Eight Essential Questions: A Guide for Web Content Providers
Use this guide is a starting point to organize your thoughts and clarify your goals as you construct content for your campus Web pages.
Answering the following eight questions will enable you to create content that your audiences find relevant, thus enhancing your ability to build relationships with important college constituencies.
As you plan your content, bear in mind that your chief goal is to provide your audiences with information and community, and not to promote your programs.
Question 1: Who are your audiences?
- External audiences - For nearly all official campus pages, the foremost target audience here will be prospective students. However, other audiences include curretn students, parents, prospective faculty, the local community, etc.
- Internal audiences
Question 2: What are the Top Five pieces of information or actions that our audiences are seeking from you?
- Online audiences want to accomplish something, and if they can’t get this need met quickly, they click out.
- Actions - examples include subscribing to a newsletter, chatting or exchanging emails with enrolled students, making contact with faculty, etc.
Question 3 How can we communicate - in clear, strong language - our benefits?
Note: "features" are what we do; "benefits" are what we do for you
- Why should I (the audience) care about these programs or services?
- What makes our program’s faculty, facilities, and services so special?
- How can we convey our enthusiasm about our programs and services?
Question 4: What examples of student success can we present?
- Enrolled student profiles
- Alumni success stories
- Other ideas?
Question 5: What is the social dimension of your programs and services?
- Opportunities for community through clubs, trips, interactions with faculty, etc.?
- How do we support our students?
- What do we do to help ensure student success?
Question 6. What does our program offer that gives us an advantage over our competitors?
- Prospective students will compare us with our competitor colleges; with rare exceptions, that means other SUNY colleges
- What do we do better?
Question 7: How can we best explain the distinctions among our various programs?
- For example, "his degree leads to x careers." "We recommend this track for graduate school preparation."
- Why do we offer different degree options?
Question 8: How do our programs and services help students to grow intellectually, personally, and socially?
- Why is this important?
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
If you have questions about Plattsburgh State web policies, or wantto learn more about how to write for the web, please contact:
Daniel J.S. Lewis
Web Editor
Phone: (518) 564-3977
E-mail: daniel.lewis@plattsburgh.edu