The Care and Feeding of Content Strategists (Or, How to Find Your Inner Content Strategist)

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The Care and Feeding of Content

Strategists(Or, Finding Your Inner Content Strategist)

Teresa LaneDirector, Digital Content StrategyWashington University in St. Louis@teresaalane



Objectives• What content strategy is• Content strategy tools• How UX and content strategy

complement each other• Takeaways:• How to work most effectively with a content

strategist• How to flip the content switch in your brain if

you don’t have a content strategistImage: icanhas.cheezburger.com/



What is content strategy?• Long term planning• Address and serve target audience(s)• Organize and structure content• Prioritize messages• Groundwork for creating and managing

content• Information architecture (sometimes)• SEO (sometimes)



What is content strategy?“It plots an achievable roadmap for individuals and organizations to create and maintain content that audiences will actually care about.”

-Kristina Halvorson

Source: Content Strategy for the Web (Halvorson and Rach)Image: @tomcrabtree



Why content strategy at UXPA?• Budget constraints• Near-universal needs• Anyone can write, right?• Copywriters aren’t necessarily content

strategists• Clients are expected to provide content

• Lots of crossover!Image: 3milliondogs.com



Where’s the crossover?• We wind up with mushy leftovers.• Our perspectives complement each

other.• We’re both trying to put the user first.

Image: tomstockton.us



We play well with others• Fundamentally team players: we

work closely with developers, maybe visual designers

• When the digital project gets really complex, UX + content strategy partnership really shines

Image: mamietitine.centerblog.net



Tools of the Trade• Content audit and analysis• Target audience prioritization• Card sorting• Content modeling• Content and messaging prioritization

Image: animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/247181/



Content Audit & Analysis• Early step• Finding out what we have• Informative of past priorities, client

resource allocation• How much work is ahead of us?



Sample Audit Information• URL• Content format (e.g., HTML, PDF)• Content type (e.g., informational text,

event, post)• Target audience• Action requested of user• Category• Assessment of content for future use;

edits or action required



Card Sorting• Relationships between content• Hierarchies• Information architecture and site maps

Image: shutterstock.com%2Fvideo%2Fclip-689344-stock-footage-cat-covered-in-post-it-notes



Information Architecture & Navigation• Organization of content• Prominence of ideas and

categories• User navigation• Auxiliary navigation• Related content: presented to the user at

the moment of a contextual relationship



Content Modeling• Representing content types and

the pieces that comprise them• Relationships between content pieces• Can also use this technique to

develop/communicate a site model

• Content design and engineering



Content comes in many types• Informational “stuff”

• Big text pieces• Articles/Blog Posts• Mission Statement• Descriptions

• Specialized, often smaller, pieces• Groups• Programs• Products

• People information• Bios• Contact• Role descriptions

• Forms• Events and calendars• Recipes• Music/artist information



Avoiding assumptions with specificity• You know about what I mean by each sort

of content on that list

• When we’re conscious of specifics, our content’s more effective



Content “Chunks”• Content “chunks”: in part a clear

definition of the pieces of content• Eschewing “blobs”• Attach purpose and meaning to content

pieces• Future-friendly content



A straightforward example: events• Typical content model• Title• Date• Time• Location

• Address• Map• Link to map and/or directions

• Description• Call to action: register, contact, etc.



Defining each piece• What’s its format?• What’s its size/length?• Is it required?• What’s its structure?

• e.g., field vs. tag• Example, sort by date:

• Standardize format • mm/dd/yyyy

• 10 characters• Required• Field



Message Architecture & Content Hierarchy• Prioritization of “chunks”• Prioritization of pages within site• Calls-to-action, conversion points• Brand messaging



Put the pieces back together.• Prioritize• Describe connections• Customize details



Content Entry “Style” Guides• Message requirements and objectives• Title formats• Character limits• Styles (e.g., date format)



Resources• Content Strategy for the Web by

Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach: http://contentstrategy.com/• Margot Bloomstein, Content Strategy at

Work: http://appropriateinc.com/book/ • Karen McGrane: https://karenmcgrane.com/ • Marli Mesibov: http://marli.us/news/• Jonathon Colman:

http://www.jonathoncolman.org/ • Confab: http://confabevents.com/blog

http://contentstrategy.com/



http://appropriateinc.com/book/



https://karenmcgrane.com/

https://karenmcgrane.com/

http://marli.us/news/

http://marli.us/news/

http://www.jonathoncolman.org/

http://www.jonathoncolman.org/

http://confabevents.com/blog

http://confabevents.com/blog



Resources• http://alistapart.com/article/content-mod

elling-a-master-skill• https://gathercontent.com/blog/from-blob

s-to-chunks-a-real-life-example• http://alistapart.com/column/wysiwtf• http://responsivewebdesign.com/toast/co

ntentmodel/ • http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content

-everywhere/

http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill

http://alistapart.com/article/content-modelling-a-master-skill

https://gathercontent.com/blog/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example

https://gathercontent.com/blog/from-blobs-to-chunks-a-real-life-example

http://alistapart.com/column/wysiwtf

http://responsivewebdesign.com/toast/contentmodel/

http://responsivewebdesign.com/toast/contentmodel/

http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/





Thank you!Teresa Lane

@teresaalane

The Care and Feeding of Content Strategists (Or, How to Find Your Inner Content Strategist)

Marketing

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