What are the differences between technologists and communication specialists when they are talking about content. A presentation I gave at our Content Room on February, 21 2013 at Cypres (Content Room).

1. What is
(the problem with)
content?
The Content Room — 21.02.2013
Pieter Vereertbrugghen
Cypres Content to connect

2. CYPRES — The Content Room — 21.02.2013
Welcome
to

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The phrase ‘The Content Room’ consists of two nouns:
Content and Room.

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The ROOM is our open competence center
and creative laboratory,
in which we study and test (new) ways
to create, use and distribute content.
The room looks like this:

5. Cypres — The Content Room — 21.02.2013

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The other noun is ‘content’.
Apparently, content is important nowadays.
Content strategy, content marketing, chief content officer,
content governance, content management, …:
it’s content all over.

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Content is even in the baseline of our company:
Content to Connect

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Content
For people in marketing and comms.

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People in marketing and communications look like this:
Pictures © Shutterstock

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Meaningful information in a specific context
It is the stuff that creates brand experience
and triggers engagement of your audience.
It can look like this:
Content=
For people in marketing and communications:

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For technical people
Content

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Pictures © Shutterstock
Technical people look like this:

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Unstructured information
Content=
For technical people

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• one big chunk
• ink on paper or dots on a screen.
For technologists structured information looks like this:
For technologists a catalogue is just

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Information becomes
structured when its
components are entered
into separate fields of a
database

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When they think of structuring information,
they think of controlling it by pulling it apart into
pieces that can be stored into internal systems.
Technologists
When they think of structuring information, they
think of bringing things together on a page,
to make it appealing to external audiences
in real world user contexts.
Marketing & comms

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They are talking about
• fields, categories, … to
structure the content into
usable components.
• They are interviewing us to
see what kind of fields/
containers they need to
produce so the content can
be made usable, visible on
different channels, can be
searchable,…
Technologists
They are talking about
• the content of components,
the content of the
categories, the content of
the fields, …
• the different kind of content
they want on the site,
articles, videos,…
• target audiences, buying
cycles, messages, … ,
Marketing & comms
FASCINATING, ISN’T IT

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Content is information relevant to the context
of your customers, employees and other
stakeholders.
INFORMATION
in a
system
DATA
in a
user
context
CONTENT

24. Content is information relevant to the context
of your customers, employees and other
stakeholders.
INFORMATION
in a
system
DATA
in a
user
context
CONTENT
CYPRES — The Content Room — 21.02.2013
These two perspectives
are equally important, and
complementary.

25. Content is information relevant to the context
of your customers, employees and other
stakeholders.
INFORMATION
in a
system
DATA
in a
user
context
CONTENT
CYPRES — The Content Room — 21.02.2013
> The automation, quality checks, and analytics
that the systems of the technologists offer.
Why? To manage multiple content channels efficiently.
> The insights of communication specialists, marketers
and business analysts.
Why? To deliver audience-centric content in the real
world, to improve brand experience, and to encourage
engagement. They know best what, how, where and when to
present content to customers.
Your company needs

26. Content is information relevant to the context
of your customers, employees and other
stakeholders.
INFORMATION
in a
system
DATA
in a
user
context
CONTENT
CYPRES — The Content Room — 21.02.2013
If your company wants to be successful in content
marketing, you should bring the two perspectives
together.
We see that also as one of the tasks
for content strategists:
to help companies bridging these two perspectives.
Content to connect is also about creating bridges.
Your company success

27. Thank you
Cypres organizes, creates and manages
cross-media content for your customers,
employees and all your other
stakeholders.
Our baseline? “Content to connect”,
because we firmly believe that you
create and strengthen relationships
with your audience by providing
information they find highly valuable.
Discover how we create strong content
for you and your stakeholders.
Cypres invites you to discover The
Content Room, our open competence
center and creative laboratory, in
which we study and test new ways to
create, use and distribute content.
Specialists from Belgium and abroad
come regularly to discuss everything
related to content and content
publishing. This includes such topics
as content strategy and material,
content governance, social content
and content co-creation.
Do you want to stay informed about activities
at Cypres and The Content Room? Sign up for
our e-newsletter at www.cypres.com.