DCU: Digital Marketing Campaign

Dublin City University

Brief History of Dublin City University - Dublin City University was founded originally in 1975 as National Institute of Higher Education, Dublin and then became DCU IN 1989. The campus is 50 acres and there is another 35 acres at St.Clare's Sports Grounds. As of 2015 there is almost 55,000 graduates. There is five campuses, Glasnevin Campus, Sports Campus, Innovation Campus, St.Patricks Campus and All Hallows Campus. They have been ranked among one of the top 50 universities that are under 50 years old numerous times and was given the award of "Irish University of the year" by The Sunday Times in the academic year of 2010 – 2011.

Layout of Dublin City University website -The very first thing I have noticed about the Dublin City University website is the easy accessibility throughout the site, it's easy to navigate for whatever you're looking for. Something I've noticed very quickly is in the top left corner is "Accessibility" link where it brings up seventeen links from the application ReciteMe. I really liked this feature as it really does help people who really need to use those services, from the speaking application to the increasing font application they're all very useful for people.

The easy layout of the website really does make it very easy to navigate whilst also making a very good looking site as well, the colours that they've used for the site are eye catching from my first impression, it all keeps to a certain theme of a white background with navy and gold for the sites layout. Scrolling with both the website and the mobile site is very easy and efficient. Using the site for a variety of reasons is very beneficial from using it for research purposes ie. Leaving Cert or FETAC students looking into the college to using the site as example of clever marketing done by a college.

The menus are all very easily accessible with the search bar just above it being another great feature when people are looking for something in particular on the site. The six headings are “Explore”, “Faculties & Schools”, “Study at DCU”, “Research & Engagement”, “Offices & Departments” and finally “Prospectus & Quicklinks”. All six of the headings have departments to do with them making it very accessible for users to find everything in my opinion. All of the headings provide a great deal of information for the college and is a great way of marketing the college to the public.

The “news” part of the website is providing an excellent deal of information about what’s going on with the college and anything concerning the college currently, once again its very easy to navigate to and very easy to find the most interesting and current stories as they are chronology listed with the newest story being first obviously. Another great part of the site is the “events” section where it informs you all about the upcoming events being held by/at DCU.

I have had a great time actually using both the mobile and desktop site as in my opinion the both sites have been done excellently with a great deal of thought put into the interaction with the user.

Media of Dublin City University:

Social Media Marketing – The website has four social media platforms right at the end of the page, "Facebook", "Twitter", "YouTube" and their "Instagram". The DCU Facebook page has at time of writing this 56,188 likes on Facebook, the Facebook gives a day to day update on what's happening in the college, you have reviews of the college by past pupils and professors which is in my opinion a great thing if a student is unsure about whether or not the college is for them. The twitter of the college then really keeps people updated with what's going on with the college, tweeting to their 26.4K followers, they use the tagline "Purposefully different, consistently excellent". Their Instagram is then a much smaller platform compared to their Facebook and Twitter, with 6,704 followers they have posted 213 times and it seems to me that it's much more of a personal place for the site as it has to do with the current students and how they’re getting on. Their YouTube is similar to their Instagram where their amount of followers might less and in this case 1,332 Subscribers but it does not stop them from posting regular about the interesting stories of past and present students. I could not find a blog or anything related sadly.