To Redesign Your Website, Get Out of Your Own Way

Campus communities center around a mission of transforming lives through education. People on your campus are proud of what they do — individually and collectively — and to them, the website is a symbol of that pride. At the start of a website redesign, internal stakeholders simply want to be sure the website will reflect …

Leaders spend (a lot of) time hiring people with potential.

My daily social feeds are chock-full of moans and laments about a lack of leadership or the gotchas while hiring people for jobs. Both can change everything. Here's what I have to say about it. Leaders spend a lot of time on hiring. Don't fly through the hiring process. Hiring decisions deserve time. I know …

Getting the Budget for a Website Redesign and New CMS

You know what you need to do. You know how you need to do it. You just don’t have the money to pay for it. Sound familiar? A website redesign project requires funds. You might need a budget for hiring freelancers or external partners who will collaborate on your digital strategy, design, content, and implementation. …

New Academic Year? Better Website?

There’s just something about the start of the academic year. New students, new campus initiatives, and for some … the planning for a new or improved website. Is this the academic year for greatly improving your website? Or, are you starting the academic year with a website that has aged beyond the point of a …

Audits of Communications or Marketing Units

I’m not going to mince words or bury the lede: You should periodically sponsor an audit of your communications or marketing unit. Despite the word “audit” creating fear in the hearts of most, the comprehensive review of an organizational unit is an excellent practice…for all the reasons you suspect, and more. Who can argue with …

Web Governance: Use the influence of individuals to turn the plan into action.

Web governance is what allows your team to turn the corner from thinking about the website as a project to instead sustaining and enhancing it every day. After your web governance plan is in place, you need people to implement it. Don’t underestimate the influence of the individuals who take the plan from its consensus-formed …

Determining what positions you need on your team.

So far, I haven't visited a campus where resources were flush -- where there were plenty of dollars for every position needed for a marketing or communications team. If you lead a team, you likely dream of adding to it. Yet, if given the opportunity to add one position in the coming fiscal year, how …

Web Governance: What’s in it for them?

The goal is sustainability. Too often, we find ourselves approaching a website like a project, never turning the corner after a redesign. Never putting in place a structure that will ensure individual web pages on your site are current and accurate next week, next month, and two years from whenever. If you are still approaching your …

12 Months After Your Website Redesign

I've relaunched a website (a huge amount of work) and I've helped many clients relaunch their websites (a huge amount of accountability). I've been there; I understand the sense of relief and euphoria. But we all know that a website is never done done. Your website is an always on communications platform -- it is …

Thanking my mom – Julia Ann Matthews Talbert – on Mother’s Day

I have zero complaints about my childhood. I know I am incredibly blessed - my mom loved and cared for me. It was a wonderful family of five children and two parents (who will be celebrating 61 years of marriage later this month). I am lucky to be the oldest child of Judy Talbert. As a …