Our Blog
Archive for July, 2010
Can't get enough of curation? Then do I have good news for YOU!
James Mathewson (Editor-in-Chief of ibm.com and the co-author of Audience, Relevance, and Search) graciously invited me to do a four-part podcast series on the topic of curation best practices. Interviewer Mike Moran (author of Do It Wrong Quickly and Search Engine Marketing, Inc) did a great job shaping each ten-minute conversation, and I enjoyed chatting with both of them.
Listen in as we talk about the opportunities obstacles associated with content curation online. Each podcast is ten minutes long and available to download for free on iTunes (links can be found in the embedded player).
Part 1: Companies around the Web are struggling to present the content their users seek from the social sphere. Is content curation the answer?
Part 2: What are some of the approaches companies are taking to aggregating social content? Which ones are most effective?
Part 3: How can we preserve a great user experience when delivering curated content?
Part 4: Are there instances in which content curation is really the only viable solution?
And hey, if you're interested in content curation, you really need to be following Erin Kissane's five-part series on content curation. I'm fairly sure there will be no need to ever write anything about content curation again once she's finished with it. Which may inspire in you a sigh of relief. Perhaps.
Enjoy!
Posted in Uncategorized
Many of our clients request our help writing video scripts or incorporating interactive tools into their website. We’re all for enhancing the user experience with non-text content, but only if it makes strategic sense. And only if there’s a solid maintenance plan in place. Because publishing non-text content comes with a set of unique challenges.
Be proactive about non-text content maintenance.
In an ideal world, all website maintenance decisions happen as a result of your own company’s preferences, and on a reasonable timeline. But even if you’re not living in that ideal world you can still protect yourself. Here’s how:
- Retain source and working files from content partners
- Consider hosting options carefully, and make a contingency plan
- Build a third-party content revision path into your content workflows
Retain source and working files from content partners.
Anyone with a computer can edit a text file, regardless of its source. By contrast, editing audio, video, and Flash-based elements requires access to the original files and the sophisticated software used to create them.
It’s harder to guarantee that access if you’ve outsourced the content. Unless you make sure to get a complete handoff of all original source files you can get stuck editing these elements in other programs, to the detriment of file quality. (For example, video and graphics are best edited at the highest resolution, then rendered/exported/converted to the resolution at which people will ultimately use it.)
Consider hosting options carefully and make a contingency plan.
To complicate matters, content producers often choose to host their content on third-party platforms. Third-party video hosting services (e.g., YouTube) attract content producers by offering APIs, advanced embedding features, HD quality, and free bandwidth.
Using such providers may streamline your process initially, but also requires handing over a certain amount of control. (Companies get acquired, business plans evolve, etc.) If a change is made to the initial agreement, the API, or even the display/delivery of your content, you may be forced to take your content elsewhere.
Disruptions resulting from external partners take time and resources away from your day-to-day business functions. They also affect the user experience. (Think of a video-centric page missing its videos. Yikes!)
Concerns about hosting problems can be easily mitigated by retaining those high-resolution versions and their attendant metadata. With those in hand, upload to other suitable hosting services will be a snap.
Build a third-party content revision path into your content workflows.
Content workflows need to take into account the complexities of editing non-text content. This flowchart illustrates the steps involved in successfully making both pre- and post-publishing changes to non-text content:
(click to enlarge)
Incorporating these guidelines into your site maintenance plan will help ensure your non-text content is working as hard as it can to keep users engaged and coming back for more.
Posted in Content Strategy, Editorial Strategy, Uncategorized, Web Content
The Bear Center in Ely, Minn., has posted daily updates about Hope, an orphaned black bear, every day since she was abandoned by her mother Lily in May. Their audience has come to expect these updates, and the Bear Center delivers. Consistently.
I doubt the Bear Center has a name for what they are doing. But, what they actually have is … you guessed it, a content strategy. It’s simple: Give Hope fans what they want, then ask them to give money to help bears.
It’s working. Donations have increased exponentially. Even better, loyal readers are out there rustling up fundraising opportunities for the Bear Center. On their own. Without being asked. I’ve never seen such a captive and engaged online audience.
Why their content strategy works
For starters, they’ve got the cute, cuddly bear thing going for them. But there’s more to it than that. The Bear Center:
♦ Stands for something people can get excited about- Their mission is to protect bears in the wild through research and education.
♦ Takes a stand- They aren’t afraid to justify their decision to intervene in Hope’s life. Rather, they welcome conversation on the topic.
♦ Has a clear call to action- “Donate to the Bear Center” comes through loud and clear.
♦ Makes content a priority- Their researchers write daily updates. Even on weekends. After spending all day in the field studying bears.
♦ Inspires people to join a community- More than a million people “like” their Facebook page and hundreds visit it daily to talk to each other.
♦ Re-uses content- The same updates are posted to their website and their Facebook page, helping to increase their reach.
How content strategy can work for you
So what if you don’t have a cuddly orphaned bear to attract and retain an audience? That’s okay. You have stuff to say. And there are people who want to hear it.
Now for that content strategy thingamajig. Here are four things you can do now, on a limited budget, without an army of staff to find your very own orphaned baby bear:
♦ Start small- Pick one piece of your website. The section that gets the most visitors. Your blog. The home page. Whatever. Then, do the following three things:
♦ Identify your point of view- Content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi said at Web Content 2010, “It’s not what you sell. It’s what you stand for.” That one remark was tweeted about a bajillionty times. Cuz it’s true. Figure out what you stand for, make sure it’s different from what everyone else stands for, and then tell people who care.
♦ Define your core purpose- Before you go creating content, spend some time outlining the purpose of the content to make sure everything you publish is on-target. One way to do this is to answer a few questions, such as:
- Who is the content for?
- Does your audience care about your message?
- Does it make sense for you to talk about it?
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- What do you want people to do after they read or experience it?
♦ Be bossy- Okay, you’ve got your point of view and you’ve got your purpose. Now you need the content. Set a publishing schedule—something you can realistically adhere to—and assign roles and responsibilities for creators, reviewers, editors, and publishers.
Now, go forth and create content people care about.
Posted in Content Strategy, Editorial Strategy
It's our very first podcast! Wooo!
Recently, Kristina (our fearless leader) and Joe Pulizzi (author, content marketing evangelist, and self-described “poster boy for content marketing”) met up to discuss some similarities and differences between content marketing and content strategy.
Not only will you be captivated by their insights and insults (ok, no insults), you'll learn how to identify the One Thing that really sets your company apart from the competition. Bonus: find out how content strategists and content marketers can join arm-in-arm to sing "Hands Across America."
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download the mp3
About Joe Pulizzi
Joe co-authored "Get Content, Get Customers" with Newt Barrett. He is the CEO of Junta 42, where he maintains his blog of the same name. Joe evangelizes content marketing worldwide and maintains the popular content marketing blog Junta42. Follow Joe on Twitter: @juntajoe
Posted in Around the Office, Brain Traffic, Content Strategy
