Building a content strategy with content typesContent Strategy Singapore Meetup 5 Oct 2016

Content types are distinctive, recognisable types of content.

They have a name, purpose, structure and are accepted in the community they are used in.

They are a response to a communication situation that happens repeatedly.

What are content types

Social acceptance

StructurePurpose

Content type

Examples

• Case studies• Expert profiles• Events• Impact stories• Newsletters• Courses• Interviews

• Book reviews• Press releases• Explainers• Quizzes• Instructional e-books• White papers• Speeches

Why have content types

Why purpose ● Each content type has a purpose e.g. product page vs. support article

● They help bring an organisation’s purpose to life

Why community

● Content types are useful to a community - they also help build a community

Why structure

● Content types create expectations and use conventions● Parts of the structure can be reused in new ways

BBC vs Buzzfeed

Content type vs. content format

• Content types have a purpose and conventions

• They can include content formats

• Content formats don’t necessarily tell us what to expect e.g. PDF, photos, video

• May need extra context

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture

What content types reveal

Reflect activities of a community

Reveal context

Reveal gaps

Activities in a community

Which community will have these content types?

AppealsBriefsCase historyLitigationsPrecedents

Reveal context

What do these content types say about the community?

AppealsBriefsCase historyLitigationsPrecedents

Consultant resumeConsultant briefConsultant fees

Reveal gaps

Project charterMinutes of meetingTo-dosStatus reportsClosing reports

Case studiesLessons learnedQ&ARetrospects

Can this project community become a knowledge-sharing community?

A knowledge-sharing community has these content types

How content types can help

Manage content Add meaning As navigation

Manage content• Consistent structure and metadata• Lets you create collections and reuse

elementsProject page Project listing

Country page

https://www.adb.org/projects/afghanistan

Add meaning

• Structure lets us bring out what’s important to users

http://cooking.nytimes.com/search?q=salmon

As navigation• Not always a good idea• Users may not know what

to expect under a content type

• May still need topic-based navigation

How to design content typesContent modelling is a way to design content types.

A content model defines the structure of a content type (also called attributes) and the relationship between different content types.

Map view

List view Table view

Form view

Case study

The situation

● Policy paper (PDF)● FAQs● Occasional blog

posts ?

What content types do we have?

What content types do we need?

What do we want to do?

● Inform, engage, excite

● Present diverse viewpoints

● Audience: working adults, teachers

Identify content types1. Audit existing content

● What do we keep?● What do we need to

transform?● What should not be

included?

2. Scan the community

● What content types does the community use?

● What is the purpose of each?

3. Define your content mix

● Map to core strategy, audience, journey etc

● Stock vs. flow● Easy vs. difficult to

create

4. Choose and refine

● What are our priorities?

● What’s realistic?● What can we become

known for?

Analyse

Prioritise and refine

Scan and define content mixAudience How often?Core strategy Where will we get content?What format?

Prioritise content types

● Policy paper (PDF)● FAQs● Occasional blog

posts

● Explainers● Key indicator dashboard● Articles (original, curated)● Poll, Quiz● Event● Debate● Contributor● Newsletter

Statistics database

What content types do we have?

What content types do we need?

What do we want to do?

● Inform, engage, excite

● Present diverse viewpoints

● Audience: working adults, teachers

Define each content type• What is it?• What is the purpose?• What is the business goal?• Who is the audience?• Who will create it?• How will we measure it?• What is the structure?• Does it need a special workflow?

Content type card

Create the content model• Define the attributes of each content type and their relationships• Helps CMS team develop the system

Map view Table view

● Content types are the building blocks of content strategy along with editorial design

● Content types are strategic● Content types allow the reuse of

content in different contexts● Content types allow for customised

presentation

To sum it up

●Unleash the power of content types https://gathercontent.com/blog/unleash-the-power-of-content-types

Further reading