Redesigning an Image:
Meredith’s Revamped Online Presence
Amy Hruby, Editor in Chief
Three Meredith departments
recently launched redesigned websites
with the aims of enabling recruitment
and publicizing departmental informa
tion and activities. On October 7th,
Meredith Athletics unveiled a new
website backed by PrestoSports tech
nology, and over the summer, Meredith
Marketing spearheaded an effort to
redesign the Admissions and Financial
Aid pages that culminated in the recent
launch of both sites.
According to Greg Jarvis,
Assistant Athletics Director, the
creation of the new Athletics website
was motivated by a need to improve
score-reporting technology and to pres
ent a more current image of Meredith
Athletics. The new website is hosted
by PrestoSports and has many inno
vative features including networked
schedules, social media options and
streaming video feeds. A key feature of
the website is that it allows for auto
matic score updates to the USA South
Athletic Conference site via online
entry or submission from coaches’ cell
phones. Additionally the website acts
as a “sports newsletter” and helps with
recruiting incoming athletes to various
sports. Jarvis reports being especially
pleased with the ease of use and the
increased traffic to the site which he
believes is a largely result of the new
engagement with alums through social
media. The success of the Athletics
site within its first month will only be
increased by two forthcoming addi
tions: a new mobile site and a Meredith
Marketplace which will feature sports
and alumnae merchandise through a
PrestoSports-developed online store
front. Visit www.goavenging angels,
com to explore the new site.
IN THIS ISSUI
The movement to redesign the
Admissions and Financial Aid websites
was rooted in Marketing but developed
as a collaborative process between all
three departments with Horizon Pro
ductions—a full service video produc
tion and web design company based in
Durham, NC—guiding the discussions .
and accomplishing the technical aspects
of the project. Karen Dunton, Manag
ing Director of Marketing, reported that
“based on enrollment goals, [Marketing]
needed to turn [its] attention to support
ing admission’s recruitment strategies.”
The intention of the project was not just
to redesign the website, but to rework
its content to support future goals and
recruitment strategies. Dunton articu
lated three specific goals: representation
of Meredith student voices, functionality
for users, and increased specialization
of pages to bring out different audi
ences. The first goal was accomplished
with the help of Horizon Productions
by creating video of student experiences
through directed question and answer
settings and candid student filming of
their daily experiences. Functionality
was improved by emphasizing a consis
tent experience throughout the sites, by
working to more clearly define the pages
needed to best present information to
visitors, and by integrating social media
options into the websites. The third goal
of increased specialization began by
articulating the specific audiences for
each page. During this process. Market
ing realized that the Admissions and
Financial Aid departments had different
audiences and Financial Aid should no
longer be a subsidiary page to the admis
sion website. From this point, each
department worked with Marketing and
Horizon Productions to develop over-
IE
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arching questions and determine how
to organize the pages to suit the various
groups of viewers. This led to Financial
Aid increasing emphasis on current
students and Admissions creating new
pages for guidance counselors, parents
and alumnae in addition to expanding
the pages for transfer and readmitted
students.
Megan Greer, Co-director of
Admissions, reports that her depart
ment wanted the new website to “allow
greater access to campus through the
internet in an effort to increase geo
graphic diversity,” and the new features
on both sites allow greater opportunity
for interaction with students, admis
sions counselors and financial aid staff
members specifically targeted to all
interested parties. Additionally the new
Content Management System provides
increased ease of updating which allows
departments to more easily supply up-to-
date news and current events to viewers
while working with Marketing to project
a unified vision of Meredith College.
Furthering this progress, Dunton says
that the long-term-project is to transition
the entire Meredith website to this model:
“Our goal is to look at Meredith.edu as
a whole and see what’s next. Wliat does
Meredith College need, and how can we
accomplish this?”
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