Posted by Lisa Trubitt on February 8, 2010

IT Branding and Who Sends What

November 13

Verbal Recap; chat archive can be found at bottom of this page

Part 1: Branding

• • Cathy McVey – Branding presentation Focusing on specific issue at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio Branding is more along the lines of establishing a “personality” if you will. Miami’s color are red and white with some black in the logo. The ITS logo was blue and orange and it didn’t really go with the university logo or say anything about who we are or were. We went through a really thorough branding process, it had to work in a variety of sizes and work in black and white and color, unify the multiple units within the divisions. Our graphics people came back with a really wide variety of possible logos. Came up with a “final” design, then the graphics designer came back with additional versions of the “I” as a person and the “I” in “IT” with a circle around the “IT” that represents the power button on a computer. Our web site really pushed us to finalize the logo for the new design.

  • Carlyn - Rice University We got a new VP for IT around 2004 and he said we needed one logo to create unity in IT. Even when other IT groups wanted to tweak the logo for their own purposes, the VP said “No” because we all needed to understand that we were all on the same team. Then a few years later, we got a new VP for Public Affairs and the branding of the entire university began and we fell in line with that. Question to group: is anyone registering their logo?

  • Melanie – UTEP We did almost the same thing as Miami. Had some struggles, but our own department sets the rules. We didn’t register the logo.

  • Larry - U Hawaii Our university’s logo is registered and branded and we can’t adapt that logo for our use.

  • Chris – Syracuse Our university’s logo policy is also pretty strict, we can’t adapt the university logo/web site for our own purposes. That is a pretty common practice. Usually there is a secondary solution, a text treatment. Driven largely by senior leadership who care about the branding initiative.

  • Cathy – Miami One of the things we’ve seen is there is a difference on branding enforcement depending on the audience. Since our site is primarily for current students and employees, there is less of a requirement for us to comply.

  • Melanie – just have to have the university referenced in our internal publications.

  • Chris – Syracuse Sometimes it feels like we are groping our way through the web site branding. It may just be easiest to use their (Public Affairs’) templates

  • Cathy – Miami We will be dropping our site into the university’s web template as soon as it is ready.

Question to group: Do you brand your email messages in anyway?

• • Melanie – UTEP Until recently I used colors and branding. Orange meant it was an outage, etc. but we got to the point where we found people just wanted a plain message.

  • Cathy – Miami Project managers, every time we bring up a new service, etc. they want a brand for it. We’ve tried to standardize or funnel through the existing brands, but it is a constant challenge to keep that communicated.

  • Melanie – UTEP We keep the “button” the same size for everything – Blackboard, LiveMail, etc. and they all fit into a standard. It keeps it very clean.

  • Chris – Syracuse One of the things I try to get my staff to realize is “if this is not something we are going to promote, we don’t need to brand it.” Example: if it is a system that will only be seen by our analysts, there is no need to brand it. We do look for a signature look and style for the items we do brand.

  • Larry – Hawaii We have 10 campuses on 5 islands. Each campus has its own look and feel. What the university as a whole has done is to create a template and then assign a particular color to each island. That is how they are “customizing” for each campus.

  • Chris –Syracuse Yes, us too. That’s why everything is in Cascade.

  • Cathy – Miami For us, only the university can have a “logo” and the rest of us can have “wordmarks” which is what Baylor is alluding to in the chat.

  • Larry – Hawaii Oh, yes. that’s what we in Hawaii refer to as our “identifier.”

  • Chris – Syracuse If you’ve got this really cool Flash program as part of your web site, it doesn’t work in all browsers. So the simple word marks are usually best.

  • Melanie – UTEP Those page wide banners drive me crazy. I have a blackberry and the banner takes up my whole screen. Our designers all seem to have a 24-inch monitor and then I go to open it up on my 13-inch laptop, it doesn’t work

  • Cloy – North Dakota State Our designers have a really good handle on that But on email, has anyone found a good solution for dual formatting for email?

  • Carl - Baylor I started using group mail when I was at Pepperdine, but I haven’t found that solution or something similar at Baylor.

  • Cloy – ND Our web mail is set up to use text only. I had heard about but not found email readers that could take the straight text and turn on the graphics.

  • Chris – Syracuse Keep in mind that even if the reader allows you to read graphics, you might not want to include it as is without optimizing the graphic for email. People need to learn how to optimize graphics for email just like they have for web sites.

  • Melanie – UTEP We have a web site where they can load a jpg or other image and it reformats for optimizing, but it still has a lot of problems. People aren’t getting/reading the instructions on how to load an image so that it is optimized best.

  • Chris – Syracuse “Constant Contact” does a good job of describing well for someone who isn’t a graphic designer what will work and what doesn’t load into email. We’ve had very good luck with them, even for surveys, etc. Very reasonably priced.

Part 2: Who Sends What - Carl Flynn – The Many Faces of ITS presentation (or, Who is authorized to send message from IT)

It depends on what we are communicating and how it is communicated. Planned Outages, Unplanned Outages, Policy/Security Reminder, Service/Event Promotions, IT campus newsletter, and the Miscellaneous messages. It’s really planned chaos. We are probably most proud of our Planned Outages message. There is a form that has to be approved by the Associate Vice President and manager. Then there is the scheduling of the outage, and a pending outage form emailed to all IT Staff and Leadership which gives them a 2-3 day window to push back. If there is not a lot of squawking, then an email goes to all faculty, staff and students regarding the outage, updates pushed to the web site and to the DOWN line (a voicemail listing any “down” services). The email has to include which systems are affected by the outages and the time line. We don’t have outages every day or every week, and our customers love being informed about what is not available. They feel empowered by our communications and the different ways

• • Q: from John @ NC State – how do students get information if there is a weekend outage?

  • A: we send an email to all students several days before the outage.

Back to the presentation…for Unplanned Outages, there are two phases – during business hours or outside business hours. If something happens during business hours, whomever notices, they tell the VPs office and the Help desk and an assessment is made on whether or not we need to notify the campus. We have a 20 minute rule – if something is going to be down 20 minutes, we need to communicate it to the campus. A few months ago, a major trunk line was severed in Dallas and we lost our connection to the outside world here in Waco for 7 hours. We still had internal communications and our VP sent messages to the community regarding the outage. Also started up the Twitter feed for updates on unplanned outages. For other business hours outages, we keep the IT staff and leadership in the loop even if we don’t send out a campus message. Once the outage is resolved, the Help Desk updates the DOWN line message, a message goes to all IT staff and leadership, the Twitter feed is updates and the event is summarized for our records and send to me and I turn it into a press release and send it to the news media (student, etc.) For after business hours, we have a light overnight crew and a member of that team has access to our reporting and the DOWN line and Twitter. They can also contact the appropriate Associate VP for that area, make decision to communicate or not, notify IT leadership, labs, etc if problem will not be resolved before classes resume. When resolved, update the DOWN line and Twitter. Policy and Security Reminders sent out annually from Assistant VP for Client Services and IT Security Officer. Then BearAware Notifications for immediate and critical messages as needed, plus quarterly newsletters. Service/Event Promotion message come primarily through Carl’s office (IT Communications), based on promotion plan, variety of channels used depending on event. IT Campus Newsletter primarily directed at employees, went to blog format, run by Director of Marketing & Communications in coordination with content owners; continuously updated, email notification each semester.

• • Melanie – UTEP Our office is supposed to be the only office that can send out the messages for IT but we have a form that people have to complete for us to send out that message.

  • Larry – Hawaii Who is the final approving authority for the message?

  • Melanie - UTEP The Associate VP for that area

  • Q: for Carl – is there an IT-specific Twitter feed?

  • A: we have Baylor_Alert

  • Q: for Melanie – what do you do when people don’t go through the proper channels.

  • A: I don’t really know how or if anyone is reprimanded. One example was one person was bad about putting all the addresses in the To: line and all those addresses were then vulnerable and that is not happening any more so I know somehow it was addressed.

  • Lisa – Albany We are responsible for sending the messages and if someone else copies and pastes a lot of addresses from our global address book, and if they do, they get scolded by our CIO (through me).

  • Carl – Baylor The Provost’s office recently relinquished control of the moderation of the faculty list, so instead of sending email messages, put your announcements on the faculty web page. Problem is now the faculty are getting spammed by people (within the university) who still want to distribute a message to faculty via email and are grabbing the faculty addresses off the online directory and sending out mass messages to those addresses. So the whole thing has sort of backfired because instead of reducing spam, it has actually increased it.

  • Melanie – UTEP Putting messages on Blackboard is one of the best ways to get updates to faculty and staff.

  • Chris – Syracuse Our portal is the place to put messages. Even retirees, alumni, can get messages here. There is no silver bullet, but putting updates on the portal and Blackboard are two winners for us.

  • Melanie – UTEP Also using digital signage

  • Cloy – ND State Email is actually our primary communications channel here. I’m curious as to why other universities are finding it is not good for them.

  • Chris – Syracuse So much email going to our customers, they just stopped reading most of it and our messages are among those no longer being read. Unless you can be very clever, very concise on your subject lines. Even faculty, things coming out from our VPIT/CIO are ignored or if they do read it, they don’t follow instructions (not really reading it). Example: first line says don’t reply to this email and then get 50 responses.

  • Melanie – UTEP Discussed at CG meeting in Educause that email is waning.

  • Larry – Hawaii We also found email was not as effective as it should be, so we’re posting on the portal and for crises we post to the emergency message service (students have to sign up for it). Chris – Syracuse Speaks to the incidental nature of the encounter…if you read this, you will get the message (like reading a poster inside the bus while riding on the bus).

  • Q: to Larry – how do you make students sign up?

  • A: only 25% signed up

  • Chris – Syracuse Considering using the network identifier to opt out instead of opting in; great philosophical debate going on.

  • Kristin – St. Cloud State In addition to emergencies, also post school closings. That is one way to get students signed up

  • Larry – Hawaii Unfortunately, we don’t have any school closings in Hawaii. (laughter from rest of group)

  • Cathy – Miami Hurricane Ike ended up causing a power outage in Ohio, which was very strange, and we used the emergency channel to communicate with students and employees – as long as their phones stayed charged – about campus closings.

  • Carlyn – Rice We’re about 10 minutes over the hour, unless we’ve got something really critical to discuss, we need to wrap up.

  • Everyone: great discussion…bye!

Chat Notes

• • CG Leader = Cathy McVey from Miami University in Ohio, the presenter for Branding (IT vs university)

  • CG Leader 4 = Carl Flynn from Baylor University in Texas, the presenter for the Many Faces of IT (who sends what)

  • Carlyn - Rice:Phone line: 877-944-2300 code 99234#

  • Carlyn - Rice:We'll do branding first, then Carl will take over for "who can send"

  • CG Leader 4:Carl is here now...or CG Leader 4, I think.

  • Kristin - St. Cloud State:Just curious, why did you chose to use a conference call in number instead of the Adobe Connect IP audio?

  • Carlyn - Rice:We had problems with the VOIP before

  • Carlyn - Rice:I will be typing a recap of the verbal discussions and we will archive the chat as well.

  • Carlyn - Rice:mute your phones if you aren't talking, please

  • CG Leader 4:Myriad Pro font is becoming VERY, VERY common.

  • CG Leader 4:My guess as to the reason: Apple uses Myriad Pro as their font in their marketing.

  • David UW-Milwaukee:Very nice!

  • CG Leader 4:That is a clean look.

  • Kristin - St. Cloud State:Very nice. I notice that you don't have the Miami logo presence though?

  • CG Leader:his page will be set within the university template - which is currently also in development.

  • Guest - John Martin - NC State University:NC State's OIT logo (upper left of page): http://oit.ncsu.edu/

  • Guest - John Martin - NC State University:who's speaking please?

  • CG Leader 4:At Baylor we are all subservient to the University Mark. We can run "themes" with short term initiatives/campaigns, but our logo is the Baylor University mark with the word "Information Technology Services" beneath it. The current website doesn't reflect this branding policy, but it is coming down.

  • CG Leader 4:Sounds like many of us are in the same situation with University Development or Marketing & Communications setting templates and standards that are changing the uniqueness of our IT brands.

  • CG Leader 4:The climate of University marketing (shrinking economy, concentrating branding/marketing power to attract available, shrinking pool of students) is driving this in my estimation.

  • Peter DeBlois - Academic Impressions:Do those of you who have an IT logo/brand have that flow into such web applications as registration, financial record management, course/learning management system?

  • Chris - Syracuse University:Visual differentiator

  • Debbie - Moody:In my department we call it our "OGOL," which is logo spelled backwards.

  • CG Leader 4:Chris & Debbie: HAHAHHAHHAHH!

  • Debbie - Moody:On our Web pages, we have the official school logo.

  • CG Leader:Those are really great - just goes to show how much effort we put into avoiding the "rules".

  • Carlyn - Rice:Peter, on the flow, the Rice brand is slowly filtering out to those systems. It was mostly external viewed publications and web sites that were targeted for "have to" follow the brand in the beginning.

  • Sarah Noell, NC State University:What would be the difference between a "graphic identifier" and a "logo"?

  • CG Leader:The difference is who creates and uses the graphic/logo.

  • Debbie - Moody:A logo is the official corporate brand. A graphic identifier is a special look and feel for a department within the corporation.

  • Sarah Noell, NC State University:ok - thanks

  • Sarah Noell, NC State University:so now will everyone call their logo a graphic identifier so that they can retain their uniqueness?

  • Chris - Syracuse University:Constant Contact

  • Melanie Thomas - UTEP:Can we download the PPT?

  • Debbie - Moody:How many of your campuses use Twitter to communicate with students? Some recent student focus groups on our campus indicate that students don't use it much.

  • Michelle Osterholm:students are the primary audience for our twitter feed, but still a small fraction of our student body Michelle Osterholm:Texas A&M

  • Larry Wiss, Univ of Hawaii, ITS:The main forms of communication with our students is an Alert Text Messaging service which students must sign on to, and messages on our Portal.

  • Larry Wiss, Univ of Hawaii, ITS:We do also Tweet though.

  • CG Leader:At Miami the best way for us to communicate with students is to put announcements on our web portal.

  • Debbie - Moody:Thanks

  • Cloy Tobola, N.D. State Univ.:In addition to our new page and e-mail, we use the front page of our learning management system (Blackboard), which seems to work well.

  • CG Leader 4:Baylor's Twitter presence is on the rise, so we use it more and more. Facebook is still more prominent. Guest -

  • John Martin - NC State University:http://twitter.ncsu.edu/

  • CG Leader 4:Cutting email access is an awesome way to curtail SPAM on networks.

  • Guest - John Martin - NC State University:Carl, please paste your twitter url here? I mis-heard it evidently. :-)

  • CG Leader 4:@BaylorITS_Alert

  • Guest - John Martin - NC State University:The NC State Twitter website has the code downloadable for it from the page.