Florida International University (FIU) is the fourth largest public university in the country. As Director of Social Media, I am partially in charge of a large social media footprint. The sheer amount of social media profiles and the difficulties of managing at scale is a common pain point for big and large universities, private or public. The brand architecture for the FIU brand is complicated and extensive with multiple stakeholders. To this, I add the issue of the brand voice having multiple owners, which leads to another realm of issues. The same issue applies to companies that have multiple locations or iterations.
My above brand voice article mentions consolidation as a possible remedy to a smaller, more effective social media presence. The ideas I am about to present will seem radical to some, logical to others, and daydreaming to some (myself included). Due to my role, these make sense to me; they will be borderline heresy to others.
Confusing Naming Conventions
Schools or colleges structure most universities with different departments. For example, I will take our largest college, CASE (College of Arts, Sciences & Education). CASE has the following programs: biology, earth and environment, English, liberal studies, chemistry, mathematics, philosophy, physics, psychology, women’s and gender studies, counseling, education policy, and teaching. Outside of FIU, not many people know that CASE holds all of these departments; the same applies to other FIU college acronyms such as CARTA and SIPA. These acronyms make sense to an internal staff and faculty audience, but they don’t for students and external audiences. All of CASE’s social profiles are @FIUCASE. Yet, the name seems oddly internal-facing and not very search-friendly.
Less Is More
How can we simplify FIU’s brand architecture and make it easier to understand? My proposal would consolidate social media channels and rebrand most of them. For example, the science programs within CASE could live in a @FIUScience channel.
In the same way, topics of human development such as psychology, teaching, women’s, and gender studies can be grouped. Grouping similar topics with common words like science, nature, engineering, health, and business, to name a few, makes it much more user-friendly, helps discovery, and is much easier to remember. Remember that school and program names change and evolve; CASE did not come to be until 2016 and will likely change sometime in the future. A topic name will stand the test of time better than an acronym, thus saving time and rebranding pains. Remember, this does not impact school, college, or department names. These will promote the social media handle to which their program will belong.
Here’s an example of a possible brand architecture, replace EDU with the name of your institution. Student organizations should remain independent.
SUBJECT
- EDUSCIENCE
- EDULANGUAGE
- EDUHEALTH
- EDUBUSINESS
- EDUARTS
- EDUENGINEERING
- EDULAW
- EDUHUMAN
- EDURESEARCH
CENTRAL
- EDU (Flagship)
- EDUTODAY (Events)
- LIVEEDU (Housing)
- JOINEDU (Admissions)
- EDUPRESIDENT
- EDUALUMNI
- EDUGOV
WORKATEDU (HR)
SUPPORT
- EDUSAFETY
- EDUFACULTY
- EDUINTL
- EDUFINAID
- EATSHOPEDU
ATHLETICS
- EDUATHLETICS
- EDUSPORTS
- EDUCOACH
It’s Not That Simple…
If you are in the Higher Education space, by this time, you have probably scoffed or agreed a few times and are painfully aware that this is a very complicated if not impossible ordeal. To succeed, the plan needs to be led by the central marketing and communications organization, and social media owners in each area must have a close working relationship with the central team. For a plan like this to work, it needs to have complete leadership support and be known through a formal memorandum. You must plan to manage expectations, especially social media handles that include a donor name.
This makes sense to me on paper, but Academia is very complicated and has multiple nuances that can make an initiative of this type daunting. I encourage you to explore how you can simplify your brand architecture to the benefit of a more consolidated voice that will eventually benefit both the students and the institution. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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