There's more than one doorway to our websites. People come in through the garage, basement, window, chimney — well, you get the picture. Colleges are learning that their website user experience doesn't always start on their homepage. Sometimes the first web content people see is a blog post or a student handbook PDF or an inquiry form. Or is it? Actually, the user experience never starts on your website. The doorway to your site is … [Read more...]
Why Should We Care About Your Twitter Account?
June 10, 2011 by
One of the things we've learned about managing social media is that the sooner you begin planning your social media content strategy by asking "why?" the better off your plan will be in the long run. But while we may have done a good job of answering the "why?" question internally, have we done a good job of answering our audience's "why?" question: Why should I follow you? What will I get out of this? What content will you give me? What value … [Read more...]
Stakeholder Support Is Key for Content Strategy Success
May 27, 2011 by
Content strategy depends on strong stakeholder relationships. You need stakeholders not only to help inform your content strategy but also to help implement and maintain it. Without involving stakeholders in the planning process and prioritizing their needs, competing objectives will compromise success. Meghan Casey of Brain Traffic offers great tips for gaining stakeholder support, as well as suggestions for group song. "Kumbaya," … [Read more...]
The Bounce Rate Myth
May 25, 2011 by
For advanced web analytics users, bounce rate is quite possibly the most popular stand-alone metric — analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik suggests it’s the sexiest web metric ever. It's certainly at the top of my list. Google defines bounce rate as "the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page." It’s great because it tells you right away that something is wrong … [Read more...]
User Feedback, Where? Right There!
May 24, 2011 by
Understanding our users’ needs and evaluating the efficacy of our web content is an ongoing challenge. But sometimes the most relevant, valuable insights are right in front of us. In her post, "Revisiting the cliché, 'the customer is always right,'" Tara DeMarco reminds us to make use of everyday user feedback. Just like customers, our web users are always right when they respond to our content — such as a visitor … [Read more...]