Protocol & Procedures for Online Marketing To: Faculty, Staff and Students From: The Office of Public Information Frear Hook, Webmaster: x3460, frear.hook@maine.edu Rachel McFadden, Web & Social Media Specialist, x 3271, rachel.mcfadden@maine.edu Bob Stein, Director of External Relations, x3447, rstein@maine.edu Whether you re interested in making changes or making use of the UMA web site or social media, this guide is designed to help you achieve the best results. Please familiarize yourself with the submission & update protocols. And remember: we re here to make sure we re putting our best collective (digital) foot forward! A. Types of Requests There are essentially four categories of communications you may be looking to share with our office: 1. Basic feedback and suggestions If you have a general comment or feedback about uma.edu or other digital media, but have no specific change to request, please send your comments and feedback to Bob Stein at rstein@maine.edu. 2. Request to meet with any of our staff If you would like to meet with any person on our staff for any reason, please contact that individual at his or her email address or phone extension. 3. Specific changes you need made on uma.edu If you need a specific change or changes made on a page of the website- - whether it s a small copy change or a complete overhaul of a page - - please use our new ticketing system to submit your changes. Changes should be sent to umaweb@maine.edu.
4. Promotion of an event If you would like an event or special initiative promoted on our website or through social media, please submit the information through our web ticketing system (umaweb@maine.edu). B. How the Web Ticketing System (umaweb@maine.edu) Works The web ticketing system enables our office to keep track of all requests for web changes and other specific digital requests. It also enables you to know that we received your request and ensure that you will be notified when your request has been completed. We will respond to tickets as quickly as possible. When we consider we have fulfilled your request, we will respond to the ticket email asking you to verify the changes are correct. When you are satisfied with the update, the ticket will be closed, and an email will be generated by the ticketing system informing you the ticket is closed. Replying to this email will re- open the ticket, so please only reply to this automatic response if there is a further issue with the same ticket. We will close tickets that go more than three days without response to a verification request, understanding that if further changes are required you can respond to the automatic system email, and re- open the ticket. C. How Long Will Changes Take The time involved for our office to fulfill a request will depend on the scope of the request and the number of requests in the ticketing system. However, one can roughly figure on the following timelines: Single page update: 1-2 days (per page) This includes updating any single page on the site, including News & Events. New page creation: 1-5 days (per page) Webform creation: 5-14 days Page/Site Redesign: 3-6 months We are committed to delivering the best user experience possible; as such we recognize that certain areas must occasionally be redesigned/updated to take advantage of new technologies. The process of requesting, creating, programming, deploying and maintaining a new page/site is in- depth and highly personalized. As such, it is also time-
consuming and requires consistent communication between the Web Department and the requestor. We encourage folks interested in a redesign to create a wishlist, and have multiple concrete examples of pages and functions they think would benefit their content delivery. D. Requesting Page Updates on UMA.EDU When requesting a page to be updated through the web ticketing system, we ask that you adhere to the guidelines below. This will enable our office to expedite your changes and also allow us to more quickly get to other people s requests. Here are the things to include: 1. A link to the page you need updated. There are approximately 3000 pages on our site, which makes it very difficult for us to know exactly which page you re referring to or where it is in our site organization. Including a link gives us the necessary information to find the page and make the update quickly. 2. The information you need updated Be it text, pictures, graphics, we ll need the new information. 3. Text should be sent in an attached Word document. We prefer that you include within any document (when necessary): Any links (including email addresses) that you d like to have within the document, via Word s hyperlink feature. Please ensure that links added via the hyperlink feature link to a full URL on the Internet (i.e. http://www.uma.edu) not a local document or link (i.e. something on the X drive, or a single page like newsandevents.html) a. Lists should use auto- numbering and ordered numbered/multilevel lists, rather than by- hand numbering. This allows swift and simple transition to the web. Hand- typed outlines are prohibitively time consuming to transfer. b. Tables in Word need to have consistent rows and columns, with information aligned directly under the correct header (column or row). Do not nest tables within tables or have empty rows/columns c. Be sure to put information that belongs in lists and tables into lists and tables. Please do not send information that should be in tables or lists separated by x number of spaces, tabs, periods (.). This information needs to live in tables or lists.
4. Send items text, pictures and graphics as separate files. Please don t send a Word document with embedded images; they are difficult and time- consuming to extract and the image quality suffers. Similarly, please don t send a PDF or image of text and pictures, put the text and pictures separately, so we can assemble the information for best web presentation. PDFs can be linked to, for downloading, if you wish to include them for wider accessibility for (print) reproduction. Below are things not to include: 1. Text/Pictures that aren t being updated. It s confusing to get information that is already correct along with the information requiring updating. Please send only the text/images to be updated, along with a description of what should be replaced, and where it is on each page. 2. Excel Sheets Excel files are not web- friendly as the data is incredibly difficult to extract. Please send any tables in Word, and expect tables sent in Word to appear in tables on the web. E. Marketing Your Event On UMA.EDU or through Social Media If you would like to promote your event on uma.edu or through social media, here are the things to Include: 1. Send graphics (but not PDFs). Images are key to grabbing attention. Any pictures or graphics you can send us increase the marketability, visibility and usability of a page. However, please avoid sending PDFs and images of flyers. These items don t get scanned by Google, and decrease the chances of folks being able to search Google for information about your event. Include the text of your flyers in a separate Word document. 2. Description of Event. Pictures, while worth a thousand words, don t tell the whole story! Be sure to include some text detailing the event. 3. Date & Time & Location. Where and when the event is. Social Media Interconnection Our default policy is to publish any Campus & Community event that is being posted to our website concurrently on our main Facebook pages. If your department has its own Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn account, etc. be sure to include the
Marketing/Web Department in your marketing efforts, either by coordinating admin privileges with us, or by linking the event to the page we re creating on our site. F. Requesting a Webform When you wish to have a webform created, please include the following information: 1. The desired form elements. Please send us a Word (or PDF) version of the form with the data types required. These may include: Single lines of text for email, names, etc Radio buttons for single options from multiple choices Check boxes for multiple options of multiple choices Large text boxes for more free- form responses. 2. The desired form action. This can be via: Email Submission Please include the email address the submitted form should be sent to. Database Submission Information can be stored in a database, and a web- interface created to subsequently browse collected information. Please note that development of a database option will greatly increase the time required, so if there is a need for storing your information, please include at least a month of development time before the database is needed. Combination/Other A combination of the above options, or some other action (TBD). Important Security Notice! Due to the security risks posed by either storing some information locally in a database, or especially transmitting over email, we try to discourage asking for the following information: Requests for Social Security Numbers Medical information, including allergy All three of Name, Address and Student ID number in the same form Steps can be taken to secure forms, and with the help of the IT department, we can safely collect sensitive data, but doing so adds considerable time to development and implementation. If this or other sensitive information is REQUIRED, please plan accordingly.