Content Gone Wild!
Rachel Lovinger
MIMA Summit, October 5, 2009
Photo by wokka

About Me: Rachel Lovinger
• Content Strategy Lead, Razorfish
• Scatter / Gather, a CS blog
http://scattergather.razorfish.com
• Semantic Web affinity group
• Long time content enthusiast

Two Things I Want You to Learn From This Talk
1. For successful web projects, pay as much attention to the
content as to the design and technology.
2. Be proactive instead of reactive.
Page 3 © 2009 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

What is Content?
• Text on your site
• Images
• Video
• Audio
• Data
• User Comments
• Email
• Online Conversations
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Content is the reason
people go to your site.
Photo by zandperl
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1997: Web Curmudgeon
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Content Strategy in the Design Process
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
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Content Gone Wild?
What’s the worst that can
happen if you design a site
or campaign without a clear
content strategy?
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Experiences that are…
Not Engaging
Not Satisfying
Embarrassing for the Brand
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“The best argument for content strategy
is the failure of a project.”
- Elena Melendy, Minty Fresh Media
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But today, let’s learn from others
Several examples of content gone wrong…
and what should have been done instead.
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Example 1
Brochureware
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Corporate Brochureware Site
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Product Info
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More Product Info
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Assessment and Concept:
Failed to recognize what content
customers and prospects might
want, aside from product details
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Content Best Practice
Create content that engages
Present content that is:
• Consumable
• Interactive
• Relevant
• Current
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Another Corporate Site
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Telling the Company Story
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Sharing Information & Values
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Example 2
Corporate Blog
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Johnson & Johnson Blog
Example via Mary McKnight, FastCompany.com
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Lacks Clear Message or Voice
Example via Mary McKnight, FastCompany.com
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Concept: Organize:
Goals of the Topics aren’t
blog aren’t clearly defined
clearly defined
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Content Best Practice
Have a messaging strategy
Content should be:
• On point (Business goals)
• Relevant (User needs)
• Authentic (Expert, passionate writers)
• Published regularly (Committed resources)
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Wal-Mart: Informative, Enthusiastic, Relatable
Example via Mary McKnight, FastCompany.com
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Example 3
Metadata
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Interscope Records Artists Page: One Big A-Z List
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Artist Page: Chris Cornell
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Chris Cornell: Releases
Very little information
• No release dates
• No relationship between
EPs / Singles and LPs
• No genres
• Not organized by bands
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Album Page: End of the Line
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Band Page: No Mention of Solo Work
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Taxonomy & Metadata:
Content is not well organized;
meaningful data and relationships
are not being surfaced.
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Content Best Practice
Dynamic & meaningful content
organization based on metadata
• Define relevant facets and taxonomy
• Organize content by taxonomy
• Metadata provides valuable information
• Link to related content
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All Music Guide
• Content organized
primarily by genre
• The metadata IS
the content
• Every word is a link
to further explore
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Example 4
Lorem Ipsum
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Place Holder Text
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The New York Times
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Plan and Copy Deck:
Without a detailed plan, content
producers forgot to fill in the less
prominent pages and sidebar items
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Content Best Practice
Carefully plan for content needs
• Content Inventory
• Site Map
• Content Requirements
• Content Sourcing Plan
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Content Needs Spreadsheet
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Example 5
Stale Content
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Featured Band: Posted February 2005
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News: From 2004 & 2005
404 errors!
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Coming Soon? Not Likely
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Ongoing Editorial Plan:
They had a launch plan, but no
one was responsible for regular
content updates once it was live
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Content Best Practice
Plan for content maintenance
• Governance
• Editorial Strategy
• Editorial Calendar
• If community based, user generated content can
keep the site content fresh
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Steady Stream of Songs, Bands & Playlists
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Example 6
User-Generated Chaos
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Users Will Do Creative Things
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Users Will Do Creative and Unexpected Things
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Users May Do Horrible Things
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Users May Do Horrible Things
WARNING: Some of what
you’re about to see is
definitely NSFW
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Huge Spike in Traffic (but was it worth it?)
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Concept & Research: Social:
Did they ever look at Twitter, No strategy in
4chan, YouTube, Fark or any place to mediate
other Internet community? the conversation
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Content Best Practice
Be part of the conversation
But have a social media strategy. Consider that you
may have to:
• Moderate
• Mediate
• Mitigate
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Age Confirmation? Disclaimer?
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YouTube Channel Instead of Twitter Search
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Example 7
Fake Grass
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Poorly Rated Product
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Questionable Request: Astroturfing
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People Noticed
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Social and Respond:
Response was inappropriate and
unethical (and not in line with
corporate standards)
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Content Best Practice
Be authentic
When you do participate in the conversation:
• Establish a social media policy for employees
• Be honest about who you are
• Communicate like a person
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Via Gapingvoid
Cartoon © 2009 Hugh MacLeod's Gaping Void
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Example 8
Check Your Tone
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Fine Line Between Clever… and Flippant
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Twitter: #motrinmoms
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It's not easy to do snarky well when you're talking about
parenting.
Popular blogs like Motherhood Uncensored, Finslippy, Baby on Bored,
White Trash Mom, Laid off Dad, and Metrodad to name a few, are not
popular simply because they illuminate the ups and downs of parenting
with brutal, hilarious honesty, but because they do it through the eyes
of parents who truly, deeply love their children.
It's the rare writer who can capture the negatives without bitterness,
who can elaborate on the hell without sounding, well, like a 34 year-
old male copywriter who's never had a kid. Whether or not that's
actually the case.
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Voice: Monitor and Respond:
Communication strategy Campaign was launched right
conflicted with the values of before the weekend, when no
the target audience one was around to monitor it
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Content Best Practice
Know how your audience likes to
be spoken to
• Tone & Voice Guide
• Brand Attributes & Values
• User Testing
• Be prepared to react
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Response Was Swift and Sincere
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Example 9
Think Globally
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Visual Metaphor
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Doesn’t Translate
Photo by Jennifer Dziura
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Dell.com
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Czech Version of Dell Home Page
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Investoři – Redirects to US Site
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Média – Content in English
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Kariéra – Content in English
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Product Information – In Czech
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What Happened?
Discover Design Build Deploy
Research Source Plan Maintain
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
Every stage:
The concept for the MTA campaign wasn’t reevaluated for
Spanish language; the content for the regional Dell site wasn’t
sourced, created, and QA’d like the English content
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Content Best Practice
Globalization involves more than
just translation
• Content scoping
• Planning
• Creation
• Maintenance
• Experts in the language & cultural associations
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HP: Acclaimed for 85 Regional Sites, in 36 Languages
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Let’s end on a positive note.
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Billboard Relaunch
• Not just a redesign
• Consumer oriented
• The authority on
popular music
• Launched July 2009
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Discovery Phase
Research:
Discover Design Build Deploy
• For most users, the experience centers
Research around the charts
Source Plan Maintain
Assess Active Style Guide Monitor
• Organizesite visitors were also passionate
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice about the editorial content
Social
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Discovery Phase
Content Assessment:
Discover
• Content not integrated with chart data
Research • Some charts & content types were not
Assess well defined
Concept
Voice • Non-core content was not maintained
• Sections of the site linked off to the
business property
• Search results messy, content hard to find
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Discovery Phase
Concept:
Discover
• The site should enable people to discover
Research and engage with popular music
Assess
Concept
Voice Voice:
• The voice of the site should continue to be
authoritative and unbiased, but more
oriented towards consumer users
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Design Phase
Content Sourcing:
Design
Discover Design Build Deploy
• Reduce number of charts to simplify
Source
Research Show Plan Maintain
• Source more of Billboard’s historical data
Organize
Assess Organize Style Guide Monitor
Taxonomy
Concept • Taxonomy core content types
Focus on Copy Deck Respond
Voice Social
• Remove B2B links and content
• Partner for streaming music
• Partner for additional artist, album &
song info
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Design Phase
Content Organization:
Design
• Charts must be prominent
Source • Organize content around Artists, Albums, Songs
Organize
Taxonomy • Related links from charts to content and from
content to charts to keep users engaged
Artist
Chart Song
Album
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Design Phase
Taxonomy & Metadata:
Design
• Charts tagged as:
Source • Mixed Genre: Billboard 200, Hot 100
Organize
Taxonomy • Genre: Rock Albums, Pop Songs
• International: UK Songs, Japan Albums
• Each chart position on each chart includes Artist,
Album/Song, Date and other metadata
• Editorial content tagged with: Artists, Albums,
Songs, Events and Charts
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Latest News & Stories
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Launch the Visualizer and Search or Select
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Shows Entire Chart History for an Artist
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Exploring the Data
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Exposes More Details
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And Also Related Content
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Build Phase
Plan, Style Guide, Copy Deck, Social:
Build
Discover Design Build Deploy
• Editorial calendars, style guides, etc. all
Plan
Research managed in house by their dedicated and
Source Plan Maintain
Style Guide
Assess experienced editorialGuide
Organize Style staff Monitor
Copy Deck
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Social
Voice • Streamlined content types allowed them to
Social
focus on core content
• Partnering for basic info allowed them to
focus on developing the .com voice
• Social strategy includes specific ways that
consumers interact with music and content
that don’t require editorial intervention
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Social Elements
• Ratings
• Comments
• Self-moderated
• Share
• Games
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Deploy Phase
Maintain, Monitor, Respond:
Deploy
Discover Design Build Deploy
• The editorial team is responsible for
Maintain
Research maintaining andPlan
Source monitoring the content
Maintain
Monitor Monitor
Assess • Organize
Streamlined contentGuide and 3rd partner
Style types
Respond
Concept Taxonomy Copy Deck Respond
Voice content make these tasks easier
Social
• The low maintenance social strategy
minimizes the need for editorial intervention
Page 102 © 2009 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

Summary: Content Best Practices
• Create content that engages
• Have a messaging strategy
• Dynamic & meaningful content organization based on metadata
• Carefully plan for content needs
• Plan for content maintenance
• Be part of the conversation
• Be authentic
• Know how your audience likes to be spoken to
• Globalization involves more than just translation
Page 103 © 2009 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

Questions?
Rachel.Lovinger@Razorfish.com
Twitter: @rlovinger
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Thank You!
Kristina Halvorson Michael Spinella
Elena Melendy Paul (wokka on flickr)
Web Curmudgeon, wherever you are My colleagues at Razorfish
Karen McGrane The Content Strategy community
Diana Turner Moms who blog
Robert Stribley Twitter, the Internet, and the people
Kat Jurick who use them
Hugh MacLeod
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