BY CHRISTINA-MARY PIPER
Sheridan College is relaunching its award-winning blog. The #Sheridancuriosities campaign recently set up displays around the campuses at Trafalgar, Davis and HMC.
The Curiosities blog is designed to fit the subscribers’ preference. When a student or staff member signs up there is a survey to let the college know what type of stories their subscribers are interested in.
The subscription option is part of the new design that launched Oct. 1. In approximately four weeks, 80 people have subscribed.
“We hope to see this number grow to 100 by the end of the campaign we’re currently running,” says Keiko Kataoka, digital communications officer communications and external relations.
The blog was started by the Communications team at Sheridan. Currently their writers, Christine Szustaczek, Carolina Salcedo, Susan Atkinson and Kataoka author blog posts regularly.
They welcome a wide variety of guests such as alumni, students, staff, faculty who want to share an experience.
Part of the campaign they’re running is to promote the redesigned blog and new book is to remind people to share their story leads and ideas with curiosities@sheridancollege.ca
“Curiosities was launched in November 2013 to coincide with Sheridan’s Get Creative rebranding. On Oct.1 we relaunched the blog with a more dynamic design that incorporates more engaging elements,” said Kataoka.
The blog relies on social media for promotion. “We use #SheridanCuriosities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Curiosities content is integrated into the sheridancollege.ca website – there’s a widget on the homepage where we can feature new stories and direct people to Curiosities to read more,” says Kataoka.
For the relaunch campaign the group decided to do a combination of digital, social and print marketing. The Davis, HMC and Trafalgar libraries have a copy of the Curiosities book on display and it will be available for loan after the campaign is over. There’s also vinyl wall displays at the three campuses that promote the blog and encourage people to subscribe.
The blog has won six awards from five different organizations since it launched.
From now until Nov.18 there is a draw for people who sign up to the blog, The draw will be for one of 10 copies of the Curiosities book. Stewart Dick in Sheridan’s marketing department designed the book. The team in Communications curated the content by dividing the stories into chapters that they felt represent themes that make up the college identity.
