Web Writing Guidelines for Content Contributors

As web professionals, we owe a lot to our content contributors. Your college website has tons of content, and no one person can do it all. The more you enable content contributors to write for your site (supported, of course, by a thorough editorial process), the closer you will be to your shared goal of creating great content. Here are some web writing guidelines to help make that happen. 1. Keep your audience in mind. Consider who will be … [Read more...]

A Simple Test for On-Brand Content

People typically associate branding with visual identity. But what about content? How often do you consider whether content is effectively on-brand? Do you consider your brand when writing articles, blog posts and tweets? What about when taking photos or creating videos, podcasts and presentations? On Fast Company, Martin Lindstrom challenges people to test their brand by removing the logo from their web pages. Does whatever remains adequately … [Read more...]

13 Tips for a Good Interview (and Thus, a Great Story)

Sometimes, finding a good story isn’t the problem. You could be innocently sitting at your desk, sneaking in a play on Facebook Scrabble, when you get a new email. Why, it’s from the academic dean, and he just wanted to let you know about this student who is not only first chair trombone in the local symphony orchestra, but has also not allowed a goal in net all season as the lacrosse team’s goalie and has logged 250 hours of community service … [Read more...]

The Recipe for Engagement

The ongoing challenge we face in creating content -- whether it's yet another alumni profile or a description of student life on campus -- is to be compelling and engaging. But what does that really mean, and how can we meet this expectation? Copyblogger's Brian Clark breaks the formula down to two components: meaning and fascination. The most effective content, he argues, has a balance of both. How do you strike that balance in your content? … [Read more...]

Three Higher Ed Content Problems a Strategy Can Solve

One of the goals of Meet Content is to make content strategy more tangible for higher education web professionals. Many discussions on content strategy (including those led by me) look at it from a wide-angle lens, which demonstrates the necessary holistic approach to content. However, this approach can also make the discipline seem overwhelming and unmanageable. So, to bridge the gap between concepts and daily challenges, I'd like to highlight … [Read more...]