Shelley Keith

This is the message I just sent my brand new social media student worker. I’ve given him some time to get used to the office, read some great social media resources, watch useful videos and talk theory with me while getting to know the personality style we use here. Now, time for him to get his ass to work.

You are ready young Padawan. Time to get your work on.

Daily Tasks:

1. Be on Facebook SAU page responding/interacting/uploading. Find answers to questions if possible. Refer users to appropriate offices if necessary. Keep upcoming events up to date. Review other Facebook pages and come up with ideas for things we can do with ours.
   1. Goals: greater FB interaction with all audiences; a regular and constant presence.
2. Check Twitter for questions/comments to answer/respond to or retweet appropriate content from those we follow. Review our list of followers for people we should be following, review their lists, etc. Build an interactive community of related Twitter users. Keep the SAU Twitter list up-to-date. Consider new, creative, funny (yet appropriate) Twitter lists.
3. Daily review of We Are SAU. Check for group creation, unanswered questions. Write blog posts explaining new features, welcome and help new users. Propose ideas for ways to boost users and user activity including content and features. Follow users on Twitter when they post their Twitter names. Suggest design improvements.
4. Check MySpace for activity and begin reconnecting with users there.
5. Check H drive daily for new photos to add to Flickr & Facebook with as much descriptive information as possible. Review related press releases for ideas.
6. Begin reviewing Flickr photos and adding titles, descriptions and keyword tags as appropriate/possible. Tweet awesome photos. Establish “friends” whenever Twitter/Facebook/etc users post Flickr photos.
7. Make sure each new YouTube video is posted to Facebook, Twitter, We Are SAU and MySpace. Propose ideas for new videos.
8. Forever uphold the core value: Han shot first.
9. Propose ideas…all ideas.
10. Other duties as assigned.
11. Notice: scoping virtual hotties is not on this list.

Yep, I’m in there. The only way Fast Company would ever show a photo of me is to illustrate a point about the value of Jeffrey Zeldman by displaying a group shot of silly web dorks in blue hats (see me, right there…in a cartoon blue hat nonetheless).

As part of the WPMU implentation I’ve been working on for a year now, it’s time to start training my content contributors (“content managers”? I haven’t come up with the right title for these departmental “please take this responsibility off my plate” types). Simply giving faculty and staff basic software training and sending them on their way would be catastrophic, hence a (hopefully) well-rounded 4 hour training session that includes some elementary yet essential content tips and an overview of 508 and W3C before giving them the power to change a single character of text. The expectation is to offer this comprehensive training on a twice/year basis and provide one-hour lunchtime sessions on specific topics throughout the semester, as well as make refresher materials available online through my department site.

I’ve coordinated training with both our HR department to be counted as staff development, and through our Continuing Education department who will be issuing CEU credits. As such I feel the need to have some sort of assessment in place to gauge the success of the training, beyond just a session evaluation. If anyone has any ideas about assessing this kind of training, I’d love to hear it.

For this first round of training I have a wingman, Brent Passmore (@bpmore) from University of Central Arkansas. Brent has graciously agreed to dedicate some of his post-baby paternity leave time to my little project. Props.

Overview: Four-hour training session for faculty and staff who will be responsible for managing departmental Web content. Sessions will be presented with the aid of step-by-step video and hands-on examples.

Training Outline

1. Content
   1. Evaluate
   2. Generate – Writing for the Web
   3. Review
2. The WHY
   1. Section 508 and Web accessibility
   2. Browser Compatibility
3. WPMU
   1. Posts vs. Pages: What’s the difference?
   2. The Admin Interface
   3. Managing Posts & Pages
   4. Media for your site
      1. The media library
      2. Adding images and files to your posts and pages
      3. Flickr options
   5. Links, Widgets & Sidebars
   6. Forms
   7. Your campus directory profile

Upcoming blog entries will outline in further detail the issues we’ll be touching on along with comprehensive resource listings for existing training materials and content guides. At the end I’ll post our slides and any supplementary materials we generate. Some of these items (like Flickr options, Forms, and the directory profile) are plugin specific and/or highly customized to our site and may not be relevant for you, but I’ll show how we’ll train for it anyway.

Training is scheduled for February 3, 2010.

I need a bio for something I’m working on, and I hate talking about myself. I feel like everything I say about me in a positive light is egotistical and rude. I’m told this is common with women. Anyway, I put out a pseudo distress call on Twitter and was rewarded by my very good friend @bpmore with the best bio ever.

Shel - Lee Keith! Shel - Lee Keith! Shel - Lee Keith! Shel - Lee Keith!
The crowd chanted loudly.
Once again, WPMU Rock Star @shelleyKeith had stepped to the mic and left them screaming for an encore.
It is true she's "seen a million faces."
It is also true she's "rocked them all!"
Do you want a Rock Star for your next presentation?
Do you want to learn EVERYTHING there is to know about using WPMU in Higher Education?
Do you feel that lucky punk? Well, do ya?
If so, you need to contact @shelleyKeith for your next WPMU keynote.
Do it.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. It made me laugh.

In a case of pure hapinstance @karlynm was talking earlier this week about needing her bio revised. Hence the title. That is all.

As promised, I’m going to get a SkinIt for the HP Mini that resulted from the #shelleyfund movement at #heweb09. The goal is to give props to all who contributed weighted by amount contributed. To that end, I’d like you guys to pick the image to get printed. Options 1-4 (left to right) shown below:

I’m also happy to consider alternate ideas.