Web Strategy and Development Blog

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

Schedule blog posts for increased convenience

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Make the most of your blogging time

Make blogging even easier by writing posts whenever you have time and scheduling them to publish at a later date. It’s easy, and here’s how you do it:

In the Publish box of the WordPress interface, click Edit (to the right of Publish immediately).

Schedule 1

An editable field for date and time will appear. Set it to the date and time you’d like to publish your post. Keep in mind that WordPress functions on a 24-hour clock (a.k.a. “military time”).

schedule 2

Once you click OK, the blue Publish button will become a Schedule button. Click the Schedule button to save your choice. This will set your post to publish at the time you selected.

Schedule 3

Blogging tips for September

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Sharing your stories

It’s often noted that “public affairs” is strived for by so many universities, so what sets Missouri State University apart? Your students may be asking the same thing! Since September kicks off several of the signature public affairs events for the University, it’s a good time to talk about ethical leadership, community engagement and cultural competence, and what it means at a grass roots level.

How does your department embody the ideals of public affairs, or how do you integrate or connect to the public affairs theme “Global Perspective: Why it Matters”? This would be a great topic to explain in a blog this month:

Global Perspective: Why it Matters – that’s the public affairs theme for Missouri State University in 2013-14. You’ll hear it a lot throughout the year, and we encourage you to get involved during Public Affairs Week Sept. 16-20 and Stomp Out Hunger: All Collegiate Shoe Drive Sept. 28-Oct. 19. More importantly, we want you to know that our field/department lives this mission by teaching our students (fill in how your department is connected).

Reading the Common Reader for this year, “Start Something that Matters,” is a great way to get inspired and to feel a part of a bigger movement. The author, Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS shoes, will be on campus to discuss how TOMS got its start later in November. 

Blogging tip

Incorporating links into your blog allows you to give your readers access to the newest, most complete information about events without having to maintain it yourself. We recommend hyperlinking the text (as seen above) rather than pasting URLs into the text.

Learn more blogging tips by attending our one-hour workshop at 9 a.m. Sept. 25 in Meyer Library 205. If you haven’t already, register now.

Points of pride

Your blog is a fantastic way to showcase the points of pride for your department – the things that make you great! For September, consider highlighting:

  • Interesting service learning projects that have your students touching lives in the community
  • Students who have been nominated or selected as Citizen Scholars

These students are shining examples, and who doesn’t love a great story?

Looking forward

Sharing upcoming deadlines, trips, presentations or University events make great blog posts, too, since they’re relevant information to your audience. Here are just a few important dates you might wish to highlight: