Quick Content Strategy Takeaways from Last Month's Q&A with Kristina Halvorson

Last month Kristina Halvorson -- one of the first people who really brought attention to and defined content strategy for the masses -- took thoughtful questions from the Chicago Content Strategy Meetup group, and I passed along notes applicable to my association coworkers. Thought I'd share here too.

Q. I work in a silo-ed organization that’s dept.-focused. What should I be doing when my hands are tied most of the time?

•  Establish who owns what content on the website and who’s accountable for it.
• Communication – that will be main task to keep going and stay in on what’s coming down the line.
• Audit the content for the groups regularly
• Ask “What is the key objective of this page” or “this piece of content” each time – and push people to answers beyond describing an emotional response, e.g. “They will recognize us as a resource.”

 Q. What can I do when the content creators I work for live and die by PDFs?

 Make sure they are tagged, summarized, and curated and have the right meta data associated with them for your system. That said, “I [Halvorson] can’t think of a search result that gave me the top resource – a PDF – as one of first results.”

Q. How do I sell importance of content to C-suite, particularly in arguments for resources?

• Recognize they don’t care about content’s importance and won’t understand it.
• Base your arguments and sell to 1) what makes them tick/keeps them up at night and 2) what will make them look good.
• Find champions of content who can talk to them and sell to them in their language.

 Q. There is an abundance of tools and even CMSes applicable to content strategy. How do we know which to use?

n  Pick your content strategy and THEN choose the CMS or the tool – not the other way around. Don’t base your content strategy on your CMS.

Q. What trends are you and Brain Traffic [Halvorson’s content strategy agency] noticing?

• Among potential clients, clients, and non-content-based audiences she speaks to: people still learning about content strategy and then asking, “Where do I start?” (But it’s a hot topic.)
• Among designers and developers she talks to: the responsive design trend and people forgetting about the content behind it.
• Among content strategists: questions about organizational challenges and how to tackle them; understanding their business and how content strategy fits in.

 Q. I’m not a developer but we’re being asked to know code on top of everything else we need to know. What am I supposed to focus on?

Response from a developer at Leo Burnett:

• “Know just enough to be dangerous.”
• Know when just enough to identify when content has to get involved or when you should get a developer involved.

 Good resources she noted:

n  Contents online magazine

n  A soon-to-be-published book by Karen McGrath. I think she said the title will be “Content Strategy for Mobile.”

n  @halvorson

And my “wow” moment: Brain Traffic trimmed its site down to one page and increased inquiry volume 70% (I think that’s what she said) literally overnight. Obviously not all organizations -- particularly associations -- can or should do that, but I think it’s just a really cool illustration of paring information down to the most basic levels and having it become more effective.

ASBPE Blog Post: Content Strategist vs. Writer: What's the Difference?

It's been a while since I've felt like writing more than a status update about my life, but I'm in the mood for a quickie. Here's my latest post for ASBPE: Content Strategist vs. Writer: What's the Difference?

I think it's critical to understand these roles as organizations continue to invest in content strategy and re-shape their communications departments' structure and function.

Switching from Editor to Content Strategist? Consider These Questions First

Content strategy is a hot term, and consequently it's become a hot job and job skill. Plus, companies are using -- and hiring -- content strategists, and those companies are generally outside of publishing. That means they pay better.

Throw all those factors in, and editors might start to wonder whether life as a full-time content strategist is right for them.

I wrote a blog post for the American Society of Business Publication Editors addressing the questions editors should consider before making the switch. Of course, the list applies to anyone. Read on.

What's Going On

Here's the latest and greatest, without prose:

* Wedding plans are going swimmingly.
* I decided to do the Pleasant Prairie tri a week before the race and set a personal record of 1 hour, 23 minutes. (The perfect weather helped.)
* My posts for ASBPE on content strategy have led a few association trade pubs to interview me.
* My dad's cancer has turned aggressive. We're hoping that he can still have necessary surgery to remove his bladder now that he's had a mini-stroke -- from which he's recovering magnificently, btw.
* Food is still fun.
* I'm doing my best.

More at some point.

How a Content Strategist and Information Architect Work Together

If you're going to practice content strategy, you can't not incorporate information architecture.

ASBPE asked me to write a blog about just this. Without further adieu, here's a snapshot into how a content strategist and information architect can work together. (And no, I didn't write the headline.)

Misleading Headlines, Misguided Content Strategy

Here's a prime example of a headline that misleads its readers.

The Nice List: Santa's Top-Five Cities

Sounds cute, right? So you click on it and scan -- because that's what you do when you see a web page -- for the list that the headline promises, and .... no list for you!

The cities are actually in paragraph form.

Props to the headline writer for pulling me in; it's technically accurate and does its job. Boo to the writer or editor for not presenting it in list-form to begin with.

This is why it's important to take a step back and think about how you present information -- even stories about an imaginary person. :)

Content Strategy and Content Curation

My former colleague Dan Blank just wrote a blog about the importance of curating content -- carefully selecting it and caring for it -- versus collecting content. As a content strategist whose boss likens our job to curating moreso than anything, I of course am on board with the distinction.

If you publish content somewhere, are you curating it or adding to a collection? Have a read and think about it.

JOB!

Congratulations to me: A week from today I will be in my second day at a new job as a Web content strategist at the National Association of Realtors. My new job's home base: www.realtor.org. The office home base: Michigan Avenue.

How excited am I? I'm getting paid to do what I love, the people seem really great and I'll get to flex a fresh brain. Life is good!

Another perk: Brian and I will have something fresh to talk about again as a opposed to a boring recount of my day. Not too much drama in a job search, light freelance schedule and workout routine!

I can honestly say I've made the most of my time. I kept my skills fresh with some freelance consulting and did what everyone wants to do when they're working and can't take the time to vacation: travel, read, cook, visit friends and explore -- all while looking for a job.

Unemployment Mission Accomplished.

Are You A Content Strategist?

Since I've been writing and talking about content strategy with my colleagues, I've gotten a surprising amount of feedback.

One feature-writer friend said, "Hey, I think I'm a content strategist!" Another journalist friend directed her journalist friend to my blogs because she suspected she found an alternate name for his newspaper job. Another non-journalist friend had no idea what content strategy was but found it fascinating.

So do you think you're a content strategist? Or do you care enough to click to learn more? Check out the presentation posted today at The Content Wrangler, a blog I check into once in a while. The slideshow's called "Why Every CMO Needs to Know About Content Strategy," but I say you should check it out because of the easy-to-follow overview it gives of content strategy and because, at the very least, you're a consumer and should know how and why businesses deliver information to you, specifically online.

Content Strategy to the Rescue: A Look at OnlytheBestinChicago.com

The client I'm supposed to meet with right now just sent me a photo of himself sitting in a hospital bed, thankfully with a can-you-believe-this? smirk on his face and not looking dead.

I have no clue what's going on with poor Walter and assume he's at least somewhat OK given he's texting; hopefully he wasn't on the way to see me when whatever happened happened. Meanwhile, I'm selfishly bummed because I was pretty jacked up and ready to talk about his site, whose content I'll be spiffing up (I think I'll survive the wait).

If you need a host, bartender, coat-checker or anything of the sort for a party, Walter's your guy. But you wouldn't necessarily know that off the bat if you visit his Web site, OnlyTheBestInChicago.com.

Click to enlarge

Take a look at what he's got so far; he has a great start. The design is clean and sophisticated, which is important for his upper-class and corporate clientele; his information is grouped into easy-to-navigate and clearly labeled pages (Home, About Us, Services and Contact Us); and the site doesn't have the type of typos or grammatical errors that complicate his message and are typical in similar small-business copy.

Content Strategy to the Rescue
Yet if I stumbled upon his site, I wouldn't know what his business could do for me unless I had the time to browse the pages -- and you can't assume I do. A strategic changes to the content, however, can help, and he wouldn't even have to change the structure of his site.

Take the home page, for example. The main thing I get from it is that he believes in customer service, is excited to have me visit the site and is dedicated to helping me.

It's all very noble, and those sentiments can definitely have a place on a home page. But what services is he selling? Yes, it says hospitality at the top of the page, but there are a lot of types of hospitality. And where are these services available? If I find his site and am in New Jersey, can this business help me?

Not only are these missing keywords making it difficult for the user to understand what his business can do for him or her, the search engines are equally confused. SEO will definitely be a part of the prescription.

The services page is much more on target in terms of content; a visitor can quickly understand what Walter's business offers, and those keywords help search engines too. That said, I'd like to see a conversational but short introduction to the page reiterating quality and customer service; summarizing the services; and telling me where he can help me -- all in about a sentence or two.

I like the bullet approach but would want to keep the construction parallel. Also, when I talk to him I'm going to see what services fall under the "and much more" category. I'm still wondering how large or small these events can be and who his partners, if any, are. There are other little tidbits to fill in, and all that info --the gist of it, that is -- we can use to clarify the home page too.

When I spoke with Walter initially he mentioned wanting to play up his 15 years of industry experience, which is a great idea for the About Us section. I like this page and think reiterating the team's commitment to quality is important here. Although, off the top of my head though I wonder what those hours are about -- customer service contact hours I assume, because I know his party services do not end at 5 p.m. :)

And finally, I'd like to work on the Contact Us page. I'd want to know as a site visitor what that form is for. Is it to schedule an appointment? Get more information? It says "to be added to a customer list," but at this point, there's no impetus to join any customer list and frankly, it turns me off as a visitor. I want info, not to join your mailing list if I barely know you.

I'm curious about the coding for his site and all other things SEO, and of course I want to know about his goals. Sure I can help him with the copy and strategy as it exists, but we can brainstorm other Web site features and social media reach that might be useful for his business too.

They're some of the many reasons I can't wait to finally get to talk with him -- after he's recovered of course. Content strategy is awesome, but we want him well first.

Related: The Gospel of Content Strategy: The Word's Spreading?

The Gospel of Content Strategy: The Word's Spreading?

I'm happy to report that, in addition to the two people who contacted me about content strategy while I was in Italy, job boards for full-time and temporary work seem to be turning up more content strategy postings, contractual and full time. Can I get an Amen?

Content strategy has been part of my job for years, yet I only began billing myself as a content strategist about 8 months ago. When I launched a job search and expanded my freelancing, I tried to search for such positions, but they were nearly non-existent.

I'd go on interviews, where I realized talking content strategy with chief editors and publishers was an awkward subject, mostly because they couldn't speak to it -- frustrating as a colleague, a content strategist and a job seeker/freelancer. I understand it's a new term, so I'm patient. But the concept is important, so it's really important to me that people "get it."
 
It used to be you just churned copy and put packages of information in one place. For a while now, that hasn't been enough: you have to coordinate all that information across all those channels we're accustomed to: online channels, print outlets, radio and TV.

What you put out there has to be meaningful to people; it has to have value. If the user isn't getting something out of whatever you created (and I don't care if it's the flashiest of Flash designs, the swankiest of podcasts), they're not likely to come back for more, talk about it, remember it, remember you.

When we first started Housing Giants digital publication, we put up a lot of content that was flashy but not value-driven. Gradually, we wisened up on where we spent our resources and limited the fancy interactive elements to what would be really meaningful.

Sounds basic, right? We were blinded by the wonders of technology, so it took us a while to figure out the best way to deliver content to each of our audiences to make them care, as opposed to figuring out the most creative way to put up a pie chart.

That's part of the gospel of content strategists, and all indications are pointing to an uptick in content strategy positions in this evolving discipline. Let's keep those discussions going!