---
tags: Marketing
---

# UTMIST Marketing Memo (2020/09/03)

This document aims to outline best practices and important things to remember when working on marketing material for UTMIST's events and activities.

## Graphics

The quality of recent graphics has been aesthetically great! We really appreciate the creative and colourful elements that make our posts and website pop. We just have a few guidelines.

- Be mindful of grammar, conjugation, plurality and other aspects of the writing and details you put on the graphics. If you notice any errors or awkward-reading text, please inform the authors of the event material (authors of the website page) and ask them to make corrections.
- For the purposes of the website, we should be creating landscape versions of the posters (alongside any portrait ones you created) so that we can use these graphics on our website.
- Please create a version with a **3:2 ratio**, preferably with at least a **3000x2000** resolution.
- For example, see the [events list](https://utmist.gitlab.io/events/) and [AGM 2020 page](https://utmist.gitlab.io/events/agm-2020) for how these graphics would appear.

## Writing

We want to make clear what the general procedure is when it comes to written material.

- Written material for events should originate from the associates that are organizing the events. They should be responsible for writing informative pages that read comfortably and have all the logistical details. Marketing Associates are responsible for adapting this writing into the social media platforms and graphics. What do we mean by this?
- While we want to preserve the consistency of writing, copy-pasting word-for-word from the website doesn't always look good.
- Make sure to convert markdown syntax into plaintext (especially for links).
- When adapting writing in ways like adding rherotical/procovative intro sentences; working logistical details into sentences to improve flow; or inserting a call to action at the end of a post, always keep the source material (webpage) as the foundation. If there is something disatisfactory with the source, let the authors know.
- Whether you're adapting paragraphics from a webpage or writing your own sentences, please ensure that you're maintaining correct grammar, choosing sensible words, and that your writing makes for **comfortable American English** reading.
- Reference this document or webpages the other associates wrote if you need examples.
- It doesn't take an English major to improve your skills but you can definitely reach out to one or look online for resources.
- When writing promotional material for an event, keep all versions/variations of the same source material together.
- The source material will almost always be the webpage we have on our [website](https://utmist.gitlab.io). You can refer to the page on your browser or take its source from [OneDrive](https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApikpRh7lFXpapKWe7BgCY7Vm2s).
- This will help us in keeping track of what is done and what isn't, and also in reviewing each our work.
- Our recommended format is the following.

        # <Event Name> Promotional Posts
        
        ## Source Material (Usually Website or Slides)
        
        ## Discord
        
        ## Discord | <Partner>
        
        ## Facebook
        
        ## Instagram
        
        ## Slides (if applicable)
        
        ## Website
        
        ## Weixin (WeChat)

- Please use URLs (like Google Docs links) or flexible plaintext file formats, such as `.txt` or `.md`.

## Proofread
Before you hit the send button, please preview your post and go through this checklist to avoid errors:
- Date, time, and day of week (text & poster)
- Name and position of speakers (text & poster)
- Abbreviations: avoid mistakes like "Machine Intelligence (ML)"
- URLs: make sure they are correct and clickable, shorten the link with tools like [bitly](bitly.com) or [tinyurl](tinyurl.com) if necessary

If you find another type of mistake that is not mentioned here, please add it to the list.

## Posting
- **Facebook: Eric**
- Repost our post one week before the event as a reminder.
- **LinkedIn: Anna**
- Use relevant hashtags e.g. #MachineLearning #UofT.
- Repost our post one week before the event as a reminder.
- **Twitter: Charlie**
- Shorten the text to meet word limit.
- Use relevant hashtags e.g. #MachineLearning #UofT.
- Repost our post one week before the event as a reminder.
- **Instagram: Ashna**
- Make sure to story our posts from the feed such that it's clearly visible and fits to screen.
- Make sure to use various stickers to make it attractive.
- Repost our post one week before the event as a reminder.
- **Discord announcement: Annie**
- Mention everyone for the first post.
- Bold important information (event name, time).

## Other Details

- If you've completed a post or graphic, please ping your VP and perhaps link the document(s) if you're nice. :sweat_smile:
- When introducting the club's name for the first time in a post/document, state the full name followed by the abbreviation in one of these two ways.
- [The] University of Toronto Machine Intelligence Student Team (UTMIST).
- [The] UofT Machine Intelligence Student Team (UTMIST). Use this if you need to shorten the name.
- Afterwards of course, you can just use the abbreviation.
- This also applies to common phrases like the following.
- **Machine Intelligence (MI)**, Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI).
- MI is the strongly preferred phrase unless you are specifically dealing with machine learning and not the larger MI/AI area.
- Computer Vision (CV).
- Be mindful of case-sensitive URLs and check to see that said URLs actually work.
- Markdown URLs can actually be stored in link references like [this](https://hackmd.io/@utmist/BJq8ApKXw).

## Resources
- [Markdown Cheatsheet](https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet)
- Online grammar-check tools: [Grammarly](https://app.grammarly.com/), [LanguageTool](https://languagetool.org/), [ProWritingAid](https://prowritingaid.com/)
- See [this review from *The Varsity*](https://handbook.thevarsity.ca/articles/a-review-of-online-grammar-check-tools/) for a detailed comparison

---

Keep up the good work!

2020/09/03

**Zhiyuan (Annie) Lu**
*VP Marketing*

Shubhra Bedi
*VP Communications & Academic Mentor*

Robert (Rupert) Wu
*Co-President & VP Engineering*

Yixuan (Richard) Xu
*Co-President*