Governance and Workflow Framework

Our approach identifies two primary objectives:

• Collaboration and Connection: Strengthening collaboration through clarified objectives, processes, shared tools and resources and intentional points of connection.
• Amplification and Alignment: Identifying stories and projects that align with institutional priorities, Lehigh’s brand platform and content themes while leveraging centralized resources to maximize visibility, efficiency and brand integrity.

A structure for synchronous and asynchronous collaboration and connection throughout the academic year helps to effectively bring collaborators together on a regular basis.

Complementary to a formalized meeting structure, we will asynchronously collaborate through structures like a content intake form, Content and Project Planning spreadsheet, a People Directory/Database, email, Google docs and other systems to provide:

• Repositories for content ideas and updates;
• Transparency into ongoing projects and opportunities for amplification; and
• A system for tracking alignment with the university priorities and strategic themes.

UCPA, with input from campus partners, has developed various standards, guidelines and policies that work to create best practices and helps to effectively align and develop content across the university. The department also maintains this website where these are housed and shared with those who have university credentials. Examples include the brand guidelines and style guide, video and photo guidelines, a social media policy and presentation templates.

UCPA uses a number of tools and resources to do their work effectively and efficiently. Examples include Brandwatch, SEMrush, Asset Bank and Trinity Audio. Opportunities to combine these resources in the future, in alignment with the Lehigh Strategy Initiative, An Organization of the Future, will be explored within the MarComm CoP structure.

At Lehigh, every individual, group and organization we interact with is part of a broad and interconnected audience. While we aim to connect with all audiences meaningfully, each office, college or department brings a different level of connection depending on the nature of the relationship and the goals of the engagement.

To guide these efforts in UCPA, we use an Own, Share and Amplify framework that categorizes our role into three key levels. This provides a language and shared framework for discussing collaborative projects for various audiences depending on the content and context. The goal is to achieve clarity rather than certainty, recognizing that some projects may fall somewhere in between.

Own

UCPA leads the charge, driving initiatives, developing content, sustaining momentum and proactively leveraging opportunities to enhance impact (e.g., Top-level Lehigh webpages, The Perch, crisis/institutional-level communications, fed/state/community relations).

Share

UCPA takes on the role of a partner, supporting/collaborating closely with other departments to align efforts and drive progress/messages/content.

Amplify

UCPA enhances the reach and engagement of partners’ content through the use of UCPA-owned distribution channels and employing tools like SEO and AI to amplify stories and increase impact (e.g., Lehigh News, Perch Topics, Events Calendar, Lehigh Today, @LehighU social channels, Lehigh-Google search engine, RSS feeds and analytics to improve storytelling efforts).

Evaluating the success of our efforts across teams, platforms and with various audiences can be complex. UCPA is evaluating ways to do this with automated tools to help minimize the manual work necessary to capture detailed data. Currently the team has prioritized metrics around engagement and reach as defined below. We aim to continue to build out analytic capabilities and how they connect to our partner’s goals across campus.

Engagement

• Web engagement (time on page/site, return visitors)
• Social media likes, shares and comments
• Email open and click-through rates for reputation content distribution
• Video completion rates
• QR code usage from Bulletin
• The Perch
  • Adoption rate (general and mobile)
  • Active users
  • Highly engaged content for faculty/staff/undergraduate/graduate students
• Content themes (annual/brand pillars)

Reach and Impressions

• Organic web traffic
• Unique web visitors
• Keyword rankings
• Search visibility
• Core web vitals
• Top story views
• Video views
• Social media impressions/reach
• Bulletin landing page views
• Flipbook pageviews
• Bulletin top story views (as a separate item from top story views)

• Media Guidelines
• Photography Guidelines
• Video Guidelines
• Social Media Guidelines
• Web Guidelines
• Writing Guidelines

Continue exploring our content strategy:

• Content Strategy
• Structure Framework
• Substance Framework