Wrap Up of Confab 2014 in Minneapolis

CONFAB CENTRAL 2014
Minneapolis, USA
7-9 May 2014
Jason Dutton-Smith www.wordconnect.com.au @morethanroute66 1

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Confab Events - Sean Tubridy

Jason Dutton-Smith www.wordconnect.com.au @morethanroute66 5Photo – Jason Dutton-Smith

Photo - Jason Dutton-Smith

Sponsored by…
Jason Dutton-Smith www.wordconnect.com.au @morethanroute66
10

DAY ONE…
FULL DAY WORKSHOP

CONTENT STRATEGY 101:
THE JOURNEY STARTS HERE

Content
Strategy
101
Kristina
Halvorson
CEO Brain Traffic
Jason Dutton-Smith 18www.wordconnect.com.au @morethanroute66

FUNDAMENTALS OF
CONTENT STRATEGY

Content strategy plans for the
creation, delivery, and governance
of useful, usable content.

Not just…
What

But…
• What
• Why
• How
• When
• For whom
• With what
• Where
• By whom
• How often
• What next
Jason Dutton-Smith www.wordconnect.com.au
@morethanroute66
23

CORE STRATEGY PROCESSES

START TO DEEP DIVE…

DISCOVER
DEFINE
DESIGN
DEVELOP
DEPLOY

DISCOVER – Content Audit
DEFINE
DESIGN
DEVELOP
DEPLOY

DEFINE – Content Requirements
DESIGN
DEVELOP
DEPLOY

DESIGN – Copywriter meet designer
DEVELOP
DEPLOY

DEVELOP – Write the content
DEPLOY

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM DAY 1

YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY WILL
DEFINE YOUR SUCCESS
Requirements are not a list. They commit to living,
breathing objects and have people behind it.

LAUNCH AND LEAVE IS
NOT A STRATEGY
Commit to the complexities of the content and the time and
resource required. The content system needs to be
sustainable.

BE A TRUSTED GUIDE
What are the competitive differentiators, guide the audience
through the process and continue to offer value for the life of
the product.

DAY 2…

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Katrina Craigwell
Visual Storytelling at GE

Keynote
Speaker
Katrina
Craigwell
How GE has leveraged digital
channels to make new connections
with consumers and (new)
customers alike.

Keynote
Speaker
Katrina
Craigwell
THE CHALLENGE
How does GE talk to their
customers with so many products?
• Define their voice
• The art of story telling
• An emotional connection
• Finding interesting angles
6 Instagramers took to the jet
engine factory.

http://www.ge.com/instawalk/peebles
47

http://www.ge.com/instawalk/peebles
48

KATRINA - KEY TAKEAWAY

THE ATTENTION SPAN OF A FISH IS 9
SECONDS….A HUMAN IS 7 SECONDS
Find the unique angle and never
stop talking to your audience.

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
Tools and practise on how to grow
a content strategy team and
produce evergreen content.

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
THE CHALLENGE
The team grew quickly. How to
keep it all together.
1. Plan before you plant
2. Love the mud
3. Know who will grow
4. Don’t make square watermelons
5. Replant, repeat, multiply

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
1. PLAN BEFORE YOU PLANT
• Define the big idea
• Shared vision
• Company wide buy-in
• Aligned approach
• Principles to guide you

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
2. LOVE THE MUD
• Plan
• Create
• Learn
• Improve
• Be part of the solution

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
3. KNOW WHO WILL GROW
• People thrive in different climates
• Identify who thrives in your terrain
• Match behaviours to team
• Play to each persons strengths
• Interview to build teams

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
4. DON’T MAKE SQUARE
WATERMELONS
• Focus on core strengths
• Hire for what people are interested in
• Procrastination is a weakening factor
• Strengths and interests will energize
your team

Alicia
Dougherty-
Wold
Managing
with a green
thumb
Lead Facebook
Strategist
5. REPLANT, REPEAT, MULTIPLY
• Re-align as you grow
• Re-envision the future
• Plant new processes
• Multiply and repeat what worked

ALICIA - KEY TAKEAWAY

INVEST WITH YOUR TEAM
Find your one true north. Principles can be the
fall back of the standards.

Misty
Weaver
Scaling the
Content
Audit
Community
Manager –
Content Insight
Methods for exploring your content
eco-system

Misty
Weaver
Scaling the
Content
Audit
Community
Manager –
Content Insight
Content audits are a tool and a
process for making informed
decisions in strategy and design.
It’s a gathering of evidence that
can influence our design.
- Match scale with context of why
- Why before what
- What before how

MISTY - KEY TAKEAWAY

CONTENT WITHOUT INVENTORY
IS LIKE A LIBRARY WITHOUT
A CATALOGUE

Natanya
Anderson
The Give a
Dam Factor
Director Social Media
& Content Strategy –
Whole Food Markets
Creating content that your
community really cares about.

Natanya
Anderson
The Give a
Dam Factor
Whole Food Markets
While data is important; intuition is
still required. Bring your
experienced lens to the data.
Data is your friend and so is
failure.
Start with the customer to see what
they want. Then use stats to
make/build your case.

Natanya
Anderson
The Give a
Dam Factor
Whole Food Markets
Finding content that’s right for your
community and business.
Bridge the story telling gap
between brand and customer.
Sometimes you need a lot of
content to see what works.
Complex stories – find the unique
angle to make them care.

Natanya
Anderson
The Give a
Dam Factor
Whole Food Markets
Look at the social conversations
people have to bridge back to a
product.
Example – Whole Foods wanted to
push seafood but the audience
were talking about fresh produce.
Whole Foods used fennel to tie it
back to a new topic introduction (or
to push a particular product).

NATANYA - KEY TAKEAWAY

YOUR CONTENT MAY NOT BE BAD,
MAYBE YOUR CUSTOMER IS
FATIGUED?
MAKE THE CAMPAIGN SHORTER, LESS
CONTENT, MORE SUCCINCT ETC

Content
Strategy
101
Kristina
Halvorson

Val Swisher
Global
Content
Strategy
Founder –
Content Rules
Best practises for your global
website.

Val Swisher
Global
Content
Strategy
Founder –
Content Rules
Best practises matter.
Be consistent across all languages
according to brand.
Multi sites need consistent navigation.
How far do you go with translation?
– How deep does your content go?
– Plan carefully
– Translate only what is important
– Allow to search in own language

Val Swisher
Global
Content
Strategy
Founder –
Content Rules
Know when to translate, when to
localise, and when to trans create.
Translate – word for word translation
Localisation – The meaning stays the
same but words do not exact translate
Trans Creation – Separate content that
is developed for that particular place or
region or continent. Usually developed
in-country

VAL - KEY TAKEAWAY

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY
RESEARCH TO MITIGATE OFFENCE,
ESPECIALLY WITH IMAGES.

DAY 3…

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Nilofer Merchant
The New How.

Keynote
Speaker
Nilofer
Merchant
Author, 11 Rules
for Creating
Value in the
#SocialEra and
The New How
The new how…

Keynote
Speaker
Nilofer
Merchant
Author, 11 Rules
for Creating
Value in the
#SocialEra and
The New How
How to reinvent the future?
• See/k around corners
• Be willing to learn
• Not ‘if’, but the new ‘how’

Keynote
Speaker
Nilofer
Merchant
Author, 11 Rules
for Creating
Value in the
#SocialEra and
The New How
“We underestimate what change
will happen in the next two years,
but we over estimate what will
happen in the next ten years.”
Bill Gates

Keynote
Speaker
Nilofer
Merchant
Author, 11 Rules
for Creating
Value in the
#SocialEra and
The New How
To be big in the social world, its not
about being the biggest gorilla, but
being a herd of gazelles. Highly
connected, the gazelles operate as
one.
“Social is about human interaction,
not the technology. We’ve been
doing it since the dawn of time.”
Nilofer Merchant

NILOFER - KEY TAKEAWAY

PARENT VS. BABYSITTER
PARENTS – nurture and look out for the long term
BABYSITTERS – short term only and hand off; your
problem now
Purpose bring out the best people,
and the best in people

James
Gunter
Hummingbird
for Content
Strategists
Head of Content -
TruHearing
A look into what the latest Google
algorithm change, Hummingbird,
means to Content Strategy.

James
Gunter
Hummingbird
for Content
Strategists
Head of Content -
TruHearing
What is hummingbird?
– Deep, relevant, useful content
What is Panda?
– Duplicate content
What is Penguin?
– Spammy links, over optimised
anchor key words

James
Gunter
Hummingbird
for Content
Strategists
Head of Content -
TruHearing
How do you avoid penalty?
– What relationships are you
creating?
– Long form is better then short
form
– Create a unique voice with
authority
– Focus on becoming an entity
(not just a brand)

JAMES - KEY TAKEAWAY

IT’S EASIER TO TEACH CONTENT
CREATORS SEO, THAN IT IS TO TEACH
SEO’S TO CREATE GOOD CONTENT.
Learn SEO reasonably rapidly.
Writing takes a long time and understanding and
constant work/practise.

Andreas
Woelk
I’m Not a
Fan!
UX Design Lead -
Stubhub
Key learnings from Stubhub’s
content research in Germany.

Andreas
Woelk
I’m Not a
Fan!
UX Design Lead -
Stubhub
• How Hubstub turned a fuzzy
subject like content into
convincing data for leadership
• How historical and cultural
aspects can influence the way
people perceive your content
• How to adapt your tone and
content strategy to resonate with
local audiences

ANDREAS - KEY TAKEAWAY

TEST YOUR MARKET
BEFORE DIVING IN

Joe Pulizzi
How to Build
and Execute
a Dominant
Media
Property.
Founder at Content
Marketing Institute -
Author of Epic
Content Marketing
How to develop a Content
Marketing plan and business
model that makes sense for your
brand.

Joe Pulizzi
How to Build
and Execute
a Dominant
Media
Property.
Founder at Content
Author of Epic
Content Marketing
Three reasons why we do
something.
Sales – are we going to make money
Savings – can we save on cost
Sunshine – happy customers, doing
something for them

Joe Pulizzi
How to Build
and Execute
a Dominant
Media
Property.
Founder at Content
Author of Epic
Content Marketing
Don’t rely on Social Media 100%
Build your content on your own real
estate. Social Media is purely renting
space and can not be controlled (eg
Facebook community exposure)
Do you rent or own your content?
Social Media is like renting an
apartment. Creating your own content on
your own platform is like buying your
own home.

JOE - KEY TAKEAWAY

WHEN CONTENT FAILS WE
ARE NOT BEING NICHE ENOUGH

Colleen
Jones &
Philip
Wisniewski
Oreos and
Milk
Content Science
& Kanban
Solutions
5 reasons content strategy and
content engineering go together.

108

COLLEEN & PHILIP - KEY TAKEAWAY

CONTENT YOU CANNOT IMPLEMENT
IS JUST AN IDEA

Austin Kleon
Show your
work
Author of
Newspaper
Blackout & Steal
Like an Artist.
Show Your Work…

Austin Kleon
Show your
work
Author of
Newspaper
Blackout & Steal
Like an Artist.
Teaching becomes learning and
sharing.
Teaching is the way forward – give
away the trade secret.

Austin Kleon
Show your
work
Author of
Newspaper
Blackout & Steal
Like an Artist.
Newspaper Blackout

Austin Kleon
Show your
work
Author of
Newspaper
Blackout & Steal
Like an Artist.

AUSTIN - KEY TAKEAWAY

IF YOU WANT FANS;
YOU HAVE TO BE A FAN FIRST
IF YOU WANT TO BE TALKED ABOUT;
TALK ABOUT FIRST
IF YOU WANT TO BE NOTICED;
NOTICE INFLUENCERS FIRST

@morethanroute66
jason@wordconnect.com.au
www.wordconnect.com.au
Jason Dutton-Smith
Blog – www.morethanroute66.com

Wrap Up of Confab 2014 in Minneapolis

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