You are not alone in asking this question, “Who is going to enter all this content?” In the future, it will be less daunting as new content arrives more evenly spaced. With any big transition, however, the amount of initial content to sort through is a big task. One that is currently being addressed in different ways, and the only way through it is forward.
Assigning the responsibility
To meet the need, some of Extension’s program areas designated a content team leader’s time as the main point of contact for doing all the initial entry. These team leaders set aside other responsibilities or spread it out over many months to accomplish this.
Other program areas hired students in the summer to learn how to enter content given to them by content team members, which then the teams reviewed and published. Similar funds may need to be considered for an ongoing student.
Some teams looked to their research/program assistants to support the entry. This means adding these people to the content team web groups and training them on how to enter content through those groups, especially if this will become on ongoing solution. County office staff could help enter events and newsletters for the content team.
If needed, instructional guides created by EESC are available for training those who will be doing the entry.
Importing the content
In some cases, the EESC can help to automatically import this content if it:
- Has been consistently maintained content so it is up-to-date and of high quality
- Corresponds to a content type in the new website (e.g. newsletter, video, etc.)
- Is possible to separate from the rest of the content for export purposes (e.g. has a separate content type or tag rather than one field of mixed text, images, and hyperlinks).
If you feel this is true for content you are reviewing for inclusion, contact the web team for more details.
Culling the content
If entering content takes time, then consider only moving content that meets the needs of Extension audiences. Is it worth moving over? Are only some links on the page worth keeping? Will the information be useful or keep people engaged in our work?
In preparing for this new website, EESC worked with Close to the Customer at OSU to do market research. The most valued aspects of a website (in a survey of 300 Oregonians, half who knew about Extension) included:
- Frequently updated site content – 58%
- Information from a recognized source – 45%
- Information tailored to personal interests – 38%
As your team looks through content you want to move over, ask if the content is current, reliable, and/or accurate. If not, you can always save it to Box for improving later as part of new content planning. The Getting Started section in the user guide also helps to explore other places content could be moved if not a good fit for the Extension website.
While the end is in sight for transitioning content, these next several months are critical to laying a foundation for a larger digital strategy — one to take us further down the road to tailoring our content to individuals’ interests and ways they want to engage with Extension.
