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Every time I give a seminar about writing for the Web, I talk about the content inventory (also sometimes called a "content matrix"). And every time I do, inevitably I get an email from someone that says, basically, "The content inventory has CHANGED MY LIFE."
I know many, many people who would rather stab themselves in the eye with a pencil than be responsible for a large-scale content inventory. Me, I’m weird. I love ‘em.
A content inventory is nothing more than a spreadsheet that captures each web page or content module you’re responsible for creating, reviewing, or caring for. It usually looks like this (click image to enlarge):
When does the content inventory come in handy?
At the beginning of a project
Before anyone commits to any content at all, a content strategist, information architect, web editor or web writer should conduct a content audit of all current web content. The output of that audit is a content inventory.
Ideally, the source content isn’t just being catalogued (quantified) but also carefully analyzed (qualified) for accuracy, consistency, relevance, voice and tone, and so forth.
This exercise gives the entire project team a very clear understanding of what there is to work with, which in turn should inform content strategy, schedule, and scope.
During information architecture (IA)
As any seasoned web project manager will tell you, the number one killer of both budgets and schedules is usually content. It’s far too easy for the IA to draw boxes that suddenly create nightmarish, impossible content requirements. With an accurate content inventory of proposed IA requirements, everyone can keep an eye on what’s really being proposed and what’s actually possible.
During content development
Web writers everywhere: Do not, repeat, DO NOT begin writing for a website or CMS without a content inventory. Opening up a Word doc and diving in will inevitably cause you heartache and despair. Having a clear list of what you need to create, how it’s structured, and associated requirements will make you a much happier camper.
If you’re not handed a content inventory by someone on the project team, step up and create it yourself. You will immediately become everyone’s new best friend.
Then, you can structure your documents using the same labeling or numbering system as the content inventory (which, in turn, should use the same system as the information architecture documentation). Dreamy, right?
Forever
Even if you have a big, expensive content management system, it still may be useful for you to maintain a content inventory. Simply having all of your web content assets listed in one place can help you see important content attributes at-a-glance, like who owns what, or what still needs updating.
It’s also an outstanding way to keep up with your ever-evolving web presence. Lou Rosenfeld makes a great case for the "rolling content inventory," saying that "we’ve got to get used to the reality that ongoing, partial content inventories are likely to be far more cost-effective than trying to achieve the perfect, all-encompassing snapshot of our content."
Yes, it’s manual, but ultimately, what really improves an organization’s web content is human oversight, not automated technology. The content inventory requires a live person to catalog and comment on content. This, I believe, is a very, very good thing.
Reach out and hug a spreadsheet
Jeff Veen called creating a content inventory "a mind-numbing odyssey through your website." I actually think it’s more like an enlightening journey. What do you have? What do you need? What don’t you need? Where can things improve?
I’m not saying it’s not painful. But sometimes, the truth hurts.
This portion of "Tough Love" brought to you by MS Excel.
Posted in Content Strategy
I’ve been writing for websites since 1997. You know what that makes me? Old.
It also means I’ve wrangled a lot of web content over the years. For a while, I really believed that great web writing was all about shorter paragraphs and bulleted lists. Then I discovered metadata. Content inventories. Dynamic content modules. Nomenclature.
If you’re looking for a seminar about writing great homepage taglines, then any run-of-the-mill advertising copywriting course would be fine for you.
But if you’re interested in really understanding what it takes to be a smart, successful web writer in 2009, then I’d like you invite you to register for my March 11 seminar, “Writing for Websites.”
You’ll learn:
- Why writing for websites is different from writing for print
- How to write great web content using our Top 10 Tips
- SEO copywriting basics
- How to create a smarter, more efficient workflow for drafting, reviewing, editing and approving content
- What metadata is and why you should care
- How a content inventory will change your life
Even though the seminar is still a month away, we’re already 80% sold out. The time to register is now.
Find out more, or call Josh at 612-331-6600 x60 with any questions.
See you on March 11!
Posted in Around the Office
My husband John is addicted to dwell magazine. Like, seriously addicted. When an issue arrives in the mail, he disappears for hours. I imagine him locked in the bathroom, lovingly caressing each glossy page. I call it his "house porn."
So imagine my surprise when John recently announced that he was thinking about possibly not renewing.
"I'm just THINKING about it," he said. (Because, you know. He can quit whenever he wants.)
John's subscription is about to expire on its own. We've had the renewal letters stacking up while he "thinks" about it.
But today, we got a letter that helped him make the decision.
At the top of the letter is the usual dire warning:
YOUR NEXT ISSUE IS YOUR LAST. HURRY! DON'T MISS AN ISSUE!
But then, the real letter begins. It's from Sam Grawe, editor-in-chief of dwell.
It reads:
Dear Preferred Subscriber,
Frankly, I'm surprised things have come this far. Your subscription is about to expire, and I can't understand why.
You live by your own rules. You're passionate about good design. And you've got a lively, modern eye and the courage to live differently in a nation of ranchburgers, neo-colonials, and McMansions.
Which means you're one of us. So why haven't you renewed?
Let's break this down, shall we?
First, Sam chastises and shames my husband, his "preferred subscriber."
Next, he reminds us that we are way, way better than the unimaginative, frightened people who cower in their ranchburgers and McMansions. (A little name-calling always helps to drive the point home.)
Finally, he announces that we have apparently (and unknowingly) signed up for his secret club of "us" . . . which obviously requires renewal if ,and only if, we wish to remain members.
Seriously?
This is dwell's best and final attempt at customer retention?
Whether you are reaching out to me via email, your web content, social media, mobile, a direct mail piece, a phone call, or carrier pigeon, I expect—no, demand—your respect.
Never, ever attempt to frighten or shame your customer into action. It's manipulative, it's dishonest, and it's downright tacky.
Whether or not the coming year actually would "thrill, inspire, and dazzle" us as Sam guarantees, we'll never know.
That letter was the little push my husband needed to kick his dwell habit.
Posted in Web Writing
Nearly two years ago, Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Senior Analyst (Social Computing), wrote a fairly disruptive blog post called The Irrelevant Corporate Website. It's still getting comments today.
In a nutshell, here's what Jeremiah has to say:
"The corporate website (of today) is an unbelievable collection of hyperbole, artificial branding, and pro-corporate content. As a result, trusted decisions are being made on other locations on the internet.
"The corporate website of the future will be a credible source of opinion and fact, authored by both the corporation and community. The result? A true first-stop community resource where information flows for better products and services."
This vision of the future scares the hell out of most businesses. Why? Because they're still struggling with how to manage web content in a 1.0 business environment.
Unless you're a publisher by trade, it's not likely you have the necessary infrastructure to effectively plan, create, publish, and oversee web content.
You're not alone. Even after 15 years, most companies don't have it figured out. But it's not for lack of trying. (Typically, it's mostly an issue of web content ownership, or a lack thereof.)
Without that infrastructure, how can you even hope to begin moving towards that future state, a website that's "a credible source of opinion and fact, authored by both the corporation and community"?
First, you have to want it.
If you're a company that thinks it's smarter than your customers, just stop reading right now. Keep doing what you're doing. And good luck with that.
If you're a company that's cool with talking less and listening more, a company that's brave enough to hear the good and the bad, a company that wants to actively engage in conversation with both friends and enemies of your brand, then you want to evolve. Keep reading.
Then, you have to plan for it.
Don't even THINK about opening up opportunities for user-generated content on your corporate website until you:
-
Get your current web content under control. Brain Traffic can help, here. Create a web content strategy, develop effective content workflows, assign centralized ownership, and get cracking.
- Know how you're going to engage users and respond to their content. If you open up a forum for conversation, you are immediately creating an expectation that you're going to DO something in response to what users are telling you. If you don't, you're ten times worse off than you were before.
Next, you have to fund it.
I recently had a client tell me that their company had just spent ten months and two million dollars developing a new brand platform. The outcome was a new style guide, an internally-facing video, and a new corporate identity system.
This same client then told me she had three months and less than 1/10 of that amount to update the entire corporate website (which was several hundred pages and in dire need of both structural and stylistic help).
How strategic can she be, here? Sounds like a hatchet job in the works if ever I've seen one.
Give your team the time and money to get your website right. Don't cut corners, especially not on the content. Pay to develop a smart web content strategy that will support your brand, meet business objectives, and embrace your customers. It's not just how you say it. It's what you say, and where, and when, and why.
Finally, you have to stick with it.
This is all very exciting! I bet you can't wait for everything to launch so you can move on to other efforts.
Just kidding.
Publishing web content isn't a one-time project. It's an ongoing commitment to quality, accuracy, timeliness, relevancy, and customer response. It requires your attention. It demands dedicated resources.
And, of course, publishing web content turns you into a publisher. This requires a publishing infrastructure that will allow content owners to maintain a daily focus on what's happening with your (and your users') content.
And now, go forth and be brave.
Here's Jeremiah again:
"Visualize: We’ll start to see customers help write the corporate newsletter, feeds pulling in industry blogs, media (audio and video), customers rating and ranking and voting for what features they want improved, product teams working directly with customers in real-time, and customers self-supporting each other."
You can do it! But whatever you do, please. Start slow. Be smart. Get your house cleaned up before you invite people in. Because if they don't like what they see, they're certainly not going to stick around for a conversation.
Posted in Content Strategy, Editorial Strategy, Resources, Web Writing
I've been writing content for websites for 11 years.
I've worked on well over two hundred websites, maybe close to three hundred.
And how many times have I had a style guide to reference for a web content project?
Six.
Of those six style guides, exactly one of them was of any real use to me. (Thank you, Medtronic.)
Our brands are constantly evolving. New products are launched, old ones retired. Services expand and shift. Trademarks, usage, legal requirements . . . for some of us, it's a full-time job just to keep up with them.
No wonder, then, that our web content is always a few steps behind. Inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated, disorganized.
How can you prevent crappy web content?
You know what I'm going to say, here. The most important thing you can do to ensure useful, usable online content is to create a web content strategy.
But the second most important thing? Invest in a web content style guide that's actually useful to the people who are creating, reviewing and approving your content.
In her indispensable guide to writing web content, Letting Go of the Words, Ginny Redish devotes an entire chapter to creating what she calls an "organic" web content style guide. Here are some highlights:
- Start small. Let your style guide grow as issues and questions arise.
- Don't repeat the entire universe. There are dozens of great style guides out there for grammar and usage. Pick one, and point to it in yours.
- Focus on issues that keep coming up. Your web writers likely have the same questions over and over. Make a decision, record it, and move on.
- Put someone in charge. The style guide isn't going to update itself. Make sure someone owns it and is accountable for its accuracy, every day.
- Put it online. This is a no-brainer. It's your most accessible, flexible, most cost-efficient option. In fact, a wiki might be a perfect option for your organization. Just make sure it has an owner to oversee its evolution.
Don't forget voice and tone.
I'll add one more pointer:
- Demonstrate your brand voice and tone. I'm always frustrated by brand guidelines that tell writers to be "authentic," "conversational," "professional," "friendly" . . . these words mean different things to different writers, and they're useless when you're simultaneously trying to communicate information that has to be helpful, compelling, actionable and scannable. So don't just describe voice and tone. Demonstrate it. Create a list of words to use, and words NOT to use. Show before and after edits. Point to other websites that capture the spirit of what you're after.
Creating and managing web content is a complicated enough undertaking. Simplify the process with a style guide people will actually use.
Want help creating a web content style guide? Brain Traffic's expert team of web editors and writers would love to pitch in. Contact us.
Posted in Editorial Strategy, Style Guides and Such, Web Writing
Recently, Christine Beardsell had a must-read post on ClickZ called Developing a Diverse Brand Content Strategy.
The post focused largely on video, but replace "video" with "text," "audio," or "graphics," and it's still applicable.
Four types of content to consider in any web content strategy.
We're pretty excited about her ideas over here at Brain Traffic, and we're going to adopt her classification system of web content types:
- Original content: Content your business creates and owns. By default, planning for original content is the foundation of any smart web content strategy.
- Co-created content: Content that's co-developed with a partner (like a blogger) who is already developing content for your target audience.
- Licensed content: Content you pay licensing fees for, in order to republish under your brand.
- User-generated content: Content generated for and about your brand, product, or service by an audience.
One thing we don't agree with, however, is that your web content strategy should automatically include ALL of these types of content. At least, not right away.
Why? Two reasons.
You might not need all these types to meet business objectives and user expectations.
What do you want your web content to accomplish? What do your users expect from your content? How are you going to measure success?
Get these questions answered and make your original web content work, FIRST. You may find it does a fine job on its own.
It's simply a matter of prioritization. If you're a health insurance company, figure out how to use plain language about health insurance before you license health content from WebMD. If you're a financial services company, figure out how to make your product and service information more customer-facing before you publish dozens of videos of your executive team doing soundbites on CNBC.
You might not have the resources to create, manage, and oversee it all.
This is something we see time and time again. Companies commit to a web content strategy they simply can't sustain. They launch websites with unfinished or subpar content no one really had time to generate in the first place, let alone pay attention to once it went live. They create newsrooms and blogs that languish after only a few months. They start YouTube channels but aren't sure what to broadcast (except commercials).
Again: Start with the basics. Figure out how you're going to get a handle on planning, creating, and managing your original content. What should you publish, and why? What are you trying to accomplish with your content? What's the workflow? Who's responsible?
Go slow. Be smart.
It's tempting to go publish content – text, graphics, video, audio – just so you have something to show your boss or client. "See? We're out there, doing stuff!" It's easy to license content. It's sexy to build communities for (or solicit) user-generated content. But web content needs to be useful. Relevant. Actionable. Content for the sake of content is a commodity, and a worthless one at that.
Posted in Content Strategy
Social media proponents tell us that the only way to protect our brand integrity in this Web 2.0 world is to "join the conversation"—get out there and pay attention to what people are saying about your products and services. Listen, respond, deliver on your promises. Be authentic. You know the drill.
But let's back up for a minute. In any conversation, we're really doing two things. We talk. And we listen.
Easy enough. But here's the catch. Once you decide to actively participate in social media (like Facebook or Twitter, for starters), it's important that you answer two questions about your conversations:
- Why am I talking?
- Why am I listening?
These seem like the most basic, obvious questions in the world. But they're the very first questions that must be answered before you lift a finger in social media. And it appears that many, many companies (and their agencies) are forgetting to ask them.
If you're going to dive in, don't forget to keep swimming.
For a quick example, check out these live, sponsored channels on YouTube:
Seriously, people. WHY? What was the plan, here?
Clearly, there really wasn't one. At least, not one that had a meaningful outcome to either the business or its audiences.
I see these sites, and I see three brands that don't have their social media acts together. And that makes me think they don’t care about me, what I need, or what I have to say. Not really.
So how can you participate in social media without losing trust or credibility? How can you mitigate risk and reap the rewards social media has to offer?
Have a plan. No, seriously. HAVE A PLAN.
For starters, create a well-articulated web content strategy that's actually sustainable within your organization. Plan what you're going to say, why you're going to say it, and how it's going to happen. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Scale according to real-world resources.
Then, whatever you do, make sure that content strategy informs your use of social media.
Wherever you're posting, responding to, distributing or syndicating information, be sure that information is on brand, on message, accurate, and delivers on its promise.
This isn't easy. This means you have to listen to more than just the people who are pushing you to "dive on in" to YouTube or Facebook. You must engage marketing, PR, customer service, subject matter experts, legal. They all need to be involved in the decisions you make about social media. Because they all have important information about how your social media content and conversations could impact the business and the customer.
Sound complicated? It is. So take your time. And be sure to start by asking that most basic, obvious question: WHY?
Note: This original post contained a link to a sponsored, empty YouTube channel called AmeripriseDreams. I quickly received a very lovely phone call from Keith at AMPF who let me know that they weren't responsible for this channel. Hopefully they can get it pulled down soon … good luck, guys.
Posted in Content Strategy
Meetings: canceled. History: made.
Posted in Around the Office, Brain Traffic
At the top of my reading list last week was a brave post from Mediameme's Lori Laurent Smith called, "Content Strategy for the Social and Semantic Web."
This is a terrifically complicated, difficult topic. Most of us are still struggling with how to effectively plan, create, and manage content for our own company's website(s). Now we have to worry about the many challenges the social web poses for our brand and marketing messages.
Believe the hype: Your content is not your own.
As Lori writes:
Developing a content strategy means it must be resilient against the web reality that the content will be adopted, mixed, mashed and recreated in a post-modern lovefest by enthusiasts and enemies, influencers and newbies.
[The] hyper-connectivity of users, plus the immediacy and velocity of conversation, means:
a. Inconsistencies or gaps between the message and the supporting content or user experience will be called out;
b. Gaps will be filled by users aggregating and adding to existing content; and
c. Online perceptions of brands, products, or services are created that are a new reality from the user’s perspective.
Yikes. How can we simultaneously mitigate the risks and leverage the opportunities social media offers, here? What's a company to do?
Start with a web content strategy.
A centralized, well-articulated content strategy can help you avoid those inconsistencies and gaps by ensuring everyone knows what you're going to say, how you're going to say it, and why.
Before you create or publish content:
- Clarify the business goals you want to achieve with your web content, now and in the long-term.
- Learn your audience's top interests and tasks as they relate to your product or service.
- Identify content topics and types that reflect your brand, support your objectives, and meet your audience's needs.
- Articulate your brand's voice and tone in a way that's useful to the people who will be creating, reviewing, and approving your web content.
While these activities by no means result in a fully-realized web content strategy, they're a solid start to making sure your content is consistent, useful, and usable for your audiences.
And remember: Once your content is out there, it's out there. Rest assured, if you manage to get their attention, people are going to do something with your content. Share it. Reshape it. Act on it. So be careful and be smart about what you publish in the first place. Because after that, it's no longer yours to control.
Posted in Content Strategy, User Experience, Web Writing
Happy 2009! Hope your past two weeks were filled with festivities, feasting, and family fun.
In between the celebrations and sick days (our house was hit by a variety of phlegm-filled plagues), I spent several hours luxuriating in the company of some of the web industry's finest thinkers. That is to say, I read a lot. As I'm on an insane (albeit self-imposed) deadline for my book about content strategy, I needed to get as much research done as possible in a very short amount of time.
Many of these titles have been on my shelf for years and are my go-to reference guides. A few were brand-new undertakings. Many, I love. Some, I do not. (I'll save the reviews and commentary for future blog posts.) Regardless, here's the list.
If I'm looking for every useful book out there that discusses (even sideways) planning,
creating, and managing web content … what did I miss?
Posted in Content Strategy, Information Architecture, Web Writing
