Chris Yandle is the Director of Communications (Football) at the University of Miami. His 
blog, "Yandlepedia," is found here: chrisyandle.tumblr.com and is where this post originally appeared recently. Yandle talks about undertaking a six-month project to produce a communications standards and style guide for UM.
The communications standards handbook encompasses social media, web writing, multimedia guidelines and a style guide for Hurricane Athletics. As Yandle states, the purpose of the in-depth style manual is to "provide an overview of the elements to help us present a clean, consistent look across all platforms. A consistent look (brand) across all platforms - in addition to a solid writing foundation - builds credibility with your users."
Yandle presented a "Paperless Game Notes" panel and discussion at the 2012 CoSIDA St. Louis Convention and will return as a presenter this June at the 2013 Orlando Convention.
You can also follow him on Twitter at @chrisyandle.
Whether I want to fully admit it or not, I possess some Type-A personality tendencies. Personally, I’d like to think I’m more Type-AB, but that’s my self-assessment.
I tend to focus on specific details. The scary thing is that I see some of my detail-oriented personality traits in my 4-year-old daughter. That’s kinda scary, if you ask me.
Besides that, I’ve always been keen on aesthetics. That’s why I take a great amount of pride in what I design and how my work is presented. One of my main (and immediate) goals during the beginning portion of my tenure here at Miami was to create a uniform style and a system on standards for my staff to utilize in order to produce the best quality and best product in college athletics.
Like everything, it’s a process. Full adoption of style and standards can be labor intensive. I knew it would be a massive undertaking by me - especially one I was shouldering on my own. Even though it is an ever-evolving document, the basis of the project took six-plus months and was unveiled to UM staff in late January.
Last month, I presented the project at our monthly Directors of Communications Meeting on campus and it was met with rave reviews, which is always a great feeling after spending so many hours in building a project from the ground up.
I take a lot of pride in my work, but I never pat myself on the back. I let my work speak for myself. But this is one of my favorite projects of all and I thought I had to share it.
I scoured the Internet for best practices and I applied what I’ve learned from my previous schools in order to create my own set of standards and values to apply to my staff. There are several schools that do an amazing job at creating clean, consistent looks and my hope is that we are one of those examples, too.
What began as a simple style manual has evolved into a detailed Communications Standards handbook that features:
- Headline and photo specifics and guidelines for our web site;
- How to write player and coach bios;
- How to post stories, audio and video using our content management system;
- Social media strategy;
- The R.A.I.S.E. principle on social media awareness;
- Strategy on social media education;
- Dynamic examples of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts;
- 33-page communications style guide;
- Layout for press releases;
- Email philosophy;
- Email signatures;
- Proofreading tips;
- Multimedia guidelines
Did I mention that I’m a stickler for details?
Of course, this only proves one thing: I’m a stickler for details. Inevitably, I make mistakes, but this has been created to hold us accountable for the end product. Ironically, this best practices/standards guide was riddled with errors during the proofing process, but it was a humble reminder of what always needs to be done.
The purpose of this standards manual is to provide an overview of the elements to help us present a clean, consistent look across all platforms. A consistent look (brand) across all platforms - in addition to a solid writing foundation - builds credibility with your users.
Is it a necessary evil? Probably so. But with any set of policies or procedures, they are no good unless you activate them with your group. I’ve referenced it at least once a day for past few weeks - mostly to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but I’ve taken a few opportunities to make sure I’m doing something correct as to the standards I’ve set.
Oh, did I forget to mention that I’m giving out weekly quizzes to our communications and marketing staff? Well, I’ve only given one…but it did contain a trick question.