Making the most of LUU Marketing and Comms: How we can boost your work

Leeds University Union has dedicated Marketing and Communications teams who shout about what the Union is up to at any given time. But we don’t only amplify the organisation - we’re here to help our students and clubs and societies too. Take a look at how you can make the most of this support below.

Always remember to make responsible and sustainable choices when advertising your society, events or performance.


Communications 

Tag us on social media

Social media is one of the main ways clubs and socs connect with their members, but we can help you get the word out to an even wider pool of students. With anywhere from 17k to 47k followers on each of our accounts, as a club or society you’re encouraged to tag us in your posts for us to reshare to all of our followers - we’re always more than happy to help you spread the word.

If you are creating an asset, check out our logos package below. 


Our handles are as follows:


Follow our top tips for more engaging content on social media

Our work with social media has proven our students are most active on Instagram and TikTok, so prioritise these channels for your promotion. 


Writing a post:

  • Use media - is there an eye-catching and engaging image or video included?
  • Details - does the user have everything they need to do what you say? (e.g. dates, times, URLs)
  • Use tags, hashtags and geotags to push the word out further.
  • @mention any relevant people/organisations.
  • Think about tone of voice - how do you want to sound & who are you talking to?


When including a video:

  • Practice - know what you are going to say and come across confident.
  • Good lighting - don’t face into the sun or have the sun behind you.
  • Is the sound okay? Find a quiet place to record.
  • Orientation - think about the platform you’re using and what will work.
  • Get to the point quickly!

  • Add captions.

Accessibility

It’s really important that we consider how different groups with accessibility needs might access your content. Here is a checklist of things to think about when posting and creating content: 

  • When uploading an image, adding alt text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers. Alt text is simple, written copy that describes the image and conveys why it is there. This article by RNIB is a good resource for what to write, and how to add alt text on different platforms: https://www.rnib.org.uk/rnibconnect/technology/making-your-social-media-accessible
  • Capitalise every word in a hashtag. This means that a screen reader will read the hashtag correctly, rather than being unable to recognise the separate words. 
  • Most platforms add auto-captions to videos, but make sure this is switched on. 
  • For video content, adding a transcript in the caption means that if anything goes wrong with auto-captions, the content is still accessible. 
  • Format text (for example, on Instagram stories or in TikToks/Reels) so that it is easy to read. Avoid small text and choose clear fonts. Try to avoid green and red or blue and yellow combinations, as they're difficult to read. 


Society Stars

We currently run a project called ‘Society Stars’, where we offer societies the chance to be showcased on LUU social media channels. This includes Insta story takeovers, reels, guest posts and even a feature on the LUU website. You can nominate your society to be a society star and each week a winner will be drawn at random! More information and the form to nominate to come on this from September. Keep an eye out for it!


Alternatively, if you’d like a member of our Comms team to come and ‘cover’ one of your society events, sharing Insta stories to our audience, email luu.communications@leeds.ac.uk.


Marketing


Make use of Engage

Engage is our new website that hosts everything student engagement - whether students want to join a club, buy a ticket or keep up to date with news and what’s on, this is the place to do it. Make sure to use the tags available. From now on we’ll be directing students who want to browse club and society events to Engage - and that means it’s essential that you list yours here if you want good attendance. 


Everything you need to know about listing your events can be found here.


Get involved in LUU’s marketing campaigns

We’re looking for ways to highlight the great stuff our clubs and societies are doing, as well as to promote what’s on offer in LUU itself - from cafes to campaigns. It makes sense to combine the two, right?

That means that we might ask you to get involved in some unique and wacky opportunities, designed to give your group a boost while spreading the word about what else is on offer for students. Look out for messages from us throughout the year - we’d really love to have you on board and if you are planning something yourself get in touch at marketing@luu.leeds.ac.uk  


Advertise in our building

Located at the heart of campus, the Union building is a real student hub - and you can advertise here. Clubs and societies are welcome to pin adverts and posters to the branded noticeboards around the building to take advantage of our student high footfall. You can find them in the Foyer, by the Union Square microwaves, and between Union Square and Common Ground. Please keep your ads and posters to A4 size or smaller, and only use drawing pins - we request that posters are not stuck or blu-tacked to walls in the building or the empty frames, they will be taken down if so.

We also recently allocated one (with a chance to become more) digital screen in building that on rotation will only show students/ society events promotion, the screen will be located in the Foyer at all times, so if you’ve got a particularly special event or performance that needs an extra boost, get in touch and email Student Activities at uniarc@leeds.ac.uk.

We do encourage that you send your request at least 2 weeks ahead of the event/ performance/showcase and our team will add it to the digital screen schedule depending on relevance and availability.

The format for the digital screen artwork is portrait 1080x1920px, it should be exported only as a .PNG at 72dpi and it should have a max file size of 6MB. 


Logo Package and Brand

We have also put together this folder with some LUU logos you can use, our LUU logo and our sustainability one, as well as Give It A Go ones and a selection for any Liberate LUU event you might host. We will be making sure to add more to this folder. We want to remind all that logos should not be changed,, they are part of our brand guidelines and you will be representing LUU when using these.


HEX Codes for Clubs and Societies brand (no needed but in case you would want your assets to look more connected to LUU)

 Sky Blue #9BCBEB 

Scarlet Red #EF3340

Classic Black and White

Simple IG Square Canva Template with the logos and the colors: 

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFk9g8lzr0/lrunhBkS352COFb4jTUPOw/view?utm_content=DAFk9g8lzr0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink&mode=preview 


Simplify sorting your club or society kits & merch

Bespoke merchandise is a great way to get your club looking slick and professional, but ordering it can be a bit of a headache. As ever, LUU’s here to help. 


Gear, our on-campus merchandise shop, can provide you with your group’s bespoke branded clothing and accessories. From helping with designs to dealing with issues and managing deliveries, it’s the convenient way to get kitted out, with the Gear team doing most of the hard work for you. Not only that but it’s the more ethical way to shop for bespoke items. Get more details here.