The Center for Digital Engagement
We help college students from Southeast Michigan find careers in digital.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Intern Spotlight 2020 Highlights
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Optimize Your Google Ads (Non-profits and Start-ups) - Digital Live with Kayla Henneman

Kayla Henneman was our guest on Digital Live (every Thursday at 6pm on our Facebook page)! She gave us 5 tips to optimize Google Ads for start-ups and non-profit organizations. We discussed much more than just that in the interview, so make sure to watch the full video below.
Digital Live with Kayla HennemanDigital Live with Kayla Henneman
Posted by Center for Digital Engagement on Thursday, July 23, 2020.
I'm only going to list 2 out of 5 tips from interview (read the rest on Kayla's blog or watch the interview above).
Kayla's Background
Kayla Henneman graduated in April 2020 with a degree in Marketing from Eastern Michigan University. She is a digital marketing intern at AdAdapted, a company that uses consumer grocery shopping data to provide insights to consumer packaged goods brands. In her time at EMU, she took Bud Gibson's class on Google Ads, which gave her hands-on experience on managing ads for a non-profit organization.
Tips to Optimize Google Ads for Non-profits and Start-ups
- Choose Your Landing Page Wisely - Google's Smart Campaigns use whatever landing page you choose as the basis for the search terms associated with your ad. It's also important to make the best first impression you can on people who click on your ad.
- Product Description/Business Category=Your Keywords - Speaking of how Google determines your search terms, this is another really important factor. Choose carefully to get the search terms you want and make sure they match your landing page.
- Read the other 3 tips on Kayla's blog!
Connect with Kayla:
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Design Principles & Tips - Digital Live with Jordan Prisby

Jordan Prisby was our first guest on Digital Live (every Thursday at 6pm on our Facebook page)! She gave us a great look into some of the principles of design and video editing. These tips are very actionable and simple for those of us who may not have a lot of design experience.
Digital Live with Jordan PrisbyDigital Live with Jordan Prisby
Posted by Center for Digital Engagement on Thursday, July 16, 2020.
I've summarized the main points of the interview below, but it is also entertaining to watch!
Jordan's Background
Jordan Prisby is a Media Arts and Studies major at Wayne State University. She is a digital marketing specialist at AuraLabs, a company that created an app that claims to “change your life through deep breathing.” As if she wasn’t busy enough, just last month, Jordan began as a video editing coach at Microsoft. I asked Jordan to be a part of our first digital live because I read her blog post about design and think she has a lot to teach us.

Design & Video Editing Tip for Beginners
- Negative Space - Use to reinforce the concepts in your design and make certain elements pop.
- Storytelling - Show, don't tell. Show the character in your video doing something rather than explain it. It helps people feel like they've experienced what you're showing them.
- Picture yourself as your audience - Put out things that you would personally find engaging and interesting.
- Just do it - Don't make content creation an elaborate process. Just make something with the equipment and software you have available.
Connect with Jordan:
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
How to Avoid Zoom Bombing
Randomize the Meeting ID
When setting up a meeting, you have a choice to use your own zoom ID number (which never changes) or to generate a random one. The most secure option is to go with the random one every time. First, it is harder for someone to guess a number that changes from meeting to meeting, and also if your personal number gets leaked out to undesirable people this offers an additional layer of protection.Using a Meeting Password
This probably would not apply for a meeting meant to be open to a large number of the public, but anything more private should require some sort of a password. This can be enabled when sending meeting invites and it would be a wise move to send the password out either via a different email or other means of communication to help mitigate any sort of unwanted individuals receiving the meeting information and password at the same time.Use the Waiting Room
When the meeting host enables the waiting room feature, each incoming meeting participant is placed into a separate space and has to wait for the host to let them into the meeting. If someone is not supposed to be there the host can just not let them in, as simple as that.Limit the Capabilities of Participants
When setting up the meeting, hosts have the capability to disable the video for all participants besides the host. This will eliminate the possibility of anyone in the meeting displaying inappropriate content. Once the meeting has started hosts also have the ability to determine who has permission to share their screens and they can also mute the microphones for all meeting participants as well.Sometimes, people can be unpredictable, but now that you are aware of the tools in place to help, you can protect your meetings and stay on task. So let’s get back to work!
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Lighting Options that Won't Break the Bank
Utilize Natural lighting
Eliminating Shadows
No matter what options you choose, the important thing is that you do what works best for your situation. Personally, I have two desk lamps sitting on my bookshelf, but whatever works, works!
Friday, April 24, 2020
Zoom Tips for Beginners
How do we continue to communicate and remain productive while working from home? Well, the answer is with a lot of emails, messages, and video conferencing. If you are unfamiliar with instant conferencing, there are a lot of programs out there that get the job done. Here at the Center for Digital Engagement (CDE), we use Zoom.
Zoom allows for digital meetings that enable users to join with both video and audio. It is a really simple platform that is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android operating systems, so just about anyone can use it. For the most part, the controls and layout are remarkably the same no matter which platform you are using, with minor exceptions for mobile versions.
There are two different tiers of the Zoom platform, Zoom Basic and Zoom Pro, that offer various features based on your needs. Zoom Basic, is a free version that meets the needs of many users. Zoom Basic offers unlimited meetings with up to 100 other users for a duration of 40 minutes and unlimited minutes for one to one meetings. If the meeting has to go over that, you would be required to start a new meeting. The paid version, Zoom Pro, offers services such as unlimited group meeting minutes and custom personal meeting IDs.
Once you have the app downloaded and have decided on your tier, it is really easy to start or schedule a meeting. At the CDE we schedule them regularly and send the calendar invitations over Google Calendar so that the link to join is easily accessible. Otherwise, you would need the unique 10 digit meeting code to access it at the right time. Every scheduled meeting has a distinct meeting code.
Once you start getting to know the program, adjusting the settings and sending invites tends to be really intuitive, although, be aware that at times a double click may be necessary when it seems that only a single click should be used
We will do another post about some additional features of Zoom in the near future. In the meantime, if you are looking for some helpful shortcuts within the program, check out our info-graphic!