Change is scary and painful. It takes us out of our routines and comfort zones and into uncharted territory. It makes us feel uncertain, insecure, and (quite frankly) a little bit dumb.

But the difficulty inherent in change doesn’t give us an excuse to avoid it, or to ignore the fact that change is often necessary.

I recently finished reading former Harvard Business School professor John Kotter’s Leading Change. In the book, Kotter outlines the 8 obstacles we’ll face anytime we try to make changes. He then uses case studies, personal experiences, and well-known examples to illustrate the consequences of ignoring these obstacles and to offer practical advice for navigating through them.

Leading Change got me thinking about the change efforts I face every day in my web work here at Bethel, and what I can do to be a part of the solution instead of becoming a potential roadblock.

The obstacles to change:

1. Complacency

For change to happen, everyone involved has to believe that change is needed. So often, we get stuck in our routines and processes that have worked for years and we catch “this is the way it’s done”-itis. We accept the status quo.

This is how we write emails.

This is what our website looks like.

This form is good enough.

But in today’s higher ed climate I need to remind myself that “good enough” is rarely good enough. Our users call for our absolute best. To deliver our best, we need to be willing to change. And before anything can change we all need to have a sense of urgency.

2. Lack of power

This is one I’m sure we all recognize. We know a change is needed. We’ve done the research, developed the strategy, and come up with a process to get it done. But when it comes time to execute we realize that we have little (if any) support.

3. Lack of vision

A lot of times we’ll jump into new projects or try to change things without taking the time at the beginning to create a vision. What’s the change we’re making? Why? What are we hoping for? A lack of vision means that we don’t have any direction, and we’ll quickly lose sight of where we’re trying to go. Plus, the people we’re asking to change won’t have any reason to support us or buy in.

4. Failing to communicate the vision

You’ve created your vision. Great. Dodged that pothole. What do you do with it? Let it sit in your Google Drive to collect (virtual) dust? That doesn’t do much good, does it? To provide our teammates with direction and give them a reason to buy in, it’s not enough to have a vision. We need to share it.

5. Letting obstacles get in the way

Every project has obstacles. That’s just reality. And projects that call for change have even more obstacles than normal because change is hard. You’ll never make changes if you let these obstacles stop you. If you believe in your change and want to see it succeed, you must be relentless.

6. Failing to create short-term wins

When you’re trying to make changes, the big picture is important. Where are we and where do we want to end up?

But it’s a long, hard road from here to there. And to stay motivated and focused we need some wins in the middle. We need reasons to celebrate, signs of success, affirmation that all our efforts are worthwhile. Think of it as stopping for ice cream in the middle of a family road trip.

Failing to create short-term wins will leave us all exhausted and discouraged.

7. Declaring victory too soon

When is a change effort done? If you’re changing your email strategy, are you done when the first new email is sent?

Don’t even think about it. Real change runs deep. The job isn’t done until the change becomes the reality. When it’s ingrained in your processes and your projects to the point that the new way is second nature.

When it’s no longer the “new email strategy,” but just the “email strategy.”

8. Ignoring organizational culture

Now that the new way is accepted as business as usual, it needs to become a part of how we operate and how we think. It needs to become part of our culture, part of our identity and story. Failing to appreciate organizational culture and failing to anchor our change efforts in the culture will lead to regression. We’ll use the new process while it’s fresh in our minds, but what about 6 months from now? A year? Five years?

There you have it. 8 obstacles. It’s a bit overwhelming.

But there is hope. Change is possible. And in my next 8 posts I’ll dig into each of these obstacles and do my best to offer some tips and strategies (some that we’ve used, some aspirational) for leading change.

It’s our job to dream up that next awesome campaign or turn a client’s musings into a profound message—as if a stream of clever copy rolls continuously through our minds.

But in reality, generating ace ideas for each new project is hard work—and some days, it’s just not happening. We’re human, after all, and no matter how easy Don Draper makes it look, brilliance doesn’t always strike when needed.

So how do you avoid panic when you’re out of inspiration? Here are a few tools I use at Bethel when I need to get the job done but can’t seem to cook up something fresh.

Strategy

When I’m stuck, I head back to the original strategy. Who’s my audience? What are their needs, goals, and priorities? Why should they care about this?

By articulating who I’m writing for and why, I can often reenter the project with a new perspective that’s grounded in the basics of what my writing should accomplish.

Brand

After defining my audience and what I need to say, I can then worry about how to say it. But if you have a good brand, this should be less of a chore.

A good brand sets the voice and personality for your writing. And a good branding guide helps you to get lost in your university’s culture—the language, life, and energy that’s unique to your campus—and infuse that culture into your words.

Your brand should also provide a solid vision for who you are and where you’re headed. It defines the characteristics that make your university stand apart, helping you tell a story that’s consistent and true.

Heart

In my struggle to craft the right message, I sometimes getting sucked into marketing speak and away from authenticity.

To get back to genuine conversation, I write down what I know and believe about Bethel. And when I write what I know, it tends to come from the heart. I know that sounds trite. But, for me, creative energy—and authenticity—begins to flow when I answer these questions:

• Why do I work here?
• What keeps me coming back each day?
• What do I love about this place?

Clarity

When cycles are slammed or I’m hustling to wrap up a chaotic week, I don’t have the luxury of deliberating over just the right phrase. Instead, all I have time to focus on is delivering a clear message.

If I make clarity my priority, I can at least ensure my message is understood, even if it doesn’t tug at the emotions.

In your work as a content creator or marketer, may you find a bit of peace amidst the stress knowing that you’re not alone. The pressure to come up with great ideas is draining—and you won’t be at your best every day. So when you’re feeling the weight, get back to your strategy, focus on your brand, and write something clear from the heart. It might not win you any awards, but it will help you do more than just get the job done.

If you were just starting your job at Bethel, what would you do first?

To begin thinking about my answer, I went straight to Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy for the Web to reacquaint myself with her eloquent, yet simple, definition of web content strategy. In her words, as a web content strategist, I’m here to support the creation, delivery, and governance of Bethel’s web content.

But in revisiting this definition, I got spooked. This is a mega responsibility. If that’s really what I’m here to do, I have no clue where to start.

So I spent the next 20 minutes feeling completely intimidated. And then I forced myself to begin free writing. What emerged was an answer to new questions:

What do I believe about web content? What’s our content philosophy?

The result was 7 principles—7 beliefs about web content—that drive our strategy here at Bethel.

1. Start with Content

We approach all projects from a content-first perspective. Most of us would likely chuckle at the thought of laying out a magazine feature without first planning and writing the content. So why would it be any different on the web?

Without content, we don’t have a website. That’s principle number one.

Putting the principle into action: Plan content before jumping to tools or solutions. Encourage colleagues to think through their messaging before beginning any new web project.

2. Put Users First

Content exists to help users accomplish their goals. It’s not here to support our egos or personal interests. It’s here for our visitors, and we should put their needs, hopes, and desires above all else.

Writing content with our users in mind keeps us from throwing useless content on the web.

Putting the principle into action: Ask good questions before agreeing to (or asking for) new webpages or websites.

• What’s the purpose?
• Who is it for?
• What are our users trying to accomplish?
• How can we make it easy for them?

3. Support University Goals

In addition to helping users accomplish their goals, we also need to know what the university is trying to accomplish. We need to know what degree programs we’re looking to grow. We need to keep up with new program launches and brand initiatives.

Our website is the front door to our university. It should accurately reflect what’s happening here and where our community is going.

Putting the principle into action: Know the goals and aims of the university. If you map out how you can support these goals, you’ll better anticipate what priority projects might be coming your way.

4. Create Sustainability

Sustainability is my mantra. And it’s a huge challenge in a massive, distributed web system.

But I believe all content must be reasonably supported. If it’s not supported, it needs to go away because it’s only annoying our visitors and poorly representing our institution.

Putting the principle into action: Plan for the life of your content after the launch. Protect your website from content bloat by asking:

• Does someone have the cycles to support this?
• Can this be sustained by the person coming after me?

5. Practice Useful Consistency

Consistency makes our webpages more useful for visitors. It helps them predict patterns and know what to expect.

This principle is especially true for large, institutional websites. We continually face the challenge to represent ourselves as a unified university rather than a loose assembly of schools and programs. This principle reinforces the need for university-wide headers and footers. It also gives us the drive to maintain a consistent voice and tone for our web content.

Putting the principle into action: Think about the predictable patterns you can create with your web content. Here are a few:

• Use consistent headings to make content scannable.
• Give calls to action a consistent feel and format.
• Take time to think about your site’s organization, architecture, and navigation.

You can also use your CMS to help create consistency and repeat these patterns. Think about using templates for events, news, scholarships, and other content types.

6. Think Beyond the Desktop

At Bethel, we’re working hard to break old habits. Web content is no longer tied to a single webpage that’s accessed from a desktop machine. And this new reality completely changes the way we should think about our work.

We know that visitors use all kinds of devices to access our pages, and we can no longer predict or assume what they’d like to access with those various devices.

Putting the principle into action: Recognize that changing your mindset is tough. Start small. Take notice of how you use the web from other devices.

• How do you use the web on your phone or tablet?
• What frustrates you? What’s helpful?
• Does this change how you look at your web content?

7. Build Relationships

Web content is only as successful as the people creating it. If they’re not happy or properly supported, it will show through their work.

Although time and resources significantly limit our ability to build relationships with the hundreds of potential clients that could show up in our office suite, we know the quality of our content depends on us doing whatever we can to help them navigate an increasingly complex landscape.

Putting the principle into action: Balance policy with empathy. Listen well, and be open to changing your methods and plans. But remember that by trying to make every client happy, you’ll likely forget to serve your web visitors. So also be honest and candid about the realities of the web.

That’s our web content philosophy here at Bethel. It’s just 7 basic principles that we believe in and try our best to put into action.

What guides your content? If you’re not sure, or if it isn’t clear, I hope you can take some time in your busy week to check out, clear your mind, and define the principles that guide your work.

The question is poignant in its simplicity. And as we talked about why Bethel exists I found myself moving beyond mission statement and core values to an equally simple answer. Bethel exists because we believe we’re doing good in the world.

There’s obviously a lot more to be said about it, but at our core we want to make the world a better place by preparing people to add their own unique contributions to that end.

Why am I here?

My teammate’s question was one I needed to hear and spend time thinking about. It also got me thinking about why I’m here.

Working on a university website can be painful. It’s easy to get discouraged by the magnitude of our task or bogged down by the glacial pace of change or just distracted by the day-to-day. Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to knock down a brick wall with my face. Another teammate compared our work to the myth of Sisyphus (her metaphor was more eloquent than mine). We set a goal, struggle to reach it, and then start again at the bottom when a new group has new needs, or priorities shift, or the online landscape changes.

I bet all of you can relate.

But when I cut away all the confusion and frustration and complexity of writing for Bethel’s website, I know why I do it. I’m here because I believe Bethel is working to make the world better. I believe that our community is full of good people doing good things. I believe that Bethel can prepare those good people to go out into the world and make a real difference. And I hope my efforts to share that message will reach people who want to join us and add their own contributions to making the world better.

How about you?

I challenge you to ask yourself: Why do you think Bethel exists? Why are you here?

For me, answering these questions in the simplest terms possible was a breath of fresh air. It reminded me that we’re all on the same team, and challenges arise not because we have different goals, but because we have different ideas about the best way to accomplish the same goals. And our shared goals are noble, important, and worth working for.

If you’re anything like me, taking some time to think about these questions for yourself will energize you when you get frustrated, help you reach out to your audience in authentic ways, and inspire you to do great work.

These conversations might seem tiresome—even absurd—to the outsider (as a recent Onion headline illustrates), but my fellow editors at Bethel will likely agree that, most days, we enjoy debating the minutia of style.

Although we’re wired to nitpick, it’s all too easy to get lost in the details. When we spend too much energy on hyphen placement we lose sight of the bigger questions driving our strategy, and we run the danger of producing well-styled but pointless content.

Can print and web have different styles?

Can they? Yes. And should they? Probably, but it’s not that easy.

The simple answer is that print and web aren’t the same medium. Generally, print readers have different needs, goals, and expectations than web users. Think about how you read a magazine versus how you browse the web. I know I devote more focused attention to a feature story in my alma mater’s alumni magazine than the online schedule for homecoming.

Based on my experience, placing web writing in the box of traditional print doctrine can sometimes constrain the flexibility needed to construct actionable, scannable, info-rich language. For example, numerical digits (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc.) make lists of stats easier to scan. Using postal codes for state abbreviations over traditional AP shorthand saves us characters when screens are small and space is tight. Web language, in most cases, is more conversational—starting sentences with “and” or using sentence fragments.

But the more complex answer is that print versus web might be the wrong question altogether. Perhaps the ways of traditional print are better suited for certain kinds of content—regardless of their medium—such as policies or campus safety reports. Maybe admissions postcards would do well to inherit qualities of the conversational web.

In our editorial shops, I’d like us to move away from the print versus web debate to think critically about what should inform our use of style. Let’s look more closely at the message we want to broadcast or the conversation we want to trigger. We need to consider how our goals and audiences should influence the tone and style of our communication.

How should we enforce style?

University websites, no matter how small the institution, are vast and complex. I constantly question how much our editorial team should (or even can) enforce preferred style within a massive distributed system.

Many hands touch our content, and with those hands come different levels of writing ability and attention to detail. Most web authors disbursed throughout our institutions are busy juggling duties that have nothing to do with their web responsibilities. Staying current with style shouldn’t top their list. That’s our job.

So should marketing teams put webpages through an editorial process to enforce style? The trick here is that web updates typically need to happen quickly. The beauty of the web is its speed and adaptability. Unlike print, content changes can happen fast. But detailed editorial processes take time, and they can strip the medium of its glory.

Here at Bethel, most webpages route through an editor on their way to going live. We don’t catch everything, and that’s not our intent.

It shouldn’t be an editorial team’s top priority to enforce preferred style in all nooks and layers. It’s more important for our web content to be current, useful, and compelling, which is already a huge challenge. That’s where I want our editorial energy applied. And that means the technicalities of style will sometimes suffer.

In the end, style is important, but it’s not the ultimate goal.

When do you break or change style?

In academia, it’s easy to slip into the trap of inertia. The rate of change is slow; we like to stick to our proven practices.

This can be a comforting environment for those who enforce style. We define our style once, and then make sure everything falls in line. Change rarely happens because change breeds inconsistency.

But as writers, we face a tension. We’re also called to be creators, pushing our right brains to craft engaging messages that meet the dynamic needs and hopes of our users. And, if we let our imaginations run, our creations might beg us to break the rules.

In his book 5 Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner identifies qualities of the creator:

“…strikes out in unfamiliar directions and enjoys—or at least accepts—being different from the pack.”

“…perennially dissatisfied with current work, current standards, current questions, current answers.”

If we are creators, we should, at times, feel constricted by the routine of style. A longing to step outside the boundaries should push against our efforts to enforce consistency. The two ideologies should clash.
The creator in us forces us to question what we’ve always done. It’s the part of us that makes mistakes for the sake of trying something brand new.

Just like any editor, I have a sweet tooth for rules and consistency. But when I believe consistent style is the mark of effective messaging, I’m no longer living out my role as creator. When this is the mindset, well-meaning standards and guidelines stifle our creative engines.

It’s challenging to live in the tension between wild creativity and rigid consistency. That’s why we need to engage these big questions and find the right balance for our work and our institution.

So what big style issues do you face? Where are your writers and editors putting their energy? Do you have any advice or stories about managing web style at your university?

I have deeply engrained, strongly held preconceptions about these schools even though I’ve never set foot on their campuses, and seeing the school’s logo is enough to bring those preconceptions to the surface.

My gut reaction to each logo is a reflection of that university’s brand.

What’s a brand?

When we talk about brands, people often think first of icons, color schemes, and typography. Indeed, I started this post by considering the power of logos. But logos and colors are merely manifestations of a brand, not the brand itself. Logos are symbols that marketers use to represent their brands and elicit specific emotions in their audiences, but branding goes much deeper and is far more complicated than selecting the right font.

Bestselling author and marketing guru Seth Godin defines a brand as “the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.

A good university brand connects with prospective and current students, alumni, staff and faculty, parents of students, potential employers of students, and people in the greater community who might not know much about a school, but still make certain associations when they hear the name.

Our brand is the promise we make through the story we tell. The promise sets expectations – this is what we do. The story is our enactment of that promise and proves that we deliver on the expectations we’ve set – this is how we do it. The fulfillment of the promise leads to trust and a sense of value. Emotional bonds are formed and long-lasting relationships are established

Why do we need branding?

Every university has features that make them unique: legacies, traditions, reputations, success stories. Don’t schools just brand themselves.

At Bethel, we have alumni doing amazing things in the world. We have incredible students who create a supportive, encouraging community. We have brilliant faculty members who genuinely care about their students.

We’re already walking the walk. What’s the point of taking a step backwards to think about how we talk the talk?

I’m glad you asked. Certainly, the walk is the priority. But we can’t do the things that make us great if nobody knows who we are or what we stand for. We can’t have a community of students, faculty, and staff without the students, faculty, and staff. Even more importantly, we can’t have our community without the right students, faculty, and staff.

Recruitment is important. But a brand goes beyond meeting quotas and filling seats. Branding is about finding the right fit people. The people who help build our community, support our mission and values, and want to make a difference in the world. The people who resonate with our promise and our story, and who will go on to further our brand just by the way they live their lives.

And we’re not interested in wasting anyone’s time. We want the people who will connect to Bethel, who will find their time here enriching and transformational, the community supportive, and their money well spent.

When we do branding, we’re specifying our promise and showing how we deliver on that promise, helping us find the people who resonate with Bethel.

Why is branding so hard?

Branding isn’t easy in any industry. If it were, every company in the world would have a strong identity and brand loyalty from customers. But only a select few have established that kind of relationship and emotional bond.

Adding to the difficulty, higher education faces unique challenges that make our branding efforts even more complicated than in other enterprises.

1) We’re tough to define.

Higher education is a difficult thing to describe, define, or categorize. Think about it this way: if I go to a gas station and buy a bag of Skittles, I know I’m getting delicious candy and I’ll experience a taste of the rainbow. It doesn’t matter which gas station I choose. Or if I visit an Apple Store and buy a new MacBook, I know the features and screen size and user experience I’m buying. I can easily compare the specs of MacBooks to Dells and ThinkPads to decide which is best. It doesn’t matter which Apple Genius rings up the final sale.

But if I’m a 17-year-old trying to decide where I’ll go to college, how can I tell them apart?

Every college claims to have exceptional professors, a passionate and active community, challenging academics, state-of-the-art facilities, study abroad programs and a global perspective, internship and research opportunities, and a wide variety of majors and minors.

So is it true that all universities are all of these things? Or is it more likely that we highlight these features because they’re safe, tested marketing points, and it’s really hard to figure out what actually makes us different?

What makes us different – that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?

College is an experience, and each experience is unique to an individual student. How can we possibly pinpoint the parts of the experience that make us different from other schools when the experience is so hard to generalize from student to student? Can we make a promise to prospective students when we won’t know the outcome of their time here, or our ability to deliver on our promise, until they’ve already invested 4 years and a considerable amount of money? If each student experience is different, how can we identify a “typical” prospective student? Is there such a thing?

Does your head hurt yet?

2) We’re big and messy.

No matter how a university is organized, it’s always made up of subgroups: traditional undergrad schools, adult undergrad schools, graduate schools, seminaries, different academic departments (arts, humanities, sciences), athletics, student life, offices, alumni groups, etc. The list just goes on and on, and varies greatly from one university to the next.

University branding is confusing because each subgroup has slightly different identities and personas. Their people have different needs and expectations. For a university brand to work, it needs to capture the essence of all subgroups in a unified way while giving each the ability to adapt the brand to its audience and context

In other words, it’s extremely complicated.

3) We’re not a bag of Skittles.

There’s a hesitancy to run Bethel like a business or treat what we do here as a product to be sold. The fear, it seems, is that we risk compromising our integrity, restricting academic freedom, and cheapening the college experience by touting outcomes at the expense of life experiences, exploration, learning, and growth.

I understand the concern. But this isn’t the way it has to be, or should be. All groups at Bethel – faculty, staff, students – should be working together to define, establish, and support our promise and story. The idea isn’t that a team of marketers invents a brand and forces the rest of the school to conform.

We’re always making a promise to our community. When someone enrolls at Bethel, or comes to work at Bethel, there are certain things they can expect to get from the experience. And Bethel already has a story it’s telling. Students, faculty, and staff live it out every day.

We just need to figure out how to define those things. How can we be specific about our promise so we can differentiate ourselves from other schools? How can we tell our story in ways that resonate so our promise will be understood? How can we ensure we deliver on our promise time after time to create long-lasting relationships?

Those are the questions that branding asks. It’s not easy, but worthwhile efforts never are.

But here at Bethel, we pushed through our nerves and spent the fall building a new homepage. We rolled out the first phase back in November with the launch of an updated header and footer. Then we went to task revamping the filling.

To create our strategy, we did a lot of prep work. We looked at what other schools were doing. We examined analytics. We analyzed the current homepage to figure out what needed to stay and what was tough to maintain. We looked outside our industry. We read blog posts. We thought about the future, and we thought about our users. We thought about how we could deliver that meaningful first impression.

Then we set out with two priorities in mind: design and content.

Design Goals

I had our talented designer, Jake Johnson, put together some thoughts on what he wanted to accomplish.

Here were Jake’s top five goals (in his words):

Give it space - I wanted to give everything plenty of breathing room, to use white space to create cohesion within an element and separation between elements.

Break into small bits - Instead of one big page, the content is sectioned off, hopefully making it easy to focus your attention on one content area at a time.

Use a big feature - Using big pictures grabs attention and makes it more personal.

Add more imagery - I wanted to mix in more imagery to the page overall to ratchet up the visual interest.

Balance new and returning visitors - I tried to balance useful, fresh information (news, events) for returning visitors with overview information for new visitors.

When I look over the new homepage, I see Jake’s goals come to life. The site design feels fresh and open. It’s easy to scan the content with his clean section breaks and heading styles. The big feature does feel personal. When I hit the photo of Tyler Esau behind his video camera I feel as if I’m entering his professional site or online portfolio.

Jake also did a fantastic job making the homepage feel like the same Bethel. He morphed the foundational groundwork laid by mStoner nearly 3 years ago without making visitors wonder if they’ve landed on the wrong site.

Content Goals

We also had three big content goals for our new homepage.

First of all, we wanted a flexible, collapsible feature zone that could disappear when we didn’t have something crucial to broadcast. We didn’t want to be stuck filling the space with billboards that weren’t relevant for the majority of our homepage audience.

Second, we wanted to showcase what makes Bethel different from other universities.

Now, I understand this is the big hairy goal for every institution. We want people to hit our homepages and feel the unique life of our university. We want to say something about who we are that isn’t what all the other universities are saying.

This is tough. This is what keeps our minds awake and whirling at night. All higher education institutions say they have rigorous academics. They’re all committed to excellence. They strive to create a unique community and a transformative experience.

That’s what college is about, after all!

So we needed our homepage content to go further. We needed space to use more specific language about how we do college at Bethel.

“Our academic programs will help you find your passions, develop your strengths, and prepare you to enter the world as a servant of God.”

That’s a bit more specific than simply saying “faith-based academics.” Through Bethel’s programs, we want you to find your God-given strengths and develop them so you can go out and serve. Now we’re getting somewhere.

“From Welcome Week to Homecoming to broomball tournaments and on, it’s in our nature to build relationships and stay connected.”

Where else will you find “Welcome Week” and “broomball” all in one clause? These are hallmark traditions at Bethel—the stuff that makes up the quirky fabric of our community.

“Bring Christ’s love to life.”

This was the brainwork of my skilled colleague Erik Gruber. We needed to go beyond the phrase “Christian institution.” He worked hard to come up with a statement that wasn’t wishy-washy and showed our heart for spreading Christ’s love.

We certainly didn’t hit perfection with every word, and we’ll definitely make changes down the road, but it was an awesome exercise to stretch ourselves to describe Bethel in new ways.

For our third content goal, we wanted to feature the voice of Bethel students. A student’s voice carries more authoritative weight than the voice of any marketer. Erik elaborates on this in his post Bethel Storytelling: Who Are We? He explains that we didn’t want to feature the editorializing of staff writers; we wanted to hear from our students.

Lesson Learned

At some point you just have to stop your planning and put something out there. So in December, that’s what we did.

In the end, I believe we met our goals and, ultimately, learned to get over the fear of trying something new. That’s the beauty of what we get to do on the web, isn’t it? We get to try new things and see how they perform. We can always go back to fix and adjust, and then we can try something new all over again.

It’s a lovely, challenging cycle that sometimes gives me those nervous sweats, but most often fills me with gratitude for being able to do the work that I love.

You’ll notice changes to Begin. Belong. Become. in the next few days. I wanted to give you all the inside scoop on our new storytelling feature.

Why Tell Stories?

The idea of storytelling is extremely important when we’re trying to communicate the things that make Bethel unique—our community, faith, academics, etc.—to outside audiences. Think about a visitor who wants to know more about Bethel, particularly prospective students and their parents. They could go to our About section and read up on our mission, history, and values. They could learn about our Majors & Minors and get a glimpse of specific departments they might be interested in. They could find out about Spiritual Life and Student Life on campus.

All these sites are great for learning about Bethel. This is what we value. This is what we study. This is how we live. Those things are helpful and important, and we communicate those things well. But they’re all examples of talking the talk.

Storytelling is our chance to walk the walk. Here are real people in our community. This is how they’re acting out our values, representing our community, investing in our academics and campus life.

These stories give prospective students a picture of Bethel as a real place, as a community. And they can start to imagine themselves amongst us.

The challenge of storytelling

Most of the stories on our site are written in the third person—“She traveled here…”, “He studied this…”. Telling our story this way creates distance and a level of remove between the subject of the story and the person reading the story. The person writing the story, who is typically a Bethel employee, fills that distance. Unfortunately, outside audiences are inclined to see Bethel employees writing about the Bethel community as marketers representing an institution.

Our target audience for these stories—young adults exploring their college options—has been trained to be skeptical of things they read online. They’re very aware of when they’re being marketed to and have a low tolerance for market-ese.

So when I—an employee of Communications & Marketing—tell stories about Bethel folks to an audience that has no reason to trust me, the defenses go up. The cynicism they’ve learned from years of advertising saturation makes them question my honesty and my intentions.

It’s a problem faced by all websites. It’s a matter of building…

Authenticity

How do you earn that trust, build credibility, share the story in a way that will convince your reader to give you the benefit of the doubt? How do you get your audience to see the real people in the story and behind the story, and not just an “institution” marketing a product?

Companies have dealt with this problem in different ways. The history of advertising is one attempt after another to form deep, genuine, emotional bonds between customers and products.

One recent example that comes to mind is Apple’s “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign and Microsoft’s response. Mac portrayed PC as out-of-touch and clueless. Mac, in contrast, was the cool kid. Fun to hang out with, easy to use, solving problems instead of creating them. Microsoft said “wait a minute, that’s not who we are” and developed their “I’m a PC” ads. In these, Microsoft profiled PC users who are innovative, creative, and hard-working. Perhaps most importantly, the people in their stories were genuine folks doing good things in the world.

What made these ads work?

They have a personality. There’s a face to go with the story, and a unique voice. Perhaps most importantly, they’re told in the first person. They go directly from the source to the audience. It’s people telling stories for themselves, not marketers telling stories about them.

How can we be authentic?

Here’s the good news: we already are!

I’ve never met a person at Bethel who isn’t authentic. I truly believe that everyone here is genuinely invested in making Bethel a life-changing, welcoming, and supportive community. People here are passionate about making the world a better place. We don’t need to spin it. We don’t need to get out the marketing thesaurus or tell any tall-tales.

We just need to figure out how to communicate it.

How can we tell authentic stories?

I started thinking about this after I read a profile that Kelsey wrote on physics professor Chad Hoyt. The profile is organized as a series of questions and Chad’s responses, almost like an interview. By using his words, Kelsey was able to capture Chad’s voice and personality. It puts a face on the physics department and some of the amazing research happening there. The photography pushes the story even further. By showing Chad in his natural setting, hanging out in the lab, working with students, we can visualize a department with real people doing serious research.

Around that same time I interviewed Nathan Freeburg, Bethel’s Associate Dean of Leadership and Community Development. As I was talking to him I was struck by both his wisdom and his sense of humor. Here’s a guy that most students interact with at some point during their years at Bethel. He’s got a lot of great advice, lessons learned from years of watching students succeed—and yes, fail—plus he’s really funny. Why should I talk about him when he can speak for himself? So I wrote it as an interview, and we get a peek into the mind of a “Bethel institution.”

About a month later I spent some time with two Bethel students, René Kowlessar and Dinnah Gustavo. The first thing I noticed was how full of life they were. They’re passionate, thoughtful people, and they had incredible insights to share about community, leadership, and the things that make Bethel unique. It occurred to me that I didn’t need to be in the story at all. I just got in the way. So I took my questions out and let them share their story and experience from their own perspectives.

A new way to tell our story

A variation of that style will guide our storytelling going forward. We’re going to let people in our community tell their own stories in their own voices from their unique perspectives.

We’re going to frame the stories around 5 themes:

• Building Leaders
• Serious Academics
• Christian Spirituality
• Community
• Global Engagement and Awareness

These aren’t strict rules, but guides to help us ask the right questions when we’re putting profiles together.

We’re also going to rethink our photography, moving away from the profile style pictures and trying to show people in the context of the story they’re telling – more like the Chad Hoyt story.

How can you help?

We’re always looking for interesting stories, and it’s not always easy to find them (because we’re not usually connected with what students are up to).

So if you know any students who would be great to profile, let us know!

One of the projects we’ve been working on recently is a new header and footer. We’ve learned a lot about our current navigation from user testing, heat maps, and analytics. So we used that information to make some improvements. Here are a few of the major changes:

Smaller header

One of our goals was to surface our web content higher on the page. This new header is much thinner and doesn’t require an image. This gives us flexibility to present content closer to the top of the page within the more functional areas of Bethel’s website.

Reorganized footer

To shrink the header, we needed to reorganize our navigation, shorten terms, and make more space in our footer. Our expanded footer also allowed us to surface tools and resources most used by our community.

Link to offices

After tracking and analyzing our search logs, we noticed that many repeat visitors are looking for a specific office. Our new header now includes a link for offices right next to our search to give visitors a quick gateway to a directory of Bethel offices.

New search

Along with the navigation updates, we’ve also implemented a new and  improved site search. To amplify the new search, we’ve created shortcuts within the search itself to provide you with a list of frequently used items. Hopefully this gets people to the information they’re looking for much faster.

Our goal is to continually improve the functionality of our site. We hope this improves your experience, and you can look forward to more changes to come.

If you have any questions, free to email us at web-services@bethel.edu.

But stating the problem does little to alleviate it.

The whole Web Services team appreciates all of Bethel’s web authors more than we can say. We know it’d be impossible to keep the website current, relevant, and useful without your hard work and contributions. We value each and every one of you as a member of our team and make it our goal to do everything we can to support you.

Which is why we’ve created Web Authoring at Bethel, our guide to help you navigate the world of web writing.

What’s in Web Authoring at Bethel?

The guide is full of useful tips and tricks for creating web content, blogs, and emails.

Voice and Tone: When we’re writing web content for Bethel we need to think about Bethel’s online voice. We want to welcome, honor, and help our users in any way we can. This guide will help you develop a Voice & Tone that reflects Bethel’s character and spirit.

As a side note, Kelsey and I want to give a shout out to the talented folks at MailChimp for their incredible Voice & Tone guide. We couldn’t have created Web Authoring at Bethel without their insights.

Rules for Web & Email Writers: The 6 main responsibilities for anyone updating the web, writing emails, or contributing content to any one of our web channels. This list is based on the brainstorm we had at Tuesday’s Monthly Meetup. Thanks to all who came and contributed!

Bethel Style Guide: Benson Great Hall or just Benson? Or BGH? Is it president Jay Barnes or President Jay Barnes? The Office of Communications and Marketing or the office of communications and marketing? Find answers to all your questions about Bethel Style.

Web Content: Helpful information and tips on writing web content, including the anatomy of a webpage and a guide to voice and tone.

Email: Get the latest best practices on how to craft great emails. Plus, voice and tone tips for reminder emails, event announcements, and more. Special thanks to Tim Hammer for lending us his email expertise. Check out his blog post on emails if you’re interested in learning more.

Blogs: Learn blogging best practices and explore tips for conveying a voice and tone that meets the needs of your readers.

Hopefully you find these resources helpful as you’re creating content for Bethel. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, let us know by sending us an email (web-services@bethel.edu) or filling out the form on the Contact Us page.