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Last week, a designer I know tweeted about his contempt for people who talk about consuming content. His point was that the conflation of many different kinds of interaction with many different kinds of content does a disservice to our users. It’s a good point, and brought up a gap in my professional vocabulary that often annoys me: For practical reasons, I often need a term that expands the idea contained in the verb to read to cover content read aloud by a screen reader or provided as an audio or video file.

Listing the appropriate verb for each media case gets old fast: “after they read or watch or listen to text or videos or audio files on their computers or other devices” is enough of a mouthful the first time through. Consume is a convenient umbrella term, but I won’t lie—it makes me flinch a little bit every time I use it.

Before I go further, a little background information. Back in the day, I had a blog about the evils of jargon and euphemism. It was probably read by about 25 people, but it gave me a place to publish brief, fiery sermons about the evils of using leverage to mean “use” and rightsizing to mean “layoffs.” Ten years later, my work has shifted from writing and editing content to developing editorial and publishing strategies for clients, but I still strike those terms from every document I touch, and words like solutioneering still give me the clammy sweats.

 Consume content falls right on the line between terms I can grit my teeth and use and terms that make me want to rinse my mouth with bleach. And it does seem a bit silly to use consume when nothing is actually being removed or destroyed in the process. If you read a paragraph of text, the text is still there when you’re done. YouTube videos don’t evaporate after watching. And over-general terms for user behaviors always have the potential to obscure the complexities of specific interactions and encounters.

The notion of consuming content comes from the language of economics, wherein some of us produce goods or services and other groups consume (buy, use) them. The jargon of consumer and consumption isn’t new—John Locke introduced the term in 1692, and “conspicuous consumption” was already a hot idea in 1899. When Emerson wrote in 1860 that “Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer,” he wasn’t speaking only of the making and buying of material things. In the old world of publishing, we could speak of the producer-consumer relationship in terms of texts: publishers published and readers read, and that was the end of it.

Now that magazines and even books may include not only text and illustrations, but video and audio features and enhancements, the language we use needs to accommodate our reality. 

The hivemind is hungry

So what are our options, besides consume? I turned the question out to the content strategy community on Twitter, and the ensuing discussion was pretty fantastic.

Experience and absorb were the most frequently suggested alternatives, with assimilate and enjoy following closely after. Eating and drinking words were also enormously popular: you suggested devouring, ingesting, imbibing, quaffing, gorging, digesting, grazing, chowing, and slurping. Our field’s weird obsession with cake and bourbon is no longer a mystery.

As the results continued to come in, it became clear that some of us imagined alternatives to consume that included only the process of taking in information, whereas others considered consume a synonym for the larger process encompassing intake, understanding/ synthesis, and use. As the tweets settled, I made a Wordle image of the results, and then spent a little time breaking down the implications of the frontrunners.

This is what happens when you ask for synonyms at lunchtime.

• Experience: This is probably the closest thing to a medium-neutral alternative to consume that covers the … experience … of reading, watching, and listening to content. I’ll admit, though, that I find it too vague to use in my own work.
• Absorb: We already talk about absorbing information—and when we do, I think we’re implying both intake and the beginnings of understanding or synthesis. And if we are, that means we’re assuming that the content is working, in a sense. If a site user reads a paragraph of educational text, but doesn’t understand it, can he be said to have absorbed it? Maybe.
• Assimilate: Same connotations as absorb, with extra Borg-flavored deliciousness.
• Enjoy: I really like this one, but it’s heavily dependent on context. We might expect our audiences to enjoy a feature film or an essay, but a lot of the content we handle simply isn’t meant for enjoyment. In the last few years, I’ve worked on content projects for a museum that focuses on the Holocaust, for a children’s hospital, for a human resources site that eases the process of managing employee benefits, and for a physicians’ association. “Enjoy” is obviously out in those circumstances.

My favorite suggestion of the day was the simplest: use. I like use because it highlights the difference between using a website (or mobile app or …) and using the content contained on that site (or app or …). If I visit a medical reference site, watch a video, and make a healthcare decision based on what I’ve learned, I’m using that content. If I skim a page of copy about a product that I then choose not to buy, I’m using that content as well. When I watch a YouTube compilation of Maru’s finest box-jumps, I’m using YouTube, but am I using the content itself? Maybe not. Either way, I think use is a good concept to have around as we discuss the ways in which our users encounter and interact with the many kinds of content we publish.

At the end of the afternoon, I was left with a big stack of semi-synonyms, a heightened sense of the small but important differences implied in the words we choose to talk about user behavior, and a growing certainty that the topic isn’t remotely settled. I’m a fierce advocate of clarity and precision, but even I have to admit that precision of language is a virtue only when it improves our communication. Talking around important ideas helps no one, and there’s a fine line between righteously rejecting empty neologisms and being unhelpfully fastidious about our language.

So is consume content one of those clunky but necessary terms we genuinely need to express an important idea, or just a way of avoiding the precision and specificity of thought required to make responsible design and strategy decisions? I think it depends on how we use it. When it stands in for careful consideration of specific use cases, we’d do better to replace it; when it lets us speak about a new class of uses as a class, it’s both useful and appropriate.

The kids are all right

Earlier this week, I saw five smart, articulate presenters introduce new-school publishing tools, projects, and ideas to an audience of readers and creators at General Assembly in NYC. Three of the five presenters talked about consuming content without a flicker of embarrassment, and they did so as a way of collecting our multifaceted reading/watching/listening/browsing/using experiences under a single term that serves as the content-specific equivalent of using a website (or tool or app). Inherent in their work was a serious consideration of the many specific interactions between human and content that make up the user experience.

There’s always a risk that our focus on high-level systems and categories will obscure the attention to the specific, often messy details that make our work genuinely useful to real human beings. But if we’re going to make big, ambitious things, both registers—the abstract and the super-concrete—are essential. As long as our language reflects the full scope of our work, I think we’re going to be fine.

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Posted in Content Strategy

If they made a rotary version of the cell phone, I would probably have it. If Twitter and Facebook fell off the face of the earth forever, I honestly wouldn’t mind. I still own an epic collection of audio cassette tapes. And I recently received an e-reader as a gift from my dear sister.

If you believe the e-reader is now being used primarily as a coaster, follow this link.

If you believe that the e-reader is now outfitted with a smart leather cover and is in heavy rotation, go here.

Embracing technology to consume content

Welcome to a world where I love my e-reader. Due to my general technology aversion, this is shocking but true. Speaking of technology (and the long-awaited point of this post), I recently read an interesting article in The New York Times discussing how technology over the centuries has directly correlated to how we read.

Many people (especially marketers) are already quite familiar with how people read differently online—but I really appreciated the reminder of what kind of magnitude these types of technology changes can have on our culture. My prediction is that regardless of how devices for consuming content may advance, some of the same principles we practice in content strategy will hold true. For example, content should always be useful and usable, no matter what format it’s presented in.

Consider the device or medium and how it’s used by content consumers. Let’s take the ancient scroll example from The New York Times article. If you’re publishing a cookbook, will your consumers really want to try and keep the edges of a paper scroll flat to read the recipe while they measure flour for cupcakes? Probably not. So in the future, recipe companies should really think twice about whether it will be a good idea to publish content in whatever new formats may be available.

I like to use my e-reader for leisurely reading of articles, essays, and books. If I wanted to read something for business, make notes on it, and highlight sections to go back for reference—I would not chose the e-reader. For folks producing content, this will always be a key consideration.

Functionality requires you to plan for content. With my new e-reader, it’s very easy to search (like on a computer), it has a page-like presentation (similar to a printed book), and even a Technology Idiot (me) can figure out how to use it. With these functional attributes, there are corresponding content considerations such as:

• Detailed metadata that allows content to be searchable
• Content presentation style guidelines that indicate the start of a new chapter, footnotes, what kind of imagery will render well electronically, etc.
• Clear instructional copy that makes the device easy to figure out and use

All of these content needs have to be considered hand-in-hand with functionality development—particularly, who will be responsible for creating the content to meet these needs.

This is likely just the tip of the iceberg. I’m excited to think about what kinds of changes technology will have on content strategy over time. Now if you will excuse me, I have some e-book shopping to do.

Why can’t everything just be mimeographed?

While I’d like to call you a big jerk for not believing in me—I can’t really blame you. It was surprising to me. Who would have ever thought that a Luddite could have a total love affair with an electronic book? Apparently, one very intelligent Little Sis Vollenweider.

Now, if you weren’t a linear reader (aka cheater) like me and didn’t always read all possible scenarios in the Choose Your Own Adventure books, I would highly recommend you go back and read a great article that I found on how evolving technology, from the scroll to the e-reader, has changed the way we read.

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Posted in Content Strategy

If you’re like me, the first week of September has an antsy, eager feeling. Students in the United States are resuming their studies. Classrooms are filling. Textbooks are glossy. Pencils are sharp. As I imagine a distant school bell beckoning me, I realize that there’s something very appealing about the psychology of a fresh start.

One thing I’ve learned about content strategists is that we are voracious learners. We hunger for ideas, data, and problem-solving skills. We love to work hard for knowledge. We are eternal students. But unfortunately, we’re grownups, living life on the 12-month calendar of client projects and deadlines. Sure, we go to conferences occasionally, but we no longer have the fun of a whole new cycle of learning.

While helping my kids prepare for the first day of school, I spent some time thinking about the moments that used to make my heart flutter. Although many of those memories seem far from the adult workplace, I see plenty of relevant parallels, especially in the field of content strategy. So how might we manufacture the excitement of a new school year?

Buy shiny new supplies.

My father taught me that nothing in the world is full of more possibilities than a blank sheet of paper. As you fold open a new notebook in your hands, you open a correspondingly crisp page in your mind.

We work online so much, but tactile tools trigger our creativity in different ways. Try a highlighter color you’ve never used. Buy an excellent pen. Switch up your notebooks to use lines, grid lines, and no lines. Let these instruments bring fresh energy to your next project.

Bravely face your teacher.

Teachers loom larger than life in childhood. Before we even get to know them, we swap heard-it-from-an-older-sibling-or-that-one-kid-on-the-bus nuggets of information, trying to piece together a profile from reputation. Is he nice? Is she strict? I heard Ms. Kissane asks hard questions, but she’s really funny.

Our teachers in the content strategy community can be just as intimidating. This scary-smart, prolific crowd can make you feel like the dumbest kid who ever tried to learn long division. But, like all good teachers, the best content strategists share your curiosity and welcome your inquiries. Raise your proverbial hand and speak up! Comment on blog posts. Ask questions on Twitter. Active learning can only happen when you engage with your instructors.

Make new friends.

Is there anything scarier than opening your Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox next to somebody new? It may be more comfortable to stick with familiar people, but budding friendships offer different kinds of support and perspective—two things that matter just as much in the office as they once did on the playground.

Do you have a colleague you don’t know very well? Invite her to lunch, or ask for her feedback on a document you’ve created. You don’t have to become best pals with everyone, but try to forge at least one new connection. You never know which acquaintances will become valued project partners down the road.

Report back to your parents.

This may sound like the goofiest bit of advice, but how often do you talk to your parents about your work? You are a product of their upbringing, and they can offer insights nobody else can. After all, they watched you develop your first problem-solving skills. If they are supportive (or simply vain), they’ll love hearing about your accomplishments. They may also give a rousing pep talk when things go badly.

My mom has no idea what content strategy is, and she and I don’t always get along well, but I’m often amazed by her ability to draw a parallel between my daily life and some trait I developed at the age of four. Even if you aren’t close to your parents, they may reflect things back in a way that makes you think differently. And if they’re really awful, you can always run to your bedroom and slam the door.

Beginning a Year to Remember

Take this moment to reset your internal calendar. Although there’s something a little dorky about pretending you’re a bright-eyed student on the first day of class, it’s helpful to look at your work through fresh eyes. And it’s always fun to show off your new Lisa Frank pencil pouch.

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Posted in Content Strategy

You say po-TAY-toe. I say po-TAH-toe. But we both know we’re talking about a starchy vegetable that can be baked, fried, mashed, or hashed.

But what if I say, “content type?” Do you know immediately what I mean? Do you think, okay, he probably means:

1. The nature of the content. For example, it’s educational, reference, entertainment, etc.
2. The type of thing we publish. Namely, local concert info, show calendars, and reviews.
3. Some types of content are editorially created; others are curated, sponsored, or user-generated.
4. The content will include text articles, slideshows, video clips, and podcasts.
5. Different types of content appear on the landing page, overview page, and product detail pages.
6. The content will be quirky, sassy, and cheeky. Unlike the boring type seen elsewhere.
7. None of the above. And why is he talking about potatoes when it’s clearly cheese curd season?

If content strategy is part of your work, chances are good you see the differences between these interpretations immediately. Each addresses a particular aspect of content:

1. is a broad descriptor
2. is about substance
3. is about authorship
4. is about format
5. is about structure
6. is about tone
7. is about deliciousness

In this instance, the word “type” is admittedly vague. Any discrepancy between what you understand “content type” to mean and what I intend would likely be revealed if we discussed it. Moving forward, we’d agree to use more specific terms. But if that discussion doesn’t happen, you and I may proceed in different ways, and our content project may run into trouble down the road.

What’s in a name?

When it comes to content strategy, some of the terms we use and encounter don’t yet have commonly shared definitions. In the CS community, different practitioners use the same term to mean different things. Certainly clients interpret some terms in different ways, depending on their point of view and familiarity with content strategy.

I’ve observed this especially at the front end of strategy projects, when the discussion is rather conceptual. The Brain Traffic quad establishes a helpful framework for talking about the major concepts of substance, structure, workflow, and governance. However, go a level deeper—when working on actual client projects—and we often need labels to help explain specific concepts. Especially concepts related to content substance and how it comes together in structure. For example:

• Discussions about substance often include terms like content mix, subjects, topics, or types. Generally, these terms come up when exploring the parameters of what should, and should not, be included in the content. Like the example I opened with, such terms can be applied and interpreted in different ways. Even around the Brain Traffic office, these terms are used differently depending on the person, project, and when the work was done.
• Discussions about structure may include terms like module, container, component, collection, view, or element. Such terms are necessary when exploring the different ways content can be assembled, broken down, atomized, and reassembled. Because content can take many shapes within different media and presentation devices/modes, the meaning of such terms can vary wildly. That’s not necessarily bad; in fact, the flexibility can be useful.

Three steps toward clarity

Like any field, content strategy will continue to develop a vocabulary. We’ll agree on definitions for some terms and debate others. Along the way, we can help our clients, colleagues, teams, and partners by aiming for clarity. We can:

• Speak our assumptions. It’s easy to assume that people share an understanding of a term, especially when it’s a common word like the examples mentioned in this post. But when a term is used to identify a particular aspect of content strategy work during the course of a project, assumptions are ill-advised and potentially risky. Avoid this by explicitly defining terms and labels as they are introduced.
• Examine our choices. In the rush to meet a deadline, the terms used in a draft recommendations document may not be the most accurate or useful. Pause and consider how well each term expresses the intended meaning: Is there a more accurate word? Are the various terms used distinct from one another?
• Use terms consistently. Is the same term used to mean one thing in one deliverable, but something else in a related deliverable? Are two different terms used to refer to the same thing at different times? These things are easy to fix, if we take the time to notice. (A good proofreader will help spot them, too.)

Content people know that words matter, and that context, usage, and nuance can affect meaning in subtle or substantial ways. Paying attention to the terminology we use can help ensure our work is understood as intended, and lead to more successful projects.

Have you run into terminology issues in your content strategy work? What are some of the terms that caused debate or misunderstandings? Let’s hear from you in the comments.

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Posted in Content Strategy

I never wanted to write Content Strategy for the Web.

Did I want to travel the world speaking at conferences? Did I want to start a larger conversation about a topic near and dear to my heart? Did I want people everywhere to recognize the importance of content and put it at the center of their design and build processes? Well OF COURSE I DID.

But actually writing a book? Too hard. And, frankly, back in 2008, I knew for a fact I wasn’t the best person for the job. At the time, my knowledge of content strategy was fairly narrow—I was a copywriter who backed into the practice by necessity (read: for my own sanity). I could articulate the problem. I could offer some high-level solutions. But I was by no means a full-fledged expert on the topic.

It takes a village

And so, before I even had a publishing contact, I started reaching out to every single person I could find who’d written anything valuable about “content strategy” (which, according to Google, were fewer than twenty people in ten years … and believe me, I harassed them all). Content Strategy for the Web is really the first attempted synthesis of all the insights of these diverse individuals and disciplines, written in the most straightforward, conversational style I could manage. I wanted it to be a book that anyone could pick up and work with almost immediately, the kind of book I wanted in my own library of content resources.

Content Strategy for the Web appears to have struck a chord, and it did what I hoped it would: it kicked off a larger conversation that I can no longer keep up with. This was my vision, and it has become reality. So now is the part where I can ride off into the sunset. Right?

No? Darn.

Two years later … OMG

So, between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2008 (14 years), there was a sum total of 263,000 mentions of the phrase “content strategy.”

Since January 1, 2009 (about 1.5 years), there have been 1.66 million.

This pleases me.

It also obviously means that the conversation is evolving with lightning speed. Thinking about all the great stuff I’m not reading, seeing, or listening to keeps me up at night. So when my editor Michael Nolan approached me (read: kicked my butt) about doing another edition, my knee-jerk response was that it was so dated that it wasn’t worth updating. I mean, I don’t even agree with the title anymore—content strategy is rarely confined to just the Web. For these reasons, I’ve been saying publicly for two years that I would never write a second edition. Also, writing a book is hard.

But. I recognize that the book still acts as a solid introduction to the topic. And as more people step up to the plate to talk and write about their ideas and insights, there’s more information I want to help parse, synthesize, and share with a larger audience. That’s my job, and I love it. And so I said “yes.”

But only on one condition.

Introducing my co-author, Melissa Rach

There was one person without whom Content Strategy for the Web would have been, to be blunt, a hot mess. In my darkest hour (which was basically a few weeks before my all-in deadline), she agreed to put her life on hold to act as my technical editor. As I mention in the book’s acknowledgments, she’s responsible for creating much of the methodology described in Chapters 4-6. She tore apart other chapters, more or less wrote certain sections, and basically helped make the book what it is today.

Melissa is the Vice President of Content Strategy at Brain Traffic. While I’ve been on the road for three years building the case for content strategy, she has been at Brain Traffic leading a team of world-class content strategists to develop and evolve our tools and methodologies.

Now, I consider myself an expert in the core components and key deliverables of content strategy. I love identifying shared content challenges and principles between myriad disciplines. I work every day to help shape a conversation that brings us ever closer together to focus on content as a central business asset. However, and especially now, Melissa is far better suited to write about how to build and sustain a content strategy. So that’s why I’ve asked her to participate as my co-author on this edition.

Getting to the point

And so, we are pleased to announce that Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition will be released in February 2012. You’ll see updated methodologies, more template samples, case studies, and some other good stuff that we’ll announce later. Thanks again to Michael Nolan and the staff at New Riders for giving us the opportunity.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, we’ve got a book to write, which means I have to start procrastinating IMMEDIATELY.

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Posted in Content Strategy

Definitions of “content strategist” vary widely, but one thing everyone seems to agree on is the need for us to work with a diverse group of teams and individuals—a content strategist needs to be a great collaborator.

"Look, if we work together we'll get done a lot quicker."
(photo by kennymatic. cc licensed)

I’ve always thought I was good at collaboration, but after reading a recent Harvard Business Review article, “Teams That Only Think They Collaborate,” I began to question my own collaboration practices. In the article, the author divides up the way teams work into three categories, only one of which is actually collaboration.

Compliance

This happens when each team member works independently and takes action in his or her own area of expertise. For example, a project starts with everyone agreeing that their company website is confusing to visitors. Hopefully, everyone works together to define or identify business goals and objectives. They then go off to develop their individual components. One person creates site messages and provides them to the writers. Another person develops site navigation and overall structure, and then gives it to the designers and developers. But, because no one made sure everything was tied together, the improvements are likely to be inconsistent and marginal.

Cooperation

When each person still works independently, but also shares what he or she is doing with the group, this is called cooperation. Each individual creates and implements their individual solutions without an overall collective strategy. Then, before things are considered final, there is a gathering and sharing of feedback. That feedback usually falls into one of three categories:

• Minor word changes and clarifications
• Identifying any major gaps
• Things to consider for next time

Even when people take additional time to look at the deliverables, they’re more likely to simply validate that high-level thinking has been done, rather than considering and questioning why it’s been done. Cooperation will improve the work, but it doesn’t really support exploring alternate ideas and directions.

And finally, collaboration

With true collaboration, individual goals are set aside to create collective achievement. It involves everyone working together to define and address the problem using the combined resources, ideas, and talents of the team. When you collaborate, you get others involved in the decision making process. You all work together to figure out the best way to solve an issue. It’s not just about content strategy issues; it’s about how to make things better overall.

What collaboration really means

Any of this sound familiar? I realized that I had been complying and cooperating as often as I was collaborating. I wasn’t doing it on purpose. But after reading the article, I discovered there were a few habits I could change right away that would help me work more collaboratively.

• Leave room for others to collaborate. Before, I would take my thinking almost to the final solution before I shared it. This makes it difficult for someone to go back and understand every decision—which in turn makes it difficult to give meaningful feedback about other options. Just because it’s a workable solution, doesn’t mean it’s the best solution. It’s just the one that I came up with. By inviting others in at the key decision points, I’ve been able to include additional ideas and directions that I wouldn’t have considered on my own.
• Get things down on paper early. I tend to think through stuff in my head before I start writing. But it’s difficult to share complex ideas that only exist in your head. While you can talk people through things to a point, you still need to provide some documented direction that outlines what you’re thinking, along with where you have questions or holes. Once you have that, you can share it more easily with others. By creating documentation in iterations, I am giving others a framework to understand where I’m coming from and build upon.
• Understand it’s still ok to work alone. Collaboration doesn’t mean you’re joined at the hip. Everyone still needs time alone to do research and analysis, and develop shared ideas. It’s when and where you come back together that makes it collaborative. If you feel you’re at the point of setting or changing the approach or overall direction, that’s a great time for a collaborative working session.

It’s not easy

Of course, collaboration is not without challenges. Working in a new way is uncomfortable. I’ve had to set my ego and insecurities aside to share work that isn’t perfect. I’ve had to talk about ideas and strategies before I’ve felt ready. But the work is better and “getting there” faster. I feel more confident about the solutions we’re proposing, and I get to bask even more in the brilliance of my coworkers.

In the past, I’ve focused on having the answers to questions and solving problems. Now, I realize that involving others in the development of a solution adds to the true value.

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Posted in Content Strategy

When I speak with folks about possible content strategy projects, it usually doesn’t take too long for the “Tell me about a typical project” topic to come up. In a consulting environment, most people understand that this is a tricky request—especially if it’s our first conversation.

What is decidedly easier for me to address—and relevant to the “typical project” question—are the common scenarios in which people are prompted to consider content strategy and what organizations hope to (and do!) achieve with content strategy efforts.

So c’mon—let’s channel Olivia Newton-John and get typical! (Confession: I was going to link to her “Physical” video, but I watched it for the first time in years and got too uncomfortable. No wonder my parents wouldn’t let me watch early MTV. Look it up and re-watch at your own risk.)

CLIENT DRIVERS AND TRIGGERS FOR CONTENT STRATEGY

Something has changed, or is about to change at my organization.

• We are in the process of transitioning to a new content management system. Now would be a great time to clean up our content so we don’t have to migrate ‘junk’ to the new platform.
• We’ve reorganized. Now, it’s not exactly clear how our new teams are supposed to work together to create, publish, and maintain content.
• I just took a new position and content is on my plate. Now, it’s really difficult for me to take care of my day-to-day editorial updates and be smart about planning for the future.
• Our analytics and/or user research is showing us that our consumers aren’t finding/getting what they need. Now would be a great time to turn that around and impact our quarterly numbers.
   

My organization realized the complexity of our content.

• We have and/or produce a LOT of content … in seven different languages.
• There are a ton of people involved in requesting, creating, publishing, and maintaining our content (e.g., CMS users, geographic regional teams, product teams, etc.).
• Many different audiences interact with our content—and they have varying needs, objectives, and expectations.

DESIRED EFFECTS OF CONTENT STRATEGY

If everything goes according to plan, with content strategy we will have …

• An actionable, achievable plan to prepare for, develop, or implement a content strategy. We’ll be able to take this plan, execute it, and evolve it over time.
• Quality content that meets user needs and achieves business objectives. Quality means it’s relevant, accurate, consistent, clear, purposeful, and generally awesome.
• Clarity on:
  • What kinds of content is needed (topics, types, sources, etc.) and what message(s) content needs to communicate to our audience(s).
  • How content is prioritized, organized, formatted, and displayed.
  • What processes, tools, and human resources are required for content initiatives to launch successfully and be maintained over time.
  • How key decisions about content and content strategy are made—including how those changes are initiated and communicated.

ACTUAL CONTENT STRATEGY RESULTS

• Progress is made (which sets the stage for saving or making money). Sometimes, having an external (neutral) expert come in to talk about content strategy is all it takes to move things forward. For organizations that are set up to implement content strategy, but have no time or resources available to actually develop the overall strategy—getting the plan is the necessary push. In any scenario, this resulting progress is usually the stuff that makes the day-to-day content team happiest.
• Money is saved. Yes. It’s true. Content strategy work can help companies save money. For example, a content strategy effort might examine and evaluate content that is licensed. If any of this purchased content is duplicative, or doesn’t meet criteria for the user and business—that’s an opportunity to save money by discontinuing the license for irrelevant content. Or, in an organization that uses a blend of online and telephone support for products, having a clearly defined strategy for the information best served online can help reduce call volume (and therefore operating expenses). These are the kinds of results that senior leaders really care about.
• Time is spent efficiently (and more money is saved). When there is a clear understanding of who does what to which content and when, everyone involved in content processes can be more efficient. Consider this—a product manager wants to feature details on a new product on the company website. She spends time locating the company editorial style guide, and agonizes over the wording for the new web content. She then spends time tracking down who might be able to help with this request (via a manager, IT, or marketing). This is time the product manager could be using to do what she does best—improving the product. Additionally, this is time spent doing the work someone else is already paid to do—the website editor, who can create and publish the content in a quarter of the time the product manager spent. A solid content workflow strategy can uncover and improve a situation like this. Frankly, I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t get excited about this type of result.
• Consumers are satisfied (and money is made). Offering content that’s relevant, easily found, and used for its intended purpose goes a long way toward audience satisfaction. Satisfied content consumers are the ones that contribute to your goals as an organization. They buy your widget. They donate money. They subscribe to your service. They recommend you to friends. Happy customers always equal happy business stakeholders. Everybody wins!

Even though there are unique circumstances at almost any organization, there are definitely some universal themes for content strategy needs and outcomes. These themes are about as “typical” as it gets when it comes to our project work at Brain Traffic.

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Posted in Content Strategy

With content—like everything in life—it's easy to fall behind. Things get busy, a few content pieces get neglected, and before you know it, there's a big sloppy mess.

Believe me. I know all about sloppy. Let me describe for you my bedroom circa two weeks ago. It was messy. Real messy. My clothes were everywhere. And, when I was looking for something, I found it by thinking about when I wore it last and using that information to determine its approximate place.

Fraggle Rock fans might be envisioning something like the picture below. You wouldn’t be far off.

My room, lots of websites

I’ve worked on a number of websites filled with the kind of clutter and disorganization that makes users as crazy as my room was starting to make me. Chances are, you’ve been there, too. So, especially if you’re newer to content strategy, I thought I’d share the process I followed—which was influenced by the way I think about my work—to get my room in order. Similar steps apply to our work on the web.

Enough with the chaos

The pre-Brain Traffic me would have put her clothes away any place she could find room. Not this time. I let some things I’ve learned from content strategy guide me.

Here’s how it went down.

Step 1

I pulled everything out of drawers, laundry baskets, and suitcases and conducted a ROT analysis.

• R = Redundant (too many of very similar things)
• O = Outdated (also, doesn’t fit)
• T = Trivial (includes impulse buys I wore once or never wore)

I donated or threw out about 10 large garbage bags of clothes. What was left was two good-sized piles of clothes—one to wash and keep and one to put away.

Content Strategy Tip 1

Big websites aren’t better websites. Get rid of the ROT.

You’d be amazed at what a difference you can make in the content on your site by just eliminating the stuff that is redundant, outdated, or trivial. For smaller sites, you might be able to do this in one fell swoop. For larger ones, you might have to take it a section at a time.

Step 2

I inventoried what was left. Actually, I inventoried just the clean stuff as a representative sample.

As I started sorting, the logical ways to group my clothes became apparent. I did, however, modify my groupings as I went based on things like size and quantity (keeping in mind that I had stuff to wash that would need to fit this model).

• Shorts: casual and workout
• Long and capri workout/yoga pants
• Casual tank tops
• T-shirts
• Long-sleeved casual shirts
• Pajamas
• Undergarments
• Socks
• Swimwear
• Sweatshirts
• Jeans
• Dresses
• Dress pants
• Dress tops
• Skirts

Okay, you get the idea.

Content Strategy Tip 2

Take stock of what you have.

Document what’s on your site—and in other places throughout your organization, for that matter. You’ll start to see patterns that will help you organize your content later. Begin here if you need help getting started with a content inventory.

Step 3a

I surveyed the space (dresser drawers, closet, armoire) I had available to keep my clothes. From a quick review, I realized that I would have to store some stuff elsewhere. So, I weeded out the off-season clothes and put them in one of those under-the-bed containers.

Content Strategy Tip 3a

Build a library.

If one of your goals is to regularly publish content to your site to ensure people see something different every time they visit, it’s a good idea to develop content based on timely triggers that you can pull out when appropriate. Similarly, keep a reserve of evergreen content you can use to fill in the gaps.

Step 3b

Next up was determining which space would work best for which categories of clothes. In my mind, I drew a site map of my organization model that looked a little something like the following graphic. And then I put everything away. But, some things changed as I went.

Content Strategy Tip 3b

Test your concept.

Once you have a solid idea for how your content should be organized, it’s tempting to put together a site map with a bunch of page stacks and call it good. In most cases, however, someone down the line will realize that some things just don’t fit. Do everything you can to make sure every piece of content that’s necessary to satisfy identified user and business goals has a place to live.

Step 4

Once I got everything put away and started reveling in my accomplishment, I got to thinking. The conversation in my head went a little like this:

“This will have all been a waste of time if I can’t figure out how to maintain it.”

“You’re right. It will all be for nothing if you just let it get disorganized and cluttered again.”

So, I made some guidelines for myself related to maintaining and governing my clean room. They are pretty simple guidelines. It’s following them that will be tough.

• When you change in the evening, put the clothes you wore back where they belong or in the wash.
• If there is no room in a drawer or in the closet for an item you need to put away, find something to store or donate to make room.
• If you buy something new, get rid of something old.
• Conduct the ROT analysis at the end of each season.
• Um, do your laundry, instead of just buying new clothes that you don’t need.
• If your room is still clean at the end of each month, splurge on something special.

Content Strategy Tip 4

Make maintenance and governance a priority.

When you’re thinking about what content to include and how it should be organized, keep the sustainability of your ideas and how you’ll know whether they’re working top-of-mind. A website that you’re not able to keep up with after launch can damage your relationships with your customers or visitors. And more and more, you’ll be asked to prove that what you’ve developed is worth the effort.

In case you’re wondering, I’m just over a week in and everything is still in tip-top shape. All it takes is discipline and a keen desire to leave the mess behind.

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Posted in Content Strategy

If you’re new to content strategy, or if you’re thinking of hiring a CS person or an agency to help you deal with your own content, you’ll probably be tempted to spend a lot of time looking at the documents we call “deliverables.” Deliverables are concrete, which is reassuring. They’re also repeatable (in theory), so looking at documents for one project should tell you something about the kinds of documents required for another project.

It’s easy to focus on the concrete and the repeatable—sometimes to the exclusion of other aspects of content strategy work. But the concrete things we make don’t always reflect the whole of the work that we do.

Things to Make and Do, Volume 9 of a 1970s edition of Worldbook’s Childcraft encyclopedia of awesome things. Volume 9 is, objectively, the best. Note well the hypnotic effect of the paper-plate dragon.
Image credit: Awful Library Books

Documents on the brain

In the last few years, the content strategy community has begun to standardize on a central set of documents, and we’ve been thinking and talking about them … a lot.

And that’s fine, as long as we maintain perspective on what deliverables really are, what they’re not, and how they fit into our work as a whole. It’s easy to conflate what we produce with what we do—to confuse CS documents with CS itself.

Deliverables are great. Especially those that are repeatable in form, if not in content. They can save us tons of work reinventing the basics. They help us scope projects, teach new practitioners, and reassure clients that their money buys something they can touch (and write on with a ballpoint).

But they’re still what we (visibly) make, and not what we do.

Deliverables accomplish three main things:

1. They force us to standardize our processes
2. They document some aspects of the work we do
3. They help us sell our ideas

To understand the distinction between making and doing, let’s step through those functions, one at a time.

Process organization

Standardized documents—those we carry from project to project in one form or another—tend to impose repeatable processes. If we’re going to deliver a competitive analysis document, we’re going to have to … analyze the competition. In an orderly way that makes sense when set down in crisp black toner. And if we’re going to deliver content audit findings, we’re obviously going to need to audit the content.

This stuff gets much more nebulous as we move into vaguer document descriptions like “high-level content strategy recommendations,” and that’s because those processes really aren’t as repeatable. Each client’s strategy must be built from scratch, and although we can decide to arrange our recommendations in standardized ways, their actual contents will necessarily be unique in every project.

Selective documentation

Documents communicate our analytical, synthetic, and creative ideas to other people so that they can evaluate and use the ideas themselves. They may also let us “show our work,” justifying our recommendations, explaining the steps in our analyses, and offering views of the data we’ve consumed along the way. But there are also scads of ideas, processes, discussions, and other kinds of brainwork that don’t make it into deliverables. Not in a recognizable way, at least.

For example, collaboration on work that “belongs” to other disciplines, from feature/interface design to microcopy, rarely shows up in CS deliverables. And much of the groundwork for high-level recommendations—things like audits, gap analyses, stakeholder interviews, and user research—should usually be present in deliverables only as brief summaries, lest decision makers be bored into a coma by too many spreadsheets.

There are usually other types of internal, non-deliverable documentation that track many of these different kinds of work, but by definition, those other forms usually aren’t public. For these reasons, looking at deliverables alone can produce a distorted picture of the efforts required to get to final recommendations.

Persuasion

Because we live in reality instead of a scholarly abstraction, deliverables must also help us sell our ideas to clients and managers. Excellent deliverables are persuasive … and persuasive in ways that are specific to the project and surrounding situation. No boilerplate allowed.

Of course, deliverables can’t be useful sales tools unless they’re a solid manifestation of our consultative work. Smart decisions don’t quite sell themselves, but smart decisions supported by concise explanations of the reasoning behind them are usually quite persuasive. Especially if the decisions and rationale are explicitly connected back to the goals and requirements everyone agreed on at the beginning of the project. (You did do that, right? Get everyone to agree on those basics? If not, start with this post.)

Deliverables aren’t …

Let’s flip it around for a minute and consider what deliverables aren’t. They’re not:

• A replacement for good processes
• A comprehensive record of our work
• A substitute for the synthetic, analytical, and creative thinking and problem-solving that constitutes content strategy

If you’re trying to get your head around content strategy, either as a new practitioner or a client/manager, deliverable reviews can help quite a lot. But remember always that what you’re seeing on paper is the visible tip of a much larger and more complicated chunk of ice.

(And those slightly terrifying goggle-wearing seals that keep swimming under your boat carrying underwater welding equipment? Those are the content strategists. Don’t worry. They’re your friends.)

Going deeper

What does that mean, in practical terms?

If you’re trying to learn more about CS, or about the capabilities of a particular firm or practitioner, don’t just talk deliverables. Ask about process. Ask about philosophy. Ask to talk through completed projects and the results CS produced.

If you’re a new practitioner or someone who’s curious about CS, talk to people who work alongside content strategists, like designers and project managers. Talk to clients or managers who’ve seen a CS project all the way through. Think about all the underwater effort that goes into producing the shiny deliverables you can see and touch.

If you’re on the client/hiring side, remember that in the end, it’s not the deliverables or even the thinking behind them that matters, it’s whether those things produce results: whether they save money, make money, bring order to chaos, produce intelligence from messes of data, communicate ideas more effectively, prevent derailments, and meet the goals you set out to meet. And if you’re the one championing a CS project, a lot of that is under your control, even if you don’t produce a single deliverable.

Do all of that and no matter who you are, you’ll go into your next project with a much better understanding of what’s going on under the surface of all those painstakingly proofread deliverables we love so much.

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Posted in Content Strategy

There’s been some great success lately with raising the visibility of content strategy in organizations. Recently, I’ve spoken at several conferences and events, and I'm seeing a stronger representation of people who work “on the inside” – within organizations large and small. After each session, several of these insiders come up to me (with a look somewhere between excitement and terror in their eyes) and ask: “How do I get started?”

(photo by Twid. cc licensed)

Having spent a lot of my career “in-house,” I can sympathize with the challenges. I know how hard it can be to get things done. If you’re an insider, here are a few tips to get the ball rolling.

Get focused

Looking at the entire landscape of an organization's content can be daunting. In truth, enterprise content strategy projects can take months, if not years, to complete. And that's with a team of people focused on nothing else. You probably have a variety of responsibilities that make "fixing our content" an almost impossible starting point.

With an internal role, the work is usually more fluid and ongoing. To make things manageable, you'll need to set some priorities. When you're looking across the organization at everything you could do, here are a couple of tips to help you get focused:

• Find low visibility content with high potential. People often have strong opinions about the home page and main section pages. These content hot spots can be difficult starting points until you have some success stories to back you up. Look for things that have high potential for customer engagement, but usually get ignored. Support content like help sections, customer service pages, or error messages are good candidates.
• Pick sympathetic business partners. You likely work with a wide variety of groups within your organization. Each group probably has its own culture—some you may work well with, others, not so much. It’s always easier to get things done with people who are supportive. Use their requests for some early test projects to build a case for larger initiatives.
• Use workflow as a foundation for quality. Establishing a common definition of content quality can be hard without some serious organizational support. But most groups are allowed some autonomy to define the best way to get their work done. Use this to your advantage. Create tools that will help you gather the information you need to keep your content in shape. Focusing on the behavior (i.e., process), instead of values (i.e., quality), will make it easier for others to adapt to. Plus, gathering information up front will make it easier to create and maintain high-quality content.

Get to work

Now that you know what you’re focused on, it’s time to get stuff done. There are numerous processes and approaches out there, but I would recommend the following as a bare minimum:

• Know the business goal. You have to know the business goals to know what you need to produce. The best approach is to ask questions. It can be as simple as “what are we trying to achieve?” Then be brave and ask it again (and again) if you didn’t feel like you got a real answer. If you keep asking, you’ll open the door to several possibilities:
  • Business goals could be defined
  • Identifying a lack of business goals moves the request to the bottom (or off) of your list of priorities
  • People figure it out before they come to you
• Analysis + documentation = gold. This is the single biggest thing I would change if I went back to a corporate team. When you’re really familiar with the organization and its content, it always seems like a waste of time to write down what feels obvious. But finding 250 web pages with errors or 15 people using different definitions of the same term provides concrete examples that others can identify with. The time it takes to complete an analysis and develop documentation is worth the clarity it creates. It’s the best defense against scope creep, changes in direction, and inconsistent assumptions.
• Get some help. If you need support but can’t afford to hire an external consultant, look to your peers for best practices. The content strategy community is an extremely friendly, generous, and talkative group. Look at #contentstrategy on Twitter and the content strategy Google group to connect to a universe of smart, respected people; many are also top professionals in the discipline.
• Make it work for you. Think of all the possible content strategy deliverables and resources like a buffet (the big fancy buffet at the Bellagio, not Old Country Buffet). Don’t be afraid to take only the parts that you need and combine them with others. There are no rules. Remember, the best practice is not to create a page table or an audit, but to gather and communicate the information necessary to achieve your goals. A page table or any other “standard” deliverable is just a version of that communication.

On your mark, get set…

It’s encouraging that so many organizations are getting interested in content strategy. The ongoing nature of the organizational content strategist is crucial to improving content long term. It can be challenging to hear a conceptual approach and figure out how to apply them to specific circumstances. Remember you don’t need to know the solution to get started. Get focused and get to work and the rest can be figured out along the way.

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Posted in Content Strategy