Whether it's a feature story, a social media campaign, or a video, we focus on connecting to our audiences through compelling stories. Visit 51ԹϺ Communication Channels for ways to distribute your messaging.

Our Content Goals

In all our platforms, we strive to create memorable, audience-focused content that:

  • Illustrates how the university's mission, vision, and strategy serves our audiences.
  • Highlights 51ԹϺ's role in building a better community and addressing the world issues that affect our audiences.
  • Shows the value of the unique expertise and thought leadership that 51ԹϺ offers our community.
  • Celebrates individual accomplishments and contributions to helping 51ԹϺ achieve Top Tier status.
  • Encourages connection, conversation, and participation in the life of the university.
  • Makes our audiences proud to be Rebels.

Achieving these goals will inspire trust, loyalty, and action — turning our audiences into brand ambassadors.

51ԹϺ Editorial Style Guide

As a general rule, the university follows the Associated Press Stylebook for its news, social media, and website content. Exceptions are detailed in the 51ԹϺ Editorial Style Guide.

News & Feature Writing

Our news and feature content uses journalistic storytelling techniques to connect with our audiences through publications and newsletters. These articles must be:

  • Clear, concise, and professional
  • Factually accurate
  • Provide an authentic and credible view of the university
  • Avoid academic/administrative jargon and marketing hyperbole
  • Fulfills at least one brand content goal

News Center Story Templates

Our brand content team has developed a variety of recurring features and story templates to highlight the people, places, and programs that make 51ԹϺ unique. We've also developed story templates to help you create on-brand stories for 51ԹϺ publications. Contact Beth DeBouck or Cate Weeks for information.

Advertising and Paid Promotion

When writing for traditional, digital, or social media advertising: 

  • Identify a single target audience and personalize your message specifically to them. Address their needs and your solution.
  • Be clear about the goal for your ad. Is it to create awareness, build interest, encourage consideration, or prompt action by this target audience? 
  • Include a single call-to-action to tell your audience what to do next: apply, donate, request information, register, contact, visit, etc. 
  • Use an easy to remember URL. 
  • Use QR codes only in print, event signage, and other places where your audience is likely to use their phones. Do not use a QR code if they're likely to view the ad on their phones (social media posts, email, etc.).

Social Media Content Creation

51ԹϺ's story on social media is authentic, personal, and bold. We overcome challenges and take risks to achieve our goals.

Social media content is not just the words we use to share a message, but also the images that make up a platform and the multimedia we use to tell 51ԹϺ's story.

On 51ԹϺ's main accounts, we share content that:

Stay up-to-date and connected to 51ԹϺ's main accounts and unit/organization accounts with our social media directory.

Across all 51ԹϺ-related accounts, social media content should:

  • Be authentic. Not every post on social media should be designed like an ad campaign. Social media should embrace in-the-moment, spontaneous content that still showcases the campus and the environment here. The energy at 51ԹϺ is contagious, and we will share this on our social platforms to highlight our atmosphere.
  • Be respectful, positive, and honest. 51ԹϺ's content is factual and representative of our university. We do not confront defeatist comments unless to correct an error or point to a resource to better address an issue. Conversations with 51ԹϺ social media platforms will encourage thoughtful discussion or debate through respectful, civil responses. Our social media policy highlights how to engage with different kinds of comments.
  • Be visual. We use photos, videos, live videos, and GIFs to support messaging. Graphics should be simple and effective with minimal text, no URLs or QR codes, and follow 51ԹϺ Brand Standards. 
  • Be balanced. Photos, videos, live videos, and other forms of multimedia are key in engaging audiences. So are links to articles, emojis, status messages and re-shares. When someone looks at our profile on any social media platform, they'll see a variety of posts representing as many aspects of 51ԹϺ as possible but not necessarily the same posts on every platform.
  • Be accessible. Always use alt text on images, subtitles on videos, and make sure captions include the necessary information for people using assistive technology.
  • Be targeted to the right audience. Always know who you are speaking to and why when crafting a social media post. Our social media platforms section details what audiences are present on which platforms.
  • Be active. Try to post on a regular, consistent schedule that works best for your time and resources. Platforms reward consistency over frequency. Do not post just to post, but make sure what you are creating is relevant to your audience. Regularly reflecting on what your audience needs from you instead of what you need to tell them will help you grow an engaged community.

  • Keep content light and conversational but still professional.
  • Listen and engage with comments regularly.
  • Use "we" and "our" when referring to 51ԹϺ as a whole.
  • Use an active voice when writing sentences. Say “We created this new program today” rather than "This new program was created today."
  • Express tones of excitement without overusing punctuation. Use emojis if they resonate with your specific audience, but be careful of overuse.
  • Keep updates straightforward and short when sharing news, announcements, and events. 
  • Experiment with different types of updates and captions, such as asking questions or quantifying information. (Example: "15 years. 1,000+ interviews. The story of the storyteller." or "What stories would you share with the world?" instead of "Here is a story about an oral historian.")
  • When linking to content on other websites, do not include "click here" or "read more" language. Make sure your caption is compelling enough to encourage users to click a link.
  • Use hashtags strategically. Hashtags provide a label for users to easily search for similar posts. Learn more about the hashtags 51ԹϺ uses.

See the official social media platforms section for more detail on creating content for the specific audiences on each platform.

Listening is a key part of our social media strategy. We will monitor and engage with feedback on all social media platforms by responding to comments and public posts when appropriate. We also consult with the offices of Media Relations and Public Affairs by reviewing our community's content and identifying potential conflicts.

Responses represent 51ԹϺ as much as posts do, so we respond carefully to feedback whether it is negative or positive. Not all responses require a comment, but we will answer questions, respond to criticism thoughtfully, and engage with positive and negative comments.

Website Writing

Writing for the web is different from writing for print or social media. View our web writing guidelines for helpful tips and best practices.