HandsOn TechApril 17, 2013

Cynthia CloskeyBig Big Design

Finding Your Voice: A Social Media Content Development Workshop

Friday, April 19, 2013

Most web content sucks

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• Example:

• Photojojo www.photojojo.com

Some content rocks

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The fix for bad web content: Content Strategy

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• “Content strategy is the practice of planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.”

• Content: text, graphics, video, audio

• Strategy: holistic, well-considered plan for obtaining a specific goal or result

• Via “Content Strategy for the Web,” Kristina Halvorson

Content strategy

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• “A message architecture is an outline or hierarchy of communication goals that reflects a common vocabulary.”

• Helps you think about how to communicate with the target audience

• Not the same as brand values

Message architecture

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• Moo www.moo.com• Message architecture*• Cheeky• Witty and fun• Young without being childish• Customer oriented and responsive• Approachable, friendly, welcoming• Championing and empowering• Helpful• Accessible

• * NOT ACTUAL MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE, but extrapolated from their content by Margot Bloomstein

Example: MOO

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Exercise: Card Sorting

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https://twitter.com/mbloomstein/status/261023217412608000/photo/1

Card sorting to find

message style

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Cardsorting

Step one:

• Who we are

• Who we’d like to be

• Who we are not

Go with your gut for about 20 minutes.

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Cardsorting

Step two:

• Who we are ➜ who we’d like to be

Think aspirational.What needs to change?~15 minutes

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Cardsorting

Step three:

• Form groups: what goes together?

• Prioritize the goals or groups

• Tell the story of those aspirations

~15 minutes

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Why do this?

Gain standards by which to know when we’re communicating well.

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Message architecture

• Now that we know who we are and how we are to be perceived, what does this mean for how we communicate?

• Visual and design implications

• Text implications

• Content type implications

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Message architecture example

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Online strategy

• Objectives for our online presence

• Audiences (prioritized)

• Value proposition

• “Selling” points

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Content audit

• How should our message architecture affect our other communications:

• Social media

• Print media

• Brochures, mailers, advertisements

• Direct communication

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• Who “owns” the content?

• Content generators

• Online editor

• Moderators

• Administrator or webmaster

Online content workflow

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• Workflow tasks

• Creation

• Review/approval

• Measurement and feedback loops

• Presence managementhttp://www.bigbigdesign.com/2009/08/19-presence-management-chores-for-business-you-could-do-every-day/

Online content workflow

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• Do less, not more

• Figure out what you have and where it’s coming from

• Learn how to listen

• Put someone in charge

• Start asking “Why?”

How to have better content

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• Web content is useless unless it does one or both of these:

• Supports a key organizational objective

• Supports a user/customer in completing a task

Do less, not more

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• Less content is:

• Easier to manage

• More user-friendly

• Less expensive to create

Do less, not more

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• Audit current content

• Inventory sources of new content

• Create a plan for content creation

• Develop a message architecture

• Makes it easier to create consistent content

• Shows you what content has greatest value

Figure out what you have and where it’s coming from

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• Figure out how this can work within your organization

• Find out what customers want (not just what you want)

Learn how to listen

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• Too many cooks…

• Set up guidelines and tools

• Establish an editor-in-chief

Put someone in charge

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• Just because you can doesn’t mean you should

• Question assumptions, trends, directives that don’t support a business goal

Start asking “Why?”

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• Write in a style that fits your goals and audience

• Avoid fluff and jargon

• Use the simplest words and sentences you can

• Complement words with other media

• Take advantage of links and visuals

• Recognize it won’t be read in order or completely

• Use headings and bullets

• Put important stuff first (if appropriate…)

• Test your assumptions

Writing for the web

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• Website as hub

• Other online presences

• Social media pages

• Related/subsidiary websites

• Forums and wikis

• Notification mechanisms

• E-newsletters

• Social media

• Offline means

Delivering web content

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Next steps

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Cynthia Closkey, Big Big Designccloskey@bigbigdesign.com724.602.2332

Content strategy credits: Margot BloomsteinBook: Content Strategy at WorkPresentation: Secrets of a Brand-Driven Content Strategy Workshop

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