E&J Design

The next session was given by Kristina Halvorson who has been labeled ”the patron saint of content strategy” by Dan Saffer. Kristina’s background is that of a Copy Writer who then morphed herself into a Web Writer — a position that was far removed from the rest of the Web Team and there seemed to be no link between the two. Something she noticed from the get-go was that everyone talked about the user’s experience, but nobody was talking about the content. Throughout her time as the web-writer, she noticed that everyone was looking at user flows, mental models, and then eventually the site map and was happy. All of a sudden, someone looks at the schedule and calls in the Copy Writer (which is usually lumped in somehow with SEO) and is allocated 2 weeks – at most – to research the content, to come up with the content requirements, and finally to deliver the goods…”How did we allow this to happen?!” she asks the group..

Content isn’t a three-step create, revise and approve process. It’s much more complex than that. And it’s never done. (Jeremy Keith’s liveblog of the session)

Lies We Tell Ourselves

We already have the content. This is one of the most frustrating things about Web (re)Design. We already have all the content, so why should we worry about it. Then comes problems with the design or the site is restructured and the needs have changed. The copy writer is then brought in at the 11th hour to ’save the day’.

Content is almost always the last thing to be considered and the last thing to be delivered. This is called the Content Delay Syndrom. In Kelly’s book, she says “Accept it. Plan for it. Charge for it.”

As the Copy Writer, Kristina thinks this sucks. Content Strategy is a much better way.

What is Content?

Content is any element that takes up space on the page. It can be text, graphics, video and/or audio.

What is Strategy?

Strategy is often seen as “what we’re going to do”. Strategy is about answering all those journalistic questions, “why are we doing this?”, “who is this for?”, “what do we have to work with?”. Alot of people actually confuse strategy with tactics.

What is Content Strategy?

Content itself must be useful, usable, and enjoyable. Content Strategy plans for the creation, delivery and governance of content and is made up of 4 distinct – yet integrally tied – jobs:

1. Plan
2. Create
3. Publish
4. Govern

Kristina notes that many times when someone is not held accountable for the content, it usually falls upon “Marketing” and they have a tendency to screw things up.

Governance of content is distinctly important because content is a living, breathing organism that must be nurtured and cultivated. Content is not a feature and it has a lifecycle. Right now, the mindset with content is “launch and leave it”, but content is cyclical and it needs a process.

Content Lifecycle

The Audit.

There are two types of audits, a Quantitative Audit which tells you “where” and “how much” and there’s the Qualitative Audit which tells you how useful the content is. These are the two broad categories but there are more specialized audits like dealing with metadata. Most people thing of content audits in the quantitative sense and say things like, “We’ve got 600 PDFs that cover a wide range of topics!”. This type of audit isn’t nearly as helpful as the quality of the content that you’re auditing with the second type.

The Analysis.

This is one of the most important steps that a content strategist can do, but more often than not, is overlooked. This is where the content strategist will help ensure the content aligns itself on the company’s business objectives. Don’t just jump into action. Even though you may not think you have the time or budget to dive into this part, it is entirely crucial and something you should heavily consider investing in. This is where you consider brand messaging, where you identify your success metrics, define risks and how to mitigate them, how you will be delivering the content, user research, etc. Creating a strategic foundation for your content here is incredibly important and Kristina implores us to not take this step for granted. She also warns us of “stakeholder swoop’n'poop”, whereby she analogizes stakeholders opinions with that of “pigeons that swoop in and poop all over everything”

The Strategy.

After you’ve completed the first two steps, you can finally put together your content strategy. This is where the content strategist really takes ownership of the content and cultivates it, cares for it, revises it, etc. Too often no one will own up to the content. They all try to pawn it off on someone else…”Maybe it’ll be the information architect… maybe it’ll be the user experience designer.” Kristina doesn’t care who does it, just that someone is in charge of it. Always consider what will happen when the content is “out there”. Don’t launch a blog, for example, unless you’re willing to invest time in it.

Final Remarks

The main idea behind what Kristina is telling us is this:

Why do this? Think about why people go online. They want content. Support your users in their quest.

How can you start? The reality is probably that you can’t just hire a content strategist tomorrow. But you can change your mindset. When we talk about user experience, content is missing from the discussion. Let’s change that.

(editorial note: I heavily relied on Jeremy Keith’s liveblog of the even as filler/explanation of some of my notes. You can read the post here: http://adactio.com/journal/1587/)