Although I’m pretty sure the idea that summer is the “slow” time on a college campus is more myth than fact, not being knee deep in the typical academic year goings-on does afford a bit of time to take a step back and get an idea of how things are going, both from a web standpoint and a social media one.
For a little web refresh, start at the homepage of your site in Cascade and click through your menu, are all the links still accurate? Is the information up to date on your homepage and other highly visible sections of your site? If not, go in and update that content, remove broken links and add your latest information. To help keep fresh content always on your site, add a new widget to your site to showcase the latest events going on in your office/department/group or the feed from your blog or Twitter account.
Have you moved offices this year or added new people to your staff? Make sure all of your contact information is accurate. This update should include your social media channels. If you’ve created a new Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account this year, be sure to add it to your website (and if it’s not included in our social media directory, let us know). Likewise, if using a particular channel has dropped off your priority list but you’d like to get it ramped back up, send Creative Services an email and we can work with you to try and figure out a social media strategy and schedule that works for you.
Do you have speakers coming in the fall for a colloquium? Student research presentations or monthly faculty brown bags? Be sure to add them to the W&M Events system so the whole campus can find out about them. You can also borrow events from the calendars of other offices on campus if you think they would be of interest to your office or department.
The added benefits to all of these updates? You won’t have to do them during the “busier” time at the beginning of the semester when you realize something may be out of date! So take 30 minutes this week and take a look at your site.
~Tiffany