Kristin LaLonde

LIS 7490
Capstone Project
April 27, 2010

In order to increase traffic and bring more students and users to the Wayne State

University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) website, the school must

concentrate on two very important things; creating more original content and increasing the

number of inbound links to the main page. Luckily for SLIS there is already a mechanism that is

designed to do just that and it is free, simple to use and already quite popular; blogging.

Blogging is an important aspect to any site or product that you wish to market, particularly now

during the Age of Information where all content is going online. A blog provides the opportunity

for SLIS to provide up to date news and information to potential and current students in an easy

to read and easy to follow way, which translates into more hits on the main page and more

interest in the School.

According to the website tool, http://websitegrader.com, the SLIS main page is

desperately lacking in terms of inbound links compared to its competition sites. Compared to

Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science main page, the Wayne SLIS

site had 11 times less inbound links. The Kent State SLIS page had an overall lower score than

the Wayne SLIS page and yet had 11 times the number of inbound links, which probably means

that instead of Kent State doing something right, Wayne State is doing something wrong in

attracting interested people to their site. A report from Google Analytics showed that most of the

referral pages that brought in traffic to the Wayne SLIS page were internal Wayne.edu links,

which shows the general lack of interest in the SLIS page outside of the already established
audience of Wayne State students and faculty, which further means that the SLIS page is not

doing a good job at reaching new or potential students.

Blogs are a great way to create a “buzz” around the SLIS website because they are

constantly creating new content and new opportunities to grab the attention of interested

students. If a site remains too static, there is little reason why any potential student would visit

the site multiple times but for the purpose of the SLIS site, certain information has to remain

upfront and easily available, program and degree information. A blog would make it easy to

separate the constantly updating from the purposefully static, the simple and easy to understand

editing software that accompanies blogs makes it easy to add content, which encourages constant

creation and publishing. In contrast, the design of a normal landing page like that of SLIS

inhibits free and easy editing, this would be ideal for the anchored information that will be

permanent.

The blog itself will not only be a mechanism for sharing news and information but also a

tool to bring users to the main page and to the important program information. The new content

of the blog gives the marketing staff an opportunity to bring in new students through the

readership of the blog. It is much easier to promote new published content than it is to constantly

think of new ways to advertise the same service, because new information breeds more new

customers. A SLIS blog would allow the school to create content about the school and about

events that effect the school, which in turn could attract the attention of those who may not have

heard of the Wayne State SLIS but saw the interesting link on their Twitter homepage.

One of the main reasons why Blogs are so important to companies and organizations

today is that Blogs are the “personal voice” of your product and company. That personal voice is

very important in the current marketing environment where Web 2.0 is all about personalization
and socialization. A larger percentage of Americans are using the internet than ever before but

the purpose of their internet use is widely varied, many of the new internet users are online for

social or entertainment reasons which mean that in order to reach these users, the marketing

strategies must also adapt. A blog provides the opportunity to create a voice and relationships

amongst internet users but it also lets you design the quality and purpose of your voice. While

many sites are simply dedicated to entertainment, many of the more popular blogs have created

an authoritative voice or at least an interesting point of view on a particular subject, which

creates a following as well as encourages new readers and potential customers.

As with every marketing strategy it is important to determine your goals and intents. For

the Wayne State SLIS, it is important to not just obtain high readership but to expound upon

potential students that the SLIS blog is both personable and authoritative, which mirrors the

School’s goal of being a “school for everyone” as well as being a well regarded place of graduate

education.
 References:

Gillin, P. (2008). Web 2.0 publishing + analyltics = superior lead management. B to B, 93(7), 32.

Janik, R. How Blogs Can Help Improve Inbound Links. Retrieved from
http://www.serversidedesign.com/seo-blogs.php

Piscopo, M. (2007). Blog as a Marketing Tool.. Communication arts (0010-3519), 49(5), 181

Scott, D. M. (2007). The new rules of marketing and PR How to use news releases, blogs,
podcasting, viral marketing, & online media to reach buyers directly. Hoboken, N.J.:
John Wiley & Sons.

Singh, R., & Singh, L. (2008). Blogs: Emerging Knowledge Management Tools For
Entrepreneurs to Enhance Marketing Efforts. Journal of Internet Commerce. 7 (4), 470-
484.

Stover, J. (2006). Making Marketing Work for Your Library Blog. Internet Reference Services
Quarterly. 11 (4), 155-167.
Appendix 1.

10 Keywords for finding the SLIS website: http:slis.wayne.edu

1. Library Masters Degree

2. Library Science Masters

3. Library Science Degree Program

4. Library School Michigan

5. Library Science School

6. Library Science Michigan

7. SLIS Michigan

8. Information Science Degree

9. Online Library School

10. Online Library Science Degree

Appendix 2:

The online search sessions of the 10 keyterms were enlightening to the effectiveness of Paid link
placement and Organic link results. The keyterms chosen for this evaluation were selected to
represent possible search terms used by a potential library science student looking for
information. In many of the cases, the organic search results were generally helpful. Many of the
search results linked to library science guides, like the one provided by the ALA, or even the
Wikipedia page discussing Library Science as a discipline. These guides would be helpful for a
student starting out but would be generally unhelpful for students looking for specific program
details.

Since the guides were some of the most popular, it should indicate that the guides are the most
popular links or the most visited links (at least in Google). Even though the guides were the most
popular, it does not mean that they provide the most quality information. In many of the searches
actual Library Science programs or schools did not show up until the second page, which means
that Library Science program/ school websites should be making better use of keywords so that
they show up higher on the search results.
The paid results were particularly interesting since the vast majority of the paid links shown had
nothing to do with Library Science. The only ALA accredited Library Science program that
consistently showed up in the keyword searches was the Drexel University Online program, all
other paid advertising was unrelated and unhelpful. Many of the paid search results were for
general online degree programs, like those offered by University of Phoenix Online, and some
looked like spammy guide sites for online degrees. The paid results were so unhelpful I would
not be surprised if the average user does not learn to automatically ignore the paid placement in
favor of a solely Organic results preference.

Appendix 3:

Searching the Keyterms

1. Library Masters Degree

a. Google:
i. Organic: 2nd page, 6th result down.
ii. Paid: Nothing about SLIS. Paid is all online degree programs, did not
indicate online in my search terms.
b. Bing:
i. Organic: 13th page, 10th result down. Link is to the Joint MLIS/ MA in
History program, not the main page.
ii. Paid, Nothing about SLIS. More general online master’s degrees not about
Library Science.

2. Library Science Masters

a. Google:
i. Organic: 3rd page, 6th result down.
ii. Paid: Nothing about SLIS. General online masters degree info. Only
Drexel is a legit link to a library school. ALA guide is also featured.
b. Bing:
i. Organic: 5th page, 1st result down.
ii. Paid: More general online masters. Drexel only library school featured.

3. Library Science Degree Program

a. Google:
i. Organic: 3rd page, 9th result down
ii. Paid: No SLIS. Again, only Drexel listed from legit school. University of
Phoenix advertising “Becoming a librarian” though they have no MLIS
program.

b. Bing:
i. Organic: 6th page, 6th result down. Main page did not come up, degree
index page came up instead. http://slis.wayne.edu/degrees/index.php
ii. Drexel again, more “education guides” Paid results generally unhelpful.
4. Library School Michigan
a. Google
i. Organic: 1st page, 3rd result down.
ii. Paid: University of Phoenix only listed in Paid.

b. Bing
i. Organic: 2nd page, 3rd Result
ii. Paid: Lots of ads but only educational one is U of Phoenix

5. Library Science School

a. Google
i. Organic: 3rd page, 7th result down. (One after UMich)
ii. Paid: U of Phoenix and ALA guide, along with spammy sites

b. Bing
i. Organic: 3rd page, 5th Result down. (first time SLIS had better result in
Bing than Google)
ii. Paid: No SLIS and No legit library science sites other than Drexel

6. Library Science Michigan

a. Google
i. Organic: 1st page, 3rd result down
ii. Paid: Only two ads, neither of which are for schools. ALA guide is only
Library Science
b. Bing
i. Organic: 1st page, 2nd result down.
ii. Paid: No paid ads

7. SLIS Michigan
a. Google
i. Organic: 1st page, 1st result down.
ii. Paid: No paid ads

b. Bing
i. Organic: 1st page, 2nd result down
ii. Paid: No paid ads

8. Information Science Degree

a. Google
i. Organic: 2nd page, 4th result down.
ii. Paid: All online degrees, but no MLIS ads

b. Bing
i. Organic: 4th page, 7th result down
ii. Paid: All online degrees, but no MLIS ads.
 9. Online Library School
a. Google:
i. Organic: 5th page, 2nd result down
ii. Paid: No online library degree ads except Drexel

b. Bing
i. Organic: 12th page, 5th result down
ii. Paid: No library school ads

10. Online Library Science Degree

a. Google:
i. Organic: 4th page, 4th result down
ii. Paid: Drexel is the only online library school advertising

b. Bing:
i. Organic: 6th page, 3rd result down
ii. Paid: Drexel only online Library school advertised

The search placement of the SLIS webpage was generally low compared to other Library schools
like University of Michigan, Kent State, University of Wisconsin and University of Illinois. The
placement depended greatly on certain search terms. Wayne State SLIS did better in the rankings
if a student were only searching Michigan but that could be due to there only being two library
schools in Michigan.

For 8 out of 10 search terms, the SLIS website had a better search ranking in Google than it did
in Bing. In most cases the Google ranking was significantly higher than in Bing where the SLIS
page did not turn up for sometimes the 12th or 13th page. Of all of the competitor sites, Kent State
appeared to be the more popular site.

Appendix 4:

According to Websitegrader.com, the SLIS website ranks pretty well with a 94% grade, though
there are several points that the website raises that could improve its ranking. One point that
Websitegrader raises is that slis.wayne.edu is a blog or has a blog but cursory examination of the
website does not reveal as such. This problem could be due to the website thinking SLIS was a
blog instead of a regular website, particularly since it lists slis.wayne.edu as the address for the
blog it located. The puzzling thing however is that the grade given to the “blog” is lower than the
main site even though the links are the same. Since the website grader seems to believe that
slis.wayne.edu is a blog, it does put the grade into some question.

One point that websitegrader.com makes is the error in the metadata for the SLIS site,
particularly with the length and the choice of words. The grader stated that the metadata in the
SLIS site was too long, or at least longer than desired. If metadata is too long then it risks being
cut off in the search results, which would be inefficient and ineffective. The metadata used for
the SLIS site is generally devoid of keywords that would be common in an online search for
Library Science programs, particularly “Library”, “Library Science”, “Information Science” or
“MLIS”.

Another problem that the grader points out is the lack of inbound links to the SLIS site.
Compared to Wayne State’s SLIS site the competitor site, slis.kent.edu has over 11 times more
inbound links, which greatly effects its ranking. Even though Kent’s SLIS site had an overall
grade of “92” compared to WSU’s SLIS grade of “94”, Kent had a better traffic rank, 18,489 vs.
25,202. In order to improve ranking, I would recommend adding keywords to the metadata,
determining why the website grader is viewing slis.wayne.edu as a blog and creating a strategy
for more inbound links.

Appendix 5:

Buyer Persona:

The buyer persona for this analysis will be a non-traditional student who is entering Library
School to train for a second career. This person will have some technical knowledge but
computer training is minimal. The previous career was for a now defunct GM division that used
very specific technology, not of which is applicable towards Library Science or online searching.

The persona will be an older woman, who does not spend much spare time using computers or
the Internet so her skills are limited. Her average site visit often will not last more than three
search levels, if she cannot reach the information she needs within three subordinate links within
a website she will “bounce” out of the site. This means that she will not extend her search engine
results view beyond the third page.

Appendix 6:

Press Release evaluation:

Generally speaking, press releases for blogs are not particularly common because press releases
often assume an audience where blogs often start out without a set audience available. If there is
an established base, usually from a parent organization or entity then a press release may occur
to alert users of a new feature. Unfortunately many of these press releases suffer from
“gobbledygook” words or marketing jargon that either has no specific meaning or turns people
off from your message. Examples of these “gobbledygook” words, as expressed in “The
Gobbledygook Manifesto” by David Meerman Scott include, "next generation," "world class,"
"scalable," and “cutting edge”. Scott rightly states that these are just filler statements that have no
value anymore and do not communicate what you are trying to market. What does it mean if
something is “world class”? What are you really trying to say?
The press release being evaluated is the press release for a law blog in Colorado,
http://www.coloradolaw.net/blog/ where they explain their new blog and what it does. The
service, Pressreleasegrader.com rated this release as 30 out of 100, which is pretty poor.
However, they only detected one instance of gobbledygook language so that is pretty good
considering the propensity of such things. Despite the misgivings by the grader, such as the lack
of contact information and the low number of links, I felt this press release was pretty good at
getting right to the point of what they were providing.

If I were to create a press release for a SLIS blog it would be similar to the below example:

New SLIS blog! More news, more info, faster!

The Wayne State University School of Library and Information Management would like
to announce the launch of its new blog, “SLIS News” – http://slis.wayne.edu/blog Here
we will provide you with all the up-to-date SLIS related news and events, all in one
place!

SLIS News will feature topics like online course options, faculty highlights, student
achievements and many more! There will also be a Question and Answer feature where
the SLIS director, Stephen Bajjaly will answer all your questions. SLIS News is also
looking for a student writer who would like to write on topics from a SLIS student
perspective.

If you have and questions or concerns about SLIS News please contact the SLIS
department:

School of Library and Information Science

Wayne State University
http://slis.wayne.edu
313-577-1825
asklis@wayne.edu

###

Appendix 7:

One way to create more “buzz” around the SLIS website is to create a blog. Even though the
website grader seems to already think slis.wayne.edu is a blog, it would bring more traffic by
creating original content about the School. The blog can be used, not only to create news and
information about SLIS, but it also provides an opportunity to create a “community” of users
around the blog. A site can have many repeat users but blogs and the communities created
around them engenders some loyalty to the “product” which in this case would be the School of
Library and Information Science.
Another great aspect about blogs is the simple set up and execution makes it easy to update your
website without messing with design or html coding. Content can be added with ease and thus,
can be added more often. The more often you update your content, the more likely there will be
people visiting your site and linking to your site.

Blogging creates more opportunities for inbound links to a website, which increases the overall
search engine ranking. Blog entries that discuss a particular topic about Library Science or
perhaps an interesting news item will spread around through links and social networking sites
like Twitter, which will increase inbound links and the number of first time visitors.

Appendix 8

Some of the best ways to develop an email list for the SLIS website would be to collect email
addresses from those who visit the SLIS website, particularly potential students. One possible
way to collect these addresses is to have a section where people can sign up for your
“newsletter” or your email list. This is where it is important for the SLIS website to produce new
content, either through blogs or through email newsletters that can report news.

The email newsletter should include news items about SLIS, including things happening with
SLIS faculty, students and groups. It is important for these news items to be short and to the
point. Due to the medium of the email list, it should include links back to the SLIS website or to
corresponding subordinate sites. A good procedure for email frequency is once a month so that it
is infrequent enough that someone’s inbox doesn’t get flooded but frequent enough to keep SLIS
in the mind of the user. It is also important for the email to be sent during the middle of the day
and preferably in the middle of the week, a Tuesday or Wednesday because it has been shown
that open rates increase during these times.

The important thing to remember about the email list is that you want to acknowledge the
audience so they feel as though they are a part of the process instead of receiving junk mail. For
many email lists, the audience has signed up to receive the monthly newsletter so you should try
and be sure that the audience feels appreciated and that they’re getting quality information. One
way to appreciate the audience is by sending online coupons or doing promotions, for SLIS this
may be difficult because as a school, they are not really selling a product so you can’t give out a
coupon for one free class. However, SLIS can advertise to their audience, potential SLIS users or
current students, by giving out important info about workshops or perhaps SLIS products like a
coffee mug. The most important thing to do is insure that the audience feels they are gaining
something by subscribing to the newsletter whether it be important information or free mugs.

Appendix 9:

Keyword Visits Popularity Competition Relevance Bounce Rate

wayne state Compete with main
2,726 1 High 56.75%
university Wayne.edu site
Any site with
policies 1,796 2 Low 79.45%
policies
 wayne state
university library 500 3 None High 32.80%
science
University of
Michigan, Kent
information science 417 4 High 85.37%
State, Indiana
University, etc
wayne state library
401 5 None High 27.93%
science
University of
Michigan, Kent
library science 380 6 High 40.26%
State, Indiana
University, etc
Any school with
plagiarism quiz 304 7 plagiarism policies Low 64.47%
on quizzes.
genevieve m. casey Canton Public
urban library 289 8 Library, Illinois Low 73.70%
institute University
Any university with
course sequencing
277 9 policy planning Low 54.15%
policy
courses or programs
wayne state slis 239 10 None High 29.71%

Appendix 10:

Adwords:

Ad for SLIS:

 Wayne State University

 Library Science Masters
 Fast, Affordable,Quality
 http://slis.wayne.edu

Keywords:

 Library Science
 MLIS Degree
 Library School
 Librarian

.
Based on max CPC: $0.90 and budget: $8.00/day.
Avg. CPC: $0.25 - $0.90
Clicks/day: 7 - 15
Cost/day: $3.71 - $8.00
Appendix 11:

Social Media Campaign

Social media applications are important ways to bring users to the SLIS site, particularly though
inbound links. Applications like Twitter can be used as news aggregating sites and are being
currently used to spread and collect information. Many users of these sites “follow” accounts that
will provide them with information about particular services or products, like CNN or the Detroit
Public Library.

The important thing to remember when deciding to embark on a Social Media campaign is the
questions of time and commitment; how much time do you have to dedicate to this project? And
how dedicated are you to providing original content? Though Social Media sites are great, fast
and cheap ways to spread information they require that your audience engages you and allows
you and your content in. For applications such as Twitter, the exchange of information is more
like a conversation which means that you shouldn’t treat your account as purely a place to post
ads because people will be turned off and stop following you.

Success in Social Media marketing comes from the engagement between the account holders and
their followers. Facebook is another great way to get the conversation going about your products,
usually by asking questions to your “friends” and having them post on your wall. By engaging
them in this way, you’re having them think about your product and having them interact with
you. It makes the service seem like less of a big, faceless company and more like a relationship.
One way that helps to get the ball rolling in developing your “friend” or “follower” base is to do
promotions that reward followers. For the SLIS site, it would be difficult to reward people
outside of providing SLIS themed merchandise but a conversation is never out of the question.

For the SLIS social media campaign, the first step would be to decide the best platform by which
to bring people to the site. There are several options as Social media has been expanding
exponentially for the past couple of years, but you only have limited number of resources so you
don’t want to over extend yourself. Twitter and Facebook would be the best places to reach
students, both potential and current since these applications are most popular with them. A
specific idea of WHAT you want to post; program highlights, faculty highlights, training and
workshop events, etc would also need to be decided ahead of time so that there is a somewhat
steady but moderate flow of information. It would also be important to have a limited time
promotion, if it is in the budget to give SLIS themed items to the first 100 followers on the sites.
After the initial mining for followers, the only ways to keep and develop followers is to start
following related accounts, interacting with your followers and producing popular material that
can be spread around.