Web Strategy and Development Blog

YouTube Video Thumbnails

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Thumbnail images let people see a quick snapshot of your video on YouTube. After your video is finished uploading, you are able to choose a thumbnail from the three options YouTube automatically generates. To select the one you’d like to use, simply click the thumbnail and click Save Changes.

YouTube Custom Thumbnails

Custom video thumbnails

If your account is verified and in good standing, you now have the ability to upload custom thumbnails for any of your videos.

Uploading custom thumbnails

To upload a custom thumbnail image for an existing video:

  • Go to the Video Manager for your YouTube channel
  • Locate a video and click the Edit button
  • Click the Custom thumbnail button and upload your custom thumbnail image
  • Once the thumbnail is uploaded, click the Save Changes button

Custom thumbnail requirements

  • A resolution of 1280 x 720 (with a minimum width of 640 pixels)
  • Be uploaded in image formats such as .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG
  • Remain under the 2MB file size limit

Custom thumbnail best practices

Your custom thumbnail image should be as large as possible, as the image will also be used as the preview image in the embedded player. We also recommend that thumbnails:

  • Use a 16:9 aspect ratio as it’s the most used in YouTube players and previews
  • If a person is the focal point of the custom thumbnail image, try to have their face in the middle of the frame so the video title does not overlay their face when the video is embedded

For more information on using YouTube to host your University unit’s video content, please visit our YouTube support page.

Summer blogging inspiration: Share the blog

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Student, faculty collaborate at computerIt’s summertime, and your blog can help you catch some of that search-engine sunshine! Right now is a great time to build a strategy for your blog and plan how to keep it updated and fresh all year long.

Invite a guest contributor

You’re going on vacation but you don’t want the blog to rest, do you? Schedule a post for while you’re gone, or ask a guest writer to contribute to your blog.

A new point of view might add an interesting perspective. Reach out to someone with a unique specialty. Send out a request for possible contributors – you may be surprised at the response.

Before handing over those reigns, give the contributor some tips about how you usually do things –

  • Do you use internal headings? How many?
  • What types of photos do you incorporate into your posts?
  • Include suggestions about using bullets and hyperlinks for greater clarity.
  • Point them to the Web and new media blogging site for more tips and tricks.

Having guest contributors can work year round; just consider what level of access each person should have to your blog. You can request changes to author and editor permissions by visiting the blogs site.

Topics for summerFireworks at Hammons Field

If you or the contributors are struggling for content in the summer, consider:

  • Introducing new faculty/staff/graduate assistants for the new academic year
  • Explaining some of the research/publication projects that have been keeping faculty busy
  • Asking for feedback on programs, facilities, specific course work and seeing if change is feasible
  • Talking about the impact of a recent alumni
  • Probing into how your subject area touches the community or the world

Blogging tip: Media resources

Adding great photos and videos to your blog posts can make your posts more visually appealing especially when viewing on handheld devices (no one likes reading heavy text on a small screen). Tell your stories through photos (cell phone shots work great on a blog). If you need a picture quick, visit the Marketing Toolkit.

Points of prideBoomer and Growl at Hammons Fountains

Feel proud of all you do for the campus community! This summer, consider highlighting:

  • The number of students who are participating in an internship this summer
  • The percentage of recent graduates who have gone on to graduate work
  • The types of great jobs your recent graduates received

Upcoming dates

July 15: Short and Snappy: Writing for the Digital World

August 14: Social media boot camp

August 18: First day of fall semester

Overview of Facebook Ads

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Example of a Facebook adI recently completed a month-long marketing “boot camp” with representatives from Facebook that focused on Facebook ads.

I would like to share what I learned in this post, with a focus on best practices for creating ads, how to target your ads and how to monitor performance using the Facebook Ads Manager.

Types of ads

There are two types of Facebook ads:

  1. Ads that point to an external website
  2. Ads that point internally to something on Facebook, like a page, event or app

Creating an ad

Images

  • Image sizes should be 110 x 80 pixels
  • Smiling faces or action shots work best
  • Avoid using logos or text in your images
  • You should be using simple images that are vibrant with color

Text

  • The title of your ad has a max length of 25 characters
    • Make your title catchy and use inter-capitalization to help make it stand out
  • The body has a max length of 90 characters
    • Has to be 3 lines or less
    • Cleaner, simplistic text = higher click-through rates

Best practices

  • Use call-to-action words to make it clear to users the action you want them to take
  • A well-positioned question in the title or body of an ad helps encourage engagement
  • Use capitalization wisely to draw attention to your ad
  • You can use quotation marks around a key word or phrase to help draw attention to it
  • Exclamation points are very effective when used with call-to-action phrases
  • Avoid using abbreviations or jargon that might be unfamiliar to users

Targeting

To better understand which groups of users respond best to your ads, it is recommended to target an ad to smaller, more specific groups of users at a time. This targeting allows you to have better insight to how your ads perform and gives you more control over budgeting of your ads. The types of targeting include:

  • Demographic targeting
  • Location targeting
  • Education and work targeting
  • Interests targeting

Facebook Audience GraphMonitoring

It is recommended to regularly monitor the performance of your Facebook ads by using the Ads Manager tool. This tool allows for real-time monitoring and scheduling of regular reports.

Understanding metrics and reports to see what results you’re getting is essential, and this constant monitoring allows you to reallocate your budget to the ads or campaigns that are performing well. You can then create new ads using what you’ve learned.

Best practices for all ads

  • Create 3 – 5 versions of an ad for each campaign
  • If you want multiple targets for your ad, create a separate campaign for each
  • When the frequency for an ad gets high, create new versions of your ad
  • Remember to monitor and update your ads frequently

Additional resources

Writing for the web

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Writing for the webI wanted to quickly share this great collection on iTunes U from the University of Glasgow, Writing for the web.

This series of video podcasts are from a web writing workshop developed for internal training purposes at the University of Glasgow. However this is great content for anyone who writes for the web, and the podcasts cover:

  • why web is different from print
  • defining your page
  • structuring your copy
  • the tone of your writing
  • thinking about links
  • refining your page

Social Media Campaign Best Practices

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Our office is often asked for guidance and assistance with social media campaigns. Since we often receive questions on how best to begin a social media campaign, I thought it would be helpful to share a list of best practices.

Below you will find key points for achieving the goals of strengthening your web presence, leveraging your existing channels of communication, and connecting your campaign to real world events. While all of the practices below do not apply to everyone, there are many important factors to keep in mind if you are planning on running a social media campaign, and most of these issues apply to your general use of social media as well.

Strengthen your web presence

  • Develop a precise brand (and never, ever stray away from it)
    • Establish a title for your campaign that is used consistently in all materials
    • Create consistent imagery and graphics
    • Create a simple statement of your goals
      • Focus on the benefits to your audience
      • Encourage and reward participation
  • Create a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
    • Include your branding imagery and a short informational description that also encourages fans to like/follow/etc. your social media presence
    • Post all updates and news to your social media presence
      • Include status updates, photos, videos, etc.
      • Post at least twice a week at a minimum
    • Share the burden of posting content with others in your area
    • Schedule a series of unique posts and contests to help generate user-submitted content
    • Schedule a monthly feature article that is more significant than a typical status update
    • Create a Twibbon for fans to overlay on their profile picture on Facebook and Twitter
  • Create a simple website that is used as a hub of information
    • Include widgets, buttons, and links back to your social media presence(s)

Leverage existing channels of communication

  • Work with others on campus to help promote your campaign
    • Find other offices or departments who have a shared interest in the successful outcome of your campaign
    • Request others include ads, widgets, links, etc. from their websites and social media presences pointing back to your campaign
    • Request others to make periodical status updates on their social media presences to help promote your campaign
  • Include advertisements and promotions for your campaign in offline media
    • Include ads for your campaign in any publication materials like magazines, newsletters, etc. produced by you or others who have a vested interest
  • Share major updates with anyone external to the University that has a significant social media presence to assist with content going viral

Connect campaign with real world events

  • Use an event as a launching pad for the campaign
    • Have promotional material on hand to distribute
    • Collect contacts by having prize drawings with peoples’ names and email addresses written down on raffle tickets
  • Add events to a Facebook Page to connect your social media presence with real world events

Share your recommendations

Did I forget something? If you have other recommendations, please share them in the comments below.