13 must-read LINK! posts of #heweb13 sessions: the blogged conference edition

While everybody was having Maple Bacon Ice Cream at the #heweb13 party last night, I spent about 3 hours yesterday reading the 25 posts published on LINK (Way to go, Team LINK!) during the first two days of the conference.

It is tough to blog conference sessions live. It is not easy to provide something really useful and well-rounded to readers in the fast-paced conference environment.

But, I have to say that the LINK! bloggers and editors totally nailed it! The quality of their posts is amazing!

I made a selection of the 13 must-read #heweb13 articles – because YOU might not have the time to read 25 ;0) So, here is this selection to get you started — in NO particular order:

1. Stand Back… I’m Going to Try Science!
   Dave Tyler captured very well in this post the top points Karlyn Borysenko made in her presentation where she taught the audience the basics of quantitative and qualitative research, techniques that more marketers and communicators should use to inform their strategies.
2. Stay Ahead of the Curve: Conducting a Competitive Web Content Analysis
   I didn’t get a chance to attend Rick Allen’s session, but the post written by Jeff Martin explains very well why and how competitive web content analysis should be done.
3. In Users We Trust: Using social media APIs to build community
   I knew that Chapman University had a social media hub page. What I learned by reading this article is how they use data to inform the order in which they present different stories. Really neat.
4. Leveraging mobile to increase student engagement
   Some interesting points on how using Twitter can make a difference for students and how important mobile has become in the classroom as well.
5. Instagram: Make Crowdsourced Photos Work for You!
   A great campaign conducted by Brown University on Instagram and Facebook. The re-posting of Instagram photos on Facebook is borderline as far as the TOS is concerned, but this campaign is really inspiring and a big success.
6. Living Dead Week
   Imagine you could spend an entire week at work only working on a project of yours that could help advance your institution but always gets pushed out by lack of time. That’s what the Purdue University Web Team has done for the past 3 years during Living Dead Week.
7. Creating a Cohesive Website Experience from Scratch
   Some very good pointers in this case study on a redesign from Scratch. Using a process makes always things much more easier.
8. Measuring Web Performance
   Do you give your clients a web performance budget? Dave Olsen starts with mobile, and make sure that projects don’t blow up the allocated performance budget by optimizing what can be.
9. Orientation: From In-Person to Online
   I’m still not sold on the online orientation concept for traditional freshmen, but I was really interested to read that Xavier University tried to “gamified” the experience.
10. Got Students? Get Social!
    I didn’t get a chance to attend Ma’ayan’s presentation about student bloggers, because I was moderating a panel at the same time. It seems that the post written by Jackie Vetrano captured the essence of the session
11. Placemarks to the People
    How would you like to be able to easily add placemarks to Google Maps on your WordPress website? Gabriel Nagmay has developed a plugin for that and presented the principles in his session.
12. Turn That Job Into a Profession
    I’m so glad this session was blogged – great career advice and tips from 2 wise professionals.
13. 6-question interview with keynote Steve Wozniak
    It’s a great read – and a very good “summary” of what attendees experienced during the conversation Steve Wozniak had with the 730 of during his keynote session on Monday.

The conference is not over until this afternoon, so I will post an addendum to make sure this post includes links to the posts of the best of track/conference winners (if they are not listed above) once they are announced.