Janice (Ginny) Redish @GinnyRedish Putting the Content into Content Strategy September 2012.
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Transcript of Janice (Ginny) Redish @GinnyRedish Putting the Content into Content Strategy September 2012.
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 2
LinguisticsUsability / UXContent StrategyWriting for the Web
2nd edition, 2012
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 3
Topics for this hour
Focusing on content
Planning: purposes personas conversations
Meeting your goals by satisfying site visitors
Evaluating drafts to assure success
All photos without another attribution are © iStockphoto.
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the Web Slide 5
Halvorson and Rach, 2012
Develop and follow a content strategy
Content strategy =
Thinking strategically about your content
Aligning content with business goalsAhava Leibtag who blogs athttp://onlineitallmatters.blogspot.com
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the Web Slide 6
Content strategy = governance
Content must be
planned
coordinated
reviewed
managed and maintained
removed
Break down those silos!
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the Web Slide 7
Content strategy = resourcesPeople
Who will write? edit? illustrate? produce?
What skills do these people need?
Technology
What systems and templates will you use?
How will people be trained to do what they must do?
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the Web Slide 8
Content is everything you have on the web site
text
illustrations
charts
graphs
tables
forms
pdfs
videos
podcasts
blogs
forums
other social media
− and in all your other communication channels
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Writing for the Web Slide 9
Content strategy = message and more
Messages
Tones
Styles
Right contentin the right amountto the right personat the right timein the right medium
Media
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 10
Why do you go to web sites?
People just want to
answer their question
do a task
solve a problem
engage in a social conversation
To satisfy their goals
Content
Information
To do a task
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 11
Navigation and search are critical
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 12
Good, clear design is critical
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 13
Technology that works is critical
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 14
But they all support the content
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 15
Every use of your web site is a conversation that the site visitor starts
How well does your site converse with your site visitors?
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 16
Your site converses well only if…
your site visitors can
find what they need
understand what they find
act appropriately on that understanding
in the time and effort that they think it is worth
Find Understand Act
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 18
Plan at every level
Strategy requires data, analysis,
and clear thinking.
Why? (your purposes)
Who? (your site visitors)
When, why, and how?(your site visitors' conversations)
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 19
Why? (your purposes) Align with the business' overall strategy and goals.
Be measurable.
Focus on your site visitors.
Be specific.
$
$
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 20
Focus on your site visitors
to sell shoes
people to buy shoes from us
to tell people about …
to answer busy, anxious site visitors' questions about …
We want
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 21
Be specific
www.manageyourwriting.com
Kenneth W. Davis
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 22
Who? (Your site visitors)
Create personas to write to
Ann
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 23
When, why, and how?(your site visitor's conversation) Story, scenario, context, situation, conversation
Visualize the persona coming to your site.
Jordan
Bob and Lisa
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 25
Hear the conversation
As you select, organize, write, and illustrate the content,
"hear" your site visitors' questions.
Flickr cc photo by Polandeze
Jim and Sally use Mint and love it. But I don't know what it does. What is Mint?
Mint.com converses well
www.mint.com
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 31
8 keys to great content as conversation
1. Cut! Cut! Cut!
2. Make it scannable.
3. Break it up with informative headings.
4. Write the conversation. Use pronouns.
5. Put the action in the verbs.
6. Use your site visitors' words.
7. Converse in forms, too.
8. Make links meaningful – not click here.
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 32
1. Cut! Cut! Cut!
Challenge: Make your key points with half as many words.
www.etsy.com
I make jewelry. If I want to sell through Etsy,how does it work?
Paula
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 33
2. Make it scannable Purpose?
Persona?
Persona's conversation?
QXZ Company provides usability services to help companies make or select software products that are easier to use. In particular, QXZ specializes in telecommunications, medical software, and banking applications. For example, for the past 18 months, we have been working with a major company in the banking industry, HomeFirstBank (HFB), which happens to be the country's fifth largest bank that operates in 25 states. We've given several workshops on usability to their software developers and helped them with comparative usability tests of applications they were thinking of bringing in house. We've also helped test developers' prototypes
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 34
QXZ Helping you make or choose applications your employees loveNeed usability services? We can help. We specialize inbankingmedicaltelecommunications
BankingClient: HomeFirstBank [HFB]
5th largest in U.S.; 25 statesTime: November 2010 - presentWork: workshops for developers
comparative usability tests of apps for HFB users
usability tests of prototypes
Testimonials Images
Amanda,IT Project ManagerNew Bank
Would QXZ be a good choice for a usability vendor for our bank?
Don't hog the conversation.Take turns.
Headings are the site visitor's turns in the conversation.
3. Break it up with informative
headings
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 38
4. Write the conversation. Use pronouns
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 39
When you finish renewing online, you can print your
registration card.
Upon successful completion of the online renewal
transaction, printing the registration card will be an
option.
5. Put the action in the verbs
Print your registration card
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 40
6. Use your site visitors' words
Search engine optimization
Your keywords must be words people search on.
We're worried about high blood pressure. I've got a great
article here about hypertension.
Betty and Walter
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 41
7. Converse in forms, too
Jarrett and Gaffney
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 42
8. Make links meaningful – not click here
See more examples
Click here to see more examples.
The only text that is linked is "Learn More."
Which product does this "Learn More" apply to?
Chapter 12 – links Chapter 3 – design
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 44
Review, revise, and edit your own workAll good writing is rewriting.
Think
purposes
personas
conversations
Work within your group's content strategy.
Put it away for a while (even just a few hours).
Revisit and revise.
Read it out loud.
✔
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 45
Share, collaborate, help each other
Content strategy crosses silos.
Flickr cc photo by wakacheeka
ego
You succeed when your readers succeed.
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 46
Do usability testing
www.usability.gov
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 47
Walk your personas through their conversationsWhat questions are Mindy and her mom asking?
Is the site answering those questions in a way that works well for Mindy and her mom?
www.ebags.com
Redish & Associates, Inc.
© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 48
Janice (Ginny) RedishRedish & Associates, Inc.
Bethesda, MD
www.redish.net
301 229 3039
@GinnyRedish
Ginny Redish
Thank you
2nd edition, 2012
Now: Your questions