"When Content Management Needs a Content Strategy" Gilbane Boston 2009 09.12.02

2. When Content
Management Needs
a Content Strategy
Jeffrey MacIntyre Gilbane 2009
Predicate, LLC Boston, MA

3. Introductions
I’m an independent content strategist in
NYC. My practice focuses on:
‣ Digital product strategy;
‣ Media and entertainment clientele; and
‣ Contributing to the CS
body of knowledge.

4. Today’s Objectives
‣ Relevance. What does a rising field of
practice in web design mean to the
content management community? (A lot.)
‣ Applicability. How can you get to work
on a content strategy for your own
organization or clients?

5. The
Rise
of
CONTENT STRATEGY

6. The Story So Far ...
In web design, 2009 is
the breakout year for
content strategy.

7. No. Really.

8. “Design
without
content is
decoration.”
Jeffrey
Zeldman

9. Credit: “Redesign Must Die” , louisrosenfeld.com
Louis Rosenfeld:
Kill Redesign
‣ “Every large website
is a complex
adaptive system.”
‣ “A platform that’s supple and flexible, lends
itself to tuning, and supports multiple
levels of engagement.”

10. The
Rationale
for
CONTENT STRATEGY

11. Remember the Good Old Days?

12. Or, shovelware.

13. “Tragedy = comedy + time”
Woody Allen

14. How the Content Strategist
Still Sees (a Lot of) the Web.

15. Why? Part I
A generation into
the web, we still
don’t do content
right.
It’s our open secret.
And it shows. Credit: Blogger.com circa 1999

16. Why? Part II
Old problems. No ownership or expertise.
CMS. Archive. Postlaunch erosion. Lack of
standards.
New problems. Deeper and wider
inventories. Richer offerings. Revenue
models. SEO. Social. Multichannel. Partners.
UGC. Technologies galore.

17. Introducing Content Strategy
‣ What? Product
development for content.
‣ How? CSes, like product
developers, sit between
“product” and “plumbing”.

18. The INTERSECTION of
Content Management
+ Content Strategy

19. “[Y]ou need a product manager.”
‣ “I am interested in the forest and the trees
of large Web sites, not solely strategic and
not solely in the weeds.”
David Hobbs, hobbsontech.com

20. Content Management
Methodologies
‣ Various models--from Boiko to Byrne,
Rockley to AIIM--strive for exhaustiveness.
‣ CMS Review’s 7 Stage Lifecycle calls them
to account.

21. CM Methodologies: CMS Review
Credit: CMS Review 7 Stage Lifecycle

22. And Yet...
“Content”

23. “Content Needs a New Home”
Credit: Kristina Halvorson

24. The CONTENT STRATEGY
Body of
Knowledge

25. Getting Oriented:
CS is Multidisciplinary
Credit: Richard Ingram
At minimum, it’s adjacent
to interaction design,
development,
copywriting, information
architecture, business
analysis and content
management.

26. Getting Oriented:
CS is a Lifecycle
“Content Strategy plans for the
creation, publication, and
governance of useful, usable content.”
--Kristina Halvorson
“If information architecture is the spatial design of
information, I see content strategy as the temporal side
of that same coin.” --Louis Rosenfeld

27. Old Testament
‣ The web is a publishing medium.
‣ Content is integral (to experience).
‣ Content producers = de facto publishers.
‣ To users, the web is awash in content.
Site owners feel the floodwaters, too.
So, sink or swim. Filter or be flooded.

28. New Testament
‣ Why? Because
publishing is hard. Credit: Jessica Hagy
Consider the masthead.
‣ Curation is king. The filter on the firehose
as an editorial function.

29. “The Day 2 Problem”
Postlaunch is a
project phase.
Nothing shines a light on the good
faith agreement between client and
consultant than thoughtful aftercare.
Editorial strategy is about caring for
content after launch day. Credit: Flickr Commons

30. Our Methodology
1. Audit 2. Plan 3. Build 4. Grow
product content editorial
content audit
strategy specification calendar
content
migration plan copy deck style guide
inventory
content
gap analysis
development

31. Problem Solving with
Content Strategy

32. Process and workflow design
!
!

33. Standardized
content
offerings
!

34. Template
mapping
Production
plans

35. Content
schematic

36. !
Decision tree

37. Style guide

38. Editorial calendar

39. Management tools

40. Product Strategy
Sourcing, licensing,
perishability,
inventory banking,
archiving, linking,
multimedia guidelines

41. A community of
intellectual
property...

42. The Payoff
of Content Strategy

43. What’s in it for CM?
Content strategy is meaningful when...
‣ The potential of your deliverables is marred
by poor execution, inconsistency & inaction
‣ New tools require process & org. change
‣ Measurement matters
‣ You need the big picture
‣ Governance & standards are incomplete
‣ It’s time to tune, not redesign

44. DIY Content Strategy
Ask the tough questions.
When you care about a
client’s content, you are doing
content strategy.
Credit: Flickr Commons
“[A] CMS without a content strategy
leads to shovelware or worse.”
Jonathan Kahn, lucidplot.com

45. Where It Will Take You
Instilling a new postlaunch pride:
‣ bolder measures of success
‣ enduring results for your clientele;
lasting influence for your vision
‣ vanguard case studies

46. Content Strategy FYI
‣ CS, the Knol
‣ CS, the Google Group
‣ #contentstrategy on Twitter
‣ I’m @jeffmacintyre and @PredicateLLC
‣ Content Strategy for the Web,
Kristina Halvorson (New Riders, 2009)