Working with College/School PR-Marketing Staff

Someone on one of the CASE list servs asked for tips to help college/school communications and marketing professionals work with the U's main office counterparts to manage their individual brands, etc.

I replied about some of my experiences, so I thought I'd double-dip and share my masterpiece here:

As someone in the mother ship who often works with college counterparts, maybe I can offer you some advice from the other side of the fence:

• First, I would say, be clear on what your brand is. Consolidate items like a basic description of your college, a mission statement, and any logos. Establish guidelines for these. Then, share these items with your contacts in the main office so they can become familiar with them. For example, the College of Arts and Sciences has a policy at our school that the college logo should be on any posters/flyers for departments within the college. They let us know that, and I am happy to help "police" anything from a department that comes across my or our designers' desk. So clear expectations work to your advantage. Believe me, I would much rather work with someone who tells me "This is what we are and this is what we need to communicate consistently" versus someone with no idea. Do not worry at all about seeming too demanding or pushy. As long as you come across in a kind manner, it will be no problem and the mother shippers will appreciate it.

• Second, be a cheerleader for your college who is proactive. I think if college pr people don't keep the main office in the loop or inform them after the fact, the relationship isn't going to turn out well. But, if you are proactive ("Hey, I want to drop you a line that we have this brochure coming out and I'd like you to take a look and make sure you think the U is represented correctly before we send it to print), they will not only appreciate it, they also can help you out through their connections and knowledge. For example, I had someone from the College of Nursing contact me that she was having a meeting with a production company that wanted to film her dean and put the college on TV. Well, you guessed it -- I recognized the name right away as one of those phony companies that steal colleges' money and give you nothing in return (the very thing people are always posting about on here). I told her, and they canceled the meeting right away. I was so glad she let me know so we could save them a lot of trouble and money.

• Third, don't be afraid to be yourself. You have to stand up for your school. I completely admit it: the main office folks can be wrong. We don't know your school/college, its students, programs, profs, and alumni like the back of our hands, like you do. While I think it's great for the main office folks to provide a fresh, outside perspective, at the same time, don't let us ram stuff down your throat. You can stand up and teach us a thing or two so we learn more about your area. There were a couple of postcards going out to students from our College of Engineering that I was working on earlier this year. I thought some of the text should go -- it was wordy and did not make sense to me. However, the college communicator for engineering let me know that students would indeed be looking for those very figures I wanted to cut out. I learned how informed the prospective engineering students are (versus some of the general student populations we deal with). She made her point, and I grew in my knowledge of the college. It was a win-win.

So there you have it, Old College Try readers. I can't help but think some people out there remember the simpler days when all a university could afford was one main office for marketing and communications work!

But how the times have changed. Now the colleges and schools within institutions have grown to have their own brands practically independent and more well-known than their U's. Harvard Law, Wharton School of Business, Eastman School of Music, the list goes on.