Do you love the way your organization communicates on social media? Are your posts and tweets and updates consistent? Are they unique, so no one else could be saying the same things? Are they memorable enough that anyone cares? To best communicate with the communities you serve and connect to — on social media or through any channel — you need to be clear about your communication goals. In this hands-on workshop, you and your team will work together to develop a Message Architecture. You'll be able to use this fundamental yet simple tool to make tactical communication decisions — on content, style and tone, visual design, and more. It will help you project a clear and consistent message to the world — and to all within your organization. By the end of this workshop you will: * Know what a content strategy is and how it helps you keep a consistent brand identity * Know how a message strategy forms the foundation of your content strategy * Have developed with your team members a memorable message strategy that's unique to your organization * Understand how to use this message strategy to inform decisions for your social media presence and beyond

1. Steel City Solutions Conference
August 9, 2013
Cynthia Closkey
Big Big Design
Finding Your Voice:
A Content Development
Workshop

2. Most web content
sucks

3. • Example:
• Photojojo www.photojojo.com
Some content rocks

4. The fix for
bad web content:
Content Strategy

5. • “Content strategy is the practice of planning
for the creation, delivery, and governance of
useful, usable content.”
• Content: text, graphics, video, audio
• Strategy: holistic, well-considered plan for
obtaining a specific goal or result
• Via “Content Strategy for the Web,” Kristina Halvorson
Content strategy

6. • “A message architecture is an outline or hierarchy of
communication goals that reflects a common
vocabulary.”
• Helps you think about how to communicate with the
target audience
• Not the same as brand values
• From “Content Strategy at Work,” Margot Bloomstein
Message architecture

7. • Moo www.moo.com
• Message architecture*
• Cheeky
• Witty and fun
• Young without being childish
• Customer oriented and responsive
• Approachable, friendly, welcoming
• Championing and empowering
• Helpful
• Accessible
• * NOT ACTUAL MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE, but extrapolated
from their content by Margot Bloomstein
Example: MOO

8. Exercise:
Card Sorting

9. https://twitter.com/mbloomstein/status/261023217412608000/photo/1
Card sorting
to find
message style

10. Cardsorting
• Step one:
• Who we are
• Who we’d like to be
• Who we are not
• Go with your gut for about 20 minutes.

11. Cardsorting
• Step two:
• Who we are who we➜ ’d like to be
• Think aspirational.
What needs to change?
~15 minutes

12. Cardsorting
• Step three:
• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
• ~15 minutes

13. Why do this?
• Gain standards by which to know
when we’re communicating well.

14. Message architecture
• Now that we know who we are and how
we are to be perceived, what does this
mean for how we communicate?
• Visual and design implications
• Text implications
• Content type implications

15. Message architecture
example

16. What & when & how to
write for each channel
• Website
• Social networks: Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest,YouTube,
LinkedIn
• Press releases
• Print ads
• Radio & TV
• Online ads
• ...

17. The real question:
What does your audience need
right now?

18. The conversion funnel
Text
Source: http://sixrevisions.com/content-strategy/conversion-funnel-approach/

19. Conversion funnel
•Awareness: Initial contact with the customer.
•Interest: Customer develops some interest in
what you offer or do.
•Desire: Customer starts to want what you
offer, but hasn’t taken action.
•Action: Customer finally musters up the
money, time, and effort needed to act.

20. Create & deliver
the right content
for each stage in the
funnel

21. Stage 1: Awareness
• What are the questions a potential customer would
ask when not even aware of your organization’s
offerings?
• Culture:What is there to do in Pittsburgh on a Friday
night?
• Social services:Who is addressing the needs of the
homeless in Allegheny County?
• Redevelopment:What’s anyone doing about the vacant
lots in town?

22. Channels for delivering
awareness messages

23. Stage 2: Interest
• Once the customer is aware of your org., what
questions would they have to help them
understand or know more?
• Culture:What’s it like to attend an opera?
• Social services: How does the way you’re helping
the homeless compare to what others do?
• Redevelopment:Who else are you working with to
leverage your community investment?

24. Channels for delivering
interest messages

25. Stage 3: Desire
• How can you help the customer develop
desire for what you offer?
• Culture:What shows are scheduled for this
season?
• Social services: How can my involvement with
your organization also serve my needs (for
giving back, for example)?
• Redevelopment: How are current projects
benefiting my community?

26. Channels for desire
messages

27. Stage 4:Action
• What final hurdles does the customer have?
• Culture: How can I buy tickets?
• Social services: How can I volunteer or
donate?
• Redevelopment: How do I get my company
involved?

28. Channels for action
messages
• your website
• online ads (Google Adwords)
• SEO
• Facebook page, Google+ page

29. •Where should you put
your resources?
•Wherever your funnel
is losing customers

30. •"Do I see a lot of visitors to our website?"
•"Do potential customers know about us?
•If not, work on awareness.

31. •"When we guest post on other websites, do
the customers click through to our website?"
•"Does our offering interest them?"
•"Do they wonder how it works or what it’s
like?”
•If not, work on interest.

32. •"Are the customers interested in buying our
product/donating/volunteering?"
•"Do they believe what we provide is a great,
necessary thing?"
•If not, work on desire and
prove the benefits to the customers.

33. •"Do people understand how and where to buy
our product/volunteer/donate?"
•"Are my conversion rates similar or better to
others in the industry?"
•If not, work on action.

34. • Workflow tasks
• Creation
• Review/approval
• Measurement and feedback loops
• Presence management
http://www.bigbigdesign.com/2009/08/19-
presence-management-chores-for-business-
you-could-do-every-day/
Online content
workflow

35. • Do less, not more
• Figure out what you have and where
it’s coming from
• Learn how to listen
• Put someone in charge
• Start asking “Why?”
How to have
better content

36. • Web content is useless unless it does
one or both of these:
• Supports a key organizational objective
• Supports a user/customer in completing a
task
Do less, not more

37. • Less content is:
• Easier to manage
• More user-friendly
• Less expensive to create
Do less, not more

38. • Audit current content
• Inventory sources of new content
• Create a plan for content creation
• Develop a message architecture
• Makes it easier to create consistent
content
• Shows you what content has greatest value
Figure out what you have and
where it’s coming from

39. • Figure out how this can work
within your organization
• Find out what customers want
(not just what you want)
Learn how to listen

40. • Too many cooks…
• Set up guidelines and tools
• Establish an editor-in-chief
Put someone in charge

41. • Just because you can doesn’t mean
you should
• Question assumptions, trends, directives that
don’t support a business goal
Start asking “Why?”

42. • Write in a style that fits your goals and audience
• Avoid fluff and jargon
• Use the simplest words and sentences you can
• Complement words with other media
• Take advantage of links and visuals
• Recognize it won’t be read in order or completely
• Use headings and bullets
• Put important stuff first (if appropriate…)
• Test your assumptions
Writing for the web

43. • Your website is the hub
• Other online presences
• Social media pages
• Related/subsidiary websites
• Forums and wikis
• Notification mechanisms
• E-newsletters
• Social media
• Offline means
Delivering web content

44. Next steps

45. • Content strategy credits:
Margot Bloomstein
Book: Content Strategy atWork
Presentation: Secrets of a Brand-Driven Content Strategy
Workshop
• Conversion funnel credits:
Dalia Lasaite
Post: “How to Create Better Content Using the
Conversion Funnel Approach”
• Super-great content strategy info:
Wojciech Chojnacki
Post: “Content Is AllThat Matters on the Web”

46. • Cynthia Closkey, Big Big Design
ccloskey@bigbigdesign.com
www.bigbigdesign.com