During our first Meet Content webinar, an attendee asked a great question: where do you start with web content governance? It’s a challenging question to answer because content governance requires that you first have a content plan. Content governance — a process of managing content roles, responsibilities, processes, documentation, tools and training — can’t be distinguished from your content strategy. In order to manage the elements of … [Read more...]
Evaluating the Mantra “Think Like a Publisher”
January 26, 2012 by
Over the last few years, a popular phrase has gained popularity in higher education as well as the broader community of web professionals: Think like a publisher and less like a marketer. This thinking is a backlash against outdated "push marketing" and communications that interrupt and distract users rather than inform and attract them. Hearing this message continually reinforced gets me pumped because it’s a mindset I strongly … [Read more...]
Selling Content Strategy: A Continuous Process
September 22, 2011 by
One of the top questions new content strategy practitioners have — as I did when first introduced to the discipline — is how do you sell it? How do you make the case for content strategy and convince web stakeholders that their content needs a better plan (assuming a plan currently exists — eek!)? It’s easy to get discouraged. Have you ever had an experience like the following? "I told my boss (or HiPPO [Highest Paid Person’s Opinion]) … [Read more...]
Web Analytics for Content Planning
September 14, 2011 by
We commonly associate web analytics (including Google Analytics) with web governance and measurement, using it to evaluate content performance and user interaction post website launch. But web analytics can do more than report progress: it can inform process. A lot of content work happens before we have a governance plan in place, including content research and discovery. We need to understand business objectives and website goals, who our users … [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...]