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Goals, Guidelines, and Governance How one association created a smart, sustainable content strategy
Kristy McGreal Hilary Marsh
Our Agenda
1. Where we started 2. What we did 3. What we found 4. Top 10 lessons we learned
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Where we started
Before we started, we had a LOT of content
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Lots of links
Event information
FAQs
Policies
Course details
Mission statement
Job listings
Scientific statements
Press releases
News stories
Comment letters
Executive bios
Reports
History
Awards
Process to help us to learn about our content IFT is content rich, but…
• How is it being used? • How is it organized? • What do members want? All of these questions were tackled through this project
Our Goal
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8
Just because…..
Because the board wanted it Because the committee told us to Because we have this program Because we do this thing Because we created the information Because we have no way to say “no” to the request Because we think we have to Because everyone else is Because this is how we have always done it Because…….
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What we did
Content strategy process
Discovery ++ Compare current state with best practices and organizational
strategy, dream together
Create guidelines
Paint the picture of the “better
way”
Make it sustainable
Create new ways of working
1. Discovery ++
• Review of existing documents • Stakeholder interviews • Member survey • Comparative content analysis • Content audit/assessment • Empathy-based audience personas
Stakeholder interviews
Findings • Content is lacking cohesiveness, relationships, and context • Content is not created with users in mind • Lack of effective organization is creating confusion and lost
revenue • No shared core audience • Inconsistent content promotion • Everyone knew there was an issue but didn’t see their role in it • No clear, consistent definition of content
Stakeholder interviews Recommendations • Collect content into clear categories defined and validated by
users, and ensure that it is findable, cross-referenced, and has context.
• Incorporate user knowledge and data into decisions about content. • Create a clear, flexible taxonomy for the ORGANIZATION (not
department). • Identify the organization’s top-priority audiences, and use this
prioritization to drive content decisions. • Create an organization-wide editorial calendar and promotion
guidelines.
Member survey Recommendations: • Improve the website’s usability • Offer members the ability to opt in
to specific email campaigns • Better communicate the value of
online and short courses • Incorporate metrics into all future
content decisions • Tag content so it can be cross-
linked more easily
Competitive audit recommendations • Give people a reason to visit more often: Update content more
frequently, feature current content more prominently, highlight for top-priority audiences
• Encourage on-site commenting and conversation • Incorporate breadcrumbs and consistent sidebars to help navigation
• Use more creative presentations: organize videos into a stream -- promote regularly, feature a book of the week, add live chat
• Incorporate sponsored/underwritten content selectively (careful not to raise concern about the organization’s objectivity)
• Use section landing pages to highlight the full range of content in the section, rather than relying only on mega-nav
Content audit
Content audit
The Game Changer! • Detailed outside perspective of every page of the website and e-
newsletters • Topic, content type, audience, usage, date created/modified • Look for content ROT (redundant, outdated, trivial/unused) • Recommended actions: Keep, revise, archive, delete • Typical proportion: delete/archive 50%, revise 30%, keep as-is 20% • Presented to content owners for their feedback
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Empathy-based personas
Empathy-based personas
§ How do we bring focus? § Define our customer § Understand them as individuals,
with real needs, concerns, motivations, and attitudes
Empathy-based personas Instead of discounting emotions, we use empathy as a filter, a lens Empathy roots us. It gives us context to distinguish meaning
from information
VS.
Empathy-based personas The journey our personas take with the organization
• How do they become aware of our organization, develop a need for it?
• How does the organization satisfy their needs, engender loyalty?
Empathy-based personas When we see the whole picture
• We understand their pressures − At work and in life
• We approach things differently − Programs − New processes − Answering questions
• sdf
Meet our personas…
Henry Nancy Sarah Ken
Validated with member focus groups
2. Develop guidelines • Voice and tone • Editorial style • Taxonomy • Content lifecycle • Topic lifecycle
Identify the organization’s voice and tone
Best practices in digital writing
https://teacheratsea.wordpress.com/tag/dichotomous-keys/
Taxonomy
New taxonomy
• Two levels of tagging • 11 topics
• High level content buckets • Remain evergreen
• 55 subtopics • Change with the industry • Emerge, become popular,
and eventually sunset • Subtopics are flexible
New taxonomy
• Topical structure carries through the organization • Website • Sponsorship buckets • Scientific sessions
• Speaking the same language, using the same terms
• Increases revenue potential • Alleviates confusion • Aligns various functions within the organization
Think through lifecycles
3. Make it sustainable • Roles • Staffing • Workflow • Educate/train staff • Build into people’s job descriptions • Include training in on-boarding
h"p://echa.europa.eu/addressing-‐chemicals-‐of-‐concern/substances-‐of-‐poten8al-‐concern/svhc-‐roadmap-‐to-‐2020-‐implementa8on
What we found
Staff knew what members wanted • Content presented more holistically • Eliminate content that is no longer relevant, timely, or accurate • Content that reflects who they are and what they need (not
department) • An easy way to show what else exists on a given topic
Get people talking & collaborating • Hearing information as a
group • Having a hand in creating
the solution – together • Bringing realization that
content owners own a piece of this
Create content with a goal • Understand and articulate
the purpose of each piece of content
• How will we know it’s successful
• Takes a partnership
Create content for an audience • What do they need from our
organization? • We don’t have to be Google • Through which channels do
they want to get the information?
• What other considerations?
Department
Audience
Department
Audience
Department
Audience
Department
Audience
Old thinking Committee Committee Committee Committee
Message Message Message Message
Organization: Programs, offerings
Audience
Messages
Audience Audience Audience
New thinking
h"p://echa.europa.eu/addressing-‐chemicals-‐of-‐concern/substances-‐of-‐poten8al-‐concern/svhc-‐roadmap-‐to-‐2020-‐implementa8on
What we learned
Get buy-in early and often with colleagues whose process & work will change
#1
#2 Make sure content owners play a role in crafting the solution
#3 Show them how to do things differently
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#4 Over communicate
#5 Remind people about the context for the project
#6
http://unityinmarin.org/events/spiritual-campfire/
Use the consultant strategically to
share stories, create tools, and
provide instruction
#7 Be visual
#8 Learn from examples – good work in your organization, competitors, other orgs outside the association world
#9 Foster internal champions and honor their expertise
#10 Operationalize and socialize – make it stick
Thank you!
Hilary Marsh President & Chief Strategist Content Company, Inc. [email protected] @hilarymarsh
Kristy McGreal Executive Director Moraine Valley Community College Foundation [email protected]