What is Content Strategy

On Content Strategy Approaches to manage content Prasanna Lal Das (http://www.prasannalaldas.blogspot.com/)

Setting the stage
Why content strategy
Components of content strategy
Planning your approach
Prasanna Lal Das (http://www.prasannalaldas.blogspot.com/)

The content world
Content plays different roles in organizations
Communication/dissemination/information
Operational/technical
Learning/training
Business continuity
Legal/regulatory
More
All of us participate in the production and consumption of content

The state of content
Most of us are not trained content professionals and operate in an unstructured content environment
No standard documentation process/standards
Ill-defined workflows
No defined storage guidelines
Unclear lifecycle of individual pieces of content
Little emphasis on reuse and maintenance
The result is ‘discontent with content’
Content loss
Poor content ‘findability’ and portability
Trust issues and growing irrelevance of content
Consequent impact on business

The role of content strategy
The role of content strategy is to –
Help organizations define the purpose and value of their content
Identify the content artifacts in an organization and define the characteristics and associated rules of an organization’s content types
Establish a workflow that is sensitive to the unique needs and constraints of the organization
Help develop the ‘personality’ of an organization’s content
Help create/adapt a content infrastructure to support an organization’s content processes
Help build capacity within the organization to sustain a best practices driven content environment
Provide a long-term view to an organization’s content methodology
The objective is to produce content that is –
Relevant
Accurate
Usable
Portable
Sustainable

The purpose and value of content
It is important to define the role of content in an organization
Why do you produce content
How do you know that your content is appropriate
How well do you understand your readers’ needs (who needs what content, when, why, and how)
Which parts of the content lifecycle (capture/storage/dissemination/disposal) are most critical to the organization
Possible sources of input include –
The organization’s communications strategy (internal/external)
Management objectives
Operational priorities
It is also important to measure the effectiveness of your content delivery
Impact on revenue
Cost and time savings/Increased productivity
Improved deployment of resources
Better risk management/compliance
Superior change management
More
Deliverables include –
Content value-proposition
Current state assessment (content)
Content inventory
Competition audits
User analysis

Content types and attributes
As much as possible, each organization must define a finite list of content types
A content type denotes a group of content objects with common –
Structure
Purpose
Examples of content types include –
Feature articles
FAQs
Working papers
Reports
It is advisable to group content types based on structure or purpose
Content types definition helps –
Determine authoring/publishing templates
Create business rules to manage content
Define content attributes or metadata
Content type does not and should not determine display type
Inventory of content types (classified as necessary)
Draft templates

Content attributes/metadata
Metadata or content attributes represent information about a content object (‘data about data’, as per the standard definition)
To be comprehensive, the metadata must include information about –
The content type
The document context
Content of the document
The domain
The relationship of the document to other documents
Assumptions/findings about user needs
Taxonomy (thematic and business) provides the big picture to metadata development
Metadata is used to improve –
Search
Information architecture
Personalization
Reuse
Metadata/content attributes documentation
Taxonomy

Content workflow
Content workflow describes the lifecycle of a piece of content from inception to finish
Typical stages include –
Initiation
Research
Authoring
Editing/testing
Approval/publishing/finalization
Post-publication/finalization
A workflow must define –
Information flow
Activities
Rules/security
Decision-points
Controls
Tools
Metadata opportunities/techniques
Storage
Options/exceptions
Workflow diagrams
Workflow description/rules

Voice and tone
Voice is the editorial representation of an organization/brand. It stands for an organization’s personality, its attitude towards its constituency, and conveys its positioning to its target constituencies
Voice and tone is important to –
Strategize the role of content in an application
Create standards for nomenclature and diction
Ensure the consistent execution of content
Establish the broad contexts to which text behavior must be tailored
Voice and tone documentation
Style guide, if necessary and appropriate
Additional editorial guidelines and checklists
Prasanna Lal Das (http://www.prasannalaldas.blogspot.com/) ‘ Infra’ XYZ XYZ ‘ Supra’ XYZ Unsure Confident Presumptuous Apathetic Empathic Intrusive Vague Practical Esoteric Unreliable Trustworthy Guardian Lackluster Energetic/Vital Hyper-active Confined Approachable Inaccessible

Content infrastructure
The content infrastructure of an organization includes all the tools/technologies available to content producers to create, edit, publish, and maintain content
This may include –
Project tools (SAP, for instance)
Authoring tools and templates (Office tools, CMS)
Workflow (online or offline)
Storage/disposal tools
Publishing/dissemination tools
Maintenance tools
Current state assessment (infrastructure - business)
CMS specifications (business)
Storage guidelines (business)
User experience input
Search strategy input
Publishing rules input
Legal/regulatory input

Content as culture
Content management is as much a cultural initiative as it an operational or technical one
Organizations must build a content management culture to support its overall content goals
Elements of a content management culture include –
Familiarity with content objectives and processes
Awareness of content tools
Training in content standards and guidelines
Training material
Checklists and guidelines

Long-term view
A few general observations as you embark on your own content strategy
Unify your content management process
Separate content presentation from authoring
Pay heed to the institutional framework
Focus on user experience
Disaggregate content
Define templates early, whenever possible and appropriate
Plan for life after publication/dissemination
Bridge the gap between business and technology
Plan first, buy the tools later

Can you do it?
Content management was once described as 10% technology, 40% process control, and 50% governance
Key skills for a content practitioner include –
Content sub-process expertise
Business analysis
Information architecture
Technology awareness
Industry knowledge
Culture/change management

Suggested reading
Managing Enterprise Content – Ann Rockley (with Pamela Kostur and Steve Manning)
Content Management Bible – Bob Boiko
Enterprise Content Management – Tom Jenkins
www.metatorial.com
www.boxesandarrows.com

Thank you Prasanna Lal Das (http://www.prasannalaldas.blogspot.com/)

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What is Content Strategy

by prasannalaldas on Sep 10, 2008

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What is Content Strategy — Presentation Transcript