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Lessons learned from the Alumni Association and Bear Bulletin redesigns

March 2, 2018 by Web Strategy and Development

person using mouse at computer

We recently, by that I mean a year ago, decided it was time to redesign the Alumni Association’s digital communications. Before embarking on this glorious journey we first needed to figure out what we wanted to do and why we’re doing it.

Make a game plan

We developed a set of goals to help us keep our audience in mind.

  1. User access to information on mobile devices
  2. Clear calls to act for alumni to engage with the university
  3. Streamline university news with alumni-centered stories from the printed magazine
  4. Implement our sub-brand across all communication platforms

Then laid out the three phases we planned to execute.

Phase 1 – Missouri State Magazine online

During this phase we found alumni want to get their printed magazine in an easy to read online format. So, we tore down the old magazine site and built a new blog. Through the use of syndication, we are able to pull real-time stories from the university communications department. We can now feature stories from the news, highlight faculty work, showcase student awards and give a home to all the alumni stories. The Bear Bulletin blog is mobile friendly and ties directly to our website.

From old to new – blog

Old magazine format on desktop.
New blog format for featured magazine stories on desktop.
Old magazine format on mobile.
New blog format for featured magazine stories on mobile.

Phase 2 – New mobile friendly website

Next step, updating our website to streamline information about events, programs and ways alumni can volunteer. Warning, don’t go into a website redesign before a major event. I planned to finish the redesign before Homecoming, but didn’t take into account all the updates to the Homecoming website.

Again, we went back to our goals and consulted the Alumni Association Board and Council. Since mobile stacks information into one column, we created a hierarchy for the content and used clear calls to act buttons on our Missouri State University Alumni Association website.

A mobile-friendly site

old alumni site
Old outdated alumni desktop site.
new alumni site
Newly updated and organized desktop site.
old not mobile friendly alumni site
Old and not mobile friendly website.
new mobile friendly alumni site
New and very mobile friendly website.

Phase 3 – New e-newsletter

Again, the data showed us nearly 50% of the audience accesses our email from a mobile device.  We stuck with one column, used more full-width photos, added calls to act buttons and reduced the text.

An email you want to open

Old desktop version of the Bear Bulletin e-news letter.
New desktop version of the Bear Bulletin e-news letter.
Old mobile version of the Bear Bulletin e-news letter.
New mobile friendly version of the Bear Bulletin e-news letter.

What we learned

  • Timeline for completion
    • Keep in mind vacations
    • Summer was great for us
  • Website
    • Plan ahead for any major content editing on your site
      • Ex: Homecoming is our biggest event and we were in redesign – not so good
    • Build sitemap
      • Before you start rearranging look at site navigation first
      • Then layout your pages
    • Review links on your site and pointing at you
  • Check mobile

You can download the full presentation for reference.

Filed Under: brand, Mobile, Redesign Tagged With: Blogs, digital communication, mobile friendly, Redesign, web and new media, websites

Improve your digital marketing strategies Feb. 23

February 14, 2018 by Web Strategy and Development

Students taking a selfie

Join us for a free half-day session about best practices for websites, blogs and social media. We’ll offer tips and tricks for online marketing and communications. This training is a terrific opportunity for faculty, staff and students who didn’t attend the session last September.

Making your statement in a digital world

You’ll learn practical strategies for managing websites, blogs and social media. We’ll answer questions like:

  • How do we repurpose our website and blog content and distribute it on social media?
  • What do users want my website, blog or social media to provide?
  • How do we become better strategic storytellers?
  • How can we utilize the newest features of the upgraded blog themes?
  • What are some tips and tricks we can use to make sure our site is accessible for all users?
  • How do we manage messaging on multiple social media channels?
  • What are some advanced strategies to increase our effectiveness on Facebook, Twitter
    and Instagram?
  • How can we best leverage photo and video content?
  • What can we do immediately to make our digital communications more strategic?

Key details

  • What: Making Your Statement in a Digital World, a free training session on websites and social media presented by Kevin Agee and Kai Raymer
  • When: 1-5 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23.
  • Where: Karls Hall, room 102
  • Who: Open to faculty, staff and students who manage content for Missouri State University websites, blogs and social media platforms.
  • How: This event is free; registration though My Learning Connection is requested. Please feel free to bring your own laptop or tablet.

Filed Under: Social media, Training, web strategy and development Tagged With: blog, blogging, Blogs, content, facebook, Social Media, storytelling, Training, Twitter, web and new media

Tips for applying the new blog theme to your site

October 25, 2017 by Web Strategy and Development

person at computer

Blogs are a beautiful way to share timely and engaging stories about your organization. The new theme offers ways you can improve your posts, design your site and track stories.

  1. The blog’s features provide a creative way to tell a dynamic story which is easy to read.
  2. Plugins and widgets offer customization of your site and social sharing.
  3. Your team can access real time analytics to help improve your digital strategy.

With the new blog theme, you can enhance your posts and utilize additional features like plugins, syndication and design for improved quality.

Post features

All university blogs are using the Magazine Pro theme. It provides us with a lot of great features you can use to make your story more engaging.

Structuring the blog

The use of headings allows readers to easily scan related content to find relevant information. Use headings and sub-headings by clicking the format button at the top of the blog text.

image of dropdown from the format button at the top of the blog to the headings sub-menu
Using the format tool allows all your blog posts to maintain the same structure and flow.

Another feature Amanda Isaacs, new media specialist intern for the office of web and new media, uses in her posts is block quotes.

“Block quotes grabs the reader’s attention and it draws them in to read the story,” Isaacs said.

image of adding block quotes by clicking the double quotes in the menu bar at top of the blog
Highlighting interesting or persuasive content with the new blog theme helps readers digest the information.

The new theme also provides a variety of ways you can display and upload photos. Adding photography of the subject helps the audience connect with your story.

Students take a selfie
Students participate in campus activities.
John Q. Hammons Fountain Facebook image
The Hammons Fountain is one of the favored places on campus by students and alumni.
Students participate in Playfair for Welcome Weekend.
BearGrads GIF
During graduation students take the stage to become alumni.
Big events like #BearsHomecoming offer another way you can connect with students, faculty, staff and alumni.
During campus events students often take to social platforms to share their experience.

The blog theme allows for a titled mosaic such as the one above or you can also use slideshows, circle cuts and other formats to layout photos for your story.

Photography is extremely important to storytelling today.

Another improvement of this blog theme is the feature image. It sets at the top of your post, giving readers a reason to scroll down. It’s also used on social platforms as the main photo and shows up on your blog feed. You can access it on the right sidebar below the tags and categories field.

image of featured image upload with upload files highlighted
When uploading your feature image, the best practice is to use a 1920 x 1080 crop for your photos. Also, be sure to add alt-text for screen readers.

These are some of the structural pieces you’ll want to use to make your blogs more dynamic and easier for the audience to read.

Setup, plugins and syndication

Probably one of the most exciting aspects of the Magazine Pro theme is setting up your homepage and pulling in related content. To access the setup page, go to the left sidebar and select appearance -> widgets. This section allows you to add a calendar widget, subscription box, social feed and select which categories you want featured on the homepage.

 

image of the categories widget for the blog
Each drop down offers ways you can display each category. The order it appears here is how it shows on the site.
image of sidebar widgets for blog
These are the sidebar content areas where you can add your calendar widget and social feed.
image of primary sidebar widget for blog
This is an example of how to add your calendar widget to your blog.

Now that your blog is setup, let’s use some added features to enhance your writing.

The most with Yoast

Yoast is a plugin that appears at the bottom of your text box within a blog post. It offers help with readability, social sharing cards and more.

As you write, you can access your readability score on the right sidebar and in the bottom window of Yoast. By clicking on each eyeball, the plugin shows you what to improve.

image of Yoast plugin
The Yoast plugin shows what areas of the copy and structure need improvement.
image of highlighted text by Yoast plugin
The highlighted text shows what needs improvement when you select one of the eyeballs in the plugin.

Now that your post is well organized and easy to read, you’ll want people to see it on social media. Use the social sharing cards in Yoast to setup a headline, introductory text and image for all posts on Facebook and Twitter. This way, no matter who shares it, the post has the right message and photo.

image of yoast plugin for social cards
We encourage you to keep the headline the same, but change up your message in the description. You can use different photos for each platform.

The best part is you can toggle over to Twitter and do the same. Now you have a great blog post and strong social cards to encourage people to read the post.

Syndicate relevant content

The CyberSyn plugin allows you to pull in specific posts from other university blogs, like the news blog. This is really helpful for organizations with smaller staffs because it offers more content without much work.

Installation

  1. Upload ‘cybersyn’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

Apply the plugin

  1. Go to “CyberSyn (in the left sidebar) -> RSS/Atom Syndicator”.
  2. Find the “New Feed URL:” copy/paste your RSS feed URL there (e.g.: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_latest.rss) and click “Syndicate”. You should see the feed settings menu.
  3. Select a “Feed title:” Headlines – News, for example.
  4. Set the necessary options.
    1. We recommend picking one category for it to feed into. Like university news feeds into the headline category.
    2. For the “attribute all posts to the following user” section, select university communications in this scenario. See image below.
    3. In the “Post thumbnail” section, select generate from media attachment thumbnail.
    4. The rest of the plugin options are up to your discretion. Feel free to play with this.
  5. Scroll down the page and click “Syndicate This Feed.” Now the feed is added to CyberSyn.
  6. Enable the check box on the left of its name and click “Pull selected feeds now.” And now you have new posts pulling into your blog.

For more help with developing your syndication, access the ‘Experts’ file on customizing blog feeds.

image of cybersyn plugin
Cybercyn allows you to customize posts and choose when it is displayed on your page.

Measure your success

First your organization needs to decide what analytics you’ll want to capture. We can measure just about everything when it comes to digital content, from what device was used to access the information, to which platform it was found. Here is how WordPress can help you measure the outcomes of your blog posts.

  • Using the Jetpack plugin in the top left sidebar, select the drop down “Site Stats.”
  • Here you’ll see several content areas with the overall reach of all the posts in the top bar graph.
  • In the “Top Posts & Pages” tab click on the smaller bar graph on the far right to view a breakdown of specific blog posts.
    • The summarize link in the top right corner offers a breakdown of top performing posts by week, month, quarter, year and all time.
  • You can also view where people got your blog from on the “Referres” tab on the left side.
image of site stats
Use these different views to help you setup your measurements.

The new blog theme provides a variety of ways you can display content, organize your story and keep track of performance.

Filed Under: web strategy and development Tagged With: Accessibility, Blogs, readability, Social Media, WordPress, Yoast

Recap: Making Your Statement in a Digital World – Sept. 29, 2017

October 3, 2017 by Kai Raymer

person on laptop

We recently presented Making Your Statement in a Digital World, a comprehensive training session for Missouri State website, blog and social media managers.

Still have questions or need help?

We’re hosting two post-training open labs, to answer your questions and provide support. Please join us. No preregistration is required.

Key details

  • Dates: Friday, Oct. 27 and Friday, Nov. 10
  • Time: 2-4 p.m., both dates
  • Location: Meyer Library 106 Cheek Hall 100
  • About: Both sessions will be held in conjunction with the Web Help Desk open lab.

Access the presentations

The Sept. 29 training session was presented in four parts.

  • Readability
  • Blogging
  • Accessibility
  • Social media and visual platforms
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Visual (YouTube, Instagram, aggregators, Snapchat)

wideshot of people walking on campus

Key takeaways

Readability

  • Use concise text and a scannable layout to make your content more readable. Put the most important information at the top.
  • Always ask, “how does this look on mobile?” Current and future students are researching your department/program on their phones.
  • Write less, people will read more. People will read more of a 300-word article than they will a 600-word article.
  • No one wants to put extra effort into reading. Seventy percent of people read at an intermediate (middle school) level. Newspapers aim for a 7th grade reading level.
  • Headings, bulleted lists and visual elements. Use them.
  • The YoastSEO plugin for WordPress is a great tool for improving your writing.
  • Improving your content readability has many benefits, including audience reach and audience action.

Blogging

  • Does your blog tell a story? Who is speaking in your story and how are you conveying that meaning? It’s important to start in the action and develop some sort of conflict that is resolved.
  • Be sure you are defining your audience; alumni, faculty, staff, and/or students?
  • Utilize the formatting strategies from readability while adding photography and pull quotes.
  • Update your blog with engaging stories at least once a month, if not more.

Students taking photo with Boomer

Accessibility

  • Accessibility means people with disabilities can use and navigate your website.
  • There are federal guidelines for accessibility. MSU, which receives federal funding, falls under WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
  • Think of your website as a public space (i.e. a courthouse or city hall). Make accommodations for all.
  • Accessibility overlaps with readability and best practices for websites. Having an accessible website means your website is better overall.
  • Alt text, headings and descriptive links are crucial for accessibility. Our Accessibility blog series also covers these topics, and more.

Social media and visual platforms

  • Share human – don’t be afraid to act like a human and interact with your audience one-on-one.
  • Set up a Facebook business account where people can find your contact information. Be prepared to respond to their questions.
  • Think visual – when on location for an event share raw photos, but when promoting the event utilize photo services to help boost your presence.
  • Video is king across all platforms. Be sure to add captioning for accessibility and to increase views.
  • Measure your success based off the goals your team sets: more followers, increased engagement, more views, etc. Keep a log of your analytics so you can compare data from previous years.

Students in computer lab

Filed Under: Accessibility, News, Social media, Training, Web Press, web strategy and development, WordPress blogs Tagged With: Accessibility, aggregators, blog, blogging, Blogs, content, facebook, instagram, presentations, readability, snapchat, Social Media, Training, Twitter, Web, web and new media, YouTube

Recap: Making Your Statement in a Digital World – April 12, 2017

April 12, 2017 by Web Strategy and Development

Taking picture with phone

We recently presented Making Your Statement in a Digital World, a comprehensive training session for Missouri State website, blog and social media managers.

The session was presented in two parts.

  • Part 1 focused on writing for blogs.
  • Part 2 dove deep into the social media universe and discussed strategies for storytelling and audience engagement across a variety of platforms.

Missouri State students

Key takeaways

Blogs

  • A blog is a great place to build a relationship with your audience.
  • Use headers, images and quotes to flesh out your blog and make it easier for your audience to read.
  • Use classic storytelling tools, like perspective, conflict and tension, to create blog posts that resonate with your audience.
  • A blog makes a great content repository. Consider using blog posts for the most in-depth version of your news and events and distributing shorter variations of the post across your social media channels.

Social media

  • Good social media is interactive and unpretentious and should look effortless — even though good social media management requires a lot of effort.
  • Don’t dive into every social media channel at once. Pick ones that help meet your strategic communication goals.
  • When deciding whether to take on a new social media channel, analyze whether it’s a good fit for your goals, target audience and current resources.
  • Identify the ideal audience member for your social media. Get specific with the details; even consider giving that person a name. This will make it easier to create conversational, personal social posts.

Access the presentation

  • Blog: The perfect place to tell a story

Brand banners

Facebook

  • Use Facebook Pages to share your organization’s story and connect with your fans.
  • Facebook Pages help you become
    • Discoverable
    • Connected
    • Timely
    • Insightful
  • That it’s social media’s biggest platform is a benefit for reach, but a challenge for organizations to acquire attention.
  • Promote transparency. Allow anyone to publish to your page or tag you in photos.
  • Post videos directly to Facebook to boost your posts’ reach.

Twitter

  • Act like your own biggest fan.
  • Always respond to questions and concerns from your audience.
  • Focus on linking to mobile-friendly content.
  • Think about your voice. An institution does not have to sound institutional.
  • Use precise university-branded hashtags.
    • #MSUBears (athletics)
    • #GoMaroon (student engagement, traditions, etc.)
    • #BearGrads (commencement)
    • #CitizenBear (public affairs)
    • #BearsHomecoming (homecoming)

Visual Platforms

  • Visual content captures our attention more quickly than text.
  • Use Instagram if your organization lends itself to visual storytelling, but note the platform focuses on consumption, not interactivity.
  • YouTube reaches more 18-49-year-olds than any cable network in the United States.
  • However, there’s no formula for making a video go viral.
  • Use aggregators to combine cross-platform posts around a theme or hashtag.

A student walks to class

Access the presentation

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Visual Platforms

Filed Under: Social media, Training, web strategy and development Tagged With: blog, blogging, Blogs, content, facebook, instagram, new media, Social Media, Training, Twitter, Web, web and new media, YouTube

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