Web Strategy and Development Blog

Update to WordPress blogs

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This morning we updated the Missouri State blogs to better work with the WordPress threaded commenting system. We have been using a third-party plugin to allow for threaded comments, but our themes now work with the integrated WordPress threaded comments and thus the plugin is no longer needed.

To turn on threaded comments on your blog:

  1. On your blog’s Dashboard, navigate to Settings > Discussion.
  2. Under ‘Other Comment Settings,’ check the box labeled ‘Enable threaded (nested) comments.’
  3. Select the number of levels deep you would like the threaded comments to go.
  4. Click the Save Changes button on the bottom of the page.

We have also integrated a Tiny MCE Comments plugin into all of the blogs, allowing for commenters to add links, format text, etc. This plugin works on both threaded and un-threaded comments.

Nate Bassett Recognized as Student Employee of the Month

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Congratulations to Nate Bassett, Online Writer/Editor from the Office of Web and New Media, who was selected as University Relations Student Employee of the Month.

Nate Bassett

Nate was recognized for creating our new Support web site and the pages related to it. During the months of October and November 2009, Nate built 10 new websites for social media and new media support, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and blogs.

During this same period, Nate also produced new current student-oriented videos that have garnered many positive comments from others on campus. Here are two examples of videos that Nate has recently produced:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZRqSJJ7Yek

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJXr9eGUOZg

Please help me congratulate Nate on this much deserved recognition.

New Media Support

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The Office of Web and New Media recently overhauled our new media support web site. It now offers guidelines, recommendations, examples and resources on a variety of social media and multimedia topics:

Twitter Support

YouTube SupportWe’ll continue to update and enhance these pages.

You can also keep up with new media (and web) tips and resources by subscribing to the Web and New Media blog, following MSUWEB on Twitter or referencing our Delicious bookmarks.

Linking your Facebook Page to Twitter

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Facebook recently released a great new plugin that allows users to link their Facebook Pages to their Twitter account. If your University unit already has a Facebook Page established but has been hesitant about using Twitter, this tool should help convince you it’s time to set up that new Twitter account.

This new tool will automatically share status updates, links, photos, notes, and events with your followers on Twitter directly from your Facebook Page. You also have the option to choose the kinds of things you want to share both on Twitter and Facebook.

What this means to you is that once you set up a Twitter account and link it to your Facebook Page, this plugin will do all the work for you – importing all of the info you want your Twitter followers to see from Facebook. You only have to update your info once, on Facebook, and your updates will automatically show up on Twitter. It’s a great way to re-purpose content and allow people to keep up-to-date with info from your University unit in different ways.

Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to add this plugin to your Facebook Page:

  1. Visit http://www.facebook.com/twitter/ and log in to Facebook.
  2. Click the green button marked Link a Page to Twitter.
  3. A new screen will appear, allowing you to select from the Pages you’ve created to choose one to link. Click the appropriate Link to Twitter button.
  4. Your browser will redirect to Twitter. If you are not logged in, do so, and a screen will appear that asks if you want to allow Facebook access to your account. Click the green Allow button.
  5. You will be redirected back to Facebook, which will ask you what sort of updates you want to be sent to Twitter. Choose from the options and click Save Changes.
  6. Your updates from Facebook will now appear as tweets in your Twitter account, linking back to the original item in Facebook.

If you wish to learn more about using these tools, be sure to read our support pages for both Facebook and Twitter.

Inside Missouri State Microsite Launched

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Earlier this month, the University launched a microsite,  Inside Missouri State, that correlates with the Undergraduate Admissions Guide. This was a collaborative project between the Offices of Admissions, Web and New Media and Publications.

Inside Missouri State HomepageInside Advantage Section

A few highlights:

  • This new site is meant to be a standalone, self-contained microsite. It’s like a advertisement about Missouri State. We link out to several standard Missouri State web pages, but the design used on this microsite will not be reused elsewhere.
  • The content within the microsite was repurposed from the printed Undergraduate Admissions Guide. This allowed us to reuse a lot of excellent content that Admissions and Publications had already produced and coordinated.
  • There are five marketing message videos, one for each of the first five sections of the site. There are also videos for the spotlights on the left of these sections. The video work was done by Brad Mitchell and student Carlynn Forst, with script help from Michelle Rose.
  • The design was done by Lindsay Winchester, in coordination with Veronica Adinegara’s printed Viewbook designs. Additional support was provided by student Dustin Jacobs.
  • The coding of the site was done by student Ray Lehnhoff, with oversight by Chad Killingsworth and Sara Clark.
  • The main route into this microsite is from the Admissions homepage, which has a new Flash element that links into the microsite.
  • Many of the features of this microsite can be reused in other sites, such as the spotlight videos which are in iTunesU and can be used within Web Press.

University departments are welcome to point their future undergraduate students to the Inside Missouri State microsite.