{"id":979,"date":"2011-05-12T13:44:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T17:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?p=979"},"modified":"2017-04-20T00:03:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T04:03:14","slug":"themes-from-meetcontent-great-content-through-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/themes-from-meetcontent-great-content-through-branding\/","title":{"rendered":"Themes From #meetcontent: Great Content Through Branding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Duck
"School spirit is just a higher ed term for brand enthusiasm." - Nathaniel Boyle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Monday\u2019s post, Georgy talked about the theme of relationship management and content strategy<\/a> from our panel discussion last week: Creating and Sustaining Higher Ed Web Content That Works<\/a>. Another theme that emerged from our discussion was the role branding plays in effective higher ed content with relation to identity, delivery, relevance and community.<\/p>\n

Branding and Identity<\/h2>\n

A college brand is its story. It represents its values and community. It allows people to relate and connect. Facts and figures don\u2019t define your institution—your messaging does. It\u2019s not what<\/em> you say but how<\/em> you say it. Effective content needs to describe your institution so people can imagine themselves in your community.<\/p>\n

Mike Petroff<\/a>, web manager of enrollment management at Emerson College<\/a>, discussed how colleges often have a generic view of content, focusing on facts such as program descriptions and statistics, rather than on on-brand content that defines their specific college experience.<\/p>\n

\n
On-brand content tells your story.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

"What separates us from that next school right down the street? Yeah, we have different majors available, but what about our students\u2014what are [they] looking for?" he asked. Mike discussed ways to reach students with stories. One suggestion was to feature content that captures faculty-student interactions reflective of your institution\u2019s specific brand, rather than having a faculty member simply talk about her class.<\/p>\n

On-brand content brings your college to life online through storytelling, providing insights that can\u2019t be expressed by facts alone.<\/p>\n

Branding and Delivery<\/h2>\n

Samantha Snitow<\/a>, assistant director of alumni relations at Tufts University<\/a>, discussed the challenges of managing your brand across multiple delivery channels within your institution\u2014particularly when different groups manage those channels.<\/p>\n

A single department does not own your college brand. Every facet of your institution shares the responsibility and execution of branding. Samantha highlighted the value of collaboration between departments and content creators to ensure that all communications are on-brand and represent your college\u2019s content goals.<\/p>\n

Branding and Relevance<\/h2>\n
\n
Your brand helps make content relevant for your audiences.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Your brand helps make content relevant for your audience by putting it in the context of your community. Off-brand content appears irrelevant because it\u2019s out of sync with your core messaging. As panelist Charna Westervelt<\/a>, director of internal communications at Wellesley College<\/a>, said: "Content has to support the brand, or else it all falls apart."<\/p>\n

Remember, you constructed your brand messaging to support your website goals and users\u2019 needs. Off-brand content threatens these objectives.<\/p>\n

Branding and Community<\/h2>\n
\n
Branding is the bridge between content and community.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If a college brand is its story, what role does it play in social media and online community building? A big one. Branding is the bridge between content and community. It makes content meaningful and relevant. Content becomes valuable when community members can see how it relates to their college experience. It becomes part of their<\/em> story.<\/p>\n

Panelist Nathaniel Boyle<\/a>, web producer at Boston University<\/a>, offered one of my favorite quotes from our discussion: "School spirit is just a higher ed term for brand enthusiasm." Indeed, your community’s online conversations are extensions of your brand. Content you publish in social media fuels these conversations—if it\u2019s off-brand, you\u2019ll be dampening enthusiasm instead of igniting it.<\/p>\n

Your Content, Your Brand<\/h2>\n

Your content influences people\u2019s perception of your brand whether you plan for it or not. Content affects your college\u2019s identity. "Whatever your content is," said Charna, "it has to be genuine and unique to your institution." Off-brand content undermines your content goals, compromising relevance, value and trust.<\/p>\n

Establishing branding guidelines is important. In addition to visual branding, you need a message architecture and style guide to define your core values, voice, tone and editorial style. These documents enable content creators to support their institution\u2019s brand as well as their own communication goals.<\/p>\n

This is hard work, no doubt. How do you support branding at your institution? What are your challenges or success?<\/p>\n

Photo by virtualsugar \/ Flickr Creative Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Monday\u2019s post, Georgy talked about the theme of relationship management and content strategy from our panel discussion last week: Creating and Sustaining Higher Ed Web Content That Works. Another theme that emerged from our discussion was the role branding plays in effective higher ed content with relation to identity, delivery, relevance and community. Branding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[30,57,46],"yoast_head":"\nThemes From #meetcontent: Great Content Through Branding | Meet Content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On May 3, Meet Content panelists discussed the role branding plays in effective higher ed content with relation to identity, delivery, relevance and community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/themes-from-meetcontent-great-content-through-branding\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Allen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/themes-from-meetcontent-great-content-through-branding\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/themes-from-meetcontent-great-content-through-branding\/\",\"name\":\"Themes From #meetcontent: Great Content Through Branding | Meet Content\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-12T17:44:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-20T04:03:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d3e40b514e15560916ba3b6fb2518aa1\"},\"description\":\"On May 3, Meet Content panelists discussed the role branding plays in effective higher ed content with relation to identity, delivery, relevance and community.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/blog\/themes-from-meetcontent-great-content-through-branding\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/\",\"name\":\"Meet Content\",\"description\":\"Empowering higher education to create and sustain web content that works\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d3e40b514e15560916ba3b6fb2518aa1\",\"name\":\"Rick Allen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meetcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be76a4374dcc6803c24130f023afb15b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be76a4374dcc6803c24130f023afb15b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Allen\"},\"description\":\"Rick Allen has worked on the web in higher ed his entire career helping shape communications and content strategy. 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