Yesterday's presentation by Aaron Manfull was soooooo helpful. My staff developed an online presence last year, but it was pathetic. All we were really able to accomplish was rehashing the same content and photos from our print edition. We had really good intentions, but there is obviously more to having a web site than paying someone to host it.
My first goal in re-inventing ourselves is to follow Aaron's 10 tips on developing our online presence. We had jumped in at about step five or six instead of doing the work at the front end. Now that I have more of a clue, hopefully we can get it right this time.
It was also good for me to hear that I need to take some baby steps before I can have the awesome site that I envision. To be able to realistically reach our ultimate goal of being THE place that students go to for school news and information, I need to set smaller goals. Most importantly, I need to give myself permission to take those smaller steps and be happy with one or two successes each year. My newspaper and yearbook didn't get to be where they are today without those small steps, I don't know why I thought I could create the website differently. Now I know.
Mindy Gilman
Blue Valley North High School
Overland Park, Kan.
I can identify 100 percent, Mindy.
ReplyDeleteThis spring, I sent my webmaster to the technology guru one day a week to work on the online edition. I relegated the website to the very back burner instead of letting it simmer all the time! I'll know better this year.
Lucinda Hogentogler
Central York High School
York,Pa.
Those were awesome tips. I have a running a running list of websites now that I plan to check out.
ReplyDeleteTina Davis
Ketchum High School
Ketchum, Okla.
The tips we received were outstanding. While I have no plans to kill off our print edition, I very much want to make our online offerings the main trust of the program. I will be using so much of what we learned here to make that happen.
ReplyDeleteDave West
North Allegheny High School