Make Your Content Make a Difference

Smashing Magazine

Make Your Content Make a Difference

• By Colleen Jones
• April 12th, 2011
• Design
• 40 Comments
• Publishing Policy

Content, content, content. It’s an obvious part of any interactive experience. In fact, you’ve probably heard content is king, or queen, or some sort of royalty. Yet, content is elusive. Often, you don’t realize your content isn’t cutting it until it’s too late. Does any of this sound familiar?

• Delayed projects.
• Broken designs.
• Uneven voice.
• Low-performing landing pages.
• Dead social media channels.
• Customer confusion and service calls.

These problems and more are documented extensively,^[1] so I won’t dwell on them. What I will dwell on is the solution. But, first, let’s discuss the false ones.

Beware Of False Solutions

Just because someone articulates a problem well does not mean someone knows the solution. That’s when we’re susceptible to a false solution. In my many years of experience, I’ve found these two fake solutions to be very common, very distracting — and very disappointing.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Snake Oil

Oh, poor JC Penney. This major retailer fell victim to SEO snake oil, such as buying extensive link placements and other “black hat” techniques. And, JC Penney fell hard, with a detailed and brilliant expose of the situationmaking The New York Times, no less.

Now, besides avoiding embarrassment, I suggest that you avoid SEO snake oil because it will not bring you results. The spirit of a search engine is to find quality content. A search engine algorithm factors in signs of good content. When someone focuses on tips and tricks to game search engines instead of publishing quality content consistently over time, that person is missing the spirit of SEO. And, sooner or later, that person’s results will suffer for it. Google might punish the website or, more likely, the website will get the wrong kind of traffic, or visitors. If you drive lots of visitors to your content instead of attracting visitors who are interested in the content topics, you will be disappointed with the results.

And, now, a big caveat: I don’t think all SEO is bad. There are legitimate SEO concerns, techniques and advisors. Just remember that SEO tricks are not magic pills for your content ills. If you’re spending lots of time and money on SEO but not much on content, you’re on the way to disappointment.

Andy Budd recently discussed a closely related point of view in his recent article. He requests to “white hat” practitioners to distance themselves from the world of SEO, stop talking about search engine rankings and start helping clients deliver real value to their users. Therefore we should stop defining ourselves by the discovery medium and focus on the content itself, he rightfully argues.

Overpromised Technology

What else is not a magic pill? A technology product or feature alone. I see this false solution most often with larger companies, who put unrealistic expectations on products and tools such as a content management system (CMS), an analytics tool or a web application.  For example, a prospective client recently vented to me that his organization spent $100,000 on implementing a new CMS but absolutely nothing on planning and creating content worth managing. The result was a one-person Web team destined to fail with its brand new CMS. This short-staffed team was saddled with:

• managing every aspect of a very large website,
• responding to strange or political stakeholder requests for new content and
• dealing with the boss’s frustration with the lackluster content.

Sounds awful, right? Unfortunately, this situation is too common. And it needs to stop.

The Real Solution

No SEO trick and no technology product alone will solve the content problem for you. The real solution to the content problem is hard work that demands change in your (or your company’s) approach to planning, designing and developing interactive experiences. That’s what gets results. There’s no shortcut. And indeed, the path to content that counts is a hard road. But it cannot be the excuse for compromising the quality of experience we provide to our users.

Get Strategic

Content strategy is planning for every aspect of content to get results. That goes far beyond writing the copy. When getting strategic about content, focus on three key areas: analysis, editorial and architecture. While explaining content strategy in detail literally requires a book (or two or three), I’d like to share with you a concise introduction to each area in this article.

Figure 1: Content strategy usually involves analysis, editorial and architecture.

1. Analysis

Analysis is taking a magnifying glass to your content situation. The better you understand it, the better you can plan exactly what needs to change to reach the results you’d like to have. Two typical activities in the analysis phase are a content audit and a context analysis. Sometimes, these activities are lumped together into a content analysis. The exact term is not that important as long as you do the analysis thoroughly.

Content Audit
An audit is a close review of your existing content. If you have any content to start with, you need to knowexactly what it is. The audit tells you what you’re working with. By the end of an audit, you’ll have answers to questions such as:

• What content types, formats and topics do you have?
• What is the quality of your content? (For help, consult this content quality checklist.)
• How is your content structured?
• Where do you have obvious content gaps and overlaps, or redundancies?

When you’re ready to try a complete content audit yourself, check out the guide Content Analysis: A Practical Approach.

Context Analysis
A context analysis looks at the elements that surround and affect your content. At a minimum, consider and answer these questions about your goal, your users, and your processes.

Goal

• What is your business or organizational goal? Why?
• How will content help you achieve that goal?

Users / Audience

• Who are your users, or the people you want to attract and influence? Why?
• Where (in what channels) are your users looking for content — on websites, on mobile, on social networks?
• If you have an existing website or interactive experience, how is it performing?

Processes / Ecosystem

• How do you create, maintain and govern content now?
• How do you plan to do so when you launch the website or interactive experience?
• What are your competitors doing in the realm of content?

As a simple example, let’s look at American Express’ OPEN Forum, a site for small business owners. Why did American Express want to attract and influence these users? Because reaching these users was a step toward their business goal. Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, SVP of Partnerships & Business Development for American Express OPEN, notes, “…our biggest opportunity is with small business growth — if they grow, we grow.”  And, American Express decided to help them grow through a unique approach to content. Rather than create more content about their credit cards, American Express decided to create content about small business owner concerns. (More about this approach in the next section, 2. Editorial.)

We could discuss analysis for days, but I’d like to introduce other aspects of content strategy to you as well. For a more detailed explanation of this analysis, I highly recommend the analysis chapter of Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson. Also, I shared my step-by-step experience in the presentation Content Analysis: Know Thy Content.

The real benefit of analysis is ideas and insights for planning content editorial and architecture. So, let’s take a closer look at those sides of content, using the OPEN Forum as an example along the way.

2. Editorial

Editorial plans mostly for the people side of content, such as:

• What style or voice should your content have to attract and resonate with users?
• What topics and themes should your content cover and when?
• Who is responsible for what content?
• What are your standards or criteria for credible content?

Many businesses and organizations who are not media properties completely lack editorial oversight for their websites and other interactive experiences.  That can result in problems ranging from errors to missing a competitive advantage. Let’s turn back to our OPEN Forum example. In the world of finance, much content is a combination of dull explanations or legal mumbo jumbo. OPEN Forum takes a different approach.

Figure 2: In the stodgy world of finance, American Express OPEN Forum offers a fresh approach to content.

The design might not look dramatically different from other finance sites, but the content is much different. To help small businesses, OPEN Forum regularly offers credible content about topics that small business ownerscare about. American Express produces some content, invited expert columnists create some content, and small business users contribute some content. Even though different authors contribute content, the content isoriginal to OPEN Forum. Can you notice how different it is from aggregating random content or simply optimizing pushy landing pages? Through its consistent voice and handy content on OPEN Forum, American Express haspositioned itself as a trusted advisor to small businesses. Because the articles, videos, and podcasts are deeply useful to small business users, they’re far more valuable to American Express.

Of course, having so many content contributors poses some risk of creating content that feels disjointed. To reduce this risk, what’s going on behind the scenes? The right editorial staff and processes ensure the content from different authors is coordinated. For example, while most websites lack an editor, OPEN Forum has an editor-in-chief. And, for robust editorial review and production, American Express partners with Federated Media. As you plan your content processes, you will consider what roles to hire in-house and what roles to hire as freelancers.

Besides the right people and processes, editorial planning results in an important tool: the Editorial Style Guide. This guide documents important decisions about your content for everyone involved to reference. A style guide typically explains:

• Target audiences / users
• Key messages
• Voice and tone
• Criteria for topics
• Sample content
• Usage, punctuation, and grammar guidelines
• Trademark and legal considerations

For a helpful start, you might want to consider taking a look at The Yahoo! Style Guide.

So, all of this editorial work sounds interesting, but does it actually get any results? Yes, it does. Since 2007, OPEN Forum has built an audience comparable in size and engagement with other small business media properties. But that’s not the best result. In the lucrative small business market, American Express’s successful editorial approach is a differentiator. More than that, it’s a quiet coup. The results did not happen overnight. They took time. But, compared to its competitors, American Express now owns small business online.

I know what you’re thinking. “But American Express is a big company. Should a smaller one care about editorial?” Yes. A smaller company or an individual can do it on a smaller scale, with less content, fewer contributors, and probably fewer visitors. Editorial is about attracting the right visitors (or audience) and holding their interest through content. Size does not matter nearly as much as quality.

That’s a basic introduction to editorial. But, content concerns don’t stop here. Now, let’s turn to architecture.

3. Architecture

Architecture plans mostly for the machine side of content — while keeping the people side in mind. Architecture addresses how your content is organized, structured and repurposed. Architecture gets your content to the right place. This planning might start with a site map but won’t end there. You likely will need to define content models and taxonomies using metadata. In essence, you need to tell your content management system and other platforms what content you have, where to display it and how to display it.

Let’s look at a simple example, again from American Express OPEN Forum. The site has clearly defined templates for its articles, videos and other content types.  Those content types come together (or aggregate) as meaningful topic pages. Take a look at this one for innovation. That aggregation happens dynamically because of good architecture.

Figure 3: This topic page brings together all of OPEN Forum’s original content about a topic (in this case, the topic is innovation), thanks to good architecture.

When you plan architecture well, you gain other benefits. Both search engines and people will find your content more easily. Your content becomes more accessible and flexible, not to mention easier and more efficient to keep consistent.

That’s some basic architecture. Now, let’s kick it up a notch. Is OPEN Forum part of AmericanExpress.com, the core American Express website? No, it’s not. Now, that might bother some user experience designers and information architects out there. Shouldn’t this be one cohesive experience? Yes, it should. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean all of the content has to be in one website or in one place. AmericanExpress.com serves more visitors than small business owners. So, putting all that small business content on AmericanExpress.com could easily get in the way of other visitors. Instead, OPEN Forum and AmericanExpress.com link to each other at relevant points.

Figure 4: OPEN Forum is not part of the core American Express site.

Okay, now let’s kick it up several notches. Content strategy pioneer Rachel Lovinger has articulated convincingly that advanced architecture also makes your content more nimble to use across different interactive experiences, from your website to your mobile application. She notes,

“Publishing content that’s marked up with smart structure and metadata allows it to be delivered on a wider range of channels, while still retaining the context and relationships that make it meaningful and useful to both your audience [visitors or users] and your brand. Think of it like providing publishing instructions with the content, where each different platform uses only the instructions that are relevant.”^[2]

For example, if your content is structured well, you can offer mobile versions of your content more efficiently, as American Express has. You also will have a much easier time creating widgets or an API to distribute your content, as NPR did. (See image below.) Does this kind of planning get results? Within 12 months after releasing this API, NPR doubled its users (audience). ^[3]

Figure 5: NPRstructured its content well enough to offer a useful API.

You or your organization might think such multichannel architecture issues are mostly technology issues. Now hear this: They’re content issues, too. Consider how your content’s architecture will help you reach the right users in the right channels.

How These Areas Work Together

My diagram presents the areas of content strategy as a cycle. Now that you understand each area better, let’s look further at this cycle.

Before Launch: Architecture Last
When you’re about to reimagine a website or launch a new one, focus on analysis, then editorial, and then architecture. Why architecture last? Because that way you don’t waste time and energy planning areas of a site that you don’t need. You avoid scrambling to fill unwanted screens and features with content. You’d never build a house by constructing every possible room, then deciding which rooms you actually need. It should be no different with websites and interactive experiences. Plan the content you need first, then architect it.

After Launch: Analyze and Adjust
After you launch, the cycle doesn’t stop. Analyze how your content performs. Learn how users behave with your content. Stay in touch with industry trends. Watch for problems and opportunities. Address them by adjusting your editorial and architecture. Successful media properties never publish content, then leave it. I like how Tracy V. Wilson, Site Director for HowStuffWorks, describes her approach to ongoing analysis,

”When we’re looking at metrics, we’re looking at them in light of how we already know our articles work, how we know that they’re structured, how we anticipate that an average reader would come in and go through the article from beginning to end. And we can do the same thing for different types of content. So, we have articles, we have top ten lists, top five lists, quizzes, image galleries … and we’ve developed a different sense of what “normal” is for each of those.

So, we’re able to look at when something is deviating from our idea of normal and try to figure out why that deviation would take place. We also use metrics a lot in day-to-day planning, like planning what to feature on our home page … deciding whether that day’s home page was successful; a lot of that is coming from numbers and whether people’s behavior on the site that day is matching up with … what we’re thinking of as the typical user behavior.” ^[6]

Get To Work

By now, I hope you appreciate more how analysis, editorial, and architecture work together to make content matter. The next step is to tackle your content. But, how? Every situation is a little different. For example, you might feel you have a good start on content analysis and architecture, but you have no idea how to approach editorial. These resources will help you get your specific plan together so you can move forward:

• Content Strategy Deliverables
  This blog post series by content strategy expert Rahel Bailie explains typical content strategy deliverables in handy detail.
• Content Strategy knol
  Started by editorial and content strategist Jeffrey MacIntyre, the knol indexes content strategy definitions, insights, blogs, publications, specialists and more.
• A Checklist for Content Work
  This excerpt from Erin Kissane’s new book on Content Strategy, The Elements of Content Strategy, notes some essentials.
• Content Strategy Meetups
  If you want help with content or just some camaraderie, look for a content strategy meetup near you. If not, consider starting one yourself. When I started the meetup in Atlanta, I was happily surprised by the interest from developers, designers and marketers.
• Content Strategy Forum, September 2011
  This conference in London will bring together an international mix of well-known and new voices in content strategy.  I’m as excited to see what others contribute as I am to offer a hands-on workshop.

Also, I recently wrote a book called Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content, which explains practical principles for planning content. Along the way, I included examples from startups, government, higher education, large business, and more to inspire useful ideas. I invite you to learn more about the book.

Really, there’s no reason not to take the next step toward better content today. The sooner you move forward, the sooner you’ll overcome those content challenges. And, the sooner you’ll get results.

References

[1]. Halvorson, Kristina. 2009. Content Strategy for the Web. New Riders.

[2]. Jones, Colleen. 2011. Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Content. New Riders.

[3]. The Future of Content: Mobile Strategies for Government (panel). Government Web Content and New Media Conference 2011.

Segal, David. February 2010. Search Optimization and Its Dirty Little Secrets. The New York Times.

Jones, Colleen. 2009. Toward Content Quality. UXmatters.

Neisser, Drew. July 2010. What American Express’s OPEN Can Teach Us About Social Media. Fast Company.

Lovinger, Rachel. 2010. Nimble. Razorfish.

Colleen Jones talks multichannel and multicultural content

Colleen Jones: CS Forum podcast episode 5

12 April 2011 ❧ Destry Wion

Listen to the latest podcast from our series featuring CS Forum speakers. This week, Colleen Jones talks to Destry about how people are using the web, what disciplines can teach each other about content, and her exclusive CS Forum workshop.

In the fifth episode of the Content Strategy Forum podcast, we interview Colleen Jones, one of our workshop speakers.

“Technical communication and marketing and user experience have a lot of opportunity in working together and collaborating with each other.”

Listen now

Download the MP3, or subscribe in iTunes.

Transcript

Welcome again to the Content Strategy Forum 2011 podcast series. I’m Destry Wion and you are listening to episode #5. Today I talk with Colleen Jones, who will be joining us at the Forum and leading one of the four workshops.

In case you’re tuning in for the first time, CS Forum 11 is taking place in central London from the 5–7 September. That’s two days of presentations and a third full day of workshops. Plenty of soirees and socializing are planned for as well, including the kick-off BBQ on the evening of September 4th. Note: only 100 tickets will be sold for the BBQ, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Of course, a big BBQ kick-off party overlooking the Thames in central London isn’t the only reason to register early. Use this discount code—PODCAST05—by the 26 April, and receive an extra £50 off the early bird rate. That’s a total of £150 less than the normal conference pass rate if you register by 26 April.

And there’s more. All early bird registrants will be automatically entered into a prize drawing where nearly 50 publisher prizes will be randomly given away—like recently published titles from Colleen Jones and Erin Kissane to complete Rosenfeld Media and A Book Apart libraries (packages that include print and ebook versions).

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Destry Wion: Now, my guest today, Colleen Jones, is Founder and Principal of Content Science, and, of course, author of the fantastic book, Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content. She’s also a frequent author in respected publications like UXMatters, and speaks internationally about content and UX at conferences large and small. In fact, I was thrilled to have Colleen present last year at the Content Strategy Forum in Paris. We are very lucky to have Colleen again this year in a different capacity, giving a unique workshop especially for CS Forum 11.

So, without further ado, hi, Colleen.

Colleen Jones: Hi, Destry.

Destry: It’s very, very nice to talk to you again.

Colleen: It’s nice to talk to you. Thanks, so much, for having me.

Destry: I can’t believe it’s been a year and one volcano already.

Colleen: [laughter] Well, I hope you’re keeping a lid on the volcano this year.

Destry: [laughter] Yeah. In your book you explain that the way people use the web is changing. And, our approach, a content professional’s approach to that, needs to change in response. Can you elaborate a little bit on that? How are people using the web these days and in turn, what should be the content professional’s response to that change?

Colleen: Well, one way that the web is changing is that simply people are using it more. One indication of that is some research that Forester did. They report that Americans say that they’re spending as much time on the web as they do watching TV. And, as you know, Americans love their TV. So, that means Americans are spending a lot of time on the web. And, that’s just one indicator. That suggests to me that Americans aren’t just using the web to get some information and then leave to find a document and then leave or do a task and then leave. That suggests to me that people are hanging out on the web more.

And, I think one of the big things they’re hanging out for is content. And so, how that affects our approach to content is we need to think about what people are visiting the web for other than tasks and how our content supports that, fits into that, influences that.

And, it’s a little different for each organization or company or brand that’s trying to accomplish something online, but that’s the basic principle. And, I think it’s partly why this notion of companies as publishers has really caught on. I think that, to some extent, helps sort of capture what this change in how people use the web means to companies and organizations.

Destry: Right. Interesting. Well, it sounds a little bit different from what Gerry McGovern discussed in our first podcast interview. He talks about tasks and content as a way of helping users complete those tasks. I mean, is it different or is it similar? Would you agree with some of the things he said? Did you happen to catch that podcast interview, by change?

Colleen: I did. Yeah, I did. And, I thought it was very consistent with the work, especially the books that he’s written. And, as far as my perspective being different, I would say yes and no. Yes and no I agree with Gerry McGovern. You know, to me, he really has a command of content that supports tasks. He really knows that, owns that, gets that very well. And, however, now we know that people are hanging out on the web and they’re looking for guidance for, entertainment for, inspiration for social connection and more than tasks. A lot of that kind of content doesn’t support a direct action, a task. Instead, it influences more of a person’s attitude or what a person thinks. And, that attitude, of course, often influences action later.

So, as a simple example, last year I worked with the retailer, Foot Smart, on developing a strategy for niche editorial content. Foot Smart was already successful. They were ranked 175 on the Internet Retailer 500. But, the CEOsaw opportunity in using content as a way to advise their customers.

And so, we looked at topics and themes that connected comfort footwear with lower body health. And, to ensure that the content was useful, we based the ideas partly on questions that they would get from customers on FaceBook and in emails and so on.

So, people were already kind of looking to them for guidance and advice on these issues. And, the CEO at Foot Smart decided to take that to another level with niche editorial content.

But, you don’t have to take my word necessarily for this approach. It seems to be real enough that it’s affecting business models. So, the Wall Street Journal had an article not too long ago about retail and media, or what we would call content, combining business models.

So, I would say this whole area of content that supports attitude based on how people are using the web now is where I would be a little bit different in my perspective from Gerry.

Destry: I can’t help but think of like FaceBook use and different kinds of use that could be described as pleasure or spontaneous and these mediums that are suited to that connectedness, not necessarily a task in a business sense either, but, you know, just entertainment almost.

Colleen: Yeah. Yeah. And, that’s where strategy is really important because you could easily get yourself in a situation where you’re trying to take on way too much content and can’t sustain it, can’t keep it at a good quality, and so, really thinking about, OK, what is really the best way to use all the methods, all the channels, and the opportunity in this kind of content. It takes a lot of discipline almost.

Destry: Absolutely. Absolutely. There’s a lot of energy behind discussions of CS, and there are people with different content backgrounds, if you will, in these discussions. What do you think for those professionals who focus on different types of content, what can they learn from each other? For example, what can marketers learn from technical communicators and user experience designers? And likewise, what can TC’ers and UX’ers learn from marketers?

Colleen: I think there’s a lot that we can all learn from each other. And, I feel over the years I’ve learned a lot from these different perspectives. And, I tend to combine them in my content work and strategy work and so on. I see a lot of value in it. In my opinion, good marketers can teach UX designers and tech com folks about customer attitude and branding or especially what customers think about a brand or the type of customers that a company is trying to attract through a brand. Good marketers really, in my experience, understand branding and value proposition.

So, that can be really valuable for thinking about content that influences people’s attitudes.

UX designers and technical communicators, of course, can teach marketers a lot about how content fits into an overall customer experience or user experience. They can offer good guidance about when a customer should see certain content.

In my experience, sometimes marketers get a little bit overly zealous with promotion. They want to get out there and campaign. They want to get out there and where in a customer user experience that occurs. And, UX designers and technical communicators can help with figuring out an appropriate place to put those sorts of marketing pieces.

And, of course, UX designers and technical communicators can teach marketers a whole lot about supporting tasks with content. So, having the right topics covered, having the right format for a content, – scanable, chunked and all these good things, marketers can learn a lot from.

Destry: So, they really need to get together more and collaborate more if there’s still these divisions in their departments and what not.

Colleen: Absolutely. Absolutely. I would love to see that happen more.

Destry: Yeah, we need that to happen more. [laughter]

Colleen: [laughter] Yeah, we do. Yes, I like that. It must happen more.

Destry: It must happen, yeah. In your book you talk about how influence isn’t necessarily the same for every country or culture, which I think is an interesting, interesting topic. What advice would you give content strategists dealing with international audiences and multi lingual content?

Colleen: I think that many professionals in our space understand some of the basics of international communication and content – some of the basics of avoiding controversial topics and avoiding slang. But, in this global economy, there’s a lot at stake with international content. McKinsey recently reported that by 2025, the year 2025, most of the world’s middle class households will be in emerging markets. And, that just kind of blows my mind. I work with a lot of international companies, a lot of Fortune 500 headquarters in Atlanta, and I think now is a great time to make the case for a more sophisticated approach to international content. There’s just a lot of potential value there.

And, if you’re a content strategist, I’d look closely at when to take kind of the globalized approach, which is having essentially the same content translated pretty much as it is. And, you can single source that and potentially save a lot of money taking that approach.

And, it’s also worth looking at when to take a more localized approach which will potentially cost more money up front because you’re developing really customized localized content that taps into the local culture.

And, that might cost more money, but it might earn you more money because it better resonates and reaches your audiences or your customers.

And so, there are a lot of strategic decisions that need to be made there. And then, once you make those decisions, there’s a lot to think about for either approach.

And, for a localized approach, in my book I talk a little bit about just how forceful you are with sales type or promotional type content might need to be different for different countries. Americans were pretty used to marketing and we tend to have a pretty high tolerance for very forceful statements. But, other countries an cultures really see that as a turn off.

And so, if you’re not conscious of that, you could really make some bad content choices and suffer as a result.

Destry: Right, definitely. I mean, Gerry McGovern recently wrote an article about technical communication is the new sales. And, the reason I bring this up is, as we’re talking here, it’s looping back through all these great ideas about collaborating with different content professionals and the localization and what not. And, the thing about this particular paper that I thought was really cool was that, for one thing, technical writing, technical documents being the thing that makes the sale and saving money and really addressing kind of a business objective.

And, when you put that into a localization sense, too, one of the things he said was well, you have an appliance, for example, that ships with it’s user documentation, it’s a multi fold out thing inside the box, and, it’s in like 15 different languages. And, somewhere along the line you should know that the guy was ordering it in Berlin and he probably only needs it in German or maybe English at the most.

So, you know, here’s thing in 15 languages and probably not very well written and translated in a way that is kind of normalized across all these languages and probably not particularly suited well for the one, you know?

And so, interesting discussion. Interesting ideas all the way around.

Colleen: Yeah, I think content really supports and guides a customer through the entire process. So, from the time that that customer learned about this appliance from that company, through the point of buying it, through the point of getting it and getting that documentation, all of that is content and there needs to be connection and cohesiveness there. And, a lot of companies don’t think about it that way. And, I completely agree that there’s a lot of opportunity and that’s part of the reason why technical communication and marketing and user experience really, I think, have a lot of opportunity in working together and collaborating with each other.

Destry: Definitely. Well, Colleen, now that you’ve written Clout, I mean, you’ve put a lot of effort into it and all those case studies researched and interviews done and time alone focusing and thinking about it. In your opinion, what is another content book that could be written, that should be written, or might be relevant to write in another year or so? Where do you think, what’s your prediction? I mean, what do you think is missing that needs to be kind of focused on more or could be?

Colleen: I would, I mean, if you gave me a lot of time to think about that, I’d come up with like 20 answers. But, I think a book about editorial strategy would be wonderful.

Destry: Well, I was just reading this article of Jeff’s, right, his second one in the series since joining Arc90, and the content strategy of product, product strategy as he’s talking about and business models are the business of content people. And, whenever I read Jeff’s stuff, I’m always like oh, wow, that’s pretty deep, you know? I mean, to me it’s always pretty deep the way he puts it, and very intriguing. And, it seems to me that something like that could be viable.

We think that mobile is still going to go very strong, right? I don’t know, do you think a book on mobile specifically, mobile content, do you think there’s enough there for that?

Colleen: I’m a little bit torn on that. I think that there is. You know, the big concept that people talk about with mobile is context, and you really need to be thinking about context in whatever you’re doing when it comes to content and design. So, I’m a little bit torn. A lot of it, to me, is just taking these principles that we already know and really factoring in geography and the device people are using.

But, I do think there would be merit in a book about that. I think especially a really practically focused, maybe even tactically focused book about that could be huge because in a larger strategy, to me, mobile is one component of a larger strategy.

Destry: Well, I’m not planning to write a book myself. That’s not why I’m asking these questions. [laughter] But, I just think it’s interesting because looking ahead and CS is really enjoying a lot of momentum, and I think there’s some interesting things that still could be talked about. And, technology and the web, I mean, the rate at which it just evolves now is so quick that it’s really hard to say what is going to be relevant just now, but five years from now. It’s exciting. It’s real exciting and strange at the same time.

Colleen: Yeah, it is. We will never ever be bored. [laughter]

Destry: [laughter]

Colleen: There’s so much going on in, really in all the spaces that you’ve covered. And, there are a lot of possibilities. So, I think it’s going to be really fun to see what people do now that there’s more awareness of content strategy and principles and techniques and ways of thinking about it. It’s going to be really fun to see what people come up with, the products, the services, the innovations that people come up with. And, like you said, with the technology also evolving, you know, we’ll have new possibilities to factor in.

And, it’s just going to be, I think, a really positive cycle.

Destry: I agree. I agree. Positive and exciting.

Colleen: Yes, yes.

Destry: Well, one more question, Colleen. And, I’d like to turn this one to your workshop, actually, that you’re going to be giving in September because it’s going to be a fun one and unique one. What can you share about it to people who might be thinking about coming?

Colleen: Well, I’m really excited about it because it’s the only public workshop I’m giving this year. So, I’m investing a lot of time and effort in planning it. So, it’s going to be special.

Destry: Cool.

Colleen: Yeah. And, people who attend it can expect an intermediate level workshop. I think, you know, the basics of concept strategy have been, and continue to be really well covered. And so, this workshop is going to be a bit more intermediate. And, we’re going to have a good combination of presentation, realistic hands on activities and productive discussion. And so, my goal is to give someone who attends everything that they need to make their content more compelling and start to access whether it’s working.

Destry: Nice.

Colleen: So, the three hours are going to fly by. [laughter]

Destry: Well, there’s a rumor that you might be, in fact, taking some ideas, projects that people are actually working on, and using those as examples in the workshop.

Colleen: Yes. I’ll be inviting people who sign up for the workshop to share examples of what they’re working on and their questions about them or just their questions. And, I’ll be, of course with permission, incorporating those examples into the workshop and also incorporating some time to essentially give some consulting about the questions that I get. So, it will be some good quality time with lean.

Destry: Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, thank you, very much, Colleen. I can’t wait to see you again in September. And, I’m sure the people who have been listening to this are going to be very excited to take part in the workshop.

Colleen: Well, thank you for having me, a pleasure to chat with you, as always. And, I am really looking forward to seeing you in September, it’s going to come up fast here, and really being a part of content strategy forum again.

Destry: My podcasting interview skills are a little rusty, as you may have picked up on, but I appreciate your time and we will talk to you again soon. Thank you, so much, Colleen.

Colleen: Thank you, Destry.

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You’ve been listening to episode 5 of the CS Forum podcast series, featuring Colleen Jones. You can subscribe to future episodes at csforum.eu, and also find our series under Podcasts in iTunes. Don’t forget to register for the conference using the discount code—PODCAST05—by the 26 April to save £50 on top of the early-bird rate. Thanks for listening.

Make Your Content Make a Difference

Make Your Content Make a Difference

• By Colleen Jones
• April 12th, 2011
• Design
• 28 Comments
• Publishing Policy

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Content, content, content. It’s an obvious part of any interactive experience. In fact, you’ve probably heard content is king, or queen, or some sort of royalty. Yet, content is elusive. Often, you don’t realize your content isn’t cutting it until it’s too late. Does any of this sound familiar?

• Delayed projects.
• Broken designs.
• Uneven voice.
• Low-performing landing pages.
• Dead social media channels.
• Customer confusion and service calls.

These problems and more are documented extensively,^[1] so I won’t dwell on them. What I will dwell on is the solution. But, first, let’s discuss the false ones.

Beware Of False Solutions

Just because someone articulates a problem well does not mean someone knows the solution. That’s when we’re susceptible to a false solution. In my many years of experience, I’ve found these two fake solutions to be very common, very distracting — and very disappointing.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Snake Oil

Oh, poor JC Penney. This major retailer fell victim to SEO snake oil, such as buying extensive link placements and other “black hat” techniques. And, JC Penney fell hard, with a detailed and brilliant expose of the situationmaking The New York Times, no less.

Now, besides avoiding embarrassment, I suggest that you avoid SEO snake oil because it will not bring you results. The spirit of a search engine is to find quality content. A search engine algorithm factors in signs of good content. When someone focuses on tips and tricks to game search engines instead of publishing quality content consistently over time, that person is missing the spirit of SEO. And, sooner or later, that person’s results will suffer for it. Google might punish the website or, more likely, the website will get the wrong kind of traffic, or visitors. If you drive lots of visitors to your content instead of attracting visitors who are interested in the content topics, you will be disappointed with the results.

And, now, a big caveat: I don’t think all SEO is bad. There are legitimate SEO concerns, techniques and advisors. Just remember that SEO tricks are not magic pills for your content ills. If you’re spending lots of time and money on SEO but not much on content, you’re on the way to disappointment.

Andy Budd recently discussed a closely related point of view in his recent article. He requests to “white hat” practitioners to distance themselves from the world of SEO, stop talking about search engine rankings and start helping clients deliver real value to their users. Therefore we should stop defining ourselves by the discovery medium and focus on the content itself, he rightfully argues.

Overpromised Technology

What else is not a magic pill? A technology product or feature alone. I see this false solution most often with larger companies, who put unrealistic expectations on products and tools such as a content management system (CMS), an analytics tool or a web application.  For example, a prospective client recently vented to me that his organization spent $100,000 on implementing a new CMS but absolutely nothing on planning and creating content worth managing. The result was a one-person Web team destined to fail with its brand new CMS. This short-staffed team was saddled with:

• managing every aspect of a very large website,
• responding to strange or political stakeholder requests for new content and
• dealing with the boss’s frustration with the lackluster content.

Sounds awful, right? Unfortunately, this situation is too common. And it needs to stop.

The Real Solution

No SEO trick and no technology product alone will solve the content problem for you. The real solution to the content problem is hard work that demands change in your (or your company’s) approach to planning, designing and developing interactive experiences. That’s what gets results. There’s no shortcut. And indeed, the path to content that counts is a hard road. But it cannot be the excuse for compromising the quality of experience we provide to our users.

Get Strategic

Content strategy is planning for every aspect of content to get results. That goes far beyond writing the copy. When getting strategic about content, focus on three key areas: analysis, editorial and architecture. While explaining content strategy in detail literally requires a book (or two or three), I’d like to share with you a concise introduction to each area in this article.

Figure 1: Content strategy usually involves analysis, editorial and architecture.

1. Analysis

Analysis is taking a magnifying glass to your content situation. The better you understand it, the better you can plan exactly what needs to change to reach the results you’d like to have. Two typical activities in the analysis phase are a content audit and a context analysis. Sometimes, these activities are lumped together into a content analysis. The exact term is not that important as long as you do the analysis thoroughly.

Content Audit
An audit is a close review of your existing content. If you have any content to start with, you need to knowexactly what it is. The audit tells you what you’re working with. By the end of an audit, you’ll have answers to questions such as:

• What content types, formats and topics do you have?
• What is the quality of your content? (For help, consult this content quality checklist.)
• How is your content structured?
• Where do you have obvious content gaps and overlaps, or redundancies?

When you’re ready to try a complete content audit yourself, check out the guide Content Analysis: A Practical Approach.

Context Analysis
A context analysis looks at the elements that surround and affect your content. At a minimum, consider and answer these questions about your goal, your users, and your processes.

Goal

• What is your business or organizational goal? Why?
• How will content help you achieve that goal?

Users / Audience

• Who are your users, or the people you want to attract and influence? Why?
• Where (in what channels) are your users looking for content — on websites, on mobile, on social networks?
• If you have an existing website or interactive experience, how is it performing?

Processes / Ecosystem

• How do you create, maintain and govern content now?
• How do you plan to do so when you launch the website or interactive experience?
• What are your competitors doing in the realm of content?

As a simple example, let’s look at American Express’ OPEN Forum, a site for small business owners. Why did American Express want to attract and influence these users? Because reaching these users was a step toward their business goal. Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, SVP of Partnerships & Business Development for American Express OPEN, notes, “…our biggest opportunity is with small business growth — if they grow, we grow.”  And, American Express decided to help them grow through a unique approach to content. Rather than create more content about their credit cards, American Express decided to create content about small business owner concerns. (More about this approach in the next section, 2. Editorial.)

We could discuss analysis for days, but I’d like to introduce other aspects of content strategy to you as well. For a more detailed explanation of this analysis, I highly recommend the analysis chapter of Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson. Also, I shared my step-by-step experience in the presentation Content Analysis: Know Thy Content.

The real benefit of analysis is ideas and insights for planning content editorial and architecture. So, let’s take a closer look at those sides of content, using the OPEN Forum as an example along the way.

2. Editorial

Editorial plans mostly for the people side of content, such as:

• What style or voice should your content have to attract and resonate with users?
• What topics and themes should your content cover and when?
• Who is responsible for what content?
• What are your standards or criteria for credible content?

Many businesses and organizations who are not media properties completely lack editorial oversight for their websites and other interactive experiences.  That can result in problems ranging from errors to missing a competitive advantage. Let’s turn back to our OPEN Forum example. In the world of finance, much content is a combination of dull explanations or legal mumbo jumbo. OPEN Forum takes a different approach.

Figure 2: In the stodgy world of finance, American Express OPEN Forum offers a fresh approach to content.

The design might not look dramatically different from other finance sites, but the content is much different. To help small businesses, OPEN Forum regularly offers credible content about topics that small business ownerscare about. American Express produces some content, invited expert columnists create some content, and small business users contribute some content. Even though different authors contribute content, the content isoriginal to OPEN Forum. Can you notice how different it is from aggregating random content or simply optimizing pushy landing pages? Through its consistent voice and handy content on OPEN Forum, American Express haspositioned itself as a trusted advisor to small businesses. Because the articles, videos, and podcasts are deeply useful to small business users, they’re far more valuable to American Express.

Of course, having so many content contributors poses some risk of creating content that feels disjointed. To reduce this risk, what’s going on behind the scenes? The right editorial staff and processes ensure the content from different authors is coordinated. For example, while most websites lack an editor, OPEN Forum has an editor-in-chief. And, for robust editorial review and production, American Express partners with Federated Media. As you plan your content processes, you will consider what roles to hire in-house and what roles to hire as freelancers.

Besides the right people and processes, editorial planning results in an important tool: the Editorial Style Guide. This guide documents important decisions about your content for everyone involved to reference. A style guide typically explains:

• Target audiences / users
• Key messages
• Voice and tone
• Criteria for topics
• Sample content
• Usage, punctuation, and grammar guidelines
• Trademark and legal considerations

For a helpful start, you might want to consider taking a look at The Yahoo! Style Guide.

So, all of this editorial work sounds interesting, but does it actually get any results? Yes, it does. Since 2007, OPEN Forum has built an audience comparable in size and engagement with other small business media properties. But that’s not the best result. In the lucrative small business market, American Express’s successful editorial approach is a differentiator. More than that, it’s a quiet coup. The results did not happen overnight. They took time. But, compared to its competitors, American Express now owns small business online.

I know what you’re thinking. “But American Express is a big company. Should a smaller one care about editorial?” Yes. A smaller company or an individual can do it on a smaller scale, with less content, fewer contributors, and probably fewer visitors. Editorial is about attracting the right visitors (or audience) and holding their interest through content. Size does not matter nearly as much as quality.

That’s a basic introduction to editorial. But, content concerns don’t stop here. Now, let’s turn to architecture.

3. Architecture

Architecture plans mostly for the machine side of content — while keeping the people side in mind. Architecture addresses how your content is organized, structured and repurposed. Architecture gets your content to the right place. This planning might start with a site map but won’t end there. You likely will need to define content models and taxonomies using metadata. In essence, you need to tell your content management system and other platforms what content you have, where to display it and how to display it.

Let’s look at a simple example, again from American Express OPEN Forum. The site has clearly defined templates for its articles, videos and other content types.  Those content types come together (or aggregate) as meaningful topic pages. Take a look at this one for innovation. That aggregation happens dynamically because of good architecture.

Figure 3: This topic page brings together all of OPEN Forum’s original content about a topic (in this case, the topic is innovation), thanks to good architecture.

When you plan architecture well, you gain other benefits. Both search engines and people will find your content more easily. Your content becomes more accessible and flexible, not to mention easier and more efficient to keep consistent.

That’s some basic architecture. Now, let’s kick it up a notch. Is OPEN Forum part of AmericanExpress.com, the core American Express website? No, it’s not. Now, that might bother some user experience designers and information architects out there. Shouldn’t this be one cohesive experience? Yes, it should. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean all of the content has to be in one website or in one place. AmericanExpress.com serves more visitors than small business owners. So, putting all that small business content on AmericanExpress.com could easily get in the way of other visitors. Instead, OPEN Forum and AmericanExpress.com link to each other at relevant points.

Figure 4: OPEN Forum is not part of the core American Express site.

Okay, now let’s kick it up several notches. Content strategy pioneer Rachel Lovinger has articulated convincingly that advanced architecture also makes your content more nimble to use across different interactive experiences, from your website to your mobile application. She notes,

“Publishing content that’s marked up with smart structure and metadata allows it to be delivered on a wider range of channels, while still retaining the context and relationships that make it meaningful and useful to both your audience [visitors or users] and your brand. Think of it like providing publishing instructions with the content, where each different platform uses only the instructions that are relevant.”^[2]

For example, if your content is structured well, you can offer mobile versions of your content more efficiently, as American Express has. You also will have a much easier time creating widgets or an API to distribute your content, as NPR did. (See image below.) Does this kind of planning get results? Within 12 months after releasing this API, NPR doubled its users (audience). ^[3]

Figure 5: NPRstructured its content well enough to offer a useful API.

You or your organization might think such multichannel architecture issues are mostly technology issues. Now hear this: They’re content issues, too. Consider how your content’s architecture will help you reach the right users in the right channels.

How These Areas Work Together

My diagram presents the areas of content strategy as a cycle. Now that you understand each area better, let’s look further at this cycle.

Before Launch: Architecture Last
When you’re about to reimagine a website or launch a new one, focus on analysis, then editorial, and then architecture. Why architecture last? Because that way you don’t waste time and energy planning areas of a site that you don’t need. You avoid scrambling to fill unwanted screens and features with content. You’d never build a house by constructing every possible room, then deciding which rooms you actually need. It should be no different with websites and interactive experiences. Plan the content you need first, then architect it.

After Launch: Analyze and Adjust
After you launch, the cycle doesn’t stop. Analyze how your content performs. Learn how users behave with your content. Stay in touch with industry trends. Watch for problems and opportunities. Address them by adjusting your editorial and architecture. Successful media properties never publish content, then leave it. I like how Tracy V. Wilson, Site Director for HowStuffWorks, describes her approach to ongoing analysis,

”When we’re looking at metrics, we’re looking at them in light of how we already know our articles work, how we know that they’re structured, how we anticipate that an average reader would come in and go through the article from beginning to end. And we can do the same thing for different types of content. So, we have articles, we have top ten lists, top five lists, quizzes, image galleries … and we’ve developed a different sense of what “normal” is for each of those.

So, we’re able to look at when something is deviating from our idea of normal and try to figure out why that deviation would take place. We also use metrics a lot in day-to-day planning, like planning what to feature on our home page … deciding whether that day’s home page was successful; a lot of that is coming from numbers and whether people’s behavior on the site that day is matching up with … what we’re thinking of as the typical user behavior.” ^[6]

Get To Work

By now, I hope you appreciate more how analysis, editorial, and architecture work together to make content matter. The next step is to tackle your content. But, how? Every situation is a little different. For example, you might feel you have a good start on content analysis and architecture, but you have no idea how to approach editorial. These resources will help you get your specific plan together so you can move forward:

• Content Strategy Deliverables
  This blog post series by content strategy expert Rahel Bailie explains typical content strategy deliverables in handy detail.
• Content Strategy knol
  Started by editorial and content strategist Jeffrey MacIntyre, the knol indexes content strategy definitions, insights, blogs, publications, specialists and more.
• A Checklist for Content Work
  This excerpt from Erin Kissane’s new book on Content Strategy, The Elements of Content Strategy, notes some essentials.
• Content Strategy Meetups
  If you want help with content or just some camaraderie, look for a content strategy meetup near you. If not, consider starting one yourself. When I started the meetup in Atlanta, I was happily surprised by the interest from developers, designers and marketers.
• Content Strategy Forum, September 2011
  This conference in London will bring together an international mix of well-known and new voices in content strategy.  I’m as excited to see what others contribute as I am to offer a hands-on workshop.

Also, I recently wrote a book called Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content, which explains practical principles for planning content. Along the way, I included examples from startups, government, higher education, large business, and more to inspire useful ideas. I invite you to learn more about the book.

Really, there’s no reason not to take the next step toward better content today. The sooner you move forward, the sooner you’ll overcome those content challenges. And, the sooner you’ll get results.

References

[1]. Halvorson, Kristina. 2009. Content Strategy for the Web. New Riders.

[2]. Jones, Colleen. 2011. Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Content. New Riders.

[3]. The Future of Content: Mobile Strategies for Government (panel). Government Web Content and New Media Conference 2011.

Segal, David. February 2010. Search Optimization and Its Dirty Little Secrets. The New York Times.

Jones, Colleen. 2009. Toward Content Quality. UXmatters.

Neisser, Drew. July 2010. What American Express’s OPEN Can Teach Us About Social Media. Fast Company.

Lovinger, Rachel. 2010. Nimble. Razorfish.

Colleen JonesColleen is the author of Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content. As principal of the Atlanta-based consultancy Content Science, Colleen helps everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies improve results from their web content. When she isn't helping clients, she is blogging about content strategy at Winning Content.