surprise! you're a content "engineer"

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PREPARED BY

SURPRISE! YOU’RE A CONTENT “ENGINEER”

@MARSINTHESTARS

October 18, 2015

BOLO Conference

Marli Mesibov, Director of Content StrategyMad*Pow

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• Director of Content Strategy at Mad*Pow

• Managing Editor of UX Booth

• Not an engineer. Not even a little.

BOLO | @marsinthestars

Who am I? Why am I here?

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CONTENT STRATEGY

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What is Content Strategy?BOLO | @marsinthestars

“Content strategy plans for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.”

- Kristina Halvorson, Brain Traffic

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What is Content Strategy?

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What is Content Strategy?BOLO | @marsinthestars

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What is Content Strategy?BOLO | @marsinthestars

The End Goal: get the content to the right people, in the right places, at the right time.

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THE TECHNICAL SIDE

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The role of a content technologist

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The role of a content technologist

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The role of a content technologist

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The role of a content technologist

Workflow is a process followed by a team. A good workflow accounts for everyone who needs to have a say in the content without slowing down the creation process.

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The role of a content technologist

Governance is a team’s process for managing content. Governance tactics streamline the editing and retiring of content according to when it stops being relevant.

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The role of a content technologist

Substance includes the voice and tone as well as the message the content conveys.

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The role of a content technologist

Structure is intertwined with technology and development. We decide on a structure for our content, which informs the technology we choose, which in turn shapes the structure of the content.

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THE PROBLEM(S) WITH STRUCTURE

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Problem #1: Technology changes quickly

• We can’t possibly keep up with it• There are hundreds of content management

systems in existence• They are changing (upgrading, changing

features, or shutting down) daily

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Problem #2: Chicken and the egg

• We need to use a CMS to understand what we want out of a CMS, which means we first need a CMS in order to choose the right CMS to use…

• Ain’t nobody got time (or budget) for that

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Problem #3: Blind selection

• The people with the purchasing power are not likely to be the people who will be publishing on the system

• They don’t have the same needs we do• They don’t know what to look for• They choose based on price or

recommendations rather than customized criteria

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10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

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10 things you need to know

“While intelligent content is all about the content ‘plumbing,’ people don’t have to be plumbers themselves to think strategically about making content more intelligent.”-Marcia Riefer Johnston

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10 things you need to know

#1 The technology you need? It already exists.

This list is only half the PHP systems.

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10 things you need to know

#2 Every system offers add-ons, for additional functionality.

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10 things you need to know

#3 Start with what you want the content to do.

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10 things you need to know

#4 Build personas.

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10 things you need to know

#5 Next, figure out what the personas want to do with the content.

Share it? Contribute? Review?

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10 things you need to know

#6 Work with a developer to match goals to functionality.

Make use of others’ knowledge.

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10 things you need to know

#7 Ask questions. Ask your manager, coworkers, development team, users, everyone.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

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10 things you need to know

#8 Make the functionality into your CMS requirements checklist.

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10 things you need to know

#9 Demo. Demo. Demo.

You would never buy a car without a test drive.

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10 things you need to know

#10 Build a governance plan.

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Resources

• Training the CMS, by Eileen Webb

• The 5 Ws of Adaptive Content: A New Look at Making Content Contextually Appropriate, by Noz Urbina

• Author Experience: Bridging the Gap Between People and Technology in Content Management, by Rick Yagodich

• The New Definition of Content Strategy, by Ryan Johnson

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Thank you!