Chapter 3: More Blogging: WordPress Options: Part A Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business Roger McHaney, Kansas State University
May 12, 2015
Chapter 3: More Blogging: WordPress Options: Part A
Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business
Roger McHaney, Kansas State University
WordPress Blogs• Powerful tool• Helps a business get its message into the world• Allows business to provide news to its stakeholders• Material accessible to everyone immediately• Material remains in original words of the writer• Some organizations use blogs to communicate press
releases, others use blogs for voice of internal entities such as marketing, research and development, production, or upper management
2
WordPress Blogs (con’t)
• Wide variety of blog uses has resulted in the deployment of numerous options and tools
• Community of WordPress users has provided many ways of customizing and organizing blogs
• Because of parallels to traditional press releases and a desire to promote a wider content distribution, a system for blog syndication has been developed
3
Why Use WordPress?
http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/01/05/the-10-best-corporate-blogs-in-the-world
Customization
Earlier we covered basics for obtaining a WordPress blog account, starting a blog, and selecting a theme. The blog can be further customized with options and features specific to the needs of a business.
5
Login and Work Behind the Scenes
Tabs on this page provide tools for reading posts written by other WordPress bloggers (e.g. Read Blogs, Freshly Pressed, and Topics). Also, a tab for New Post provides links to information about WordPress and its community of users
WordPress.tv
Default Blog Page
This blog has a theme but no widgets, pages, posts or other customization
Start with Theme Customization
Most themes provide options for customization including selection of a header image, font and style choices, and different ways of arranging the widgets.
Selecting a Theme
Plenty of themes---custom, free, or premium (cost) exist
Why Customize a Theme?Customizing has the direct benefit of making a business site unique. Each WordPress theme may have thousands of adopters. Adding features that further business goals is crucial in creating a unique sense of identity
The Connections theme allows a user to customize the blog header, image, and style. Some themes permit this and others do not. Additional theme customization options may include: background image, background color, header text, font color, and other style choices.
Customizing Selected Theme
The ‘Theme Options’ selection can be found under appearance on the dashboard menu or by using the buttons under ‘managing themes’.
OR
Customize a Theme HeaderSelect the Header page under Appearance. Theme may have pre-installed images. However, for a truly custom appearance, upload a unique image. Investigate a site of open content images (such as CreativeCommons.org or appropriately licensed material at Flickr.com). Or, photos can be taken with a digital camera.
Getting Images at Creative Commons
http://search.creativecommons.org/
Custom Image in HeaderA photo can be added to the blog to create a custom header
Crop Header Image in WordPress
The uploaded image is larger than the header size. WordPress provides a tool to crop it. After selecting the desired portion, click Crop Header to ensure selected part is displayed on the blog
After Cropping Image
Carefully Choose Header Font Color
The wrong font color can result in words that are not visible on the image
Edit Image Outside WordPress
MS-Paint or other graphic editor can be used to add desired text with more visibility.
Finished Header in Blog
Customizing Background
Navigating to Background under Appearance in the Dashboard provides background options.
Color Background
Alternate way to customize page background:
Selecting hex color value for solid background.
Navigate to: Select a Color which opens a color wheel with a large number of choices.
Image Background
Image can be uploaded and used for background
Settings permit it to be tiled or displayed according to particular criteria.
Changes to General SettingsGeneral settings include site title, tag line (the subheading found under the title), language, time zone, date format and more.
Blog Avatar (Blavatar)An icon to represent your blog in people’s browsers and on other Web sites.
Blavatar
End ofChapter 3 Part A
Web 2.0 and Social Media for Business
Slide Media from:
PresenterMedia.com
4416 S. Technology Dr
Sioux Falls, SD 57106
Slides Prepared by Professor Roger McHaney Kansas State UniversityTwitter: @mchaneyBlog: http://mchaney.comEmail : [email protected]