Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories

Content is king. and the new kingmaker. and your message needs to align with your model and metrics and other mumbo jumbo, right? Whether you're slogging through theory or buzzwords, there's no denying content strategy is coming of age. But what's in it for you? And if you're not a content strategist, why should you care? Because even if content strategy isn't your job, content's probably your problem-and probably more than you think. You or your business has a message you want to deliver, right? You can deliver that message through various channels and content types, from Tweets to testimonials and photo galleries galore, and your audience has just as many ways of engaging with it. So many ways, so much content. so where's the problem? That is the problem. And you can measure it in time, creativity, money, lost opportunity, and the sobs you hear equally from creative directors, project managers, and search engine marketing specialists. The solution is content strategy, and this book offers real-world examples and approaches you can adopt, no matter your role on the team. Put content strategy to work for you by gathering this book into your little hands and gobbling up never-before seen case studies from teams at Johns Hopkins Medicine, MINI, Icebreaker, and more. Content Strategy at Work is a book for designers, information architects, copywriters, project managers, and anyone who works with visual or verbal content. It discusses how you can communicate and forge a plan that will enable you, your company, or your client get that message across and foster better user experiences. Presents a solid content strategy framework and ways to implement in your business and with your clients Includes a multitude of case studies interviews both successes and failures from different industries and a variety of company types Details what you need to incorporate best practices such as resources, time, and budget

Margot Bloomstein Principal of Appropriate, Inc. bloomstein

Foreword	p. xi
Thank You	p. xiii
About the Author	p. xv"
How content strategy can help	p. 1
Opportunity versus priority	p. 1
All the tea in China, all the content types on the web	p. 2
Tough choices require something stronger than just tea	p. 3
What is content strategy?	p. 4
Where's this all coming from, anyhow?	p. 4
Developing a definition	p. 5
Who should use this bookùand what you can expect	p. 10
We all want the same things but content gets in the way	p. 11
What's inside	p. 12
Fail to plan? Plan to fail among monsters	p. 13
Designing cohesive experiences: Introducing content strategy to design	p. 19
Deriving design from content at MOO	p. 19
Why bring content strategy into the team?	p. 23
If you don't know what you need to communicate,
how will you know if you succeed?	p. 24
How does message architecture drive the content and design?	p. 27
Establish a message architecture through cardsorting	p. 28
Tools, materials, and roles	p. 29
Step one: categorize	p. 31
Step two: filter	p. 33
Step three: prioritize and close	p. 34
Quick and dirty: establish a message architecture with a Venn diagram	p. 34
Tools, materials, and roles	p. 35
Step one: define the brand offering	p. 35
Step two: define the audience needs	p. 36
Step three: focus and prioritize	p. 37
Delivery	p. 37
Okay, but who's going to pay for this?	p. 37
Pulling it all together with consistencyùand copy	p. 38
Case in point: a user experience with traditional content types	p. 40
Taking it further: designing for user-generated content	p. 41
Embracing reality: Incorporating content strategy into project management and information architecture	p. 47
Informing scope and governance at Johns Hopkins Medicine	p. 47
Understand the challenge and need for content strategy	p. 48
Ask tougher questions of your content	p. 51
Conduct an audit that meets your needs	p. 52
Quantitative, then qualitative	p. 53
Determine quality, or the many ways to talk turkey	p. 58
Is it current, relevant, and appropriate?	p. 60
Is it redundant, outdated, or trivial?	p. 61
The Creating Valuable Content Checklist	p. 62
Some information is better than none: Core sample your content	p. 64
Case in point: Volume versus value	p. 66
From audit to analysis to scope	p. 68
Document and train for governance and post-launch success	p. 68
Hire and organize for governance	p. 70
Roll out editorial style guidelines to make the message architecture actionable	p. 73
Add an editorial calendar to prepare for consistency	p. 74
Use a rolling audit to monitor and maintain	p. 76
Executing on content strategy through copywriting, creation, and curation	p. 79
Know your story to tell it well	p. 79
Align purpose, goals, and process	p. 80
Evolve the story over time	p. 81
From audit to action	p. 82
Curate content to drive the user experience	p. 85
Translate the audit into requirements and taxonomy	p. 86
Integrating curation	p. 88
Changing the culture	p. 89
Divide and conquer	p. 89
Prescriptive content matrix	p. 90
Etiitqfial style guidelines	p. 90
Planning for the future	p. 91
Coupling content strategy with search engine optimization	p. 95
Tie one on for search enginesùand customers	p. 95
Optimize content types and tone	p. 96
Seo and content strategy collaboration spells success	p. 99
Shape Seo through the message architecture, content audit, and editorial plan	p. 100
Improving content management with content strategy	p. 105
Reframe the conversation	p. 105
Elevate the value of content management	p. 106
Develop a content model	p. 108
Create a culture of sharing, education, and maintenance	p. 109
Cultivate a culture of governance	p. 112
Facilitate success	p. 114
Editorial style guidelines	p. 115
So whose problem is itùand where do we go from here?	p. 116
Grounding social media in content strategy	p. 121
Maintain consistency, channel to channel	p. 121
Start with a message architecture	p. 122
Choose channels that meet your communication goalsùand audience	p. 124
Making it your ownùand sharing with the world	p. 125
Continuing the conversation	p. 129
Plan for sustainability	p. 130
Build conversations with commitment that transcends the campaign	p. 131
Choose channels appropriate for your goals, resources, and constraints	p. 132
Coordinate cross-channel style with editorial guidelines	p. 133
Coordinate channel messaging with an editorial calendar	p. 136
Growing the business and getting to work	p. 139
Get a seat at the table	p. 139
Use content strategy to win	p. 140
Demonstrate commitment beyond the campaign or launch	p. 140
Demonstrate you have a comprehensive offering that
addresses why people use the web	p. 142
Help them embrace content as an asset	p. 144
Use content strategy as a wedge	p. 147
Start by listening to the issues	p. 147
Conduct a high-level audit to inform scope with greater reality	p. 148
Stop reading and get to work	p. 150
Index	p. 151
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project

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