James Callan's deck for the SVC workshop on content strategy, run April 27, 2011.

1. Content Strategy
for the Web
A workshop for the
School of Visual Concepts
April 27, 2011
Your host: James Callan
james@scarequot.es
http://scarequot.es
Twitter: @scarequotes

2. If you’re going to tweet about the class,
please use the hashtag #svccs

3. (This workshop stands on the
blog posts and books of giants.)

4. New technology can be interesting without content.

5. But novelty wears off. Technology alone isn’t enough.
Enter content.
Content can tell a story ...
(Casablanca)

6. (Note: People still like to see cool tricks with new
technology. That has its place.)

7. But uniting technology with good content
can do boffo business and get good reviews.

8. Cool. But how does this relate
to content strategy for the web?

9. People don’t visit your site
for a great user experience.

10. People don’t visit your site
to see amazing design.

11. They come for the content.

12. (Note: UX, design, technology,
and the other elements of
your website are important, too.
This isn’t a contest.)

13. Content is a business asset.
It has value.
It brings you customers, wins you fans, builds you an
audiences, and earns you money.

14. Content helps define you.
Let’s look at three sites with a
similar purpose and explore how
content distinguishes them.
http://www.youtube.com/
http://vimeo.com/
http://www.ted.com/

15. So you should get it right.
Enter content strategy.

16. So ... what is content strategy?

17. Back up a step ... what is content?

18. “In the web industry, anything that conveys meaningful
information to humans is called ‘content.’”
Erin Kissane,
content strategist
The Elements of Content Strategy

19. tweets images
illustrations
ads
e-books words
error messages
photos
audio
slideshows
interface copy
podcasts Facebook posts
blog posts comments
cartoons video
white papers infographics
Flickr streams

20. (It’s not just copy.)

21. “Content strategy is to copywriting
as information architecture is to design.”
Rachel Lovinger,
content strategy director
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/content-strategy-the

22. “Like a gentleman in a finely crafted suit who wants
to burp you the alphabet, even if your website looks
nice, no one will stick around to hear what you have
to say if you don’t craft something compelling.”
Jason Santa Maria, graphic designer
http://jasonsantamaria.com/articles/the-elements-
of-content-strategy/

23. “I am a firm believer that content strategy
is communication design.”
Nicole Jones, content strategist
http://swellcontent.tumblr.com/post/4072864686/
demystifying-content-strategy-part-i-the-term

24. “Content strategy is the moment when you realise
that you need to do some more thinking. If you think
about all the complexities associated with planning
and creating and governing and editing content, they
raise all these questions that most organisations
aren’t really very well placed to answer.”
Jonathan Kahn, web dev and content strategy advocate
http://lucidplot.com/2011/02/03/content-strategy-
ux-lightning/

25. “You are all in publishing!”
Jeffrey Zeldman,
king of the web
http://www.zeldman.com/2011/03/15/web-design-is-publishing/

26. “Content strategy for the web is about bringing
editorial skill and methods into website planning. In
order to create good content, you need a plan for
how you’re going to get it and keep it coming.”
Elizabeth McGuane,
writer/editor/content strategist
http://mappedblog.com/2010/10/04/fear-loathing-
and-content-strategy/

27. That’s a broad range of answers.
Content strategy is a broad field.
Practitioners tend to specialize.

29. Is content strategy part of UX?

30. Yes.
(You can’t create a great user experience
around bad content.)
But ...

31. It’s not only user experience.

32. It’s marketing.
And data modeling.
And social media.
And content management.
And information architecture.
And content development.
And other stuff.

33. It’s not any one of these.
But it touches all of them.
And different content strategists
have different emphases.

34. The definition we’re working from:

35. “Content strategy plans for the creation, publication,
and governance of useful, usable content.”
Kristina Halvorson,
Content Strategy for the Web

36. Creation:
Who’s providing your content?

37. Publication:
How are you getting your content to users?

38. Governance:
When do you add, update, and archive content?

39. Useful:
How does this content benefit you?
How does it benefit your user?

40. Usable:
Can people find, consume, and act on your content?

41. What makes good content?

42. Before we talk about how to
evaluate quality, let’s look at some
example sites and talk about
whether or not we think they offer
good content.
http://www.kickstarter.com/
http://seattle.craigslist.org/
http://www.tumblr.com/
http://www.today.com/
http://www.medscape.com/
(Thanks to everyone who took the survey and suggested sites.)

43. “Good content” is a relative term.
You need to define “good” before you
can fully evaluate your content.

44. What are your goals?
What is your content supposed
to achieve for you?

45. “There’s really only one central principle of good
content: it should be appropriate for your
business, for your users, and for its context.
Appropriate in its method of delivery, in its style
and structure, and above all in its substance.”
Erin Kissane,
content strategist
The Elements of Content Strategy

46. Good content is:
• Appropriate
• Useful
• User-centered
• Clear
• Consistent
• Concise
• Supported
Erin Kissane again. Seriously, read her book.

47. How do you know
if your content is good?
Inventory and audit.

48. Content strategy analysis, in a nutshell:
1. What content do we have?
2. What content do we need?
3. Create or curate what’s missing.

49. http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/04/content-mapping-b2b-marketing/

50. http://www.richardingram.co.uk/2010/03/get-a-grip-of-your-web-content/

51. Some tools you’ll use on content strategy projects:

52. The content inventory

53. How do you do a content inventory?
Click each link on your site. Document what you find.

54. Things often tracked in a content inventory:
• Page ID/number
• URL
• Page Title
• Parent
• Page Description
• Components
• SEO Information (metadata, keywords)
• Who owns that content.

55. The audit helps identify:
• Content you have
• Content you need
• Content you should delete
• Content that needs improvement

56. Another tool:
Personas and user data.
Do you know your audience?
Do you know what content they want?
Do you know what content appeals to them?
(This is one of those areas that strongly overlaps with UX.)

57. Another tool:
Stakeholder interviews

58. Content strategy requires
communication across an organization.
Talk to everyone, preferably one-on-
one, about what they need and want
from the site’s content.

59. (I am completely indebted to Richard
Ingram for the next seven images.
Who are good partners for content
strategists to work with? Let’s see.)

67. Another very important tool:
QUESTIONS.
(Go with the classics: who, what, when,
where, why, and how.)

68. Who’s supplying the content?
Who is the target audience?
Who’s maintaining the content?

69. What content do we need?

70. When will we publish?

71. Where will we publish content?
(Our site, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

72. How will all of this get done?

73. And a big one, especially in discovery:
WHY?
Why do we need a blog?
Why do we need a Twitter feed?
Why aren’t we using a CMS?
Etc.

74. Another tool:
Message Architecture
(documents key messages and
supporting info)

75. Another tool:
Editorial Style Guide
(What’s our tone?
Which dictionary do we consult?
Do we use the serial comma?)

76. Another tool:
Content Matrix
(Detailed inventory of the content you
have and where it will go. More info
than the initial audit, but could be
based on it.)

77. Another tool:
Editorial Calendar
What events drive when we publish?
(Tweet twice a day? Update home page
on product launches? Respond to
holidays? Etc.)

78. Another tool:
Content Type
A breakdown of what needs to go on
any kind of page. Both visible and
invisible content. Accompanies site map
and wireframes.

79. There are more tools.
Not every project requires every tool.

80. Major deliverable:
The Content Brief
(Answers the questions. Establishes a
vision for the content. High-level
recommendations. NOT specific copy.)

81. Governance!
How content strategy
plays out over time.

82. Consultants set up a plan
and get internal teams up
and running.
They may have recurring
visits for content upkeep.

83. In-house content
strategists may have a
harder time getting buy-in,
but they’re there for the
long haul.

84. To keep your content evergreen:
Use the editorial calendar.
Use a rolling audit.
Track when content will need to be
archived or updated.
Budget time to get that done.

85. Content strategy is not a quick fix.
It’s a long process. One reason
content is valuable is because it’s
messy, and difficult, and requires a lot
of resources.

86. Example of a content superhero:
http://www.criterion.com/
Contrast with:
http://www.somethingweird.com/
http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/
http://www.kino.com/
http://www.wbshop.com/DVD/DVD,default,sc.html

87. I’m tired of yammering.
I know you’ve got questions. Shoot!

88. Resources:
I’ll post a bibliography and links and stuff on my blog:
http://scarequot.es
Come to a meetup with Content Strategy Seattle!
Join the Google Group, or LinkedIn discussion groups.
Follow smart people on Twitter.
Content strategists are a friendly, helpful group. (I think
it’s a job requirement.)

89. THANK YOU
Don’t forget to fill out the evaluation.