In my keynote for the Washington, DC TC Camp (http://www.tccamp.org/), I address the trend toward treating technical writing as a form of content that is useful to organizations. I also talk about the possibility that many technical writers will soon be serving as content strategists if they're not already.

1. Dr. Guiseppe Getto
President and Founder, Content Garden, Inc.
Assistant Professor of Technical and Professional Communication,
East Carolina University
President, Society for Technical Communication-Carolina Chapter
C: (252) 367 - 4364
http://guiseppegetto.com
Content Strategy:
The Future of Technical Communication?

2. What Is Content Strategy?
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Content - useful information that people will see
Strategy - a means of achieving a goal
“Content strategy plans for the creation, publication,
and governance of useful, usable content.”
Kristina Halvorson

3. Why Is Content Strategy Important?
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80% of people now shop online before making a
purchase
70% of people won’t buy from or use a poorly
designed website
66% of people make decisions about a brand based
on a company’s website

4. Why Is Content Strategy Important?
3
50% of people now shop on mobile devices at least
some of the time
You have about 10-20 seconds to hook a new website
visitor before they abandon your site
Usability of a company’s website is a key factor in
customer retention

5. Why Is Content Strategy Important?
4
70% of people cite post-purchase content and
support as a key factor in future purchasing decisions
Sources: Nielsen/Norman Group, Scott Abel, Google, Ad
Age, IBM

6. Why Is Content Strategy Important?
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Traditional Marketing Funnel - Source: McKinsey.com

7. Why Is Content Strategy Important?
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Brand
Consideration Loop
Source:
McKinsey.com

8. Why Is Content Strategy Important?
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“While organizations have struggled for decades—centuries, even—to
make sense of their content, they were always able to keep the chaos
(and consequences) to themselves. Then came websites, which created
the perfect content strategy storm. Suddenly, organizations had to put
all of their content (product info, investor reports, press releases, etc., etc.)
in one place. For the first time. For all the world to see. And it hurt.” (p.
xvii)
Content Strategy for the Web

9. What Is Technical Communication?
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“Technical communication is a broad field and includes any form of
communication that exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:
- Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as
computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental
regulations.
- Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of
how technical the task is or even if technology is used to create or
distribute that communication.”
Source: Society for Technical Communication

10. What Is the Content of Tech Comm?
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Communicating about technical or specialized topics
Internal documentation hosted in a content management system
Post-purchase content such as help documentation
Specialized product information created for the purposes of
documentation, but also highly useful in marketing, user experience,
and customer experience

11. What Is the Content of Tech Comm?
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Providing instructions about how to do something
Troubleshooting videos created for existing customers
Blog posts to inform people about new uses for a highly technical,
but broadly useful, product or service
Instructions on the ADA website to help people running government
websites ensure their content is accessible

12. Do Many Current/Future Technical Communicators Look
Like Content Strategists?
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Skill sets in tech comm
Writing
Editing
Usability
Cross-functional teamwork
Tools
Skill sets in content strategy
Writing
Editing
Usability
Cross-functional teamwork
Tools
Search engine optimization
Content auditing
Content management

13. How Many Technical Communicators Are
Already Content Strategists?
12
Search engine optimization
Working with the marketing team to develop structured content for a
new website rollout
Editing website content for on-page factors like readability, usability,
and findability
Using tools like Moz to become the default SEO specialist in an
organization

14. How Many Technical Communicators Are
Already Content Strategists?
13
Content auditing
Doing a content inventory of all public-facing content on an
organization’s website
Working with stakeholders to improve the usability of
customer-facing help documentation available in a mobile app
Assessing product listings in a content management system to
ensure
they comply with an internal style guide

15. How Many Technical Communicators Are
Already Content Strategists?
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Content management
Working within the confines of a content management system to
create internal or external documentation
Working with DITA or other structured authoring solutions
Helping to track the flow of content over time on a high-traffic,
customer-facing wiki

16. A Case Study of Tech Comm as Content Strategy
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iFixit
Open source
XML based
User generated
Expert moderated
Education focused
User friendly
SEO friendly
Source:

17. A Case Study of Tech Comm as Content Strategy
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Users Moderators

18. A Case Study of Tech Comm as Content Strategy
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The iFixit Content Strategy
1) Consider user interaction when
developing strategy
2) Build your content strategy into
your technologies
3) Use moderation, redundancy,
multimodality
4) Iterate strategy as users interact
5) Define goals for collaboration
Source: Getto and Labriola (2016)

19. Other People Are Saying This Not Just Me :)
18

20. Other People Are Saying This Not Just Me :)
19

21. Other People Are Saying This Not Just Me :)
20

22. Go Forth And Develop Great Content!
21
Need help with content strategy?
Content Garden, Inc.
- Web Design
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Digital Marketing
- Writing
- Social media
- User experience design (UX)
Free 1-hour consultation: https://contentgarden.org/reach-new-customers-online/

23. Dr. Guiseppe Getto
phone : 252-367-4364
email : guiseppe@contentgarden.org
web : http://contentgarden.org
calendar for client appointments: bit.ly/1zZM90R
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