this team to be aware that they are the most effective channel for promoting this university. Each faculty member, student, and administrative staff member can be the ambassador of ZJU. I hope everyone realizes their importance and becomes a part of our initiatives.

That must be a challenge in any university. How would you tackle it?

CHEN Weiying: We have to make our team more visible in the university, and let them know we are here to help them support the promotion of their research. I believe as long as we continue our work and get results, they’ll see the impact of global communication.

AI Ni: Every day is a challenge. Each of us is good at something, but we have to step out of our comfort zone and challenge ourselves to become better communicators. We are still learning.

CHEN WEIYING

CHEN Weiying is Deputy Director. She is responsible for team management, annual strategic planning, and mentorship. After getting her Ph.D. from Zhejiang University, CHEN started her career as a lecturer at ZJU and later became an associate professor of linguistics at the university.

YE YING 

YE Ying is Senior Manager. She is responsible for media relations. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at ZJU and joined the Office of Global Engagement in 2000 as a program coordinator for the partnerships and student exchange programs with European and Asian universities. She directs media relations and promotes news for ZJU.

AI NI 

AI Ni is Senior Manager. She is responsible for strategic communications and global website management. After working as a researcher for 10 years in the US, AI moved to university administration. She’s the webmaster of the university’s global website and uses her in-depth understanding of international perspectives.

DAI ZHIYI 

DAI Zhiyi is a member of the Student Media Team, which is made up of volunteer students who are responsible for curating campus news for social media. DAI joined the team for a hands-on experience of media communication.

HE JIAWEN

HE Jiawen is Administrative Staff. She is responsible for news, content production, SNS, and management of the Student Media Team. HE earned her master’s degree at ZJU, worked for the university as a program coordinator for international partnerships, and later transferred to her current team.

This article is part of ScienceTalks Magazine issue Riding the Big Wave of China’s Academic Internationalization.