Content strategy is, undoubtedly, a hot topic these days. A lot is being said that spans the range from concerns regarding the ability to display content on any device to the ability to drive engagement and increase traffic through better content creation and social media strategies. In this presentation we will connect the dots between these issues and practical Drupal site-building concerns with tools that are readily available now. We will show, through specific examples and references to available modules, how different approaches to content strategy can be practically implemented on Drupal sites. The aim is to equip Drupal site-builders with a handy toolkit that will allow them to both implement a content strategy for their sites as well as better exchange information with content strategists. The examples will include: - Different approaches to building content types so as to empower content creators to create a range of different structures. - Best practices in using vocabularies (fixed, open, user-generated, moderated, etc) or where alternative categorization methods may be relevant. We will also discuss: - Editorial calendars and scheduling. - The true benefit of workflows (and how, sometimes, they can be a disadvantage). - Analytics and how the ability to measure the effects of any strategy is as important as defining the strategy itself. Attendees will go away with practical examples and techniques that they can apply to their sites as well as a better understanding of what content strategy really is and how they can use it to improve their sites. The examples are a result of our own experiences in helping both clients develop their content strategy as well as applying it on italymagazine.com, an in-house product of ours. We grew italymagazine.com to a relevant online digital brand with a strong community by expressing our content strategy ideas through the tools that Drupal 7 made available to us. The resulting ~250% increase in traffic over 3 months is a testament to both the value of a content strategy as well as the power of Drupal to allow you to flexibly and iteratively support it.

1. FROM CONTENT STRATEGY TO DRUPAL SITE
BUILDING: CONNECTING THE DOTS
R O N A L D A S H R I , B L U E S P A R K
@ronald_istos, #drupalcs

6. D E F I N I N G C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y

13. - S A R A WA C H T E R - B O E T T C H E R , C O N T E N T E V E RY W H E R E
“The practice of understanding what content is needed to
meet both users’ needs and organisational goals, producing
it and creating realistic publishing and governance plans to
keep it that way”

14. R E L AT E D
D I S C I P L I N E S
• Information Architecture
• User Experience
• Content Management
• Editorial Management
• Social Media Engagement
• Community Management
• Site Building
• Development
• Business Goals

16. W H AT D O E S S U C C E S S F U L C O N T E N T
S T R AT E G Y L O O K L I K E ?
• Content is not bound to a page - flexible and future-ready
• We can provide the content that best stands a chance to fulfil
user goals given context
• Finding, using, sharing and repurposing content is easy
• Message and editorial vision clear
• Content creators can focus and enjoy the process, not fight
with technology to get their message out
• We know it works because we measured it

17. D E F I N I N G
D R U PA L
S I T E
B U I L D I N G

18. D R U PA L S I T E
B U I L D I N G
• From drupal.org: “implementing
business functionality and
features into your Drupal site.”
• Thinking of the structure and
creating the content types,
vocabularies, views, panels,
menus
• Taming the thousands of
modules on drupal.org into a
coherent set that performs
useful functionality

19. T H I S I S D R U PA L

20. D R U PA L + C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y

21. D R U PA L + C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y

22. D R U PA L + C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y

23. The Drupal Site Builder is often an unrecognised Architect.
Assimilating a wide range of concerns and implementing
them in a way that can support evolving needs

27. M O D E L L I N G T H E W O R L D I N D R U PA L

28. A B S T R A C T I O N A N D M O D U L A R I T Y A R E Y O U R B E S T
F R I E N D S A N D W O R S T E N E M I E S - W H E N I T W O R K S I T
A L L O W S Y O U T O A C H I E V E A L O T W I T H B A S I C E L E M E N T S
G U E R N I C A - P I C A S S O

29. … O R I T C A N L E A D T O S O M E T H I N G
T H AT I S H A R D T O U N TA N G L E
Number 8 - Jackson Pollock

30. There is no mathematical proof as to the
correct structure of a site

31. C O R E P R I N C I P L E S
+ B E S T P R A C T I C E
• stick to a core set of tools as
much as possible
• balance flexibility with complexity
• build prototypes, test, break
them and build them again

32. L O R E M I P S U M C A N B E B A D F O R
Y O U R W E B S I T E ’ S H E A LT H
• build, prototype and test with a
realistic simulation of the actual
content
• let content creators test the process
from early on

33. TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S

34. E N T I T I E S
TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S

35. E N T I T I E S F I E L D A P I
TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S

36. E N T I T I E S
N O D E S U S E R S T E R M SC O M M E N T S F I L E S
F I E L D A P I
TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S

37. E N T I T I E S
N O D E S U S E R S T E R M SC O M M E N T S F I L E S
P R O D U C T S P R O F I L E B E A N S
F I E L D A P I
TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S

38. E N T I T I E S
N O D E S U S E R S T E R M SC O M M E N T S F I L E S
P R O D U C T S P R O F I L E B E A N S
F I E L D A P I
C U S T O M E N T I T I E S
TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S

39. E N T I T I E S
N O D E S U S E R S T E R M SC O M M E N T S F I L E S
P R O D U C T S P R O F I L E B E A N S
F I E L D A P I
C U S T O M E N T I T I E S
TA K E A D VA N TA G E O F C O R E D R U PA L
F U N C T I O N A L I T Y T O C O N S T R U C T
F L E X I B L E D ATA M O D E L S
C U S T O M D ATA S T R U C T U R E S - H E R E B E D R A G O N S

40. S T O RY
B U I L D R E L AT I O N S H I P M O D E L S A N D
R E A S O N A B O U T E A C H E L E M E N T
L O C AT I O N
A U T H O R ( U S E R )
T O P I CT I T L E
T E A S E R
B O D Y
F E AT U R E D I M A G E

41. C H O O S E T H E R I G H T F I E L D ( A N D
W I D G E T ! ) F O R T H E TA S K AT H A N D
Numeric
HierarchicalSelect
Simple Dropdown
Text Area

42. F I E L D C O L L E C T I O N S F O R G R O U P I N G
R E L AT E D F I E L D S T O G E T H E R

43. U S E F U L M O D U L E S - I
• Dozens (hundreds?) of field modules
• Geofield - drupal.org/project/geofield
• Addressfield - drupal.org/project/addressfield
• Tablefield - drupal.org/project/tablefield
• Link - drupal.org/project/link
• Fieldgroup - drupal.org/project/field_group
• Fieldcollection - drupal.org/project/field_collection

44. U S E F U L M O D U L E S - I I
• Beans - drupal.org/project/bean
• Entity Reference - drupal.org/project/entityreference
• Inline Entity Form - drupal.org/project/inline_entity_form
• Prepopulate - drupal.org/projects/prepopulate (pre-fill fields based
on URL variables)
• Conditional Fields - drupal.org/project/conditional_fields
• Extra Field Description - drupal.org/project/extra_field_description
• Field Placeholder - drupal.org/project/field_placeholder

45. T E X T F I E L D S A N D F O R M AT T I N G
absolute freedom

46. T E X T F I E L D S A N D F O R M AT T I N G
absolute austerity

47. T E X T F I E L D S A N D F O R M AT T I N G
balance between choice and freedom

48. U S E F U L M O D U L E S
• Better formats - drupal.org/project/better_formats
• WYSIWYG - drupal.org/project/wysiwyg
• EDIT - drupal.org/project/edit

50. C AT E G O R I Z AT I O N - I
M U LT I P L E O P T I O N L I S T F I E L D
limited choice
limited content creator control
no automatically generated pages
ensures consistency
good for simple yes/not

51. C AT E G O R I Z AT I O N - I I
TA G S
open-ended
content creators can easily create new
consistency quickly becomes an issue

52. C AT E G O R I Z AT I O N - I I I
F I X E D V O C A B U L A R I E S
better control
can introduce hierarchy
adding fields turns them into
full-blown content

53. C AT E G O R I Z AT I O N - I V
F L A G S
simple choices
allows user to create arbitrary lists

54. C AT E G O R I Z AT I O N - V
O R G A N I C G R O U P S
group for permissions
group for community
a wide-cross section content

55. U S E F U L M O D U L E S
• Taxonomy Manager - drupal.org/project/
taxonomy_manager
• Taxonomy Merge - drupal.org/project/term_merge
• Taxonomy Tools - drupal.org/project/taxonomy_tools
• Taxonomy Menu - drupal.org/project/taxonomy_menu
• Flag - drupal.org/project/flag
• Organic Groups - drupal.org/project/og

56. F E E D T H E M A C H I N E S
• Facebook Graph - drupal.org/project/metatag
• schema.org - drupal.org/project/schemaorg
• RDFa - core

57. M O D E L L I N G I TA LY

58. C O N T E N T A U D I T

59. organizational goals
user goals
personas

60. C O N T E N T M O D E L

61. C O N T E N T
C AT E G O R I E S
+
C O N T E N T T Y P E S
• Editorial (stories, features)
• Resources (recipes,
language lessons)
• Listings (accommodations,
properties, experiences,
products)
• Community (community
posts, comments)

62. C O M M O N V O C A B U L A R I E S G L U E
E V E RY T H I N G T O G E T H E R
• location vocabulary: fixed,
hierarchical, populated with
Wikipedia data
• topics: structured, carefully
managed
• tags: open-ended
• sections: define overarching
sections (life+style, culture,
food + wine, travel)

63. • think of each in relationship
to the rest
• automagic functionality

64. E V E RY O N E PA R T I C I PAT E S
U S E R - G E N E R AT E D C O N T E N T A S W E L L
• User-generated
content cannot
follow rigid rules
• Simplify interface
and make explicit
the benefits

65. E N J O Y T H E R E S U LT S
http://pedoriowaterdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Happy-dog.jpg

66. S E C T I O N S T R E A M
• Brings together
different content
types for the Pinterest
generation
• Content types have a
stream view mode
• Can update both
manually and
automatically
drupal.org/project/
nodequeue

67. A global view of the depth and breadth of content on
ITALY - for power users and for the editorial team

68. Recipes section takes advantages of vocabularies + facets to allow for
search by ingredient, cost, etc

70. U S E R G E N E R AT E D L I S T S

71. C O N T E N T F O R M A C H I N E S

72. P R O D U C I N G A N D S H A R I N G C O N T E N T

73. show the authors love
http://www.bluespark.com/blog/bluespark-midcamp-chicago-2014
Adrian Rollett

74. • think carefully about how much
workflow you actually need
• simple scheduling tools can be very
effective
• drupal.org/project/scheduler
• drupal.org/project/workbench
• Depending on the scenario
authorship information can be useful
• drupal.org/project/
google_authorship
P U B L I C AT I O N

75. P U B L I C AT I O N!
• study user behaviour
• take care of timing
• prepare an editorial
calendar
• think of caching
• sharing tools

76. M E A S U R I N G R E S U LT S
Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as relevant
questions, accurate facts, dislike of anecdotal information
and lovely graphs

77. M E A S U R I N G R E S U LT S
Make sure to measure specific efforts to provide content creation ROI

78. C O N S I D E R T H E
W I D E R E N G A G E M E N T
S T R AT E G Y
• Who are your users
• Where do you engage with
them
• How do you engage with
them
• What are pivotal actions
that lead to goals being
achieved

79. WHAT DID YOU THINK?
E V A L U A T E T H I S S E S S I O N :
austin2014.drupal.org/node/2368
T H A N K Y O U !

80. WHAT DID YOU THINK?
E V A L U A T E T H I S S E S S I O N :
austin2014.drupal.org/node/2368
T H A N K Y O U !