Tangled Web

I just saw this on twitter: http://goo.gl/wUTLf. So you should always be careful what content you use in training or testing. If you need to generate some text to experiment with, use a "lorem ipsum" generator. This will give you paragraphs of harmless Latin that you can copy and paste into your site. As we start going live with sites - soon - it will be important to go through your site and your academic program profile to look for any test material that may still be there. OIT and OCM will help you with this, too.

It has been a while since I last blogged, but we've been very busy working with departments, configuring sites and training. I encourage you all to keep creating content - don't get hung up on the structure or navigation, we can help you sort that out. Content is the critical piece to your site's success; not the quantity, but the quality. Those of you in my last training session may recall a report I reference done by Forrester Research about the "Seven C's of WCM." I encourage everyone to take a look at that report and think very carefully about your content, the message, context, accuracy, audience, etc. Here's a link: http://goo.gl/M8kZr.

 

Many of you have asked me about "new media" including mobile sites and apps, and social media. I don't think we can call it new media any longer. A colleague shared this video with me about the growth of social media: http://goo.gl/UmE5q. If you've been wondering whether or not that should be part of MSU's marketing plan, I think this video will answer that question. We are heavily utilizing Facebook for recruitment and to answer questions from current students, families, alumni, etc. We also have a very active Twitter presence, with several service areas and organizations on campus tweeting helpful tips, deadlines and other important information.

 

What about mobile? In CMS8, our entire site will be more or less mobile-friendly. That's pretty cool, but I also recommend you think about mobile as you are creating content for your site - keep it simple. Most people want to find the information they need quickly and not have to read a tome to find it - that is especially true if you're reading on a mobile device or tablet. Last week we participated in a webinar with Ektron about creating not just mobile-friendly sites, but thinking about mobile design first. You can watch the webinar at http://goo.gl/Cl1YC and follow #mobilerevolution on Twitter.

 

Keep building on your content and we'll be meeting with your over the summer to help with structure and navigation.

Happy Mardi Gras! Content is king. As many of you are working to build your core content, keep that in mind. Consider your audience; try to make your content accessible and accurate. Good content is not only accurate, but also engages the reader and guides them through your information. While we think our design is user-friendly and looks good, it's only as effective as the content it surrounds. For more tips on creating good content, visit http://goo.gl/JsVgx. 

An update on CMS8:

We are continuing to work with academic departments on core content and should have a few more sites coming up live soon. We've also uncovered a few issues with taxonomy and with library items that we are working on fixing. We appreciate all the hard work that you are putting into the academic sites.

I am happy to report that we have 2 new sites that are live on CMS8! 

The Department of Music, Theatre & Dance is our first academic program site to go live. Much thanks to Dr. Curt Hammond, chair - and chief Web contributor! He has put in many hours gathering and entering content, as well as helping us test and tweak various parts of the new design (on top of being a department chair, recruiting students, etc.). Thanks, Curt! Please visit the site at www.moreheadstate.edu/mtd and take a look what's possible in the new version of our CMS. You'll notice more dynamic Web parts (like the rotating student profile and calendar RSS), which help the site remain fresh and updated automatically. New banner graphics reflect the new brand and new marketing materials for MTD.

Today we launched our news site on CMS8. There's still a news feed on the homepage with the top priority news (focused on recruitment, donors and key academic programs). The link to News takes you to www.moreheadstate.edu/news where you'll find much more MSU news - categorized and hopefully easier to use, as well the complete calendar of events feed. We can also now offer custom RSS feeds for any of the categories that you see on that page. So a department can have its college's feed, or if your site is focused on students, the admissions feed. Please send your feedback about the new news to me at a.nutter@moreheadstate.edu.

 

Just a quick update on the state of the migration to the new Web site/new version of the CMS. Many departments are completing their academic core information and we hope to go live with an academic program site in the next week. Kudos to Dr. Curt Hammond for the work he has put into the site for the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance. We will continue working with departments throughout the spring semester to get their sites created. Following that, we will work with offices and services to get their sites created in the new template, or moved into the MyMoreheadState portal - for internal information.

As you may have noticed our weather API has been on the fritz for a few weeks. While the 60+ degree temps were a reminder of spring, that's not very helpful when you are looking out your window at yet another pile of snow. Good news! We had to switch to a different weather API. We are now using the Yahoo! weather API and you are seeing the not so great, but accurate 20-degree temp for today with snow. Thanks to Mark Jarvis in OIT-WSS for his hard work in decoding and reworking that Web part! Related to weather, we hope to do some enhancements to how our weather and safety alerts appear on the homepage soon.

We have a lot to do in the next 6 months+, but we'll get there. I know it can be frustrating and it seems like progress is slow, but keep in mind our purpose. We need to do this right and our intent is to refocus our site to better recruit students. You know our enrollment goals for the fall (and if you don't, you need to ask and keep that in your mind). We also have priority programs that show growth potential and we'll be working diligently with those programs, as well as featuring them on the homepage. You may have noticed we have changed the homepage features - we are focusing those very specifically on key academic programs, recruitment events, and other opportunities that reach a broad audience of prospective students and families, as well as our donors and friends of the University.

MSU is also in the process of a new branding campaign. We have a new logo, new tagline and a new brand promise. These are not just marketing ploys, the brand promise reflects the mission and values of the institution and the commitment we make to the students and families that we serve: 

"Morehead State University delivers a strong and affordable education for friendly, ambitious students who thrive in a student-focused learning environment defined by small class sizes and faculty committed to teaching and student success." 

Please take time to review the new branding guidelines and information at http://goo.gl/3rshu. If you have any questions about the new Web site or branding, please email me at a.nutter@moreheadstate.edu.

 

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

An update on CMS8 - many academic faculty and staff have been trained and are working to input the academic core information into CMS8, so some academic sites will be under development soon. This process will continue through the spring.

Many of you have emailed about the weather in the footer of our Web site and it's terribly teasing 70-degree forecast. I wish we could control the weather and have sunny and 70 degrees, but it's out of our control. There's a problem with the API from weather.com. Lots of sites use that same technology and they have the same balmy forecast. We have contacted weather.com to report the issue and hope to have it repaired soon.

Hopefully most of you have noticed that we have converted our homepage and future students site to CMS8 with a completely new design and some new functionality. 

We are working with academic areas to get their core content into the new CMS over the next month, and will be helping develop departmental sites from now until spring. 

We really appreciate the hard work that many of you put into your Web pages, especially since that is not a primary job for many of you. Several of you also are not "geeks" so dealing with the technology can be frustrating. A friend sent me a link to an online booklet, designed by the folks at Google Chrome, that explains some of the terminology that we use in Web development that may be confusing, things some of us take for granted that others understand: http://www.20thingsilearned.com. Please take a look and pass it on to anyone who's every asked you, "Why should I upgrade from Netscape?" or "AJAX, isn't that what Mom uses to clean the kitchen?"