Academic Branding and Positioning through University’s Website Profile

Abstract

Personal branding is becoming an essential concept for academic staff. They often use their owned media such as social media, blogpost and website to engage with the audience and disseminate their works. This study, however, focuses on the staff profile on the University’s website. The web page is a media earned by the staff, by virtue of their employment but owned by the University. The University controls the content of these webpages but allows the academic staff to present themselves based on the stipulated. This study analyzed academic staff profiles across 136 UK Universities. Twenty-eight key sections were identified and further group into five themes of Personal Information, Educational Information, Research Information, Industry Information and Engagement Information. There were instances of incomplete and outdated profile and profile with no photographs. The study contributes to studies on academic branding and higher education marketing. The study highlights the responsibilities of the University to provide the platform and encourage staff to make use of the opportunity to develop and maintain their brand. It offers practical implications for University Managers, Information and Communications Technology, Marketing Communications and Academic Staff on how to develop and manage staff profile.