Sooner or later website owners realize they have much too much content on their website — too much redundant, outdated, irrelevant, off-brand content. More so than ever, organizations appreciate that less is often more on the web. Less content can improve communication, findability, usability and usefulness. Not to mention, less content is easier to maintain and measure. But trying to figure out what content to cut is daunting. You might be … [Read more...]
Making Content Strategy Work with Student Staff (Part Two)
Yesterday, we began discussing how our content strategy efforts can be made more effective by smartly applying student workers to the cause. As Texas A&M’s Amy Grace Wells explained, the challenge is in getting the students to see past individual assignments and embrace the larger strategy at work. With the right training, context and support in place, Wells has made it happen. Today, we bring you the student perspective. Laura Lorenz is a … [Read more...]
A Content-First Approach to Your Events Calendar
Ah, the events calendar. One of the most ubiquitous components of a university website, and often one of the most confounding. From wrestling with feeds and technical configurations to simply getting people to use the darned thing, a calendar can be a headache. Time to schedule some Excedrin. With the right approach, though, that headache can become a valuable asset. An events calendar is not just a software application, after all—it’s a rich … [Read more...]
Leading Successful Editorial Meetings
Communication is hard. And when you think about higher ed, where we’ve got both central- and unit-level communications staff—each with their own stories, platforms, priorities, and staffing—it is really hard. The oft-invoked analogy is “herding cats,” and it certainly applies in this instance. So, we organize an editorial meeting, inviting all the top cats. Finally, we’ll bring order to the editorial chaos! But it’s not that simple. Our feline … [Read more...]