From the 2010 Alliance to Save Energy Green Campus Energy Efficiency Summit – Greening the Campus, Building the Workforce

1. Traditional newspapers, newfangled
websites: Ways to market your Green
Campus program
Jeffrey Steuben, Green Campus Staff
Jocelyn Orr, Green Campus Alumna

2. Session overview
• Introductions
• Discussion of:
– Why we use media
– What makes something newsworthy?
– University vs. student media
• Discussion of:
– Often observed website pitfalls
– Strategies for web content
– Social networking sites
• Wrap up, take away messages and lessons learned

3. Common website pitfalls
• Custom-built websites are not easy to maintain
• Update-heavy sites quickly become outdated
• No one is accountable for website
• Don’t know what’s going on with web traffic

4. Pitfalls resolved
• Custom-built websites are not easy to maintain
• Answer: Build an easy to maintain site using a Content
Management System or other web application
•Weebly
+ Very easy to use
- Also very basic
• other options include
Wordpress, Google Sites,
other blogging platforms

5. Pitfalls resolved, cont’d
Content Management System (CMS)
• Creates fully capable, customized websites
• More complicated to set up than weebly/blogger
• Easy to maintain, don’t need knowledge of HTML
• Although there are others, I recommend
• Free, open-source, community supported

6. Content Management System (CMS)
• Joomla!

7. Pitfalls resolved, cont’d
• Update-heavy sites quickly become outdated
• Answer: Be realistic, and remove features that need frequent
updating. I recommend that you don’t need to update more
than twice a term
• No one is accountable for website
• Answer: Establish a point person to do it, just like meeting
minutes or metrics tracking

8. Pitfalls resolved, cont’d
• Don’t know what’s going on with web traffic
• Answer: Take advantage of Google Analytics

9. Google Analytics, cont’d
• Where should you focus your efforts?

10. Important facts about websites
• Most people do NOT read websites, 79% merely scan
The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the
yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed
blue areas. Gray areas didn't attract any fixations.

11. Important facts about websites, cont’d
• People typically read 20% of the words in a page’s article
• Web content should use half the words of its paper equivalent

12. Guidelines for strong web content
• Talk to visitors. Use “You”
• Don’t mix nouns and “you.”
– Example: “You will be pleased with this service. Many students
find it helpful.”
– Use “you” rather than he or she
– If you are writing for an organization, use “We” or “Us.” In blogs,
it’s preferable to use “I.”
• Write in active voice.
• Short sentences work.
• Keep paragraphs short (a one-sentence paragraph works).

13. Guidelines for strong web content, cont’d
• Use simple and familiar words (e.g. “Dictionary” is more
recognizable than “glossary”)
• Avoid jargon
• Make leading sentences descriptive
• Use lists
– Use bulleted lists for items or choices
– Use numbered lists for instructions (procedures)

14. Strong web content – Voice
Active voice is best for most Web content.
Traditional writing guidelines are clear on the use of passive
voice:
• Worst: The passive voice should be avoided.
• Bad: The passive voice should be avoided by writers.
• Better: Writers should avoid using passive voice.
• Best: Writers should use active voice.

15. Social Networking Sites
• Facebook: Everyone uses it, why not you?
– Status updates = news feed
– Advertise events, job openings
– Remember that it is professional
• Myspace: don’t bother
– Unless it’s wildly popular at your school
• Twitter: maybe?
– Similar to Facebook status updates
– Limited only to that
– Do you really have that much to say?

16. Thank you!
Jeffrey Steuben
jsteuben@ase.org
Jocelyn Orr
Jocelyn.Orr@gmail.com