Reach a Wider Audience
Strategic Communications and Marketing leads and manages content creation and curation on several university-wide platforms and channels. StratCom strives to share and promote content pieces that strategically communicate the value of the university and connect with our audiences.
Things to Know
Though each content-sharing decision is different, here are factors we consider when choosing content for university-wide channels:
- Is the content relevant to the university?
- Is it timely to current events?
- Does it illustrate a strategic goal or mission of the university?
- Does it build the university’s reputation?
- Is it aligned with leadership priorities or critical topics?
- Does it appeal to a broad audience? Will it connect with the audiences on our channels? (Note: Most StratCom channels face very large and very broad audiences by nature. Content pieces with niche audiences or messages are typically not great fits for our channels.)
- Is the content piece high quality?
- Are there compelling, high-quality images, graphics or video available?
- Does the content piece fit the channel?
Communications Channels Managed by StratCom
StratCom is responsible for developing strategies to make the best use of campus communications vehicles, as well as day-to-day management of these channels.
Illinois Homepage
The Illinois homepage (illinois.edu) is managed by Strategic Communications and Marketing. It is designed to reach every possible campus audience and offers information to demonstrate the breadth of excellence across the campus.
Homepage Header Slideshow: Images selected for use as the banner image at the top of the campus homepage are carefully chosen to reflect the unique excellence of the university. The slideshow content may be related to news, discoveries, programs or university-wide events.
Homepage Story Boxes: There are nine smaller boxes near the middle of the homepage that are used to share information and stories from across the campus. These are intended to show a diversity of topics and experiences.
Featured Events Calendar: The homepage includes a bar of four events that represent events that are strategic and of interest to a wide variety of our audience. These are shifted nearly daily.
Social Media
Our university-level social media channels have more than 800,000 followers across all platforms. Through careful and strategic content creation and curation, these channels ensure the university is sharing the Illinois story with the world on a consistent basis:
- Twitter/X
- TikTok
- YouTube
Noteworthy at Illinois Newsletter
This monthly newsletter is sent by Chancellor Robert J. Jones to share positive Illinois information and stories with our alumni, donors and university community.
News Bureau
News Releases:The News Bureau generates and coordinates news coverage of the Urbana-Champaign campus. They disseminate news and research stories to the news media through news releases.
Expert Viewpoints:These stories produced by the News Bureau feature a brief interview with campus experts on timely topics in the news. It reflects both the relevancy of campus scholarship on society’s critical issues, and the breadth of faculty and staff expertise.
Behind the Scenes:In order to show scholarship and university activity in more detail, the News Bureau features first-person stories of research projects or other university events.
Eweek
EWeek is the internal faculty-staff announcement notice produced weekly by Strategic Communications and Marketing and contains items of interest to the campus community. Subscribe/unsubscribe or submit an item.
Massmail
University massmails share messages with the broadest groups of internal audiences: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff and/or extra help. Any faculty or staff member at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can request to send a Massmail.
University Guide
This magazine-style piece acts as a the official visitor’s guide to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It provides need-to-know information and fun facts in a printed format.
Illinois in the News
Citations of Illinois news stories that appear in nationally and internationally prominent publications and broadcast media. A daily list of citations can be obtained via e-mail.
Send us a Story
If you have a story that may fit the criteria above, reach out to our content creators and channel managers for further questions. The best way to reach us is through the Story Form.