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Why content strategy? What is it and how do you do it? What tools and deliverables can help drive an effective content strategy? Also, "user friendliness" is something everyone can recognize (and you don't have to be a UX expert). This three-hour workshop talks about content and strategy: • Why content strategy? • What is content strategy? • What is content? • Tools for content strategy • User friendliness, from sea to sea (to sea) This workshop is for anyone who works in agencies who help clients develop web content, or who work in companies or organizations and are in charge of developing web content. It's also for individuals who work on a contract basis for others developing websites. Learn how to rally stakeholders, focus on the purpose of content, manage the workflow, and how not to abandon site content once it's live. Understand some of the choices of deliverables and artifacts available and how you can tailor them to suit your project's needs. Learn the importance of developing a core strategy statement and writing content goals from both business and user perspectives. Presented as a workshop for the Manitoba Editors' Association, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, April 20, 2013.
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Content Strategy for Websites
Susan Bond
Saturday, April 20, 2013Manitoba Editors’
AssociationWinnipeg, Manitoba
Workshop Highlights
About the instructor
Susan Bond Is an independent content
strategist, writer and editor. has done content development
& strategy for web & print since 2001.
has put content processes into place for a publisher of student agendas, a digital agency, and a 40-year-old feminist calendar that’s published annually.
started in print publishing as a copywriter, editor and creative director.
has led content strategies for clients in various industries, including those listed at right.
Goldcorp Elk Ridge Resort Solvera TransCanada Pipeline Muskeg Lake Cree Nation One Earth Farms Finning International FedEx Morris Industries Cameco Autism Services The Churchill Corporation The Cooper Companies TorQuest Superior Cabinets
Why content strategy?Content strategy prevents or fixes content problems.
• No one can find anything on our website.• No one can find our website.• Lots of people from our organization publish content to our site, and on social media. It doesn’t feel like it’s all from the same organization.• No one is in charge.• Everyone is in charge.• We don’t know how to handle comments on our blog.• Some of our best content is in PDFs and Investor Presentations.• Some of those PDFs have file names like 6002_F12Mar04.pdf• Our sitemap is based on our org chart. Is that okay?• Our CEO says we should be on YouTube. What’s an API?
What is content strategy?
A VERY SHORT HISTORY
In 2009, the IA Summit convened a pre-conference event called the Content Strategy Consortium to bring together practitioners to discuss and define content strategy.
Here’s the definition they came up with…
Definition
“Content Strategy is the practice of planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.”
- Kristina Halvorson / Content Strategy Consortium
Another definition
“Content strategy refers to the planning, development, and management of informational content — written or in other media.”
- Wikipedia
And another definition
“Content strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design. Everything is content… What about design? Yes, it’s content. Structure? Content. Metadata? Also content.”
- Rachel Lovinger (Content Strategy Lead, Razorfish)
One more…
“Good content is appropriate, useful, user-centered, clear, consistent, concise and supported.”
- Erin Kissane (author, The Elements of Content Strategy)
What is content?
Content is anything that communicates information or ideas.Here are some diverse but specific examples from projects I’ve worked on…
What is content?A home page banner (concept, not photo based).
What is content?A headline, a paragraph and a photo.
What is content?A rotating story feature.
What is content?A rotating banner feature.
What is content?A functional widget.
What is content?A “reason generator.”
What is content?A video.
What is content?Subpage navigation.Targeted, informative messages.
What is content?A blog.
What is content?A form.
What is content?A positioning statement. Quotations. Feature boxes. An “investor kit.”
What is content?Tables.
What is content?Charts.
What is content?Charts with context.
What is content?Infographics, titles, context, bullet points.
What is content?A tag line. A rotating values feature. News. Feature boxes. A footer quote.
What is content?A tweet.
Your mission, should you choose to accept…
Deliver on time. Deliver on budget. Maintain a consistent vision. Always know the purpose of any content. Confront your communication goals.
“If you don’t know what you need to communicate, how will you know if you succeed?”- Margot Bloomstein
Content strategy explained(by a guru)
KRISTINA HALVORSONFounder/CEO of Brain TrafficAuthor of Content Strategy for the WebFounder of CONFABHost of “Content Talks” webcast
“Why is less better than more? Less content is easier to manage. Less content is more user friendly. Less content costs less to create.”
Content strategy explainedWe’ll zone in on this part of the process…
DISCOVERY Alignment Audit Analysis
STRATEGY Core Content People…but you can read about more in Content Strategy for the Web
Part 2: Tools for Content Strategy
“Deliverables are merely punctuation in the conversation. They can’t replace the conversation.”- Margot Bloomstein
Part 2: Tools for Content Strategy
Site AuditCore Strategy StatementEditorial CalendarSite ArchitectureMessage ArchitectureContent WireframesPage Strategy DocumentWeb Content Document
Site Audit
3 examples…
Quantitative inventory Qualitative audit – best practices
assessment Qualitative audit – strategic assessment
Delivery tools: - Excel spreadsheet to document content sources and locations- Word or InDesign document to present findings report
Source: Content Strategy for the Web (2nd ed)
Core Strategy Statement
The core strategy sets the long-term direction for all content-related initiatives, ensuring consistency.
It’s flexible, aspirational, memorable, motivational and inclusive.
It asks 3 questions.Source: Brain Traffic workshop (CONFAB 2011); Content Strategy for the Web (2nd ed)
Core Strategy Statement
What does your content strategy need to accomplish?
What will you produce and how will that be valuable?
What will you need to do to support it?
Source: Brain Traffic workshop (CONFAB 2011); Content Strategy for the Web (2nd ed)
Core Strategy Statement
(boring & vague) “Provide information for law students.”
(engaging & specific) “Curate an entertaining, online
reference guide to help stressed-out law students become successful practicing attorneys.”
Source: Brain Traffic workshop (CONFAB 2011); Content Strategy for the Web (2nd ed)
Editorial Calendar
Source: Susan Bond / zu
Site Architecture
Source: Susan Bond / zu
Message Architecture
A hierarchy of communication goals that reflects a common vocabulary.(Margot Bloomstein’s example)
Mini Cooper Premium technology
Cars are assertive, ready to perform, proactive, support spontaneity
Classic design Experienced, savvy
Cheeky Smart, ”punny,” hip, fun, gleeful
Source: Margot Bloomstein: The Secret’s of Brand-Driven Content Strategy (2012; slideshare)
Content Wireframes (before…)
Source: Susan Bond / zu
Content Wireframes (after…)
Page Strategy Document (before…)
Page Strategy Document (after…)
Page Strategy Document (after…)
Page Strategy Document:Business and User Goals
What’s a business goal? “Sell products” Sell products Show how this
sterilizer will increase efficiency for doctors and in operating rooms.
What’s a user goal? “Buy tools” Buy tools Learn how this
product will help their hospital sterilize medical tools faster and more thoroughly.
Page Strategy Document:Business Goals (more examples…)
Improve technical support services. Reduce printing costs for educational support
materials. Provide regular, updated stock information,
including dividend schedule and ownership, for potential and existing investors.
Disclose analyst coverage for our publicly traded company—including financial institutions, analysts and phone numbers—so that investors may contact them directly for reports, and staff can redirect queries to save admin time.
Source: Susan Bond
Page Strategy Document:User Goals (the other side of the coin)
Access online help, any hour of the day or night.
Download and print activity sheets to use with middle-school students in the classroom.
Learn about stock performance, dividend payments and percentage ownership for a public company I am invested or interested in.
Find and contact analysts for a publicly traded company I’m doing research on so I can obtain analysts’ reports.
Source: Susan Bond
Web Content Document (before…)
Source: Susan Bond / zu
Web Content Document (after…)
Source: Susan Bond / zu
So, why do we do this?
Before After
Source: Susan Bond
Part 3: User Friendliness,from Sea to Sea (to Sea)A Romp Through Canadian (Provincial Government) Home Pages
British Columbia
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
Manitoba
Ontario
Ontario
Québec
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
Newfoundland & Labrador
Nunavut
Nunavut
Northwest Territories
Yukon
Thank you! about.me/susan.bond
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