Branding for an ethnic staff organization / by Ashley Villanueva

For two years, I served as the Communications Chair for UC Berkeley’s Asian Pacific American Systemwide Alliance (APASA). APASA’s mission and goals are to:

  • Promote the general welfare of Asian Pacific Islander (API) staff, faculty, and students at the University of California, Berkeley
  • Strengthen the professional and social networking between API staff and faculty, the Berkeley campus community, the University of California systemwide, and the general public
  • Encourage the recruitment, hiring, promotion, and retention of API faculty, staff, and students
  • Review and assess campus issues and their impact on the API campus community
  • Act as an informative and proactive organization to address, develop, and influence policy recommendations that affect the Asian Pacific Islander community on the Berkeley campus
  • Connect to the (API) community beyond the Berkeley campus

My role, at a volunteer staff capacity, included:
• Sending weekly e-newsletters about campus events, jobs and news; maintains the 700+ membership listserv
• Managing the website and social media presence on Facebook and LinkedIn
• Leading a communications subcommittee made of two volunteer staff members
• Designing and producing handouts, signage, and presentations. Oversee branding.

 

The biggest undertaking in my role was branding the newsletter. Staff are considered part of APASA if they are on our list serv, which had about 800 members when I began. The challenge was that staff already get so many emails, so I had to make it something worth their time. I implemented a few simple, but effective changes:

  • Using MailChimp, I branded the content and organized the information for better content flow and brand association. One main topic or event to feature, followed by two columns!
  • I sent one email every two weeks to keep the messaging consistent and expected. I timed this email to reach their inbox mid-week, mid-day (Wednesdays at 11am).
  • Add in relevant content like:
    • APASA events, announcements, scholarships, surveys, volunteer opportunities, etc.
    • Job openings on campus with specific Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity goals
    • Featured article about APIs in the news
    • Relevant workshops and conferences
    • Faculty/staff events and workshops on campus

The results were extremely successful. The membership began emailing back with events, resources, and job openings to add and other ethnic staff organizations sought out MailChimp training so they could do the same. Members anecdotally shared they felt more connected to campus because of the newsletter, pride in being an APASA member, and affirmation that they were more likely to attend events.

Surrounding this main source of advertisement/communication were:

  • Post discussions about the featured article on LinkedIn
  • Post events, birthdays, and other announcements on Facebook
  • Create Google calendar events for APASA programming, so members could add it to their calendars
  • Encouraged users to use the #APASABerkeley hashtag to curate photos and comments from the membership
  • Brand related documents: sign in sheet, directional signage, etc.
  • Create APASA-branded thank you cards

After my first year in the role, I created communications guidelines to share with the steering committee so that everyone had a foundational understanding about what content works well where and where the gaps were. In my second year, I was able to create and lead a sub-committee of volunteer staff members, who eventually assumed my position in the following year.

Community x Communications = Awesome

Ashley