Traditionally, we have viewed offline and online experiences as two separate things — complementary, perhaps, but separate. Today, the distinctions between physical and digital are dissolving — campus events are experienced both from the audience and via the hashtag — revealing themselves to be two sides of the same experience. This begs the tough question: Are we aligned? On June 12 and 13, I delivered a presentation at Penn State Web … [Read more...]
A Website That Listens
June 21, 2011 by
On our social media channels, we may have this conversation thing all figured out. We ask and answer, listen and learn, share and engage. But what about our websites? Are we extending our mastery of the social web to our .edu? Are we integrating those conversational principles into our digital home base? Jordan Williams, who has helped create several interactive features on the Middlesex School's website, implores us to create mechanisms for … [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...]
Web Content Insights Through ‘Understanding Comics’
June 6, 2011 by
I am not a comics nerd (I don’t think my Archie obsession as a kid holds muster), though I have befriended many — and married one. So while I’ve never sniffed at comics and graphic novels as child's play, I didn’t fully realize the complexity of the form until I picked up a copy of Scott McCloud’s seminal text, Understanding Comics, in which he explains many principles of visual communication and what makes comics tick. I had heard of the book … [Read more...]
What Does Your Legacy Content Say About You?
May 31, 2011 by
Remember that timeline you created for the sesquicentennial? Or that page with thumbnail profiles of students engaged in public service? How about the photo gallery of new campus buildings... that happens to be missing the two dorms built last year? Sometimes, content that we create -- whether because a higher-up suggested it, because the idea struck us on a slow summer afternoon or because of a content plan that later goes awry -- ends up … [Read more...]