Content Management and the Way We Work

Content Management and the Way We Work

Society for Technical Communications, Chicago chapter

Hilary Marsh

www.contentcompany.biz & www.realtor.org

stc chicago june 2006

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• Background in publishing

• Online content since 1996

• Content Company in 2001

• Clients include Household International/HSBC, University of Chicago, American Hospital Association, NCAA, Donors Forum of Chicago

• Joined National Association of Realtors full-time in June 2005

A little about me


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• Why it’s necessary to manage content• Three content stories • What is a content strategy, and why do you need one?• Anatomy of an effective content strategy• What to include in a content strategy• Making your content strategy work• Creating a successful publishing process• Everything you’ve always wanted to know about CMSs• Myths about content management• Connecting your content strategy and your CMS

Agenda


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Why it’s necessary to manage your content

Does content management keep your CEO up at night?

Actually, it does…

although the CEO may not realize it.


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Why isn’t a non-managed site good enough?

Non-managed site • online phone book

• brochure

Why isn't that sufficient?• TV pilot, launch issue of a magazine

• beginning of an ongoing relationship



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Isn't the Web a technology medium?

• Print and TV also involve great amounts of technology

• Web is just newer



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Why is managing Web content hard?

• Do we manage content offline?– print, telephone, face-to-face

– sales, marketing, customer service, tech support

• Do the people creating different content know/trust each other?

• Are the organization’s senior leaders encouraging them to collaborate?



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Why use technology to manage content?

5. Eliminate the bottleneck of IT updating the site

4. Compliance

3. Enable consistent, accurate, up-to-date information

2. Make use of what the Web can enable

1. Content is the way organizations meet their top business objectives



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Business goals are executed through online content

• Customer retention

• Raising awareness in the marketplace

• Cross-selling multiple products

Content management is more than just a good idea.



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Three stories

• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

• Donors Forum

• REALTOR.org

Three content stories


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Before

turf wars over homepage links

content updated manually

Story: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago


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After

Cohesive rationale behind content choices

Site reflects what people come for

Story: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago


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• organize content based on user goals & process

Story: Donors Forum of Chicago


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work in progress

• still siloed, but less so

• more effort to group content by audience, surface relevant information

• ongoing usability testing, will start user research

Story: National Association of Realtors


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To be effective, your content needs a plan

– how your content will work

– who, what, when, where, why and how

– part of your overall communication strategy

– which project/areas to start with — prioritize

What is a content strategy, and why do you need one?


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Why don’t you have a content strategy?

• Internal politics

– my content, my information, my vehicles, my pages, my audience

– what's in it for me to contribute?

– what's in it for me to use someone else's content?

– why are my communications suddenly being controlled?



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Is content strategy the same as CMS requirements?

• No!

• Content strategy is one of the elements that informs requirements

– other elements are technical platform, delivery requirements, scaleability

– CMS requirements are largely technical; content strategy is not



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Change management issues

• Culture shift from “knowledge is power” to “sharing knowledge is power”

• Willingness to collaborate....new?

• Subject matter experts are not writers

• New software and processes are scary

• WIIFM



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The ultimate goal

user needs(what’s

desirable)

business drivers(what’s important)

technology capabilities(what’s possible)

the sweet spot in the middle



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Anatomy of an effective content strategy

Inputs

•Leadership buy-in

•Content audit

•Gap analysis

•Stakeholder interviews

•User research

Outputs

•Schedule

•Staffing plan

•Governance structure

•Taxonomy

•Archiving strategy

•Content reuse opportunities

Implications

•Technology

•Information architecture

•Usability

•Search engine optimization



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Effective content strategy—inputs

Inputs Outputs Implications

1. Leadership buy-in

• inform/educate/evangelize

• which goals, right channel?

2. Stakeholder interviews

3. Content audit

4. Gap analysis

5. User research



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Effective content strategy—inputsInputs Outputs Implications



• how do things work now?

• hard to do online what you don't do

offline

3. Content audit

4. Gap analysis

5. User research



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3. Content audit

• what's there now?

• which media?which formats?

4. Gap analysis

5. User research



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3. Content audit

4. Gap analysis

• what's missing?

5. User research



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Effective content strategy—inputs




3. Content audit

4. Gap analysis

5. User research

• How can you meet your business goals

by delivering what your customers

want?



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Effective content strategy—outputs

1. Content calendar

• how often will specific types of content be updated?

2. Staffing plan

3. Governance structure

4. Terminology/keywords/metadata strategy

5. Archiving strategy

6. Opportunities for content reuse




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1. Content calendar

2. Staffing plan

• how many people will it take to manage your content?








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1. Content calendar

2. Staffing plan


• who's in charge?







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1. Content calendar

2. Staffing plan



• how will content appear in the right places?

• what are common terms?






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1. Content calendar

2. Staffing plan




• where will content go, how will it get there, how long will it stay?





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1. Content calendar

2. Staffing plan





• product descriptions, bios, etc.




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Effective content strategy—implications

1. Technology

• how will we enable this?

2. Information architecture/content organization

3. Search engine optimization




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1. Technology


• how will information be findable?

• creators and target audience

• usable CMS, usable site content





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1. Technology



• making content visible to search engines

• title tags, user-friendly URLs




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Strategies for what?

• Specific pages and content types

• Content lifecycle

• Staffing

• Governance

• Archiving

• Content reuse

• Access levels

• Linking

• Surveys, polls

• Blogging

• RSS/content syndication

• Multimedia content

• Non-HTML content

• URLs/domains

• Accessibility

For REALTOR.org, we define the following strategies:

What to include in a content strategy


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Making your content strategy work

Figure it out

Vet it with your deparment

Get senior managment buy-in

Communicate Enforce

Making your content strategy work


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Creating a successful publishing process

• Does your organization know that it’s in the publishing business?

• By having a website, it is.

• A “successful” publishing process is one where everyone who needs to be involved is involved:– their role regarding Web content is in their job description

– they have the time and skills they need



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Assess your current processes

• Look at Web publishing processes– work with each person or group to identify their

approval and publishing processes

– validate these processes with all the people in the publishing chain, to see if their experience of the process matches that of the content creators

• Also study your organization’s publishing processes for print communications



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Use your organization’s best practices

• Ask questions– why is Legal involved for print communications but not

Web?

– Why does Corporate Communications review Business A’s press releases by but not Business B’s, and does that help Business A’s releases get posted on the corporate site more often than Business B's?



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Use your organization’s best practices

• See whose information is likeliest to meet their communications goals—and assess what they are doing right. – Do they have a regular publishing schedule?

– Do they allow enough time for reviews?

• Use this model for all of your content. When you have a CMS, use it to set the rules for your automated workflow.



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A CMS is the tool, not the answer

• Who will be able to edit, review, or publish content?

• How will the process work?

• New publishing paradigm: Communicators edit content created throughout the organization, instead of generating content.

Everything you’ve always wanted to know about CMSs


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A CMS is the tool, not the answer

• Communicators will need more technical awareness and skills.

• Who will set and enforce editorial and design standards?

• Requires central resources for managing content and sites and for ongoing training.



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What should a CMS do?

• Separate content from presentation w/ templates

• Breaking up content into its components, or building blocks

• Support publishing process (aka workflow)

• Provide role-based security

• Capture content metadata

• Provide robust repository (formats, versions)

• Manage entire content lifecycle (creation, review, publishing, archiving, deletion)

• Support content syndication and/or acquisition

• Special considerations like globalization

• Possibly dynamic delivery, personalization, decision support — depends on your strategy



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Questions CM should address

• What do I have, and how is it organized?• Where is it?• How do I create it?• How do I find it?• How do I change it?• When is it obsolete?• Who created it?• Who changed it?• Who can see it?• What do I do with it when it becomes obsolete?• What have I had in the past?• Who has seen it?• How do I revert to what I had?



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Answers will take the form of

• Auditing• Search• Metadata• Versioning• Check in/check out• Content Creation/Capture• Workflow• Integration with other applications• Repositories• Security• Taxonomy• Governance



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You may not need a CMS...

• if the content you are posting doesn’t change often

• if you don’t need all the pieces, only the creation & posting



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Content management myths

1) Content management is about technology

2) Out of the box, a CMS will allow content owners not to learn any new technology

3) Once you have a CMS in place, your content will practically manage itself

4) Content management equals CMS

Myths about content management


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5) Content management is the same as knowledge management and document management

6) If you import existing content into your CMS, site visitors will instantly be able to find it and use it

7) Once your CMS is set up and the site is launched, your work is done

8) An expensive CMS is always better than an inexpensive one

Myths about content management


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A content strategy is an “assurance policy” that

• you buy the right CMS

• your products and process work for all your content types

• your content owners are motivated to use it, and have the ability to

• your investment will pay off, for both content owners and site visitors

Connecting your content strategy and your CMS


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What a nonstrategic process looks like

• IT group selects a CMS

• Strategy or IT group develops a content management process based on the CMS’s capabilities

• Content owners learn about the project after the product has been purchased, during its development, or when it launches



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Risks of a nonstrategic process

• Product doesn’t work for all content types

• Process doesn’t work for content owners

• Content owners skirt the process or product or—worse—don’t update their content more often than before



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Who in your organization needs to “get it” about content management

• Business

• Communications

• Marketing

• Executive

• Sales

• Legal

• Strategy

• Technology (this one is last, on purpose)



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Why?

• Get the necessary budget

• Content creation

• Content ownership

• Content approval

• Content use



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Giving business users control of their own content: not necessarily scary

• It’s necessary– they need to have buy-in/feel ownership

– impossible to control everything

– not doing this thwarts the point of CM

• Guidance is key– documentation

– training

– follow-up

– involve business users in guidance council



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The importance of a multidisciplinary governance structure

• Shared vision

• Collaborative strategy

• Rules of engagement

• Process that incorporates multiple facets and approaches, works with corporate culture



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Strategy needs a multidisciplinary team

• see things from different perspectives

• learn at the same time...much more valuable than telling later

• each piece is part of a whole



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Structure project for an easy win

• strategic work takes longer upfront than company is used to

• start with a smaller project...let its success spark interest in more projects

• be sure to document the “before,” so that the success is measurable



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What will constitute a successful CMS?

Solution needs to be one that...

• content owners will use

• site information architecture supports

• helps business put highest-priority content in front of highest-priority site visitors

• accommodates content types, content owner capabilities, process



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Does content management keep your CEO up at night?

Actually, it does…

although the CEO may not realize it.


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Questions?

Hilary Marsh Manager, Editorial Development,Content Company, Inc. REALTOR.orghttp://www.contentcompany.biz National Association of [email protected] [email protected] 312.329.8341

http://www.contentcompany.biz/

http://www.contentcompany.biz/