Managing the politics of content

MANAGING THE POLITICS OF CONTENT

Hilary Marsh, Content Company

Content Strategy New England Meetup December 4, 2013

CONTENT STRATEGY CHALLENGES


•  No one can find anything on our website, and they’re complaining to the CEO

•  PracFcally everyone in our organizaFon publishes content online, and you’d almost never know it was from the same organizaFon

•  No one is in charge of the home page – or everyone is in charge of it

• We can’t add comments because we don’t know how to handle them

•  Some of our best material is presented as PDFs, with Ftles like “4002.pdf”

•  Our website is organized based on our org structure rather than on how our audience thinks about us or our content

CSNE Meetup, December 2013


BUSINESS CHALLENGES

CSNE Meetup, December 2013 © Don Graham, 1998, Flickr

They’re about •  process •  ownership •  collaboraFon •  mutual understanding (or lack thereof)


BUSINESS CONSEQUENCES


© Don Graham, 1998, Flickr

WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY? WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW OF PUBLISHING CONTENT A STRATEGIC STATEMENT TYING CONTENT TO BUSINESS & USER NEEDS PEOPLE, PROCESSES, AND POWER TO EXECUTE THAT STATEMENT

Hilary Marsh, Content Company CSNE Meetup, December 2013


Technological Capabili/es (What’s Possible)

Business Drivers (What’s

Important)

User Needs (What’s Desirable)

Content Strategy

WHAT IS “CONTENT”?


EVENT PRODUCT CLASS PROGRAM RESEARCH


CONTENT STRATEGY IS REALLY…


EVENT STRATEGY PRODUCT STRATEGY CLASS STRATEGY PROGRAM STRATEGY RESEARCH STRATEGY



“EVERY PIXEL HAS AN OWNER” – Paul Ford, former Web editor at Harper’s magazine Confab 2013



WITHOUT A CONTENT STRATEGY


WITHOUT A CONTENT STRATEGY

If you build a site

without knowing the content that will exist,

the site you create

may not be able to be successful!


FOCUS YOUR CONTENT

ON THE READER

ON THE MEMBER


CONTENT STRATEGIST

AS ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR


IDENTIFYING AND PRIORITIZING AUDIENCES

TO TRANSCEND POLITICS


1.  SELL THE VISION 2. RESPECT THE DEPTH 3. FOSTER COLLABORATION 4. MOTIVATE AND RECOGNIZE 5. REDEFINE SUCCESS


SELL THE VISION


RESPECT THE DEPTH


FOSTER COLLABORATION


MOTIVATE AND RECOGNIZE


REDEFINE SUCCESS


I put the informaFon up online –now I also need to know how many

people have used it???

MORE TIPS


1.  EDUCATE/REMIND REGULARLY – HOW-TOs, SUCCESS STORIES

2. REPORT REGULARLY 3.  “BLAME THE POLICY” 4. CREATE & SOCIALIZE PERSONAS 5.  INVOLVE STAKEHOLDERS

THANK YOU Content strategy doer, manager, mentor, teacher since 1999 Consult with associaFons, corporaFons, nonprofits ..otherwise, I’m kniZng

DOING CONTENT STRATEGY SINCE BEFORE CONTENT STRATEGY WAS COOL

@hilarymarsh


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