When creating your Web content, keep in mind that your audience wants to know some very specific things about your organization. Here’s a list of recommended content you’ll need to meet your audience’s needs.
This is an opportunity to position or market your department in a short statement, maximum 75 words in length. The text should be written to incorporate the most important facts the department wants to communicate to site visitors, who may include prospective students and faculty members, and potential donors.
Department of Pediatrics (50 words)
Department of Biochemistry (40 words)
School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (36 words)
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (28 words)
Building UB: The Comprehensive Physical Plan (75 words)
This is your chance to make a pitch to your users, piquing their interest in your unit. Done well, you'll lure in visitors; executed poorly, however, and you've scared them off. This is where you'll want to include a few selling points: What does your department do that makes it stand out? Why would someone want to join it, and how would that individual benefit?
Here's an example of a good "why choose" page from the School of Nursing. Note how the school appeals to its users by addressing specifically how the school provides a nurturing environment.
We recommend the following information be presented in the following order:
Department of Theatre and Dance
College of Arts and Sciences
285 Alumni Arena
University at Buffalo North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-5030
Phone: 716-645-6897
Fax: 716-645-6992
td-theatredance@buffalo.edu
Chances are, visitors to your site are interested in your department or unit because of the many great people behind it. Why not show off that talent?
A great way to highlight the important work members of your department are doing is by creating a "Faces and Voices" page on your site.
Through this, faculty and/or staff members can tell readers, in their own words, what makes their work so vital. Here's how our friends in the medical school employed Faces and Voices on their site, including students, faculty and alumni.
(This is the recommended minimum content.)
Name
Title
Contact information
A brief bio sketch
A bio sketch should be written in the third person and include full first and last name on first reference; on second reference, last name only; information should be presented in reverse chronological order (For example: PhD listed first, master’s second, bachelor’s third)
A formal faculty photo: Schedule an official photo at the UB Portrait Studio
Mark R. O'Brian PhD
Department of Biochemistry
Professor and Interim Chair
mrobrian@buffalo.edu
716-829-3200
140 Farber Hall
Buffalo, NY 14214
Specialty/Research Focus
Gene Expression; Microbial Pathogenesis; Molecular and Cellular Biology; Regulation of metabolism
As one of the nation's leading public research universities, UB competes with universities from across the nation for the top students and faculty. One way your department can help draw the interest of this pool of high-caliber talent is by using the CMS to outline your department's research and creative contributions.
For some good examples of how to do this, check out the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' page on Research Highlights, or the research page on UB's homepage.
Both sites do an excellent job of explaining the positive impact UB researchers have on their respective fields, and it's presented in a visually appealing way.