Brenda D. wins the prize - "disseminating" is the next word in the series.

I have a confession to make. In a previous life, I was the PI on the dissemination section of an NIH Center Grant.  Even as a long-time marketing and public relations professional, the term dissemination had never slipped into my vocabulary.  Flack, yes.  Disseminator, no.

Better choices?

Going back to that UCCE statement: "Disseminating science-based research information to the residents of county 'X'."

Better: Bringing, providing, delivering, (Oh that's a good one - imagine "UC Disseminates" rather than "UC Delivers" - ouch!)

Even better, think about the heart of the message you're conveying. Does it have an emotional impact?  Does it answer the question "What's in it for me?"

How about inserting "practical" in there?  Now we're inching closer to something that sounds useful.

The example sentence sounds suspiciously like a mission statement.  Does it resonate with your audience, or does it resonate with you?

Even better:

We bring the strength of University of California research to County 'X' to help solve local problems.

The group at the Carewords workshop in Southern California had a great idea for my blog. 

Similar to the show "What Not To Wear,"  this semi-regular feature will dissect a word found on ANR Web sites and offer more customer-centered and Web-friendly choices.

The first word of the series:

Residents

Now this is a fine word if you are an apartment manager, or you're talking about the band The Residents. 

But if you're talking about the people you serve . . . it's impersonal.

Better choices:  people, families, Californians . . .

The people of Yolo County

The families of Solano County

Serving Tuolumne County

Providing healthy choices for Californians

Practical, science-based advice for growers in Fresno County

Bringing practical advice to gardeners in Marin County

One thing I'm famous for saying is "The Web is all about pointing. If better information exists someplace else - point to it."

Pointing = linking and that's what the Web is all about.

So in that spirit, this week I'm going to direct you to another excellent post by Gerry McGovern about search engine optimization.  The post is entitled Avoiding Search Engine Optimization Madness and focuses, rightly so, on keeping customer focus.

• Focus on the searcher - not the search.
• Do something useful.

Now onto the asking part—

I'm interested in hearing what topics you would like addressed in future posts.

What are your challenges? What are your burning questions? What resources do you need?

And conversely - do you have a success story you'd like to share?

Reply by either posting a comment or shooting me an e-mail.  I'll keep your questions anonymous if you like.  These will take the shape of an old-fashioned advice column.

I removed open commenting from this blog after I was hit with an avalanche of spam.  But you may still post comment to the blog by simply registering.

I'm looking forward to your questions and comments!

My last post was about the power of narrative in telling the story of our brand.  I'm sure after reading that post, some (many?) of you thought to yourselves.  "Right.  I'd love to have a flashy storytelling site that showcases our impact.  How am I going to get the time and money to do that?

Yes, we have some great, flashy, storytelling Web sites in the Division, the RREA Water Stewards and Stewards of the Land sites being the most notable examples.  But you can put the power of storytelling to work in your site without a complete overhaul.

First, gather your material.  Program or workshop evaluations, client testimonials you gathered for a UC Delivers piece, even e-mails are all great sources for quotes.  When I went back to look at the results of the 2004 Listening Sessions, I found a treasure trove of information about how those we serve perceive our brand. And that perception came through loud and clear in quotes.

Even a short quote from a workshop participant can make a difference.  You can use these quotes as you would a pull quote in a print piece by setting them apart visually in the text.  Since you're adding them to a Web site, you could also create a page of quotes, and then provide a link to that page.  Either of these methods enables you to add few impactful quotes without making major changes to your site.

A word to the wise.  Do not attribute specific quotes to a person without their permission.  If you don't have specific permission to use the quote, use a descriptor like  "2008 Workshop Participant" or "Program 'X' Attendee."

But let's say you've got a great quote from a client with whom you work regularly and know well.  Making the contact for permission to use a quote is the perfect opportunity to flesh out a short quote into a longer narrative.

Another quick and easy way to add narrative to your site is to point to something that's already out there - a direct link to a UC Delivers story for example.

As researchers and educators, our default mode is to describe the benefit from our own observations and perspective. But our "brand heroes" can sometimes do a much better job of driving home the difference we make.