UNAM Global: a Network Building Media. Interview with Grisela Iglesias and Ricardo Martínez

UNAM Global is a set of text and multimedia communication strategies that plays a central role in shaping our university community by disseminating everything we do. Equipped with an accessible and swift language—as Italo Calvino wanted the new millennium’s literature to be—it is carefully designed to establish empathy with young readers in a digital communication environment and social networks. UNAM Internacional talked with Grisela Iglesias, head of Innovation and New Technologies, to learn more about this effort under UNAM’s Office of Social Communication (DGCS).

Carlos Maza: Grisela, we are very impressed by UNAM Global’s work; we are always following your social networks and publications. As part of DGCS, we want to start asking you how this set of strategies integrates in the university social communication system.
Grisela Iglesias: UNAM Global is built based on the other DGCS’ producing departments. On one hand, we generate our content; we have an editorial team of writers and a couple of editors. But we also disseminate content by the Office of Information, which is the the most productive area at DGCS. They produce many bulletins, which we re-edit to have a more friendly, fresh outlet, not so bulletin-like or directed to external media. So, we get a lot of material from Social Communication, although the core of what we do, our essential task, emphasizes our own content, designed specifically for our editorial profile which is lighter, friendlier, not so academic, but always addressing relevant topics of our university work—science, ecology, sexuality, gender; everything—and more grounded in the daily life of the university community. This is the most important aspect of Global’s editorial policy.

CM: Is this because UNAM Global targets a specific audience, or is it part of a communication style?
GI: Since its origin, UNAM Global has aspired to establish empathy, reaching particularly young people; firstly, those who are part of the university and, secondly, the young public in general. Our content differs from the official university’s bulletins, UNAM’s institutional voice, or from Gaceta UNAM, also an institutional initiative, the university’s official media. We wanted to have an editorial output, a media to address issues in a way that is not present in newsletters or Gaceta. UNAM Global is conceived this way; it is not an official media of the university, and so we can deal with issues differently from the editorial policy of Gaceta. We address topics more superficially or lightly.

CM: Well, I have noticed nothing superficial about what you do; all very well written and very well told, with a great ability to show what is relevant in an accessible language.
GI: Yes, everything is very well told, and everything has academic support. Some articles may not have UNAM’s academic endorsement but they do have it from some other university worldwide: sometimes, we replicate research content from other universities, so our notes always have academic endorsement. The other thing that is part of UNAM Global’s editorial policy is that we try to be in tune with current situations. That is, if relevant events are happening (an eclipse, for example, or the Popocatepetl volcano activity, or last spring’s severe heat wave) we try to cover them in a very immediate way. And the inputs come from our own information production system, from our editors’ work, and from the Information Office. The output is the platform itself and its social networks.

Another important editorial issue is that we do not publish practically any content if it does not have multimedia elements. We think it’s important that almost everything—90 percent of the content we generate—has audio and video elements.

IN DIGITAL MEDIA YOU CANNOT LEAVE, YOU CANNOT DISAPPEAR, YOU HAVE TO KEEP UPDATING CONTENT

CM: Which makes your work well-suited for video-based networks or podcasts…
GI: We have looked into the podcast world, but we are no ready to get into it because we would need a team to do it right. A podcast channel is a strategy you must take care of; you have to produce and need a recording infrastructure. We have thought about it because podcasting is very much on trend. We are always looking at the trends in digital communication, and it is one of them, people listen to podcasts a lot and follow all kinds of channels. But to do it well, you must have a dedicated team, and that means resources.

CM: And the use of video, for example, through the TikTok platform?
GI: No, we abandoned our TikTok account because we don’t have the staff for that. Producing content for TikTok also means having a team. Content from other networks cannot be used for TikTok, so we had to stop updating the account, even though it is a social network we should be on, especially Global. Doing things well in social networks implies having resources and people and being very well connected with each kind of output.

CM: In which networks is UNAM Global present?
GI: In Facebook and Twitter [when this interview was made, Twitter had not yet changed its name to X]. We are not on Instagram. Our priority is our own portal, which is very dynamic; it is a vibrant site updated daily.

CM: How many people visit UNAM Global’s website daily?
GI: We have an average of about 20 thousand visits per day. It’s easy to say…

CM: That’s a lot, isn’t it?
GI: Yes, it’s a lot. Thanks to our team and to the fact that Facebook and Twitter support it.

CM: Where does UNAM Global interact with its readers? Does it happens on social networks or directly on the portal?
GI: That’s something we review very frequently. The answer is no: between ten and 11 percent of the traffic comes from social networks; 70 percent is organic: readers reach us through organic search, that is, searching for topics on Google—on the Internet—and from there, they come to UNAM Global.

CM: That indicates a strong positioning of UNAM Global.
GI: Yes, it has to do with the positioning of UNAM Global and the work we do with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) [see box].

Something that characterizes us and is very important for the Innovation and New Technologies Office is to observe, study, and implement digital communication trends. It is often thought that digital communication is very accessible and that it is enough to have a social network, because they are open, and that’s all. Anyone can make a website, there are tools that allow you to do it in a very easy way, without the need to hire some specialist. But the difference between joining a social network, creating a blog, or launching a website and doing it professionally and competitively is enormous. To be competitive, you have to professionalize digital communication, and the SEO work at UNAM Global is an example of this.

Our articles, both the ones we produce here and those we borrow from other media—as we have done with contents from UNAM Internacional—, like the Coordination of Humanities, Medicine and Health, Science Dissemination, or ¿Cómo ves? Magazine and others, receive special treatment to adapt to our communication style. Magazines like Nuevos Diálogos or Revista de la Universidad have high-level content that needs to be suitable for the audience and tone of UNAM Global, so what we do is review them.


CM: And from your SEO activity, you link UNAM Global contents to UNAM’s academic and research entities.
GI: Exactly, because we tag and link certain words, or we put the links to the original sources, as in the testimonials of the Teaching Center for Foreigners (CEPE) that we recently took from UNAM Internacional: “If you want more information about CEPE, check out the complete article in UNAM Internacional.” Some institutes or entities from which we take content return the mention, so this communication returns. Links are essential in SEO strategy because they make search engines prioritize your article. We try to keep the links within the UNAM domain, although this is not always possible. Sometimes, we disseminate articles originating, for example, in NASA, concerning what UNAM is doing.

Our articles go through a process. From the moment the topic is conceived, indications are given to do the coverage and how to do it, for example, we work as a team if we have to interview a researcher; everyone participates. It is not strictly an editorial committee, but a kind of editorial board. Sometimes, a colleague says, “I think this is a delicate subject, and we should not approach it this way”, and we evaluate it. Some issues go ahead, but there are issues that, for some reason, do not, because information is incipient or some other reason. So, we start conceiving the article, then take a series of steps through a collaborative tool in which an article is being elaborated: we post that content, and different people intervene to shape it. Nelly Muñohierro, head of Digital Content at UNAM Global, coordinates this collaborative tool, in which the article goes through different stages and is made available for the next team member to see. It is a cooperative system in which notes cross different stages and things happen. The last step is applying Ricardo’s SEO to the articles, which takes quite a while.

UNAM GLOBAL HAS TO BE PUBLISHED EVEN DURING VACATIONS. WE MAKE A MONTH-LONG CONTENT AGENDA, AND WE ALWAYS REMAIN ALERT

CM: How many people make up the UNAM Global team?
GI: We are seven people who work a lot: weekends and vacations. We don’t stop because UNAM Global has to go out, also during vacations. We make a month-long content agenda, but we always remain alert. A crucial aspect of digital media is maintaining a consistent online presence by regularly updating content. This is particularly important for social networks, which require continuous feeding. If left inactive, they fall, and it becomes challenging to regain a previous level of engagement, especially after taking a vacation. We even prepare content for the first few days back from vacation, as it is necessary to be at least one week ahead of schedule.

CM: How many articles does UNAM Global publish daily?
GI: Between five and seven per day. I have six scheduled for vacation. It is a constantly updated media, and it is necessary to continually check the information environment and current events, which may be of great interest. For example, right now we have to pay attention to the heat wave [the interview was conducted in mid-June 2023], to earthquakes, volcanic emissions, or relevant issues in politics, in Mexican and international society; we have to be alert in the case of death of a famous person or if a coup d’état happens anywhere; we have to pay attention to everything essential or exciting. Events may not happen every day, but they sure appear every week.

CM: You recently covered the topic of women in science: acknowledgements made to Julieta Fierro. We could see very interesting articles and beautiful infographics from the Office of Scientific Dissemination and the Coordination for Gender Equality, which were reproduced by you.
GI: There are many things. We also have ephemeris for which we have a calendar, and we establish special days, which help us keep up to date, know what will happen, and calendarize our contents. Everything adds up to be addressed in this, let’s say, editorial board, including current issues.

CM: Regarding network building, do you think UNAM Global contributes to the formation of this broad general networking of the university, through which we learn about so many things and stay connected?
GI: Yes, absolutely! UNAM Global is positioned in the university as a doorway, and we get calls from all kinds of university dependencies to tell us stories, to ask us to publish projects, or we are the ones who seek them out. We are, on one hand, like a receiver, a container of things that are sent to us, and, at the same time, we are constantly sending bonds outwards. It is a two-way flow. We are always looking for and encouraging people to look for us. We want to be sought after, and in a sense, we steal many things from everywhere in the university because that’s our guiding idea and we think this empowers others.

The contents of UNAM Global are published under an open-access policy; they can be quoted and used as long as copyright is respected, but everything is freely available and accessible. Nothing has a paywall, and there are no limits. You don’t even have to subscribe. Everything is completely open.

And we also make room for personal stories, which differentiates us from any other media at DGSC, which are more formal in their output. We are always looking for those stories. If we learn, for example, about a girl who has founded libraries in communities in Oaxaca, we cover that part related to people’s lives.

Another example is that we are going out with a fellow student from the Faculty of Medicine who guides people with visual impairments who are runners. The article narrates that she studies and guides visually impaired runners in her spare time; she explains how she got there and what her activity is like. These are stories that are part of the university community and enhance it. And since the university community is also made up of alumni, we often look for articles about them.

At UNAM Global, we are interested in telling stories of the university community. Beyond the academic world, which is very important, we want to talk about achievements. We also want to show the B side of the stories, how you are part of the university community. This is how UNAM Global helps you make your day-to-day life easier.

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