Are the budget purse strings loosening at your institution? Have you lobbied to get some of those newly available dollars thrown in the direction of improving content on your university’s website? Yes? Excellent! Now, who to hire? This decision is made more challenging by the always-evolving nature of the web and the many hats we in the content world are often forced (or sometimes choose) to wear. But Ann Handley, co-author of “Content Rules,” … [Read more...]
Transmedia Storytelling in Higher Ed
April 25, 2011 by
One of my favorite TV shows is "Mad Men." (What can I say, I’m a sucker for men with fedoras.) However, some of my favorite parts of the series never happen on television. Case in point? The “Mad Men Yourself” avatar creator, the characters’ Twitter accounts, the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce job interview game, the “Fashion File” blog posts that reveal new details about the show by analyzing the fashions featured in each episode. The list goes … [Read more...]
Refresh Your Commencement Coverage with Compelling Content
April 20, 2011 by
It’s that time of year when flat hats and long robes are the height of fashion. That’s right, commencement is just around the corner. If you’re like me and coming up on your seventh straight commencement, it can be tempting to fall back on the conventional, tried-and-true approach. But this year, why not try something new? After all, commencement is a milestone that engages a majority of our audiences in one way or another, evoking pride, … [Read more...]
Making Friends with the Backend
April 19, 2011 by
You know who is one of your most valuable partners in content development? Your web developer. I'm a big believer in integrated teams, and the closer you can work with the web developer to understand the goals of your content initiatives, the more he or she can bake the structure and coding into your content that supports those goals. Content strategist Rachel Lovinger, who has written extensively on the semantic web and the concept of making … [Read more...]
Talk About the Passion
April 14, 2011 by
While user-generated content is not a magic bullet for an effective content strategy, it is pretty nice to have in the arsenal. But what actually makes user-generated content work? As content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi explains, using LEGO as an example, the most fundamental building block for successful user-generated content is passion—when people love you so much, they can't help but tell the world about it. How have you … [Read more...]