Section 6:
Marketing & Communications

About the Marketing & Communications Department

The role of Wake Forest Law’s Marketing & Communications (MarComm) Department is to:

• Promote the Law School’s programs, initiatives, students, and faculty to help build its brand and reputation

• Define and manage that brand through visual and written communications and materials

• Facilitate internal communication among the different Law School constituents (students, faculty, staff) 

With regards to Wake Forest Law students, MarComm most commonly provides some guidance and assistance around marketing student activities, events, and student organizations. 

Marketing & Communication Services

MarComm does provide the following services to students:

• Visual branding guidance and review

• Event/initiative promotion support

• Cross-promotion via Wake Forest Law social media channels

MarComm does not provide the following services to students:

• Website creation/development/updates

• Social media management or content creation

• Event planning or execution

Helpful Resources

How to Connect with Marketing & Communications

Visit the Marketing & Communications Department page on The Link to submit a request or contact lawcomm@wfu.edu.

Branding, Identity, and Naming Convention Standards

Student organizations at Wake Forest University School of Law must follow university-wide branding standards, and any organization name, logo, outreach materials, and merchandise are subject to the approval of the Marketing & Communications and/or Student Affairs departments in accordance with those standards. 

Organizations must be named according to their purpose, mission, or interest. No organization’s name may include “Wake Forest University” or any derivatives in advance of their name. For example, an organization should not be named “Wake Forest University Quidditch Club” or “Wake Quidditch,” but instead would be named “Quidditch Club” or “Quidditch Club at Wake Forest University.”

Logos designed for specific student organizations must be submitted to Marketing & Communications to ensure compliance with branding and identity standards. Logos should be submitted to lawcomm@wfu.edu for review and should not be used until approval is granted. Requests must be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to when you need the logo.

Both the bold block WF and the Demon Deacon are official athletics logos. These logos are for use only with materials related to athletic events, and not permitted for use by any department that is not associated with university athletics. 

Merchandise Request Process

As a student organization, you are welcome to design outreach materials and to promote your organization visually. Student organizations who wish to design their own merchandise specific to their organization can do so, but must submit the final design to the Marketing & Communications department lawcomm@wfu.edu for approval prior to ordering. Requests must be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to when you plan to purchase the merchandise. You may also reach out to lawcomm@wfu.edu to request assistance or creative consultation for a logo project, subject to time availability. 

Student organizations are not authorized to design or order any institutional School of Law merchandise (i.e., items with the Wake Forest University School of Law name and/or logo only, without any student organization affiliation identified). All general School of Law merchandise will be designed and arranged for order with input from the Student Bar Association. Suggestions for general School of Law merchandise can be sent to your Student Bar Association representative or to lawcomm@wfu.edu.

Once your design is approved, you should submit a Purchase Request on the Link. Once the order request is approved, student organizations are responsible for placing the merchandise order.

Types of Marketing

Social Media

Student organizations are able to create social media accounts but are encouraged to think through the benefits and drawbacks. Maintaining social media accounts requires a significant amount of work and can be time-consuming, and future leaders may not want to maintain these accounts. Questions to consider are: Are there other ways to keep students informed? Can we leverage Wake Forest Law’s primary social media accounts to promote our work? Does the benefit outweigh the time/effort of maintaining social media accounts?

If student organizations choose to create a social media account, accounts must be set up using a general email account created for the organization, the login credentials for which should be passed on to incoming organization leadership. If your student organization does not currently have a general email account, contact the IT Help Desk at lawhelp@wfu.edu to obtain one. Personal student email accounts should not be used to create student organization social media accounts. Please note, however, that you cannot create a Facebook page without tying it to a personal account. All username and password information for student organization social media accounts should be passed on to incoming organization leadership to avoid the creation of duplicate accounts from year to year. If duplicate accounts are created, MarComm may request that prior accounts be deactivated.

As an alternative to creating student organization specific accounts, consider sharing content with the MarComm department so they can promote it via the Wake Forest Law accounts. If student organizations do post content from their own social media accounts, be sure to tag Wake Forest Law so MarComm can repost content. 

Wake Forest Law accounts are as follows:

• Instagram - @wfulawschool 

• Facebook - Wake Forest Law

• Twitter - @WFULawSchool 

• LinkedIn - Wake Forest University School of Law

• Threads - @wfulawschool 

Tips for Using Social Media

If your organization uses social media, try to regularly update your social media account. Include advertisements for upcoming events, photos that show what your members are working on, or photos of past events. You should also include different types of content (ie. graphics and photos). You may find it helpful to create your own Style Guide to ensure consistent branding between leadership teams.

Digital Signs

Wake Forest Law students, faculty, and staff may submit posters via the Intranet to display on the Digital Bulletin Boards in Worrell. Posters must be submitted at least 3 business days prior to the requested start date. Event posters should include the name of the event sponsor (which must be affiliated with the University).

Creating a Poster

• Download the PowerPoint template

• Select a slide design (the template includes a variety of slide designs and a blank slide you can use to create your own design)

• Edit the slide or create your own design using the template

• Delete the other slides

• Save as a .pptx file

• Upload the file using the form on this page

Alternatively, posters may also be submitted as an image in PNG, JPG, or GIF format. Posters must be 1920 (width) x 1080 (height) pixels. Posters that do not meet these requirements will not be posted.

Please contact the IT Department Help Desk at lawhelp@wfu.edu or 336-758-4300 if you have questions or need assistance. Note that MarComm is not involved in this process. 

Tips for Creating Digital Signs

Include a QR code on your sign that will take students to your event’s posting on the Link so they can RSVP or find out additional information that you could not fit on the sign. 

If you are advertising multiple events, consider making a Linktree account and adding the QR code to your Linktree.

Make sure that fonts are legible when viewed from a distance and ensure photos are high quality so they do not appear pixelated when stretched to fit a TV If you have a TV at home, try casting your sign to your TV to see how it looks when stretched out. You can also use one of the classroom projectors. 

Oftentimes shades will appear different on the monitors than on your computer. To prevent elements of your graphic from being lost, try to avoid using shades that are close to each other on the color wheel. If you are using multiple shades of one color, make sure the shades are much lighter/darker than each other. 

Emails

When sending an email to a group of people, please be thoughtful about the intended audience for your message and create the most targeted list for your needs.

Emailing Members of your Organization

If you would like to email members of your organization or persons occupying specific positions within your organization, you can generate an email list using The Link. To create an email list, go to the Roster Tool and select “Messaging.” Click the blue plus sign to create a new email list (also called a Message Relay). 

Once you are in the “Create Message Relay” page, you can select the recipients for your message. If you would like to restrict the message to students in specific positions, you can add each position to the email list by clicking the box next to the position title on the left side of the page. If you would like to send the email to all members of your organization listed on The Link, click the box next to “Select All” at the bottom of the page. You can also add specific people by searching for members on the right side of the page. Once you have added the people you want to receive the email, add a subject in the “Title” box and click “Create.”

Once you have created an email list, you will see a “Message Relay Email Address.” Copy this email address and paste it into the “To” section of your email. You can then draft the email as normal and send it to everyone on the list. 

Direct Invitations

Direct invitations are advertisements that are geared towards specific members of your intended audience. These advertisements are more narrowly tailored than Emails which are typically sent to the student body as a whole. 

When creating your event, think about your intended audience. Is there a specific group of people that you want to reach or that you think would benefit from your event? Then, consider whether there is a way to directly invite members of that group to your event.

Example

Let’s say your organization is hosting an event that gives students tips and advice for starting a small business. The intended audience for this event is students that want to start a small business either now or in the future. 

Methods of Direct Invitations

Look for other Law Student Organizations that you think members of your audience would join and ask them to share a message on their Listserv or on the Link. Using the previous example, you could ask the Business Law Society.

If your event is open to other students/the public, look for other programs that members of your audience would join and ask them to share a message on their Listserv. Using the previous example, you could ask the Business School to advertise your event.

Finally, you could look for classes that members of your intended audience would join and ask the Professor if you can advertise the event to their students. You should use reasonable discretion when asking Professors to advertise events and ensure that the audience is narrowly tailored to fit your event. Using the previous example, you could ask the professor of the Entrepreneurship and the Law class to advertise your event.

Flyers

Students can post flyers on the Bulletin Boards located in the Student Commons and the Ground Floor. Flyers should not be posted anywhere else in the Law School. Flyers must include the name of the organization(s) hosting the event. 

Tips for Creating Flyers

Include a QR code on your flyer that will take students to your event’s posting on the Link so they can RSVP or find out additional information that you could not fit on the flyer.

If you are advertising multiple events, consider making a Linktree account and adding the QR code to your Linktree.

Make sure that your fonts are legible when viewed from a distance and ensure photos are high quality so they do not appear pixelated when printed. Printing will often cause slight variations in color shades. To prevent elements of your graphic from being lost because of this variation, try to avoid using shades that are close to each other on the color wheel. If you are using multiple shades of one color, make sure the shades are much lighter/darker than each other.

Tabling

Students may request to table in the Commons to advertise an upcoming event by submitting an Event Request on the Link. Event Requests should be submitted at least 2 weeks prior to when you would like to table.

Tips for Tabling

Make a sign or poster to keep at your table so students know who you are and what you are advertising. You should also try to keep 1 person at the table at all times.

Marketing Across Campus

If you would like to market your event to the campus at large or the community, you can contact one of the organizations listed here and request to be added to their newsletter or to the digital signs in their building. If you would like to add new resources or find that the contact information has changed for an organization, please feel free to edit the document. 

Before you submit your request, please be aware that the University prohibits student organizations from including any statement (whether explicit or implicit) that alcoholic beverages will be served at events advertised using these resources. This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Words or phrases that include any mention of alcoholic beverages (i.e. “Drink Specials,” “Kegs,” “Cocktails,” “Golden Beverage,” etc.)

2. Words or phrases that include any mention of events typically associated with alcohol (i.e. “Happy Hour,”  “All You Can,” “College Night,” “BYOB,” “BYO Favorite Beverage,” etc.)

3. Alcoholic beverage brand names

4. Pictorial characterizations of alcoholic beverages

5. Any reference to off-campus bars