Content Strategy

Content Curation - Content Strategy vs. Museums

2011-11-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here's an excellent article by Jonathan Salem Baskin on applying the concepts of museum curation to the idea of content curation.

There is a lot that we as content strategists can learn from folks who do "real curation."

"The collection as a whole is what defines a brand for consumers, and its placement and propagation on the Web is the branding. You can't go to a marketing event without getting lectured on how to curate content. Books have been written about it.

But I know real curators -- I'm working with one of the world's preeminent museums right now -- and their work has nothing to do our version of it. Claiming that we build rocket ships would be about as accurate. Actually, we could learn from these curators, especially considering that the museums and other research-based institutions where they work score incredibly high on consumer rankings of authority and reputation."

Read the Entire Article

Microsoft Content Strategy Job

2011-08-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just published a job ad for a Senior Content Publisher (a content strategist from reading the ad) to work for their Legal and Corp Affairs group. Sounds very interesting.

"Do you have a passion for the web? Are you customer-focused? Do you have experience creating client-focused, web-ready solutions in the form of content and tools - and the processes needed to achieve that goal? Come work in the Information Services & Solutions group supporting Microsofts Legal and Corporate Affairs (LCA) division and help us redesign our web portals to focus on the needs of Microsoft employees, legal vendors, and LCA personnel."

Check out the Senior Content Publisher (content strategist) job posting

Content Strategy - The Three Cs of Social Media Content

2011-04-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

The blog - A Passion for Wine – A Passion for Marketing - has a great post about how to begin thinking about a content strategy for social media.

"To be sure, this process is one that takes time and getting to know the client deeply so as to be able to help in the conception, creation and curation of their content, a significant part of any plan or model that involves Social Media, as it is the content that gets people talking about their company online with more regularity.

So I thought that it would be valuable to briefly describe what I call The Three C’s of Content Strategy - Conception – Creation – Curation

Social media content strategy always begins with understanding your internal appetite for loss of control and transparency. Are you going to be comfortable getting negative comments and are you prepared to deal with them in a positive way that turns a bad situation around? Going social is about having conversations and sometimes, conversations can get heated. Have a plan for monitoring and handling customer complaints whenever they post them.

Important Traits for a Content Strategist

2010-10-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

If you've never met a content strategist before, and you know very little about content strategy, how would you begin to hire some one to fill that roll?

This is an interesting question that a new post over on CMS Wire attempts to answer.

Their list:

Curiosity
Cross Communication Skills
Organizational Skills
Attention to Detail
Knowledge of Content Strategy Leaders

That's a pretty good list. In addition to cross communication skills I'd also add, an interest in basic Web technology. I'm not saying that you have to be a programmer, but if you don't have some idea of how all the parts work together, then spotting the specific content issues may be a problem.

Check out the whole article:
Five Traits to Look for When Hiring a Content Strategist

It's Content Strategy Week At Johnny Holland Magazine

2010-10-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Johnny Holland Magazine is an open collective talking, sharing and finding answers about the interaction between people and products, systems or processes. This week they are all about content strategy and how content strategy solves problems.

Here are some content strategy articles that will drop during the week:

Monday: Problems with Owning and Organizing Content
Tuesday: Problems with Creating Consistent Content
Wednesday: Problems with Understanding Content
Thursday: Problems with Evaluating Content
Friday: Problems with Strategic Planning for Content

I'm looking forward to a lot of great conversation on top of the top-flight articles. Should be an interesting week!

Content Strategy Week At Johnny Holland Magazine

Listening Should be a Huge Part of Your Content Strategy

2010-09-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

All too often, Web consultants rush to drive clients to what's new or trendy without stopping to see what the market is really interested in.

Beyond, a new content consultancy in San Francisco is focusing on just that. They have methodology that focuses on listening to the customers first, figuring out what kinds of things they like to talk about, and THEN developing a content strategy that creates and delivers the desired kinds of conversations, where they like to have these conversations.

A Web site is not always the answer and neither is a blog or social media. Don't start with the delivery platform in mind. Find out what the market wants first.

"Next Fifteen Launches Beyond, A New Type of Digital Consultancy
According to Matt Iliffe, Creative director and founder of Type3, "The days of Web strategy are gone. It is now about creating a content strategy grounded in what people want to talk about and then making sure that that content is available anywhere, on any platform. In some cases that could be an owned property, but in other cases it might be a third-party community or media destination.

"Just because we are a digital consultancy doesn't mean we will recommend you spend thousands on building something. We all know if you build it, they don't always come," concluded Iliffe."

For more about Beyond go to http://www.bynd.com/

Begin Web Design with Content Strategy

2010-08-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

In his Lucid Plot blog, Jonathan Kahn makes some great points about content strategy and the Web design process.

"Embracing content strategy is about the web industry growing up. We’ve been happily distracting ourselves from the scary, messy reality of web strategy, governance, and content by focusing on tactics, features, and techniques. If we want to fix the broken user experiences that result, we need to make some difficult changes. If you’re up for that, you’ll prosper."

Check out the entire post.

New Content Strategy Column in CMS Wire

2010-07-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

As a content strategist, the people who implement and control your web content management system (WCMS) can be either your best friends or worst enemies. Anyone who had been through more than a few new site rollouts can attest to this. If the CMS is overly complex, hard to use, and buggy, it will make the content development phase of your project a nightmare.

So it's great news to see CMSWire.com speaking directly to their audience about content strategy in a new, weekly column.

"Welcome to our new weekly column on Content Strategy. We will serve up a healthy dose of tips, tricks and tools related to content development, design, usability, search engine optimization and other content governance. This week we examine content for the sake of content and what makes it so darn important to the rest of what we do."

Take a look at what they are up to and help steer them in the right direction with good comments.

Content Strategy: Why Content Matters

Atlanta Content Strategy Meetup - July Recap

2010-07-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Kim Ware for sending this along.

Here's a bit of a recap for those who missed this month's Atlanta Content Strategy Meetup. July's meetup featured Joe Pulizzi, content marketing evangelist and founder of Junta42. Joe gave an inspiring, practical presentation on "Higher Purpose Content Marketing" that left us all with great ideas for improving the content in our blogs, websites, and even our tweets.

CHECK OUT THE SLIDES >

Colleen live-tweeted during Joe's presentation, so for a recap via Twitter, search #atlcs.

We also posted some photos on the ATLCS flickr photostream, so check those out as well.

Content Strategy for Blog Comments

2010-07-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

A blog post from Newt Barrett got me thinking about the whole area of blog comments. Blogs are conversational by definition and design, so comments are an essential part of the formula. But all comments are not created equal. Let's face it, most comments are not even really comments, they are just lazy attempts at backlinking for SEO purposes. Your blog posts say a lot about who you are, and what you do. They establish your reputation. The same holds true for the comments you allow to be posted.

Comment Content Strategy for Blog Owners

If you own or administer a blog, I don't have to tell you about how much time it takes to keep up with comments. It's easy to want to just ignore the whole thing, but comments can really bring life to your posts.

To Moderate or Not to Moderate - Whenever possible, I think moderation is essential. This is pure content curation (buzzword bingo!). When I scan a posts comments and see comments that are completely out of context, and obviously pushing a link to another site, it lowers my opinion of the entire blog. So yes, moderate your posts. If you have so many comments that you just can't do it (a high quality problem for sure) think about outsourcing. And don't forget to let technology help you. There are some really good WordPress plugins that do a great job in dealing with obvious spam comments (see below).

Moderate Consistently - You can't play favorites. Many of us have had the pleasure of dealing with returning visitors who seem to disagree with everything we say. If they are just plain vulgar and offensive, sure reject them every time. But presenting a valid argument should always be welcome. It's up to you as to whether you want to respond with a comment of your own or just let it go. But an hot argument can make for great content!

Write a Comment Policy - Once your blog starts to get a regular stream of traffic, you really should write a comment policy, similar to your privacy policy. (Yes, I know I don't have one yet, I'm just as strapped for time and lazy as everyone else - It's in the works). Your comment policy sets down the rules and expectations for both sides of the conversation. It can also be used to encourage comments, it you remove NoFollow tags from links in comments, let your readers know and let them know what kinds of links are OK.

Here are two short and simple examples from The Blog Herald http://www.blogherald.com/policies/ and Obama's Change.gov -http://change.gov/page/content/commentpolicy

Comment Plugins for WordPress - http://mashable.com/2007/07/24/wordpress-comments/

Mashable has a great list of comment-related plugins. These are my favorites - Akismet, Comment Timeout, BlogFollow, DoFollow, and AuthorHighlight.

Comment Content Strategy for Blog Commenters

For those leaving comments, you need to think about what it is you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes you just want to make a comment, sometimes you want to make a comment as a way of introducing yourself to the blog owner, and sometimes you really do want a link back to your site. All of these are fine, just know up front what you are trying to do.

For any kind of comment creation, the main rule is this - add something to the conversation.

Even nice comments that don't really add anything will likely be deleted. "Wow, great post. Keep it up," adds nothing to my life or the life of my readers. But add just a little bit of context and relevance, and I'll have no problem - "Good ideas. I'll add those thoughts to my current content strategy job search."

If you are including a link back to your site, a little more effort may be needed in order to pass the sniff test. Remember, the blog admin has a ton of comments to go through, make it obvious that there is value in your comment and you make it more likely that your comment will be approved.

Comments are a great way to start an online relationship with a blogger. But don't expect to become BFFs after one comment. However a series of well-thought-out comments is a great way to introduce yourself and maybe eventually get your sit listed in their blog roll.

Comments are Content

So comments are important content elements, and deserving of a content strategy of their own. If you are working as a content strategist for a client, consider adding a comment policy to your list of deliverables if they have a blog.

Think about how comments fit into your larger content strategy, define or understand the rules, then speak your mind and encourage others.

Has anyone written a comment policy? I'd love to hear what you think.

July Content Strategy Meetup!

2010-07-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

Join us for a brief presentation and lots of interactive discussion with Joe Pulizzi.

Please SVP Here

This month's meeting is on July 13th.

Location

Hodges Room

75 Fifth Street NW
Suite 335
Atlanta, GA 30308

How to find us
"3rd floor of Centergy building"

Joe is a leading author, speaker and strategist for content marketing. He is first and foremost a content marketing evangelist, and founded content marketing client-vendor matching site Junta42 as well as Junta42's how-to sister site, the Content Marketing Institute. Joe is also co-author of the highly praised book Get Content Get Customers (McGraw-Hill), recognized as THE handbook for content marketing.

Please SVP Here

Nonprofits Need Content Strategy Too!

2010-07-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Are you interested in redefining the good life in a way that’s in line with the needs of people and planet? Do you want to guide people to an emerging, positive future that prioritizes sharing, community self-sufficiency, and well-being? Do you want to build a movement? This nonprofit neeeds you content strategy skills

Content Strategy Tasks to include:
Your main responsibility will be to build a community to support the operation of the magazine. You will use open source practices to achieve your goals. The goal of the community is to bring sharing as a lifestyle into the mainstream and create a useful how-to resource for those interested in sharing.

Online Organizer (40%) -Develop strategies that increase engagement in cause & catalyze action -Develop a community to create and promote the magazine -Create content and distribution partnerships with key sites -Grow the magazine’s social media community, RSS feed, and e-mail list -Foster intelligent dialog on the site -Develop earned revenue model & establish new distribution channels

Editor (40%) -Develop content strategies that bring our point of view into the mainstream -Shape the site into a useful resource for those interested in sharing -Manage the day-to-day production of a provocative, high quality stream of content -Scan media for relevant stories to respond to or republish on Shareable -Assign, edit & develop important pieces -Manage editorial budget and all administration related to editorial functions -Optimize editorial based ongoing analysis of traffic -Engage key project stakeholders on editorial issues with project director

Writer (20%): -Write key thought pieces to round out the magazine’s point of view -Regularly contribute posts that track projects, current events & people in the movement

About the candidate:
-At least one year online community management experience
-At least two years professional experience as editor and writer
-At least a Bachelors degree in English, Journalism, or related field
-A demonstrated interest in our topic area
-An experienced blogger, social media user, and multimedia content producer
-Ability to prioritize and deliver on deadline
-Excellent attention to detail
-Demonstrated thought leadership
-Experience addressing a young adult audience
-Self-starter used to a startup environment

Reports to: Project Director

About the organization: CommonSource is a Tides Center project that promotes sharing as empowering lifestyle & high impact social change strategy. Shareable Magazine is CommonSource’s first program. Learn more about the magazine at http://shareable.net/.

Compensation Competitive nonprofit salary & full benefits

Follow These Instructions To Apply: Please send an e-mail to neal@shareable.net with the following: -APPLICANT: COMMUNITY & CONTENT STRATEGIST in the subject line
-A brief cover letter in the body of the e-mail no more than three paragraphs long
-E-mail should be more than one page when printed out
-PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE ATTACHMENTS
-Below your signature include the following:
-one link to an online resume
-Up to three links to sample articles most like those on Shareable.net
-And one sentence about salary requirements

CommonSource, a project of Tides Center, is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage and seek applications from women, people of color, including bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Applicants shall not be discriminated against because of race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, medical condition (cancer-related) or conditions Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS-related conditions (ARC). Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified disabled applicants may participate in the application process. Please advise in writing of special needs at the time of application.

Compensation: Competitive nonprofit salary & full benefits
Telecommuting is ok.
This is at a non-profit organization.

Great Content Strategy Job in San Francisco

2010-06-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Awasu Design in San Francisco is looking for a talented Content Strategist to help round out their service offerings. They are a top-flight, user-centered consultancy with a strong reputation, good clients, and a great work atmosphere.

They currently advertise these offerings:

Information Architecture
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Usability

See anything missing from that list? Help them add Content Strategy and content development to that list of capabilities.

Great job, great clients, great city... seems worth checking out.

Here's more information about the Content Strategist job listing

An Interesting Content Manifesto

2010-04-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

A tweet from @avantgame (Jane McGonigal - game designer, PhD. researcher, futurist) really struck a chord with me about Web content. With a few small tweaks it makes a good manifesto.

Here is her original tweet:

"Looking at an email query, I realized tonight: I don't make games ABOUT things. I make games IN ORDER TO do things. To achieve goals."

Content Manifesto: Don't create content ABOUT something. Create content IN ORDER TO DO something. To achieve goals. All content should be in service of a goal. If not, cut it.

For some projects this might even be a good field to capture in the content matrix - Page Goal. What are you trying to accomplish with the content on this page? Write it down and get agreement.

Agency Survey Regarding Content Strategy - Good News!

2010-04-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Eat Media (a top content-focused Web agency) sent out a survey to Web agencies and design shops. They wanted to get a feel for what they know and how they feel about the whole "content strategy" thing.

Well the results are in and there is a lot of good news there for content strategists. Here are a few nuggets:

82% selected content strategy as a current need, followed by ongoing content development at 65%
29% have content strategists/content developers on staff. 35% use a mix of freelance/contract and in-house talent. 31% use a third-party vendor or contract strategists.

So the work is out there! Check out the link for all the details.

Complete 2010 Content Strategy Survey Results

Content Strategy in the News - April 2, 2010

2010-04-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Apple iPad sales predicted to reach 7M in 2010, 20.1M by 2012 - Apple Insider

Content Strategy Stories from the Frontline - Scatter/Gather (blog)

Denver marketing pros talk content strategy - Examiner.com

NCM Associates Launches New Website Targeted to US Automotive Retailers - PR Web (press release)

Atlanta Content Strategy Meetup Next Wed. April 7

2010-04-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

Don't miss next week's content strategy meetup—"Content Analysis: From Inventory to Insight" Wednesday, April 7 at Roundbox Global.

Understanding your content needs is the critical first step in your content strategy. Sure, it begins with a content inventory in a big spreadsheet. But that's not where it should end. How do you dig deeper? How deep should you dig? What insights might you discover? Using plenty of practical examples, Colleen Jones will reveal the important elements of content strategy and content analysis.

About the Presenter:

Colleen is the Principal of Content Science, a boutique content strategy consultancy. As an enthusiastic pioneer in user experience, Colleen has guided strategic initiatives for large brands such as InterContinental Hotels Group, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and Cingular Wireless (now AT&T). She also participated in the landmark Content Strategy Consortium at IA Summit 2009. Jones is Chair of CHI*Atlanta, organizer of Atlanta Content Strategy, and a notable author.

RSVP Now

SXSW 2010 and Content Strategy

2010-03-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

Once again, I'm off this week to Austin, TX for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. It's my favorite conference of the year and there is always a surprise or three.

For the first time, content strategy is being featured in a large number of presentations, so that's got to be good news. I'm going to attend as many as I can and hopefully I'll have a recap here afterwards. So if you are going to be at SXSW this year, keep an eye out for me and say hello if we pass in the halls :)

I'll also be at the first Austin Content Strategy Meetup on Sunday March 14th @ Lustre Pearl at 7 p.m. http://tr.im/QM9g.
Stop by, have a beer, meet some cool people, and talk content strategy - hey, all the cool kids are doing it.

Content Strategy IS the Next Big Thing

2010-02-26T06:56:00.000-08:00

Great blog post from Kristina Halvorson that tracks Google searches for "social media" against searches for "content strategy." Exciting and well-documented conclusions that content strategy is indeed the next big thing.

"That said, web projects are a terrific place to see content strategy in action. At the project level, we see almost immediately how content strategy’s tools and methods can literally transform how we consider and care for our content, how they can streamline processes and conserve resources. We can quickly measure our customers’ reactions to finally getting useful, usable, engaging, actionable content." - Halvorson

Adding content strategy to your process as a Web publisher is hard, messy, and time intensive. BUT it may also be the last big win in terms of increasing your site's effectiveness. Lord knows that we have tweaked the heck out of everything else. Dealing with your content issues is just about the only thing left to tackle.

Check out the post! (Be sure to read the comments, good stuff there too)

Take the Survey!

2010-02-08T14:11:00.000-08:00

Just finished taking the A List Apart survey for people who make websites. Help A List Apart form a picture of the ways web design is practiced around the globe. They hope that making this data available will have a positive effect on best practices and employment, and will enhance public understanding of, and respect for, our profession.

Take the Survey Here!

Re-edited Version of the E-book Now Available

2010-01-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

It took a little longer than I thought (thanks to MS Word issues) but the re-edited version of the e-book is now up on the download page.

There is no new content in this version, just a few changes thanks to a great (and third) copy edit. Fixed some typos and a few formatting errors.

The new PDF is on the original download page, if you can't find the email with the URL, use the email link in my profile here to send me a note with your name and I'll get back to you.

Thanks to everyone who helped!

Atlanta Content Strategy Meetup this Thursday, Jan 21

2010-01-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

Don't miss this Thursday's meetup—"Content Strategy: What's In It for You?" at 6:30 PM at Ignition Alley.

Meetup RSVP Here

Drawing cues from this year's heightened focus on content strategy, Margot Bloomstein will address how content strategy differs from just copywriting and how you can incorporate insights from this aspect of interaction design into your next project. Discover how the questions a content strategist brings to the table can enrich your deliverables, learn how your collaboration can benefit your end users, and discuss ways to reframe the RFP to upsell content strategy in your next pitch and bring a new partner into the project.

If you're a designer, IA, search engine marketer, or any type of social media or web strategy consultant, learn how insight to content strategy can rock your work from a new angle.

Book Available Again on Amazon

2010-01-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Web Content Strategist's Bible was unavailable for a few days while I was having it re-edited to get rid of a few typos and formatting issues. But everything has been taken care of and it is back up and available for purchase.

Gotta love the speed of electronic publishing.

The Web Content Strategist's Bible - Update

2010-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Well it's a new year and a good time for housekeeping. The biggest problem in writing a book for writers and editors is that no typo or error goes unnoticed. Thanks to all of you who took the time to write me about errors and formatting issues! I'm not being sarcastic, really thank you, I would hate for anything to detract from the message of the book.

But the best way to thank you guys is to take the time to actually fix the problems. So I sent the book out to a super copy editor (if you need a copy editor, let me know and I'll put you in touch) and cleaned up everything we could find.

I'm in the process of reviewing blue lines and proofs so the book will not be available on Amazon for a few days while I work through this process. Ah the joys of being a publisher :)

The corrected online PDF version will go live in a day or two. I'll post here when the files are changed.

Thanks for your patience, the printed book will be available again in just a few days.

STC Summit 2010 to Feature a Content Strategy Progression

2010-01-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

The 2010 STC Summit will have a number of content strategy components. Rahel Bailie has posted a nice summary of the Content Strategy progression that lists the sessions and presenters .

As a metadata geek, I'm particularly interested in Rachel Lovinger's session on The Role of Metadata in Content Strategy.

Atlanta Content Strategy Meetups

2009-12-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

We’ve been getting a great turnout for our Atlanta Content Strategy Meetup Group and rave reviews from attendees. So we must be doing something right. If you are in the area, we'd love to see you at the next event in January. We always have a very diverse group and discussion topics range far and wide.

Registration is now open for our January 21 event, Content Strategy: What’s In It for You?

Margot Bloomstein will travel to us from Boston and speak about Content Strategy: What's In It for You? Drawing cues from this year's heightened focus on content strategy, Margot will address how content strategy differs from just copywriting and how you can incorporate insights from this aspect of interaction design into your next project. Discover how the questions a content strategist brings to the table can enrich your deliverables, learn how your collaboration can benefit your end users, and discuss ways to reframe the RFP to upsell content strategy in your next pitch and bring a new partner into the project. If you're a designer, IA, search engine marketer, or any type of social media or web strategy consultant, learn how insight to content strategy can rock your work from a new angle.

More Information

Content Strategy Positions

2009-12-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

I recently had lunch with some great people from Engauge Digital, a Web services agency here in Atlanta. We had a long talk about hiring and interviewing potential content strategists, and how content strategy fits into their overall consulting and development methodology.

It is clear from our conversations that they really understand the vale of content strategy and do a good job of selling it to their clients.

Right now they are filling a couple of content-strategy-related positions that you should take a look at if you are looking for a new gig.

Community Content Manager
The Community Manager serves as a Community advocate primarily focused on communicating effectively to members through multiple existing channels and continued growth of the online community. In this position, the Community Manager must be a leader and consultant to internal teams releasing products and other customer-facing changes. Interested candidates should be enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and experienced in the various aspects of social media and online community building. The candidate hired for this position will serve as the editorial and journalistic voice of the site, determining the best content mix for the site, sourcing content for the site, and working with our client and the client’s partners to optimize the site’s existing content.
More Information

Content Strategist
The Content Strategist is a member of a team in our Atlanta office, whose primary goal is to develop meaningful and actionable digital experiences. At Engauge Digital, we are trying to "move someone." The main goal of the Content Strategist therefore, is develop and communicate a content strategy that supports the actionable goals of the project and helps to create meaningful interactive experiences.
More Information

Art & Copy - Film

2009-09-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

"The frightening, and most difficult, thing about being what somebody calls a "creative person" is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from really - and especially, you don’t have any idea about where they are going to come from tomorrow."

If you have any connection to "creatives" as they are called i the advertising business, then the new documentary film by Doug Pray is a must see.

Arts & Copy

DIY Guide to Content Strategy for Web Professionals

2009-09-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

In his Lucid Plot blog, Jonathan Kahn writes a great do-it-yourself guide to Content Strategy for non-content strategist Web professionals. Great advice for when you find yourself in a project where you are pretty sure there is something wrong with the content, but you are not exactly sure what it is.

Jonathan also beats the drum for Content Strategy as a professional practice with a very bright future.

"The commercial aspect: this is going to be huge

Finally, a commercial- or career-oriented reason to get involved in content strategy.

Listen for a second. That crashing sound you hear is what we used to call the media industry, collapsing around us. All that destruction leaves a lot of space for web content. Web content strategy will be in demand for years to come.

So get out there, and Do It Yourself."

DIY Guide to Content Strategy for Web Professionals

-

Facebook Content Strategy

2009-09-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

Using Facebook fan pages is a huge opportunity in the social media space and I'm just starting to get my hands around what you can actually do.

The key with Facebook is to communicate. Ease up on the hard sell and don't forget what FaceBook is for - keeping up to date and communicating with friends.

Here is a good place to start when trying to figure this out.

http://blog.gallucci.net/2009/08/threadlesscoms-facebook-content-strategy.html

Content Strategy Is Global!

2009-08-31T18:01:00.000-07:00

I've been watching the percentage of Content Strategy readers that come from outside the U.S. grow rapidly this year. Yes, I admit it. I actually look at my server logs and enjoy it.

Content strategy is getting a LOT of global attention. So much so that these days, I get more than half of my site traffic from outside the U.S., and it's growing.

If the big STC event featuring Content Strategy next Spring in Paris is not enough to convince you, then maybe this list of visitor's countries for just the last 20 days will:

(In no particular order)

Finland
Germany
New Zealand
Spain
India
Netherlands
Israel
England
Greece
Canada
Australia
Kenya
Turkey
Switzerland
Puerto Rico
Brazil
France
Portugal
Hungary
Italy
China
USA
South Africa
Denmark
Singapore
Ireland
Ukraine
South Korea
Romania
Nigeria
Scotland
Costa Rica
Ghana
Iceland
Belgium
Sweden
Mexico
Poland
Japan
Russia
Iceland

Content Strategists are everywhere! It just makes sense. I'm sure that crappy, late content sucks just as bad in the Ukraine as it does in Atlanta.

Content Strategy and the Problem with Personas

2009-08-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised that I still see so much conversation about having a personalized user experience as a content strategy these days. If you have a large e-commerce site, or maybe a news related site, then you have millions of pages of content to work with and enough data to really offer a unique experience for every person like Amazon does. Most sites are just not like that. Does an online bank really have enough different content to try and create a different site for every user? Probably not.

But what many of us do have is user personas. If you are not familiar with personas then a quick Google search should get you up to speed. But basically, personas are a way to identify and group similar users with similar traits that are relevant to your site. For example “Frank is a small business owner. He is computer savvy and likes to do things himself. Frank likes control and options.”

Creating a different user experience based on these personas seems very do-able for most sites, but usually will require the creation of a lot of new content to fill in all the gaps for each user type.

The Problem that Can’t be Solved with Content

Here is the main problem I see with many persona-based content strategies:

How do you get people to accurately self-select themselves into a persona type?

The usual solution is to get them to register, and enter enough information so that the system can make a good decision. If all your personas are comprised of people with only positive personality traits, then this may work. But most persona groups are not like that.

Almost every persona group has at least one user that is something like this: “Gary is a technophobe who still likes his VHS tapes. He avoids risk, avoids change, and does not like investigating new and innovative features.”

What kinds of questions can you possibly ask during the registration process that would get someone to place themselves into that group? Few people want to willingly associate themselves with these kinds of negative personality traits.

Personas are great for use during design so that you make sure that a design can accommodate all kinds of users, but they may have limited ability to drive a content strategy for the creation of a “persona-ized” user experience.

If you are working content strategy for a project where different content is planned on being served to users based on user type, be sure to figure out exactly how you are going to automatically place each user into one of these groups before you get too far into development. Don’t let the designers and programmers assume that somehow the writers will magically solve this problem with clever content. Address it up front.

Content Strategist Needed for a Great Cause - Job Opening

2009-08-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

AdoptUsKids.org is looking for an awesome content strategist who is passionate about content strategy, children's issues, and community service.

They are a fun group to work with who understand the importance of a good work/life balance and never miss a chance to celebrate birthdays and special occasions. Work for a cause that brings permanency to the lives of children in foster care.

The mission of AdoptUsKids is to recruit and connect foster and adoptive families with waiting children throughout the United States.

As of today - 11,138 children previously featured on AdoptUsKids now live with permanent families!

AdoptUsKids is a non-profit project supported solely by a cooperative agreement between the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, the US Department of Health & Human Services, and the Adoption Exchange Association. AdoptUsKids collaborative partners include: University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, Northwest Adoption Exchange, North American Council on Adoptable Children, and The Adoption Exchange Inc. The project is currently funded through September 2012.

Adoptuskids.org is the project’s online resource for recruiting and connecting foster and adoptive families with children waiting in foster care. The adoptuskids.org staff is responsible for the design, development, monitoring and maintenance of the website.

Content Strategist/Writer for Electronic Media

Responsibilities:

Help AdoptUsKids build and maintain a consistent editorial voice in all communications and a compelling story that supports the recruitment, retention and connection of prospective foster/adoptive parents with children who are in foster care
In addition, the Content Strategist/Writer will work closely with a writer with expertise in child welfare and adoption to develop content specifically for an audience of child welfare professionals
Determine content structure and requirements for the website, inventory existing content, identify gaps, evaluate possible sources for additional material, and manage the process of getting content into production
Collaborate on an overall UX strategy, restructuring the adoptuskids.org website and creating, reworking/rewriting content to meet the business objectives
Develop, implement, and maintain frequently updated content and the editorial calendar. Work with partners to establish a process for keeping content current and relevant
Assist in the content development of AdoptUsKids social networking and marketing strategies to assure a consistently identifiable brand across the AdoptUsKids project

This is a great opportunity for the right content strategist do to a job that you can feel good about on many levels. They seem very flexible as well. The Preferred locations are Seattle, Detroit, or Baltimore metro area, but off-site employment will be considered depending on qualifications.

More information on the AdoptUsKids.org Content Strategy Job

Do you need help filling a Content Strategy job position?

.

Content Strategy Storms South By Southwest Interactive!

2009-08-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me or follow this blog know that I make pilgrimage to Austin, TX every year for the South by Southwest Interactive festival. SXSW Interactive is part of a larger two week event that also features the best in movies and live music.

I attend to learn what is hot and what everyone in the design and Web development world is up to. I don't go to learn about content strategy issues as content is just not a topic of discussion. Until next year that is.

People have submitted their panel proposals for next year and content and content strategy are making a big appearance in the list!

Part of the process for selecting which panels will actually be offered includes a public voting component called the Panel Picker.

So if you are inclined to go to SXSW next year in March, or you just want to help out your fellow content strategy peeps, check out the online Panel Picker and vote for some or all of the content strategy focused panels! (registration is free and easy):

Understanding Content: The Stuff We Design For - We design websites for users, but if we don’t also have a deep and thorough grasp of the content that will be served up to those users, we’re not going to be able to create optimal experiences for them. Learn how to do Content Research to augment your User Research. (solo presentation)

Content & Semantics: The Wild, Wild Web of Data - Thanks to the Linked Data movement, the Semantic Web is poised to break wide, bringing a host of new design complexities and content strategy considerations to the table. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to start missing it up in the open data world. (dual presentation with Rahel Anne Bailie, Intentional Design Inc)

Why Your Content Sucks and How to Fix It - So. How’s your content? Accurate? Up-to-date? Anything your audience actually cares about? Yeah. We didn’t think so. Most of the content online is crap. Your users deserve better! And you can help change the game. Find out how to fix your content (and to finagle the resources to do it). (panel I’ll be on, moderated by Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic)

Let’s Talk About CS: Understanding Content Strategy - You’ve heard the term. Seen the twitters. Curious minds want to know: What’s web content strategy all about? And how is it different from what everyone’s been saying all these years? (Hint: You’re the choir. Let’s go forth and preach to the multitudes.) Leaders in the CS community speak candidly about the emergence of a new discipline. (Panel I’ll be on, organized by Elena Melendy, Independent Content Strategy Consultant)

Will We Pay for Content Online?, Domenic Venuto, Razorfish

Context Strategy: Wrangling Content Gone Wild, Patrick Nichols, Razorfish

Sex Sells; Stories Stick: Why Characters Count Online, Charla Grenz-Solheim, Razorfish

Content Strategy: Where UX, Design, and Content Play Nice, Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic

Oh, Go Service Yourself! Interactive Content for Humans, Colleen Jones, threebrick

Keep ‘Em Coming: Courting Customers with Content, Colleen Jones, threebrick

Greening Your Content: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rahel Anne Bailie, Intentional Design Inc.

It's always a blast to attend. It's the only big conference I attend every year where all the evening's parties are listed right in the official daily calendar along with the panel!

Once it gets a bit closer, we can see who is planning on going and set up one or two content strategy meetups.

Content Strategy Jobs Postings Up 79% Since 2008

2009-08-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

Despite the bad economy, the number or job postings for content strategists is up 79% since January 2008 according to statistics gathered by job posting aggregator, SimplyHired.com.

It looks like the cyclical pattern in content strategy hiring that I've noticed for the past three years will repeat itself again this year. The pattern goes like this:

Flat demand from January to April
A big spike in April and June
Slowly falling demand for the rest of the year

I'm guessing that projects get ramped up early in the year, things really heat up in late spring content-strategy-wise, then new hiring slows down as projects end and everyone waits to see what budgets are like for the next year.

This year's peak in June was higher than the peak in 2008. More evidence that content strategy is continuing to expand as a practice. We must be doing something right!

Any way you look at it, this is good news for content strategy as a practice and for working and aspiring content strategists.

AIMA - CHI Atlanta Content Strategy Gathering

2009-08-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

I needed a bit of prodding from @flannelenigma and others (thanks), so here is a brief summary of what happened at the recent Content Strategy vs. IT vs. Marketing vs. Design vs. UX smack down panel sponsored by AIMA and Chia Atlanta.

MOERATOR

Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic, President
Author, "Content Strategy for the Web"

PANELISTS:
USER EXPERIENCE: Karen McGrane, Bond Art + Science
Senior Partner

MARKETING: John Muehlbauer, InterContinental Hotels Group
Director, Distribution Marketing

VISUAL DESIGN: Brian Ikeda, Philips Design
Senior Art Director

CMS / IT: Ryan Esparza, Content Management Consultant
Past Online Applications Manager at The Home Depot

Despite some poking and prodding by moderator Kristina Halvorson (who was delightful and smart, as usual), the panelist were all just too nice, reasonable, and professional to get into any kind of really heated debate about why content continues to be an issue for Web projects. But that fact remains that it IS an issue. I can’t believe we have not figured this out yet - we’ve been doing these projects for fifteen years now right?

Anyway, if only everyone was as easy to work with in my real-life projects as the panelists!

Putting aside the overall niceness level, these were all very sharp folks with some interesting things to say.

The two points that struck home for me are:

1 - The CMS is never done and dedicated IT professionals are needed to run it.

This was a surprising statement from the IT side and I completely agree. Too often (maybe always?) I see the CMS treated just like any other back-end system by the IT team that supports it. The support and development team is staffed by generic developers with no real interest in content management systems and no interest in becoming CMS experts and having that be a career focus.

I’m hoping that eventually the IT practice will be broken up into specialized areas that support a particular business function. The Web group would have their own IT resources, accounting would have theirs, operations would have theirs etc. This would encourage them to be more focused on their internal customers and less on pleasing the CTO.

In my group the people who produce content and new website designs and improvements are graded on items that are 180 degrees opposed to what the IT group gets graded on. The IT group gets evaluated on making sure the site is up, that there are few bugs and defect logs. The best way to accomplish this is to never change anything. “Isn’t the Web site done yet?” Whereas the design/content group gets graded and how much we can change and improve the site, get new users, increase conversions, etc. We want to change the site every day! We are never going to see eye-to-eye with the current structure.

2 - All departments represented strongly agree that there needs to be a “decider” for all Web content issues.

There needs to be someone with real power to make decisions stick, not someone who is just a speed bump in the escalation path. When the escalation path is used for every difficult decision, then people at the lower level just stop making decisions. Why bother, you are just going to get run over, reversed, or second guessed by people greatly removed from the details.

Kristina pointed out that IBM actually has an editor-in-chief who is close to the projects and has the final say. I’m sure final is not always final, but I think having someone in that role helps keep the process moving.

It was great to see so many people in Atlanta show up for yet another Content Strategy focused event. We are getting a lot of support here and hopefully, good things will spread and we can find a way to reduce the number of projects plagued with content issues.

We should be having another CHI Atlanta - Content Strategy Meetup before too long so stay tuned for that!

Content Strategy and Information Architecture - Can't We All Just Get Along?

2009-08-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting new thread of conversation going over in the Google Groups Content Strategy area about how content strategists and IAs can partner.

In my view, both disciplines are similar in that you can't NOT do them. You can do them intentionally, completely, and with a plan, or you can do them by accident, partially, and just get what you get.

If there is content at all, someone decided on the voice and tone and structure. They decided who needed to approve and review it etc. The same goes for IA, if there is information and structure, then there is an information architecture, it just may be a really bad one.

Content strategy and information architecture attempt to put structure, intent, best practices, and customer focus around these activities and often have similar skills, just with a different focus.

James puts it well when he describes how content strategists and IAs are working well together on his project and how content strategits have really added value to the process.

"In my view a Content Strategist has attributes of Web Strategist and an Information Architect, but there focus is different. One of the major pieces of our project was auditing our existing content, and learning what we thought we could leverage and what needed to be written. Naively I thought there was a lot we could recycle based on what I read Ann Rockley's book "Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy" and her thoughts content re-use - excerpt here:http://tinyurl.com/ldexxt. However the more we reviewed the more we realized that to move away from Corporate Centric content to a User Centered approach we realized none of the existing content could be re- worked, it needed to be rewritten. The oher item we realized was a web content format needs to be much tighter and to the point balancing user needs, SEO and site goals. Again a custom template needed to develop for the Copy Writers to follow to balance these elements. All of these insights and the approaches to address them were brought toour attention by our Content Strategist."

Content Strategy eBook to Print Version Conversion

2009-08-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Great to see that so many folks liked the ebook version of The Web Content Strategist's Bible enough to come back later and get a printed version! Thanks :)

Price-wise, it all adds up to the same amount whether you buy both at once, or get the ebook first and come back later for the printed version. Come to think of it, it's actually even a little cheaper to get the ebook first since the shipping and handling are included in the $9.00 if you get the ebook first and come back to get the print version later.

For those who missed the announcement, if you have an ebook version of my content strategy book, just send and email to me (sheff@mindspring.com) and I'll confirm your purchase then send you a printed version for just USD$9.00 (U.S. only - outside the U.S. it's $6.00 plus actual shipping charges.)

Content Strategists and Semantic Drift

2009-07-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in last month's Fast Company about the shifting usage of technology terms and what is becoming the new normal for how we talk about all things geeky.

"Job titles are an obvious example.
Over last couple of years new roles for geeks have come into existence within agencies: content strategist, social media something, creative technologist, user experience designers, developers, digital ninjas and chief technology strategists, [ahem] to help us service the growing need to understand and connect to consumers enabled by technology. "

The article goes on to describe how technology is at the core of this year's award winning projects from the communications industry (formerly known as advertising).

Article link

Content Strategy - A New (Only Half-Joking) Definition

2009-07-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

When I first started working on Web content projects, I found that the clients and agencies that really understood the value of having a structured and planned content strategy were the ones who had recently gone through a nightmare project.

All it usually takes to understand why content strategy is important is one really embarrassing project where the content is either late, completely wrong in voice or tone, or completely wrong for the design.

Getting content strategy added to the project plan and staffing plan for these clients is usually an easier sell.

So for clients and agencies who have learned the hard way, here is another, very basic, definition of Content Strategy:

Content Strategy is all the things you should have done so that your content would have been useful and on time.

Content Strategy Mind Map - Rebuilt and Printable

2009-07-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I published a mind map showing all the facets of content strategy that was very well received. Since then, I've had many requests for better access to the files.

I tried in vain to make use of the free online software I had originally used to build the map, but eventually I had to give up and rebuild the entire thing using the iMinMap tool. It took a while, but I think the result was well worth it.

So the new, much prettier, content strategy mind map is now available. You can get access to it in two ways:

Free download of the JPEG files - There are two versions of the mind map that you can just download (one with a white background and one with a dark background.) These full-sized files are distributed under a Creative Commons license so feel free to use them however you wish as long as you don't sell them.
Purchase a printed poster - I took the JPEGs to Kinkos to get a printed version and was surprised at how much it cost. It was actually cheaper for me to set up page on Zazzle .com and have them print them for me. They print on heavy card stock and do a good job. So I've opened this page up to everyone who wants to get a printed version.

I've also given the content strategy mind map a more permanent home over on Web-Content-Strategy.com.

Check out all the details here

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Content Strategy Jobs Are Still Out There

2009-06-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

I was just doing a quick check on the Content Strategist Job Board and saw that there are a lot of content strategy jobs listed! I saw 265 content strategist jobs listed. More than I would have expected in this economy.

One of the Content Strategist jobs was even for Facebook:

"As a Content Strategist inside the Design and User Experience team at Facebook, you will be responsible for the overall content strategy at Facebook. This includes the development of style guides, feature naming, language creation for new and existing user experiences, and executing all day-to-day content needs."

Salaries also seem to be holding well. The average content strategist salary about the same as when I last checked back in December of 2008.

Price Cut for the e-Book Version of The Web Content Strategist's Bible to $16.99

2009-06-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Now that I have a print version of the e-book, it just makes no sense to have the two versions priced so closely together. So I'm giving the e-book price a 15% haircut and dropping it to $16.99.

I've also added a way for those who buy the e-book version to get a print copy later at a big discount - for just $9.00.

If you are interested, but on the fence, take a look at the e-book - if you like what you see you can always get a printed copy later and it all adds up to the same price. And it's always guaranteed, either way.

Hey, I like options :)

Own the e-Book version of The Web Content Strategist's Bible? Get a printed copy for $8.00.

2009-06-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Now that there is a printed version of The Web Content Strategist's Bible, I want to give those who didn't have that option a chance to get one.

If you bought a copy of the e-book version, just send me an email with your name (and receipt number if you have it, but no worries if you don't) and I'll set you up with a printed version for $8.00. (If you are outside the U.S. the cost is US$6.00 plus actual postage.)

If you check the site, you will notice that this offer is open to all future purchasers of the e-book version as well but it will cost them $9.00.

Actual Content Strategy Has Slowed the Content Strategy Blog

2009-06-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of recent content strategy posts here. Doing actual content strategy at work has kept me from having any time to focus on the blog. This is one of those crazy times for me where multiple projects overlap and there is just too much to do in too little time.

As some of you know, at UPS.com we do our big projects on a 6-month cycle, relaunching the site in July and January. Because of this cycle, June and early December are always crazy times. Right now I'm finishing up projects that will launch in July, we are already starting work on projects that will launch in January 2010 (actual writing starts soon to give us time to get everything translated), and I'm also doing sizing, scoping, and evaluations for projects planned for July of 2010!

Hopefully things will settle down soon and I can post more frequently. Stick around :) I'm working on some interesting ideas.

A Creative Content Strategy Just Requires Finding the Art in the Process

2009-06-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

I had a recent conversation with a very good writer who was arguing that having a strictly designed content strategy would have a negative impact on the creativity of the writing. I couldn't disagree more and we nice polite argument about it.

I think having a defined process, whatever it is, frees other parts of the mind to ficus on generating creative ideas rather than dealing constantly with trying to figure out what comes next. Visual artists and writers usually have a process that they repeat every time so they can shut down that critical, logical part of their mind and create. Stephen King writes at the same place and time every day and uses the same process. Picasso had a process, Jackson Pollack had a process (however odd it was), so I see no reason why a content strategist shouldn't have a well-defined content strategy process.

Kiva Loans Made

2009-05-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post about giving back, my little content strategy/publishing business is doing well, so I wanted to find a way help other small businesses. I combined this desire with another goal of mine which was to fund some person-to-person loans through Kiva.org and decide to use proceeds from sales in April to fund loans through Kiva.

So April has come and gone and I was happy to just receive notices from Kiva that my loans have gone through and been dispersed to the small business owners already! Now that's fast :)

Here are two of the people that you all are helping out, both are in a Africa in Oda, Ghana:

Theresa Swanzy

Theresa is forty-four years old. She is married and has four children, two sons and two daughters. She runs a provisions store on one of the principal streets in her community. She procures her goods from wholesalers in Oda and other nearby towns. She has been in business for five years and wants a loan to procure goods in bulk to expand her business.

Ama Asuo

Ama is 36 years old. She is married and also has four children, two sons and two daughters. Ama is a trader. She trades in smoked fish. She procures the goods from nearby towns and sells on a tabletop in the market square. Ama has been in this business for more than 15 years and desires to expand her business.

Kiva is such a great program. For me, I see it as a delayed form of payment, my money just makes a detour through some other businesses before it eventually comes home to me. Since I don't have to have the money right away, it's a perfect way to help.

Learn more about Kiva.org. As the loans get repaid, I'll post an update.

Thanks to everyone for helping!

Content Strategy Mind Map - Updated

2009-04-28T14:55:00.001-07:00

Wow, thanks for all the great Content Strategy input from comments and email. Based on your suggestions I made a few updates and corrections.

The biggest changes are:

Changing the Design label to Structure
Adding a Business node
Many new tasks associated with the Writing node

And there are other smaller changes here and there.

To open the Mind Map viewer in another window - Content Strategy Mind Map

URL to link directly - http://mind42.com/pub/mindmap?mid=d3c8bbd1-13ed-4ac2-9c8a-131a1d88bf38

Here is an easier-to-manage PDF version of the Content Strategy Mind Map that you can download.

Content Strategy Mind Map

2009-04-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

I was looking at Jeffrey MacIntyre's Knol on Content Strategy and really liked the back-of-the-napkin mind map he did about the different components of Content Strategy. That seemed like an interesting project so I decided to take a few minutes and take a stab at how I think about the various parts of Content Strategy.

Well if something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing - so I eventually came up with this. I tend to think about Content Strategy as having four basic components:

Technical

Creative

Process
Design

So I built my map around those nodes. Of course, I already see many things that I could change so I'll probably be messing with this forever, but it's a start. I'm hoping that you guys have some ideas too. I'm sure there is a ton of stuff I've missed.

Here is an easier-to-manage PDF version of the Content Strategy Mind Map that you can download.

Content Strategist Title is Becoming a Standard in Web Agencies

2009-04-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

While out in Austin for the South by Southwest Interactive festival, I had a chance to talk to a lot of agency people. A lot. One of the questions I always asked was "Do you have people on staff with the title Content Strategist?" Almost all of them did and content strategy was part of their standard offering to clients.

Certainly all of the really big agencies I talked to had content strategists on staff and also frequently brought them in on contract along with extra information architects.
Here are a few of the big names that hire content strategists:

IBM
UPS
Sapient
Avenue A / Razorfish
HUGE
Think Interactive
Ogilvy Interactive
Macquarium

We're going mainstream!

Web Content Strategy Blog URL Change

2009-04-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

I had to finally face the fact that I made a bad content strategy decision when I built this blog on the Blogger blogspot domain instead of one of my own.

To correct this I've moved this blog to a new URL: http://www.contentstrategyweblog.com/

A redirect is in place so old bookmarks and links will continue to work just fine.

Finding a good URL is not easy these days so here's a little trick I figured out. By adding the word "weblog" to my main SEO keyword phrase "content strategy" I was able to sneak the words "web" and "blog" into my URL.

Spring is Here – It’s Time to Help Out by Funding a Kiva Project

2009-04-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

I give myself a break around New Years by avoiding all the planning and goal setting that usually arrives with a new year. It’s cold and dark, I’m generally suffering from post-holiday grumpiness, and I’m facing going back to work with no official holiday until Memorial Day in May. Not a good time for optimistic and ambitious planning. So I wait for Spring.

For some reason Spring has a profound affect on me and my mood rapidly improves even though I’m covered with a quarter inch of pollen. The first order of business this year was to revisit, and add to, my Things to Do Before I Die list. One of the things I added this year was to fund a Kiva.org project.

Kiva is just an amazing program that facilitates person-to-person lending. It connects the richest people in the world (you and me) to the poorest.

For a few hundred dollars, Kiva will let you fund a project for a family or small business that will have a profound affect on their lives. Something as simple as funding the purchase of a new cow, or the parts to fix an old motorcycle can take a family from just getting by to having a little extra. Plus, they have a payback rate of over 99%, much better than most U.S. banks these days.

Once I added that goal to my list it became obvious to me that there was no reason to wait on this one, I could accomplish it right now.

So I’m taking everything I make on The Web Content Strategist’s Bible this month and using it to fund as many Kiva projects as I can. Thanks up front to everyone who buys the book (print or ebook versions) this month, I’ll let you know what projects I fund and include updates as I hear from the recipients.

Learn more about Kiva.org

A Content Strategist’s View on Content in Wireframes

2009-03-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting conversation the other day with an information architect regarding the use of greeking/lorem ipsum in Web design wireframes (yes, I know it’s actually Latin). As a content strategist, I was arguing in favor of using real client content and he was arguing in favor of using almost no content.

The funny thing is, once we talked it through, we finally came to agreement on almost all issues. The sticking point turned out to be our internal idea of what a wireframe is used for. He was focused on using a wireframe to communicate functionality to an application development team while I was using thinking about using a wireframe to communicate the implications of various design decisions to stakeholders. Two very different uses and two very different audiences.

We agreed that the higher the fidelity of the wireframe, them more it needs real, representative content.

His argument against real content was that stakeholders can be distracted by it and not focus on the design. My response was that I though having that distraction was a good thing. If a content strategist has been involved in the project and written wireframe content that fully represents final copy based on what he knows, then that needs to be verified.

If the content used is not very close to what the stakeholders envision the final content to be, then the design may have to change. In the end, the information needs to fit the architecture.

Just as in war where, “no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force,” (Helmuth von Moltke) most wireframes need to be adjusted after the design is filled with real content for the first time.

The sooner we have the design come into contact with real content, the quicker we can react to misunderstandings, un-managed expectations, and design challenges that are now informed by reality, not assumptions.

O'Reilly Insights into E-books and Digital Content Strategy

2009-03-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

A great quote from O'Reilly's Andrew Savikas about how they have re-tooled their book publishing production process to support the creation of multiple formats from a single source:

"Something my colleagues are probably sick of hearing me say around the office is that these are not printed books that we happen to sell in digital format--they're digital books that we might happen to sell in print. All publishing is now digital publishing, and all writing is now writing for the Web."

Absolutely. Read the full article...

Content Strategy - Why?

2009-03-11T08:06:00.000-07:00

I used to get this content strategy question all the time, and I still hear it more than I would like - "Why do I need a content strategist on my project?"
The quick answer is easy -

"Because without a content strategist your project will be late, because content is hard. There are things you don't know, and you won't know what you don't know them until it's too late. You'll recover, but you will be late."

A straight, simple, confident answer based on my experience with dozens of projects. But it's often not a satisfying or convincing argument, so here's another way to respond.

"So let me answer your question with a question. Why do you need content?" You'd be surprised at how often that stumps people. Once you dig through that conversation a bunch of other questions come up:

"So how do you want to talk to your customers, conversationally, professionally, sarcastically?"
"How do your best sales people talk to customers?"
"Who are your best sales people? Are they male or female? How old?"
"You have a link to White Papers in the wireframes. Do you have any white papers? Have you ever written a white paper? Has anyone in your organization ever written a white paper? What goes into a white paper? Are you sure you want white papers and not case studies? In your mind, what is the difference?"
"You plan on re-using some existing print content. Does it need to be edited for the Web? Do you have the source files. Do you even own the source files? Do you know where the source files are? Not just the final flattened version in a Quark or Photoshop file, but the actual text that can be copied and pasted?"
"Who is going to be writing and reviewing all the content? Do they know and have they agreed? Don't they already have full-time jobs?"
"Do you have legal or regulatory content governance issues that must be evaluated and planned for?"
"Do you have all the content development milestones in your project plan? Who made the time estimates? Have they ever created content? When will you know if you are running late? Is it too late then?"
"Do you have a style guide for Web content? Do you say "website" or "Web site," and who gets to decide?"
"You say you want to translate the site into Spanish. Which version of Spanish? Mexican, Puerto Rican, South American, Castillian?"
"How complex is your Web Content Management System? Or are you going to be using a new WCMS? If your WCMS is hard to use or, heaven forbid, brand new - just go ahead and double are your content development times now."

To a good content strategist, these are not even hard questions. But the wrong answer to any one of them could delay your project for months.

The point is, if you don't know the answers to all these questions, and a hundred more, before you start development on you project, you can't create an accurate project plan. Without an accurate project plan you are just running on wishes and hopes. "Faith-based" projects rarely finish on time.

So that's the long answer.

Here's another short answer - How excited are you about paying your programmers to sit around and surf the Web and watch YouTube videos while you are waiting for your content? If the the answer is "not very" then find a content strategist.

Print Version Now Available for - The Web Content Strategist's Bible

2009-03-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for pushing me to get this done. After receiving numerous requests for a print version of The Web Content Strategist's Bible, it is now available on my Web site.
http://www.web-content-strategy.com/

Obviously, this is not news to the several of you who have already grabbed a copy today!

If you already have a copy of the ebook and you would like a printed version, drop me an email (sheff@mindspring.com) and we can work out a heavy discount that mostly depends on shipping costs.

Anti-Tech-Writer Bias in Content Strategist Hiring?

2009-03-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

I keep a pretty good watch on what companies are looking for when seeking to hire a new content strategist. It's rare that I see a new requirement or new job responsibility listed. Most job ads are pretty much the same, they shamelessly copy one another. So I was pretty surprised to see this listed in a job ad posted by Perfect Link, Inc. in Oakland, CA looking for a senior-level content strategist.

Ignoring the eight or nine blatant spelling, grammar, and capitalization errors in just 30 words of text, and the fact that none of the Top 5 Skills listed are actually skills (impressive), the requirement for No Tech Writers really surprised me.

I'm guessing that this line was added for a couple of reasons.

First, I think there is a subtle bias against tech writers in the more "creative" agencies. They really don't understand a lot of what tech writers do these days and how much of their work is very similar to Information Architecture and Content Strategy. A lot of agency people still see tech writers as the people who produce those awful software user guides. They don't see, or make the connection, to all the online help and performance support system work.

Secondly, and more to the point, I don't think tech writers do a very good job when marketing themselves to agencies for Web content-related jobs. I've seen this myself when recruiting content strategists. Tech writers need to take a few minutes and adjust their resume to show more Web-related experience. In many cases it's just a matter of being a little creative with your job titles and description. Even if your actual job title is 'Technical Writer,' it's acceptable to list the role you performed on a project. So listing your "role" or "responsibility" as Web Writer or Web Editor is fine if that's what you were doing. You should also emphasize any work you did that was focused on marketing or customer communications. This helps reduce the negative impact of other, more technical, writing projects.

I've always said that tech writers make great content strategists. That was my background and I've worked with and hired others with similar backgrounds who were excellent content strategists. Hopefully this is a one-time thing and will not become widespread.

Do You Want to Hire a Content Strategist?

2009-03-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

Despite the bad economy, many Web development projects must go on. If your organization is looking for a Content Strategist, the Web Content Strategy Job Board will expose your opening to a steady stream of highly-targeted readers. For just $49 you can post your job on the board for thirty days, plus I'll write a blog post about the job and send it to my email and Twitter lists of experienced Content Strategists and other skilled writers who are seeking content strategy positions.

If you have questions about the job board you can contact me directly at sheff@mindspring.com. You can take a look at the board and currently listings via the widget in this blog's right-hand side bar. If you are ready to get started, use this link to post your content strategist job now.

Content Strategy and SXSW

2009-03-03T11:39:00.000-08:00

People frequently ask me why, as a Web content strategist, I list South by Southwest (SXSW) as my one, must-go-to, conference each year. SXSW panels are mostly about design, and User Experience, mixed with some small business/startup info, with a strong dash of blogging and social media. Not much at all that is strictly about content. So why do I go?

I already know how to create good Web content so that’s not what I’m looking for at a conference. What I get from SXSW is context. I get to see what is on the near horizon for new content delivery platforms. I get to see how content will be created and consumed two years down the road.
At SXSW, I always learn about what will be hot in about two years. The new apps that get a lot of attention there are not, brand new, and that’s important. Once an app starts to generate a lot of buzz at SXSW, it’s usually, almost ready for prime time. This is a large group of users, so people will actually be USING hot new apps, not just talking about them.
I don’t work for a hip design agency; I work for a big, results-focused, corporate giant. I don’t have time to play with new media toys and make bets on which ones will grow into the “next big thing”, and which ones will become, “what ever happened to?” SXSW distills a lot of what’s new down to the few hot ideas that actually have a following and a chance.

For what I go for, SXSW has a great track record. I learned about Twitter years before most at SXSW along with very early conversations about Facebook, LOLcats, wikis, Web 2.0, tagging, the semantic Web, blogging for dollars, AJAX, user generated content, cloud computing, Web services, and mashups. There's a content strategy implication in every one of those subjects.

When August rolls around, I’ll be completely behind again. But, for a week every March, I feel like I’m hip and completely caught up with what’s going on in my fast-moving industry.

Content Strategy and SEO

2009-02-25T12:57:00.000-08:00

From a great article on content strategy, content marketing, and SEO:

Joe Pulizzi - "All companies, no matter what the size, must start to think more like publishers than ever before. Consumer behavior has changed drastically over the past few years. Customers are more accepting of content from “non-media” sites and the barriers to publishing are now non-existent. "

The entire article: http://www.pogra.com/blog/2009/02/a-strategic-approach-to-internet-marketing-with-content-seo/

Content Strategist Job Requirements Deconstructed

2009-02-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Job ads seeking someone to perform content strategy for a Web content development project are specifically written for those already in the Web development world. So they are full of jargon and industry speak, and sound very intimidating to the average reader. In reality, most of the requirements are easier to perform that they sound. Lets' look at some content strategist job requirements from ads that are currently live on the Web and I'll try to explain what they mean in plain English.

Content Strategist Job Requirements:

"Work closely with merchandising, product information and marketing departments to help create taxonomies and metadata frameworks for grouping and tagging content"
"Help establish general taxonomy guidelines and assist in the development of new taxonomy structures and controlled vocabularies as needed."
"Creating taxonomies and metadata frameworks for grouping and tagging content"

What They Are all Really Seeking:
We need your help figuring out what to call things, and groups of things, on our Web site.

When you have lots of products and product categories, you have to give the site user a way to logically navigate to the exact product they are seeking. You wouldn't want to send a user to a page with 1000 product names on it with links, they would never find anything and leave. So you have to create groups and sub groups with logical names that the reader would understand all leading him to a single product.

An Example Hierarchy:
Shoes - Men's Shoes - Boots - Work Boots - Individual Product 1

There are a lot of decisions that have to be made along the way to creating these product hierarchies (taxonomies). In this case, a question might be - Do we want to use the name 'Work Boots' or 'Construction Boots'?

Once you understand what is being asked, its not as complicated as it sounds. In looking through the latest online job postings, I saw very few entry-level content strategy jobs that could not be performed by a good tech writer, or other writing professional, who has an interest in technology and a little bit of training in the basics of content strategy.

Content Strategists and IAs

2009-02-18T11:53:00.000-08:00

As a content strategist I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a lot of information architect friends. A lot. There, it's out there. Now everyone knows.

So when we are talking about what they do on a project vs. what I do on a project, we tend to run into a lot of potential overlap. I often hear, "I don't see why a good IA couldn't do that." And I agree, but why the heck would you want one to? It's just not a good way to run a business.

Here are 4 reasons why an IA shouldn't be asked to work on content strategy tasks:

IAs are too busy already. In almost every project that I've worked, the IA was on the critical path. Giving them more to do would just extend the project duration.
There are not enough IAs to go around in many organizations. In many organizations the number of projects they can take on is constrained by the number of IAs they have on staff, or that they can supervise as contractors. So it makes more sense to move your IA resources on and off projects as quickly as possible. Don't slow down the process with content work that could be done by others. Go do more projects.
IAs are expensive. If a job can be done equally well by an IA or content strategist and the IA cost 30% more, you can increase the project's profit or decrease the project cost by using a content strategist.
IAs generally don't want to do this kind of work anyway. Sure, there are more than a few IAs with literature or library science backgrounds, but they are designers at heart and by training. I don't know any IAs who wake up the morning looking forward to building new CMS inputs forms, or researching and writing content for 2000 product pages that are all built using the same wireframe.

The last point is where most of these discussions actually end. After I explain what I do on a daily basis we almost always end with:

"Whoa, I'm just sayin' that I could do it, I'm not sayin'
that I actually want to!"

It's funny that not too long ago I was asked if I could produce wireframes for a content-only project. Hmmm. Maybe there are some IA tasks that a good content strategist could do. I'm just saying that I could, I'm not saying that I want to! Wink.

Neutral Spanish and Web Content

2009-02-18T07:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's post about Content Strategy and Neutral Spanish sparked some questions and conversation, so I'll go into a little more depth here.

What is Neutral Spanish?
The idea of "neutral" or "standard" Spanish has been around for a while. In previous incarnations it was even considered a new lect, or language version, since it had some grammatical tense structure that was different than other versions of Spanish. Well, the Internet has changed that a bit.

Neutral Spanish and Web Content
When used in the context of Web content the concept of neutral Spanish is really more of a translation process than it is a language variety. When translating content, a translator trying to create a neutral Spanish version will not only remove localized idioms and grammatical structures, but also try and "normalize" word usage.

A commonly used example is how do you translate the term"swimming pool" neutrally? When Argentines dive into a swimming pool, they dive into a “pileta”. However, in Uruguay, where swimming pool is “piscina”, they would be jumping head-first into the “kitchen sink.” Similarly, “swimming pool” in Mexico is “alberca”, which means “reservoir” in Spain. The translator's job then involves choosing the most common (or sometimes, least offensive) word and then using it consistently. In this case they might choose “piscina” since it is much more widely used. (http://intersolinc.com/newsletters/newsletter_44.htm)

It becomes very important that these decisions are documented for words and phrases that are important on your Web site. Where possible, you need to set a standard and write it down in a translation glossary that can be used by anyone performing Web content translations.

When is Neutral Spanish Needed?
I've found two instances where using a neutral version of Spanish is helpful - when writing for the U.S. Spanish market, and when writing for all Spanish readers.

The structure of your site will affect this choice. For the site I work on, the products and services offered vary greatly by country, so we have different content for each country and languages used for that country. This makes it easy for us to use Castillian Spanish in Spain and Mexican Spanish in Mexico. If you just translate your site by language and don't have a different version for each country, then neutral Spanish could be an option depending on your market.

Also, neutral Spanish is ideal for content that is technical or scientific in nature.

Do We Need Another Version of Spanish for the U.S. Market?

2009-02-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

One of the most complicated parts of developing a content strategy for a project at UPS is dealing with the translation impacts. Translations not only add to the cost of a project, but significantly impact the project plan and project complexity.

When translating content into Spanish, we currently support four versions - Castillian Spanish (Spain), Puerto Rican Spanish, Mexican Spanish, South American Spanish. Whenever we talk about adding the ability for customers in the U.S. to view content in Spanish, the "which version" question comes up.

The Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. is just as diverse as the English-speaking population, maybe more so. I've long argued for another version of Spanish for the U.S. market that is neutral to country of origin.

Should Web content in the U.S. be translated using one of the existing varieties of Spanish, or do we need a new, neutral, version of Spanish to support a more diverse population?

Here is an interesting article that supports the "neutral" argument.

http://www.strictlyspanish.com/article7.htm

To Web Content Strategy from Technical Writing

2009-02-10T18:53:00.000-08:00

OK, I confess that I’ve not always been the cool Web guy (ha!), I worked my way into a Web job as a technical writer. And not just any kind of tech writing, but seriously geeky stuff. My first exposure to the Web involved converting a 900-page programmer user guide from print to HTML. It wasn’t even a popular programming language, but a language only used in what was known as CASE tools - great plan back in the 90’s to generate mainframe code by drawing diagrams. Anyway, not glamorous stuff.

So I’ve always contented that tech writers make good Web Content Strategists. You are not usually writing about technical issues, but you have to function in a very technical environment. The biggest hurdle I see for most tech writers is getting past a mental block about writing “marketing stuff.” Marketing is not a dirty word, and if properly done, it can sell and inform at the same time.

If you have a background in tech writing, and an interest in the Web, content strategy could be a great career move. I find the work much more interesting and Content Strategy certainly pays better.

Here is an interesting, STC-related, article about Tech Writers and Content Strategists.

Content Strategy is Like Cooking

2009-02-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've often said that, like cooking a meal, one of the most complicated parts of content strategy is making everything come out at the same time. If you drain the pasta and the sauce is late, the pasta quickly turns into a big sticky blob. And if you start with bad ingredients, or have a lousy process, the finished product is going to be crap.

Here is an excellent article that compares a good content strategist to chef Gordon Ramsay on the show Hell's Kitchen.

Content Strategy and Emergency Communications

2009-02-04T10:13:00.000-08:00

While US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger was busy becoming a hero, the US Airways folks that run their Web site were left standing in a puddle of crap and they didn't have the shoes for it. Even hours after the crash, they still had no news at all up on the site. Now I'm sure they had an approved emergency communications plan for the site, but when the worst happened, it failed in epic fashion.

Do you have a way of quickly communicating to your customers should the worst happen? Most of you probably do. Do you have content that is already written, approved and ready to go? Probably not, and that's what slows things down when a crisis comes. Everyone who needs to approve and sign off on this critical content is too busy handling the crisis to be bothered.

If US Airways had just posted a quick notice acknowledging the crash, providing a contact phone number for families, and a promise to provide updates as quickly as possible, they could have avoided this black eye. And a template for that content could have been written and approved long before the crash so anyone could have filled in the blanks and posted the notice without waiting for approvals.

Here is a detailed look at the US Airways Web response.

Content Strategy - Don’t Forget Your WCMS during Project Requirements Gathering

2009-01-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

If you generate your HTML code using a Web Content Management System you must take that system in account when setting requirements for a new project. Over and over again I see projects come my way that have been approved and completely wireframed, that I cannot build with the current WCMS. When I bring this issue up people tend to blame the WCMS. This is totally unfair. The WCMS is not magic, it can’t just generate anything. It has to be designed and programmed like any other piece of software. It’s not that the system can’t do what is being asked, it’s just that it will take some work and time.

Push as hard as you can to get someone who understands the capabilities of your WCMS system involved as early as possible in planning for new projects. Evaluate all page layouts with an eye towards what your current WCMS can do. Usually, supporting a new page layout just requires a new WCMS output template that may only take a few days to program and test. But someone still has to be assigned to do the work, and that work has to be completed before any real content development can be completed.

Figure this out early and it’s just one more thing to track and complete, find out late and it’s a show stopper.

Content Strategy Can Help Kick Your Landing Page Addiction

2008-12-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

Two things that bug me the most are doing unnecessary work and doing redundant work. Both drive me crazy and both come into play when talking about content strategy and custom landing pages. By custom landing pages, I’m referring to stand-alone (not part of your main Web site) Web pages that are built to support an individual marketing campaign or product launch. Traffic is driven to these pages by adding links to ad campaigns, emails, online banners etc.

My gripe is that most of these pages are not needed and redundant. In almost all cases, there is a page for this product on the company’s Web site. But for many reasons, the marketing group decides to create a new page, rather than use the page they already have.

Here’s how the break room conversation usually goes:

“Hey, I see you guys built a landing page for your big promo for our left-handed rakes. Why didn’t you just point that traffic to the product page that we just updated last month?”

“Well, that page is dull and boring. We wanted something with more compelling and flashy content. Ya’ know, something fun and catchy. The landing page has video!”

“OK, but didn’t you guys work on, and approve, the content for the product page we have on the site?”

“Sure, but that’s just a, ya know, normal Web page. We really don’t pay too much attention to what goes there as long as the facts are correct. The landing page is like, advertising.”

“So why do we have product pages on the Web site?”

“Dude. If we didn’t have product pages on the site, what else would we have?”

“But how will our customers ever find the product page if we don’t do anything to drive traffic there?”

“I dunno? Hey, we could put a link on the landing page!”

“No! The product page should BE the landing page!”

“Now you’re just talking crazy talk. We can’t put that kind of content on the Web site. Oooo donuts…”

Sure you can have fun, compelling, “advertising like” content on your site. But nobody thinks to ask for it.

A good content strategist will ask the missing questions:

Why is this page in the design?
How is it going to be used?
How is anyone ever going to find this page?

If your product pages are too dull, flat, and inflexible to be used as landing pages for and ad campaign it’s way past time to fix the product pages! Building custom landing pages just costs a lot of money and hides the problem. If the content is really that good, then use it on your main site.

When you understand why each page on the site exists, you can do a better job of designing the content to serve that purpose. Product pages are supposed to sell the product! So of course they should be like advertising. If it takes video and funny, casual content to sell your product, put that stuff on your product page!

Content Strategists' Salary 20 Grand Higher than Tech Writers'

2008-12-14T12:08:00.000-08:00

A quick survey of average salaries for Content Strategists vs. Technical Writers shows exactly what I thought - Content Strategists get paid a LOT more - about $21,000.00 a year.

Content Strategist Average = $73,000.00
Technical Writer Average = $52,000.00

Average Salary of Jobs with Titles Matching Your Search

In USD as of Dec 14, 2008

30k

60k

90k

Content Strategist

$73,000

Technical Writer

$52,000

Find Jobs & Salaries at SimplyHired

I have a long and proud background in technical writing, so I can confidently say that the two jobs are not that different. Most tech writers that I worked with were certainly capable of writing all kinds of material, including marketing and promotional (soft) copy. They frequently deal with HTML and XML, and are comfortable dealing with the technical intricacies that trip up many content strategists who come from journalism or corporate communications backgrounds. I've seen tech writers turn into excellent content strategists.

Content Strategist hiring trends over the last several years shows a repeating cycle with January through March as the low point in the cycle. Who know what will happen next year based on our current economic troubles, but if you are thinking of making the leap from tech writing to content strategy, you have a few months to get your resume ready and work on your interview portfolio.

I have a whole chapter in The Web Content Strategist's Bible about getting your first job as a Web Content Strategist. Also, you can find a good listing of Content Strategy jobs here.

Content Strategy Gets World-Wide Attention

2008-12-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

My own version of "you know you're a geek when..." is, I know I'm a geek because I check my server logs daily, just out of curiosity. I'm always amazed at where my site visitors come from. In the last few days, visitors to web-content-strategy.com have come not only from all over the U.S. but also:

Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Philippines
Jamaica
Paris, France
Mumbai Maharashtra, India
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Kenya
Dublin, Ireland
Amsterdam, Noord-holland, Netherlands
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Hong Kong, Hong Kong (sar), Hong Kong

Pretty amazing, and I don't believe it's an accident. People all over the world are running Web development projects and once you understand the value of content strategy, it just makes sense to learn more about it and incorporate the practice into your development process.

From now on, whenever anyone asks me why I think content strategy will take off as a professional practice, all I have to do it point them to my server logs. It certainly looks universal to me.

A Content Strategist by Any Other Name

2008-12-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

While looking at the state of the Content Strategy job market yesterday, I noticed that there are still a lot of jobs that are listing "content strategist" type job requirements using different job titles.

We are going through the same that that information architects had to go through a few years ago. The need for a new job function usually becomes clear long before we all settle on a standard job title. So when looking for a content strategist job, be sure to check out lots of other job titles as well.

Here are just a few of the titles I saw that had job descriptions with a lot of overlap with content strategy:

Communications Strategist
Content Development Specialist
Online Communications Manager
Web Content Producer
Web Editor
Web Content Specialist
Web Content Coordinator
Content Analyst
Web Publisher
Producer - Web Editing and Publishing

I'm sure there are others, and every job you see with one of the titles is not going to be a good match, but they are still worth checking out.

If you get one of these jobs, please push to change the job title to Content Strategist. The sooner we can standardize the title, the sooner we can begin to standardize the job tasks and get good salary numbers. We can use this information to push for higher salaries and to make sure the market is competitive for those of us with these skills.

Content Strategist Job Postings Up Dramatically for 2008

2008-12-02T20:49:00.000-08:00

Despite an economic recession that apparently goes back to December of 2007, job postings looking for Content Strategists are up 74% from April 1, 2007 to Oct 1, 2008 according the the job index site SimplyHired.com (http://www.simplyhired.com/a/jobtrends/trend/q-content+strategist)

Over the same period, the postings for Senior Content Strategists are up an astonishing 93%! (http://www.simplyhired.com/a/jobtrends/trend/q-Senior+Content+Strategist)

It seems that the value of having a content strategist as part of the core project team is being recognized, and more importantly, companies are willing to pay for it!

In looking at the graphs for the last several years, it seems that job postings go down with the new year. But if current trends continue, and the economy starts to pick up, I'd look for a boom in content strategist hiring for mid-year 2009.

If you are thinking of making the jump into content strategy, NOW would be the time to work on your portfolio and fill in as many gaps as you can.

New Content Strategy Template - Editorial Style Guide

2008-12-01T10:52:00.000-08:00

As promised a couple of weeks ago (OK, it was actually a couple of months ago) I just uploaded a new Editorial Style Guide template as another purchase bonus for The Web Content Strategist's Bible.

An editorial style guide is a must have for every Web content project. You just can't avoid making, and documenting, decisions about word usage if you want to have any kind of consistency in your content. Even when I am the only person writing content, I forget what I've decided and have to spend time going back through what I've written to see how I used certain terms. Plus, you must get sign-off from the client.

The first three editorial decisions that I ask the client about are always:

What do we call this thing we are working on? A website, Web site, or Website?
How do we refer to this particular website? At UPS we have a constant argument about UPS.com vs. ups.com.
Do we, or don't we use the serial comma.

I know these issues sound a bit word geeky, but if you decide these and a hundred other things upfront in an editorial style guide, you can avoid having the answer these questions fifty times a day. And trust me, people will have strong opinions about these issues.

Content Strategy for Obama's Change.gov

2008-11-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a very interesting article about things our new prez should be thinking about, content strategy wise, for his new website, Change.gov.

http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/11/barack_obama_seo.php

Content Strategy and Web Analytics

2008-10-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Web Analytics is the process of collection, measurement, and analysis of user activity on a website to understand, and help achieve, the intended objective of the site. Now I’m not suggesting that as a content strategist you need to be a Web analytics expert. There are plenty of smart people who make a whole career in the field. But Web analytics does need to be addressed as part of a complete content strategy.

At a minimum, I include two analytics-related sections in any content strategy document I create:

WCMS Impacts
Get a basic understanding of what Web analytics package is going to be used, and then find out what information needs to be included in each Web page to ensure that usable data can be captured for each user visit. Does the WCMS need to be able to capture analytics-related information as part of each page’s metadata? Often some kind of process completion or campaign ID must be assigned to some or all HTML pages. If new fields need to be added to the WCMS input templates, this needs to be captured and documented in the project’s requirements so that this work can be added to the overall project size and scope.

What Do You Plan to do with the Data?
Web analytics data will be analyzed by many departments with their own interests, but from an overall Web content perspective, I want to make sure that we address at least these three items:

Optimize the top 10 entry pages. Once we have a reasonable amount of data, plan an analysis to identify the top ten entry pages for the website. Obviously your home page will be high on the list, but you may be surprised at some of the others. Maybe a deeply buried help page will have just the right keywords to show up in a large number of Google searches. For these unintended entry pages, think about adding links with compelling titles to try and entice some of these users into your main marketing or functional funnels.
Analyze the bottom 20 pages. Again, when there is a good amount of data, plan to look at the 20 least frequently visited pages. Make some guesses about why no one is going there. Is it just very obscure content? Are the pages just too hard to find? Are the wrong titles or keywords used? Then decide what to do with the page:

Leave it as is
Re-write the content
Delete the page and the content
Delete the page but condense the content and include it on another existing page

Understand the main task abandonment rates. You can’t set a goal to improve something until you know where you currently are. So when your project first launches, make sure that the correct data is being captured for the top four or five tasks you want your users to accomplish. For these tasks, figure out how many users are starting the task but not completing it. Once you have a good understanding of the abandonment rate for each task, then you can start making site changes to try and reduce this number.

Web analytics is a powerful tool for measuring and improving the site’s content. But you can’t do everything at once. Start with the basics, learn how the system and reports work, and build from there.

Selling a Content Strategist's Value

2008-10-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Here is an excellent article about the value that a content strategist brings to Web development projects run by an agency or third party. Content for these projects is often late and/or sub par because of issues on the client side that no one is tasked with managing. There are often emotional and political issues around the client’s existing content that are best handled by an external content strategist who can help the client sort good content from bad and re-write around other issues.

“With agencies or third-party development projects, someone is needed to keep the paying customer on track with content rewrites, or to plan and act on the rewrite plan. More often than occasionally, that paying customer can delay a project by not prioritizing the content rewrite, not providing enough resources to the rewrite, not meeting deadlines, and providing inappropriate content.”

Hazaa!!

Read more.

Content Strategy Job Board

2008-10-02T10:15:00.001-07:00

I just added a content strategy job board to web-content-strategy.com that sucks in Web content jobs from all over the Internet. The filtering is still a bit off, but the current set does have great content strategist listings. I'm working on making the listings more relevant.

If you are looking for a Web content related job, this is a great place to start.

Also, I get a lot of traffic that is very Web content focused. If you have an open job that you are trying to fill, you can list open jobs on the new Content Strategy Job Board as well. The cost is just $49.00 for 30 days.

Take a look and let me know if you have comments or questions.

Content Strategy Job Board

"Want to know what I think is big right now? Content strategy."

2008-09-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview, Rebecca Lieb made some great comments in support of content strategy. Rebecca is Editorial Consultant to ClickZ and former Editor there for the past 7 years. She is a frequent speaker on interactive marketing issues around the world.

Here is what she had to say to Search Engine Marketing Vox:

Question: We’ve run online marketing tactics polls with
the usual suspects popping up in the top ten: Blogging, Email marketing, Search engine optimization, Pay per click, Social networks, Affiliate marketing, Blogger relations, Viral marketing, Corporate web site, Online public relations.

Rebecca: Want to know what I think is big right now?
Content strategy. Content as marketing, and marketing as content. Buinesses are finally realizing what’s long been true: if you have a web site, you are a publisher and you have to think like one. The same holds true for bloggers, of course, as well as in e-mail. This whole digital thing is about content. You can’t do SEO without fresh, original, frequently updated content. Since leaving ClickZ as a full-time gig, I’m working with all sorts or companies and organizations to get their content on track, both strategically.

What Goes into a Content Strategist's Portfolio

2008-09-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

So how do you prove that you have great Web content strategy chops? I've been asked this question several times lately and I'm not sure that I have a great answer. A nice portfolio may not be necessary if you are interviewing for a full-time job. But if an agency wants to hire you on contract, they will usually have to sell you to the client, and to do that they will need a current resume and it really helps to have an attractive portfolio. So what goes into this portfolio?

Here are my suggestions:

Writing samples. Writing and editing are still a large part of the job, so you have to show that you are a very competent writer.
A Content Matrix sample. When interviewing potential new hires, I'm thrilled if the candidate even mentions that they understand what a content matrix is and how it is used. Show up with a sample as a client, I'd be thrilled.
Editorial Style Guide TOC. Just show me enough to prove that you understand the idea and could write something similar for me if needed.
TOC for other Content Strategy Documents. If you have done a content analysis or other client-facing documents, include a sample page or two and a TOC.
Annotated website screen shots for sites you worked on. Take a screen shot of a page of a site you worked on and annotate it with text explaining your contributions to the project.

OK, that's a good start but I'd love to hear your ideas! Please leave comments or send an email to sheff@mindspring.com with you ideas for how to create a kick-ass content strategist portfolio.

Job Ads for Content Strategists Jump 21 %

2008-09-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

I just posted a new article to web-content-strategy.com with a very interesting graph showing a 21 percent increase in jobs posted looking for a content strategist for 2008. The graph also shows a clear, repeating hiring cycle with much higher demand from May to July.

Read more - Web Content Strategist Jobs on the Rise

Content Strategy and the Editorial Style Guide

2008-09-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

One project job that consistently falls to a content strategist is the creation of an Editorial Style Guide that is specific to that project. This important content strategy document contains style guidelines that are specific to client and project at hand. The style guide may well offer some exceptions to the AP Stylebook (or whatever has been defined as the official style book). It is critical to maintain a consistent style throughout your project with regard to spelling, capitalization, abbreviations and usage. This helps ensure that the message is strong, clear, cohesive and professional.

The process of creating the style guide can feel a lot like the movie, Ground Hog Day. You have the same discussions and arguments over and over again. As “word people” it is easy for some of these discussions to become rather passionate. We tend to have strong feelings about these sorts of things. “What! You don’t use the serial comma? Are you still using teletype machines and trying to save on transmission bits?”

It’s best to just give your professional opinion on these items, then bite your tongue and let the client have their way if they make seemingly silly decisions. “You want to hyphenate the term ‘Web-site’ in your content? Sure. Fine and dandy.”

The easiest way to approach the creation of a new style guide it to have the basic structure set up in a template that you can use over and over again on different projects.

What? You don’t have an Editorial Style Guide template you can use? Well, I just might have something to help you out added to The Web Content Strategist’s Bible bonus downloads soon.

What is Content Strategy? Other Voices

2008-09-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Anyone who does content strategy work spends a good bit of time trying to explain and define the practice of content strategy.

Luckily, since most of us are like, ya know, writers and stuff, we seem driven to write things down. I took a shot at the question a few times here on this blog and in The Web Content Strategist’s Bible , but there are other rock star content strategists who are also trying to tackle this question. It’s a lively conversation, please jump in!

Rachel Lovinger
Back in March of 2007 Rachel Lovinger wrote a ground-breaking article and licked off quite a conversation on the BoxesAndArrows site. The comments are still piling up as the conversation continues. Rachel is a Senior Content Strategist for Avenue A Razorfish.

The Philosophy of Data:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/content-strategy-the

Kristina Halvorson
Kristina is the founder and president of Brain Traffic, a content strategy, information architecture, and web writing agency in Minneapolis.

She created a great presentation explaining content strategy to the user experience community: http://www.slideshare.net/khalvorson/content-strategy-by-brain-traffic

Kristina also created and moderates a Google Group on content strategy. Please join and contribute!
http://groups.google.com/group/contentstrategy?hl=en

Colleen Jones
Colleen is a user experience consultant with a strong interest in writing and persuasive content in the interactive space. She recently tackled the question on her blog with two great posts:
http://www.leenjones.com/blog/2008/08/what-is-content-strategy-part-i/
http://www.leenjones.com/blog/2008/08/what-is-content-strategy-part-ii-examples/

Jeffrey MacIntyre
Jeff works as a freelance writer and content strategist for a number of leading agencies out of Brooklyn, NY. Jeff created and maintains a very deep Google Knol (unit of knowledge) on the subject of Content Strategy:
http://knol.google.com/k/jeffrey-macintyre/content-strategy/2s8csiaptctgg/2#

There. That should keep you busy through lunch! Let's hear your take.

Content Strategy for Application Content

2008-09-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

Sure, everyone wants to write the sexy marketing and persuasive content, but if your website contains online applications (pages that are really small programs that collect and/or display data etc.) then you may be missing a golden opportunity to show your value as a content strategist/expert and create a content strategy that makes the applications much easier to maintain.

Usually, text that is part of an online application is coded into the application itself. This is fine for small items like field labels and column headings, but larger blocks of content may be better handled outside of the application code. This is especially true for content that will change regularly such as copyright dates, version numbers, requirements, product cross-sell/up-sell, etc.

If this kind of text is programmed into the application code, the whole application may need to be re-deployed just to make a simple date change from 2008 to 2009. Re-deploying the application will usually require a complete cycle of testing and QA and can get expensive.

There are many ways to handle separating this content out of the code. There is a lot of talk about structured content and XML, but a simpler method may be to simply use your existing WCMS to generate small HTML fragments (just the stuff between the body tags), store these fragments on your production servers as a file, and have the applications just insert the file whenever the page is rendered. Small WCMS changes may be required, but that would be a one-time thing that could pay dividends for years. Once you have this method in place any changes needed to the text can be made quicky and easily without impacting the application programmers.

If all of this sounds like backwards Chinese to you, the key here is just to ask. This may be something that the developers have not even considered that could save them a lot of time and hassle down the road. If so, they will probably be glad to help you work out all the technical details.

Content Matrix Master Template Available

2008-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

You guys asked me to help make creating your Web content strategy deliverables a bit easier, so here you go. I just added a pretty cool content matrix template .xls file to the download area for book purchasers. If you are already a customer, you should have received and email from me by now with a note about the content matrix template and the link to the download page.

This content matrix template has 44 columns and captures everything that I could think of regarding the content development and editorial process. I tweaked it with a bit of color coding, column filters, frozen frames, and development phase identifiers. This is pretty much exactly how I use a content matrix in my big projects.To try and make things are clear as possible I also added twenty, or so, rows of sample project data so you can see examples of what the data looks like that goes in each column.

Even having done this dozens of times before, it still took me about four hours to type everything in and get things exactly like I want them. It should save you at least that much time, so grab a copy of the content matrix template, add your own name and company logo, hide the columns that are not needed for your project, then take a long lunch on me!

Content Matrix Question Answered

2008-09-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

I’ve received several versions of this Web Content Strategy question, so I thought everyone might be interested in my answer.

“Regarding the content matrix spreadsheet you say we need, are you suggesting that we list every individual block of content that needs to be written or deployed? Won’t that get really big after a while?”

To paraphrase Zoolander – yes, your content matrix may get really, really, ridiculously big. I’m not just suggesting that you do this, I’m saying that it is mandatory. You must capture, assign, review, and track every bit of content that needs to be created, or you will just be lost.

So capture everything. If a page just has a title and a link, capture it. How many versions of the footer do you have? Capture them all. Capture everything:

Help popups
Error messages
Promotional messages
Email templates
Forms
Downloads
Rollover text
Hover text
Text on applications
Everything!

Otherwise when that product manager comes to you and says, “hey, you know that product information I gave you two weeks ago? Well I need to make a few small changes. Is it too late,” how will you answer? If no one has started on that page yet, it may be OK. If it has already gone out for translation, then just put it on the list of post launch updates (add another tab to your content matrix for these items) and fix it then.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some content matrix help.

Attract Customers with Content

2008-08-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to an interesting white paper on how to attract and retain customers with content. With a focus on valuable, relevant, solutions-oriented content this strategy will not only be important to customers, but will also be the kind of content that Google naturally loves.

What You Need is Called a Web Content Strategist

2008-08-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I see this kind of thing all the time in job postings for Web content professionals by agencies who still don't get the whole Content Strategy thing -

Seeking a Website Editor/Content Editor/Content Producer/Consultant

Here is some of the job description and requirements listing:

"This leading integrated agency is looking to take on a Website editor to work with one of their prestigious clients. You will be involved in managing the content strategy, structure and style of the project. You will be ensuring all content meets and upholds the tone for the site, developing and approving the site content and liaising with external 3rd parties. You must have at least 5 years relevant experience ideally within an agency environment, be a great team player and have the ability to edit and format a vast amount of content across a variety of formats."

It’s cool when agencies start to realize that what they need is someone who can not only write and edit content, but can also plan the content effort and consult with the client. But it’s a little frustrating to see even agency people struggle with how to describe the position. This is pretty much a dead-center Content Strategy gig and what they need is a Web Content Strategist.

OK, rant over, we will get there eventually. Everything takes time so I’ll keep plugging away. It did sound like a good job though and the pay was decent at $US 84,000.

"Content Strategy" vs. "content strategy"

2008-08-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have a Google Alert RSS feed that sends me mentions of the phrase "content strategy" in the news and on blogs, etc. Just noticing that I see the term used in two, very different ways.

I see the term content strategy (no caps) used very loosely to mean the kinds of content that is being created for the reader/user/viewer. A TV station might refer to their content strategy as planning on showing more locally produced projects. Or a Web site creator might say that they have a content strategy that calls for mostly user-created content. This is a perfectly valid use of the term, but really not what I'm talking about in the context of this blog or my Web Content Strategy book.

Content Strategy (with caps) is usually used to describe the broader, professional practice of CS including:

Client consulting
Content reuse planning
Content development project plans
Editorial Standards
Identifying and training content authors
Assigning and reviewing submitted content
Technical planning for content delivery
CMS issues
Content Governance
Editorial calendar
Content maintenance and archival plans

In my mind it's very similar to how I see "site architecture" vs. "information architecture." Site architecture is usually used to refer to the navigational structure of a Web site, the site's structural hierarchy. Whereas Information Architecture refers to the professional practice of IA including all the consulting, inventory creation, wireframe development, prototyping, and usability/user experience work that they do.

At one time, these two terms were used somewhat interchangeably, but as IA gained recognition as a broader practice, there has been more distinction between the terms. Content Strategy is not quite there yet, but as more rigor and discipline go into content planning and development (in response to late projects due to late content) progress will be made.

Great Content Strategy Slide Show

2008-08-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Kristina Halvorson, who runs the web content strategy consultancy Brain Traffic, developed a great slide show that fits perfectly with my ideas about why content strategy is important, and how it fits into the overall development process.

Take a look!

Content Strategy

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: content webwriting)

New Study Shows U.S. Corporations Increasing the Use of a Social Media Content Strategy

2008-08-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Social Media in the Inc. 500: The First Longitudinal Study
Conducted By: Eric Mattson, Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research recently conducted one of the first statistically significant, longitudinal studies on the usage of social media in corporations as a major part of their online content strategy.

The new study compares corporate adoption of social media between 2007 and 2008 by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine.

The study shows that these fast growing corporations are using social media, such as blogs, at and increasing rate.

See all the details here:

http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/blogstudy5.cfm

Content as "Compound Interest" is a Great Content Strategy

2008-08-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

Lyndon Antcliff at CornwallSEO.com is one of the few SEO guys that really "gets" content. Not the idea of tuning content to rank highly for a specific set of predefined keywords, that's old school SEO. New school is creating a content strategy that uses content like compound interest, it gains value over time because people are getting better and better at using Google.

Search engine watchers are reporting that people are using more two, three, and even four or five keyword phrases when they search. The idea that a smart SEO guy can think of all of these phrases ahead of time is getting more ludicrous by the day.

The long tail is finally hitting the search engine world and the only real SEO solution is what Google has wanted all along - just write a lot of great, original content. The more great content you have, the better the chances are that some of it will be relevant and rank highly for these new, longer, more detailed Google keyword searches.

"Content Strategy" Mentions on the Rise

2008-07-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

I try and keep track of how often people are talking about the idea of "content strategy" online and things are trending up.

I have a Google Alert feed for the term and each month I get more responses. The same for mentions on Twitter. Maybe I should also start to track open Content Strategist jobs also. Like I don't have enough to do :)

Content Stratergy Interview

2008-06-25T15:45:00.001-07:00

Here is a great interview with Web content strategist, Kristina Halvorson from Brain Traffic about what SHE thinks content strategy brings to the table. Her views are exactly in line with mine and what is in The Web Content Strategist's Bible.

"Content strategist: Responsible for helping to define the content — what it is, what it says, where it will come from, and how it will sound/read. I think another critically important role, here, is that the content strategist is responsible for monitoring what’s being suggested or reguested — it’s not as though the content is just sitting in a drawer somewhere, waiting to be pulled out at the last minute. Do we have the necessary time and resources to produce what’s being proposed?"

Well done Kristina.

http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/essays/archives/000959.php

Upcoming eBook Additions

2008-05-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

As promised, I'm working on a couple of new sections for the book. As I see the need for more information, I've made a list and started to work on new information.

The first two sections to be added will be:

Content Strategy for Search Engine Optimized Content - I won't claim to have an secrets of tricks here, just a few proven, best practices that should always be followed.
Writing Structured Content for Rich Media Online Applications - Here I'll talk a bit about writing content that will be used by Flash, Flex, AJAX or other rich media applications.

I'll post here when the ebook has been updated and do my best to contact everyone who has already purchased the book. You will always be able to download the latest version at no charge.

Is Your Web Site Content Sustainable? Kill as Much (or more) Content as You Create

2008-04-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

How many pages are there on your site that NO ONE has visited in the last year? If you have a large site I’ll bet there a lot. Maybe 10% or more?

Someone in marketing decided that you just HAD to have a page about whatever so it got built, and it gets updated. And nobody is reading it.

Here’s an interesting article from Gerry McGovern about the True Cost of Content.
An organization that had a 4,000 page public website decided to do a major audit of content quality. As a result, it got rid of 1,000 pages. It didn’t get one single enquiry for the deleted pages. A 100,000 page intranet deleted 60,000 pages. There was not one single enquiry for the deleted pages.

Whenever we do a Web content project we build a content matrix to guide the way. An important part of all my projects is a tab on the Spreadsheet titled “Clean Up?”. As I’m working my way through content that might be affected by the project, I keep a list of pages that a suspiciously lame that I think could afford to get the axe. When I have a few extra minutes I’ll run a Web Trends report and see if I can justify taking them down.

Speak Nicely About Your New WCMS System - Even if You Hate It

2008-03-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

As a Web content professional, when you get a nice, shiny, new version 1.0 of a new WCMS system, I promise you will have a long list of things you hate. Absolutely hate. It’s too slow, workflow is buggy, it’s too hard to use, HTML generation takes forever, where did my changes go, and on and on. Once you start to use it, you will find a hundred things you wish were implemented differently. Be very, very careful about how you talk about this new, and admittedly, ugly baby. You will be living with it for a long time.

I learned this one the hard way. To get all the benefit out of a WCMS, you will need a lot of people throughout the organization to play a part. We made the mistake of being very vocal about early problems. We complained for hours about how painful it was to get even a small amount of work done. So much so that now, years later, I still get a huge pushback every time I try to pull an outside department into the WCMS development process. They heard so much bad news about the system when it first launched that now when they hear the term ‘WCMS’ used, they run the other way. Suddenly they are swamped and have no time to participate as a reviewer in WCMS workflow. “Can you just send us a hardcopy that we can mark up?” No, we can’t. That causes all kinds of problems. That’s why we have workflow.

One by one, we have addressed the problems and limitations of our early system. It is light years better than when we started, but THAT message is not very interesting and no one hears it. All they remember is how the content team had to work until midnight every night to get a meager amount of content through the system and generated and they run the other way. It’s too late for us. I’ll be fighting this battle for years. Don’t make the same mistake.

Content Reviews in the WCMS and Scope Creep

2008-03-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

My WCMS lets me send anything out for review and comment through a system controlled workflow; complete pages, individual modules, or images. Logically, most reviewers prefer to see an entire content page rather than just a module, so they can view the change in context. The problem with sending the entire page out for review is that they then want to make changes to the entire page, instead of just reviewing and approving a small change.

Everyone thinks they are a writer and wants to reword and re-write content that is factually correct. In my experience it’s about a 50-50 chance that they will actually make the content better with out-of-scope edits.

Sure, a few extra CMS changes to a content page should not be a big problem. But we are working on dozens of projects at any one time and they are all tightly scoped and staffed. Even a minor change to all of them would blow up our project plans, not to mention the impacts on translation word counts and schedules.

I try to manage this process by:

Regularly contacting subject matter experts and asking them to review site content while we are not working on that part of the site. If they find changes they can submit them for regular maintenance (non project) work.
If a content page is very large (an FAQ page for example), I send only the CMS module that changed out for review.
When I send content out for review, I send a detailed manifest to each reviewer that lists, in detail, exactly what changed on each page.
If I get comments back on existing content that was unchanged as part of the current project, I tell them it is out of scope and tell them how to submit the change as a maintenance request.

The thing I find most helpful is the detailed change manifest. If I can show a reviewer that the content he wants to change has nothing to do with the current project, and has also been live out on the site for some time, and that they could have submitted a maintenance request at any time if they had only looked at their content, they usually back down and agree to defer the change to maintenance. Often, the maintenance team is able to get the change out earlier than if it had been tied up with a non-related project.

Site Re-design = Site Re-write = Lots of Time

2008-03-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

I like to keep up with my friends in the Web agency world to see how life is back on that side of the fence. Everyone I talk to these days is doing a site re-design of one kind or another. The opportunities to build a brand new big, enterprise Web site have passed. So now it’s all about re-design and re-launch.

The thing that they all seem to be having trouble with is forgetting they also have to re-write. A typical re-design is not just a graphical facelift; it’s a fresh look at customer needs and a changing competitive environment. So a great deal of time is spent on analysis and figuring out how to best address a complex series of user needs. And rightly so. But what frequently gets lost in the project plan is adequate time to re-write the entire site.

As you change design, page layout, and information architecture, you insure that it will be impossible to have any kind of automated script run to migrate existing content into the new design. Content will be chunked in new ways, with new pages, and new WCSM content templates (or even a completely new content management system). This is not a cut-and-paste exercise.
In every case I’ve been exposed to, the content re-loading has completely blown out the project plan. What was planned to take two weeks takes two months and twice as many writes/editors as planned.

Think about how long it took to write all the content in an existing site, it’s probably years. You simply can’t re-do all that work in a few weeks. Every piece of content will have to be looked at and restructured to fit in the new page layout and templates. New pages will have to be created, new messaging will need to be written, and new index pages will have to link all this together so that new navigation systems can be coded and generated.

Add to this new content management functionality, that may or may not work properly at first, and you are looking at project plan nightmare.

I see this all the time and the solution is really simple math. Take the new CMS, figure out how long it takes to build a new module, estimate the number of modules on an average page, figure out how many pages have to be generated and start multiplying. It’s not difficult, but the numbers are so terrifying that planners and managers just don’t want to think about it.

I speak from experience here as I was involved in a complete site re-design that was completely derailed by the time it took to re-write all the site content in a new WCMS. In the end, it took a full year get the new content written in the new WCMS, translated, and generated out to working HTML.

If you are in this kind of project, step up and talk about the 900 pound gorilla in the room. I know it’s big and scary, but feed it now or feed it later. Either way, it’s going to eat a ton of time and money.

The Black Art of Estimating Translations

2008-02-27T11:37:00.000-08:00

Almost all the source content that we spit out of or WCMS goes out to our vendor for translation into 32 languages. They constantly demand accurate estimates of word count changes for each language (so they can make sure they have adequate staff in each language), but can never give us a good method for determining this estimate.

For changes to content that has been previously translated, the best we can do is to count all the words in each affected sentence, add up all the changes, then reduce the count by about %20 to account for translation memory savings. But sometimes translation memory automatically takes care of %75 of the changes and sometime almost none at all. For us, there is just no way of knowing which it will be until it runs through their system.

If anyone has a better way, I’d love to hear it!