publish - measure - learn - build: using content experiments to drive the digital design process
DESCRIPTION
What can content strategists learn from the long-established areas of online: UX, design and development? A look at my tumblr content experiment for ABC Classic 2 - a new online radio station of classical music. Presented at Content Strategy Forum 2014 in Frankfurt. 1: This is a story about bad things that happen when content strategists try to take on too much. 2: Classic 2 is the sister station to a long established classical music station, ABC Classic FM. 3: As a content maker I get pulled in a lot of different directions – wearing a lot of hats. I spend a lot of time and energy trying to make a perfect world for my content to be born into. This experiment is about I took off all those hats to wear just my content hat, and how in doing so I was influenced by designers/developers around me who work “lean” everyday. 4. Wanted to concentrate 100% on crafting the perfect content offer in lead up to launch - not the bells and whistles, not the brand pack, but the actual content - words, images, video, sound. 5: ABC Classic 2 not a new idea - plenty of competitors in the online classical music listening space - the difference needed to be in the packaging. 6: In retrospect, saying that I needed a website to make Classic 2 stand out from the crowd was a dumb idea. I had no development team to build me a site. I think from their perspective, I had no clear content goals – not that they’d seen anyway. I had great ideas in my head but nothing documented. 7: There was one redeeming feature I was grasping onto and that was an editorial hunch: that different packaging and a unique tone of voice for this product was key. There is value in an editorial hunch, or knowing your audience. It’s knowledge in your head that isn’t documented. 8: What I wanted was digital content, not a website. It felt like an arbitrary decision to go with Tumblr – my main motivation was to kill off side-issues the need for a designer, developer, the need for a site map and user testing. 9: The tumblr interface is naturally stripped back and let’s content shine and it’s responsive to all devices. We took control of de-scoping. 10: It’s not about hierarchy, the new content just piles in at the top, yet it continues to seep out sideways as it gets shared socially. 11-16: Tumblr inspiration. 17: Effectively at the publish stage pre-launch. 18: Months from launch, we were moving into editorial workflows to test the production process. 19: Testing the content ideas by pitching ideas, creating the posts and sharing them in team. 20-24: Content examples of differing levels of effort. No “buckets to fill” problem – when you have a site needing constant "feeding". 25: Retrospective content experiment. 26: Key goal of the tumblr is to convert consumers of the content into listeners of stream. 27-28: If we had traditional website, we wouldn’t be making memes. Learning from community.TRANSCRIPT
Publish-measure-learn-build: using content experiments to
drive the digital design process
Angela Stengel Australian Broadcas2ng Corpora2on
@angelastengel
The rookie mistake
An editorial hunch How can we
document subject expertise and efficiently assess its value
alongside other research methods?
Do you really need a website? WEBSITE TUMBLR
Designer Content maker
Developer Theme
UX Follow and like
Scoping phase
Site map
Build 2me
Tes2ng
Content maker
We de-scoped until we really started enjoying it.
composersdoingnormalshit.tumblr.com
composersdoingnormalshit.tumblr.com
composersdoingnormalshit.tumblr.com
composersdoingnormalshit.tumblr.com
fuckyeahclassical.tumblr.com
nprmusic.tumblr.com
Publish
What is the content equivalent
of wireframes?
Make editorial “lean” in order to test the ideas.
Measure
Hypothesis • Content will draw audience to stream
Goal • Convert tumblr audience to stream listeners
Measurement • Clicks from social > tumblr > stream
Learn
Have you ever clapped at the wrong 2me?
Build
How to setup a content experiment
1. Work on an unpopular project. 2. Salvage the good ideas. 3. Find a precedent, however tenuous. 4. Win over your boss. 5. Lay low, work quickly.
Questions?
Angela Stengel @angelastengel
abc.net.au/classic2 @abcclassic2