a professional carol - the past, present, and future of content strategy

www.scroll.co.uk © 2015 Scroll LLP @ScrollUK

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A professional carol:the past, present, and future of content strategy

(with apologies to Charles Dickens)

Photo credit, all photos: Rahel Anne BailieEbenezer Scrooge encounters "Jacob Marley's ghost" in Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marley%27s_Ghost-John_Leech,_1843.jpg


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NAMETitle

Scroll (UK)

Photo of presenter hereRAHEL ANNE BAILIE

Chief Knowledge Officer

Scroll (UK)


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www.scroll.co.uk

© 2015 Scroll LLP All rights reserved

The ghost of content past


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Short history of publishing

40,000 BC Cave paintings

3,000 BC Clay tablet books, papyrus rolls

1,300 BC Books in China

300 BC Library opens in Egypt

8 BC Paper as writing medium

1040 First movable type

1843 Steam-powered rotary printing press

1982 TCP/IP protocol standard

1983 Desktop publishing

begins

1996 Web versions of

newspapers

1998 Google is founded

1999 Self-publishing

through Blogger

2007 Kindle is released

2007 iPhone is launched

2008 Apple launches app

store

2012 DCMI Metadata Terms


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Once upon a time,

delivering content was

relatively simple

PrintPrepressProofreadEditWrite


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Way, way back … before the Web

University of Oregon Editorial Style Guide

• Brand guidelines

• Tone and voice

• The 4Cs:

• Clear

• Complete

• Correct

• Concise

• Plain Language

• Controlled Technical

English


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Then about the time

that the dinosaurs roamed…


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Two disciplines converging


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Ghost of content present


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We need to support omnichannel marketing

Courtesy Kevin Nichols


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Four pieces of content

Used in four product lines

Used in four products in each

product line

Used in four delivery formats

We need to support multiplicity


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We need to “go digital”

The Semantic Web Stack (from Wikipedia)

• Marketing content

• Informational content

• User assistance content

• Transactional content

• Entertainment content

• Instructive content

• Localised content

• Microcontent

• Metadata


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Content strategy

goes mainstream

(about 2009)


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The profession is developing


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Everyone jumps on board the CS bandwagon

PR

Content [what?]

Technical

Social

Content marketing

Search and SEO

Advertising

Journalism

Marketing marketingmarketing marketing

User experience

PR

Transactional

Codestrings

Products


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Delivering content

got complicated

is increasingly complex


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So what is content strategy?


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Something contained in a receptacle

The “stuff” between the tags

Potential information

Human-usable, contextualized data

Content


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Strategy

Alternatives chosen to

make happen a desired future,

such as achievement of a goal

or solution to a problem.


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Repeatable system

that governs the

management of content

throughout the entire lifecycle

Content Strategy


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Repeatable system

that governs the



Content Strategy

Alternatives were considered and

decisions were made.


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Repeatable system

that governs the



Content Strategy

Set of principles are organised

into a delivery method.


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Repeatable system

that governs the



Content Strategy

The established system has

some control and authority.


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Repeatable system

that governs the



Content Strategy

The process of controlling how

content is managed.


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Repeatable system

that governs the



Content Strategy

The system must take into consideration all

of the stages, including future iterations.


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The content lifecycle

is the heartbeat


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The content lifecycle


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If you’re not

strategising about the

entire content lifecycle,

you’re not doing

content strategy.


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Ghost of content future


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Trends in content strategy

Content side

Corporate side

Profession side

What the future holds


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For the content


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More output complexity


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More specialised tools


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More standards


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For corporations


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Digital agencies

• Most will focus on design and ignore content

• A few will start the hard process of change

Companies

• Slow increase in companies hiring content

strategists, with initial fumbling to understand

what expectations they should have

Public sector

• Traditionally, as late adopters, will continue to

embrace content design until content strategy

is eventually better understood

What the future holds


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For the profession


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Growth in maturity


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More governance

And for

content

strategy?


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More skills

Impresses me

Doesn’t impress me


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Scroll workshops to fill the gap

Bootcamps

• 2-day intensive gearing up for agency work

• Suitable for professionals who need the right

framework and up-skilling in specific areas

Accreditation course

• 6-day course, with course work, that prepares

professionals to work in the industry

• Raises the bar for practitioners by synchronizing the

editorial and technical aspects

Content design courses

• For the “UX of content” professionals

• Training to standards of gov.uk content design role


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[email protected]

[email protected]

Twitter: @ScrollUK / @rahelab

By telephone:

UK +44 (0)203 318 1828 (office)

UK +44 (0)7869 643 685 (mobile)

Speaking and workshops:

bailie.com

SCROLLLondon, UK

http://scroll.co.uk/




a professional carol - the past, present, and future of content strategy

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