Last week I attended and had the pleasure of speaking at the Content Strategy Forum in London. It was an amazing conference chock-full of web content professionals helping to move the industry forward. One of my favorite moments of the event was a series of "lightning talks"—by Shelly Wilson, Matthew Grocki, Nicole Jones, and Sara Wachter-Boettcher—discussing the future of content strategy. Each of them crammed tons of … [Read more...]
A Content Strategy Approach to Online Crisis Communications (Part Two)
August 31, 2011 by
Last week, we began discussing how to approach crisis communications planning from a content strategy mindset, ensuring that we will be able to effectively publish our most "useful, usable content" when it is needed most. I outlined core communications principles that apply during a crisis and addressed how to plan roles and resources and how to structure messaging. Today, let's dig deeper into our channels and how to manage them during a … [Read more...]
A Content Strategy Approach to Online Crisis Communications (Part One)
August 24, 2011 by
The most important communications plans at our universities are the ones we hope we never have to use. These are our plans for crisis communications, to be activated when a threat is posed to the health and safety of our campus community. Nowadays, these plans revolve heavily around electronic communications. Many universities shifted their crisis communications planning into high gear following the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007. … [Read more...]
Building a Campus Content Group—In the Wild West
July 27, 2011 by
Many of us work at institutions without top-down content strategy and may be “lone rangers” when it comes to content at our respective schools or departments. It can even be lonely at the top (a.k.a. central administration) if we’re not in the loop with others around campus. But if we look beyond our own dusty saloons, we’ll see many folks just like us, trying to bring the rule of law to the wild west of content. The challenge—and … [Read more...]
Stakeholder Support Is Key for Content Strategy Success
May 27, 2011 by
Content strategy depends on strong stakeholder relationships. You need stakeholders not only to help inform your content strategy but also to help implement and maintain it. Without involving stakeholders in the planning process and prioritizing their needs, competing objectives will compromise success. Meghan Casey of Brain Traffic offers great tips for gaining stakeholder support, as well as suggestions for group song. "Kumbaya," … [Read more...]