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![“It is essential that [central web
teams] are highly collaborative,
which means they should spend
most of their time out of the
office. They should work closely
with the various organizational
units, spreading their expertise
wherever possible.”
Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management
FROM
THE
TOP
DOWN](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/buildinginternalcommunitiestosupportyourcontentstrategypsuweb-150625140358-lva1-app6892/75/Building-Internal-Communities-to-Support-your-Content-Strategy-PSUWEB-17-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byGeorgiana Cohen
Building Internal Communities to Support your Content Strategy - PSUWEB
This document discusses building internal communities to support content strategy. It provides examples of communities created at various universities to connect web teams and content creators. These communities aim to share best practices, provide training and support, collaborate on projects, and improve website content through peer feedback. They meet regularly and use tools like Slack, Google Groups, and GitHub to facilitate ongoing connections. Evaluations found the communities helped improve website quality and user experience by empowering web professionals and breaking down silos.
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Building Internal Communities to Support your Content Strategy - PSUWEB
- 1. Building Internal Communities toSupport Your Content Strategy Georgy Cohen OHO Interactive @radiofreegeorgy #psuwebhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558
- 4. Building Internal Communities toSupport Your Content Strategy Georgy Cohen OHO Interactive @radiofreegeorgy PSUWEB 2015https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558
- 5. Georgy Cohen OHO Interactive @radiofreegeorgy PSUWEB2015https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558
- 6. What did Ilearn?
- 7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558 https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitneyinchicago/3541505856 People liked beingconnected to information, and one another.
- 8. It was easyfor me to find the rockstars.
- 9. I had aneasy way to disseminate information.
- 11. “In most situations,the decentralized publishing model has been disastrous. The people trained tended to be relatively junior staff, for whom publishing to the website was just one more responsibility. The result was lots and lots of poor quality content that was never updated or reviewed.” Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management
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- 14. “When it comesto content, people are far more important than software.” Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management
- 16. So, what canwe do?
- 17. “It is essentialthat [central web teams] are highly collaborative, which means they should spend most of their time out of the office. They should work closely with the various organizational units, spreading their expertise wherever possible.” Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management FROM THE TOP DOWN
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- 19. Even better… wecan formalize these connections and collaborations by creating communities around our content.
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- 22. Goals for contentcommunities: 1. Connect members to institutional standards and overall best practices 2. Connect members to training, documentation, and resources 3. Connect members to each other for support and collaboration
- 23. “The result isa community of communicators, working toward similar goals and within similar constraints.” Chas Grundy University of Notre Dame http://grundyhome.com/blog/archives/2011/03/24/rising-boats-colleague-education/index.html
- 24. Subvert politics and turf wars Don’t dominate; facilitate Make itwork Identify goals. Make it relevant. Convert projectteams or drawfrom existinggroups Rotate hosts Make it outcome- driven Skunkworks?Maybe. Publishminutes,notes, session video or PDFs
- 25. Analytics training and reports Contentreports andtesting Brainstorming ideas Projectcollaboration Share templates, techniques,& resources Large (moral)supportnetwork Information sharing Pool resourcesforprofessionaldevelopment Provide incentive
- 26. Let’s check outsome case studies.
- 29. The landscape atUA Large and decentralized No centralweb shop Mix of teams and “lone rangers” No contentgovernancein place
- 30. Goals for UAWebTide: 1. To help benefit its members, and the university, by promoting professional development, innovation, and discussion 2. To provide community, education, professional development, and support to all web professionals at The University of Alabama.
- 31. “As a ‘one-man’team, I wanted the opportunity to share ideas and ‘talk shop’ with other web professionals on campus but, desiring more than just a community, I also saw an opportunity to crowdsource resources and professional development for all web professionals on campus.” Rachel Carden, University of Alabama
- 32. WebTide at UA Slack,listserv, monthly meeting/ presentation 5-member planning committee;multiple units GitHub forcode sharing Student mentorship and campus- wide training
- 33. “We all sharesimilar challenges, opportunities, and a goal of representing, and promoting, the University with a high quality web presence, so why not help each other out!” Rachel Carden, University of Alabama
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- 36. “While we asweb professionals can know best practices and try to add value to our colleagues’ content, we can’t be everywhere at once. Through thoughtful and intentional governance, we can add more value to more content.” Nicholas O’Brien Bates College Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325
- 37. Monthly gatherings and Google Group Started groupby drawing from active network users 20-30 people attend each gathering (10% of all users)
- 38. Previewing design changes helped earnbuy-in Users’ interactions with web team were more positive and patient Goal: for users to depend on each other for support as well as web team
- 39.
- 41. The landscape atOSU Very decentralized Drupalcampus Lots of “armies of one” Range ofcommitment(full-time to“other duties”)
- 42. Goals for OSUcontent strategy group: 1. Connect people to content strategy best practices 2. Get people talking about the purpose of their websites and who their audience is 3. Show people how to effectively plan and manage their web content
- 43. “It’s a goodway to talk about things people don’t usually talk about.” Erin Martin, Oregon State University
- 44. Drupal Web Communicators and ContentStrategy Group at OSU Organize around Drupal community 2 meetings, ~30 at each, ~56 on mailing list Guestspeakers fromother units Breaking down silos with Slack
- 45. Organize around Drupal community 2 meetings, ~30at each, ~56 on mailing list Guestspeakers fromother units Breaking down silos with Slack
- 46. Also: OSU Collegeof Agricultural Sciences Site Coordinators Group
- 47. “Our college doesvery important work across the state and the world, but the digital communication was haphazard, not coordinated. This group is the first step in an attempt to offer help and support to the units in CAS, to provide guidance and to learn what is going on in some units.” Erin Martin, Oregon State University
- 48. Goals for CASsite coordinators group: 1. Forge strong working relationships with unit leaders and staff 2. Offer guidance and support to those managing websites 3. Promote “a bit of” content strategy 4. Promote College & University goals 5. Work with units to target audiences and serve user needs
- 49. OSU College of AgriculturalSciences Site Coordinators Group Mailing list (no Slack… yet) ~30 members(mostly “other duties as assigned”) Plan biannual and quarterlymeetings Comms. managers
- 50. “So many ofour site coordinators are overworked, underpaid office staff and asking them to do more is just not going to happen. I try to frame it like they are our partners and I am here to help. I’m still working on this.” Erin Martin, Oregon State University
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- 52. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bexwalton/10133921476 Session video and slides archived 2/3of 250 users have attended atleast 1 session From “armiesof one” tofully-staffedunits “One to many” coaching
- 53. “No one hasto do anything a certain way, but you do have to have the right outcomes.” Rebecca Bernstein, University of Buffalo
- 54. Goals for UBDCT Solutions Group: 1. Empower people with knowledge to elevate their practice 2. Empower groups to get more input and feedback from users 3. Inform community about changes and new products
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- 59. “One thing Iwas struck with was watching people interacting while they were waiting. We are all trying to do more with less these days; any opportunity to get strength and support from each other is a bonus.” Michelle Tarby, Le Moyne College http://higheredsolo.com/newmodel/
- 60. In conclusion: • Itwill always start small, but what matters is that it starts • Communities of any size are helpful • A good content community ultimately serves users at all ends of the process • Any community requires purposeful leadership to flourish
- 61. Thank you. georgy@oho.com @radiofreegeorgy https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558 “None ofus is as smart as all of us.” Japanese Proverb