best practice: clever ways to get good content out of stupid people
TRANSCRIPT
Clever ways to get good content
out of stupid people Catherine Toole, 18 June 2014
@stickycontent
@catherinetoole
We do 3 things…
Who we’re working with…
“You can redesign a home page. You can buy a new CMS. But unless you treat your content with strategic consideration, you can’t fix your website. Once people started to accept this fact, the conversation took off. It’s a pain point everyone shares and content strategy offers relief.”
What’s the point of content strategy?
From Content Strategy for the Web
by Kristina Halvorson & Melissa Rach
© PA
“Please don’t look at our
website. It’s awful! But I’m
trying to change things…”
100s of delegates share their content pain
“A lot of our content is
unnecessary but managers
get upset if we suggest
culling it”
“We’re so reactive, most of
the time we’re creating
content on demand”
“The CEO just wants to
know why we’re not on
instagram/Facebook/
twitter…”
“Our stuff is too long for
mobile and full of jargon. If I
change it, I’m ‘dumbing it
down’”
“Biggest challenge? People just don’t really get it…”
Are your problems really content problems?
Core
Strategy
Substance
Structure
Workflow
Governance People
components
© Brain Traffic 2011
Content
components
© PA
It’s people who screw up your content
© PA
They’ll do it at the planning
stage…
The Venn diagram of content shame
… and they’ll do it during creation.
They’ll do it at sign-off stage...
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…and they’ll also ignore your
governance.
© PA
They’ll turn your lovely stuff to frankencontent
© PA
How will you make these stupids listen?
© PA
© PA
“If you talk to a man in
a language he
understands, it goes to
his head.
If you talk to him in his
language, it goes to
his heart.”
Nelson Mandela
1. Win hearts and minds
Hearts need different techniques from minds
♥ Engage – don’t manage – stakeholders
♥ Include everyone, generate excitement, reward ideas
♥ Find a content place for everyone
♥ Instil pride (or at least a competitive edge)
♥ Counteract fear constantly
£ Suggest and share measurement for every activity
£ Publicise all kinds of ROI
£ Show both overall efficiencies and individuals’ benefits
£ Map everything to core business strategy
© PA
“A camel looks like a
horse that was
planned by a
committee.”
Anonymous
2. Streamline stakeholders and sign-off
5 tricks for getting good content approved
1. Set limits: on numbers of people involved, rounds of amends and
timescales for feedback
2. Streamline the publishing approvals: build risk categories into
your inventory and only seek approval of high-risk content
3. Insist on expertise over opinion.
4. Have the fights first. Establish levels of content veto before
anything is created. Agree a hierarchy of feedback and that
conflicting feedback will be resolved between individuals, not
arbitrated by you
5. Stop ‘asking for it’!
Hi Claire,
Please review the attached and send your feedback as soon as possible blah blah…
Here’s some fantastic content for your approval which we need by 2pm this Friday at the latest…
© PA
“In my career, I found
that the best people
are the ones that really
understand the
content. And they’re a
pain in the butt to
manage! But you put
up with it because
they’re so great at the
content.”
Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
3. Build a content culture (not a corporate)
Corporate behaviour V editorial behaviour
corporate editorial Content planned
around what the
company cares
about
Content planned
around what
people want to
read/watch
Sign-off
according to
seniority
Sign-off
according to
editorial
expertise
Processes built
around existing
company
workflow
Processes
designed to get
good content
out to deadline
Design and
build before
content
Content - led
design
ww.stickycontent.com +44 (0)20 7963 7070
@stickycontent
@catherinetoole
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