We will be looking at the importance of planning your site and content before you get going. If you are running a site that goes beyond the occasional blog post you'll need to consider how you are going to manage your content. Maybe some things can be done today, but other things may need weeks or months of forward planning.
I'll be talking about:
Demographics: who is your audience and why it is important to focus on market segments.
Mind mapping: where does your content fit within your site.
Planning your content in detail: does it fit the expectations of your audience?
Tracking your content: who will write it, what is its expected life span?
Time lines - how long will it take to: create the content, get permissions and clearances, does it need to coincide with another event?
- Andrew Renaut
12. Planning your content
What is mind mapping?
Simply a way of organising your thoughts on a
particular subject in a physical dimension.
A visual form of note taking that can simplify a
topic containing complex information.
13. Planning your content
Mind mapping tools.
Pen and paper
Post-it Notes / Flash cards
Whyte board
tablet
desktop
14.
15. Planning your content
Key concepts
Specific thoughts and ideas.
Key words
Important words that describe your
thoughts and ideas.
16. Planning your content
Mind mapping tools - graphic organisers -software.
Free
FreeMind
Popplet - iOS (iPad only)
Mindmondo (Free to a point)
17.
18. Planning your content
Mind mapping tools - graphic organisers - software.
Paid
Inspiration
MyThoughts
Mashable has a good article that list’s over 24 mind
mapping tools.
19. Planning your content
Concept mapping.
Links different concepts and ideas using words
and phrases that explain relationships.
20. Planning your content
Concept mapping.
Example.
Different areas of your site relate to different
topics or product groups. A concept map gives
an overview of the site and links the different
areas together.
You may do multiple mind maps and use a
concept map to pull those mind maps together.
21. Planning your content
Use Excel or another spreadsheet to keep track of
content on each page or article.
Use a new tab for each page article.
Use programmes such as Evernote to sync details
across platforms.
22. Structures
Map out the structure of your site before you start
to build it!
Mind mapping software is also useful for this.
Don’t forget Post-it Notes and flash cards.
24. Structures
Think about your audience and how they may
move (navigate) around the site.
Is the structure logical?
Will people be able to find the information easily?
25. Content structure
Outlining.
An outline is a preliminary summary of written work,
typically organised in headings and subheadings, and it is
often in a hierarchical structure. It is used to organise one’s
thoughts and information related to a longer piece of
writing. Outlining helps to clarify your ideas and
demonstrate the thinking process behind a structured
piece of writing. Structuring and organising large amounts
of information in an outline is the first step in the writing
process.
26. Content structure
An outline can often look like the contents of
an academic book.
It may contain main headings, and
subheadings, or like this presentation be a
series of dot points.
Microsoft Word is particularly good at creating
and managing outlines.
27. Timing
Lead times: content.
How long do you have until launch?
Is the material on hand and ready to go?
Remember clearances and copyright.
29. Timing
Content life.
How long is the content intended to last?
How often will it need to be changed and
updated?
Keep a spreadsheet of each article.
30. Timing
Content life.
Use scheduling plugin’s such as:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/
Set up reminders in iCal or Outlook.
Colour code different calendars.
