SEO Plan INTE 5665 Fall 2015 Introduction As part of the coursework for INTE 5665 Social Media and Digital Cultures, as well as part of the requirements for the ILT program, a basecamp website was created to promote myself and my work. To continue to develop the basecamp site, Lowenthal and Dunlap’s ten strategies for SEO will be implemented with six of the ten strategies as part of section III. This document also serves as a summative review of my goals as a thought leader by established web presence through the basecamp site and blog. Contents I. Thought Leadership Goals II. Role of Basecamp Site and Personal Learning Network (PLN) III. Strategic Plan for Establishing Web Presence IV. Preliminary Assessment of Plan’s Effectiveness V. Next Steps
Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
I. Thought Leadership Goals What is a thought leader and why would I want to be one? I have to ask myself this question before I can honestly consider what my goals would be should I wish to become one. However I think defining this is tricky as there is quite the range of different types of thought leaders. Ranging from those in the general public eye, like any of the current GOP candidates, or others who have only a commanding presence through their own smaller sphere of influence. Such as, a niche digital artist who shares artwork and posts frequently to online sites and forums about digital art. I never considered being the former, but the latter is something I have aspired to be since I enrolled in design school fifteen years ago. Although it has been possible to publish electronic works and media on the web for many years, it has become increasingly easier to share original works and knowledge through the web than ever before. Because of this, and my coursework in the Information and Learning Technologies program with CU Denver, I am highly motivated to pursue a role as a thought leader. The current trajectory of my career puts me at an interesting crossroads of technology, design, and human development. I intend to promote myself as a thought leader through my current work as a design educator and designer. As I continue through the ILT program at CU Denver, I will transform this into demonstrable ways to advocate for quality visual design and user experiences as an instructional designer. By this, I will continue to contribute to both design and instruction communities. The ultimate goal is to be a thought leader that advocates for current, engaging, and highly appealing ways to achieve education and learning with a focus on the user. Although it is uncertain exactly how this happens, I am certain if I continue to stay focused on this vision, engage in social media, create and contribute to communities of practice, and keep the basecamp site current I will become a thought leader. II. Role of Base Camp Site and Personal Learning Network (PLN) The base camp site, as a requirement for the ILT program at CU Denver, will house the resources that demonstrate my teachings, thought leadership, blog, and links to networks of learning created by me. The idea of a central hub to house all of these things is essential to professional web presence. The base camp site, above all, should be easy to find or enter the URL. I chose “designingtolearn.com” as the domain name for this reason. I liked this title because it’s easy to remember and type in as a URL, rather than my first and last name, which is commonly used for base camp sites in the ILT program. I also hope that at some point and time, the site is robust enough that it becomes bigger than myself, and instead, is an essential resource for learning through design. My inspiration for this was drawn from Scott Robertson, another design educator and prolific designer and artist, who created “drawthrough.com.” The site houses a collection of his books, works, and teachings, but the URL describes a method characterized by his work that inspired many learning to draw like him. The personal learning network for my teachings will be linked or otherwise available on my basecamp site. This network includes my networked learning space Designing To Learn Google Plus Community, Pinterest account, Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile, and Google Plus profile. Additional networks may be added as I continue to branch out into different social media platforms over time, however, these are the platforms which I engage most frequently. The essential role for making these networks accessible through the basecamp site is to, again, engage and demonstrate thought leadership through various social networks.
Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
III. Strategic Plan for Establishing Web Presence The initial plan for establishing professional web presence is to continue to add resources and update the basecamp site designingtolearn.com regularly. There are several ways to continue to add content to the basecamp site such as creating regular blog posts, adding school projects regularly, and adding professional projects regularly. I will also continue to share content through various social networks, and track traffic back to my basecamp site and blog.The social networks I choose to use to engage others with will have complete profiles that display the URL to the basecamp site. I will also directly engage other users in various social networks through review of their work and requests for them to comment or engage with my work. Of course, all of these activities takes time to develop and promote. It’s hard to say exactly the result of these connections and engagement over time, however the details of the intent to establish web presence are outlined in the following sections. IIIa. Create Regular Blog Posts As I create new blog posts I will share these posts with appropriate tags to various social networks as it applies to the topic of the blog post. For example, I am currently engaged in an online MOOC where we create games and study how we can apply this to education. When I create a blog post about this course, I may choose to engage #edtech, @games4ed, #games4ed, etc. on Twitter to gain new followers and readership of my blog. People who view my Twitter profile can easily find my basecamp URL in my profile and can choose to engage myself or others through the link or by reading the blog post and commenting there. See example of a tweet as described. IIIb. Regularly Add CU Denver ILT Projects Each semester in the ILT program I have a couple projects robust enough to add to the basecamp website. I added my final portfolio from digital storytelling over the summer, and already added the NLS from this semester to the basecamp site. These projects demonstrate skill and knowledge both in information and learning technologies and in design. Not only are these projects quality additions to my portfolio, there is potential for continued connectivity through these projects. See UC Denver projects on the basecamp site. IIIc. Regularly Add Professional Projects While I am pursuing a Master’s degree in ILT, I’m also teaching part time at the college level, and completing professional design projects. As I work on curriculum and teaching materials, they will be added to the basecamp site and shared through applicable social networks. When my professional projects are completed and installed and I have pictures to show, I will also add those to the basecamp site. This allows my clients and students to connect with my work and connect with the rest of the people in my networks. It also allows them to learn from others and review my other works that demonstrate proficiency and leadership. See a collection of works on the basecamp site. IIId. Tracking Traffic Adding content to the basecamp site is important to continue to motivate viewers to connect and share content and establish a voice of leadership through the site. However it’s also essential to track traffic and readership to engage topics that the audience wants to learn about and be participatory. I use Blogger to host the blog and Weebly to host the basecamp website. I’ve found both Blogger (google) and weebly Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
have robust tracking features. I can track where the traffic is coming from, what pages on the basecamp site were viewed, and what blog posts were most popular based on views. I currently have it set so that I am notified when someone comments on my blog or leaves a message for me on my basecamp site. Any user can provide feedback on the blog or basecamp or any of of the number of social networks where content is shared. I also have all of my social network accounts set up to notify me through email when someone shares, likes, or follows me based on the specific content I share. In addition to tracking through weebly and blogger, I also registered the site www.designingtolearn.com with Google Analytics and Google Web Master Tools. In Weebly, there is a option in the settings for SEO to input the scripts into the header and footer. I also filled out all of the meta keywords and descriptions for search relevance and optimization. As this was a recent addition to the basecamp site, I do not have enough data to analyze. However, I will look for ways to use the data collected as I develop the basecamp site in the future. For examples of tracking traffic, please see see section IV. Preliminary Assessment of Plan’s Effectiveness. IIIe. Publish Work via Social Media and Sharing Sites It’s not enough to simply create blog posts and other school or professional works, these things must be shared via social media to gain a following. The following and engagement through sharing and connectivity promotes myself as a thought leader and the basecamp site as a resource. Each blog post is shared with Twitter and tagged appropriately. This allows others to find the blog and read or participate by retweeting, liking, following, or even adding my blog posts in works of their own. Blog posts relevant to Designing To Learn Google Plus community will also be shared on that platform. Professional works, such as installation photos of interior design installs, can be shared on Pinterest or Flickr. I currently have a selection of work on both platforms and will continue to add work there as installs occur. Most of my work on curriculum development and resources for the classes I teach can be shared as a blog post and shared in the Designing To Learn NLS. As I continue to develop and document work, I will find other social networks to expand my following and readership. The passage of time and feedback from users will help dictate where content is shared based on tracking traffic. See my Google Plus Profile for an example of sharing and publishing to multiple networks. IIIf. Leverage Social Networks Sharing and connecting through social media platforms is essential to successful promotion and demonstration of thought leadership. However these networks must be leveraged to get the most out of their use. For example, it’s not enough just to Tweet a link to a blog post with the appropriate tags. I can post pictures, vines, or animated gifs along with a Tweet to entice viewers to click the link to the blog post. I can also Tweet at a person or organization about a blog post and send them a message asking them to view the work and retweet. To gain more followers, I can search for various Twitter chats regarding my professional and educational networks and participate in these chats. Each social media platform has various quarks which can be navigated to my advantage such as I have and will continue to do with Twitter. I have also explored Google Plus and Google Communities to some extent and feel as though I have achieved some mastery with these networks. As I continue to develop my presence and thought leadership, I will continue to expand my focus and mastery of various networks to maximize engagement. See how I use Twitter to leverage social media.
Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
IIIg. Be a Good User of Others Content Through the process of exploring social media, creating blog posts, and sharing content, I will use or promote other people’s content to make a point or engage people who may have similar interests to my original content. There are several common ways to be a good user of others content that I practice regularly. Firstly, if I see something I like relevant to my professional practice or educational pursuits on Facebook or Twitter, I can retweet or share with others in my network. When I do this, I can thank the user, whose work I shared, and provide constructive or encouraging comments and simply ask other people to view the content. This is an excellent source of flattery for the user whose work was shared, and it invites the user and his followers to look at my work. Another common practice for me to promote the NLS Designing To Learn, and my basecamp site is to participate in several Google Plus communities by making comments and sharing my work in those communities. I also ask members of other communities to join Designing To Learn and check out the work in the community. Practices like this are mutually beneficial to all communities involved and are usually encouraged. I can also review or critique others works. This was done to great extent in the digital storytelling class where we were required to critique others works in a professional manner in a blog post one to two times a week. When critiquing others, I can directly Tweet a link of the blog post to the person I chose to critique and tag the Tweet with any hashtags such as what the user I chose to critique would tag. Especially if that user created a longstanding tag where users participate regularly. These are just a few of the examples of ways I typically use others contents in a beneficial manner, however there are many other ways this can be done on many other networks. These other ways will be explored as I continue to branch out to different communities of practice and social networks. See an example of a blog post critique of others content. IIIh. Complete All Social Media Profiles These days there are so many different social media platforms. I only use a hand full of them regularly, others every once and a while, and yet others I have not explored at all. I would like to commit myself to complete profiles and regular use for the social media platforms I use regularly for professional work such as Google Plus, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. There are other niche networks where I have also have full profiles such as on Adobe Education Exchange. Essentially, if I plan to frequently use the network for any professional or learning situation than the profile must be complete. Creating full profiles is typically done by adding a banner, a portrait image, adding some brief bio info, linking back to the basecamp page, and pinning or showing some work to feature. It’s worth it to take the time to complete these profiles to look like a professional, active user. Links to my professional social media profiles can be seen on each page on my basecamp website. IV. Preliminary Assessment of Plan’s Effectiveness Basecamp site traffic, since I created the website in June 2015, has steadily increased as I have participated in coursework in the ILT program, created blog posts, and professional work related media. For the current assessment of the basecamp site, looking at Weebly’s built in tracking for the most current month, November, I can see that I have 251 views to my landing page. That number may reach 290300 by the end of the month based on previous history. The next three pages viewed the most are two professional work collections on my site featured on the landing page, and my contact page. This means that people are finding my landing page in various social media and searches and clicking on the images I presented in a slide show on my landing page. I can also see that there was a spike in views of my website on the 19th of November. The spike is most likely from linking the NLS space on Facebook that day in a post to a friend. See Weebly tracking info and chart on the following page. Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
IVa. Weebly Tracking Example
Spike related to comment on Facebook friend’s post linking to the NLS which links to the basecamp site.
250-300 landing page views typically a month.
IVb. Blogger Stats Overview Spike related to period of high production with blog and promotion with Twitter.
The blog was created in 2014 and used sparingly until summer 2015. Since June 2015 the blog has been used for coursework in the ILT program as well as to post materials I created for teaching. The height of the viewership was in the middle of summer semester 15’ where users from ds016.us were engaged by linkage with the CUdenver15 group as part of coursework for ILT Digital Storytelling.
Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
IVc. Blogger Referrals Overview
Digital storytelling affinity group
Reviewing the referring URLS, referring sites, and search keywords, we can see where traffic is coming from and how viewers are accessing the blog site. The highest number of pageviews came from ds106. us, most likely, during the promotion with the cudenver15 digital storytelling course. Secondly, people are finding the site on google, and third, people are accessing the blog through the basecamp site since it was integrated within Weebly this semester. We can also see the highest, by far, referring site being Twitter as I use Twitter primarily to promote blog posts. Google comes in second with ds106.us in a close third. This helps me understand that regular engagement and promotion is important to creating traffic. IVd. Blogger Posts Overview The highest viewed blog post was at the beginning of Fall semester 2015. I had already acquired an audience from ds106 over the summer. This post was appealing to the ds106 network because it described how Twitter changed the way I understand education and interact with the world. I mentioned ds106 in the post and @jimgroom retweeted the post on Twitter. The likes and retweets helped contribute to the sharing of this blog post, and it came at a good time, as a new semester had just begun. This shows that building a network and creating content that piques the interest of followers combined with timling is a great approach to increasing viewership. Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015
Post about Twitter use summer semester 2015
IVe. Preliminary Conclusions From Current Data Over the short period I have been tracking traffic to the blog and basecamp website, I know it pays to be a participatory member of social media and affinity groups to generate traffic. Both Twitter and ds106 have proven to be successful examples. Based on the most popular posts, it appears the most viewership occurs when I post about social media. Although I have equal amounts of posts about design or art. Perhaps to get more viewership of the design posts I will need to find more niche networks to engage that audience. However I believe both social media, and design posts are important to achieve my thought leadership goals. As I continue my current trajectory in the ILT program, I intend to engage more social media networks and affinity groups to generate traffic and promote myself as a thought leader. V. Next Steps After review of the basecamp website and blog posts, it’s clear that blogging and participation in social media helps create a following. The future goal is to generate a following that will promote my thought leadership goals. This means I will need to dig deeper to find ways to achieve a following of people who are intrested in design and digital literacies. My initial thoughts to gain more successful viewership and following is to create a series of tutorial videos. Perhaps also offering workshops or classes online, separate from the college where I teach and created on my own volition, will entice more loyal followers? There are many opportunities, I’m sure more will reveal themselves with continued commitment to the ILT program at CU Denver. I’m confident by the time I graduate from the program two years from now, I will have developed the following I am striving to achieve.
Kirk Lunsford | SEO Plan | INTE 5665 Fall 2015