How an Internal Blog Can Help Reposition Your Marcom Team as Strategic Leaders

Once considered primarily a news bureau focused on media relations, the role of the marketing and communications department has and continues to shift dramatically. And while higher ed marketers certainly know that marcom today is responsible for more than just responding to media inquiries or producing brochures, many of our clients still struggle to shake the existing campus perception of a news bureau or internal Kinko’s center. In fact, in our 2014 CMO study, almost half you agreed with the statement: “Others around campus generally think the marketing department’s primary role is to produce brochures.”

One simple way to help your team navigate the shift and win support from others on campus is to start an internal blog. Whether it be via Tumblr, Medium, or hosted on your university website, the purpose of an internal blog should be two-fold: 1) Serve as an internal resource for those in marketing and communications roles across your university 2) Share and celebrate successes with your community on a regular basis.

Not only will this help marcom be more widely understood and respected across your campus, it can help develop valuable partnerships with your coworkers and position you as a strategic leader and resource rather than simply the brand police. And down the line, when you have a major initiative – research, rebranding, website design, social media campaign – or just have new resources available on your brand site, it offers a fantastic platform to share progress, gather feedback, and inform some of your key internal audiences that you’ll want involved.

Here are a handful of great inspirations from higher ed and beyond:

1. The marketing team behind the Refinery29 Intelligence Tumblr site focuses on email marketing and social media strategy, posting updates and insights as they continuously improve and optimize their platforms. They do a great job of sharing concrete data and visuals that help demonstrate the various user research and tests they regularly conduct.
2. Colorado State University consistently posts tips and best practices, outlining the successes and failures of their innovative social media team. West Virginia University regularly documents their hugely successful experiments on Snapchat and other social media channels. Duke University, Princeton University, University of New Hampshire, and University of Michigan also each have their own blog that includes helpful case studies, news and trends primarily focused on social media.
3. The University of Bath truly offers a behind-the-scenes look at their Digital Marketing & Communications team, regularly sharing notes from their digital team’s latest sprint and outlining what is planned for the week ahead. They include important status updates as well as lessons learned from across web, social and other topics.