Web Strategy and Development Blog

Social media policies

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On Jan. 12, I was a guest speaker for Managing Emerging Technologies, a special topics course of the MS CIS program. It brought back memories to be in my former stomping grounds. (I received my MS CIS degree in 2005.)

Social media policy issues

My presentation provided an overview and examples of four social media policy issues:

  • Training your employees
  • Intellectual property and copyright
  • Comments
  • Privacy and releases

Branding Banner – MOKABUG 2011

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On Nov. 18, Matthew Stublefield and I presented a session called “Branding Banner” at the Missouri Oklahoma Kansas Arkansas Banner Users Group (MOKA BUG).

Session description

When implementing Banner, the question always comes up: what should we call it? There are URLs to designate, services to roll out, and hundreds if not thousands of people to train. A unifying brand can make it easier for staff, faculty, and students to understand, but if a brand isn’t fully implemented or is implemented late, it can cause confusion. Join us to learn about Missouri State’s branding of Banner and what we did.

Online Video Workshop – HighEdWeb 2011

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HighEdWeb 2011 Video WorkshopOn Oct. 23, I conducted a video workshop at HighEdWeb 2011 in Austin, Tx. Here is the workshop summary: 

Video should be an essential part of your digital marketing toolkit; not only is it the fastest growing mobile application, it is also the fastest growing medium in the history of the world. So what are you waiting for? In this workshop we’ll go over everything you need to know about creating high-quality videos in a short amount of time and with little cost. We’ll cover gear and setup costs and get hands-on with some basic video equipment and editing software; discuss how to properly conduct interviews to ensure you get authentic answers and quotes for your videos; create a plan for building a great team of student videographers and outline best practices for utilizing free tools like YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes U to host and spread your videos via social media outlets and your institutional websites.

During the workshop the attendees split up into groups, and with the limited time we had available, four of the groups were able to produce complete videos. Keep in mind these videos were completed, from shooting through editing, in about an hour. Everyone did a great job working on their videos, and I wanted to again thank everyone who attended my workshop.

httpvp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2D7DE0AF2F2C5851

2011 UCDA Design Conference Takeaways

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I attended and presented at the 2011 UCDA Design Conference in Phoenix, AZ on October 16-18, 2011. I wanted to share a few key takeaways from some of my favorite sessions at the conference:

Creativity, Confidence & Collaboration

by Wil Heywood, Arizona State University

  • This was probably my favorite session I attended, however it is really difficult to put down to words all of the creative concepts that Wil shared with us.
  • My main takeaway is that one must be vulnerable to be creative, and you also must be confident enough to state your thoughts and expose yourself to being vulnerable to rejection.
  • Wil also shared with us some interesting ideas about how to ‘force’ collaboration among groups; he used his students as an example. He puts them into small groups, gives them a difficult problem, and then has them solve it in ten days. The students hate the project, but by the end of it they have gained better social awareness, as well as self-management skills by being forced to collaborate with others.

Bridging the Gap: Building Design Strategy on Marketing Research Data

by Elizabeth Scarborough, SimpsonScarborough

  • Elizabeth shared with us that your brand should never (ever) be deviated from. Once you pick your brand, you have to stick to it no matter what; if you or other stakeholders don’t commit to it then you lose the impact of that brand immediately. All stakeholders on your campus must use the brand; if they do not like it, they must find their niche within that brand and figure out how it works for them, instead of deviating from it.
  • She also shared some great examples of other universities she has worked with, namely American University and Thomas Edison College.
    • American University initiated a new campaign called WONK (which is “know” spelled backwards). This campaign labels their audience as wonks – someone who knows something backwards and forwards. This is a very original campaign and is definitely worthy of further investigation.
    • Thomas Edison College went from traditional spotlight-style advertisements to more modern, typography-heavy ads. These ads were very popular with prospective students and those in the younger demographics, helping them to better reach younger audiences. While the ads were not as well-received overall as the traditional spotlight ads, they were very popular with this particular demographic and therefore were very successful in helping to recruit new students.

My presentations

I presented two general sessions at this conference on Sunday, October 16. My morning session was a new version of my presentation on Transitioning Alumni Magazines from Print to Web and my afternoon session was on Ten Tips for Creating Online Video.

Transitioning Alumni Magazines from Print to Web – UCDA

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I presented on Transitioning Alumni Magazines from Print to Web at this year’s UCDA Design Conference in Phoenix, AZ on October 16, 2011.

Transitioning Alumni Magazines from Print to Web

Many institutions have ‘gone digital’ with their alumni magazines by posting simple PDF versions or by paying third-party vendors to create Flash page-flip versions. This session will demonstrate how Missouri State University designed and built a new magazine website using a customized WordPress theme with only a few staff members and student workers. The presentation will cover the challenges of transitioning from print to web, the design and implementation process, social media integration and interactivity with readers.