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Blog updates 2018.10.0 released

November 5, 2018 by

General

Changed

  • Changelog to break out to discrete changelogs per plugin/theme; repo changelog notes repo-specific changes and plugin/theme version updates
  • Version numbers on plugins/themes to no longer directly follow the project version number

Themes

MSU Magazine Pro (1.4.6)

Added

  • Social footer settings to theme customizer

Changed

  • Masthead and footer logos to use circle-R versions

Feature details

Social footer settings

If you use the MSU Magazine Pro theme, you now have the ability to easily customize your social footer. To add your social footer to your blog, do the following:

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. In the sidebar, hover over “Appearance” and click on “Customize”.
  3. In the settings sidebar, click on “Social Footer”.
  4. Fill in settings that apply to your unit and blog (delete any text you don’t want to have display).
  5. You can check your progress in real-time in the preview window.
Social footer settings
Field Description
Display the social footer? Toggles on and off the social footer
Unit name Typically the name of the unit/department that hosts the blog
Hashtag A hashtag that is typically associated with your unit/department or blog; be sure and include the hashtag (#) symbol in the text; refer to the university’s guidelines on social media content and official hashtags for additional information
Hashtag URL Supply a valid URL that may be associated with your hashtag such as a link to a Tagboard site
Facebook profile URL A valid Facebook profile URL
Twitter profile URL A valid Twitter profile URL
Instagram profile URL A valid Instagram profile URL
YouTube profile URL A valid YouTube profile URL
Pinterest profile URL A valid Pinterest profile URL
LinkedIn profile URL A valid LinkedIn profile URL
Flickr profile URL A valid Flickr profile URL

Currently, the social footer is limited to the platforms listed in the settings table, and the platforms cannot be reordered.

Filed Under: WordPress blogs Tagged With: blog, theme, update

3 simple tips for improving your headlines

September 18, 2018 by Kai Raymer

Strong headlines are vital. They’re the billboards for your content.

Consider the classic 80-20 rule. For every 10 people who find your headline, eight will read the headline but only two will read the content.

Strong headlines entice your audience to keep reading.

You write headlines for many things: websites, articles and blogs, emails, social media and more.

Here are three basic tips for headline writing.

Know your audience, purpose and platform

Who are you writing for? What’s important to them? Why would your content interest them? Nick Usborne asks these questions, and others, as a starting basis in his Udemy course for headline writing.

If you know these answers, it’s easier to connect your audience with your content.

Audience/purpose: Your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. What will they get from reading your content?

Quality headlines suggest a benefit or gain.

Take the title of this blog post, for example. A very small time commitment (reading three simple tips) for a valuable outcome (improving your headlines).

Platform: Adjust your tone and style for the platform. Writing for alumni on Facebook is different than writing for current students on Twitter or Instagram.

Give direction or request action, but be brief

Guide your audience.

When we write headlines for the university homepage, we’re trying to get you to do something. We aren’t just making announcements or posting news releases.

Homepage of missouristate.edu showing featurette examples

These headlines typically begin with a verb or one of the five Ws: who, what, when, where and why, along with how. We want to give you an action to take, or help you learn about something.

Favor brevity and know your platform. Verbs are your friend. Long headlines with complex words are not.

Practice, practice, practice

Your first version of a headline won’t be your best headline. Try again. And again. And then maybe a few more times.

Upworthy writes 25 versions of a headline for each article. Try it.

Short on time? Even if you only write a dozen potential options, you’ll come up with a more effective headline than that first version.

In summary

There are many more tips for good headline writing not mentioned here.

Google “Tips for better headline writing” and you’ll have an endless amount of insight.

But these three tips should give you a start for improving your headlines.

Filed Under: Social media, Technical, web strategy and development, WordPress blogs Tagged With: content, headlines, writing

Blog updates version 2018.6.2 released

July 10, 2018 by

Themes

MSU Magazine Pro

Changed

  • Global masthead to match general template markup

Fixed

  • Masthead to search the correct campus

Filed Under: WordPress blogs Tagged With: blog, theme, update

Blog updates version 2018.6.1 released

July 9, 2018 by

Themes

MSU Magazine Pro

Fixed

  • Accessibility issue with the blog search form by enabling the <label>
  • Site title from arbitrarily wrapping by changing site-header structure to flexbox

 

Filed Under: WordPress blogs Tagged With: blog, theme, update

Blog updates version 2018.6.0 released

July 2, 2018 by

Themes

MSU Magazine Pro

Changed

  • Global masthead and footer from externally maintained <iframe> content to PHP includes within the theme

Deprecated

The following files are marked for removal on Oct. 1, 2018:

  • MSUHeaderFooter files
    • FontLoader.js
    • HeaderFooterscripts.js
    • MSUFooter.html
    • MSUFooterWP.html
    • MSUHeader.html
    • MSUHeaderWP.html

Fixed

  • West Plains theme styles from inheriting random maroon links
  • Widget items from unnecessarily indenting

Plugins

Web Widgets

Fixed

  • PHP error with calendar widget

Filed Under: WordPress blogs Tagged With: blog, theme, update

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