Speaker: The illustrious Matt Herzberger

New news release page: 

Goals

  • migrate old posts
  • move to blogging platform (wordpress)
  • ability to add multimedia
  • easier to digest
  • easier social media linkage
  • easy for writers

Research: 

  • evaluate what’s out there (NY Times rocks)
  • talked to writers a lot to see there needs and problems with the last system
  • solid layout (concorida Minnehaha) lot of news themes now
  • Social Media Press Release (socialmediarelease.org)

Matt says I don’t like Wordpress because I said Typepad first :-(  I like Wordpress too!  What do you think this website is built with :-)

Matt’s template - google for social media press release, but don’t be afraid to use something different if it works for you. 

The thing you’re trying to do is make news sexy.  Can you do that?  Probably not - it’s a news release.  But you can try. 

RSS is just plumbing!

He left comments fully open - nothing miraculous, but positive

Measurement: locally, newspapers, message boards, word of mouth, industry journals.

Use Google Alerts.  Google can find anything.  Other good tools: Technorati, Blog Pulse, Compete, del.icio.us

Video, Photo, Audio integration has been really hard for him.  

Utilize your student workers as your teachers for social media.  They know their stuff.

Reporters say “quit emailing me all the time and just give me your RSS feed!”

Regardless how they come to you, its all about getting people to check you out and know you. 

Not every video that you or someone makes about your institution needs to be polished - they can look crappy and still get your point across.

You have to think about your content appropriately for the medium that you’re on.  Don’t just put a brochure on the web.