Meet Content Blog Archives
Planning for Homepage Content
If there’s one thing that the infamous XKCD university homepage comic reminded us, it’s that we need to strike a better balance between tasks and messaging on our homepages. And if there’s one thing that the commentary stemming from that comic reminded us, it’s that our homepage is one of the most political entities we will ever manage, and the solutions don’t come easy. But if you think about, there really is no separate homepage strategy, is … [Read more...]
Case in Point: Content Culture at Vanderbilt
One of the biggest challenges we face in higher ed getting people to buy into the value of content strategy and build support for content across our organization. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., executive director of integrated communications Melanie Moran has rung up a string of successes doing just that. Whether it’s their news site, the 365@VU photo project, the alumni magazine or a recent reorganization, Moran and her team at … [Read more...]
A Web Analytics Framework for Content Analysis
Last month we kicked off a series of posts on web analytics by discussing the value of web analytics for content measurement. So, now that you're on board with adding web analytics to your content measurement toolkit (right?), let's talk about making use of it. Author Lou Rosenfeld describes two approaches to using web analytics: top-down and bottom-up. Top-down analytics is when you start with a narrow set of goals to identify a larger set … [Read more...]
Case in Point: Building Community at UW-Madison
How can we use content to develop a true sense of community—both online and off—among our audiences? Whether it’s through a revamped newsletter or new ways of using social channels, University of Wisconsin-Madison social media and internal communications manager John Lucas has made it work. Through his work on innovative projects like #UWRightNow, a 24-hour crowdsourced snapshot of life on campus, the Bucky Challenge, a social media scavenger … [Read more...]
Web Analytics: What Is It Good For?
Quality content is a hard sell. Sure, people get that content is important — but getting people to invest the time and resources needed to make content great isn't easy. It’s not enough to tell decision makers you need quality content. In order to make the case for it, you have to demonstrate success and failure. Selling content strategy is a continuous process. You must show how content quality impacts business goals and user needs. This is … [Read more...]