NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Stephen Charles, Web Content Developer NC A&T State University School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Currently, we’re not using a Content Management System to maintain content, so we’re always striving to keep our content fresh and up to date. Goal: Making the Site “Sticky” Our Biggest Challenges: Acquiring Content Keeping Content Fresh Making the Site Interactive

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology This is our layout for the entire School of Ag’s website. For Cooperative Extension, our clients wanted another brand identity, one that would distinguish it from the School of Agriculture’s design, citing traffic from visitors outside the University.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Use website templates if at all possible. I develop our pages using Macromedia Dreamweaver which supports web templates. Global site changes can be made on the fly, which can save countless hours of maintenance.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Streamline the content gathering process from the client. Acquiring Content Every project starts with an Ag. Communications Check-up form. This gives our clients an opportunity to think about the scope of their message, the intended audience and the desired impact.Ag. Communications Check-up form It also saves time on the development end.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Acquiring Content Use relevant content from journals, newsletters, brochures or other publications. Text, photos, and audio/visual content from other media can be used to reach other audiences through your website.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Set a maintenance schedule for frequent changes. Create an archives section for items that have been removed. Keeping Content Fresh

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Rotate content from a repository of data. Keeping Content Fresh

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology External content options. Keeping Content Fresh Syndicated news feeds offer another option for frequently updated content on your page. In this example, an RSS feed was created from a search engine string to “North Carolina” and “Agriculture” from Yahoo News. Results may be as broad or as narrow as your search terms in this instance.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Interactive pages are sticky. Interactivity This pageThis page on our extension website allows visitors to access the content they need. Hovering over the county gives you the county’s Extension office information and clicking the county takes you to that office’s website.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Other considerations Cant afford a focus group? Have friends or relatives navigate around your site, to check for usability and clarity. Home grown user testing

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Other considerations Analysis of the surfing habits of your sites visitors can help inform you of what pages are the most visited, the most sticky and you can tailor your maintenance schedule accordingly. Web Server Statistical Analysis

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Thanks to my team at Agricultural Communications and Technology. Laurie Gengenbach, Alton Franklin, Cathy Gant Hill, Lalit Rainey, Josh Loftin, Mike Bratcher, James Parker, Robin Adams, and Ron Fisher.

NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology Links NC A&T State University Cooperative Extension NC A&T School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Solutions for North Carolina