1. Measuring the Success
of Content Strategy with
Metadata
By Jason Owen, Ixiasoft

2. About Jason
• 14 years in technical communication
 DITA specialist for Ixiasoft
 Information architect
 Technical writer
• Educational background
 Technical communication (MSTC)
 Library and information science (MLIS)
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3. Key steps Communicate
results
1. Create your
content strategy
plan Metadata
2. Determine the
metrics that will be
used to measure
those goals Key metrics
3. Apply metadata to
content
4. Communicate
results to Content
strategy
stakeholders
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4. CONTENT STRATEGY
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5. Key steps
1. Create your
content strategy
plan
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6. Why do we need metrics for content
strategy?
• Credibility
 Credible professions require to show that goals are met
 Credibility helps build trust
• Trust
 Use metrics to build trust with stakeholders
 Provide the value of our work to stakeholders, whom we
may never meet face-to-face
 Metrics become our face and are the foundation for
establishing trust
• Reputation
 Earned by showing the capabilities and values in our past
work
 We have to be able to show that we have met the goals of
our content strategy plan
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7. Benchmarking
• Benchmarking is a comparison of your content
strategy with your competitors
 Performance benchmarking – How does our performance
compare with our competitors performance?
 Process benchmarking – How can we learn from the
business processes of our competitors?
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8. How technical publications add value
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9. What do you need to do?
• Put together your content strategy plan:
 What content?
 What products and services?
• What do your customers need to know?
• What content will benefit your business for your customers to
know?
 What audiences?
 What do your customers need?
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10. Not a case of if you build it they will come…
• You cannot build a content strategy plan, even for
just your group, by yourself
• Build the content strategy in a collaborative fashion
with stakeholders
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11. KEY METRICS
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12. Key steps
1. Create your
content strategy
plan
2. Determine the
metrics that will be
used to measure
those goals
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13. Reasons for measuring
• Douglas Hubbard, in How to Measure Anything, says
that we need effective measurements to make
better decisions
 Diagnosis – Determine how a specific part of the content
strategy is performing
 Justification – Justify continuing a part of the content
strategy
 Orientation – Use to make decisions about the direction of
the content strategy
 Rewards – Assess the improvements made as part of the
content strategy and how to reward individuals or groups
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14. Measurement
• Measurement relies on the collection and analysis of
data, which are then compared to standards, goals,
objectives, etc.
• Assessment questions:
 How many?
 How economical?
 How accurate?
 How reliable?
 How prompt?
 How satisfied?
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15. Examples of criteria for assessing value
User criteria Value added examples
Ease of use • Indexing
• Glossary
• Linking
• Access (subject description, short
descriptions)
• Ordering/sequencing
Quality • Item identification
• Currency
• Reliability
• Validity
• Conciseness
Adaptability • Response speed
• Precision
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16. Analysis Tools
• Satisfaction surveys
• Search log analysis
• Database analysis
• Usability testing
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17. Categories of measurement
• Process measures
 Focused on the activities to transform data and information
into content
 Can be measured by quantifying the cost or time to perform
a specific task or process
• Output measures
 Indicate the degree to which content is used by users
 Indicate satisfaction of users
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18. What did you need to do?
• Examples:
 Personalization
 Fast publishing
 Content quality
 High-availability
 Consistency
 Sequencing
 Easy access
 Navigation
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19. METADATA FOR METRICS
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20. Key steps
1. Create your
content strategy
plan
2. Determine the
metrics that will be
used to measure
those goals
3. Apply metadata to
content
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21. Metadata is….
• Structured information that describes, explains,
locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve,
use, or manage an information object (Zeng and
Qin)
• Data provided in machine processable forms and
communicated via protocols
• Metadata is the bridge between content strategy
and metrics
 Metadata helps you find data what you need to know
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22. Metadata is fun!
Well, maybe not this fun… Oh Metadata!
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23. Principles of metadata for measuring
content strategy
• Good metadata…
 Supports organizational needs
 Is appropriate to the materials in the collection
 Uses standard controlled vocabularies
 Includes a clear statement on the conditions and terms of
use
 Supports the long-term management of objects
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24. Types of metadata
Type Descriptive Structural Administrative
Description Describes an object Indicates how Provides
for purposes such the type of information to
as findability and objects help manage
identification objects
Examples topic IDs, index root elements rights, states,
terms and (topic types) dependencies
keywords,
conditional attribute
values
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25. Common metadata issues
• Missing metadata
• Incorrect metadata
• Confusing metadata
• Insufficient metadata
All impact issues impact discovery, interoperability,
and reusability.

26. Metadata typologies
• Embedded metadata
 Stored as part of the content
 Stored in content prologs
• Associated metadata
 Stored separately with linkages in a CMS
 Stored in CMS properties files

27. What do you need to do?
Develop your metadata strategy:
1.Determine the metadata to measure the success of
your content strategy
2.Decide where to apply metadata
 Document the schema
 Produce guidelines for using the schema
3.Apply metadata to content
4.Test metadata for creating reports
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28. COMMUNICATE RESULTS
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29. Key steps
1. Create your
content strategy
plan
2. Determine the
metrics that will be
used to measure
those goals
3. Apply metadata to
content
4. Communicate
results to
stakeholders
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30. Graphical and tabular information
• BIRT: Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools
 Open-source project
 Runs as a plugin for Eclipse
 The plugin package for installation can be downloaded from
http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix
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31. What do you need to do?
Communicate the progress on the content strategy
plan:
1.Build a report template
2.Create queries to measure your key metrics
3.Create report and insert query results into report
 Identify the objectives of your content strategy
 Definition of a metric or score for each objective
 A target value
 A target date
 A periodic measurement cycle
4.Meet with stakeholders
 Do not simply send them a report (they probably won’t
read it)
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32. Resources
• Rockley, Ann & Cooper, Charles. Managing
Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (2nd
ed.).
• Baca, Murtha (ed.). Introduction to Metadata, 2nd
ed.
• Peh, Diana, et al. BIRT: A Field Guide.
• Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous: The
Power of the New Digital Disorder.
• Zeng, Marcia L & Qin, Jian. Metadata.
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