The following guest post was written by Mike Petroff, digital content strategist, Harvard University. Content strategy typically starts with planning for and managing content on your own website. Words, images, videos, and other elements all fit within your carefully constructed design. But, what happens when people discover your content in spaces like Facebook and Twitter? How can we prepare our content to visually stand out when it … [Read more...]
Making Change at Confab Higher Ed 2014
November 20, 2014 by
Last week, a bunch of smart higher education content professionals landed in Atlanta for the second annual Confab Higher Ed cake party. Er, rather, the second annual Confab Higher Ed conference. More than just a project show-and-tell, the conference presenters used their accomplishments and experiences to touch on some of the pervasive themes that inform all of our work. These include trust, internal communication and collaboration, and how to … [Read more...]
Managing the Copycat Content Request
September 30, 2014 by
You may have gotten the request. It could come via email, in a meeting, or during a chance encounter in the staff kitchen. “Say,” begins Steve the PR guy (or Jen the photographer, or Marie your vice president), “have you seen the social media hub (or the slider widget, or the faculty profile database) on Competitor U’s website? It’s pretty great. Can we do something like that?” And… that’s it. A thing. Maybe they saw it on a blog, or at a … [Read more...]
Best Practices for Email Newsletter Content Planning
March 30, 2014 by
Everyone loves to prognosticate about the future of email, including whether or not anyone still reads it or if we’ll soon be able to check it via our refrigerators. For better or for worse, email remains a ubiquitous form of communication today. According to a July 2012 report by the McKinsey Global Institute, we spend 13 hours per week dealing with email. Thirteen hours! That’s a whole season of “House of Cards,” you know. Not surprisingly, … [Read more...]
Clarity and Readability Checklist for Content Creators
September 24, 2013 by
Last week, Georgy talked about respecting our audiences with readable content, including options for testing readability. Wikipedia describes readability as "the ease in which text can be read and understood." In other words, do people get what you're saying? The definition of readability is straightforward enough, but how do you plan for clarity and readability? In particular, for content creators working on the front line, what … [Read more...]