An introduction to the field of content strategy

1. Terra Incognita
Exploring Content Strategy Land
UX Romandie
November 20th 2012
Memi Beltrame
@bratwurstkomet
Liip - Agile Web Development
liip.ch

2. Trust me
I almost know
what I‘m talking about

3. Disclaimer
☟
None of this is mine.
All the important resources at the end of the presentation

4. Content: Status Quo

5. Most content sucks.

6. Content
is a
pain in
the butt.

7. Content is treated
as a commodity.
It‘s not the desert you can do without.

8. Content is not a feature.
Kristina Halvorson
Picture: Warren Parsons
http://flic.kr/p/6kxsc3

9. Design without content is
decoration.
Jeffrey Zeldman

10. Silverbullets that failed
• A redesign
• A new CMS
• A different design agency
• A facebook page. Or a microsite.
• Lorem Ipsum
• „We want content up front“

11. H E NC E
Content
Strategy

12. The boring part that
sounds like work
starts here.
Apologies.

14. To tackle the challenges of
content we must have the
answer to a lot of questions.

15. Not just...
• How?

16. But...
• How? • By Whom?
• Why? • With what?
• What? • Where?
• When? • How often?
• For whom? • What next?

17. Some definitions

18. Content Strategy guides
your plans for the creation,
delivery, and governance
of content.

19. Having a content strategy
means using content to
achieve business goals.

20. Content strategy is
change management.

21. What a strategist does

22. Strategists at all times
• create clarity
• facilitate smart decisions
• align stakeholders
• help operationalize change

23. How will your content
support your
organisational objectives

24. What content does your
audience need and why?

25. How is content organized,
prioritized and accessed?

26. How is content created,
delivered and maintained?

27. How are decisions about
content and CS made?

28. Factors of Influence
All the factors that impact the contents lifecycle.

29. Stakeholders
• Decision Makers
• Funders
• Champions
• Showstoppers
• Affected People

30. Internal Impact factors
• Target audience
Those affected by the content:
- Providers,
- Editors
- Maintainers
- Reviewers

31. Internal Impact factors
• Messaging
What do you want to say:
- Content needs
- Keeping content consistent
- Aligning content owners.

32. Internal Impact factors
• Channels
- Websites, social media activities,
mobile, intra/extranet, print media,
email campaigns, advertising
- Publishing process
- Cross check with stakeholders

33. External Impact factors
• Users
- User research
• Competitors
- Competitor research

34. Strategy

35. Core Strategy
The long-term vision for all your
content related initiatives

36. „We‘ll develop a state-of-the-art
content infrastructure that
makes it easy for us to adapt to
new device formats quickly.“

37. Achieve • Be • Do
• Achieve: What does your CS need
to accomplish
• Be: What content product(s) will
we create?
• Do: What will the company neet to
do to support the effort?

38. Content Components
Substance & Structure

39. Substance
What content do you have?
What content do you need and why?

40. How do you get content that is
Compelling, useful, actionable
credible, substantial,
influential, meaningful, lovable

41. Defining Substance
• Topics: The subjects that matter
• Purpose: Every piece of content
needs to have a function.
• Voice and Tone:
Watch you language, fuckers!
• Source: Where your content comes from.

42. Content Audit
An assessment of the state
and actionability of all
available content.

43. A Note of Warning

45. Content Audits
★ Assess all available content and
define its state (Redundant,
Outdated, Irrelevant)
★ Define what is to happen with the
content until when
★ Help establish ownership &
responsibility

46. Content Audit

47. Content Audit
• Quantitative inventory:
a list of all the content and its state.
- ID, Title, URL, Format, Source,
Technical Home, Metadata, Traffic/
Usage Stats, Last update, Language
- Roll your own: Choose other factors
depending on your audit goal.

48. Content Audit
• Qualitative audit
Best Practices assessment:
Usability, findability, actionability,
accuracy, task completion
This expands the quantitative
audit.

49. Content Audit
• Qualitative audit
Strategic assessment:
Business value, message, brand/
voice appropriateness
This expands the quantitative
audit.

50. Crucial
Automate
Long-Lasting Short-lived
Get Rid of
Trivial

51. A vase with a
bouquet of
Lorem Ipsum.

52. Structure
How will your content be prioritized, organized
formatted and displayed?

53. How do you get content that is
Reusable, related, shareable,
mobile, responsive, adaptive,
contextual, orbital

54. Defining Structure
• Channels, platforms and formats
• Navigation and nomenclature:
• Links
• Microcopy
• Metadata and tagging

55. People Components
Workflow & Governance

56. Workflow: Ownership
• Business units and individuals
• Need: Budget, time, understanding and
approval to take care of content.
The power to say NO.
• Roles: Web manager, content creator,
reviewer/approver, SEO specialist, subject
matter expert.

57. Workflow: Content
• Creating and sourcing content
- Original content
- curated/aggregated content
- content migration.

58. Tools for content creation
• Editorial calendar
A spreadsheet that captures content ideas and
schedules current content for publishing.
• Content requirement checklist
A checklist for preferred content attributes.

59. Tools for content creation
• Curation/aggregation checklist
A checklist that helps to select, contract and
publish third party content.
• Migration spreadsheet
A spreadsheet that maps content from one
channel, property or process to another.

60. Workflow: Content
• Maintaining content
- Keeping it up to date
- Keeping it relevant
- Retiring it

61. Tools for maintainance
• Content inventory
A spreadsheed to record and track all of your
content.
• Content maintainance checklist
A list of criteria used to evaluate and prioritize
content for maintainance
• Content maintainance log
A CMS report or spreadsheet to see dates for last
update and next scheduled review.

62. Workflow: Content
• Evaluating content
- Ongoing audit and analysis
- Making sure content still meets user
needs
- making sure content helps fulfill
business goals

63. Tools for evaluation
• Qualitative audit spreadsheet
Extention of the content inventory
• Measurement scorecard
A spreadsheet that helps stakeholders understand
your measurement findings.
• Measurement history
An ongoing record of your measurements.

64. Governance
• Authority and ownership policies
Rules on who can decide what.
• Process an procedures
How stuff gets done
• Content policies and guidelines
Non-optional rules and sets of good
practices

65. Tools for governance
• Styleguides
Guidelines that make sure content is consistent
and follows certain standards.
• Content planning & prioritization matrix
Which content is done when in what order by
whom.

66. Resources

67. Books
Kristina Halvorson
Melissa Rach Erin Kissane Karen McGrane

68. Links
• Audit spreadsheets:
http://www.kevinpnichols.com/enterprise_content_strategy/
• Audit Questionnaires:
http://www.kevinpnichols.com/enterprise_content_strategy/
• Vimeo CS videos:
http://liip.to/CS_videos
• Reader with Articles on CS:
http://liip.to/CS_reader
• Contents magazine:
http://contentsmagazine.com

69. People
• Kristina Halvorson @halvorson
• Melissa Rach @melissarach
• Erin Kissane @kissane
• Karen McGrane @karenmcgrane
• Rachel Lovinger @rlovinger
• Jeffrey MacIntyre @jeffmacintyre
• Sara Wachter Boettcher @sara_ann_marie

70. Questions?

71. MERCI!
I‘m @bratwurstkomet