Community Bootcamp: Dialing Up the Siena Brand

Even if you don't work on the College's marketing and communications team, you're still a part of sharing the Siena story with potential students and other stakeholders.

To help learn how to best achieve these goals, more than 60 administrators, faculty and staff gathered on campus August 8 for the second annual Marketing and Communications Community Bootcamp.

The half-day event opened with a keynote address by Jason Rich '98, vice president for strategy, communications and outreach, and Allison Turcio '06, Ed.D., assistant vice president for enrollment and marketing, who presented "Why Siena? Dialing Up Our Brand." They asked attendees to imagine what potential students and other audiences think of when they hear "Siena College."

"Brand is less about different and more about special," explained Rich. "It is greatly about behavior - how you live it and how you say it."

Rich and Turcio shared the results of market research conducted over the past year and how these results are helping focus the College's strategy and how we share the Siena story. Increasing enrollment in graduate programs and boosting the College's advertising budget were found to be the best worthwhile investments, as well as stepping up brand awareness and recruitment efforts in the New York City metropolitan area, and emphasizing the overall brand framework. They explained how the College's brand platform is being refined to better articulate what makes us special and to more fully convey the value of a Siena education.

After the keynote, attendees had their choice of breakout session hosted by marketing and communication team members, covering such topics as compelling Siena stories, artificial intelligence, leveraging content, design and branding excellence, and more.

Brianna Brown '20, MBA '21, assistant director of marketing, presented at two breakout sessions.

"The bootcamp helps Siena College stay true to its brand by providing everyone with the tools to share its story and values," said Brown. "With a shared goal of filling the world with more Saints, this bootcamp empowers us to communicate the Siena mission both on campus and beyond."

Social media is a crucial part of the College's outreach. Andy Murphy '17 MBA '21, associate director of marketing, and Emily Furlong '21, assistant director of digital marketing, shared best practices on the topic.

"When the College works closely with its organizations and departments on a cohesive social media strategy and content plan, it elevates Siena's brand, reaches new audiences and allows for our message to be shared across a variety of mediums," said Murphy.

Laurie Naranch Ph.D., professor and department chair of political science and international relations, said she was impressed with the level of research the marketing and communications team did over the past year.

"I got a lot of valuable information and actionable take-aways from the conference to better tell the Siena story of our student successes and faculty engagement," she said. "As a department chair, I found this conference to be helpful to me in communicating the excellent work of our students and faculty over multiple platforms as well as how to engage our target audience. And to learn what AI could do in this space! This work should be widely shared with our Siena community."

The team plans to host another bootcamp next summer. In the meantime, any questions or suggestions can be addressed to [email protected]. Slide decks and notes from the bootcamp can be shared on request.