keeping content strategy alive: managing people & processes

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Keeping content strategy alive: Managing people and processes Hilary Marsh Content Company, Inc Confab for Nonprofits 2014 1

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Keeping content strategy alive:Managing people and processesHilary MarshContent Company, IncConfab for Nonprofits 20141

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Most stories start out like this once upon a time.

The situation is set up, characters emerge, things happen, crises arise, and then get resolved. And the stories usually end like this:

and they lived happily ever after

Thats the end of the story, were led to believe. Its all smooth sailing from there.

The plots of content strategy stories

For content strategy, there are stories too.

SituationCharactersThings HappenCrises AriseCrises Get Resolved

They follow the same pattern as any other story, for the most part

We are the characters

https://www.flickr.com/photos/confabevents/14138512934/

The characters in the content strategy story are us. This is from Confab Central in Minneapolis last month

SituationFindabilityVoiceOwnershipPoliciesPractices

Here are some typical content strategy situations. How many of these have you faced in your organization?

The characters in the story are usually us, and here are the events that typically happen

We analyze

We analyze, as I just finished doing with a 135,000-line content audit for a large education client

We plan

We plan. This is an example editorial calendar from a graduate content strategy course I finished teaching last month.

We set guidelines

We set guidelines. Heres an example voice and tone document from another student in my course.

and they lived happily ever after?

After our matrices and documents are done, do we just live happily ever after?

So many of the books and articles we read, and just about all the materials Ive ever seen from Web design firms seem to indicate that we do. But actually, the real stories, and the real work, of content strategy just start at this point.

Rather than a fairy tale with a simple, happy ending, the really interesting, amazing, and challenging work of content strategy is more like having a baby.

Youve planned and prepared, and now the big moment is finally here.

The brand-new, shiny bundle of joy is handed over to you. Its amazing and beautiful, and you fall completely in love with what youve created.

And basically, as soon as its turned over to you.

Youve entered an entirely new world.

Welcome to content strategy parenthood. Youll face new challenges along the way, youll have amazing triumphs and some bumps too. And after a time, you will be living happily ever after until its time to start all over again.

The web drives organizational changeCommunicationCollaborationAwareness of the audienceCommon brand15

Nonprofits are complicated

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http://www.amazon.com/Have-Always-Done-That-Way/dp/184728857X/

These layers have led to a common, although usually unspoken, motto at our organizations. This is the title of a great little book about associations.

Content strategist as orchestra conductor18

Roots first, then plants

This is the orderCreate a strong foundationTest and learnSell it upLaunch Practice and evolve

Create the FoundationAnswer the important questionsLiving, breathing document21

In 2005, I started working at NAR. I worked for Realtor.org, the member website our audience was real estate agents and brokers. The site had many of the challenges I listed before, and more. Our primary challenge was that the publishing model was completely decentralized, and each of the organizations 23 departments considered themselves practically independent entities.

I spent my first several months creating our content strategy. We answered big questions:What should we do about PDFs?Who should be able to add a blog to our website, and why or why not?Should we have online polls?What does it mean to be 508 compliant with our content?

If youve ever created a content strategy, you know that its primary job is to answer the questions that are in the air now, and to try and anticipate the next set of questions that will be coming down the pike, and answer those too.

Anyway, once the content strategy was done, we realized we needed to create other strategies too. We spent a ton of time thinking about our overall strategy, design and technology too.

At the end of this effort, we printed them up and put them in large binders. We set up appointments with each departments, where we walked through the strategy documents and pointed out the important things they needed to know.

What happened next? Im sure that everyone we talked to listened carefully at the meetings, but then put the binder on a shelf, where it stayed from then on.

And who do you think the real audience for the document was? Yes, the audience was us.

Over the next year or so, my team and I continued to update the document as we had time. Things happened, including social media. And we hired new people with new ideas, so that changed things too.

One of the new people, who now has the job that I had, recommended that we transform the strategy guidelines from printed documents to a wiki that anyone in the organization could get to, and that has helped a lot. The wiki is a living, breathing document easier to keep up to date. That makes it easier to enforce the rules and policies that are covered in the content strategy.

Gain an understandingUnderstand your audienceEmpathyDataUnderstand your business goals23

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At Realtor.org, we went through a process to create empathy personas. We enlisted the help of staff members to brainstorm about their challenges, fears, and motivations. These staff members had worked for NAR for many years and represented many programs and services. Theyd been exposed to lots of different members, both the volunteer leaders who serve on the committees, and the general membership at large which, as we all know, are completely different populations.

This was my secret way of overcoming the objections to the fact that the web team was in charge of the website and of getting buy-in from my peers there. Rather than handing them a binder full of rules, we were all doing the work together.

Empathy-Based Personas25

AnthonySusanAllenMaggie

The consultant we worked with, Esteban Gonzalez, has a company called Brand Therapy that specializes in creating these kinds of personas. Esteban led us through the whole process. He had everyone check their individual experience at the door, which was so important We had to agree on the four most important audiences that the organization needed to serve online. The very last step of all the brainstorming sessions was to give each of our personas a name and a face.

This was such an effective way to create a shared understanding of our audiences.

When we were ready to reveal them to the larger community of staff members who published information on the site, we created life-size cutouts of them and actually had people introduce them. I kept those cutouts right outside my office, where they were always in view for me and my team, as well as anyone who came to talk with us.

Data is your friend

You need to balance your qualitative understanding of your audience with qualitative data too. Many of us content strategy folks are wary of the numbers side of things, but its so important to learn how to get valuable information out of your analytics. As Jonathon Colman has reminded us before, analytics make your case.

For example, on the university system project Im working on now, we found that 94% of their content had 0 views in the past year. Theres no refuting that, when subject matter experts inside the organization want to keep their content because they think its important. And removing that unused content lets us really rethink how to present their information so its more compelling to users.

Data also includes surveys, which I do in almost every project.

Know your business goals28

http://cehd.gmu.edu/centers/complete/missionhttp://cehd.gmu.edu/centers/complete/mission

As content strategists, we always need to be aware of multiple things at the same time. Not only do we need to keep the audience needs in mind, we need to make sure that the business can accomplish its goals successfully. I think were all aware that nonprofits have business goals too raise money through donations or grants in order to do their important work, get volunteers to help provide services, or for foundations, make sure that grant recipients have the resources they need to do the work we funded. These are just a few examples -- there are so many more potential goals, of course.

If your organization doesnt have a handy chart like this outlining its goals, look to the strategic plan and try and create something that puts the goals in a simple format.

So why have I been spending time on these in a talk about content strategy thats about how to start today? Because I think sometimes we skip these steps and go right to the part that seems more specific to us, actually answering all of those content questions and deciding how the content will work. However, these two things your audiences and your business goals are the universal foundation for your content strategy. The more solid your foundation, the easier it will be to sell and defend the specifics that your content strategy covers.

Policies and guidelines+Audience understanding+Business knowledge=

30Your vision

You are here

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Start and Learn

Now its time to test out the waters with your content strategy. Youll probably want to do this in a less-than-official way, as a pilot project, possibly under everyones radar if you have the kind of culture that may be reluctant to change. And you may want to do more than one pilot. The object here is to have a good story to tell when you finally present the whole package to management.

Try, try, try, try33

https://www.flickr.com/photos/telachhe/3342173731/

Find out who your content strategy champions are, and approach them with your ideas. Theyre the ones whove been asking to try new things, who have wanted to be the organizations early adopters.

Together, you can try out your answers to the key questions: What happens if we.?

It may not always work, and thats okay.

Save your evidence34

http://bit.ly/1jntVcJ

This is a great time to test things out.Save your evidence, both so you know what works and what doesnt, and also so you can share those specifics later on as part of your education effort.

Be patient35http://bit.ly/1jntVcJ

Youll need to be patient. This is a Tibetan monk creating a sand mandala. Hes taking great care to get every detail right.

Youll see that your efforts will start to work too, and youll be building success stories.

Now youre ready for the next step.

Get your governance in order36Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ceardach/4550198618/

Roles & governance models37

http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/four_models_for_organizing_digital_work_part_two

Where most orgs start38

lack of consistency, InefficientNot really strategic at all

What often seems most logical39

In its own siloSlow to changeToo much processToo much work to do, preventing the ability to be a strategic leader

What some orgs are trying40

Random, uneven qualityPerpertuates fiefdomsEncourages competition rather than collaborationCan end up duplicating resourcesLeads to a confusing user experience

Where most orgs land41

Central visionShared and distributed skillsRequires buy-in from the topStrategic and responsiveMay not be able to succeed in an organization that is highly silo-ized, politicized, and competitive

ProcessesWhat kinds of content needs to be reviewed?How much review: Typos, headlines, calls to action?42

If youre not sureStart with processes similar to those your organization already usesPublication editorial processIT workflow for new projects43

Get and Keep Support44

You are here

Meet with the EDYour agenda:Show whats broken and whyShow solutions and potential, and what it will take to get thereTalk about the pilot efforts and the lessons learnedAnticipate roadblocks raise what if scenarios, talk them through in advanceDetermine follow-up frequency46

Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, you may have to take this on in layers. At NAR, this would have meant meeting with my boss, who was VP of communications, and then she might have had to run it by her boss, who was the senior VP. But ultimately, you will want and need to meet with the chief honcho in your organization. You need to be in that meeting and not just create the talking points that others share.

Youll want to do whatever it takes to make your superiors comfortable about having you there, such as rehearsing the meeting in advance.

Not a linear process47Content strategySupport and buy-inEnablementExecutionEvolution

Time to launch it officially48

You are here

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Share your visionTalk about whats already happeningHand out the timeframe for new ways of workingLet them know that the ED is on board

Present the big picture in personIf you created personas, introduce" themHand out cheat sheetsTalk about what this means timelines, processes

Be there for your colleagues52

Have follow-up conversationsAnswer questionsUnderstand habits and objectionsHelp them educate others committees, volunteers, etc.

Educate and remind53

NewslettersQuarterly in-person meetingsOpen Q&AUser groups

Success storiesLessons learnedGoals set and adjustedTest results

Educate and remindEmploy Strategic Nagging: Patient but persistent repetition of a message

Carrie Hane Dennison, @carriehd54

Invite yourself to meetingsAsk questionsTalk to people youve never talked to beforeThink about where they are coming from

Operationalize and socialize55

Can your systems support you?Expiration dates in the CMSStandards validation in governance software

Set up office hoursOffer to reviewTest and measure on demand

Eventually, youll have to say no56

Point to the policyPresent alternativesEscalate if absolutely necessaryGet involved earlierAsk the right people the right questions legal example

Solid rationales and alternatives57

Point to the policyPresent alternativesSupportEscalate if absolutely necessaryGet involved earlier

Help people prioritize58

One of your key objectives is to help people create sustainable commitments

Develop and share patterns/templatesPlans, calendars

Help people prioritizeShould we be on Instagram?What can we stop doing?

Report on progress59

http://www.enterprisenews.com/article/20140614/SPORTS/140617308

Not you alone, but the people who you helped succeed

Remember the orderCreate a strong foundationTest and learnSell it upLaunch Practice and evolve

and they lived happily ever after

Thank you

Hilary [email protected]@hilarymarsh