Last week marked one small step for our content teams and the project team, and one giant leap for Extension’s new digital strategy.

We opened the back end of our new website for content teams to begin initial content entry. This is HUGE. It means that we are–for the first time–working together as an organization to provide access to the breadth and depth of what OSU Extension offers. And that we are collectively focusing more on our audiences’ needs and preferences than on our own. This is a big, but important, shift. And we are getting there together.

Thank you

Thank you to the content team leaders who took time last week to view the training docs and videos, and to everyone who stopped by during our office hours/open labs, asked a question, or simply logged in to check things out. You know who you are! : )

Tips for content teams

Based on what we’ve seen and questions we fielded over the past few days, here are some tips for content teams.

• Expect functionality, not fancy. As teams begin to enter content, the project team continues to work on design and layout. If you see something funky, make a note and share it with us. But please don’t let that be a hangup as you keep working on content.
• What goes where? The quick start guide provides a short overview of available content types (e.g., article, announcement, collection, resource link). Note that the “events” content type is coming soon. The quick start guide provides information on when to use announcements vs. events.
• More training videos? Yes, more training videos are coming. We started with the basics. Next on the list are videos for program landing pages and collections. We’ll add more videos, and update the quick start guide as more content types and features become available. Thanks and kudos to Victor Villegas for creating the videos, and for assisting with training and content team support.
• Slow and steady. Everyone is eager to add content and see our new web presence take shape. So far, we’ve seen content team leaders be very successful when they (1) taking time to review the training materials, (2) start slowly–adding a few pieces of content to get the hang of it, and (3) ask questions before getting too far along. This is working well for us, too. Better that we talk through questions and examples early than get a whole lot of content added and then find out something isn’t working as expected.

Please keep asking questions. We’d love to “see” you during office hours/open labs, and we’ll respond to other questions as soon as possible.