This weekend at Podcamp Boston, one presenter made the point that monitoring social media won't give you all the answers, but it will give you some really good questions. Six months ago today, we started Meet Content to open a discussion about improving web content in higher education, and we've covered a lot of topics, ranging from infographics to contextual content delivery to crisis communications to editorial style. 33 blog posts and 41 On … [Read more...]
A Content Strategy Approach to Online Crisis Communications (Part Two)
August 31, 2011 by
Last week, we began discussing how to approach crisis communications planning from a content strategy mindset, ensuring that we will be able to effectively publish our most "useful, usable content" when it is needed most. I outlined core communications principles that apply during a crisis and addressed how to plan roles and resources and how to structure messaging. Today, let's dig deeper into our channels and how to manage them during a … [Read more...]
New Semester, New (Awesome) Content
August 11, 2011 by
Soon, the quiet in the halls will yield to chatter and footsteps. The lines at the campus food court will become exponentially longer, and the frisbee will resume its flight path over the quad. That's right: students. They're baaaack. Or they will be soon, anyway. So how do we plan content to herald this annual rite? There are many aspects to the beginning of the academic year that present compelling content opportunities. I've got a few … [Read more...]
Live Content on a Low Budget
May 18, 2011 by
If there's one thing common to college campuses, it's events. We all have speakers, performances, panel discussions, cultural showcases, exhibits and other happenings scheduled weekly. We also have the events you can’t predict, whether it’s an unannounced visit by a local politician, a group discussion convened in reaction to a breaking news story or a spontaneous student gathering. While there are lots of ways we can report on an event, how … [Read more...]
It’s the Little Things: Why Microcopy Matters
May 5, 2011 by
Our digital experiences -- whether they involve updating Twitter, reading a web page, using an app or filling out a form -- do not typically take place in single bursts. Rather, they take place incrementally, with each step gradually (hopefully) moving us toward our goal. Some of the most important signposts along that incremental journey are the words that guide our way. There’s a name for it -- microcopy. “Microcopy is small yet powerful … [Read more...]