The hottest digital platform today arguably isn’t Periscope, Snapchat, or Yik Yak. In fact, it was invented in 1972. Yes, friends, I am talking about email. Email is experiencing a renaissance thanks in large part to a surge of popular newsletter products, whether it is the personal newsletter of a respected writer or a clever newsletter product written in a distinctively personal voice. The revival of email comes down to two things: 1) a … [Read more...]
A Closer Look at Shorthand Visual Communications
January 12, 2015 by
Let's put ourselves in the shoes of one of our students. A graduating student, let's say. Perhaps their feelings are best represented like this: Or like this: (•_•) <) )╯College / \ \(•_•) ( (> is finally / \ (•_•) <) )> over. / \ Or perhaps they would feel more like this: Why are we talking about GIFs, emoji, and ASCII art in a space where we typically discuss CMS workflows and … [Read more...]
Optimizing Your Content for the Social Feed
January 5, 2015 by
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...]
Power to the Humans: HighEdWeb 2014
October 27, 2014 by
The dream of higher ed is alive in Portland. That’s what we learned at the 2014 HighEdWeb conference, which made its first stop in the Pacific Northwest. As always, the conference was a great opportunity to learn, reflect, connect, and refresh our perspective for the challenges waiting back at home. A theme that pervaded many of the sessions at HighEdWeb was the idea of being human. The work we do as web content professionals is not about … [Read more...]