The Content Strategy Land Rush

I’m keenly interested in getting a better handle on content strategy, but it seems to me there’s still much to work out, even among the thought leaders themselves. It’s an exciting time for content and people looking at content strategy as a field. If naysayers speak up, it can only be because content strategy is taking focus off their own game.

Wion, Destry. Wion (2009). Articles>Content Management>Management>Content Strategy

Five Suggestions for a Successful CMS Migration

Migrating to a new system can be surprisingly difficult (some reasons). The following steps can help in your migration.

Hobbs, David. WelchmanPierpoint (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Getting a Handle on Your Content Types

“Content types” are among the least understood, and yet most potent, aspects of user experience and web design. Most people encounter them for the first time when implementing a grand-scale content management system (CMS) because you have to define content types before building templates for each kind of content you’re going to publish. Because they associate content types so closely with CMS, some make the mistake of equating content strategy with content management. They’re not the same thing, though they are certainly related. Your content strategy specifies the content types that will then be modeled for your CMS.

Content Strategy Noob (2009). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

You’ll Wish You’d Had a Content Strategy Before Implementing Content Management

If you’re getting ready to implement a CMS, and you haven’t yet worked out your content strategy, then I urge you to do it now. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself saddled with a cumbersome CMS that doesn’t do what you need it to, that actually multiplies (rather than reduces) the time and resources you spend managing content, and that everyone curses and tries to circumvent.

Content Strategy Noob (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Redefining Content Strategy

The definition of content strategy, according to Wikipedia, is “a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project.” This definition, not surprisingly, is taken from the The Web Content Strategist’s Bible, by Richard Sheffield. While there is no explicit connection of Web copy to marketing copy, the implication is that Web sites are marketing sites. I would argue that, depsite the perception that websites consist of marketing content, for many sites, the marketing content is only the top layer.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. Intentional Design Inc. (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Content Templates to the Rescue

Getting even semi-publishable writing from experts is notoriously difficult; they may be immersed in their “real jobs” and too busy to write even a first draft of content, they may not understand why web content matters at all, they may not be fluent in the language(s) in which you publish your website, or they may just be terrible writers. Define a content workflow as early as possible, preferably as part of a unified content strategy that includes a content audit (a detailed analysis of what content you have, what content you need, and how to bridge that gap), voice and tone guidelines, and a schedule for collecting and generating content.

Kissane, Erin. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>SMEs

Content-tious Strategy

It’s an open secret in our daily work how often the challenges posed by content elude our collective talents and acumen. We’ve all been there. For me, lorem ipsum makes it personal. It personifies the proposition at the heart of what content specialists do and mocks how often the manifold complexities of content can get the better of all of us. It’s happening because we haven’t been talking.

Macintyre, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

What Is Content Strategy and Why Should You Care?

If you or your organization has any sort of media presence (especially online), it’s useful to consider your overall content strategy: what you intend to say, and when and how to say it, in order to connect and interact constructively and efficiently with the people you need to help you achieve your goals.

Gahran, Amy. Contentious (2005). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Learning About Content Strategy

Content strategy seems still to be a nascent discipline that folks are catching wind of. We kind of know that it lives somewhere between web writing, web editing, information architecture, SEO stuff, web analytics, and production. We know that it (and content in general) are often overlooked in the web design and development process, despite everyone’s insistence that Content is King. And we know it’s all about planning for what content will go where, who owns, authors, and maintains it, how the content relates to a company’s business and other goals, how it fits within a larger matrix of technologies and constraints, etc.

Jones, Tiffani. Blue Flavor (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Three Questions to Start Thinking Like a Content Strategist

A content strategist looks at all the content from a holistic point of view, treating everything as content, and analyzing whether each aspect of the content aligns with the company’s messaging, branding, and intent. The content strategist is acutely aware of the multifaceted nature of the user experience. It’s not just the user interface that influences the user, or the marketing material, or the training — it’s all of this and more, working together as one. The whole user experience is the content strategist’s domain, not just help materials or written text.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>Project Management

The Content Strategist Elevator Pitch

It’s great to have a little 90-second elevator pitch ready to go for those times when you’re invited to talk about what you do (or even when you’re not). It’s also handy to have a version of this speech at the ready when someone outside of your industry, like a family member, asks what you do for a living.

Words Are Delicious (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Back-End Designs and the CMS Cycle of Disillusionment

Usually, the one thing missing from the planning of a WCM-driven web site is what's most likely to shoot the implementation in the foot: the functional design of the CMS back-end. The form and function of how the CMS will work, look and feel for the end-user of the system, not the visitor to the web site, is too often overlooked. This is odd: isn't the rationale for getting a CMS in the first place usually based on some kind of ROI in efficiency in actually producing the content and sites?

Bloem, Adriaan. CMSwatch (2009). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Moving from Web Management to Information Management: Four Things You Can Do Now

Web Managers must think globally (information) and act locally (Web) all the while trying to widen your universe and build the internal business relationships which will allow your organization to manage its information more holistically now or in the future.

Welchman, Lisa. WelchmanPierpoint (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>Information Design

The Case for Content Strategy—Motown Style

If content strategy isn’t in the current budget, though, how do you convince your client to add money for it? Your client might already realize content strategy can help create measurable ROI. If they don’t, help them understand. After all, relevant and informative content is what their audience wants; content strategy assesses the content they have and creates a plan for what they need and how they’ll get it.

Bloomstein, Margot. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Content Strategy

Manifesto For The Content Curator: The Next Big Social Media Job Of The Future?

A Content Curator is someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online. The most important component of this job is the word "continually." In the real time world of the Internet, this is critical. In an attempt to offer more of a vision for someone who might fill this role, here is my crack at a short manifesto for someone who might take on this job.

Bhargava, Rohit. Social Media Today (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>Information Design

The Scoop on Content Strategy: An Interview with Kristina Halvorson

As a participant in the Content Strategy Consortium at the IA Summit 2009, I have enjoyed watching content strategy grow into a user experience discipline. The most recent and significant sign of content strategy’s rise is the release of Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson. Kristina is a renowned content strategist, co-curator of the Content Strategy Consortium, and president of Brain Traffic. I was honored to chat recently with Kristina about her new book.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Interviews>Content Strategy>Content Management

Taking Content Strategy Personally

If you don’t have a professional blog or web site, you may think that you don’t need to worry about content strategy. Think again. Celine gave some great advice in her article “How to Develop a Content Strategy for Your Professional Blog,” but these days our blogs and web sites aren’t the only windows to our professional souls. If you use social media platforms for professional purposes, you should consider having a content strategy for the material you publish on them as well.

Poole, Pamela. Web Worker Daily (2009). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>Social Networking