Everything added to a college website should have a clear purpose and value for our users.

Content should be written and organized so that it can always be understood and navigated by a typical external user with only a modest familiarity with Beloit College.

However, content for internal audiences should also have value for external audiences, such as campus-only events showing an active student life.

Strictly internal-only content, such as meeting minutes or financial documents, should not be added to the website.

We are all subject experts and should be looking to contribute or be a resource for others.

If we see something while using the site, we should contact the content editors using email or notes (in LiveWhale) to inform them of our observations.

Any user could arrive at the site at any page, and that page must make a good first impression.

A user who identifies some outdated or incorrect content will likely assume that the entire site isn’t maintained and doubt the accuracy of all content.

Start communicating with our most viewed resource!

• Did your services change? Update your pages on the website first.
• Are you hosting an event? Promote it first as an event on the website.
• Have a good story to share? Add it first to the website.
• Etc.

For those with social media: adding content to the website first gives you a place to direct users for more information.

In other words, “content first”.

Our next focus should be on how best to organize said content so users can easily find what they are looking for.

Instead, the subject expert should maintain the resource in a single place.

Then, others can refer to and link to that resource from their own content.

Sharing helps more users find the content and helps each group or site appear more active to users.

Don’t overdo it though!  Only share content to groups who would find it useful to include as a part of their content.