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Implementing a content strategy often involves overcoming significant technological and cultural challenges, but some of these challenges are so scary, so heinous, that they earn a place among the undead because they Just. Won’t. Die! In this session, Bill Swallow will take a look at these nightmare-inducing monsters—from unrelenting copy-and-paste zombies to life-draining, change-avoiding vampires—and show you what can be done to keep your content strategy implementation from turning into a fright fest.
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@billswallow #LavaCon
Content Strategy vs. The Undead
Bill Swallow Scriptorium Publishing
Content strategy vs.
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Bill Swallow @billswallow
Technical Consultant Scriptorium Publishing www.scriptorium.com My interests: Content strategy Implementation Localization
@billswallow
Why the undead?
Flickr: Ray Dumas
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Why the undead?
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Many reasons for implementing a content strategy
Many facets
Many impediments
Not unlike battling the undead
They JUST... WON'T... DIE!!!
Zombies
Flickr: Elena Gatti
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Zombies
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Mindless
Clumsy, slow moving
Uncommunicative
Destructive
Contagious
Zombies in our world
Wikipedia
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Zombies in our world
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Unbudging attitude
Unrelenting will to preserve the status quo
Continue to repeat the same actions
Prefer mindless tedium
Resistant to change
They're not ALL bad
Flickr: Terror on Tape
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They're not ALL bad
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Sometimes they're just misunderstood
They may have good intentions
They may have reasons for resisting change
Tips for survival
Flickr: Kenny Louie
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Tips for survival
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DON'T shoot them in the head
Feed their needs while keeping the bigger picture in mind
Find what drives them and harness that in your strategy
Vampires
Wikipedia
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Vampires
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Blood-suckers
Charismatic
Fear daylight
Charismatic life-drainers
Wikipedia
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Charismatic life-drainers
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Two distinct varieties:
Someone in your organization who has a different plan
A VERY persistent vendor
Both fear being exposed of their shortcomings
Your tools for success
Flickr: Theodore Scott
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Your tools for success
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Always be prepared (do your homework)
Have a strategy rooted in your company's core goals
The “stake through the heart”: shift the focus back to the core intent/benefit of the strategy
Shed light on the subject to drive them back
Mummies
Flickr: Rocco Lucia
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Mummies
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Relentless
Shambling but determined
Guardians of the past
Product of a curse or past desire
Dedicated and determined
Wikipedia
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Dedicated and determined
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Advocates of existing tools or workflows
Vocal or silent
Summoned by impending change
Wikimedia: Lysippos
Lift the mummy's curse
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Lift the mummy's curse
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Combat them with fulfillment
Acknowledge past successes
Kill them with kindness
Frankenstein's creature
Wikipedia
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Frankenstein's creature
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Cobbled together from bits and pieces
Has a mind of its own
Misunderstood
A product of science
Creator vs. creature
Wikimedia: Deckard97
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Creator vs. creature
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If not for Victor Frankenstein, the creature would not exist
Misuse of knowledge and technology
You may not always be able to control what you create
“We belong dead”
Wikipedia
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“We belong dead”
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If you have creatures of your own to wrangle, include them in your strategy
Try not to create more of them
You're a content strategist, not a mad scientist
Ghosts
Flickr: Nesster
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Ghosts
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Spirits, spectres, apparitions...
Things that haunt us
Often unsettling
Potentially hazardous
Mistakes and regrets
Wikipedia
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Mistakes and regrets
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We carry our ghosts with us
Echos of the past
“Would have/could have/should have”
Unfinished past projects
Past mistakes
Keep them in check
Flickr: relux.
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Keep them in check
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Don't give in to regret
Don't beat yourself up
Be confident in the direction you've chosen
Adapt your strategy over time
Don't be afraid of no ghost!
Your own Mystery, Inc.
Flickr: Pat Loika
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Be your own Mystery, Inc.
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Defeat your undead through investigation and preparation
Don't only focus on technology and capability
Personality, dispositions, and history matter
Knowledge and understanding
Unmask the undead for what they really are
Questions?
Flickr: BuzzFarmers
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Contact Information
Bill Swallow @billswallow
Scriptorium Publishing www.scriptorium.com
@billswallow
