Fuzzy Content

College and university marketing is often about stories. This is especially true when managing the development or giving Web site for institutions. These sites don’t fulfill the need without stories or opportunities for your audiences to connect (or reconnect). Some must-haves on these Web sites, in my opinion, are:

• Drive to action. Making a gift is always the most significant action. Other actions are to register for events, volunteer, and RSS subscriptions or newsletters.
• Stories. Even though facilities campaigns make great stories, nothing beats personal testaments. Use scholarship winners, faculty projects, and even staff reflections as ways to personalize the experience. Make this effort long-term by creating a blog.
• Ongoing news. Keep your contributors up to date on campaigns and awards. And publish these in easy to subscribe formats. The more often your Foundation is in front of people with good news, the stronger the relationship.
• Events. Get people to come see you. An away football game, groundbreaking, and open houses are great ways to get your constituents to mingle. Chapter events should not be too private…share local events on the national Web site as well.
• Giving information. This seems basic, but make it as simple as possible. Giving programs, gift calculators, and tax procedures all make the process straightforward. And don’t forget ongoing progress.

A few sites that I think are doing great work include:

• Oregon State University Foundation.  Their tools for giving section make this site simple for the first-time giver. Also, their tax information and professional advisor information make giving an investment.
• Oklahoma State University Foundation. “Gifts in Action” and the scholarship blog keep friends engaged and coming back to the site. The contests drive participation. And the stories act as prime real estate on the home page.
• Supporting Notre Dame. Stories take center stage (even from the .edu home page). Their “Inspirations” campaign shows the impact of gifts through students, alumni, faculty, and staff. They have a pretty clean photo gallery. And I don’t say this very often, but their page design certainly caught my attention.

Some honorary mentions for me are Ohio State’s O-H-I-O feature, UNLV’s Invent the Future videos, and South Dakota State’s YouTube participation.

Rebuilding a higher education Web site is always a significant endeavor. It takes months, it involves so many people across campus, and it can seem never ending. Much like a new building opening, more universities need to have a “ribbon cutting” of the new Web site.

Why, you ask? A few reasons:

• Any publicity is good publicity. That’s not necessarily true, but launching a new Web presence is positive for the institution, the campus community, and the general public. If you have built the new Web site correctly, a site visitor should be thrilled at how much easier the site is to use, how much more they can do, or how much stronger tied to the institution they are.
• It’s taken blood, sweat, and tears. Through committee reviews, content revisions, design changes, navigation nightmares, and just sheer length of time, the launch is a cause for celebration. Everyone involved deserves a pat on the back…make it official.
• You’re proud of what you’ve done. In the end, the new site is better. Let people know.

How, you ask? A few tips:

•  Plan early. How you are going to launch the site should be decided during early phases. As you are setting site goals, resources, and timelines, decide how the message is going to get out about the new site. Look for an event to tie the launch to. Look for a time to launch that won’t disrupt significant activities (Fall registration, for example). And pad your time accordingly.
• Log the development process. Many institutions have started to do this as a collection for all documents, processes, and resources. It is not only a great way to keep on track, but also a great way to look back at all that was involved. Make this as public as you are comfortable with.
• Let the dust settle. With any significant Web redesign, there are bound to be a few bugs found after you go live. Flip the switch, get some user testing in, then make it official 2-4 weeks later. We call these “quiet launch” and “loud launch”.
• Throw a party. There are two reasons a party should be thrown. First, there are several people that gave their heart and soul to bringing the new site to life. Publicly thank them. Second, you are moving into Phase II, which is maintenance. All the content authors, bloggers, image managers, developers, site stakeholders, and central managers should understand that the next step is to keep the site as shiny and new two years from now as it is today. Motivate them.

These are just a few ideas in getting the site launched with the most bang. If you have a launch story, please share in the comments section. I would love to hear.

Many of you have heard of Blackboard’s social bookmarking initiative, Scholar. This new service allows the Blackboard portal to become one-to-many, rather than one-to-one. It connects all Blackboard institutions (or at least those with the latest upgrade), and gives faculty and students the ability to share academic resources with each other.

I attend several conferences a year and have seen the art of networking amongst peers and competitors. Now, the academic community has a tool to practice this activity as well.

Read their press release for more information.

I’m talking to all the content authors out there.

Colleges are getting so much better at testing their sites by watching visitors. A simple view of how students, alumni, and other audiences move through your site on a daily basis can surprise administrators that spent months drowning in navigation labels and content placement. Remember to do this on a regular basis.

These tests, in too many cases, are done by central administration and only affect the top level of the site. For your institutional presence to be effective as a whole, this practice must trickle down to content owners in individual departments. [by the way, if you aren't allowing people across campus to develop and manage content, what are you waiting for?]

Site success for the visitor comes with ease of use and being able to find information on a regular basis. Site success for the institution (and I don’t think I’m being selfish here) is the drive to whatever action your department wants visitors to complete.

The right side of a Web page has conventionally become a location for “related” information. Related links, campus events, and the latest news have populated this area to give more eyeballs to dynamic content. Your job is not done. I’ve always proposed drives to action for this area as well. It’s also time to drive them to next step information.

For example, you know that handy directions to campus page. Add campus visit information, open-house events, and alumni events. Supply parking permit information, local hotels, and printable campus maps.

Every page has a focus to it. As the owner of a portion of the site, your job is to understand what site readers will do with the information they have found. Here are some questions to ask for every, and I mean every page in your Web presence.

• Why do site visitors come to this page (what’s the focus)?
• At what point in the relationship are most visitors coming to this page?
• What questions will the readers ask after reading the information?
• What do I want them to do after they read this information?

Doyle Brunson, the legendary poker player, once said, “The key to No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em is to put my opponent to a decision for all his chips.”

Usability testing is not about getting them to the page…it’s about moving them through the relationship.