janice (ginny) redish @ginnyredish putting the content into content strategy september 2012

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Janice (Ginny) Redish @GinnyRedish Putting the Content into Content Strategy September 2012

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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.

Focusing on contentwithin a content strategy

Chapter 1Interlude 1

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

Planning: Purposes,personas, conversations

Chapter 2

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

Meeting your goals by satisfying site visitors

Chapters 4 – 12

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

Here's more about what Mint is.

Is that safe?Absolutely! Safe and secure. Here's why and how.

That sounds safe. Let's sign up.

www.napaanesthesia.com

This site could converse better

Redish & Associates, Inc.

© 2012, Janice (Ginny) Redish Content Strategy Summit Slide 30

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?

A

B

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

Chapters 14 - 15

Evaluating drafts to assure success

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

[email protected]

www.redish.net

301 229 3039

@GinnyRedish

Ginny Redish

Thank you

2nd edition, 2012

Now: Your questions