Web Services Blog http://www.bethel.edu/offices/web-services/web-authoring/web-services-rss/rss.xml 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Introducing Web Authoring at Bethel [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2012/11/introducing-web-authoring-at-bethel/ Last week I posted that Writing is Hard. It’s a true statement. It’s an obvious statement. It’s a recognition and acknowledgement that creating content is both incredibly important and incredibly difficult. But stating the problem does little to alleviate it. The whole Web Services team appreciates all of Bethel’s web authors more than we can ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Bethel’s New Header and Footer [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2012/11/bethels-new-header-and-footer/ We’re constantly working to improve Bethel’s website. Sometimes we make big changes and sometimes small ones, but every day we show up and work to give our users a better experience. One of the projects we’ve been working on recently is a new header and footer. We’ve learned a lot about our current navigation from ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Bethel Storytelling: Who Are We? [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2012/12/bethel-storytelling-who-are-we/ For those of you who are familiar with Bethel’s homepage, you know that at the top of the page we have a feature called Begin. Belong. Become. Clicking on any of these images brings you to profiles of students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Ever since the website redesign, we’ve used these profiles to tell the ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Launching a New Homepage [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/01/launching-a-new-homepage/ Putting together a new university homepage is daunting. It’s the first impression you make on your audience, and it may be your only impression. There’s a lot at stake. And thinking about it gives me nervous sweats. But here at Bethel, we pushed through our nerves and spent the fall building a new homepage. We rolled ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Who Are U? Branding in Higher Ed [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/01/who-are-u-branding-in-higher-ed/ There are certain university logos that produce immediate, almost subconscious thoughts and feelings whenever I see them. Put the Harvard logo in front of me and I think Ivy League, prestigious, exclusive. I associate the Alabama logo with football and the Duke logo with basketball. Stanford is innovative and high tech, the farm system for ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Big Questions About Style [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/01/big-questions-about-style/ Writers and editors constantly talk about style. We hash out what to capitalize, how to format dates, when to word mash, if we use serial commas, how to format room numbers, and on. Long-held obsessions and personal preference drive what we fight for and what we choose to let go. These conversations might seem tiresome—even ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Why Does Bethel Exist? [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/02/why-does-bethel-exist/ A couple of weeks ago, one of our teammates challenged us to think about a very basic question: Why does Bethel exist? The question is poignant in its simplicity. And as we talked about why Bethel exists I found myself moving beyond mission statement and core values to an equally simple answer. Bethel exists because ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z Our Content Philosophy: 7 Guiding Principles [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/02/our-content-philosophy-7-guiding-principles/ Last month, my boss challenged our team to spend a few days away from the office to answer this question: If you were just starting your job at Bethel, what would you do first? To begin thinking about my answer, I went straight to Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy for the Web to reacquaint myself with ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z 4 Tips for Writing Under Pressure [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/04/4-tips-for-writing-under-pressure/ As marketers and content creators, we’re under pressure. It’s our job to dream up that next awesome campaign or turn a client’s musings into a profound message—as if a stream of clever copy rolls continuously through our minds. But in reality, generating ace ideas for each new project is hard work—and some days, it’s just ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z 8 Obstacles to Change and How to Overcome Them [Web Services Blog] http://blogs.bethel.edu/web-services/2013/05/8-obstacles-to-change-and-how-to-overcome-them/ Most of us recognize that higher ed is changing. A lot. And on the web, our users’ expectations, needs, and wants are changing at a pace that’s tough to keep up with, let alone get ahead of. These changes to our universe mean that we must also change as a web team (everyone who contributes ... 2013-05-24T16:58:30Z