Marketing and Communications

Marketing and Communications (M&C)

Marketing and Communications advances the visibility and reputation of UMSI. 

How to contact us

1. Stop by and say hi. The entire M&C team is in LCSIB 3550 and 3542 on Tuesdays. (Select team members are often in the office on other days, too.)

2. Email M&C leadership at umsi.marcom@umich.edu. 

3. For urgent needs, contact M&C director Dale Parry (dparry@umich.edu) at 734.649.1185 or associate director Jessica Webster (jeswebst@umich.edu) at 734.395.4101.  

News

UMSI is full of feature story and feature photo/video possibilities. From the myriad possibilities, the M&C team selects and prioritizes stories and photo/video ideas that advance the unit's core mission and the school's strategic objectives. The team produces assets for the website, the UMSI YouTube channel, UMSI social media, our newsletters and other platforms. 

The News section of the UMSI site is updated frequently, and is home for a wide variety of announcements, features and reports.  The M&C team works collaboratively with Michigan News, the university's primary media resource. 

Graphics

The M&C unit creates bespoke graphics for select significant projects and strategic initiatives as part of an integrated marketing approach. To discuss a significant new project or initiative, talk with M&C leadership or add an agenda item to your next meeting with M&C.

For most routine needs, M&C has developed a portfolio of Canva templates that make it easy to immediately produce your own on-demand graphics for events, flyers, email messages and many other situations. These templates enable even someone with little or no design skills to quickly make professional, on-brand and accessible visual assets. New assets are added to this portfolio regularly, and suggestions for new templates are appreciated. Each UMSI unit has access to general-purpose templates as well as a collection of specialized templates that have been designed for each unit's specific needs. Contact M&C if you need to add or remove individuals who should have access to these Canva resources. Detailed guidance for the Canva templates can be found in the Canva Quick-Start Guide.

Photos and videos

Photographs for official UMSI business use by staff may be found in the UMSI Asset Portal. The asset portal is dynamically updated by the UMSI Marketing and Communications staff. Images are released to the portal when they are approved for general use. You can find details and how-to information in the UMSI Asset Portal User Guide. 

The M&C team records photos and videos throughout the year at events and locations that support the marketing mission and the school's strategic priorities. To discuss UMSI staff photo ideas or needs that are not available in the portal, please talk with M&C leadership or add an agenda item to your next meeting with M&C.

Other photo resources available to you include: 

• For U-M-themed photos, Michigan Commons is a free source.

• For free stock photos, check out Adobe Stock, free to all U-M faculty, students and staff.

• Canva has its own collection of free photos. Click on the ELEMENTS button in the left panel, then PHOTOS.

Remember that we can use only photos for which we hold the rights or have the image owner’s permission. Just because a picture is on the internet does not mean we can use it.

The M&C team offers "Photo Days" sessions twice a year (fall and spring) for UMSI staff, faculty and PhD students to get a professional headshot. These sessions are announced via email, on the digital displays in our buildings, and in the UMSI Life email newsletter. 

Video projects are assigned by M&C to achieve the unit's marketing mission and support the school's strategic priorities. To  discuss UMSI staff video ideas, please talk with M&C leadership or add an agenda item to your next meeting with M&C.

Web

The M&C team is responsible for the design, content and operation of the UMSI website.

Event listings

Each UMSI unit has team members who are authorized to list and edit events directly and immediately on the UMSI website. M&C maintains oversight of the event calendar as an essential part of the public website and coordinates the upgraded credentials required for an individual to create and publish event listings. Contact M&C if you need to add or remove individuals with these enhanced credentials in your unit. Detailed guidance for listings can be found in the Event Calendar User's Guide.

Updating your UMSI website profile

• Each regular staff member has a profile page on the UMSI website.  Please use this form (umsi.info/directory) when providing information for your profile page. We'd be glad to add a variety of information for you - just let us know! You may request profile updates at any time. 

• There are options for biographical information, education, research interests and links to other websites. 

• We will take a professional-quality photo of you to post on your profile page and use when promoting your work. Several times a year, we host drop-in portrait sessions (UMSI Faculty/Staff Photo Days); these are announced via email and in UMSI's internal newsletter.

Media

You, the expert

The UMSI Media Center connects journalists and public officials with UMSI experts. We work independently with the media, and also in close collaboration with our partners at Michigan News, the university's omnibus public relations outlet.

If you are contacted directly by a member of the media, please let Marketing and Communications know. If you need assistance in preparing for an interview, we can help. We will also keep an eye out for when your piece is published and push out the word on social media and UMSI's lobby screens.

We provide media training sessions several times each year. These can help you handle any media encounter with confidence -- before, during and after the interview. Our tipsheet for working with the media is especially helpful. Additionally, we can provide 1:1 coaching upon request. 

Identifying yourself to media

Please ask media to identify you as working at the "University of Michigan School of Information," rather than just the "University of Michigan." U-M is a big place and reinforcing the identity of UMSI helps us all.  

Conference presentation materials

We maintain a collection of resources you are welcome to use in putting together conference presentations:

• Current UMSI logos in various formats and orientations

• UMSI backgrounds for PowerPoint and Google Slides presentations

• Descriptions of UMSI programs and projects that you can edit as you wish

• Fast facts and statistics about the school

• UMSI-branded Zoom backgrounds you can customize with your name and title

Contact us to request any of these materials. If there is something you would like to have and we do not currently supply, please let us know.

Primary communications channels

Internal

• UMSI LIFE

  • This email newsletter (every other week; monthly during the summer) is distributed to faculty, staff and students. It contains a variety of information of interest to the current UMSI community.

Lobby screens

• • In addition to school news display monitors in the Leinweber Building, UMSI Central and The Collegian include slides of UMSI people who have been quoted in the news. 

External

• Website 

  • Marketing & Communications operates the UMSI website: http://www.si.umich.edu.

• Social media

  • We communicate every day with thousands of people around the world via UMSI's very active Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn accounts. These help spread the word about faculty publications and appearances in the news. Feeds from these accounts are also part of our website News page. Very important: Tag us on your posts! (We can amplify your message and expand your audience.)  When you share/retweet our posts on your personal accounts, you boost the impact and support the work of your UMSI colleagues.

• Newsletters (subscribe here: https://www.si.umich.edu/about-umsi/newsletters)

  • UMSI Research Roundup. This email newsletter is sent to colleagues at top information schools and others who have voluntarily subscribed to keep informed about faculty research at UMSI. Frequency is based on news volume.

  • UMSI INFO. This monthly email newsletter provides updates to UMSI alumni.

  • UMSI's MADS Newsletter. UMSI sends a monthly newsletter about our MADS program, plus other information of interest to data-minded folks, to prospective, current and previous students in the Master of Applied Data Science program. 

  • "Information Changes Everything: The Brief" aggregates news items with some connection to the many ways that information is changing our lives.  

• Podcast

  • "Information Changes Everything: The Podcast" delivers our similarly named newsletter in an audio form.  The podcast is available through all major podcast distributors and on the UMSI website.