When people think about content governance, they often think roles, responsibilities, workflow and documentation. But there's an element to content governance that is equally important and often overlooked: training. Content governance means understanding existing expertise and knowledge gaps and training content contributors on policies, guidelines, workflow and best practices. To make sure your staff has the necessary expertise and the ability … [Read more...]
Web Focus Groups: Know Your Users, Know Your Content
March 12, 2013 by
For most organizations, the go-to method of content analysis is web analytics. People love numbers: 2,000 inquiries, 500 sign-ups — oh, baby! Unfortunately, these numbers don't tell the whole story, and if we base our content strategy on quantitative data alone, we're missing a big piece of the content measurement puzzle. Web analytics is great at answering "What?" What pages do people view on our website? What actions do they take? … [Read more...]
The Case for a Web Editor-in-Chief
February 26, 2013 by
Web content workflow and governance include many moving parts. In order to keep the wheels turning, roles and responsibilities must be defined to make sure that all work gets done and that content contributors have clear expectations about their own and others’ responsibilities. As described in Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach: "It’s critical for each person to know what their role is and how … [Read more...]
Content Worksheets for Editorial Workflow
February 13, 2013 by
For web professionals in higher ed, keeping content up to date is an uphill battle. Regardless of the size of your institution, as a content professional you still have to deal with numerous subject matter experts, content contributors, editors, approvers, and publishers. Content has a shelf life, and without processes for maintaining it, it can quickly become ROT. Editorial workflow for the web is a challenge for day-to-day work, not to mention … [Read more...]
Conducting a Competitive Analysis
January 23, 2013 by
In order to make informed decisions about your website, you need an understanding of what content you have and if it’s any good. Hello, content audit! But how do you know if your findings are appropriate, if your recommendations can work, and if your content will put you ahead of the competition? Hello, competitive analysis! A competitive analysis of web content is an assessment of competing websites based on your content goals. This could be an … [Read more...]