CU Boulder has a team of communicators who are experts in translating scholarship into language for a public audience and strategically amplifying public and community-engaged scholarship projects. Our office works closely with Strategic Relations and Communications and other campus communicators to develop stories and connect with community partners and the media.   

Best Practices 

  • Start with your school, college or unit communicator. They can help you design a communications strategy for community-engaged projects and events, considering relevant messages, key audiences, communications tools and more. Our office can also discuss outreach communications strategies and best practices for publicizing your project locally or in Colorado communities. 
  • Learn how to communicate with the public. Have you ever been in a room with experts from another academic discipline and they used "in-house" acronyms, terms and language? CU Boulder communicators will help you break down your scholarship into language and ideas that the public will understand.   
  • Do not contact the media directly. If you have a potential story for the media, email Strategic Media Relations as well as your campus communicator. They will discuss whether the story has media potential and then design a media strategy. Our office can also work with you, Strategic Media Relations and your campus communicator on potential stories for the media.  

Communications Processes 

Public communications has strategies and processes, described below, that differ from academic communications. 

A well-defined strategy can help you effectively share your project. Any campus communicator you work with will ask questions to help you refine your goals and strategies.  

  • Identify objectives. What is your vision for how you want to share your project with the public? What are your goals? What steps will you take to achieve those goals? 
  • Target key audiences. Faculty, staff, students? Community Partners? Anyone else? 
  • Develop relevant messages. What key information about your project or program do you need to communicate with your audience? 
  • Choose appropriate tools, such as paid (ads, fliers and CU event listings), earned (news stories that are pitched to the media), owned (website, blog, newsletter, targeted emails), social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn).  
  • Clarify available resources. Who will write and layout materials? Will the community partner be involved? Do you have funds to create materials? 
  • Set realistic timelines. It takes time to develop PR materials for an event or program, and it’s important to determine the proper timing. Start a month or two ahead of time! 
  • Evaluate how well the PR messaging worked. Did people attend? What tool drew them to the event (social media, ad, flier, event listing, news story)? 


As with any project, it's important to use the correct tools. Communicators use owned, social, paid and earned media to share stories effectively. Most departments have official channels to feature current research, so find out what is available in your department. 
  • Owned This includes a website (where a story can have a unique URL), blog, CU events listing, newsletter or targeted email. 
  • Social CU Boulder has developed social media guidelines. Contact your campus communicator or Noelle Seybert, director of social media, to find out more about using social media effectively. 
  • Paid Ads, fliers and brochures can share an event or promote your project. 
  • Earned Every story has an audience, whether internal or external. Our office can help you determine whether a story about a project should be shared internally with different units or departments or with the media. Please contact Strategic Media Relations to find out about media training opportunities and to share your story ideas. See below for more information about the news process. 

Timeline
Do not contact the media yourself. At least a month before desired publication date, discuss your story with a campus communicator to determine audience, potential issues and how to work with Strategic Relations and the Office for Public and Community-Engages Scholarship. Stories have many dimensions and communicators want to get the best story coverage at the best time. Sometimes that means moving quickly so that we don't miss a story, other times it means waiting to pitch the story, or it can mean connecting your engaged scholarship with a larger story nationally or on campus.  

Strong, high-resolution images
Note that most stories need images to draw people into a story. Make sure they are horizontal, high-resolution (at least 5 MB) images, so they can be used for multiple purposes. If you take photos, try to capture what it would feel like to be a participant in the activity. Take the photo at eye level. Focus on one or two subjects engaged in an activity versus a large group or posed shots. Make sure to get information for a photo caption that tells who is in the photo and what the people are doing. Make sure to get a signed photo release for anyone under 18. 

Interacting with the media
Prior to talking to the media, it's crucial to work with Strategic Relations about how to effectively talk to the media and create a consistent message. Contact Strategic Media Relations to discuss media relations training or to discuss your story. 

Find the right audience 

Internal stories are of interest to colleagues in your department or across campus. They can be shared through the CU Boulder Events calendar, Share a Story for CU Boulder Today, the Buff Bulletin Board and through the Community Outreach and Engagement Programs website and social media channels.  

External stories are of strategic interest to media and stakeholders outside the university and include: 

  • Outreach Programs or individuals presenting in schools or the community. 
  • Surprising findings Things that are surprising or counterintuitive or go against generally accepted wisdom. 
  • Findings with direct applications "News you can use.” 
  • Forecasts/predictions A report or expert who makes predictions about things like economics or politics. 
  • Important new findings Discoveries that are milestones in your field of study. 
  • Research that is topical Things that may not be groundbreaking but can add to current events conversations. 
  • Events and exhibits Out of the ordinary or of national prominence. 
  • Visual projects Work that would make striking pictures or videos, which may include ongoing research. 
  • Programs/initiatives/services A new service or program, or one that will garner public interest. 

Follow CU Boulder style guidelines.
CU Boulder follows AP style and a story will be edited to ensure it means those guidelines. 

Media Relations Info Sheet

Your project may include an event that would benefit from promotion through ads or fliers (paid media), CU Boulder events listings, pitches to the news media (earned media) and social media.  

Start with your unit or college communicator
CU Boulder's team of communicators can help you publicize an event. If you don't know who that is, contact Gretchen Minekime, and she will guide you through the process. 

Work closely with community partners 
Some community partners want to create their own materials, so it’s important to determine that up front. However, it's also important to suggest concise summary text and to make sure the materials properly reflect your view of the event or project and include your CU Boulder lockup (logo).  

Create a strong Call to Action
This is an invitation to do something: register for an event, come to a lecture or find out more about the research project. 

Gather all the facts
This includes who, what, when, why and how. You will need a title, time, date, location, summary sentence, strong image and (usually) logos of supporting partners. We require that the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship’s logo appear on events we sponsor. 

Publicize an event on social media
Use the Call to Action, a link to a registration or information page, and a strong image that draws people to the event. Typically, a headshot of a speaker will not draw people; instead, use a photo that helps tell a story about the event. Find out more by reading CU Boulder's social media guidelines. 

Share with our office 
Contact our office about an upcoming event to discuss ways to publicize. Also, make sure to select “Outreach and Engagement” under BOTH the interest and group categories on the CU Events Calendar to have your event promoted on the campus Public Outreach and Community Engagement website. 

Share through CU Boulder internal news channels
Use the CU Boulder Events calendar, Share a Story for CU Boulder Today, and Buff Bulletin Board to share your event. 

Contact CU Boulder's Office of Government and Community Engagement  Kirsten Schuchman, associate vice chancellor for public policy and advocacy, and Lori Call, associate vice chancellor for local government and community relations, can forward the event information and your social media posts to chambers and local governments around the state and connect you to community leaders.