get set for content success: preparing your organization for content work
DESCRIPTION
Workshop presented at the Ragan Content Summit, June 2013 by Melissa Rach and Julie Vollenweider, Dialog Studios Content is a great way to attract and keep customers—but most organizations aren't set up to support the content process. Planning, creating, reviewing, approving, publishing, maintaining, and archiving content takes time and requires constant attention. To get the right content online and keep it relevant, you need an effective content workflow that addresses all facets of content—people, processes, and tools. In this session, we'll discuss how to create a successful content practice in your organization, including how to: - Align on shared values and goals for content - Identify what content tasks need to be completed - Assign content roles and responsibilities - Establish content processes and structures - Prepare your organization for change - Measure success and create ongoing room to evolve over timeTRANSCRIPT
Get set for content success Melissa Rach & Julie Vollenweider | Dialog Studios
flickr user: PlasticineMonkey
Contents
flickr user: The Travelling Bum
What is content?
Shared vocabulary
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Origami_airplane.svg
In the past, content was:• Not really considered a business asset
• Often meant for one use
• Used for one-way communication
• Created in isolated departments
Today, there is:
MORE
Content is everywhere
flickr user: Scarygami
Higher expectations
flickr user: EmreAyar
No, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to
keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as
fast as that!
—The Queen
Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll
Content needs care
flickr user: Qarylla
If we don’t care for content• Mediocre content
• Disorganized content
• Forgotten or neglected content
• Work duplication
• Over budget, under delivery
• Upset stakeholders
• Disengaged users
The single most important thing most websites can
offer to their users is content that those users
will find valuable.
—Jesse James Garret
The Elements of User Experience
Questions?
Alignment
Who’s involved? • Sponsor/financial decision makers
• Strategic decision makers
• Champions
• Derailer/showstopper
• Influencer
• Implementer
• Interested others
Make your case
An elf, a customer and a competitor walk into a bar…
flickr user: docoverachiever
Keep `em engaged• Set expectations
• Communicate and encourage participation
• Listen and respond
• Distribute documentation
• Celebrate milestones
Don’t try to
go it alone
flickr user: Anna
Questions?
Setting the direction
Clarkbunch.wordpress.com
Aimless content results
Where are you going?
flickr user: Gabriel GM
What are you building?
http://www.langorigami.com/
Find your guide star
From: Content Strategy for the Web, Second Edition ©2012 Brain Traffic
Try
Buy
SolveEvolve
Triggering Need
Learn
getting
keeping
Linda Ireland, Domino
What do they need?
What’s realistic?
flickr user: georigami
Reality check
Is the proposed content:
• Wanted by the users?
• Useful to the business?
• Costly to build?
• Maintainable with our current staff?
Content features matrix
Core strategy statement
ConsiderAchieveWhat does your content need to accomplish for your organization, industry, and/or users?
BeWhat “content product(s)” will we create? What makes the product valuable to the users? Or, how will they be valuable to the business?
DoWhat will the organization need to do to support this content effort? What resources will be needed?
ALIGN
Where are
you now?
flickr user: Gabriel GM
Content factors analysisExisting content
External impact factors • Users• Competitors• Influencers
Internal impact factors• Goals, risks, requirements• People and processes • Ideas and opinions • Other projects • Technology
ALIGN
How will you get there?
flickr user: Gabriel GM
What are your tasks?• Create
• Enforce
• Measure and evolve
STRATEGY
What are your tasks?• Research
• Plan content
• Plan resources
STRATEGY
Plan
ning
Plan
ning
Plan
ning
What are your tasks?• Create/publish
• Update
• Retire
Content creation and maintenance
• Share
• Respond
• Measure
ALIGN
Questions?
Assign content roles and responsibilities
Don’t plan your future, plan your people. Outstanding people who fit your broad vision will tend to make the right decisions along the way;
not by following a plan, but by using their skill.
—Harry Beckwith
Selling the Invisible
Performance-based roles
What candidates need to do for success (skills)
What candidates have as qualifications (labels)
Web content manager• Collaborate with internal teams and external
agencies to blend user needs with business goals• Develop strategy and plans• Write• Review and edit• Manage approvals and content design• Monitor content• Articulate goals, metrics, and more
Content liaisons
flickr user: Saucy Salad
Who owns the content?
Brand / marketing IT
UX / web strategy
Product / service SMEs
Why ownership is an issue• Site consolidation
• Decentralization
• Leadership involvement
• “Digital first” teams
• Relationships with independents and agencies
Get the gang together
flickr user: gpoo
Common accountabilities• Identify
• Plan
• Request
• Gather
• Prepare
• Provide
• Create
• Edit
• Fix
• Review
• Advise
• Approve
• Publish
• Optimize
• Audit
• Measure
• Sustain
• Share
RACI
Task Time Description
Creation
New content articles 40% New content (estimating 10 hours per page, 70 pages annually)
Special projects 12% New interactive or multimedia content, microsites; make large-scale site changes (structural adjustments)
Website promotion 3% Select featured content; plan and create teasers directing users to featured content
Maintenance
Auditing 4% Review and assess existing content; communicate results to others (estimating 8 pages per hour, audit annually, plus report creation)
Content updates/adjustments
20% Maintain existing content (edit/rewrite/consolidate); assumes 20% of content needs to be retired or revised annually (estimating 3.5 hours per page)
Common accountabilities• Identify
• Plan
• Request
• Gather
• Prepare
• Provide
• Create
• Edit
• Fix
• Review
• Advise
• Approve
• Publish
• Optimize
• Audit
• Measure
• Sustain
• Share
Create strategic routines
flickr user: georigami
Routines, not rules• Decision making at every level
• Ability to change quickly
• Allows for innovation
• Responsibility and satisfaction for all
A little chaos is OK
flickr user: Jippolito
People need to know• What they are responsible for
• How performance is measured
• How their decisions impact others
• How their work fits in the larger context
• What happens if they are not accountable
• Where they can stretch
Creativity can flourish
flickr user: Dominic’s pics
Questions?
Map processes
Put it in practice• Focus on creation
• Will be one part of a larger workflow
• Content creation is often where a lot of time is spent
Review the editorial calendarTime of year
Holidays Channels Content element
Hot topics Content creators
Summer Memorial Day
Father’s Day
Fourth of July
Web
Magazine
Office phone
Homepage / cover feature
Landing pages / articles
Scripts
Festivals
Twins games
Sculpture garden
Pedal pub
Canoe the lakes
Patio dining
Arya
Rob
Ned
Sansa
Consult the channelsMeet with the offline content creators to determine:
• What plans they have in the works
• What topics they plan to feature
• How you might create a cohesive story arc together
• How you might re-use or adapt content among yourselves
Create all the pieces
flickr user: mattersofgreyflickr user: mattersofgrey
Rely on consistency tools
http://bbybrandidentity.com/guidelines-bby/brand-elements/#
Prepare and publish• Requester review
• Edits and proofing
• Formatting
• Functionality test
• Publish
Hang on, there’s more
flickr user: Origamiancy
Maintenance tools
82
Quantitative audit data
• ID
• Title/topics
• URL
• Format
• Source
• Technical home
• Metadata
• Traffic/usage
• Last update
• Language
83
Take action
Questions?
BREAK
Prepare your organization for change
If there is no specific diet that all your people can agree to follow,
then you must conclude that you are not really willing or able
to pursue that strategic goal.
—David Maister
Strategy and the Fat Smoker
Communicate, share & get input
flickr user: owlpacino
Methods• Advisory team
• Communication plan
• Implementation plan
• Interviews
• Roadshow
• Workshops
The food in my bowl
Is old, and more to the point
Contains no tuna.
Most problems can be
Ignored. The more difficult
Ones can be slept through.
Am I in your way?
You seem to have it backwards:
This pillow’s taken.flickr user: Origamiancy
Waiting for Your Cat to BarkBryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg
If people are to make the right strategic decision in every location
of the firm, in every operating group, and at every level, then they must absolutely trust that management will back them up.
—David Maister
Strategy and the Fat Smoker
Common good• Progress is made
• Money is saved
• Time is spent efficiently
• Consumers are satisfied
Progress is madeflickr user: fiomaha
Time is spent
efficiently
flickr user: georigami
Consumers are satisfied
flickr user: josey4628
Questions?
Measuring success
The final frontier
flickr user: josey4628 foldsomething.com
Business expectations • To make an investment, organizations expect:
• To know exactly what our product is
• Proof of competency/quality
• Exactly how much it will cost
• Provable value and ROI
Hard numbers. Right now.
The expectation
flickr user: PhillipWest
The reality
flickr user: Foglienere
flickr user: PhillipWest
Estimate, you will!
Exacts are impossibleMeasurement is a set of observations that reduce uncertainty where the results are expressed as a quantity.
Numbers reduce uncertainty:
• Approximate values
• Shortcuts for the brain
• Common vocabulary
Create a plan of attack
flickr user: origamiguy1971
Use all the weapons you have
flickr user: georigami
Arm yourself with:• Analytics
• Qualitative assessments
• User research and usability
• External expert review
• Internal expert review
• Efficiency measurements
Use the
force
flickr user: georigami
The power of educated assumptions Figure out what you know; fill in the blanks with assumptions • The average Star Wars t-shirt costs $20
• Analytics show that 50 people start the process of purchasing a t-shirt online every day, but only 10 finish the process
• User research shows that the instructions on the purchase pages are very confusing
• We assume 5-10 people leave the purchasing process because of something unrelated to the site, and 5-10 leave the process when they see the shipping costs
• We assume the remaining 20-30 people would complete the purchasing process if the instructions were more helpful
• Therefore, the value of the instructional content is likely around $144,000-216,000 per year ($20 x 20-30 people x 30 days X12)
• The cost of fixing the content is approximately $5,000
Score! Section score:
88 out of 100↑ 15% since April
Questions?
The finished product
Keeping the momentum• Align
• Set direction
• Assign roles and responsibilities
• Map processes
• Prepare for change
• Measure success
Thanks!Melissa Rach (@MelissaRach)Julie Vollenweider (the worst at social media)
flickr user: PlasticineMonkey