Managing Web sites

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

I have commented before on some of the complexities of building 
and managing Web sites to attract traffic and to direct users to 
desirable outcomes (e.g., discovery, purchase).  An article on 
the SearchEngineLand blog has a diagram of all that is involved. 
It's worth taking a look:

http://selnd.com/gJKOY9

Some general points to be made here.  First, the complexity of 
this diagram comes as no surprise to consumer Web-marketers, but 
may be news to academic marketers (I just had an ordeal with the 
Hunter College Web site that left me gasping for air).  In all 
matters Internet, consumer infrastructure will come to dominate, 
because that is where the numbers are and infrastructure (though 
not content) is built for the numbers.  Second, to some extent 
this (the lack of awareness of the complexity) is the reason that 
so many free resources are hard to find and use.  (Note the use 
of the word "some." There are free services, PLoS being perhaps 
the most conspicuous example, that are very much Web-native.)

I am currently working on a project in the OER space, and 
discoverability or its lack is the biggest problem. Third, how 
many institutions have a budget and plan to get them beyond 
"post-and-forget"?  The message is not complete when you press 
"send" with an email, but when it is received, read, and 
understood.  This is life-cycle marketing, and it applies to 
academic materials as much as to pop tunes and works of 
commercial fiction.

Joe Esposito