Integrated Communications and the Bates Web

Integrated Communications
and the Bates Web
GETTING STARTED

For Bates College
Jay Collier, Communications and Media Relations (CMR)
January 26, 2007

WHERE WE ARE NOW
What We’ll Cover
Ten questions ... support a strategic perspective that
will align Web vision with communications planning
• Where we are now
• Where we could go
• How we’ll get there
• Your suggestions

WHERE WE ARE NOW
1. Why does the Web matter?
• The Web has become a powerful global
force in collaboration and knowledge-
sharing
• For the on-campus community at Bates,
the Web is becoming an important tool
for teaching, learning, and business
processing
• Above all, for off-campus constituents,
the Web is becoming the primary point of
contact and engagement with the College

WHERE WE ARE NOW
2. What is Bates’ “identity” on the Web?
• Bates’ Web identity is the
total experience that
people have of Bates based
on Web impressions
• That experience is
produced by Bates faculty,
staff, and students — as
well as external
contributors, both
commercial and non-
commercial

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Text searches: “Bates College” (over 700,000 references)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Blog searches: “Bates College” (over 1,700 entries)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• News searches: “Bates College” (about 90 recent stories)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Public articles: Wikipedia (main article)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Public articles: Wikipedia (75+ related Bates articles)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Commercial content: College Prowler (partial online content)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Social networks: Facebook (over 500 Bates members)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Social networks: Live Journal (in-depth discussions covering
student life at Bates)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Social networks: Linked In (professional connections)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Social networks: MySpace (nearly 900 members from Bates)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Media sharing: Flickr (hundreds of images of Bates)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Media sharing: YouTube (20+ videos about Bates)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Web services: GoogleEarth (Aerial imagery)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Web services: GoogleEarth (Aerial imagery)

— Jay’s desk

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Now, not only is the amount of
externally-produced content
about Bates growing quickly,
so too is the amount of Bates-
produced content
• Many systems and services are
used to publish content into
bates.edu
• So, let’s look more closely at the
Bates Web “domain”...

WHERE WE ARE NOW
3. What’s inside the Bates Web “domain”?
• The Bates Web domain consists of all
online content and services that have
bates.edu in their address. This
includes ...
• The core Web site at: www.bates.edu
• Dozens of other official and personal
Web sites that have evolved within the
Bates domain over the past 15 years
Here are some examples ...

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• The core Web site at www.bates.edu (17,000 pages)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Official content from academic departments, administrative
offices, committees, and ad hoc groups at abacus.bates.edu
(41,000 pages)

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Curricular content for dozens of courses at webct.bates.edu
and leeds.bates.edu

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Personal content from faculty, staff, and students at
abacus.bates.edu (over 7,800 pages)

4th highest global Google result for “roman gladiator”: 4th highest global Google result for “centrifugation”:
abacus.bates.edu/~mimber/Rciv/gladiator.htm abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/
centrifugation.html

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Services (library, curricular, and adminstrative) at:
webmail.bates.edu, ladd.bates.edu, illiad.bates.edu
banner.bates.edu, kent.bates.edu

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Alumni content at community.bates.edu

WHERE WE ARE NOW
4. Who uses the Bates Web?
• Prospective students and their families —
who may want to learn why Bates is a good
choice for them
• Current students and families — who may
want to learn about living, studying, and
working here
• Prospective faculty and staff — who may want
to learn why Bates is a good place to work
• Current faculty and staff — who may want to
use services that support teaching and working

WHERE WE ARE NOW
• Alumni and friends — who may want to learn
how to stay connected with other Bates alumni
• Community & neighbors — who may want to
learn why Bates is an important civic partner
• News reporters — who may want to know
what's new and newsworthy at Bates
• Professional colleagues — who may want to
learn how Bates is leading the way
• Interested friends — who may want to know
all of the above

WHERE WE ARE NOW
Why do we use the Bates Web?
• To help students learn
• To support social connections
• To persuade our constituencies
• To recruit students, faculty,
and staff
• To process business transactions

And many other reasons

WHERE WE ARE NOW
5. Who contributes to the core Web?
• Look and feel – CMR
• News & marketing content –
CMR
• Other content – from over 100
campus Web authors
• Web servers, systems, and
training support – ILS
• Oversight – a collaboration of
CMR and ILS leaders and
managers

WHERE WE ARE NOW
6. What are our strengths & weaknesses?
Strengths of the core Web
• We have an excellent source
of news, feature, and
marketing content
• We have a single system for
publishing the entire core
site
• We have a talented staff
that works in close
collaboration

WHERE WE ARE NOW
6. What are our strengths & weaknesses?
Weaknesses of the core Web
• We lack a strategic process for communications
• We have limited staff and budgetary resources
• We have no content development workflow to assure
accuracy, timeliness, or quality
• A great deal of effort will be needed to migrate our legacy
content from 2001 to 2007 standards

WHERE WE ARE NOW
7. Why should we focus on the Web now?
• The role of Bates’ core Web site has become more
significant as alternative content about Bates proliferates
• The Web, itself, has matured into a powerful tool for
achieving successful integrated communications results
• An in-depth communications office audit is underway
• We have a directive from the president to improve Bates
Web content
• We have a new VP-level Web oversight team
• The last strategic evaluation of the Bates Web was in 2000

HOW WE’LL GET THERE
8. How will we find the right path?
As we move forward, we need to:
• Think strategically about communications
• Understand which key characteristics distinguish Bates
from our peer institutions
• Develop an annual plan for integrated communication
• Focus on top priority communications outcomes
• Define success metrics, estimate resources required, and
move forward with funded initiatives

9. What are the next steps?
• Web communications is an
important program that will grow
more critical to Bates’ success
over the coming years
• With your guidance, we are
moving forward on the
development a comprehensive
communications strategy that
fully integrates the Web
• We intend to do great work that
informs ... and inspires

10. What other questions should we ask?
Thank you for your guidance

Jay Collier
www.bates.edu/communications
www.jaycollier.net

Integrated Communications and the Bates Web

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