This document discusses content strategy for higher education. It begins with an introduction to content strategy, noting that it plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful content. It then discusses several tools and processes used in content strategy, including goals and messaging frameworks, content inventories and audits, editorial calendars, training and guidelines, editorial meetings, content scoring, governance models, and measurement. The overall document provides an overview of how content strategy can help ensure that an organization's content is effective and achieves its goals.
11. You keep using that word.
I do not think it means
what you think it means.“
12. Content strategy plans for the creation,
publication, and governance of useful,
usable content.
Kristina Halvorson
Author, Content Strategy for the Web
“
14. Content strategy helps ensure that
our content is goal-oriented, useful,
sustainable, and effective.
15. Content is the foot soldier that
represents our brand and
helps us achieve our goals.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmyafrica/4067719395
16. Our content requires ongoing
care and feeding.
(That includes the
organizations, processes and
standards that inform it.)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/myri_bonnie/11867181635
19. But content is
pretty
frustrating…
There’s just
SO MUCH of it!
It is really hard to
keep track of all the
details.
What is s/he
working on over there? I
I have no idea.
I don’t know
how video/
magazines/social/
web/PR works.
It’s complicated. I
don’t have the skills,
know the process, or
have the time.
I don’t have a lot of
guidance, so I am kind of
winging it.
It can get really
political, really
quickly.
What came of this
work? Was my effort
even worth it?
21. Content strategy helps ease those
frustrations by answering questions
before they come up.
22. 22
The newsroom of now, the newsroom
of the future, is very much a studio
environment of specialists that
collaborate. Your editors are people
who understand opportunity, and then
they gather those people together and
produce it.
- Cory Haik, Washington Post
“
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/06/does-your-
newsroom-have-a-smart-refrigerator-strategy/
Planning
#cssummit @radiofreegeorgy
Without People,
You’re Nothing.
Georgy Cohen
#hewebpitt
April 9, 2014#confabfeelings
http://www.flickr.com/photos/confabevents/10855537113
Be kind, for
everyone you
meet is fighting
a great battle.
Philo of Alexandria
23. 23
The newsroom of now, the newsroom
of the future, is very much a studio
environment of specialists that
collaborate. Your editors are people
who understand opportunity, and then
they gather those people together and
produce it.
- Cory Haik, Washington Post
“
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/06/does-your-
newsroom-have-a-smart-refrigerator-strategy/
Planning
#cssummit @radiofreegeorgy
Without People,
You’re Nothing.
Georgy Cohen
#hewebpitt
April 9, 2014#confabfeelings
http://www.flickr.com/photos/confabevents/10855537113
Be kind, for
everyone you
meet is fighting
a great battle.
Philo of Alexandria
24. Content strategy is made up of various
tools and processes designed to help
facilitate stronger communications.
28. Content planning pillars
• Goals: What are we trying to accomplish?
• Audience: Who are we trying to reach?
• Message: What are we trying to say to them?
• Medium: What is the best way to say it?
• Action: What do we want them to do next?
29. Core Strategy Statement
Source: The Content Strategy Toolkit
CUPRAP University accomplishes __________ and
__________ by publishing content that is
__________ and __________ that makes
__________ feel __________ and __________
so they can __________ or __________.
Goal
Goal
Descriptive Word/Phrase Descriptive Word/Phrase
Audience Emotion or Adjective Emotion or Adjective
Complete This Action Complete This Action
30. Messaging Framework
Source: Brain Traffic
Proof
Value
Statement
First Impression
What first impression
do we want our
audiences to have
when they interact
with our content?
What do we want our
audiences to know or
believe about the
value we provide?
What will demonstrate
that what we want
them to know or
believe is true?
31. When someone visits ohio.edu for the
first time, it is important for first
impressions to be positive, real and
lasting. Having a well-planned approach
to how content is prioritized and
purposed is how [we] have focused
[our] efforts.
Renea Morris
Exec. Director, University Communications & Marketing
Ohio University
April 2014
“
www.ohio.edu/compass/stories/13-14/4/Branding-OHIO-website-4.cfm
33. Content inventories help us learn
what content is on our website.
Content audits help us understand
whether or not that content is
valuable or effective.
44. • Homepage
• News
• Blog
• Social media
• Program deadlines
and details
• Profiles/
testimonials/brand
stories
• Course information
• Faculty/staff bios
• Tuition and fees
What can you manage with an editorial calendar?
51. To execute a content strategy,
people must be trained,
supported, and empowered to
fulfill their designated role.
52. • Reinforce consistent,
strategic content creation at
a tactical level
• Align style guidelines offered
with types of content creation
likely to happen at various
levels across the institution
• Train and maintain awareness
of style guidelines
Style guides
53. • How to Maintain
• Message Architecture
• Style (incl. breakdown by page type)
• Voice and tone
• Client-specific
• House style guide
• Content Guidelines
• Content type A
• Content type B
• Content type C
• Taxonomy
• Web Writing and Publishing Best Practices
• SEO Guidelines
Style guides
63. From “Training the CMS” by Eileen Webb via A List Apart
http://alistapart.com/article/training-the-cms
64. When we embed instructions where
they’re most relevant and helpful, we
help our authors build good habits
and confidence. We allow them to
maintain and expand a complex site
without feeling overwhelmed.
Eileen Webb
http://alistapart.com/article/training-the-cms
“
65. Cross-Training: News (example)
Headline
Facebook
Tweet
Summary/
Meta Tag
Body
Guidance for best
practices for Headline text
Guidance for best
practices for Facebook text
Guidance for best
practices for Tweet text
Guidance for best
practices for Summary text
Guidance for best
practices for Body text
67. • Help close knowledge gaps
• Make a high-level strategy
actionable and accessible
• Empower and inform
people to fulfill their role in
a content strategy
• Document standards,
criteria, & processes
• Ongoing education
Training
70. Putting the appropriate 12 people in a room does
not guarantee that productive things will happen.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wscullin/3770015203
71. • Source ideas from across campus
• Include social, photo, and video
• Discuss and decide on content planning
• Share outcomes and measurement
• Own it and facilitate it, but don’t dominate it
• Encourage collaboration (which promotes efficiency!)
• Share guidelines and revisit editorial priorities
• Take, share, and archive minutes
• Learn about other campus & communications functions
Editorial meetings
72. Content Scoring
Story Goal 1 Goal 2 Audience 1 Audience 2 Message 1 Message 2 Total
A
B
C
Evaluate each story idea for the degree of alignment:
3 = High Alignment
2 = Medium Alignment
1 = Low Alignment Source: The Content Strategy Toolkit
73. Story
Where else could it be
published/promoted?
Why would that be
appropriate?
What roles, skills, or steps
would be required?
A
B
C
Content Scoring
Source: The Content Strategy Toolkit
75. • Connection to information
• Connection to each other
• Single conduit for disseminating information
• Easy to find the heroes/rock stars
Build a content community
83. • Publishing workflow
(including roles, tasks,
timeframes)
• Training, guidelines, and
documentation
• Internal communication
• Gap assessments
(knowledge, processes)
• Measurement and testing
• Defined structure of
authority and
accountability
• Content communities
• Managing resources
(human, financial, etc.)
Governance checklist
84. • Types of governance models: Centralized
• Consistent, uniform policies, processes, guidelines, and standards
• Requires large staff to manage disparate units
• Does not account for variety inherent in large organizations
Marcom
Unit Unit Unit Unit
Governance models
85. • Types of governance models: Coordinated
• Allow for tiers of ownership and various roles
• Opportunities for two-way collaboration and partnership
• Can foster sense of community, inclusion, and buy-in, and encourage peer support
• Central level must own training, support, guidelines, resources, and active maintenance of
relationships and community
Marcom
Unit Unit Unit Unit
Governance models
86. • Types of governance models: Decentralized
• Processes are organic and may vary
• Fosters individual freedom and innovation, but also silos
• May be little or no connection/relevance to central brand/goals
• Any dotted-line relationships are inconsistent and informal
• Difficult if not impossible to manage or control
Marcom
Unit Unit Unit Unit
Governance models
95. • Answers questions you have about your content
• Must determine which numbers matter to you, and why
• Measure against established goals and success metrics,
which should align with organizational goals
• Place numbers in context by measuring patterns over
time and considering offline events
• Validate qualitative analysis
Measurement
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleeker/117683322
96. Measurement
Create
Publish
PromoteMeasure
Analyze
Plan• Answer questions about your
website
• Confirm content effectiveness
(and retool/abandon
ineffective efforts)
• Validate qualitative analysis
• Understand user patterns
over time
• Make more informed content
decisions, better serving both
organizational objectives and
user needs
• Offers externally-sourced data
amidst internal flux
98. Story
Email Newsletter
Twitter
Facebook
.edu News Feeds
Homepage
News Site
• Pageviews
• Time on page
• Desktop/mobile
• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Views
• Retweets
• Likes
• Replies
• Clickthrus
• Pageviews
• Time on page
• Desktop/mobile
• Pageviews
• Time on page
• Desktop/mobile
Measurement
99. Measurement
Analytics Measurement Framework
(adapted from Avinash Kaushik)
Business Objectives What is your website’s purpose?
Content Goals What actions do you want people to take on your website?
KPIs What relevant metrics can help measure goals over time?
Targets How do you rate success?
Segments What visitor attributes will provide meaningful insights?
102. [Content strategy] should always be
evolving and always be a goal to
improve it. … Every time your content
becomes more strategic, the better
your university gets.
Tim Jones
Associate Vice President of Marketing
Clarkson University
“
http://meetcontent.com/blog/case-in-point-content-strategy-at-n-c-state/