Not sure what to say on Twitter? Looking for a relevant status update? Trying to connect your mission with your audience? In this content development workshop, Cynthia Closkey of Big Big Design helps you develop the social media style of your organization’s mission. The workshop centers on an exercise to determine the voice of your organization. Updating your social media is not only about what to say, but how to say it.
3. Some content rocks
• Example:
• Photojojo www.photojojo.com
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4. The fix for
bad web content:
Content Strategy
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5. Content strategy
• “Content strategy is the practice of planning
for the creation, delivery, and governance of
useful, usable content.”
• Content: text, graphics, video, audio
• Strategy: holistic, well-considered plan for
obtaining a specific goal or result
• Via “Content Strategy for the Web,” Kristina Halvorson
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6. Message architecture
• “A message architecture is an outline or
hierarchy of communication goals that
reflects a common vocabulary.”
• Helps you think about how to communicate
with the target audience
• Not the same as brand values
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7. Example: MOO
• Moo www.moo.com
• Message architecture*
• Cheeky
• Witty and fun
• Young without being childish
• Customer oriented and responsive
• Approachable, friendly, welcoming
• Championing and empowering
• Helpful
• Accessible
• * NOT ACTUAL MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE, but extrapolated
from their content by Margot Bloomstein
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9. Card sorting
to find
message style
https://twitter.com/mbloomstein/status/261023217412608000/photo/1
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10. Cardsorting
Step one:
• Who we are
• Who we’d like to be
• Who we are not
Go with your gut for about 20 minutes.
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11. Cardsorting
Step two:
• Who we are ➜ who we’d like to be
Think aspirational.
What needs to change?
~15 minutes
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12. Cardsorting
Step three:
• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
~15 minutes
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13. Why do this?
Gain standards by which to know
when we’re communicating well.
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14. Message architecture
• Now that we know who we are and how
we are to be perceived, what does this
mean for how we communicate?
• Visual and design implications
• Text implications
• Content type implications
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16. Online strategy
• Objectives for our online presence
• Audiences (prioritized)
• Value proposition
• “Selling” points
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17. Content audit
• How should our message architecture
affect our other communications:
• Social media
• Print media
• Brochures, mailers, advertisements
• Direct communication
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18. Online content
workflow
• Who “owns” the content?
• Content generators
• Online editor
• Moderators
• Administrator or webmaster
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20. How to have
better content
• Do less, not more
• Figure out what you have and where
it’s coming from
• Learn how to listen
• Put someone in charge
• Start asking “Why?”
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21. Do less, not more
• Web content is useless unless it does
one or both of these:
• Supports a key organizational objective
• Supports a user/customer in completing a
task
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22. Do less, not more
• Less content is:
• Easier to manage
• More user-friendly
• Less expensive to create
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23. Figure out what you have and
where it’s coming from
• Audit current content
• Inventory sources of new content
• Create a plan for content creation
• Develop a message architecture
• Makes it easier to create consistent
content
• Shows you what content has greatest value
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24. Learn how to listen
• Figure out how this can work
within your organization
• Find out what customers want
(not just what you want)
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25. Put someone in charge
• Too many cooks…
• Set up guidelines and tools
• Establish an editor-in-chief
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26. Start asking “Why?”
• Just because you can doesn’t mean
you should
• Question assumptions, trends, directives that
don’t support a business goal
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27. Writing for the web
• Write in a style that fits your goals and audience
• Avoid fluff and jargon
• Use the simplest words and sentences you can
• Complement words with other media
• Take advantage of links and visuals
• Recognize it won’t be read in order or completely
• Use headings and bullets
• Put important stuff first (if appropriate…)
• Test your assumptions
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28. Delivering web content
• Website as hub
• Other online presences
• Social media pages
• Related/subsidiary websites
• Forums and wikis
• Notification mechanisms
• E-newsletters
• Social media
• Offline means
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30. Cynthia Closkey, Big Big Design
ccloskey@bigbigdesign.com
724.602.2332
Content strategy credits:
Margot Bloomstein
Book: Content Strategy at Work
Presentation: Secrets of a Brand-Driven Content
Strategy Workshop
Friday, April 19, 2013