Bob Johnson's Blog on Internet Marketing

When you work constantly for less reliance on PDFs on the web, having an ally is a good thing indeed. That's why a recent headline on a New Thinking column by Gerry McGovern caught my immediate attention... "PDFs are evil, lazy, slothful, and sinful."

Read what Gerry really thinks at http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2007/nt-2007-02-05-pdf.htm

Now, don't get me wrong. There is a place on a website for PDFs. I find they work well, for instance, at the Pew Internet website to present research results. The text is clear against a white background, there aren't any pictures, and I can scroll through at my leisure to read a report without having to change the magnification on the page back and forth.

My major problem is with annual reports, alumni magazines and (less often used) recruitment viewbooks that are designed as print publications and then put up on websites. Most often this happens because its an easy thing to do and keeps somebody, someplace in the institution happy.

Don't fool yourself that very many normal human beings who come to your website are actually reading these things. To see a whole page (and the pictures on them) you have to shrink the page so small that you can't possibly read the text. To read the text, you have to enlarge the page so that only a small part of it is visible at any one time and thus you lose the design impact that someone spent a great deal of time developing. Not to mention the impact of the (should be) outstanding photos included in the print piece.

Carleton University, my long running favorite example in web writing presentations, knows how to do it right. Check the Winter 2007 alumni magazine at http://magazine.carleton.ca/

And check these examples as well:

• Indiana University at http://alumni.indiana.edu/magazine/index.shtml
• Ohio University at http://www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday/
• University of Massachusetts Amherst http://umassmag.com/

Help make the web world a better place. Plan to convert your alumni magazines and annual reports to formats like these that people who are interested can more easily read.

Do you have a great example of an online publication like these? Send me the link at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com

Posted by Bob at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Always hard to imagine ahead of time, but 3.5 hours sure does wiz on by. In this session we covered the basics of Writing Right for the Web, Search Engine Optimization, Persuasive Web Advertising and Continuing Engagement.

Web 2.0 and Audience Content Control

Lots of questions and comments right from the start. Hard to say which topic was of most interest, but there was much discussion on the advent of Web 2.0 and the possible clash between increased generation of content by students enrolled in educational programs and an apprehension that content not generated by the organization might not be the "right" content for the web.

The good news is that most of the 60 or so people in this session are actively involved in preparing content for their websites, either placing it directly on the web or sending it along elsewhere.

2 Basic Design Examples in Continuing Education

And of course there's always the question of time spent on design vs. time spent on content, with design continuing to most often win out.

• I used the example of Ryerson University on Wikipedia to point out that while design isn't unimportant, some of the most popular websites today clearly rely more on content that advanced design features.
• Another example was from the very well designed front page of the Indiana University Fort Wayne continuing education website.

Check the Ryerson example at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryerson_University

And the IUFW front page for continuing education at http://www.ipfw.edu/dcs/

Posted by Bob at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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The Link of the Week email sent yesterday highlighted the second-most desired website actiivity by college bound high school students... a tuition cost calculator.

The College of New Jersey

The featured link was at The College of New Jersey at http://www.tcnj.edu/~admiss/costs.html

Purdue University

A few hours after the email was out and about the land, Mary King at Purdue University sent along a link to the "Tuition and Fees Calculator" available for "several years" at http://www.purdue.edu/Bursar/Calculator/2006-2007/Welcome.html

Arcadia University

And this morning Bob Fesler, Jr. at Think Ahead, Inc sent along a link to Arcadia Universities calculator at http://finaid.arcadia.edu/calc/cac72C133start.html along with a note that his firm had also built this feature for Williams, Amherst, and the University of Arizona.

That should give everyone interested places to start visiting. I haven't completed all of these forms, but you'll see right away that the approach of each is different from the others. So take time to experiment with them and identify the features you think would most benefit your students. Check for ease of use, time to complete, cost elements included and whatever else comes to mind.

When a highly desired website feature benefits your visitors, the reputation of your brand grows as well. Financial aid and scholarship estimators and tuition cost calculators should receive high traffic on your website if interested visitors can find them easily enough. To make them work best for you, check these two points:

• Be sure they are very visible at least from your first admissions page.
• Be sure that if a visitor types variations on "tuition cost" into your search engine on the front page of your website, the response takes them to your calculator.

Posted by Bob at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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The Buffalo State results mirror those reported by the other schools responding earlier... each has between 10 and 13 of the activities most desired by college-bound high school students already in place. The two that were on the top of the Noel-Levitz list (financial aid estimator and tuition cost calculator) are the two most often missing from the reporting sites. And, I suspect, these are the ones most often missing from everyone's sites.

Several people have said they plan to work on adding one or both of these features. Keep a close eye on your competitors. If they get these in place before you do, they've gained an important element of competitive advantage.

You can review what's available at Buffalo State by visiting www.buffalostate.edu

Thanks to Melissa Meehan for sending along the details.

I've received a new link to a tuition cost calculator. I'll add that in a new post not long from now, along with the link to The College of New Jersey that was in the Link of the Week email sent on Monday.

Posted by Bob at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Since my post earlier this week, two more schools are reporting that they've passed my challenge to report having at least 10 of the 15 website features most desired by college-bound high school students.

One of those is the University of Toledo. Not only do they have an example of an institution-specific financial aid estimator at http://financialaid.utoledo.edu/estimator/ that I've mentioned before, but they have enough of other 14 features to boost them over the bar.

Balancing out a large public university like Toledo is Cataba College at www.catawba.edu

Check the well-done faculty page that students with serious interest in a particular major are likely to find at http://www.catawba.edu/academic/historypolitics/faculty.htm Short, easy to read intro information on faculty with links to learn more... and the obvous email to send along a query.

And I'm happy to report that I've found my first example of a tuition cost calculator, the number two item desired by 83% of students at a college website. Intereting enough that I'll make it the Link of the Week... look for your email next Monday morning.

Thanks to Rashad Smith at Cataba and Don Curtis at Toledo for reporting on their schools.

Posted by Bob at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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In my January marketing newsletter, I included a link to a report on the Noel-Levitz website reporting the expecations of college-bound high school students about the features they wanted to use at college websites. The entire report is at www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Research/ResearchLibrary/E-Expectations.htm

The top 15 activities, with the percent indicated for how many respondents wanted to use a particular feature were:

1. Complete a financial aid estimator form (88%)

2. Complete a tuition cost calculator form (83%)

3. Complete an admissions application online (81%)

4. Request a campus visit by completing a form (81%)

5. Exchange instant messages with an admissions counselor or student worker (72%)

6. Complete a form to RSVP for a campus event (72%)

7. Inquire online (70%)

8. Read profi les of faculty (64%)

9. E-mail a faculty member (64%)

10. Read a blog written by a member of the faculty (64%)

11. Read profi les of current students (63%)

12. Read a blog written by a current student (63%)

13. View a virtual tour (63%)

14. Personalize a Web site (62%)

15. E-mail current students from the site (61%)

I asked newsletter readers to review the capabilities of their websites and let me know if they had at least 10 of the 15 active on their sites. And three people answered in the affirmative:

Saint Michael's College  www.smcvt.edu

Hollins University   www.hollins.edu

Huntington University   www.huntington.edu

Two of the schools sent details on which features were active now and which ones were not. I'm asking for the same information from the third and then I'll post some additional individual links to these features so that blog folk can visit and review.

The invitation is still open. Review your website. If you have at least 10 of these features on your website, let me know and I'll include that in a future blog post. As you might imagine, I'm especially interested in anyone that has one of the Top Two, a financial aid estimator and a tuition cost calculator. Not too many of those out and about the land. No, you can't count a FAFSA calculation of "Expected Family Contribution." Has to be specific to your college or university.

Thanks to Anne Conaway-Peters at Saint Michael's, Linda Martin at Hollins, and John Paff at Huntington for taking the challenge.

And no... nobody had all of the activities.

Posted by Bob at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Mike Jung has sent along the position announcement used at Saint Mary's College of California in the search for a Web Editor that Mike has just been hired to fill. As I get more of these from time to time, I'll post them as a blog resource for people looking to start or fill positions like this on other campuses.

I'm adding a new category on the blog for "Web Editor Descriptions" to make these a bit easier to find than leaving them only in the "Writing for the Web" category.

Thanks to Mike for sending this along.

WEB EDITOR 
College Communications 
 
Saint Mary's College invites applications for a full-time, exempt Web Editor position to guide development and placement of content on the College's website. 
 
QUALIFICATIONS: 
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field and five (5) to seven (7) years experience overseeing creation, placement and maturation of Web and related digital content, advanced degree highly desirable or equivalent combination of education and experience. 
• Experience working with web-based technology in higher education institutions or similar settings highly desirable. 
• Demonstrated ability to effectively deploy Web-based strategies and tactics to support institutional brand, marketing and related objectives. 
• Demonstrated experience guiding Web site redesign processes desirable. 
• Experience utilizing Web publishing software, including DreamWeaver, required. 
• Knowledge of AP editorial style required.

Posted by Bob at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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