1. Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple. C.W. Ceram (1915-1972)

2. nyu-identity-group@nyu.edu. nyu.edu/torchtech. nyu-ux-group@nyu.edu. social.media.ambassadors-group@nyu.edu. Join the club Before we begin, you are a part of this community because you are a CMS user. We want these sessions to be helpful, but also a great time to network or meet others from across the pond, so to speak, but there are a few other groups on campus that really compliment your efforts in the CMS. They are the NYU Identity Group which is run by Mark Courtney, TorchTech which is put together by Evan Silberman from Silver School of SW, the UX-or user experience-usability group run by Mark Reilly with Academic Technology Services, and the social media ambassadors group hosted by Chris Barrows from our own team Digital Communications. If you are interested in learning more, or signing up for future event announcements, I would suggest emailing the above groups. 3. News & Reminders 5.6.1 Upgrade nyu.edu/digicomm/request askITS@nyu.edu digital.communications@nyu.edu A few weekends ago we upgraded the CMS to a new version. You all should have received multiple email communications about thisplease let me know afterwards if you did not. How do you all feel about green? There are a couple of new things you might have noticed- the recently used assets on the welcome screen, and the new search functionality for pages and assets. Ask ITS is still the first line of reporting if you are having issues in the CMS, but there are issues we see consistently that can be easily remedied. We will let you know when these are launched. Also, as a reminder, please use our request form for project or content requeststhese are followed up by and routed to appropriate people by our project managers, and digital.communications@nyu.edu alias if your question/comment doesnt fall into a specific category. 4. Content is King. Presented by: Cassandra Ketrick Karen Vasey Eric Bross NYU Digital Communications Group Content is King Bill Gates has said it, Google has harped on it, and Sumner Redstone of Viacom said it before all of thembut the term has been said to be coined as early as 1914. Thats what we are here to talk about todayContent. You are the content experts in your department. You are empowered with the CMS to make changes to your website on a whim 24-7. This is a wonderful thingbut can also be a daunting task, and while everyones specific goals and audiences may vary slightly, there are definitive guidelines we can work within to ensure our website viewers are able to digest and navigate through our content. You all are content producers. You are writers. You are communicators. That may not be your official title, but thats what you are doing when you are working in the CMS. The essence of good content is good writing. Yes, theres spelling, grammar, punctuation...but then theres readability, approachability. The dream here is that we all can dedicate quality time to our website and our web communications. The reality is that it is often just tacked onto our roles as 5. an afterthought or an in addition to everything else we need you to do item. I am going to go into some specific tools you can use both in and outside of the CMS to help content creation be easier. Karen is going to pick up with some strategy points, and Eric is going to finish us up with how analytics can inform your content but not NYU.edu stats and trends and how that informs your content. 6. Content rage. We have all been on websites trying to access information and felt like this guy. [play clip] Weve all been here. We know what it feels like to not be able to access the information we are looking for. We all have it in our power to make the web world a better place one well-written sentence at a time. One easily-scannable page at a time. So lets get into some of the tools you can use to make content creation easier. 7. Tools Content Creation While a CMS can help with managing edits and approvals, it often falls short when it comes to tracking changes and adding author and editor comments. In our recent survey, the majority of you said that a lack of time and many channels have to approve it are barriers to updating your content. Im going to suggest four ways to assist in your content updates that address both of these pain points. 8. Annotations Annotations have been an functionality in the CMS for sometime now, but they are a little non-descrip, so we tend to forget about them. To add an annotation to your page you will need to right-click on a pre-existing component and select Annotate. The great thing about annotations are they are only viewable by users in the CMS. When you create one you have the option of picking a color for it with the color wheeland also drawing things like arrows using the squiggly line icon next to the color wheelit will also say who created the note at the bottom, displaying the authors NetID. You could come up with a system for using the colors, to indicate pink as must change or yellow for recommendation only. I also use these as reminders to myself about where there is content being referenced within our section. For our tutorials, I added the Shortcuts component to most pages, but I used the reference component so if I needed to make any future changes, I would only be making the change on one component. I used the annotation to visually remind me not to delete that content. 9. Version Control I use version control all of the time. A few things you should know about version control are that every time you activate a page, a version is automatically created for you. The system only saves the last 140 versions, for up to 14 months. This system maintenance helps with system performance. When you put in comments for the version, you can view those by hovering over a specific version. 10. Google Docs When many channels have to approve copy or language for the website, using Google Docs might be helpful. Not only will you have the option to comment, and see all revision history very easily, you can have a built in spell checker for your work. The great thing about being a google apps school, is really getting to use the collaboration products. Just make sure that if you are writing your text outside of the CMS and pasting it into the Rich Text component, that you use the Paste as text clipboard that is in the component to strip the formatting. Not doing so will lock up the component or entire page and you will need to contact askITS to fix the page. 11. Worksheet Today everyone has received a Strategic Content Worksheet. We have created a Word Doc Template for this, so you can save it on your computer and use it when you are wanting to add new content. This will also be included in a followup email to you all. For those attending us in the webinar, it is attached to this session for you to download. This worksheet can be used as a guide. When working to add new content, we would recommend do it in increments. Consider reserving an hour a week to look at your content and make changes. This is not always possible, we realize, but when it isit is a great way to make the issue of time less of a burden. Consider breaking up changesthis is what we did for our recent upgrade updates to our CMS tutorials. We set priorities for that project. Priority 1 was updating all screenshots, priority 2 was working to make them easier to navigate, and priority 3 was rewriting and reworking them. This step 3 is something that is ongoing work. 12. diaryofacontentstrategist.tumblr.com. Inspiration. Recommendations for the content nerd inside all of us. In addition to the previous options I mentioned, we also look to outside inspiration and resources to inspire content creation. Our field, of creating web content is relatively new compared to most disciplineswe are still on unchartered territorywe are all still figuring it out as we go. There are great resources out there that we have found helpful. Diary of a Content Strategist- Tumblr that Karen found that is a combination of content related memes and relevant topic links Content Strategy for the Web- a classic and a favorite of mine...very inspiring Letting Go of the Words- tackles the topic of good writing Confab- conferences are a great way to hear how others are doing it and I would highly recommend this one Now, Karens going to continue with some strategy tools and recommendations. 13. Strategy Content Creation Many of you selected lack of time as the top reason thats preventing you from updating your content. We often encounter authors who, after not having time to maintain and update their pages, want to scrap everything and rebuild their webpages from scratch. This is time-consuming and potentially very stressful. Having a content strategy will help you identify your content, develop timelines, and initiate an iterative approach to maintaining your content. It will also help you to create and maintain online content that is relevant and that evolves according to your audience's changing needs and interests. 14. Quality Content: Attracts Engages Informs Retains Rick Allen, ePublish Media, Inc This is a slide, that I reproduced, from Rick Allen at ePublish Media who works exclusively advising Higher Ed institutions on content. I like this slide because it reminds us that we create content to attract, inform, engage, and retain our audience. Sometimes we become so focused on the work that we do and how we want to present it that we lose sight about who our audience is and what their needs are. Remember your audience will choose what content they want to access, when they want to access it, and how they want to access it. We dont get to control that experience for them. We can only facilitate the experience by providing them with sincere, readable content. To help you achieve quality content, weve put together a 5-step guide that will help you begin to think about your content creation strategically. 15. Prioritize It. Make a list of the content you want to include. Use the worksheet to align content goals with university objectives. Analyze and determine priorities. Step 1 is to prioritize your content goals. When you start thinking about refreshing your current webpages or building out new pages from scratch, begin by listing all the content you want to include. You can use the Strategic Content Worksheet that Cassie mentioned earlier to help you really think through your content, define your business objectives, identify your audience needs, and begin to organize your content priorities. Look for patterns and start thinking about solutions. Defining your priorities in writing will help you focus on your top must-have content. It will also illuminate content that is lower priority and can be developed later. Or perhaps maybe never. Because that happens and its OK. 16. Identify It. What content do you have? What content can be reused? What content is outdated? What content is missing? Learn more about content inventories at the Brain Traffic blog Step 2 is to start identifying your content. Often times, I do this step at the same time as the prioritize it step. If you have existing webpages, documents, videos, or other content assets, you need to identify it and a content inventory is a great tool for capturing that information. Theres nothing glamorous about a content inventory. Its just you, a spreadsheet, and the task of cataloging everything. The good news is that after you do it once, it becomes a living document. You can add to it and edit it as your content continues to change and develop. Its a great way to track changes and its a document that will help you to transfer your knowledge to other cms authors who may become responsible for your webpages in the future. After youve inventoried your content, its time to audit it. Ask yourself what content do you want to keep, delete, or update. Also ask yourself what content is missing and determine who will be responsible for creating that content. Mark all of this in your inventory and use it as your content blueprint. 17. Write It. Use inverted pyramid style of writing. Avoid jargon and acronyms. Use small words and short, direct statements. Format text. Courtesy of Laura Creekmore, Creekmore Content After identifying the content that needs updating and the content that needs to be created, its time to start writing. The inverted pyramid style of writing has endured the test of time, and it is how we recommend you organize your content pages. This technique "front-loads" the content so that the most important information is placed at the top of the page. Supporting details follow and background and general information should go towards the end. It can be tempting to begin with background and general information, but resist that urge. Get to the point and tell your audience what they want to know. Avoid jargon and acronyms. They only make sense to you. Use small words and short, direct statements. Less is more. Content strategist Laura Creekmore offers the following tool for checking your writing for clarity: Pick a piece of writing youd like to test, delete every sixth word, then ask someone who doesnt know the content to fill in the blanks. If they can fill in the blanks, then you know youre on the right track. If they cant, youve got some work to do. Finally format what you write to be scannable by: Using headings and subheadings to organize content, not to style text 18. Using bulleted lists Using text formatting like bold and italics when appropriate Using images that enrich the meaning of your writing Using tables for data 19. Personalize It. Use an approachable tone. Embrace a voice that is spontaneous, sociable, expressive, professional, wired, responsible, and ambitious. Avoid sounding bureaucratic. Brevity = Respect Jokes Personality NYU Identity Language Guide Voice and Tone is all the rage right now. We know now that site viewers respond better to sincere, quality content than to contrived messaging. They respond to a conversational tone rather than to a bureaucratic, impersonal tone. They respond to content that has personality. Recently the NYU visual identity division of Advertising & Publishing presented the NYU Identity Language Guide. The guide is a collaboration between an outside consultant and the NYU visual identity group. I think a lot of the recommendations in this guide can be applied to the writing for the web. We are beginning to shift away from a classic, formal tone towards a tone that is more approachable and conversational. Your tone may need to shift to according to occasion. It may not be appropriate to use an informal tone for a serious announcement, but theres also no need to bloat that announcement with stilted, formal language that invokes bureaucratic authority. As you begin to consider the tone, you will also begin to develop a voice to your writing. Embrace a voice that is spontaneous, sociable, expressive, professional, wired, responsible, and ambitious. One pitfall to avoid is thinking that jokes/humor are what gives your writing a personality. While humor is awesome, dont force irreverence because you think randomly mentioning bran muffins will somehow lighten your tone or give you a voice. Remember that humor is subjective and has the potential to confuse a message or 20. can inadvertently offend. 21. Chunk It. Increases readability. Facilitates use of reference component. Prepares for the future of adaptive content. Karen McGrane, The Mobile Content Mandate Finally consider the structure of your content in the CMS. Instead of just copying and pasting all your text from a Word Document into a single rich text editor component (affectionately called a blob by many content strategists), consider breaking up you information. This accomplishes a few things. By identifying the building blocks that make up your content blob, you can start to identify content relationships, group like content together, and apply headers and subheaders to identify these chunks of information. It is far easier to read and find information in a page that is organized into smaller topics rather than trying to read your way through a wall of text. It is also easier to update content that is chunked. In our CMS, we have a reference component that Im sure many of you are familiar with. By breaking up your content, you will facilitate the ability of your content to be referenced. Referencing content is one way to help maintain the integrity and consistency of content across the site. Finally, and this is definitely future thinking, content strategists are beginning to preach the value of adaptive content. Adaptive content separates the information from the presentational layout so that it can be reused on multiple platforms including mobile, desktop, tv). If you begin practice chunking your blobs now, youll be in good shape for the future. 22. Quality, relevant content can't be spotted by an algorithm. You can't subscribe to it. You need people - actual human beings - to create or curate it. Kristina Halvorson, Content Strategy for the Web So thats our 5-step guide. I just want to end with this quote from Kristina Halvorson. I think that sometimes we get so caught up in new technologies and trying to be cutting edge that we forget that in the end we are simply people creating content for other people. 23. Analytics Content Creation Looking at an overview of analytics is very helpful when you want to inform your content. It can be helpful to know, for example, that your audience is heavy mobile users. Our current site is not mobile friendly, but you could make sure your content is easy to digest on a small screen. Here are a few stats you might find interesting from the past year regarding NYU.edu. 24. Traffic Sources. This data is from 2013. These are traffic sources for NYU.edu. Direct: type NYU.edu into a browser or have a bookmarked page. Referral: link from a non-NYU.edu site. Search: From Google, Bing, Etc. 25. Mobile Devices. iOS 79.81% Android 17.54% Blackberry 1.12% Windows 0.52% ______ 98.99% 12 other devices make up the remaining 1.01% 12 other devices make up the remaining 1.01%. Other web-wide surveys lower iOS share to about 55% and elevate Android share to 28%, which illustrates how popular Apple devices are in the NYU community. (this stat is for the NYU.edu from Sept 2012 to Aug 2013. 26. Layout Advice Right column vs. main content Headers/bold to help scanning One type of square promo style 2-3 topics per page Examples: http://www.nyu.edu/admissions/fall-in-ny.html http://www.nyu.edu/community/nyu-in-nyc/core-plan- commitments/construction.html http://www.nyu.edu/employees/hr-at-your-service.html Your Questions. 27. Managing Shortcut Menus & External Links Use the reference component so you dont have to update multiple shortcut components For CMS pages, use internal linking Schedule link audits with staff or student help Feedback form in footer to submit broken links Your Questions. 28. Column Control Errors We are aware of this issue and it will be addressed When moving promos or other content within column control, use copy and paste when possible and if you receive an error click on the refresh icon located in the Sidekick (it will display in the place you moved it) Your Questions. 29. Best Practices for Promos/Reference Components Different styles of Promos are not all meant to be on one page Use internal links for CMS pages There are a limit of references you can use on a page (think no more than 30) Your Questions.