Developing a Solid Content Strategy

Developing a Solid Content Strategy

Ragan 2005 Web Content Management Conference

Hilary Marsh

www.contentcompany.biz

ragan 2005 content management conference hilary marsh, content company 2

• Background in publishing

• Online content since 1996

• Formed Content Company in 2001

• Clients include Household International/HSBC, University of Chicago, American Hospital Association, NCAA, Donors Forum of Chicago

• Joined National Association of Realtors full-time in June 2005

A little about me


• Why it’s necessary to manage content• What is a content strategy, and why do you need one?• Anatomy of an effective content strategy• What to include in a content strategy• Making your content strategy work• Why and how to audit your content• Creating a successful publishing process• Everything you’ve always wanted to know about CMSs• Myths about content management• Connecting your content strategy and your CMS• How to choose a CMS strategically• Three content stories

Agenda


Why it’s necessary to manage your content



Does content management keep your CEO up at night?

Actually, it does…

although the CEO may not realize it.


Why isn’t a non-managed site good enough?

Non-managed site • online phone book

• brochure

Why isn't that sufficient?• TV pilot, launch issue of a magazine

• beginning of an ongoing relationship



Isn't the Web a technology medium?

• Print and TV also involve great amounts of technology

• Web is just newer



Why is managing Web content hard?

• Do we manage content offline?– print, telephone, face-to-face

– sales, marketing, customer service, tech support

• Do the people creating different content know/trust each other?

• Are their senior leaders encouraging them to collaborate?



Why use technology to manage content?

5. Eliminate the bottleneck of IT updating the site

4. Compliance

3. Enable consistent, accurate, up-to-date information

2. Make use of what the Web can enable

1. Content is the way organizations meet their top business objectives



Business goals are executed through online content

• Customer retention

• Raising awareness in the marketplace

• Cross-selling multiple products

Content management is more than just a good idea.



Exercise 1

• groups of three

• introduce yourselves

• role in content

• organization and department

• three biggest content issues


What is a content strategy, and why do you need one?


To be effective, your content needs a plan

• Content strategy

– how your content will work

– who, what, when, where, why and how

– part of your overall communication strategy

– which project/areas to start with -- prioritize



Why don’t you have a content strategy?

• Most organizations have never had one

– wasn’t seen as necessary pre-Internet

– separate communications and audiences

• They don't know they need one



Why don’t you have a content strategy?

• Internal politics

– my content, my information, my vehicles, my pages

– what's in it for me to contribute?

– what's in it for me to use someone else's content?

– why are my communications suddenly being controlled?



Is content strategy the same as CMS requirements?

• No!

• Content strategy is one of the elements that informs requirements

– other elements are technical platform, delivery requirements, scaleability

– CMS requirements are largely technical; content strategy is not



Change management issues

• Culture shift from “knowledge is power” to “sharing knowledge is power”

• Willingness to collaborate....new?

• Subject matter experts are not writers



Your content without an effective strategy...



With a content strategy in place...



What is a content strategy?

Who, what, when, where, why, and how of a site’s content



The ultimate goal

user needs(what’s

desirable)

business drivers(what’s important)

technology capabilities(what’s possible)

the sweet spot in the middle



Six points to consider

business goals

user needsinformation

to create

users

existinginformation

content strategy

user goals



Anatomy of an effective content strategy



Inputs

•Leadership buy-in

•Content audit

•Gap analysis

•Stakeholder interviews

•User research

Outputs

•Schedule

•Staffing plan

•Governance structure

•Taxonomy

•Archiving strategy

•Content reuse opportunities

Implications

•Technology

•Information architecture

•Usability

•Search engine optimization



Effective content strategy—inputs

Inputs Outputs Implications

• Leadership buy-in

• inform/educate/evangelize

• which goals, right channel?

• Stakeholder interviews

• Content audit

• Gap analysis

• User research







• how do things work now?

• hard to do online what you don't do

offline

• Content audit

• Gap analysis

• User research







• Content audit

• what's there now?

• which media?which formats?

• Gap analysis

• User research







• Content audit

• Gap analysis

• what's missing?

• User research







• Content audit

• Gap analysis

• User research

• How can you meet your business goals

by delivering what your customers

want?



Effective content strategy—outputs

• Content calendar

• how often will specific types of content be updated?

2. Staffing plan

3. Governance structure

• Terminology/keywords/metadata strategy

• Archiving strategy

• Opportunities for content reuse






• Staffing plan

• how many people will it take to manage your content?

• Governance structure









• Staffing plan


• who's in charge?









• Staffing plan



• how will content appear in the right places?

• what are common terms?








• Staffing plan




• where will content go, how will it get there, how long will it stay?

6. Opportunities for content reuse






• Staffing plan





• product descriptions, bios, etc.




Effective content strategy—implications

• Technology

• how will we enable this?

• Information architecture/content organization

• Search engine optimization





• Technology


• how will information be findable?

• creators and target audience

• usable CMS, usable site content






• Technology



• making content visible to search engines

• title tags, user-friendly URLs




Exercise 2

• different group of three

• what kind of content is most in need of management in your organization?


What to include in a content strategy


Strategies for what?

• Specific pages and content types

• Content lifecycle

• Staffing

• Governance

• Archiving

• Content reuse

• Access levels

• Linking

• Surveys, polls

• Blogging

• RSS/content syndication

• Multimedia content

• Non-HTML

• URLs/domains

• Accessibility

For REALTOR.org, we define the following strategies:

What to include in a content strategy


Making your content strategy work



Figure it out

Vet it with your deparment

Get senior managment buy-in

Communicate Enforce



Sample site

• Can-Do Printers

• World’s fifth-largest printing company:– magazines

– books

– telephone books

– catalogs

• Industry is consolidating, but this company is still family-owned, as it has been for its 90 years of existence

• Each business unit has its own branding and separate websites, and many printing plants have their own sites also


Sample site

• Can-Do Printers

• New CEO has decided that all business units need to be subsumed into the corporate umbrella, one brand name

• How do we apply smart content strategies?


Why and how to audit your content


Auditing your content

• First step of a content strategy: find out what’s there and whether it’s any good

• Examine all content piece by piece, as thoroughly and quickly as possible

• Spreadsheet? Database? Depends on your skill and bent



What you might capture in an audit• top-level nav

• 2nd-level nav

• 3rd-level nav

• 4th-level nav

• existing URL

• new URL

• page description/comments

• content category

• topic

• intended audience

• actual audience

• page owner

• revisions needed?

• update frequency/last updated

• related content/links

• access level (public, private)?

• non-HTML content embedded?

• images included?

• tables included?

• links included?

• author

• editor

• approver

• publisher

• due date



Some tips

• Color coding rows helps differentiate

• Try to automate the capture so you can focus on the inventory aspect -- if not, enlist an intern/temp

• Don’t outsource the assessment

• Will a pilot be sufficient?

• Can you conduct the complete inventory in phases?

• Choose smaller samples carefully -- otherwise, your conclusions will be skewed



What an audit reveals

• What workflows exist?

• What types of content exist?

• How volatile is our content?

• How much staff do we need to manage it?



What an audit won’t reveal

• What content is missing

• What content exists offline but not offline

• What content was considered but not put online

• Information about process, governance, etc. that exists only in people’s heads

These require interviews with stakeholders and skilled editorial judgement



Creating a successful publishing process



• Does your organization know that it’s in the publishing business?

• By having a website, it is.

• A “successful” publishing process is one where everyone who needs to be involved is involved:– their role regarding Web content is in their job description

– they have the time and skills they need



Assess your current processes

• Look at Web publishing processes– work with each person or group to identify their

approval and publishing processes

– validate these processes with all the people in the publishing chain, to see if their experience of the process matches that of the content creators

• Also study your organization’s publishing processes for print communications



Use your organization’s best practices

• Ask questions– why is Legal involved for print communications but not

Web?

– Why does Corporate Communications review Business A’s press releases by but not Business B’s, and does that help Business A’s releases get posted on the corporate site more often than Business B's?



Use your organization’s best practices

• See whose information is likeliest to meet their communications goals—and assess what they are doing right. – Do they have a regular publishing schedule?

– Do they allow enough time for reviews?

• Use this model for all of your content. When you have a CMS, use it to set the rules for your automated workflow.



Everything you’ve always wanted to know about CMSs


A CMS is the tool, not the answer

• Who will be able to edit, review, or publish content?

• How will the process work?

• New publishing paradigm: Communicators edit content created throughout the organization, instead of generating content.



A CMS is the tool, not the answer

• Communicators will need more technical awareness and skills.

• Who will set and enforce editorial and design standards?

• Requires central resources for managing content and sites and for ongoing training.



What should a CMS do?

• Separate content from presentation w/ templates

• Breaking up content into its components, or building blocks

• Support publishing process (aka workflow)

• Provide role-based security

• Capture content metadata

• Provide robust repository (formats, versions)

• Manage entire content lifecycle (creation, review, publishing, archiving, deletion)

• Support content syndication and/or acquisition

• Special considerations like globalization

• Possibly dynamic delivery, personalization, decision support — depends on your strategy



Questions CM should address

• What do I have, and how is it organized?• Where is it?• How do I create it?• How do I find it?• How do I change it?• When is it obsolete?• Who created it?• Who changed it?• Who can see it?• What do I do with it when it becomes obsolete?• What have I had in the past?• Who has seen it?• How do I revert to what I had?



Answers will take the form of

• Auditing• Search• Metadata• Versioning• Check in/check out• Content Creation/Capture• Workflow• Integration with other applications• Repositories• Security• Taxonomy• Governance



You may not need a CMS...

• if the content you are posting doesn’t change often

• if you don’t need all the pieces, only the creation & posting



Myths about content management


Content management myths

1) Content management is about technology

2) Out of the box, a CMS will allow content owners not to learn any new technology

3) Once you have a CMS in place, your content will practically manage itself

4) Content management equals CMS



5) Content management is the same as knowledge management and document management

6) If you import existing content into your CMS, site visitors will instantly be able to find it and use it

7) Once your CMS is set up and the site is launched, your work is done

6) An expensive CMS is always better than an inexpensive one

Can you think of more?



Connecting your content strategy and your CMS


A content strategy is an “assurance policy” that

• you buy the right CMS

• your products and process work for all your content types

• your content owners are motivated to use it, and have the ability to

• your investment will pay off, for both content owners and site visitors



What a nonstrategic process looks like

• IT group selects a CMS

• Strategy or IT group develops a content management process based on the CMS’s capabilities

• Content owners learn about the project after the product has been purchased, during its development, or when it launches



Risks of a nonstrategic process

• Product doesn’t work for all content types

• Process doesn’t work for content owners

• Content owners skirt the process or product or—worse—don’t update their content more often than before



Who in your organization needs to “get it” about content management

• Business

• Communications

• Marketing

• Executive

• Sales

• Legal

• Strategy

• Technology (this one is last, on purpose)



Why?

• Get the necessary budget

• Content creation

• Content ownership

• Content approval

• Content use



Giving business users control of their own content: not necessarily scary

• It’s necessary– they need to have buy-in/feel ownership

– impossible to control everything

– not doing this thwarts the point of CM

• Guidance is key– documentation

– training

– follow-up

– involve business users in guidance council



The importance of a multidisciplinary governance structure

• Shared vision

• Collaborative strategy

• Rules of engagement

• Process that incorporates multiple facets and approaches, works with corporate culture



Strategy needs a multidisciplinary team

• see things from different perspectives

• learn at the same time...much more valuable than telling later

• each piece is part of a whole



Structure project for an easy win

• strategic work takes longer upfront than company is used to

• start with a smaller project...let its success spark interest in more projects

• be sure to document the “before,” so that the success is measurable



What will constitute a successful CMS?

Solution needs to be one that...

• content owners will use

• site information architecture supports

• helps business put highest-priority content in front of highest-priority site visitors

• accommodates content types, content owner capabilities, process



How to choose a CMS strategically


Step 1: Discover your users

• who are they?

• how do they work?

• which groups of users are your highest priority?

• who would be/could be users???



Discovery phase activities

• prioritize

• identify gaps

• develop a picture

• break the project into phases

• involve users – tech & content



Step 1 Activities

• ideally, observe users in their own environments

• multiple user types, observed over time

• watch, ask later



Step 1 Shortcuts

• why it’s tempting to take them:

– time/budget pressure

• why you should push back:

– risk creating a solution users don’t want

• how to take one, if you must:

– use a smaller sample of users



Step 2: Assess your content

• what content types exist? what don’t exist yet but are needed?

• what are the current CM processes? what’s working & not working?

• what gaps exist -- legal, etc.?



Classifying content

• findability: taxonomy and metadata

• more user research: – how do users categorize content?

– what terms will they use to search for it?



Step 2 Activities

• content audit (don’t forget things currently not in the site but that should be)

• user/task flow analysis (usually done by information architects—you consult)



Step 2 Shortcuts


– think you know the answer already


– risk getting software that doesn’t work for you


– representative sample, vs. comprehensive audit—RISKY!



Step 3: Add corporate culture

• how much control do you need/want?

• do you have the resources to match desired level of control? if not, how to compromise?



Step 3 Activities

• stakeholder interviews

• prioritize user groups with stakeholders

• involve IT to get input about software



Step 3 Shortcuts


– they told you what, but not why


– risk buying, customizing, installing software that doesn’t work for the business


– (to come)



Step 4: Add it all up

• Put user, process & stakeholder information together

• Matrix form is useful

• Involve multidisciplinary team

• Validate with all three groups



Know what the end will look like

• Articulate the vision for the site, for both the content creators/owners and the site visitors

• Decide how much/which parts of that vision will require a lot of dynamic content to support



Step 4 Activities

• Content matrix

• Scenarios (IAs may lead)

• Task flows (IT may lead)

• Validation sessions



Step 4 Shortcuts


– time constraints


– the solution might not work for all parts


– (to come)



Step 5: Strategy document

• write up everything you’ve learned

• get approval from the team, business, user council

• Then, buy and build your CMS!



NOW you’re ready to choose the CMS tool

you know what it needs to support– vision

– processes

– content types

– people

– volume/volatility

– reuse



Three stories

• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

• Donors Forum

• REALTOR.org

Three content stories


Before

turf wars over homepage links

content updated manually

Story: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago


After

Cohesive rationale behind content choices

Site reflects what people come for

Story: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago


• organize content based on user goals & process

Story: Donors Forum of Chicago


work in progress

• still siloed, but less so

• more effort to group content by audience, surface relevant information

• ongoing usability testing, will start user research

Story: National Association of Realtors


Does content management keep your CEO up at night?

Actually, it does…

although the CEO may not realize it.


Questions?

Hilary MarshContent Company, Inc.http://www.contentcompany.bizhilary@contentcompany.biz708.217.3922708.575.3450 fax

http://www.contentcompany.biz/