Web Strategy and Development Blog

Improve your digital marketing strategies Feb. 23

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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.

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

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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.

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

Improve your digital marking strategy at this free training

by

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.

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 Erika Brame and Kai Raymer
  • When: 1-5 p.m., Friday, Sept. 29.
  • 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.

Free workshop: Become a security ninja

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Join us for a free workshop about website security issues and best practices.

Key event details

  • When: Monday, May 22, 2017; networking from 8-9 a.m. and workshop from 9-11:30 a.m.
  • Where: O’Reilly Clinical Health Sciences Center, room 100
  • Who: This workshop is free and open to employees and students of any college or university.
  • Register: You must RSVP through Meetup to attend this session. Space is limited.

Become a security ninja

Insecure software undermines our infrastructure and puts our organizations at risk. This hands-on workshop will feature real-world hacking exercises that correspond to each of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) top 10 vulnerabilities, helping to hone your skills as a security ninja!

Whether you’re a new developer, a designer who is beginning to experiment with programming, or a seasoned developer looking for a refresher, join us as we discuss why attacks happen, go over the most common vulnerabilities and explore techniques you can use to code defensively.

This session is presented in partnership with the Higher Education Web Professionals Association.

About the presenter

Paul Gilzow is the lead programmer for the Division of Marketing and Communications at the University of Missouri, where he has worked as a web applications programmer since 2005. Certified by the SANS Institute in web application security, Paul frequently works with campus IT security to deliver presentations to fellow developers and assists in triaging and cleaning up compromised WordPress sites on campus.

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

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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

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