Introduction

WELCOME!

For most of its existence, higher education didn’t do much to seek out its audiences. Instead, it made the audiences seek out higher education. Well, those days are long gone. Branding in higher education is a big, competitive business.

This blog is about the branding of higher education, how it works, and how it can benefit you, your career, and your school.

If your institution of higher learning—university, college, school, department, professional school, prep school, private/public, you get the idea—is not involved in branding, your institution will lose. I guarantee it. The days of branding being beneath higher education disappeared years ago.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

This blog will show you, in easy-to-digest posts, how to create a brand for your school. If you’re not terribly familiar with branding in higher education, this is definitely the place for you. If you’ve been in the field for some time then I invite you to share your thoughts here and help our new colleagues. We’ll talk about communication, marketing, media relations, public relations, publications, alumni relations, rankings, web communication, social media and how it all relates to branding in higher ed.  I have two goals for the blog: 1) Get people exchanging ideas, thoughts, and questions about branding, communication, and marketing issues in higher education and 2) Help newcomers learn about the field.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

After eight years in television sportscasting, I changed careers at age 29 and became a communication professor. A few years into my teaching career the university’s president invited me to move into a public relations position at the school. It was 1995. The web was really just getting started and nobody knew what to do with it or what it would become. (Can you imagine? No web?! No Google searches? Cell phones weighed about five pounds then.)  Anyway, I loved the job but I had to learn on the fly.  There weren’t many books on the subject then. In fact, only a couple of universities had marketing or branding personnel. So, besides the occasional conference, CASE, IABC, and PRSA, there weren’t many places I could go to learn the business. That certainly has changed, but we still lack places for quick and easy idea exchanges and education. I’m hoping to provide that with this blog.

INVITATION

Whether you’re new to higher education communication & marketing, a transfer from a related field, or someone with a ton of experience in higher ed branding, I invite you to be a part of this discussion. Please subscribe, tell others, and post your thoughts. Hopefully, we can help newcomers learn quickly while also advancing the discussion in our profession.  Thanks.