Content Strategy for the Web

by Kristina Halvorson

  *http://blog.braintraffic.com/2011/07/the-inside-job-getting-started/

  Something to keep in mind: Starting small can be a great way to give people a taste of content strategy success, but there can be disadvantages, too. People may get the impression that future content strategy activities will be “cheap” like the initial investment. Or, they might think it’s okay to do lots of little projects, instead of doing a more all-inclusive strategy. These misperceptions are easily managed, as long as you set expectations appropriately from the start. Just be sure to keep communicating about the bigger picture to stakeholders throughout the project.

  Option 2: Go Big

  If you want to make a big impact immediately, then go ahead. Propose a big project. Propose a whole website content redesign. Address social media content from top-to-bottom. Suggest an entire integrated cross-channel web content strategy.

  While this approach may seem scary (or nuts), there are definite advantages to going for the whole enchilada. Explain to your client or team that doing it right the first time is a money saver/maker in the long run. Content is an investment. Plain and simple.

  It’s like a house remodeling project. If you can have a contractor come in, bid it out, do it all at once ... you will get a big bill. But, if you had a contractor come in 10 times, you’ll get several smaller bills that will add up quickly.

  A Few Important Hints

  Regardless of the size of the project you’re proposing, when you ask for money, we encourage you to:

  • Ask in person. Don’t just email a proposal. Sit in the room and have a discussion (even if you feel uncomfortable). Or, if you can’t be there in person, schedule a phone call. That way, your stakeholder can ask questions, and you can clarify the finer points. A slight change in wording or scope can make or break your case

  • Know your current budget. If you’re an employee or a consultant with an existing client relationship, take a good look at your current budget. Make sure you know what you can—and can’t—do with the funds you have today. Show how previous funds were put to good use, and be prepared to answer questions about why you need more. They’ll ask.

  • Understand the organization’s fiscal year. If you understand the organization’s budgeting, planning, and reporting schedule, you can often target good times to ask for money. During the annual planning process? Good idea. At the end of the year, when people need to spend their remaining cash or lose it? A very, very good idea. Don’t be afraid to ask your client or boss straight-out when the optimal times are.

  And if there is no Budget?

  So you didn’t get the cash this time ... or there was never any cash to be had. Don’t be discouraged. Chances are, you can still do something. If you’re an internal employee, comb through your existing budget again. What can get sacrificed? Can another department help?

  No matter what, keep building your case for content strategy, slowly but surely. Ask your stakeholders what’s keeping them from supporting the project. What would it take to get this project or another similar one funded? Is there somebody else you need to talk to? Be on the lookout for like-minded colleagues who can help you achieve some first steps. Be patient. It’ll be worth it.

  A Note to the Bigwigs

  Yes. You there. With the budget.

  If we haven’t quite made the case for the incredible impact content strategy can have on your organization’s performance and bottom line, then at least allow us to encourage you to give content strategy a chance to show you a few small wins.

  If you give somebody on your team the support and authority to dig deeply into your web content and the ecosystems in which it lives, you will get answers to questions you didn’t even know you had. You’ll be presented with recommendations and solutions that will improve your content quality, deliver on your online users’ expectations, and support your core business objectives.

  If you force your content people into narrowly defined roles that essentially relegate them to a life of order-taking and production, you will never realize an iota of the benefits content strategy can offer.

  Have their back, and help them make their case. Believe us when we tell you: Your content people have been waiting for the opportunity to step up to the plate for a long, long time. Give them the chance, and they’ll deliver for your business in spades.

  Now, Remember

  As of right now, you’re a salesperson. No more sitting in the corner and complaining about how no one pays any attention to the content. Get out there and get pitching!

  p.s. This book is a very good size and thickness for smacking on the table to emphasize your point. Or whacking someone in the back of the head. Or killing a wasp. Regardless, wield it as your weapon. “Someone published a book on content strategy, and the book is red, and that means EMERGENCY and STOP, so it must be very important!” It has worked for others. It can work for you.

  p.p.s. You didn’t hear any of this from us.

  11. Advocacy

  NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE—practitioner, executive, manager, student, or curious bystander—it’s within your power to assume responsibility for improving the content you create and manage.

  Don’t worry. We’re not going to tell you to buy a tour bus and hit the road with a Content Strategy Jamboree ... although we certainly wouldn’t discourage it. There are all sorts of ways you can advocate for content strategy, in the workplace or out in the world. You can:

  • Talk straight, not tech.

  • Champion “content always.”

  • Take to the streets.

  Talk Straight, Not Tech

  One inevitable challenge with the topic of content strategy—or any evolving discipline, really—is finding the right words to explain what it is and why it matters. Whether you’re a rookie or an old pro, there’s no getting around it: You’ll have to have this conversation over and over—with clients, with colleagues, or with your aunt at Thanksgiving who’s not going to let you get away with saying, “Oh, you know. I do Web stuff.”

  Here’s a little demonstration of what not to do:

  Person : “So! What do you do?”

  You: “I’m a content strategist.”

  Person: “Oh! What does that mean?”

  You: “In many companies, the content lifecycle is totally undefined and ignored. Content is constantly getting produced in silos, and no one is fully accountable for its governance. And the problem is just getting worse, because no one understands that content requires strategic consideration and dedicated resources. So I analyze, strategize, and implement solutions that help businesses realize their goals while ensuring users are able to successfully meet their objectives.”

  Person: “I think I’m getting a call on my cell.” [runs away, screaming]

  This explanation consists of terms that, while perfectly familiar to the practiced content strategist, have the potential to immediately alienate someone who may, in fact, need help with exactly what you do. In general, unfamiliar words freak people out. Front-loading the conversation with insider terminology turns content into a hot potato. It doesn’t work. Also, you will never be invited to parties again.

  Here’s a simpler way this go could down:

  Person: “So! What do you do?”

  You: “I’m a content strategist.”

  Person: “Oh! What does that mean?”

  You: “You know how, on lots of the websites you go to, most of the information is hard to find, or inconsistent, or totally irrelevant, or just really bad?”

  Person: “Yes, it is! In fact, my own company’s site is straight-up embarrassing. I’m so frustrated that no one is fixing it.”

  You: “That’s what I do. I fix it.”

  Person: “And how might I acquire some of this so-called ‘content strategy’? Because I happen to be the CEO of this company, and we have millions of dollars that I would like to pay you as soon as possible.”

  Plain English is powerful, isn’t it? Also, note that this conversation is actually a pla
ce where introducing content strategy for the Web makes perfect sense. Commiserating about how websites suck is an activity everyone enjoys. And why are websites so bad? The content. Boom! You’re in.

  At this point, you have an opening to explain basic principles using constraints (website vs. company-wide content lifecycle) that make it seem achievable. Furthermore, when you’re talking to clients and colleagues, this initial exchange ends up being a very sensible, non-scary starting point for the much larger discussion that inevitably arises: “This isn’t just about our website. This is about the way content moves throughout our organization and the way we manage our content assets.”

  Champion “Content Always”

  Now and then, someone will post an especially egregious example of “lorem ipsum” placeholder text that was never removed from the final product. For example:

  Or:

  Hahahaha. Ahem.

  While no one loves lorem ipsum fails more than we do, this all-too-common oversight has caused many within the design and content communities to take up the cry of “content first!”—which, in this context, translates to “get the copy first, then design for it.” Most designers will tell you that this is what they want to do, and they’ve been asking for content first their entire careers. Unfortunately, they rarely have control over when the content hits their inbox; this, of course, is a problem. And if designers always waited for real content, they might have to put projects on hold for years. (Some of them do.)

  So, try to look at it this way, instead: “content first” isn’t “copy first.” It’s about considering content—its impact factors, goals, and lifecycle—from the very beginning of the design process.

  Actually, now that we think about it...

  This hits it. If there’s anything we’ve learned so far, it’s that content must be considered throughout and beyond any design and development project, no matter what the plan or platform is. So, not “content first.” Content always.

  Facebook content strategist Tiffani Jones Brown wrote about this shift in thinking on her blog, in a post titled, “Toward a Content-Driven Design Process”:

  One of the biggest and best side effects of content strategy’s activism is that it’s encouraging agencies to reorder their design process. It’s no longer: discovery, information architecture, design, templates, and development. Instead, we’re doing: content strategy, information architecture, web writing, content production, design, templates, and development—or some version of this.

  The important thing is, we’re starting to think about content, early on. From a designer’s perspective, this means we no longer begin projects by evaluating the design of a site; we start by evaluating what’s on it. Text, videos, etc. Do they make sense? Do they achieve the intended effect? Are they interesting?

  ... It would be silly to think that every agency is going to upend its process in the name of content strategy. For most agencies, I smell a rapprochement, not a revolution: IAs, designers, and art directors will learn or enhance their content strategy skills.*

  *http://thingsthatarebrown.com/blog/2010/05/toward-a-content-driven-design-process/

  And who doesn’t love a good rapprochement?

  Take to the Streets

  Raise your right hand. Go on, do it.

  Now read this aloud:

  “I hereby swear never, ever, ever to say the words, ‘I can’t blog or speak at conferences or write articles or give a presentation to my boss or tweet or speak up at meetings because I don’t have anything interesting to say.’”

  Once more. WITH FEELING.

  When you work at a job day in and day out, you tend to forget that there are many, many other people out there who don’t know what it is that you do ... or that do what you do and need ideas about how to do it differently, or better.

  You think you don’t have anything to talk about only because the stuff you do seems so dang obvious and ordinary. But it only seems that way to you. There are folks who would very much like for you to explain to them what you do, why you do it, and what you’re discovering along the way.

  After all, you want to know what they’re up to, too, don’t you?

  Be brave, people. Get out there and do something.

  Blog it Up

  Ever heard of WordPress? How about TypePad? Tumblr? Blogger? Yes. You have. This means you can have a blog—a free one, at that.

  Go take a look at some of the blogs listed below. Some of these folks have been writing about content strategy for years; some of them just started blogs within the last few months. Regardless, every single one of them is contributing to how the field evolves, not to mention helping out their fellow content strategists with new insights and how-to tools.

  Ian Alexander – eatmedia.net/blog

  Rahel Bailie – intentionaldesign.ca

  Clinton Forry – content-ment.com

  Matthew Grocki – grassfedcontent.wordpress.com

  Richard Ingram – richardingram.co.uk

  Colleen Jones – leenjones.com

  Jonathan Kahn – lucidplot.com

  Corey Vilhauer – eatingelephant.com

  Sara Wachter-Boettcher – endlesslycontent.com

  Get Onstage

  If the idea of speaking in public makes you want to throw up, please skip to the following section.

  If you look forward to giving presentations at your company, or have dabbled in public speaking before, or even if you have a little theater experience, you might try your hand at giving a presentation about content strategy. Not only is it super helpful to your audience, it’s also a terrific way for you to work at shaping your own perspectives, no matter what the focus of your presentation may be.

  Need some inspiration? Go to slideshare.net, search for “content strategy” (natch), and check out the dozens of decks posted there. Know that these presentations were given by expert and novice speakers alike. Slideshare is also a great place to gather ideas about where you might find opportunities to present (check the title slide for the name of the meeting or conference). If nothing else, start with your team or your clients.

  Collect and Share Good Stuff

  If you spend time online learning about content strategy—or go to a conference, or read a book (ahem), or otherwise experience something about content strategy—you have the option to share that resource or experience with others. It’s likely you’re already doing this somewhere with other topics or objects—Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, Flickr, and Tumblr, to name a few. Why not pick a place and do this with content strategy resources? It’s low risk, and it doesn’t require a big time commitment. People will love you for it.

  All Right, Then. No Excuses

  Because you have read this book, you have the opportunity—nay, the obligation!—to spread the word about this awesome thing called “content strategy.” When it comes to advocacy, there’s something for everyone.

  What will you do?

  12. Hero

  WHENEVER WE TEACH WORKSHOPS, there are two things we hear from people over and over again.

  The first is this:

  We’re still doing content wrong in our company, and I’m really embarrassed about it.

  Even if these aren’t the exact words attendees use, it’s the message they’re sending loud and clear every time they raise their hand to ask a question. “Sorry my company is so behind the curve, but ...” or “I realize everyone else knows what they’re doing, but ...”

  The thing is, there are very, very few organizations that actually have their acts together when it comes to content. So, if you’re sitting in a content strategy workshop, you’re actually ahead of the game. You’re not late to the party. The content strategy conversation has only begun.

  Here’s the second thing people say:

  This is hard.

  Well, HELL YES, it’s hard. You’re not going to leave a workshop or a one-hour talk and go back to your company and suddenly find yourself with funding and staff and group hugs.

  So what you nee
d, dear friend, is friends. Content strategy friends. There are so many of them out there, and they’re just as smart and curious as you are. (For some reason, they’re pretty funny, too.)

  Here’s what you can do.

  Get in a Group

  Whether you actively participate or just lurk in the shadows, there are a few amazing, active online groups to check out. Two of our favorites:

  Content Strategy Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/contentstrategy

  LinkedIn Content Strategy Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Content-Strategy-1879338

  Follow the Hashtag

  If you’re a tweeter, follow #contentstrategy on Twitter.com for the best curated content strategy content around.

  Go to—or Start—a Meetup

  Meetup.com is a great website that allows absolutely anyone to schedule an event and open it up to all interested parties. Meetup.com has been absolutely essential in helping content-loving folks find each other in cities around the world. Some content strategy meetups have started with three people and grown to three hundred in less than a year!

  How can you find one of these magical events? It’s easy. Go here:

  http://content-strategy.meetup.com

  Enter your ZIP code to see if there’s one in your area. If there is, then register for the next one and go! Meet friends. Learn things. Be happy.