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About Buffalo State

Building the Web: How to Get the Resources You Need Claire S. Jones Melissa Meehan Buffalo State College HighEdWebDev, November 8, 2005. About Buffalo State. One of 64 SUNY schools, largest comprehensive college Approximately 9,000 undergraduates; 2,000 graduate students

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About Buffalo State

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  1. Building the Web: How to Get the Resources You NeedClaire S. JonesMelissa MeehanBuffalo State CollegeHighEdWebDev, November 8, 2005

  2. About Buffalo State • One of 64 SUNY schools, largest comprehensive college • Approximately 9,000 undergraduates; 2,000 graduate students • Approximately 1,500 faculty and staff

  3. Buffalo State Web: The early years, 1996-1999 • Static site maintained by library staff • Decentralized, self-publishing model • Number of employees dedicated to the Web site: 0 • Web Budget: $0

  4. Waking up to the Web: 1999-2000 • Responsibility for college site reassigned to College Relations • Web editor hired; 20-member Web advisory committee • Web employees: 1 • Web budget: $0

  5. College Relations during this period • Other College Relations staff: 6 (salary allocation $294,281) • Other than Personal Service (OTPS) budget: $309,478 • Total allocation: $603,759

  6. OK, forget outsourcing: 2001-2002 • Implementation specialist and graphic designer hired • Main site redesign—and upkeep • Web employees: 3 (salary allocation $133,100) • Web budget: $0

  7. Holding down the fort: 2003-2004 • Custom sites; 60+ clients waiting • Main site redesign; more databases • Content management in the works • Web budget: $14,800 ($6,000 OTPS, $7,800 temp service)

  8. Full-service Web shop: 2005-2006 • Web team (5 employees): director, implementation specialist, graphic designer, Web editor, application developer (salary allocation $222,685) • CMS and templates; custom applications • Web budget: $36,000 ($28,200 OTPS, $7,800 personal service)

  9. College Relations today • Staff: 11 (salary allocation: $541,417) • College Relations OTPS: $262,500 • Special projects: $225,000 • College Relations OTPS, Web OTPS, and special projects: $523,500 • Total, plus personal service: $1,064,917

  10. Step with care and great tact and remember that life's a great balancing act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left. – Dr. Suess Oh, the Places You'll Go

  11. Getting the resources you need: 10 steps to recovery 1: Prove the Web is critical 2: Use what you already have 3: Know your institution’s goals 4: Secure a seat at the table 5: Get in the trenches

  12. 10 steps (continued) 6: Compromise 7: Measure results 8: Manage risk 9: Vendors can help you 10: Seek external recognition

  13. Step 1: Prove the Web is critical • Prove, prove, prove the importance of the medium • And that you have the know-how to best champion it (dealing with the unavoidable Web power struggle) • For us, a simple, consistent message: Web = college’s most important marketing vehicle

  14. Research (some examples) • Chronicle of Higher Education, chronicle.com To Size Up Colleges, Students Now Shop Online (June 10, 2005) • National Association for College Admission Counseling, www.nacacnet.org State of College Admission Report (2005) • Art & Science Group, StudentPOLL, www.artsci.com/studentonline.htm The Use of Technologies in College Choice (January 29, 2003) No Digital Divide (April 17, 2003)

  15. Research (more examples) • Lipman Hearne, www.lipmanhearne.com/resources Web Site Effectiveness Study (2002) • Harris Interactive, The Harris Poll (Trends & Tudes), harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters_k12.asp How Do High School Students Select a College? (January 2005) Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18- Year Olds (May 2005) • American Advertising Federation, Higher Education Marketing Newsletter, Communication Arts

  16. Step 2: Use what you already have • You know how to wisely apply existing resources and set priorities • How visible is this project? WIFM? • Build community by filling a void, taking on those dirty jobs no one else will touch

  17. Step 3: Know your institution’s goals • You are committed to the overall good of the organization • Support the mission, strategic and academic planning efforts • Web now in our strategic and technology plans (by design)

  18. From our strategic plan • Develop a comprehensive, targeted marketing campaign for graduate programs with capacity and/or high growth potential • Develop and implement a comprehensive communication plan for students • Develop and implement a comprehensive internal and external marketing identity campaign for the campus

  19. From our technology plan • The Web will be a vehicle to provide comparative advantage to Buffalo State College. The Web offers first point of contact with the college. Presentation will be inviting, informative, current, and professional • Adopt means to keep departmental and office Web pages current using database technologies; develop and design templates for Web pages 

  20. Step 4: Secure a seat at the table • Are you visible to your institution’s decision makers? • Getting—and positioning yourself as—an executive sponsor • Earning faculty support

  21. Step 5: Get in the trenches • Customer service #1; no job too big, too small • Helping those who need—and want—help • Effect cultural change: training, consistent communication, immediate support

  22. Step 6: The art of compromise • The importance of “playing well" with others • The occasional failed compromise can work to your benefit • A final word on campus partners

  23. Step 7: Measure your efforts • Develop metrics that clearly show that your products do, in fact, work for the intended audience(s) • Share this data with campus • Usability studies, surveys, focus groups, search results, traffic logs, Web mail

  24. Step 8: Feeling lucky? Managing risk • Learn which risks are worth taking (open student blogs? maybe not) • That is, know your institution • Stay in touch withindustry andwhat other institutions are doing

  25. Step 9: How vendors can help you • Vendors put a pricetag on things; help build the budget case • Homegrown vs. vendor solution—both “cost” something • Take a peek outside: your work/ideas aren’t stuck in 1997 after all

  26. Step 10: Seek external recognition • You are doing interesting things • Find out that the world has nice things to say about these interesting things • Then crow internally

  27. Congratulations. You are recovered. About the Buffalo State Web site (includes metrics information) www.buffalostate.edu/webteam.xml This presentation www.buffalostate.edu/pdf/highedweb05.ppt Questions? jonescs@buffalostate.edu meehanme@buffalostate.edu

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