Build your content strategy roadmap

Build YourContent Strategy

Roadmap Hilary Marsh

J Boye Conference 2015h"p://echa.europa.eu/addressing-­‐chemicals-­‐of-­‐concern/substances-­‐of-­‐poten8al-­‐concern/svhc-­‐roadmap-­‐to-­‐2020-­‐implementa8on  

h"p://echa.europa.eu/addressing-­‐chemicals-­‐of-­‐concern/substances-­‐of-­‐poten8al-­‐concern/svhc-­‐roadmap-­‐to-­‐2020-­‐implementa8on  

Content Strategy Roadmap1.  Discovery2.  Content audit and assessment3.  Comparative content analysis *4.  Empathy-based audience personas *5.  Content creation and publishing guidelines6.  Roles, lifecycles, workflow, governance7.  Taxonomy8.  Content transformation and migration9.  Content marketing and promotions10.  Handoff, next steps

* Sometimes considered optional

Introduction to

Content Strategy

Content strategy challenges•  Findability•  Voice•  Ownership•  Policies•  Practices

Worst practices•  Language/jargon•  Prioritized promotion•  Content hoarding•  Bad editorial processes•  New content missing•  Different content on different channels

©  Don  Graham,  1998,  Flickr  

•  Who, what, when, where, why, and how of publishing content online

•  A strategic statement tying content to business goals

•  The people, processes, and power to execute that statement

Policies and guidelines +

Audience understanding +

Business knowledge =

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What  is  “content”?  

Content is…EventProductClass ProgramResearch

Format is less significantWeb pagesBlog postsInfographicsImagesPDFsVideoAudio

Content is…EventProductClass ProgramResearch

Content strategy is…Event Strategy Product Strategy Class Strategy Program Strategy Research Strategy

Content is

political

Content is…Event ProductClass ProgramResearch

Content is…My Event My ProductMy Class My ProgramMy Research

20  

“Every pixel has an owner.”

– Paul Ford, former web editor at Harper’s magazine

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

– Upton Sinclair, 1935

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h"p://www.amazon.com/Have-­‐Always-­‐Done-­‐That-­‐Way/dp/184728857X/  

Department

Message

Audience

Department

Message

Audience

Department

Message

Audience

Department

Message

Audience

Old thinking

Organization: Programs, offerings

Audience

Messages

Audience Audience Audience

New thinking

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27  

Content strategy is

CHANGE MANAGEMENT  

28  

User experience is

CHANGE MANAGEMENT  

29  

Digital is

CHANGE MANAGEMENT  

•  290-­‐page  PDF  •  Updated  every  year  

•  Where  is  the  member  handbook?  

How do I do content

strategy?

Where do I start?

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/emmm_weee/15048086753  

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/emmm_weee/15048086753  

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/emmm_weee/15048086753  

•    h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/studiocurve/13080208/  

•  h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/moohcowh/2596366618  

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/bunny/1985272127  

Where you’re going •  Goals  &  measures  of  success  

1 4  2   5  3  

How you’ll get there •  Which  channels  will  help  you  achieve  success?  

1   4  2   5  3  

How long and how much •  Deadline,  budget,  resources    

(staff,  skills,  priori8es)  

1   4  2   5  3

Who’s going with you •  Who is your audience?

•  What do they want?

1   4  2   5  3  

What you’ll take •  What  content  do  you  have?  •  What  needs  to  be  created?  

1   4  2   53  

Discovery

h"p://www.amnh.org/exhibi8ons/permanent-­‐exhibi8ons/discovery-­‐room  

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/xoques/3758640007  

Strategy Statement

The  <Organiza8on>’s  social  intranet  will:      Collect  and  surface/curate  cri8cal,  relevant  editorial  content  created  by  appropriate  <organiza8on>  corporate  departments,  divisions  and  employees.    

  Enable  and  mo8vate  employees  to  connect,  interact  and  collaborate  via  social  features.    

  Foster  a  culture  of  innova8on.  

•  We  will  develop  and  maintain  content  that  helps  people  prac8ce  and  enjoy  the  arts.  

Exercise #1: Create a strategy

statement

Create a strategy statement

< O r g a n i z a t i o n > o f f e r s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , _ _ _ _ _ _ _ c o n t e n t t h a t h e l p s t h e m _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a n d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ b y m a k i n g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ f e e l _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , a n d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , a n d c o n v i n c i n g t h e m t o _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ a n d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

adjec8ve   adjec8ve  

accomplish  goal  accomplish  goal   audience  

adjec8ve   adjec8ve  adjec8ve  

take  desired  ac8on  

Example: VillageReach offers educational but warm, human content that helps them increase donations and raise awareness by making institutional donors feel committed, capable, and needed, and convincing them to give annually and show public support.

take  desired  ac8on  

h"ps://www.flickr.com/photos/xoques/3758640007  

Content Audits and

Assessments

Step  1 :  Content  inventory  

Things to trackN a m e o f c o n t e n t p i e c eU R LC o n t e n t t y p eP e r s o n r e s p o n s i b l eN o t e s

Also trackA v e r a g e m o n t h l y v i s i t sL a s t r e v i e w d a t eC M S c o n t e n t t y p eTr a n s l a t i o n s

crazy  person    

Outcomes•  C o n t e n t m a t r i x•  F i n d i n g s a n d r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s

r e p o r t

Comparative Content Analysis

Who?•  C o m p e t i t o r s•  P e e r s•  S i m i l a r o f f e r i n g s•  O t h e r i n d u s t r i e s•  S o c i a l n e t w o r k s

What to look at•  S e a r c h r e s u l t s•  U s a b i l i t y•  Vo c a b u l a r y•  C o n t e n t•  P r e s e n t a t i o n•  A u d i e n c e - c e n t r i c i t y•  Vo i c e a n d t o n e•  Q u a l i t y

OutcomesCompara t i ve aud i t find ings repor t  Fo rma l r epo r t  Presen ta t i on  Sco reca rd sp readshee t  SWOT ana l ys i s

Empathy-Based Audience Personas

h"p://www.tagheuer.com/int-­‐en/company/ceo-­‐speech  

Shared focus on the audience

h"p://www.tagheuer.com/int-­‐en/company/ceo-­‐speech  

Shared understanding of the audience

69  

h"p://www.slideshare.net/est3ban/empathybased-­‐personas-­‐gaining-­‐a-­‐deeper-­‐understanding-­‐of-­‐your-­‐audience-­‐presen  

70  

Anthony Susan

Allen

Maggie

Content Creation and Publishing

Guidelines

Effective content•  Sounds like the organization•  Has a goal•  Uses the active voice•  Helps the reader do a task•  Is specific•  Is focused on the reader, NOT on your

organization

Scannable content•  Uses subheads and bullets•  Is not in PDF format•  Uses fewer words but includes the terms

readers are looking for

h"p://www.useit.com/eyetracking/  

Content is Conversation•  What do I hope to achieve from this content?•  Who am I talking to?•  What brings those people to my site

or app? What are their top tasks? Top questions? Conversations they want to start?

•  Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, and focused on what you want site visitors to do.

True goal•  NO - We want to tell people how great our

services are.

•  YES - We want people to choose our services.

True goal•  NO - We want to get lots of views of our page

•  YES - We want people to do something: Sign up for the event, download the white paper, subscribe to the publication

Message architecture

•  Articulate your brand identity and personality

•  Create a common understanding of who your organization is

•  Informs decisions about what content to publish, what formats, what channels

Exercise #2: Create a message

architecture

As a group, review the deck of cards. Thinking about your group’s “adopted” organization….

1.  Sort the attributes into three piles:•  Who we are today •  Who we want to be in the future•  Who we are not

2.  Set aside the “who we are today” and “who we are not” piles

3.  Group the remaining terms into synonyms. 4.  Prioritize: choose the top 5 terms/groups.

Roles, Workflow, Lifecycle, Governance

Roles on a digital team• Content strategist•  Project manager•  Visual designer• User experience architect•  Social media manager• Director

85  h"p://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/four_models_for_organizing_digital_work_part_two  

86  h"p://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/four_models_for_organizing_digital_work_part_two  http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/four_models_for_organizing_digital_work_part_two

Where most orgs start

87  

What often seems most logical

88  

What some orgs are trying

89  

Where most orgs land

90  

Taxonomy

h"p://schoolworkhelper.net/scien8fic-­‐taxonomy/  

• Why is taxonomy important• Options

•  How to extract your taxonomy•  Starter intranet taxonomy•  Using the content audit -- put the emphasis on the

content owners•  Buying a taxonomy•  Use the open Calasi tool -- demo tool

•  Lessons learned•  Synonyms•  It IS system dependent

≈  

The Benefits of Tagging•  Improves search results

–  Tags can be used to increase relevance of items in search results

–  Tags can be used to ‘facet’ search results

•  Can drive personalization and aggregation

Building your taxonomy

•  Have content owners tag their content•  De-dupe, clean, standardize•  Categorize

Buying a Taxonomy Tool (or Even a Whole Taxonomy!)

•  WAND  •  Concept  Searching  •  AIIM  Taxonomy  Training  and  Cer8fica8on  programs  •  Open  Calais    

Lessons Learned•  There is a taxonomy maturity model•  Taxonomy is platform dependent – SiteCore vs.

SharePoint vs. Wordpress vs. Drupal•  Synonyms are important•  Your taxonomy needs to be reviewed regularly

Content Transformation and Migration

Content Inventory

Content Audit & Assessment

Audit  spreadsheet:  h"p://goo.gl/G1DNx6  

Image:  wikipedia  

Transforming Your

Content

“In a sense, content models are perhaps the truest form of bottom-up information architecture: by determining what types of chunks are important and how to link them, we make the answers embedded in our content ‘rise to the surface.’”

—Louis Rosenfeld & Peter MorvilleInformation Architecture for the World Wide Web

•  Structure—how content items will assemble–  e.g., news, author, location, price

•  Type—how is it being used?–  e.g., press release for press room, author database

for journal articles

•  Attributes—published & metadata–  e.g., title, abstract, taxonomy tag

http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill

Content Marketing and

Promotions

Courtesy  of  Melissa  Zinder,  NBOA  

www.bobangus.com    

h"p://www.kaushik.net/avinash/smart-­‐analy8cs-­‐dashboard-­‐modules-­‐insighnul-­‐dimensions-­‐best-­‐metrics/  h"p://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-­‐dashboards-­‐strategic-­‐tac8cal-­‐best-­‐prac8ces-­‐8ps-­‐examples/    

Handoff and Next Steps

113  h"p://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/four_models_for_organizing_digital_work_part_two  

#winning  

Strategic  nagging  

•  Pa8ent  but  persistent  repe88on  of  a  message  

Have  a  plan  

Don’t  wait  for  a    content  strategy  to    do  content  strategy  

Thank you!

@hilarymarshwww.slideshare.net/hilarymarsh

Resources•  http://www.customerfocuscalculator.com•  http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-

and-measurement-model/•  http://blog.siteimprove.com/web-governance-blog/

the-hierarchy-of-content-needs-a-new-model-for-creating-and-assessing-content

Handouts we used•  http://www.hilarymarsh.com/JBoye15