In the latest issue of A List Apart, Cameron Koczon writes about the state of "orbital content"—where "individual users are the gravitational center and content floats in orbit around them." Users have tremendous control over how they consume content. Applications like Instapaper push the boundaries established by RSS and Google Alerts because they can republish content in other mediums, altering context. This raises … [Read more...]
Web Writing Guidelines for Content Contributors
April 18, 2011 by
As web professionals, we owe a lot to our content contributors. Your college website has tons of content, and no one person can do it all. The more you enable content contributors to write for your site (supported, of course, by a thorough editorial process), the closer you will be to your shared goal of creating great content. Here are some web writing guidelines to help make that happen. 1. Keep your audience in mind. Consider who will be … [Read more...]
Defining Authentic Content
April 15, 2011 by
"Be authentic" is popular advice for using social media. But this attribute is not only applicable to social media content. All web content needs authenticity. So what does that mean? How does that requirement fit within a content strategy? How do you plan for authenticity? In a video interview with host Erik Michielsen of Capture Your Flag, Simon Sinek provides the most tangible description and defined value of authenticity I've … [Read more...]
ROT: The Low-Hanging Fruit of Content Analysis
April 13, 2011 by
Content analysis is an essential part of creating and sustaining effective web content. How do you know if your content is any good if you don’t analyze it? Yet the process quickly becomes complex as you evaluate content against branding, usefulness, relevance, usability, voice and tone, format, search engine optimization, delivery channel and many other criteria. Let's face it, quality content takes work. However, many content problems are … [Read more...]
A Simple Test for On-Brand Content
April 12, 2011 by
People typically associate branding with visual identity. But what about content? How often do you consider whether content is effectively on-brand? Do you consider your brand when writing articles, blog posts and tweets? What about when taking photos or creating videos, podcasts and presentations? On Fast Company, Martin Lindstrom challenges people to test their brand by removing the logo from their web pages. Does whatever remains adequately … [Read more...]