“Can you do a quick Instagram post?”
“Maybe we should start a newsletter.”
“My student can make some graphics.”

If you work in communications, you’ve heard it all before. Comms is simple right? Anyone can whip something up quickly.

In higher education, faculty, program coordinators, service teams, and senior leadership all need to reach students, often under tight timelines or submitting content that doesn’t follow best practices. Communications teams frequently end up editing, adapting, or redoing content created across dozens of decentralized voices. Many non-marketing staff and student teams see communications as a fun, creative break from their day-to-day work, resulting in off brand Canva-heavy graphics, past-their-time trendy TikTok-style videos, or wordy emails no one’s clicking on.

This session shows how a small, student-facing communications team developed coaching strategies and collaborative processes to help colleagues create content that will actually deliver. By providing guidance early, teams can reduce rework, align content with strategy and data, and turn well-intentioned “creative experiments” into messages that truly engage students.