Tag: WordPress

Making a Website

Two weeks ago, I started creating a website for a non-profit organization I work for. Before this, I had only worked with WordPress blogs and making a website appeared too difficult a task to take on, but it turned out alright at the end.

Andy, my colleague at the Media Center, introduced me to Bluehost (https://www.bluehost.com/) through which I rented a domain for two years at the cost of about 185 USD, which is not too expensive. Bluehost was so convenient to use. Once I made the domain, Bluehost directed me to the control panel of my domain, through which I made Email accounts and downloaded WordPress, to help design the website.

Using WordPress, I chose a template, picked the colors, number of widgets, and banner size and design, and created pages for my website. Under pages, I created menues so that every time someone clicks on the page, a menue will drop down. From Setting on WordPress, I picked the language, the time zone, the font and the administrative page colors (either blue or gray). Then, I started adding text to the website. Once the texts were in place, I downloaded a plugin from WordPress, under plugin, to create and publish slideshows. I picked the NewGen slideshow plugin. It was fine but it didn’t allow me to center the slideshow on the website. I went to NewGen Gallery, now on the menue to the right of the page, and uploaded photos into a gallery. Then I created a new post and hist Add Gallery and selected Slideshow from the right side icons above the post. Then I hit publish, and there it was!

This was a great experience to create a semi-professional looking website for my organization but most importantly it was a good learning experience. If you are making a website and you are confused, like I was, the Media Center people are nice and we can help you.

Social Networking for Departments and Organizations – Outline

Outline

  • Types of Social Media
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Youtube
    • Flickr
    • Blogs
  • Best Practices
    • Connecting to people
    • Know your audience.  Deliver information they are interested in in a way they can connect to it.
    • Be positive
    • Spread good news about the organization, people currently or formerly in the organization
    • Be fun
    • Don’t be a narcissist
    • Be genuine-people connect to that
    • Thank people who comment/fan
    • People like to feel special too
  • Updating Efficiently
    • Streamlining & managing messages/media so sites cross fill each other
    • If you don’t want to maintain all of the elements, start with only a few you can manage.
    • Choose a point person to post
    • Social Media Hour (daily/weekly)
    • Images/Video are great but you have to first have someone shoot it so you can post it.
    • Distribute to student workers/others in organization so it’s not on the party planners shoulders.
  • Promotion
    • Cross Promote with like minded groups.  The more eyes viewing your site the better.
    • Connecting with interested parties first.
  • Technologies
    • Selective Twitter
    • Twitter Feed
    • RSS Graffiti
    • Involver suite
    • Hoot Suite
    • Tweetdeck

Links

Gracefully promote yourself online
Mashable 
ReadWriteWeb
Social Media Examiner 
In Social Media, Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

 

Resources

 

WordPress Blog

Description

Dickinson hosts it’s own installation of WordPress MU (Multi User) and any class can choose to have a blog set up for their students to blog.  Wordpress is a very user friendly platform and most people easily adapt to using the program quickly.  Each person’s posts can be track for grading purposes and the platform is well suited to help engage dialogue inside and outside of the classroom.  It can be open for the public to view or closed down so only the students within the course can read the content of the posts.

This session consists of walking the students through the process of logging into the system and posting at least one test post to get accustom to the software.

Audience

Faculty & Students

Type

Instructor Led-Hands on

Time

30-45 Minutes-In Class Time

Outcomes

  • Learn location of class blog
  • Receive account information to login
  • Learn basics of posting, uploading media, & commenting
  • Post first post to blog

Want to know more?  Contact  mediacenter at dickinson.edu to set up a consultation.  You can also get a sneak peek of what we cover in our training by looking over our Training Outline.

Redefining the blog

I have personally had a Blogger account for over 6 years now but when I recently wanted to set up a blog, I went with WordPress instead.  I love WP (that’s what this site runs on) but I must say that the new enhancements Google just unveiled on Blogger are rather impressive.  Go to any blogger site and add /view at the end to get a completely different way to see the posts.  I will definitely need to dig a little deeper into these changes and it will make it harder when I have to choose a blog recommendation for myself or people asking for assistance.  [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/fuDuNV4h_ZI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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