Making websites more social

The Buzz Bin has an interesting post about web design that is worth talking about, or at least blogging about. In Tear Down the Web Site, Geoff Livingston makes a strong case for putting social media front and center in our organizations’ online presence.

The brochure approach doesn’t work. We know that. So blogs, podcasts and new social content has been added to the conventional web site, but the conversation is usually buried on sites as a simple link. Why bother? Why not reverse things and make brochure content a simple link, and the social content the heart of the web page?

Many campuses are using social media for student recruitment, solidifying relationships, or promoting special events. Some are also putting their news content into a blog format. Yet too often, these sites are hidden. That’s largely the case at Missouri S&T, even though we do link to one blog from our gateway currently.

Why is it that we hide our social media behind brochureware? Discuss.

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Now playing: The Mountain Goats – Lovecraft In Brooklyn
via FoxyTunes

Blog makeover in progress; please stop by later

PRblogs.org, which hosts this site, is tinkering with templates. The good news is that I’ll finally be able to incorporate widgets. The bad news is that I don’t have time to play with it right now, so right now this site looks a bit in disarray. We’ll get it fixed before long.

Update: The zen cleanliness and simplicity of this template is growing on me. After reviewing some of the other WordPress templates available via PRblogs, I’m thinking I’ll stick with this one. Simple = good. Thanks, Azeem Azeez.

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Now playing: Pete And The Pirates – Lost In The Woods
via FoxyTunes