Building the Web: How to Get the Resources You Need Claire S. Jones Melissa Meehan Buffalo State College HighEdWebDev, November 8, 2005

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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OK, forget outsourcing 2001-2002

• Implementation specialist and
• graphic designer hired
• Main site redesignand upkeep
• Web employees 3 (salary
• allocation 133,100)
• Web budget 0

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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Getting the resources you need 10 steps to
recovery

• 1 Prove the Web is critical
• 2 Use what you already have
• 3 Know your institutions goals
• 4 Secure a seat at the table
• 5 Get in the trenches

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10 steps (continued)

• 6 Compromise
• 7 Measure results
• 8 Manage risk
• 9 Vendors can help you
• 10 Seek external recognition

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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 colleges most important
  marketing vehicle

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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)

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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

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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

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Step 3 Know your institutions 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)

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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

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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 

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Step 4 Secure a seat at the table

• Are you visible to your institutions decision
  makers?
• Gettingand positioning yourself asan executive
  sponsor
• Earning faculty support

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Step 5 Get in the trenches

• Customer service 1 no job too big, too small
• Helping those who needand
• wanthelp
• Effect cultural change training,
• consistent communication, immediate support

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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

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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

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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 with industry
• and what other institutions
• are doing

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Step 9 How vendors can help you

• Vendors put a pricetag on things help build the
  budget case
• Homegrown vs. vendor solutionboth cost
  something
• Take a peek outside your
• work/ideas arent stuck in
• 1997 after all

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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

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Congratulations. You are recovered.

• About our site (includes metrics information)
  www.buffalostate.edu/webteam.xml
• Presentation
• www.buffalostate.edu/pdf/highedweb05.ppt
• Handout
• www.buffalostate.edu/pdf/handout.doc
• Questions?
• jonescs_at_buffalostate.edu
• meehanme_at_buffalostate.edu