LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
JOINT FACULTY DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
UCL Arts & Humanities (AH)
UCL Social & Historical Sciences (SHS)
UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies (SSEES)
October 2013
© UCL
Introduction
This Digital Communications Strategy has been prepared by the Joint Faculty Marketing & Communications
team to be able to drive change forward.
This includes prioritising web presence, with the understanding that it is a key means of communicating with
external audiences.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to describe the vision, goals and objectives for all forms of digital
communication which fall under the joint faculty and to explain what tools, resources and guidance will
facilitate this.
Why Have a Digital Communications Strategy?
The online presence of the faculties and related departments is something which has grown in a sporadic and
organic way.
While a number of central resources are available for those people involved in website management, a facultyspecific vision and strategy has, until now, been lacking.
Since their inception, departmental websites have evolved into one of the key communication features for the
University.
Therefore, there is now a need to set a clear strategic direction for the web presence of the websites within the
faculties.
Key Facts:
42% of UK prospective students use the website as their first resource (Source: Student Barometer)
46% of international students use the website as their first resource (Source: Student Barometer)
116% growth in use of mobile devices – January 2012 saw 77,347 visits to the main UCL website via a mobile
device compared to 167,079 in January 2013 (Source: Google Analytics).
Vision
“A user’s experience of the UCL digital estate will reinforce and shape their perceptions of UCL as an
institution.”
(Nomensa UCL User Research project in 2012)
“Your website is your most important communications tool for attracting and recruiting students.”
(2012 IGraduate survey, Decliner survey 2012, Qualitative research)
As a world-class, research-led institution, UCL should strive towards a web presence of the highest possible
standard, which accurately and efficiently reflects this in terms of content, delivery and integration with other
digital communication channels.
This includes:
 Individual websites (faculties, schools, departments, centres etc.)
 Social media channels (social networking sites, audio-visual sites, blogs etc.)
 Other third-party websites (Hotcourses.com, Prospects.ac.uk, FindAMasters.com etc.)
 Other online or digital marketing channels (where necessary)
Our web presence has a variety of purposes and functions.
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The most important of these is as our most widely used communications channel.
It is vital for future success that our web presence effectively communicates our institutional research, work,
priorities, values and what our departments have to offer.
Furthermore, our websites must use a structure and tone which is clearly aimed at each of our separate
audiences.
Audiences
We must clarify which audiences our websites intend to serve and whether there is a need to house content
for certain audiences elsewhere, or if this content already exists elsewhere in a different format (e.g. central
UCL website pages, Moodle, social media).
Our websites should cater first and foremost for these core audiences:
External Audiences
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Prospective students (and parents)
Research partners
Academic collaborators
Wider academic community (e.g. news and media agencies, NGOs, government offices, policy bodies,
FCO, related organisations)
 Alumni
 General public
Please note: specific, detailed lists of external audiences for individual departments can be compiled by the
Digital Communications Officer in collaboration with relevant staff members.
Internal Audiences
 Current students
 Staff
Strategic Goals
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To recruit and maintain the very best students, staff and researchers from around the world, from preapplication right through to alumni
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To represent, reflect and promote the world-class teaching and research which takes place in the
departments within AH, SHS and SSEES, and the UCL reputation as a whole
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To cultivate and strengthen links with industry, research partners and academic collaborators.
In order to meet our strategic goals, the strategy outlines a full list objectives. These are subject to review and
revisions and all points will be evaluated on an on-going basis through an annual review which will take place
each summer in conjunction with the Publications & Marketing (PAMS), Communications & Marketing (CAM)
and Web and Mobile Services (WAMS) teams.
Updates to all resources will be posted on the Joint Faculty Office Intranet (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ah-shs-office).
All objectives will ensure that the departmental and faculty web presence is in line with central UCL strategy.
Objectives
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Define user needs
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Achieve Corporate Identity consistency
Ensure audience definition/ separation
Achieve website design, structure and editorial consistency and best practice
Conduct in-depth user research through a mixture of online surveys, face-to-face task based sessions,
group sessions and using the Camtasia recording software at Open Days etc.
Improve Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Increase engaging and dynamic content
Continually develop, monitor and evaluate websites, social media and events. Departments should
define what the goals are for their websites and monitoring traffic etc. using Google Analytics. The
Digital Communications Officer will run a parallel schedule of checks and communicate with
departments on problems, areas for development and best practice.
Ensure websites are optimised for use on all devices, including handheld devices
Include social media channels (where appropriate) and audio-visual content (videos, podcasts etc.,
where appropriate)
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Encourage individual content checks and refresh projects
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This should be undertaken by Silva Chief Editors, in conjunction with heads of department and
relevant staff. The audit process should identify which content remains relevant and which
should be removed.
Provide efficient training and support
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Facebook and Twitter should be the channels most departments start with. Joint Faculty
channels which are already established and should be utilised wherever possible include
Soundcloud, YouTube and LinkedIn.
This includes the existing Silva training, central Publications & Marketing (PAMS),
Communications & Marketing (CAM) and Web and Mobile Services (WAMS) training and
resources, plus ad-hoc training with the Digital Communications Officer as defined by the needs
of the departments (e.g. Social Media Sessions, image workshops etc.), plus one-on-one
sessions where necessary.
Encourage each department to ensure they have at least one person dedicated to digital
communications, either full or part-time, as a key focus of their role.
Note: this is a ‘long-lead’ recommendation. It is understood that, in the interim, existing staff
members who have been suitably trained may take on specific tasks as part of their role to
ensure digital communications for their department are up-to-date and consistent.
Ideally, for any new administrative roles which are created, successful candidates would need
to have previous experience of/ understanding of digital communications.
This has already been successfully implemented in Archaeology, History, Economics, Institute
of the Americas and the School of Public Policy.
Example roles/ split roles include: Research Administrator/Communications Officer, Executive
Assistant/ Communications Officer, Web/IT Administrator & Data Protection Officer and Web
Officer.
Implementation
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Identify needs of key audience groups
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Migrate any outstanding websites not within Silva to the Silva CMS.
Clearly define content for different audiences (by location, tone and detail)
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Provide a skeleton structure which departments should adhere to, with the understanding that
departments will need to supplement this with extra content and design which meets their own specific
needs.
Consistency should include:
Site structure
Site navigation
House style for copy and content based on Joint Faculty Editorial Guidelines
House style for images and audio-visual content
House style for certain page layouts
Best practice ‘Dos and Don’ts’
Certain Silva functionalities (e.g. News and Events RSS feeds, online prospectus pages, use of IRIS for
individual profile pages)
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Utilise central guidance on website best practice.
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Utilise appropriate social media channels as a key communications tool to disseminate knowledge and
research and support general online presence.
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Departments should carry out an annual content check and refresh during the summer to identify which
content to keep, lose, rewrite or create, in line with joint faculty guidelines/ templates.
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In-depth user research should be conducted on a large scale to cover a faculty-wide remit.
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Improve SEO and maximise the potential of all faculty websites to appear at the top of the list of search
results.
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Create more interactive, visual, design or functionality-led content either by using WAMs or external
companies.
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Utilise the use of blogs (from both staff and students, where appropriate) as a way to generate
dynamic content for each department.
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Those responsible for the website should monitor and evaluate content on an on-going basis
to ensure out-of-date content is removed, relevant, up-to-date content is added and that pages
adhere to Joint Faculty standards.
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The Digital Communications Officer will also conduct dedicated website checks on a rolling schedule to
ensure consistency, accuracy and relevance of all websites is maintained and liaise with the
appropriate contacts where necessary.
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The faculties should consider working with central WAMS team on RWD (responsive web design) to
ensure all websites are optimised for use on mobiles, tablets and other handheld devices.
Costs & Visibility
It is worth noting that some ‘extras’ which sit outside of the main faculty resources may incur a cost, e.g.
videos created by UCL Media Services, videos created by external agencies and some paid-for services
supplied by UCL Information Services Division (ISD) and/ or Web and Mobile Services (WAMS).
These are currently dealt with on a case-by-case basis and will therefore choosing to include paid-for content
will be at the discretion of each individual department.
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Where relevant, departmental logos can be important for both web and social media usage. Logos should
adhere to central UCL communications corporate identity guidelines and should be created in collaboration
with relevant central contacts. The Digital Communications Officer can provide further information.
Various user research reports that websites are the key recruitment tool and therefore, decreased visibility or
websites which do not reflect the strengths of UCL may lead to prospective students turning to competitors.
King’s College London and the University of Cambridge websites are just two examples of those which are
often cited as ‘user-friendly’, ‘professional’ or ‘engaging’.
Good examples of what can be achieved with UCL’s Silva Content Management System (CMS) include can
be made available by Web & Mobile Services (WAMS) on request.
Resource Summary
The Digital Communications Officer will work directly with relevant departments, supported by the following
resources:
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User Needs document
User Research (surveys/ face-to-face sessions with current and prospective students)
Joint Faculty Web Template(s)
Joint Faculty Web Toolkit
Joint Faculty Editorial Guidelines
Joint Faculty Image Guidelines
Joint Faculty Web Page Guidelines
Joint Faculty Social Media Strategy
Joint Faculty Content Check & Refresh Guidelines
SEO Best Practice Guide
Silva Support
Central training sessions
Silva one-to-one drop ins
Central UCL toolkits from:
o Communications & Marketing (CAM)
o Publications & Marketing (PAMS)
o Web & Mobile Services (WAMS)
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WAMS/ external organisations and agencies where necessary (NB – paid-for services)
Rolling website check schedule
Google Analytics
CrazyEgg
Eventbrite
Social media monitoring tools
Governance
This Digital Communications Strategy is advocated and approved by the Dean of Arts & Humanities, the Dean
of Social & Historical Sciences, the Director of SSEES and the Joint Faculty Manager.
It will be implemented by the Joint Faculty Digital Communications Officer (DCO) with support from the
Marketing & Communications Manager, plus relevant contacts in the central Communications & Marketing
(CAM), Publications & Marketing (PAMS) and Web & Mobile Services (WAMS) teams.
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