More Related Content Similar to Kicking Off Your Content Strategy workshop (20) More from Margot Bloomstein (20) Kicking Off Your Content Strategy workshop1. @mbloomstein | #CMSX 1
© 2013© 2011
Kicking off your
content strategy
Margot Bloomstein
CMS Expo
May 14, 2013
@mbloomstein
#CMSX
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Know thyself.
You invest in knowing your users,*
but what about your brand?
*right?
5. If you don’t know what
you need to communicate,
how will you know if you
succeed?
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What is content strategy?
Planning for the creation, aggregation,
delivery, and governance of useful,
usable, and appropriate content in an
experience.
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Because we all want the same thing,
but content keeps getting in the way.
(CC) http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking
Content requires time
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to change, empower, support,
advocate, teach, simplify,
consolidate, remind, inform…
You cannot act in passive voice
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to change, empower, support,
advocate, teach, simplify,
consolidate, remind, inform…
Content demands an owner
& ownership.
You cannot act in passive voice
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Steps along the way…
Message architecture
Content audit/inventory
Prescriptive content matrix
Content model
Editorial style guidelines
Metadata guidelines
Governance guidelines
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Message architecture
Premium technology
• Assertive; ready to perform as a driver’s car
• Proactive and supportive of spontaneity
Classic design
• Experienced and savvy
Cheekiness
• Smart,“punny,” hip
• Fun, gleeful
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What’s a message architecture?
A hierarchy of communication goals
that reflects a common vocabulary.
Concrete, shared terminology,
not abstract concepts.
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Message architecture
Knowledgeable insider
• Smart stuff you’d never hear otherwise
• Specific details—not just general history
Accurate yet accessible
• Informal, casual voice
• Credible facts
Unexpectedly fun
• Offbeat and quirky takes on history
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Message architecture drives
platform selection, tone, and
content types
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• Quick tips
• Local/location-based
• Checkins
• Themed
• Deals and badges
• Robust user
community
• Quick tips
• Local/location-based
• Checkins
• Themed
• Deals and badges
• Robust user
community
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Explore the world
around you and learn
interesting things.
Find great local
businesses with the
help of real people.
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Message architecture drives
editorial content choices too:
• Style
• Tone
• Diction
• Sentence structure
• Calls to action
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Words are valuable,
but meaningless without
context and priority.
(In a few minutes, we’ll
give them context.)
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Why do this?
Let creative colleagues refine the concept,
rather than confirm the purpose.
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How?
• Engage in a tangible, hands-on way
• Encourage debate and conversation
• Identify points of disagreement
• Prevent seagulling
• Force prioritization
• Encourage ownership & investment
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Cardsorting
• Ideally: groups of 7 – 10
• Today: Pick 3 people to represent the
brand
• Everyone else: put on your content
strategy hats!
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Group 1: You’re a well-established
multinational bank. To attract a broader and
younger audience, you want to change how
people view saving.
Group 2: You represent a small university
known and respected locally—but you want to
grow in relevance and attract more applicants,
faculty, and funding from around the country
and world.
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Cardsorting
Step one:
• Who we are
• Who we’re not
• Who we’d like to be
Go with your gut for about 10 minutes.
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Cardsorting
Step two:
• Who we are Who we’d like to be
Think aspirational.
What needs to change?
~10 minutes
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Cardsorting
Step three:
• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
~10 minutes
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Why do this?
Promote new content types to manifest
the message architecture—not just
because they’re trendy or feasible.
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Why do this?
Gain standards by which to conduct
a qualitative audit.
(What is “good” anyway?)
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But first things first:
What are you trying to
communicate?
What content do you have and
what do you need to do that?
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Thank you!
Margot Bloomstein
@mbloomstein
margot@appropriateinc.com
slideshare.net/mbloomstein
amzn.to/CSatWork
All photography © Margot Bloomstein unless otherwise noted.
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