For more context, read my article "Building a Culture-Defined Content Strategy" on Algolia Stories: https://stories.algolia.com/building-a-culture-defined-content-strategy-dce28643384e There are Slides from a Keynote I gave at the HeavyBit DevGuild on Content Strategy about how Algolia strives to get 50% of our team members contributing content to our blog and other channels.

1. Liam Boogar
Brand Director, Algolia
@LiamBoogar
Creating a Culture of
Storytellers

2. Our Core Values
Grit
Trust
Care
Candor
Humility
💪
🙏
❤
🚀
🍰
Ownership&
}

3. Culture-defined Content
Everyone writes
Give a Voice to All
Support Them
Give Feedback
Ask for Feedback
Grit
Trust
Care
Candor
Humility
💪
🙏
❤
🚀
🍰

4. Ownership: it’s in our Blood
How do you own Content when everyone already writes?

5. “
“Is that something Algolia would
do, or how other companies do it?
How Algolia does Content

6. How Algolia does Content
Do we have a Content team? Yes & No.
For every article we write, we support another team member’s article
Non-Dev Product Mktg
Campaigns
Owns
Dev Content Success Stories
Packaging
Support
Distribution

7. Goal: 50% Contribution
Lower the Barrier to entry
Flexible Deadlines
Open Editorial Strategy
Align KPIs with their Success
'
🗓
)
📈

8. Content in Action
We listen. We wait. We make ourselves available.

9. The Process
Opportunity Interview Storyboard Draft Culture Package
Story Production
Lifecycle

10. The Process
Step 0: The Opportunity
We never tell someone what to write.
We listen, help them articulate ideas, and we support
Story Sources:
@All Hands, Slack,
Social…
- Release or Feature
- Customer / integration
- Cool case study
3 ways an article starts:
- “I want to write.”
- “I want to write about X”
- “Do you want to write?”

11. The Process
Step 1
Discovering a story someone else can tell is like
interviewing a CEO without reading their press release
Sample interview questions
- “What’ve you been working on?”
- “What gets you excited?”
- “What have you learned?”
Interview
Alex S
Software
Engineer

12. The Process
What stops most people from writing are all the things
that aren’t “sharing your expertise/experience”
What you get from them:
- Who/what/when/where/why
- expertise
- Bullet point ideas
What you provide afterwards:
- Intro/conclusion/title
- The Hook
- The Story
Step 2 Storyboard

13. The Process
Step 3 Draft
The Feedback process is an opportunity to help
someone grow. Never rush it.
Three Rules for giving feedback
- Feedback vs. Validation
- The more input the better
- Always suggest edits

14. We always make sure we are being exemplary
Algolians:
- “Could we be more Humble?”
- “Are we showing enough Care?”
- “Are we being transparent?”
Your brand is the sum of every experience people have
with your brand.
Culture
The Process
Step 4

15. Every image comes from our design team, and the
whole company gets behind each article.
How we align success:
- Putting $$$ behind their work
- Pushing to HackerNews, Reddit, etc. (when
appropiate)
- #Celebration
Package
The Process
Step 5

16. “
“Is that something Algolia would
do, or how other companies do it?
How Algolia does Content

17. How we make Writing Easy
Blogging Guidelines
Pan-Department Support
Flexible: use your tools your way
Making praise public
📝
😍
⚒
🙌

18. The Power of CollaborationIf you want to build a community, you can start by being
one.
1) Mitigate risk of having a central voice
with too much power
2) We let the experts be experts
3) It scales. 1 Editor works with 12
employees in a quarter

19. How can I do this?
Creating a company of storytellers
starts with creating a culture of
Blogging Guidelines
Writing must be part of the job
Praise & Feedback
Trust.
📝
&
❤
🙏

20. Liam Boogar
Brand Director,
Algolia
@LiamBoogar
Thank you!