Keynote presentation for the Council for Exceptional Children Leadership Conference, July 2017. The content you create is smart, full of depth, and has the potential to advance or transform the field of special education. Content is what connects most from an association to its members. In fact, content is an essential part of the value that your unit or division provides – and a critical aspect of CEC’s survival. But in these busy times, it’s all too easy for members to miss out on your content, and pass up opportunities to get involved. That’s when they wonder whether the organization is providing enough value to keep their membership.
This session will illustrate what successful content looks like for associations and how to create it. Spoiler alert – this doesn’t mean creating more content, but in fact, doing more with the content that exists already! It will include real-life stories about associations that brought content forward and how that led to greater member satisfaction, higher retention rates, and improvements to their profession.
6. Content is the way our
organizations connect with our
audiences
7. Content is why people join
associations
• Training/professional development opportunities
• Technical information
• Timely information about the field
• Networking with others in their field
• Access to standards of practice
—The Decision to Join, ASAE
8. Content is why people join
associations
• Training/professional development opportunities
• Technical information
• Timely information about the field
• Networking with others in their field
• Access to standards of practice
—The Decision to Join, ASAE
13. Because the boss said so
Because the committee asked us to
Because the committee told us to
Because we have this program
Because we do this thing
Because we created the information
Because we have no way to say “no” to the request
Because we think we have to
Because everyone else is
Because
Because
28. 5 ways to make your content better
1. Connect with the audience
2. Make sure it’s relevant
3. Make it effective
4. Repurpose/curate it
5. Clean house
32. • Tenure
• Networking, finding a mentor
• Supporting my students
and preparing them for the real world
h"ps://www.facultyfocus.com/ar>cles/teaching-professor-blog/the-power-of-language-to-influence-thought-and-ac>on/
38. What association audiences want
1. Give me benefits, not just information
2. Approach me as a person, understanding my life
stage and struggles
3. Give me the freedom to use the site as I want
4. Make it peer-centric
5. Simplify! Shorten! Avoid jargon
6. Don’t make me waste time looking for what I need
Source: American Medical Associa>on member study
52. What does it mean to be
audience centric?
• Delivered when, where, and how they want it
• Using their words
• Show the benefit, not just state the facts
• Lead them to more
53. “Users don’t care about your
org chart”
--Lou Rosenfeld
Author, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
54. What does it mean to be
business sensitive?
• Is created to meet an explicit business goal
• Written in the organization’s voice
• Crafted in partnership between
communication pros and subject matter
experts
57. Useful tool: the “we we” score
To convert a larger share of
the visitors, you must focus
more on the visitors than on
the business.
www.customerfocuscalculator.com/
61. My 3 pet peeves online
• “Resources” – what’s in there? why would I click
on that?
• FAQs – my question probably won’t be included,
and question-wording isn’t findable
• PDFs – information is trapped inside
64. Effective writing
• Sounds like the organization
• Has a goal
• Uses the active voice
• Is specific
• Is focused on the reader, NOT on your organization
65. Planning for successful conversations
• What do I want to achieve from this content?
• Who am I talking to?
• What brings those people to my site or app? What are
their top tasks? Top questions? Conversations they
want to start?
• Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, and
focused on what you want your site visitors to do.
- Ginny Redish, Content as Conversation
66. Write for the space
• Avoid long paragraphs or other heavy blocks of text
• Write half as much as conventional writing – people read
25 percent more slowly online
• Use bullet points, subheadings, and other visual cues to
make information more manageable
• Keep sentences short – ideally, no more than 15 words
67. Bite, snack, meal
• Bite: A headline with a message
• Snack: A concise summary
• Meal: The full thing
– Leslie O’Flahavan, ewriteonline
http://ewriteonline.com/articles/2011/11/bite-snack-and-meal-how-to-feed-content-hungry-site-visitors/
72. People scan, they don’t read
• They are pressed for time
• They’ve become “Twitter-ized”
• Screens are reflective and cause eye fatigue
73.
74. Writing shorter is not easier
I have made this [letter]
longer than usual because
I have not had time to
make it shorter.
-- Blaise Pascal, 1657
75. What is “usable” content?
Four measures:
1. Task time: How long it takes users to find answers for
specific questions about the content
2. Errors: How well users do in getting the facts correct
3. Memory: How well users can recall the information
4. Satisfaction: How users rate the content on quality of
language, ease of use, likeability, and energy level
after reading the content
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/
76. An example
Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized
attractions that draw large crowds of people every year,
without fail. In 2015, some of the most popular places
were Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts
Bluff National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State
Historical Park & Museum (100,000), Carhenge
(86,598), Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002),
and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).
77. Shorter
Concise text: about half the number of words
In 2015, six of the best-attended attractions in
Nebraska were Fort Robinson State Park, Scotts
Bluff National Monument, Arbor Lodge State
Historical Park & Museum, Carhenge, Stuhr Museum
of the Prairie Pioneer, and Buffalo Bill Ranch State
Historical Park.
Usability improvement: 58%
78. Scannable
Scannable layout: same text in a layout that facilitates scanning
Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions
that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In
2015, some of the most popular places were:
• Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors)
• Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166)
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum (100,000)
• Carhenge (86,598)
• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002)
• Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446)
Usability improvement: 47%
79. Objective
Objective language not subjective, boastful, or exaggerated
Nebraska has several attractions. In 2015, some of the most-
visited places were Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors),
Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State
Historical Park & Museum (100,000), Carhenge (86,598), Stuhr
Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002), and Buffalo Bill Ranch
State Historical Park (28,446).
Usability improvement: 27%
80. Shorter, Scannable, Objective
Combined techniques: concise, scannable, and objective
In 2015, six of the most-visited places in Nebraska were:
• Fort Robinson State Park
• Scotts Bluff National Monument
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum
• Carhenge
• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
• Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park
Usability improvement: 124%
81. The inverted pyramid
• Open with your conclusion
or most important point
first
• Provide most relevant,
compelling supporting
information next
• End with background
information and links to
info that creates context
Most Important
Informa>on
Suppor>ng
Informa>on
Background
86. Writing mobile-friendly content
• Write fewer words
• Don’t rely on visual cues in the content, since
the visual placement of components is likely to
be rendered differently on a mobile device
• – for example, “see related links at right”
87. Writing reusable content
• Clear vs clever, especially for headlines.
A magazine cover line is not a good model for a headline
• Don’t assume context.
A headline will appear not only on a destination page but also
on a landing page, in related links, on social media, etc.
93. How to reuse content
• Show based on topic
• Show based on new relevance
• “Best of”
• Show because it’s still really good and deserves
more exposure
• Turn one thing into many
94.
95.
96.
97.
98. A single conference session can become…
• A video
• A webinar
• An article summarizing the top takeaways from
the session
• A checklist of top tips
• A follow-up interview with the speaker
• Highlights to use in marketing next year’s conference
• and more!
110. How to tackle this
1. Audit your content to know what you have
2. Look for content ROT (redundant, outdated, trivial)
• Usage (unique page views over the last year)
• Date last updated
• Content owner – does the person still work here, do that job?
• From a program or event that has passed or is no longer offered
3. Create criteria for what constitutes effective content
4. Remove content that is no longer needed
111. Not more work
• Think differently
• Get more impact from your effort
• Provide more value to members